It’s me again, Elder Cappuccio. I’m sitting here in a PC café and the power went out about 15 minutes ago. Hopefully it won’t do it again. :) Anyways, everything is going good over here. My health is good, my hope is bright, and my stomach is full haha. You’re right, it is nice getting a letter from you each week! So much stuff happens in a week so it’s good to hear from you all. I just wish Amy and Crystal would write me too! And what about Cali?!? She can write can’t she? Haha, anyways, each week seems to go so quickly here. I’ve already finished 3 weeks here in Erdenet and they’ve been awesome. Next Monday we’ll be going to Darkhan for our Zone Conference and so we’ll have to write e-mails on Tuesday probably. Then on Thursday is Thanksgiving! We’ll be eating at the senior missionaries’ house and we all have to bring an item to eat. I’m way excited for that.
Yea, I think about being in Mongolia sometimes and I laughed. I never dreamed I’d find myself here but here I am and I’m making a life out of preaching the gospel in Mongolia. Outside of the testimony I gave you from the airport phone, have you heard any real Mongolian? (Mine isn’t real Mongolian). It is such a crazy language! I love it. As I learn more of the intricasies of the language I’m just so glad I was blessed with the opportunity to learn it. I really like learning languages now. It’s because through learning the language, I can talk with people. Through talking with people, I can learn about them. Through learning about them, I can help them! That’s how it works and so I love being able to understand what people have to say, in whatever tongue they say it.
Ahhh, a you found a new boyfriend? What happened to the one that fixed up all the house? Well that’s cool that’s he’s got a good taste in music. I really started to like blues when I was up at Byu. I got a lot of BB king and those guys. Anyways, let me know if you want my opinion on who you should date and I’ll tell you for sure :)
Hmm…I don’t know when I’ll call you, I’m sure they let us know at Zone Conference or some time closer to Christmas. It’ll be an interesting situation though! Man, I’ll be talking to you all on the phone! Crazy. The weather here is finally getting to what it’s supposed to be. It’s almost breaking the negative faranheit during the day but I mean they don’t really go by faranheit anyways. I bought a sweat sweater earlier that was made out of camel fur and it’s way warm. I love it. Also, I bought some sweet Nike boots for the winter but of course they don’ty really have sizes for my feet here in Mongolia so I landed with a size 11. It was hurting my feet a bit and bruised my ankles after a few days but luckily my companions boots were a little bigger and we were able to do a comfortable switch of winter boots. He fits just fine in mine because he’s just a little smaller than me. Amy went on 3 dates with 3 different guys?!? WOW. That’s awesome. Good for her. But, sadly, she hasn’t written me…
Speaking of other missionaries, how are the rest of the ward missionaries? Elder Stock, Elder Clawson, E lder Eyestone, Elder Burgoyne, Elder Fisher, Elder Miller? I’ve asked about Elder Clawson like 200 times and you never tell me anything about him! Fill me in! Is elder Eyestone’s back better now? So this week we had some pretty sweet success finding some families. That’s really what I want to do if I have any control over what kind of people I teach. I want to teach families! In the 1st discussion, the 2nd principle we teach is about the family. How it’s ordained of God and how it helps us to live the Gospel better. Well, Mongolian church members are usually part member families! What that leads to is inactive members because the non-member faily members constantly nag away at the member’s faith. It’s very hard. That’s why I want to bring families into the church. Anyways, we found a family of 3 and a family of 6. They’re awesome. We found the family of 3 one day as we were contacting referrals and I heard someone chopping wood and so I was just like, lets go see if we can help them. It was a wife and so we were afraid we wouldn’t be able to teach be cause we have to have a guy there in order to teach. But her husband was in the ger and so we taught them the 1st lesson right then and there. It was way cool. The other family we found as we were contacting on another day and I just walked up to a guy smoking and leaning up against his fence post and we started talking to him. He said we could meet with him and so we planned for another day that week and it was just BEAUTIFUL! I love this work. At the same time, last night we dropped a family. That was one of the hardest things I’ve done so far on my mission. Sure, puking your guts out hurts a ton, and trying to speak a weird language is frustrating, being outside in freezing weather is tough too; but, none of that hit me as hard as dropping that family we had been working with. We had prayed over them and spend so much time with them and it just never came to fruition. I don’t ever want to have to do that again but sadly it’s almost inevitable…One thing I read just thins morning was something Elder Holland told some new Mission Presidents before they left for the mission field, he said: “I hope our missionaries are so prepared that they astonish their investigators with their teaching”. I really liked that and so maybe if I can get to that level we won’t have to drop any more investigators. They’ll just feel the Spirit of the message and move forward to membership and salvation. Anyways, that’s about it from here. I’ll get my bag and camera and all that next Monday. That’ll be nice. I love you and I love the family! Keep working hard and hold to the iron rod! It’s so important that every single member read from the Book of Mormon at least 10 minutes a day. So important. Once again, I love you and hope everything is going well for you all!
~Elder Cappuccio
Dear James,
It is always good to hear about your week and the work you are doing. I look forward to getting your email every week, so I know you probably are equally excited to hear from home every week, so I hope to make sure you get at least an email from me every week. I was looking at the map of the world by the bishop's office today and seeing your name on the country of Mongolia, made me think of you and all the people's lives you will change on the other side of the world. It's so amazing! You are so far away, but reading your letters brings you close. Thanks for all the neat stuff you write about.
I have to tell you that I met someone just recently who is really wonderful and really nice. His name is Jack and we have a lot in common as far as what we believe and what matters in life. He loves to listen to music so we've been to a really cool Blues Band club a few times already, so I think you would like to go when you come back. Hopefully more on that subject later =).
Thanksgiving and then Christmas! It's close to hearing from you on the phone! What time are you going to call? Because your Christmas is about over when ours is just starting. How is the weather now. I'm sure it's not 70-80 like it is here. This is my favorite time of year here in Arizona. Amy will be coming down for Thanksgiving, so it will be good to see her again. She had 3 dates in one week this past week- with 3 different guys!
I hope you are well. I pray for you and all the missionaries and for those you will find. Thanks for your example and love of the gospel.
Keep the fire burning!
Love always,
Mom
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