Temple Trip and Elder Rasband - Week 69

This week was full of a lot of great stuff. We started off the week going to the temple. We had to take the red urban buses to get there and in the mornings they´re super full. We got to the bus station and another zone arrived. We decided to let them get on first since their temple session was at 10 and ours was at 11. They decided to take another bus because the R40 didn´t pass. Then, after they had left, two R40s passed by. We got to the temple before they did since the bus they took went another way and didn´t pass by the temple. We went to the distribution center and I bought a new Mission manual and the cover for it since mine is all dirty and ruined from getting wet in the rain and dirt. As for the time at the temple, it was awesome. We were waiting in the lobby and reading the New Era and I felt the spirit so strongly. I felt I received a ton of answers to my prayers and questions.

Then, on Thursday, we had a Multi-Mission Conference in Montufar. The guest speakers were Bishop Dean M. Davies, Presiding Bishopric, Elder Craig C. Christiansen, President of the Seventies, Elder Jose L. Alonso, Area Presidency, and Elder Ronald A. Rasband, Quorom of the Twelve Apostles! That was such an awesome conference. We went by and shook all of their and their wives hands! It was such an honor and a privilege to be there. Again, SOOO much inspiration and the Spirit witnessed to me that every word they said was true. I KNOW this gospel is true. It is too beautiful and perfect to not be true! I wholly believe in this work I am engaged in. The Guatemala Central Mission was there too. I saw a bunch of people from the CCM that i haven´t seen since. Its also one of the only times our entire mission was together.

This week I was going to have my first interview as a district leader. I went to the elders area and we had lunch and we were walking to go start working when Bryan, the baptismal candidate, came up to us. He said his mom didn´t want him to get baptized so soon and the grandpa wanted to come from El Salvador. :/ He´s super pilas and wants to be baptized, but he wants (and we do too) his family to be there to support him even though they aren´t going to be baptized. 

Today is the birthday of the new sister in the zone, Hermana Amador. we were going to make her a cake and do a piñata and everything but we started a fast last night so... no cake. But we´re going to break the piñata! Anyway, hope you all have a good week. 

With love,

Elder Mattiaccio

Barrio Roosevelt, Zona Mariscal, Guatemala Sur

New Change, New Animo - Week 68

Hey everyone,

This week was an awesome week here with Elder Langi. He just came from being Zone Leader so he understands and is helping me a lot. He´s also my first "gringo" companion. He brought a new motivation. Being in an area for a long time has its difficulties. You know how to work the area and know all the members but, when it comes to tracting, you´ve tracted everything. Sometimes more than once. It's hard to knock a door you´ve already knocked when you know the person and remember what they said last time. But the great thing is that sometimes you find someone new. Maybe someone else opens the door. Someone else who wants to hear the gospel. I´m trying to find new ways to work in the area. If you always do the same thing and expect different results, that's called insanity. So we gotta switch it up a bit.

Yesterday we went on divisions with the members to help them do their home teaching visits. We visited mostly less active members. The miracle? Both my companion and I found someone to teach in those visits. And after, we went back to doing our normal visits, when our citas (appointments) had fallen and I was thinking of who to visit, I saw a member out of the corner of my eye crossing the street. When he saw us he started towards us. When he got to us he asked if we were busy. I reluctantly said no. He said "Good, because I just found a soul for you to save." He found a new family that moved to the ward in his home teaching visit. The mom is a less active member and lives alone with her 9 y/o son, Irvin. He had heard something about baptism and asked if he could get baptized. We started to teach him and he´s pretty excited. The mom was planning on returning to church but now has a greater motivation. In order for us to be able to baptize her son, she has to go to church for 2 months straight. WITHOUT missing. But she said she would do the fight in the mornings so her son could get baptized.

Elder Mattiaccio

Barrio Roosevelt, Zona Mariscal, Guatemala Sur

Changes and "It´ll all work out" - Week 67

Hello everybody, This week is CHANGE WEEK! WOOO! Drumroll please *bbbbrr* Elder Mattiaccio........ Stays in Roosevelt and receives his new companion ELDER LANGI! 

This week we had a week of urgency to find new investigatos. It was great. Everyday felt like nothing was happening. We would go contacting all morning and afternoon and have doors (and windows) shut left and right. It felt the day would never turn out, but, EVERY SINGLE DAY, when we had exhausted our appointments, something lesson come out of the blue. I think it was a kind of lesson to trust more in the Lord´s plans. I was reading an article in the Liahona about President Gordon B. Hinkley and I read his favorite catch phrase "it will all work out in the end". Really I felt that was a theme for the week. When we were ready to resign to despair, He would send something our way.

This week we started to leave with a new member, Amilcar. He just moved from Esquintla to come and work. He´s a recent convert and came here to save money for his mission! He´s super pilas. We found a guy who knows a ton about the bible. He might be a little lost in all his knowledge but we´re gonna try and teach him and turn that knowledge into wisdom. 

We painted a members house again this week. I think I'm going to consider taking up that profession when I get back, because with all the practice I'm getting here, I'll be a master painter by the time I get back. Now you all know: If you need a wall painted, I´m your guy. (jajajaja)

Elder Mattiaccio

Barrio Roosevelt, Zona Mariscal, Guatemala Sur

Worldwide Training - Week 66

This week we had a Worldwide Missionary Training with the Apostles and other members of the Missionary Department. They discussed a lot of things that we as missionaries pass through. It helped me feel like they actually know how we feel and listen to our questions. It inspired us all to go out and work, teach repentance and baptize converts.

I had a pretty cool experience this week that helped me feel the support of my Heavenly Father. We were teaching a family we found that were actually less actives. REALLY less active. They had a family member who was actually a pastor. Everytime we´ve gone there he won´t stop talking to let us teach our lesson. He would go on and on from topic to topic. It got to the point where he recognized it at the beginning of the lesson and said I'll be quiet this time. BUT he didn´t. It was getting late and we needed to go, so I bore my testimony to him. I have never felt the spirit so strongly. The words just flowed out of my mouth and he was completely quiet after. We finished with a prayer and he asked our forgiveness. I told him it was alright, but if he truly wanted to learn from us like he said he did, he needs to be quiet, listen, and listen to the spirit.

I had divisions in Monte Maria this week and we helped someone in their ward move. We had fun doing it. They gave us pizza after.

Elder Mattiaccio

Barrio Roosevelt, Zona Mariscal, Guatemala Sur

...........................................................................................................................................................................................

A little note from Frankie's Mission President:


Elder Mattiaccio is doing good. He is taking his responsibility as a District Leader very seriously and I am impressed by his efforts!

Thank you for your support!

Atentamente,

Presidente E.J. Caffaro
Misión Guatemala Sur
#dispuestoydignoparabautizar

Interviews and The Fruits (of our Labors) - Week 65

This week we had interviews with President. It was super awesome. Because I am a District Leader we spent more time talking about my district and leadership than me. I love President Caffaro. He is so in-tune with the Spirit and loves each of us. After I finished my interview, Sister Caffaro had already met with everyone. So, we all went in her room and did a mini Face-to-Face with her. We all asked questions and it helped us all learn. One elder, fairly new in the mission, asked about how to know if he´d found his eternal companion. Hahaha. It was pretty funny.

We were at a member´s house who had pretty much been some of the first converts to the church. We were looking at all the old Book of Mormons.... Books of Mormon?. Anyway, all the books and we found one of the old Spanish hymn books. Back when they were red, had lullabies and even a song for brushing your teeth.

This week members have been giving me some pretty strange foods... Well, fruits mainly. First, a sister gave me this fruit called "Cushín". The second one is called an "anona"(?). The cushín was pretty good. It was kinda fuzzy but really sweet. The anona had a strange taste. Can´t really describe it....

​

This week I was so happy because we worked hard all week and on Sunday we saw the fruits of our labors. 6 of our investigators came to church! Also one of our converts came!

Elder Mattiaccio

Barrio Roosevelt, Zona Mariscal, Guatemala Sur

Cold and Sunshine -Week 64

Frankie sent me this email and gave me a heart attack.


Got some news though...Yeah we  were playing soccer and someone booted it and it fractured my tibia... it's not too bad though so I'm still working.

Then he sent this:

jajajaja jk. I'm fine.We just found the boot here in the family history ccenter and took a picture.

Luv ya mom

I'm glad his sense of humor still intact.

-Gabby

................................................................................................................................................................
This week it's been a bit of cold. I ended up having to buy a a sweater vest because I was cold but not my arms. I also bought gloves. but this week was pretty good.
 

A young woman in our ward told us she wanted to leave and proselyte with us so we made arrangements with her and another member to accompany us. Definitely a first. While we were knocking doors we rang the doorbell and told her she´d be doing the talking. She was kinda freaked out a bit. But then she started knocking doors by herself. I gave her a notebook so she could write down all the contacts. When we were passing by her house she told us that her friend lived in the house next door. So we asked what her name was and if we could visit her. She said "uhhh sure. When?" We said "Well, there´s no time like the present ;P". So we went and knocked on the door. Her name is Sunshine. Her family has a comedor (cafeteria) in their house and she does some of the cooking. We taught her the Restoration and she had a lot of questions. She said she had gone to mutual before and liked it. We invited her and her family to a Family Home Evening with Sofie, her friend, today so i hope that turns out well.

 

This week I had divisions with the new elder in my district, Elder Arratia. He´s fresh from the CCM and from Mexico. He´s a bit older too. 23. He´s super shy but super cool too. I felt bad because our day was on our feet.

All our appointments fell. But the lesson we had was super spiritual.

Chelsea was super busy this week and we weren´t able to teach her. I did see her one time and I gave her a Book of Mormon in English. Hopefully we see her again this week to keep teaching her. 

Life is interesting as a DL. I am responsible for not only my area but my entire district. If we do poorly it's my fault. But if we do well we all get the credit. It helps me want to be a better example and help the missionaries in my district feel the urgency. I also have no time for myself anymore. My nights I spend sending dats, talking to my district, and reporting to the Zone Leaders. Hard to write in my journal but I'm doing what I can.


Here's a picture of the companionships in my district and zone leaders.

Love you all. 

Elder Mattiaccio

Barrio Roosevelt, Zona Mariscal, Guatemala Sur

Week 62 & 63

Hey guys, Sorry I didn´t write last week.... I was just sitting here writing when we realized there was no internet connection. So not only could I not send my email, but none of what I had written was saved. 

Things are going great with my new companion. He is pretty new but is learning fast This week we found an awesome investigator. The first ones name is Chelsea. She´s from Belize and has a 1 y/o daughter, Ivanna. The cool thing about her? English is her first language! In Belize they only speak English. She obviously knows a little spanish but she struggles. We had to ask for a packet of all the lessons and a Book of Mormon in English so we can teach her and she understand us. We found her because her friend, a returned missionary from another city, was coming to visit her but couldn´t find her house. She found us in the street and yelled "elders!" and asked us directions. She told us we could go by another day to visit her. But when we got to the address it was apartments with 5 doorbells and we didn´t know which one it was. We had to go back various times to find which doorbell it was, and obviously it was the last one. We're excited to teach her.

It was so fun to see Edgar and Carol again and meet Ale. At first I was nervous not to recognize them, but I did. They took us out to lunch and we got to chat a little.

Sorry, don't have much time to write today.

Elder Mattiaccio

Barrio Roosevelt, Zona Mariscal, Guatemala Sur