Email From the Mission President- Oct 28th

28 October 2009

Dear Sister Cappucio,

Elder Cappucio became a zone leader in our mission recently.  He is a wonderful young man and a very faithful missionary.  He did a superb job as a District Leader.  I know that in his new role as a zone leader, he will meet and surpass all expectations.  Thank you so much for the support you give to him.  We are very blessed to have him in the Mongolia Mission.  I rely greatly on his good judgment and hard work in administering our mission. 

Sincerely,

President D. Allen Andersen    

Finding Investigators Is No Coincidence- Oct 25th, 2009

Dear Family!

Alright, I've found a internet cafe that will let me sit in it without a mask!  
Sweet!  So you got the e-mail from Sister Hellewell?  Nice!  Yea it was neat to 
find out that Elder Horan and I had some sort of connection!  He is an AWESOME 
Elder who truly has been able to develop the gift of Charity.  He is one of the 
most caring people I have ever met.  It was a great opportunity for me to go on 
an exchange with him.  So, the swine flu is here.  But, it's not like epidemic 
status yet.  There's some 300 cases of it and they say that 2 people have died 
from it.  So far the missionaries are doing pretty good, maybe 2 or 3 
missionaries have contracted it.  They don't necessarily make everyone wear 
masks its just that some internet cafes were being really weird about the whole 
situation.  Oh, my new companion likes jelly beans so make sure to send some of 
those ok?  I would LOVE a phote album from you guys!  Everybody's changed since 
the last photos, I bet.  See if you can get some of dad's pictures in there as 
well....:)

Alright, so, I plan on writing a lot because these last two weeks have been some 
of the best in my mission, bar none.  It just seems that so many things are 
turning in our favor as missionaries and miracles are being seen everywhere we 
go.  I hope that I can manage to write it in a way that you guys can feel the 
same Spirit that I felt as I experienced these events:

Ok, so the first one is about Battulga.  As I was going on the exchange with 
Elder Horan, we were walking around some apartment buildings trying to contact 
people and meet with them.  Then, out of nowhere, this slightly drunk man comes 
up and starts talking English with us.  We talk with him for a bit and find out 
that's he's been in America for 7 years so he's got pretty good English.  
Finally, he lets us into his house and we start meeting.  At first, I was 
reluctant because he was drunk and I wasn't sure how well he'd understand.  
Anyways, we went in and started meeting with him and his wife.  It was a WEIRD 
first meeting, that’s for sure.  But, he really wanted to meet with us so we 
kept teaching.  He expressed the struggles he’s been having in his life with his 
marriage and work, smoking and drinking.  We were able to teach him about God 
and then about prayer and the Holy Ghost, how he could have these good feelings 
all the time.  One thing that stood out as pretty funny was that he had this 
ashtray on the window seel.  As we were talking with him, he got up, and said: 
You see this?  This is my ashtray.  When you guys come next time, this won’t be 
here.  In fact”, and he opens the window, looking down, “I’m going to get rid of 
it right now!” and proceeds to toss the cup out of his 4th story window!  Every 
since then, him and his wife Yanjmaa have been amazing.  They came to Stake 
Conference, and they were there at church yesterday.  They look like they’ll be 
getting baptized in a couple weeks.  Isn’t that amazing?  Out of a contact with 
a drunk man, we’ve found a husband and wife that are putting their lives In line 
with God’s perscribed plan and reaping the rewards.  Everytime I see him, he 
looks happier!
The next story is also from being with Elder Horan.  We went to go visit an old 
investigator, only to find that they weren’t there.  However, the son was and so 
we sat down and he gave us some of the food he made.  We kind of just talked for 
awhile at first, getting to know him and complimenting him on how good the food 
was (it was good!).  Then Elder Horan asked him a question about church and 
about Jesus Christ, to see what his level of interest was.  The answer pretty 
much ended the conversation, “I’m not interested at all”.  However, he seemed 
like to good of a kid to not really be interested.  So, we kept talking.  He’s 
about our age so we leveled with him.  We explained why we do what we do and 
what motivates us to make this sacrifice.  Then we asked if he believed in God.  
He did.  Then we asked, “If God told you something, would you believe it?”  He 
said yes.  So, with those kinds of questions, we hooked him into a brief 
discussion about the first vision.  The Spirit was so strong in that ger I know 
that he felt it and that he recognized what Source it was coming from.  At the 
end of the lesson, we asked how all of it was.  “It was great!”  So we set a 
baptismal date with him and gave him a Book of Mormon.  He didn’t come to Stake 
Conference so I was a little worried about him, but, sure enough, yesterday at 
church, there he was!  Now he’s on the path towards baptism and his mom and 
sister will be joining him.

About four days ago, we were walking around one of our areas looking for new 
investigators.  Elder Stephenson and I are basically white-washing 
(white-washing is where they put two new missionaries in an area) this area so 
we don’t know it that well and the work from before is pretty much non-existent.  
Anyways, we’ve been done something called Nephi Hour that an Elder from my 
group, Elder Whittle, made up.  We set aside one hour and just try and find new 
investigators.  If we can’t get into one house, we talk with whoever we see on 
the street, teach a short principle and ask if we can meet with them right away.  
So we went to check one house and the kid we had met with before came out to 
greet us.  We asked if we could meet, and to our dismay, he said he was busy 
doing homework.  However, we pressed.  We gave him a promise that if he let us 
meet with him for just 15-20 minutes his homework would go better.  We also 
promised that we would only stay 20 minutes.  Well, somehow that worked!  He let 
us in and we started to meet the rest of the family.  It was a WONDERFUL family!  
They were all so happy and united.  The dad came in later and we met with him.  
At first, he was a little taken aback, but after meeting us any of his worries 
were quickly set aside.  So, we started talking.  We started with a song and 
prayer.  Then we jumped right into the Restoration.  It was powerful.  As we 
finished up teaching these sections, our time was about up.  So we said, “we’d 
like to talk more but, our time is up.  We promised Ganbat that we’d stay for 
only 20 minutes.  When could we come back again and meet with you.”  Then the 
oldest son, who was by far the most interested, said this, “Well, we don’t 
really know when we’ll next be gathered together like this, would be ok if we 
just kept meeting for like 10 minutes?”  That was music to our ears!  So we 
turned to Ganbat and asked him, “Can we do that?”  He also agreed and we kept 
teaching!  As we left that house, Elder Stephenson and I was overcome with joy.  
We gave each other a quick hug and then offered a prayer of thanks.
Then, just two days ago, my companion caught a bad virus and was not really able 
to go out on work.  So, we paired him up with another sick missionary, and I got 
to go out on work with Elder Cardinal, my son!  He’s actually in one of the 
districts in our zone so I see him quite a lot now!  Anyways, we head out to our 
area and we’re looking for people to meet with.   As we’re walking down the main 
street, I tell Elder Cardinal, “hey, that guy probably wants to hear about the 
Gospel” and get him to start talking with him.  We follow this guy down another 
road and finish the contact.  We got his information and all, but he wasn’t very 
interested so Elder Cardinal crossed him out.   Then, to find out where we were, 
Elder Cardinal asked this guy passing by what street we were on.  The guy 
responded and we started moving on.  However, as soon as I looked at the guy, I 
felt impressed to talk with him.  I started to talk with him and share a little 
about our church.  At the end, I asked, can we meet with you…(I almost said 
later) now, and talk more about our church?”  He replied affirmatively and I 
quickly grabbed Elder Cardinal (he was doing an ITL with a drunk), and we 
followed the man to his house!  The man and his wife are high school teachers so 
they’re educated.  We started to teach the first lesson and the husband ate up 
everything we said.  At the end we went to set a baptismal date and they gladly 
accepted.  Then, we asked him if he would pray for his family and…he accepted!  
It was another miracle!  His brother was also in the ger at the time and he 
seemed very touched by the lesson so at the end we asked him if we could meet 
with him as well.  He said yes.  Then the brother also gave us the information 
for his other younger brother, saying that we should meet with him!
Just like last week we were moving into a new apartment building.  A day after 
we moved into the new apartment, we went into the elevator.  An older man also 
entered and we just started talking a little bit.  Before we got off, I quickly 
gave him a pass-along card and told him to come to church this Sunday.  I didn’t 
think muhc of it but like 2 days later, Saturday, he ran into us again in the 
entrance of our apartment.  He asked when church was again and we told him 
again.  Then, this Sunday, as we were standing outside, he came! 
Another quick story:  This last Sunday, our ward entered a new building inside 
the ward boundaries.  It’s kind of out of the way so my companion and I were 
standing on the street corner sort of as a landmark to any members or 
investigators coming to church.  As we were standing there I looked over to the 
sidewalk and saw two people walking.  I felt impressed to talk with the 2nd 
person and promptly went over and contact him.  I explained about our church and 
told him that our service was about to start.  Then I invited him to come in and 
experience it.  To my surprise, he wanted to!  So I grabbed Edler Stephenson and 
we brought him into the chapel where the rest of the missionaries and members 
quickly  friendshipped them.  Later, another missionary got his contact 
information and, to our joy, he was in our area!  So we’ll be meeting with this 
youth pretty soon and we expect great things.

Well, that’s pretty much it!  I just want to testify to you of how true this 
church and this work is!  These past two weeks the Lord has truly blessed our 
work and the work of the missionaries in our zone.  I know that God guides us.  
Not just us, but the people we need to meet with.  Each of these events have 
been so perfectly coincidental, I know that it was not just chance, but that God 
was been leading us to find “those that with receive [us]”.  I love this work.  
I love my companion.  I love the mission and the missionaries!  My hope is that 
all of you will pray for the opportunities to be a good influence, or a 
blessing, or a comfort, in the lives of others.  As you do so, I know that 
you’ll feel, as I have, the guiding influence of God in your everyday tasks.  
I love you all!  Have a great week!
~Elder Cappuccio, still not infected


-----Original Message-----
From: marathomom@aol.com
To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net
Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:47:11 -0400
Subject: Re: Missionary held captive until June 6th


 Dear James,

Of course I always look forward to your emails and stories, so I was a little 
disappointed that you couldn't
 write much, but glad that you didn't actually have the swine flu!  Then I was 
excited to get an email from Beverly Hellewell who's nephew went on an exchange 
with you one day.  He wrote about the experience in his letter to his parents 
and she forwarded it to me. It was great to hear the stories coming from a 
different perspective, of someone who actually was with you and wrote about the 
experience.  He wrote how you turned two seemingly dead-end situations into 
teaching lessons to 5 new investigators with one committing to baptism.

On the home front we successfully dug up the dead palm tree and now have some 
landscaping chores ahead of us.  It looks like a mine field right now. Joseph 
went to Homecoming and looked really nice.  When he gets some pictures back 
we'll send you some.  In fact my goal is to get some pictures together into a 
little album to send you for Christmas.

Is the swine flu hitting Mongolia hard this year? Do they make people wear masks 
even when they are not sick?  I didn't get the vaccine, so I just plan to stay 
healthy.  I will send some more vitamin C packages with the next package too. I 
went running twice this week( well a real slow jog actually) so I hope to get 
that number up to 5 times this week.  Starting with just 3 miles, so I have a 
long way to go if I want to get in shape, but i am determined to get there.

Speaking of swine flew again, Jack and I are going to dress up for a Halloween 
dance as pigs with wings....the swine flew =)  Pretty scary?

Well, I hope you had a will have an amazing week.  We love you.

Keep the fire burning!
love always,

mom



 

Email from a friend about Nephew doing an Exchange with James-Oct 19th

Hi Athena,
I told my nephew when he first started his mission that a member of our ward was 
serving in Mongolia, but I guess he forgot.  In his letter today, he told me 
that he met your son.  I'll copy a few of the things he said in his letter about 
your son.
On Saturday I went on an exchange with an elder named Elder Cappucio.  We were 
asking each other where we were from and he said he was from Chandler Arizona.  
I said, hey I have an aunt who lives there.  I said the last name was Hellewell 
and he said, Beverly?!  
Anyway, I found out that he is from Beverly's ward :)  

Anyway the next 5 investigators will be from the exchange we did 
together.

We were going outside to a house to try and contact a referral with a bad phone 
number. When we went there they didn't answer the door, but they yelled through 
the door asking who were and said that the person wasn't home.  Anyway, as we 
left we were kind of pointing around which area to go next to try and do ITLs 
and maybe get a lesson from an immediate ITL.  As we did this a man came up to 
us from a distance and asked in English 
if he could help us.  My companion ended up asking him what he wanted in life.  
He said he wanted to go to church.  My companion then told him the way he could 
help us was to meet with us and come to church.  He ended up asking us to follow 
him ( he was a little bit drunk )  We didn't have anything else better to do, so 
we followed him.  He then told us a little bit about his life and how he lived 
illegally in America for 7 years. That is how he learned English.  He then asked 
us to go to his house with him.  We were 
kind of hesitant, but we went anyway.  He had met with our missionaries about a 
year earlier and had a 1st lesson pamphlet in is room.  His wife was there.  She 
didn't speak any English, but this man insisted he wanted to speak only in 
English with us.  He told us how he is an alcoholic and when he is drunk he 
loses stuff or does stupid things, so they lost like everything they owned and 
really they had nothing in their house except a pad in the corner to sleep on.  
He then showed us a cup he used as an ash tray.  He threw it out his window from 
like the 4th story and told us he would never smoke again.  
He then had a thing of alcohol.  He said he would drink it right there and never 
drink again.  My companion asked if we could share a message first, but he 
insisted he drink his last bottle of alcohol first.  We finally started to get 
to talk about spiritual things and we asked if we could start with a prayer.  He 
wanted to pray immediately, but we thought it may be better if we prayed and let 
him say the closing prayer.  We started singing Love at Home in Mongolian.  Half 
way through the 2nd verse he stopped us and told us he wanted to sing in 
English.  Anyway, we finished the two of us singing in Mongolian while they 
listened.  After we prayed he went back to the window and yelled out to 2 of his 
friends.  He said, hey!  American missionaries are at my home right now, hurry 
and come in to hear their message.  This man and woman then come into the house 
and we taught them about the holy ghost and praying to know about truth.  We 
then talked a little about the book of Mormon.  The spirit was powerful there.  
The drunk man ended up giving a 
really nice heartfelt closing prayer.  The other couple couldn't come to church, 
but the drunk man and his wife went with us to Stake Conference yesterday.  It 
was awesome.

We went to check on an old investigator that I had the first time I was here.  
She was really open to the church and had come to the last stake conference when 
they made the first stake ever in Mongolia.  Apparently she had gotten married 
while I was gone, so it would be okay to teach her again.  We saw smoke coming 
out of their ger, so we knew someone was home.  We went there and just her son 
was there.  He told us to come in and offered us some really good food he had 
just made.  We just kind of asked when his mom would get home, but it turned 
slowly into asking him if he was interested in church 
things.  He said no, so I was sort of going to just leave it with that.  Elder 
Cappucio turned it around somehow with asking if he believed in God and he did.  
He turned it around into just asking him about who he thought God was and what 
kind of person he was.  He ended up sitting close to us as we taught him a 
powerful first lesson.  He told us he would come to stake conference the next 
day by himself and meet us there.  He accepted a 
baptismal date also.  He didn't come to stake conference, but right after it 
started he called me 4 times and I couldn't answer the phone because the meeting 
had started.  He called this morning again and told us he wants to meet with us.  
He is really good and somehow my companion turned him from not being interested 
into a really interested investigator.  

On Saturday I realized how important it is to be more bold when I teach.  I 
always like to share a heartfelt testimony throughout all of my lessons, and 
when I do ITLs.  Elder Cappucio taught me about being more bold.  Like when the 
person asked him how he could help him, he replied with a question.  He asked 
him what he wanted in life, and then after he answered he told them how we could 
help them achieve that.  Then in another lesson after we were done he asked them 
how they felt during our lesson.  When they said good, he immediately just said 
it was the Holy Ghost.  Things like that are important to be blunt and just tell 
your investigators what they are feeling and how we really can help them.  We 
ended the day with only 2 lessons, but they were two spiritually uplifting 
lessons that boosted me up.

Hope things are going great for you.
Beverly

No Mask, No Email, Silly Mongolians-Oct 18th

Dear Family, 

Due to the swine flu, they say they will not let me write my e-mails because I 
am not wearing a mask.  Silly Mongolians.  Anyways, work is good.  I might not 
be able to finish this e-mail...I'm very sorry!  But we'll be writing very soon 
ok?  I love you all!

~The non-infected Elder James Cappuccio

-----Original Message-----
From: marathomom@aol.com
To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net
Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2009 23:40:47 -0400
Subject: Missionary held captive until June 6th

Dear James,



Well at least it's a good captive....captivated by the spirit of missionary 
work!  I don't mind if  you stay a few extra weeks, it's normal to want to keep 
working as long as you can, you're only a young missionary once!  Next time you 
go you will be old, well at least older. And you could still take a summer class 
if you wanted to, I think.  Or just find a summer job and have some fun before 
starting school in the fall.  I hope my parents keep their house, but I don't 
know if you could work enough to earn it from them.  It's worth a lot of money.  
You could buy it form them when you are a doctor, but don't you have to travel 
where ever they send you for 12 years after school?  Do you want to live in 
Provo after you get out of the Army?  I have even thought about moving up there 
to take care of them, but haven't really discussed it with them or anyone yet. 
So, are you still going to marry the first girl you see when you get off the 
plane?  If so, I am going to sell tickets to your arrival and do thorough 
interviews of those wanting to hopefully catch your eye!  JK  




So what town or city are you on now.  You said you were transferred again and I 
didn't even know the place you were at for a short time.  I don't think there 
was ever a sequel to the Series of Unfortunate Events movie, but you did make me 
curious about what unfortunate events might have occurred in Mongolia.  In our 
neighborhood we had a unfortunate event on Thursday, where a 4 year fell out of 
a 2 story window 2 house away from your dad's house.  I think he was okay 
because he was screaming, but they took him out by helicopter, so we had a 
helicopter land at Provinces Park. 




Another good thing about being in Mongolia for an extra few weeks, is that you 
will be safe from the dangerous roads in Chandler for a little longer- Joseph 
got his Drivers license yesterday.  He is pretty proud of the accomplishment, 
but he does not have any wheels he can drive to school on a regular basis yet.  
I am not letting him take the truck. Maybe he can get a job and save up some 
money to buy his own car and insurance.




Today's meetings were good.  It was ward conference and we had the stake 
president, his councilor and the bishop speak in sacrament.  The choir sang and 
i was told we sounded really good. Joseph, Cali and I all sang in it. I think I 
have a musical number for you and your friends to sing when you get home.  Maybe 
not for your homecoming, but it is a male voices group of Called to Serve.  Have 
you done much singing in Mongolia?  I know you said your last companion( 2 
companions ago?) was a good singer.  Cali is taking voice lessons now and is 
counting on being famous.  She's already written a few songs.  




Hope you have a great week! Love and prayers are on their way daily.




Keep the fire burning!




Love always,

Mom

Athena 

Lost in the Translation- Oct 12,2009

Dear Family,

Well, I guess I probably have told you I became a Zone Leader, but thanks for 
the headline! I thought it was pretty funny.  well, I'll pass on your greetings 
to Elder Nasanbold, but sadly, due to a serious of unfortunate events (did a 
sequel movie ever come out for that?) I'll be going to a different zone to be 
with Elder Stephenson!  So...I'll lose one great companion but gain a great 
companion.  Both of them are really good.

Life's been going pretty good.  We saw conference over the last two days and I 
got to watch it Mongolian!  It was a good test of my language skills and I 
defintely didn't catch all of it.  The translators sometimes spoke pretty slowly 
and evenly.  but sometimes if they got behind the speaker, they would start 
speaking really fast.  It was funny.  In one of the talks, the translator got 
waaaay behind the speaker, like two paragraphs, so he just skipped it and went 
right to where he was speaking at the time.  That was funny.

I learned a lot of things from conference, one of the most important is that we 
need to continually work to make ourselves more like Christ.  It is a life-long 
pursuit.  So, if you haven't made it yet, it's ok.  Just keep pushing.  One of 
the most important parts is having Christlike love.  Every other single 
commandment flows from the first two greatest commandments: Love the Lord thy 
God will all your heart might mind and strength & Love your neighbor as thyself.  
So, in seeking to follow the Lord's other commandments, we should always seek to 
make sure we are doing it with love it our hearts for God and man.  If there is 
no love in our hearts, it is like the gift spoken of in Moroni.  If we give a 
gift grudgingly, or serve the Lord grudgingly, it's just as good to not have 
served! So serve with a smile and love in your hearts and then we can reap the 
greatest blessings of all!  As it says in Alma, everything that we put out, 
comes back at us.  Good for good, bad for bad.  So we decided for ourselves what 
we receive.  But, it doesn't always come right away so don't get discouraged!

Alright, well I love you all!  Uhm...about Grandpa's house...I kind of wanted to 
live there....I definitely want to help Grandma and Grandpa out.  BUt instead of 
selling that house, can I just get it?  Like, I'll work for it.  And I'll 
definitely maintain it.  But like...that' would be AWESOME.  I was actually 
thinkinga bout that before and then you reminded me.  What are your thoughts?  
Of course, if I get married it'd be nice to live there.

K, well my companion's rushing me so I gotta go!  Love ya all!

~Elder Cappuccio

P.S.  It looks like I'll have two options for when I can go home: April 24 or 
June 6.  Each is 3 weeks from my 2 year mark.  When do you think I should come 
home?  I want your opinion mom!  My thought is to stay till June 6 but let me 
know what you think!


-----Original Message-----
From: marathomom@aol.com
To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net
Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2009 22:02:19 -0400
Subject: In the Zone


 


 Dear James,

It was good to hear from you and your new companion, say hi to him for us. 
Sounds like you will be keeping busy as a zone leader now. I hope you have more 
good stories for us this week. We had a good trip to Utah, my parents are 
thinking of selling their home and getting a condo, because the house is too 
much for them to take care of. I was hoping that you and Amy could stay there 
when you get back and help them out while you go to BYU. It would take quite a 
bit of cleaning and getting rid of stuff to get the house ready to sell, so ti 
won't be anytime soon. I counted and you have less than 8 months to go, don't 
know if you thought about that yet. Ben and Devin are getting home in 3 
months or less.? It will be cool to have you all back and compare notes and 
scars. =) I was thinking you probably
need all new clothes, because you have grown taller and are skinnier
now. Does your suit still fit? They have tailor's there that make
suits inexpensively if you need a new one. Or I could send you some 
suspenders.....also, I should be getting your Christmas stuff ready pretty 
soon. Do you have anything you might want to request? 

Hope you are ready for the winter weather. We are having nice weather finally 
and my air conditioning bill should be under $300 a month now. The watering 
system in the front yard has been leaking and I didn't get it fixed for a few 
months now and so it killed the palm tree ( the whole top fell off, it looks 
really sad) by rotting out the roots. I was always good at killing house plants, 
now I moving on to the bigger plants....so anyway, now I have to fix the 
watering system and dig up the palm tree. 

Hope you have a wonderful week and thanks for all the great experiences and 
testimony you send up each week. We love you and pray for you.

Keep the fire burning!

Love always,

mom

In the Zone as in Zone Leader-Oct 4,2009

Dear Familly,

Welll......just by way of clerical announcements, yea I'm a Zone Leader.  But I 
don't feel like it and I definitely don't feel prepared!  But, my companion is 
awesome.  He's one of the most diligent Mongolian missionaries I know.

ANyways, work is good!  We had a lot of "office" work this week: ZOne Council, 
Baptismal Interviews, etc.  ZOne Council is AWESOME!  It just increases my 
testimony of the great missionaries and leaders we have in this mission.  As I 
listen to everyone else discuss the issues of the mission, I was very happy to 
know I have the opportunity to learn from them.  President Andersen is such a 
good mission president.

And I had to do a baptismal interview!  It was one of the most scariest events 
in my life.  But it was AWESOME!  It was with this 15 year boy, in a little city 
called Baganuur.  He was so prepared so the Spirit was just powerful.  So we 
just talked through the questions, and the SPirit definitely confirmed that he 
was ready.

Everything else is doing good.  Sorry I don't have a lot of time to write this 
week and I don't have a lot of time...next week I'll write good ok?  Plus, next 
week is Zone Conference so there will be a lot of good things to write.  Bye!

~Elder Cappuccio

-----Original Message-----
From: marathomom@aol.com
To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net
Date: Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:06:25 -0400
Subject: trip to Utah


 Dear James,

I am writing you from my parents house in Provo tonight.? We watched conference 
here because we couldn't get tickets, but it is nice to see family and hang out 
at the home again. It was Jack's first time meeting most of the family other 
than briefly on the wedding day. Manny came over the first day with two sons and 
then Alex and her new husband came over and we took their kids to Lagoon with 
us(plus DJ). Then Sophia and the her husband, the other James, came over for 
dinner tonight. Conference was good of course.? You'll probably watch it next 
Sunday right? In President Monson's talk he talked about all the primary kids 
who wrote him about the service they performed in honor of Pres Monson's 
birthday. One example was a little boy from Mongolia so I thought that was 
cool, because I thought you might have met that little boy. 

We are here for a few days, then heading back home. It's nice to take a few days 
off from the hustle and bustle of work and daily tasks, but I don't mind 
working, I am grateful to be blessed with a good job that helps me provide for 
the things I need and sometimes a little extra. By the way, you said you were 
transferred and that you are now companions with the zone leader that came down 
to do splits with you....so does that make you a zone leader now? That's how it 
usually works from what I have heard. Anything different about what you are 
doing or where you are now? Was the town you left a smaller town than where you 
are now?

I hope you had a great week and looking forward to more stories I can share with 
friends and family. We love you and are very inspired by your hard work and 
testimony you live every day.

Keep the fire burning!

Love always,

Quiet Impressions of the Spirit- Sept 27, 2009

Dear Family!

Hello!  I'm glad to hear everyone is alive and kicking!  I did get Cali's 
letter, but I got it today, not last week.  It was a little sad coming in to an 
empty mailbox, it's kind of like coming home to an empty house, but I survived 
and I'm here to write you today!

Thanks for sending that one quote from Allan Packer.  That's such an important 
principle.  Everyone is looking for the sensational.  I remember a quote I heard 
twice when I was in the MTC.  It was from one of the Prophets of the Church.  
And what he said is that more impressive than walking and talking with God is 
the quiet impressions of the Spirit on the heart of man.  Isn't that remarkable?  
Because Satan knows that, he is frequently trying to pull the world away from 
those quiet moments, those still moments, moments where we can feel the 
impressions of the Spirit clearly.  President Packer once said that the first 
thing a military leader does before mounting a major military invasion is jammed 
the communication channels of the enemy.  That is exactly what Satan is tying to 
do!  By putting more noise, more flair, more unnecessary things in our lives, he 
makes it hard for us to receive the help God wishes to send to us through the 
Spirit!  Then we're cut off from that sustenance and Satan overruns us with 
temptation.

That's one thing that gets kind of frustrating as a missionary.  Everyone in 
Mongolia has a cell phone.  Even if you don't have enough money for food, 
somehow you've got a cell phone.  And a TV.  And so as we teach lessons, the 
cell phone will go off, or other people will turn on the TV and it acts as a 
major distraction to the Spirit.  But then there are those wonderful lessons 
when everyone is listening, no distractions, and the Spirit just flows over you 
constantly.  I love those lessons.  We had one just a couple days ago when our 
Zone Leaders, Elder Hasanbold and Elder Stephenson came to Zuun Kharaa to do an 
exchange with us.  I went with Elder Hasanbold and we found ourselves teaching 
the 1st lesson to a friend of an inactive church member.  That lesson was so 
powerful as we taught the message of the Restoration.  We asked questions, they 
answered, and we were able to testify simply of the truth of this church.  We 
closed of the lesson by giving them a Book of Mormon and setting a baptismal 
date.  It was great!

Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to meet with them again.  This last week 
there was a transfer and although I didn't expect anything to happen, President 
Andersen called me and let me know I'd be going to Nalaikh.  Now I'm companions 
with Elder Nasanbold, the elder that came to do exchanges with me!  Which is 
awesome by the way.  He's honestly one of the best missionaries in the mission!  
In one word, he's "classy"  I'll have to get a picture with him and send it back 
home, I think you'll all agree.  Just to let you know what I mean, he sings 
really good and he loves Josh Groban.  He's just got good taste and he's a very 
hard worker.  So we're going to have a lot of good experiences this transfer!

I'm really sad to leave Zuun Khara.  This last week I wrote a letter to 
President Andersen how I was going to place some really high goals and really 
work to help the branch in Zuun Kharaa.  Guess that won't happen.  But the elder 
that's taking my place is way good.  And, interestingly enough, his companion is 
my son, Elder Cardinal!  So that's way good.  Elder Cardinal has grown a lot, 
his language is really good and he's just doing good work.

The work here in Nalaikh is good.  The night I came in we had a baptism!  His 
name is Naranbaatar and he's this 16 year old kid.  He's so sweet and sincere.  
Now we're working with Mom and his little brother.  I don't know what happened 
to the dad.  the branch in Nalaikh is also really strong.  It's got a chapel and 
we have upwards from 100 people coming each week.

Alright, well, I love you all!  Work is going good and I love it!  Make sure you 
do all you can to invite the Spirit into your life!  I always thought it was a 
kind of nerdy thing that Elder Bednar would always start his talks by saying "I 
invite the SPirit to help..." and then discuss his subject.  Now I realize the 
wisdom and importance of those words and the spirit behind it.  Say the words in 
your prayers and etch then in your heart and I promise you'll notice a 
significant difference in your life.

I'll write more next week!

~Elder Cappuccio



-----Original Message-----
From: marathomom@aol.com
To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2009 20:07:15 -0400
Subject: SNOW IN MONGOLIA BUT POTATOES WARM AND DRY


 Dear James,

I forwarded your last email also because I liked your story about the potato 
harvest and the spiritual harvest afterward. I sent it out to your email list 
with the title in the subject line. Susan Sutherland emailed me back that she 
really liked the story and that i should be proud to have such a righteous young 
man as my son. And she is right, I am honored to have you serve a mission and 
bring blessings to all of us at home by your righteous example and commitment. 
Thanks for your service and desire to follow the Lord. 

Marcie Burgoyne gave her missionary farewell talk today. She is going to 
Belgium. Last week was Stake Conference and Cali was supposed to write you, so I 
hope you got a letter from her for all of us. Stake conference was god, we had a 
general authority from the seventy there and he was very good. He said he has 
never had to apologize to his wife for anything because he has never treated her 
badly or said anything unkind. he said all husbands should treat their wife 
like that and if they haven't to start today. I think that is so important and 
I hope you can remember that to help you in your life. Also, I need to forward a 
letter to you that Tony's dad sent to us for you, but I keep 
forgetting....sorry. 

This week we are going up to Utah. I didn't have any luck getting conference 
tickets yet , but maybe we might be able to find some, if not it will be good to 
visit anyway. Didn't get a chance this summer and I like to go at least once a 
year. Amy hasn't really worked yet so she is learning how to get by on no 
money, but she has generous grandparents who let her stock up on food for her 
apartment. 

Crystal moved into her house this week. She was happy to finally get the loan 
closed. Now they live much closer to school so they don't have to drive so far. 
She is just taking some classes to get ready for graduate school. Joseph is 
hoping to get his drivers license this week, but I am a little hesitant because 
he hasn't practiced very much. He is singing in the Stake Youth Fireside 
tonight. Won't that be cool if you and he sing a duet when you get back? He has 
a really low voice now! Cali is going to start taking voice lessons this week. 
She quit her club soccer team a few weeks ago. Jack's daughter Katie, who is 
married is expecting a baby boy in January and has picked out the name Trevor 
James, so i thought you might like to know you will have a step-nephew soon, she 
already has a baby girl named Emma. Killian, jack's 12 yr old is playing Diablo 
a lot, but still doing his homework, I think. I am sure you remember how I feel 
about wasting time playing violent video games, anyway I don't ge
t it.

Well, I hope you are staying warm with all the snow and weather changes, We 
certainly are....it was 105 yesterday!. I still drove with the top down =)

Love from all of us
Keep the fire burning,

Love always,

mom

Snow in Mongolia, but Potatos Warm and Dry- Sept 20,2009

Dear Family,

Well, you guys wanted stories, this last week was pretty full of stories. There 
were a lot of different things that made it so good but I guess the best part 
was just how well the Lord provided for us as we did what He wanted.  This week 
I called President Andersen to get special permission to do extra service.  It 
really was worth it I feel.  They were saying at the beginning of the week that 
it was going to snow on Saturday and so we needed to harvest all the potatoes.  
Some members were having trouble getting everything harvested in time so we went 
over to help them.  On Friday, there were still two members that weren't able to 
get all the potatoes harvested and Elder Dawkharbayar called me to ask if we 
could go serve them.  We had already done a lot and I was really looking forward 
to a full day to go teach lessons and find new investigators.  It was looking to 
be a great day!  On top of that, it was like...75, 80 degrees! Nevertheless, the 
forecast said it would snow tomorrow.  So, I went into my room, knelt in prayer, 
and asked if we should serve.  The answer was yes.  So, we put on our service 
clothes and went to work.  There were a LOT of potatoes to harvest for these 
families, and when everything was said and done, the sun was set, the day was 
over.  I was really hoping to go and teach some lessons but the day was done.  
Anyways, we had done what was right so I felt good about that and went to bed.  
The next morning as I woke up at 6:30, to my surprise, everything was white!  It 
had snowed during the night and continued to snow the entire day!  Had we not 
spent time and harvested those potatoes, the next day many of them would have 
been lost to the cold and frost.  I'm very grateful that we followed the 
promptings of the Spirit and served on Friday.

As a result, Saturday was a crucial day.  We hadn't had much time the rest of 
the week due to English, Choir, and Service, to do as much work as we would have 
liked.  On top of that, my bike has gone completely to pot and so we spent a 
considerable amount of time trying to fix it and get new parts for it.  In 
District Meeting we had talked about Faith and having faith to meet all the 
standards of excellence.  I told them all that if they would have faith, they 
could reach the standards of excellence this week.  In saying this, I myself had 
to have enough faith to do so.  So, we prepared, and we went out, and the Lord 
worked miracles for us! It was a really cold day, maybe like 25 degrees or so, 
so a lot of people just stayed in their houses.  We went all the way out to the 
very farthest street in our area and met with one Part-Member Family.  They live 
in a really small house right now so it was really crowded, but in this place we 
read out of 3 Nephi 11 and talked about what the Spirit says to us.  As we did 
this I asked, "What is the Spirit saying to you?"  He replied, "It's telling me 
to follow what's right".  "Well, one of those right things is to get baptized.  
May we set a baptismal date with you?"  And just like that, we set a date for 
him to get baptized.  His job requires him to go out to the countryside for long 
periods of time, but in the winter, his works stops so we'll be able to meet 
with him, and get him to church a lot more frequently now.  His name is Purev, 
or Thursday.  After that, we went to their next door neighbor's house and met 
with an investigating family of ours.  To our surprise, as we came in, the dad 
was there!  Using this dad also works in the countryside with heavy machinery 
but he had come in just recently.  We met with them all and shared 3 Nephi 18:21 
about praying together as a family.  To close, we asked him to offer a prayer 
for his family and his work.  He was very shy and nervous, but with the help of 
his wife, he was able to pray!  RIght after that we went to another neighbor 
house and showed the Restoration video to a couple.  The wife is named 
Amarsaikhan and she's been going to church and what not.  However, the husband, 
really didn't like us at all to begin with.  Every time we were there, he 
wouldn't let us in the house!  But then one time, he let us in and we got to 
introduce ourselves.  It turns out he had a completely wrong understanding of 
our church and by talking to us, he realized we weren't that bad of people!  He 
even confessed some of his weaknesses, he smokes and drinks and now, at age 45, 
he's got 15 years to wait until he can retire and get money from the government, 
but he can't find any work.  The movie really helped him to understand why we do 
what we do.  Then he was really hesitant about coming to church because he 
smokes and drinks.  We talked to him about it and then suddenly, he turns to his 
wife and says, "Should we go tomorrow and check it out?"  "yea, lets do that"  
"Ok, we'll go tomorrow"  Now whenever he talks about us, he calls me his little 
brother.  Hopefully as we continue to meet with them, we'll be able to help him 
overcome his doubts and weaknesses.  From those 3 wonderful lessons, we went 
alllll the way to the other side of our area and met with one of our 
ALAs(Inactive members).  He's been having trouble with his marriage and we 
talked about Charity and expressing our love to family members.  We committed 
them to just say "I love you" to their family members (something Mongolians 
don't usually do).  The dad (who is exactly like Dad) was really hesitant.  
Finally, they committed and he came to church the next day.  All in all, 
Saturday was a great day!

~Elder Cappuccio

Going Like a Lamb to the Slaughter- Sept 14, 2009

Dear Family,

Hello!  How are you all doing?  I'm doing just fine here in Zuun Kharaa.  Today 
we went with our District to this cave in a mountain a few miles from the city.  
Apparently is was used in a movie made like 40 years ago as a hideout for 
theives.  The cave was like 20 feet big and it had a little table with benches 
in it.  I was expecting a big cave so I was a little dissapointed, but all it 
all, it was a good time going with the District on bikes out there and back.  we 
took some good pictures and if I can, I'll send them to you sooner or later.

This week has been good for us.  We've had some good experiences with the 
brethren-teaching them and getting them to fulfill their priesthood callings.  
That's one of the things lacking here in Zuun Kharaa, they don't even have 
someone to be the branch president--we have a missionary fulfilling that calling 
right now. But we were successful in meeting with some of them and getting them 
to church and strengthening them.

My new mini-missionary is awesome!  He's been a member for like 6 months but 
he's got so much faith and desire.  It's awesome to be able to work with him and 
teach him some of the things we do as missionaries.  He's like 4 years older 
than me, so that's kind of different, but when he goes out on his own mission, 
he's going to be a great missionary!  The sister in our District, Sister Howald, 
got pretty sick and got taken to the city to get her appendix taken out.  So now 
she's getting better but hasn't made it out here yet.

I got your package this last week.  Thank you SOOO much!!  And the journal is 
just the one I wanted.  I've made a commitment now to write in it every day so 
that I can remember all the great spiritual experience we have each day.  I have 
to apologize because when I sit down to write you e-mails, I forget what 
happened in the week.  But, I really just want to say that each week, each day, 
and each hour, as we meet on the streets and in the homes of these humble 
Mongolians, the Spirit of the Lord is with us and it flows through us to the 
blessing of this people.  I know that this work is true and I am trying each day 
to be a better instrument in the Lord's hands.  That's the only way to be 
successful here.

 Anyways, we've had a good time doing a lot of Mongolian things this week.  For 
example, I made Khushuur, a Mongolian classic.  I'll make it for you when I get 
back.  Also, we killed a sheep!  THat was a crazy experience.  Oh course, it was 
really manly and bloody, but, I gained a bit more understanding about Jesus 
Christ and His sacrifice for us.  It says in the scriptures that Chirst is the 
lamb of God and that he would go like a lamb to the slaughter.  Well, the other 
day, as we were serving one of the families in our branch, I had the opportunity 
to understand what that really means.  So, we got the sheep and dragged it over 
to the spot where we would kill it.  There we put it on it's back and held it's 
legs down.  Then my companion took a knife and slit a whole in his chest right 
below the ribs.  He then reached his hand in and disconnected the main artery 
that sends blood to the head.  After doing that, we just hold it until all the 
blood drains into the stomach.  The eery thing about it all is that despite the 
fact that we're slitting a hole in the animal, discconnected it's artery and 
killing it, it doesn't make that much noise at all!  It sits there, calm, 
complacent.  I don't know if it knows that it's going to die or not, but it is 
very stoic.  Of course, when you cut, it hurts a little, so it flails it legs, 
and then as the blood is flowing out, it lets out some small groans of pain, but 
to be completely honest, the majority of the time, it is silent.  And then it's 
dead.  As I held down the front legs, I got to witness all this and I couldn't 
help but see the Savior's Atonement in it all.  He really died for us, and He 
could have at any moment called it quits, and broken free from His pains and 
agony.  But he didn't.  He calmly took it upon Himself because, just like the 
Mongolians needed the lamb's meat to live, we needed Christ's life to live.  I 
don't know if I'm getting the sacredness of this event over through this e-mail, 
but it truly was something that taught me a lot and made me grateful for the 
Savior and His love for me.

I love you all and I'll make sure to write you some good success stories next 
week ok?  Keep up the good work and choose the right!

~Elder Cappuccio

-----Original Message-----
From: marathomom@aol.com
To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:56:25 -0400
Subject: Hi from home


 Dear James,

Another week has quickly gone by. We went to the ward campout, but stayed in 
Jack's cabin which was just down the road from the big cabin everyone else 
stayed at. It was nice to get away from the heat. Before we went home, Jack 
took us shooting and taught Cali how to shoot a 22 rifle and a 45 caliber 
automatic pistol. She was pretty excited about hitting the targets and had to 
text her friends! She is way ahead of me, my first time shooting was at the 
police academy! I am very rusty and not a very good shot. Not sure how I made 
it through then....

Anyway, we are having the missionaries for dinner on Thursday, so I imagine you 
being feed by some nice family in Mongolia on Thursday night too. When I think 
of the scriptures about spreading the gospel to all the corners of the world, I 
think Mongolia has to be one of those corners, but then I also think about how 
you are gathering the good branches that have been scattered to the nethermost 
parts of the vineyard to help strengthen the church in the latter-days. 

We are going to Utah for Fall break and I hope we can get tickets to conference. 
I asked the bishop today and he said he would check. Joseph is going up with us 
along with Cali and Killian and of course Jack. Crystal will finally be moving 
into her new home. We went by and saw it yesterday and it was very nice. She 
has some work to do , but she has a big backyard and some nice trees. She just 
has to clean it and put in some new tile in the kitchen.

Hope you are doing well and that you get our package soon. WE love you and pray 
for you and all the missionaries.

Keep the fire burning!
love always,

mom

Adversity is Part of the Evidence of God's Infinite Love-Sept 6,2009

Dear Mom,

Yea, it definitely was an Internet glitch.  I sent an e-mail that said, I am 
alive but I have no time to write, I'll write next week.  :)

Anyways, the drunks are pretty much under-control.  Although, the other day we 
went to try and meet with our new member and there were three drunks outside his 
house just sitting and getting more drunk.  One really liked us, one was 
indifferent, one really didn't like us.  The one that didn't like us threw a 
rock and hit me, but it was a little rock and he was a little guy.  Still, it is 
always a little scary when someone picks up a rock and aims it at you...

Ok, so these last two weeks have been a rollercoaster!  I've got a new companion 
who's not actually a missionary, (we call them mini-missionaries).  His name is 
Erdenebold and he's from Darkhan.  About 4 months ago he was inactive, but one 
of my former companions, Elder Steinberg, reactivated his family and so he 
started to coming back to church.  These last two weeks have really been good 
for him to see the other side of missionary work.  It wasn't easy, but he 
learned alot and when he goes on his mission next March, I think he'll be a lot 
more prepared.

We had our Zone Conference last week and the topic was Adversity.  It was a 
great conference and it just seemed like everything, every little possible thing 
that would cause adversity, peaked before Zone Conference so that we would be 
able to understand it better.  I know I appreciated it.  There's this quote in 
the latest conference by President Eyring about Adversity:...our Heavenly Father 
and the Savior live and...love all humanity.  The very opportunity for us to 
face adversity and affliction is part of the evidence of their infinite love"  I 
know this is true.  In all of our hard adversity we usually grow the most is 
what I've learned.  We usually look back with gratitude on what we've 
experienced because of the things we've gained and learned.

In terms of stories, we have this one New Member that wasn't going to be able to 
go to church because he got stuck with work, but then we prayed about it, and he 
called me up in the morning saying how it had gotten cancelled! We were all 
really estatic about that. Another neat one focuses on the way the Lord has us 
meet with the people he wants us to meet with. Last night we were looking for a 
house of a new contact to meet with. All of a sudden, one our new members, this 
youth named Enkhsaikhan, came up on his bike. The first time I had met him, he 
didn't seem very down to meet with the missionaries, but this time he was really 
friendly and when we asked to meet with him, he said yea! So we met and I shared 
my favorite scripture D&C 128:22, and talked about the wonderful Gospel and the 
importance of sharing it. It led to two ends: We were able to open the door to 
him preparing for a full-time mission, and he asked us to try meeting with his 
mother and brother!

Similar to that, we met with another new member that same night and tried to 
share a scripture with him. His little brother is like a demon. He is just 
unruly. Anyway, through all this chaos we were able to see how to share the 
Gospel with his mom, she's really into the New Testament and goes to another 
church. So she shared with us some of her favorite scriptures from the New 
Testament and we were able to talk about how those are mentioned in the Book of 
Mormon. Now we're going back on Tuesday to teach more and it could be really 
good!

Well, I love you all.  You're awesome!  I haven't got the package yet...that's a 
bummer, but I'll keep on enduring with hope!  

~Elder Cappuccio



-----Original Message-----
From: marathomom@aol.com
To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net
Date: Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:27:46 -0400
Subject: Re: from a Galaxy far far away


Dear James,



I didn't get an email from you last week, so I don't know if there was an 
internet glitch or if the drunks came back to get even, so I hope to hear from 
you this week. Brother Haught bore his testimony today and said his wife is 
doing worse and that she is preparing to die. He has been so strong during 
their hard times and is such a good example. He and his wife were Joseph's 
sunday school teachers this year and I know he has been a good influence to 
everyone in that class. Also mention brother Lantz in your prayers and maybe 
Jack too. 


I hope you had a good week and that you have 2 weeks worth of good stories for 
us.? No good stories that I can remember?to tell about out week. Just work, 
grocery shopping,more work, laundry and more grocery shopping. Luckily Jack 
likes to cook and he made an awesome Beef Stew this week, which we shared with 
the Lantz'. Leslie Hodgson got remarried this weekend. She married someone she 
met on-line., he's from Idaho/Utah...i never dated anyone I met on-line. I 
never got into it that much, maybe because Ilike to meet them in person 
instead.?



We love you and pray for you.

Keep the fire burning!

love always,



mom?

Keeping the Streets Safe One Drunk at a Time- Aug 25th

Dear Mother,

Well, lets answer your questions!  First, with Mongolian, it was never meant to 
be written in English or Russian letters.  The Mongolian script seems to be 
taken from Arabic and adapted.  I've started studying the Mongolian script 
lately and there are tons of differences between the way we speak and write now 
in Cyrillic and how they used to speak and write.  The words in Mongolian Script 
are usually spelled differently and so there aren't double vowels.  But then 
when you speak it, you cut out a lot of middle consonants.  It's just a really 
different language!  Russian has a lot of ties to Greek.  Mongolian has a lot of 
ties to...well, nothing really.  The grammar structure is tied to Turkish, 
Korean, and Japanese, but the words, roots and accent, aren't really tied to 
anything else.  Anyways, I'm talking like I'm a linguist.  But I'm not, so I'll 
stop now :)

Yes we teach English.  So far we're just teaching 2 hours at the church so it's 
quite a difference.  We were teaching 10 hours each week in the city.  Pretty 
soon school will start up (next week) and then we'll teach more.

The bike riding is alright!  My thighs are getting a real good workout!  My butt 
is feeling better.  It's been raining a lot and so there a lot of puddles and we 
get muddy quite a lot.  The other day I got stuck in this huge mud puddle and 
Itried to get out but the mud sucked my shoe off!  It was pretty funny and then 
I was muddy from the ankle down for the rest of the day.  Also ,the bikes have 
gone pretty bad and so almost everyday we've made our way to the shop to get it 
fixed up. 

Anyways, want a cool story?  Here you go.  It happened last Monday :)

So, we're walking home from a Family Home Evening with some of the ward youth 
and the sun's already set. As we're walking down one street, two drunks approach 
my companion and I and say, "STOP! Then, "Give us those bikes, what are you guys 
doing, etc." So there's a tall drunk and a smaller drunk. It was like perfectly 
paired with our companionship. Anways, in the background the youth are freaking 
out and screaming (the girls). I told them to grab our bikes and run off the 
other way. At first they just stood there in shock, and I was like, "Go!" and so 
they starting going. Meanwhile the two drunks were grabbing us by the collar 
trying to get stuff out of us. We told them to let go but they persisted and so 
I just grabbed the one on me and threw him to the ground. Then the other one was 
messing with my companion, (apparently he headbutted him and bruised my 
companion's nose) so I grabbed him and threw him to the ground as well. As soon 
as we were free of them, we took off back down the road we came and out of the 
corner of my eye, I saw the bigger drunk pick up a big rock and throw it at us. 
Luckily, he missed (I mean, he was drunk). The smaller one got up and starting 
chasing us again so I stopped, threw him to the ground again, and we ran off. 
Finally they stopped chasing us and we returned to the main road to try and find 
the youth. The youth were safe and the police were called. In about 10 minutes, 
the police showed up and took care of the two drunks. It was funny because as 
soon as we were in the light and the police were there and stuff, the drunks 
were trying to say we did stuff to them and were messing with them. So yea, I 
didn't really expect an encounter like that, but, this is Zuun Kharaa and it's a 
whole new world. Anyways, my companion and the youth were pretty shaken up, but 
no one was seriously hurt so the Lord was really looking out for us.

P.S. one part that was really funny was that the tall one grabbed me and was 
getting in my face. He was threating us and all that. I stopped him and said, 
"wait, what's your name?" He paused, thought a little bit and said, "my name's 
Sukhbaatar" For like 10 seconds he was out of his angry, drunk mode. He was a 
little sober there. I said, "My names Elder Cappuccio" After that little shock, 
he turned back into the angry drunk and started messing with us so I threw him 
down.

Other than that, the work is going good.  I love the people here because they 
are humble and plain.  They're great! I'm sure we'll have more stories to share 
and more spiritual experiences to tell.  Have a great week!  I love you all!

~Elder Cappuccio

-----Original Message-----
From: marathomom@aol.com
To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net
Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:19:52 -0400
Subject: from a Galaxy far far away

Dear James,



Your new town, Zuun Kharaa, sounds like something out of Star Wars, but then 
again so does Ulaanbaatar and Darkhan! Maybe you are on a galaxy far, far 
away.....You might have mentioned this before, but why do they have repeating 
vowels in every word? Russian seems to have minimal vowels and Mongolia has 
mostly vowels. If they had to play wheel of fortune in Mongolian, there 
wouldn't be enough consonants to make enough money, especially if you had to buy 
the vowels. Anyway, I hope you like your new area. Do you teach English there 
too? How's the bike riding going? I didn't get to ride too much this week, so 
I'll probably get saddle sore all over again.




Jack's brother, John, came to visit this week from Illinois, so we went on an 
evening Harley ride out to Canyon Lake this week. Did I tell you Jack had a 
Harley before? Anyway, he's not a real Harley guy, meaning no tattoo's or stuff 
like that. He just likes the sound of the engine and the fun he has when he 
rides it. I like riding on the back too. 




Crystal might be closing on her house in Mesa. ?Her mortgage payment is only 
going to be $450/month. Pretty good.....she's pretty excited about it. Amy is 
still trying to get a job at BYU, so maybe pray that she'll get a good part time 
job. My brother still needs a decent job, my parents are still supporting him, 
so I hope he can find one too. It's a hard time to find a job, so I am really 
grateful for the good job that I have and hope i can continue to do well at it. So far I have been greatly blessed.




We love you and wish you the best aways and pray for yoiu.




Keep the fire burning!




Love always,




mom

Transferred to Zuun Kharaa(...in a galaxy far, far, away)-Aug 17th,2009

Alright!  It's Elder Cappuccio!  I'm alive, but I'm not where you think I am!  
This last Thursday there was a transfer call, and, well I wasn't expecting 
anything to happen, I thought I was staying where I was for the the next 6 
weeks, but President Andersen called us while we were in English Class and said 
this: "There's going to be some changes".

He was sure right!  Now I'm in lovely Zuun Kharaa!  It's this small town on the 
railroad tracks between Darkhan and Ulaanbaatar.  If you want to Google Earth it 
i'm sure you could.  Anyways,  I'm the new District Leader out here and our 
District is pretty small, but they're awesome.  The branch has like a total of 
170 members and one of the missionaries here is the Branch President.  So, we 
have 2 sister missionaries, a branch president, his companion, and then my 
companion and I.  We also have bikes!  Sweet eh?  The other day we went out to 
some lessons and I've got to be honest--my butt hurts and my legs are a little 
sore.  It's definitely going to be something to adjust to.  Also I kind of 
crashed and cut my hand up.  Nothing big, but it's a sort of welcome gift from 
Zuun Kharaa.  The work is going really good here!  I haven't gotten really 
acquainted with the place yet but the sisters here work really hard and are just 
amazing.  The last few District Leaders have all been really good so I've got 
some big shoes to fill (especially because they were all pretty much taller than 
me!)  Lets see...what else is different...I've got a Mongolian companion!  His 
name is Elder Otgonbaatar and he's way cool.  He's from Erdenet.  If we get a 
cool picture taken, I'll send it to you ok?

I've got a neat experience to share with you all from my first night in ZUun 
Kharaa.  It goes like this: 

We got to Zuun Kharaa at like 1 in the morning on the train. We got off the 
train and no one was there to meet us. No one! SO we had no phone, no phone 
number to call, no idea where our apartment was. Anyways, we put our luggage in 
a luggage place safely and then headed out to look for the house. Before we went 
out, we prayed together (I went with this Elder Bayarjargal who also came to 
Zuun Kharaa). After praying we just wandered around some buildings for about 7 
minutes. As we were rounding one, I said to Elder Bayarjargal, "we should ask 
someone, maybe they'd know". So like a minute later as we're walking these two 
youth come walking by and my companion calls out to them, "Hey, we need to ask 
you a question: do you know where two missionaries live?" "The american ones?" 
"Yea" "Yea they live right over here" He proceeded to tell us the exact 
building, entrance, floor, and door they lived in. Not only that, just in case 
we got lost, he showed us it! Isn't that amazing? God answered our prayer. So 
the next day in church as I shared my testimony with the new branch I was able 
to share that experience and it really went over well with them. God answers 
prayers, no matter what time!


So yea, I like my new place.  It was sad to leave the other one though.  The 
last few days before I left I spent my time saying goodbye to our investigators 
and members and tying up loose ends.  We set a new baptismal date with 
Lutsaikhan our older investigator.  He's definitely going to make it this time 
and I'm so happy for him.  I just see him being a huge strength to the ward 
after all the experiences he's been having to test his faith.  Also, we met with 
Byambajargal and helped him get ready for his baptism.  It'll be in two weeks.  
The day I left Enkhbat when into his interview.  He quit smoking the week before 
and was still going strong.  I'm hoping to get the pictures from their baptisms 
and then I'll send them to you if I can.  It'll be a little different because I 
won't be in the picture but I'm not the important part.

Uhm...so yea, that's about it.  It's good to hear things are going good for you 
all!  Congratulate Joseph on successfully blessing the water!  He's my hero!  If 
there were a lot of youth like him in our branch here, we'd be an even better 
branch!  Oh and about the package...it didn't get here before I got out to Zuun 
Kharaa so I'll have to wait till I get to the city or till the Zone Leaders come 
up and do an exchange with me.  Either or...I'll get it eventually!  Thank you!

As for the loss of weight...I'm really not sure how it's going.  I'm definitely 
thinner, because I've lost a lot of muscle.  In the MTC, I pretty much just 
replaced with fat but since I've been in Mongolia it's been taken off pretty 
well.  The last few weeks we were eating pretty well and in good cool conditions 
so I don't know that I lost, but maybe gained back a little weight.  Now that 
we're riding bikes everywhere here, I'll definitely lose weight and get slimmer.  
Sweet eh?  I gave up on the hand-clap push-ups and lunges a looooong time ago.  
I'll pick it up when I get back home :)  For now just sit ups and and pushups.

Well, I love you all!  Thank you for being so supportive and always writing me!  
It helps a lot.  I'll do my best to follow the Spirit and help these people and 
then let you know about all the Spiritual experiences we have.  Pray for me!

~Elder Cappuccio

-----Original Message-----
From: marathomom@aol.com
To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:49:37 -0400
Subject: Re: Sunshine from the valley of the sun

Dear James,



I look forward to the Khorkhog party. We can have it at a family reunion or a 
welcome home party. Sounds like a big dutch oven meal- minus the rocks, but if 
the rocks relieve stress then got to add those in. So, sounds like you are 
eating good. Have you still lost alot of weight from when you left? Still 
doing your clapping push-ups and leaping lunges everyday? I got to get back in 
the workout mode but I'll leave the high impact stuff to you. 


Joseph blessed the water today and he didn't mess-up at all even though he said 
he was nervous. He said he felt your guiding presence to help him. He kind of 
sounds like you too now. Cali sang in church with bro Goff and it was very 
nice. She got a splinter in her eyelid befoe church and I might have to take 
her to the hospital to get it out after dinner. I don't make cinnamon rolls and 
pizza like I used to, but I should give it a try now that I'm not working any 
overtime.




How are the baptisms coming along? ?You sound like you have a few coming up. I 
need to work on finding someone I know to share the gospel with. It was neat to 
see Jacque join the church and it's been a whole year now. I think we are going 
to go to her house and celebrate next weekend. She doesn't have to work Sundays 
anymore so she can go to church now. 



Hope you have a great week and get my package this week. You'll probably have 
to wait until Christmas to get the next one, so be thinking of what you might 
want so we can start collecting stuff. Gusher were on sale for $1 this week, so 
I bought some of those for you. Sorry so get you salivating 4 months early, but 
there are fruit snack in your box, just not gushers....




Well, as always, we are praying for you and love you!

Keep the fire burning!

Love always,




BMW MOM

Let's have a Khorkhog When I get Home-Aug 10th

Haha, Mom, I'm sorry, I still can't see you driving a BMW!  It's just, I've seen 
you in Suburbans and Trucks and Mini-vans and compact cars my whole life.  Now, 
a convertible?  I guess I'll have to wait till May to see it in the flesh!  And 
I hop you let me drive it!

Are the foreclosures prtty bad?  I might be abl to find a prtty cool house in 
Arizona if that's the case...:)  THe other day I was telling my companion how we 
used to have Pizza and Cinammon Roll nights on Friday and how good it was!  I 
miss those!  However, we have found this returned sister missionry in Mongolia 
tht makes pretty good cinammon rolls and so we gt some from hr every now nd 
then.  Today we went on a little picnic with our Zone.  We went out to th big 
Chinggis Khan statue outside of the city and had a khorkhog.  What that is, 
well, it's kind of hard to explain.  First, you take a sheep, lamb, goat, or 
whatever animal you plan on killing.  Then you take a fire, get it going really 
hot and throw stones in it.  Whil the stones are getting hot, you cut up the 
animal and th vegetables.  Then, you put hot stons, water, meat vegetables, and 
salt or whatvr other seasoning you want into a big metal water container, seal 
the top, and put it in the fire.  You let it sit for at leat 30 minutes, pull it 
out of the fire, let it cool off a little bit, and EAT!  IT's reaaaaalllly good.  
The meat is very tasty and so are the vegatables.  The water also becomes a 
prtty good broth.  The funny thing is that you can take the rocks and toss them 
in your hands to calm stress.  And it works!  I'll have to do one for you when I 
get back home.  Ok?

The work is going good.  We've got some baptizms coming up real soon with some 
great guys which is always good.  We need more priesthood holders here in our 
branch.  Well anyways, keep chosing what's right!  I love you all!

~Elder Cappuccio

-----Original Message-----
From: marathomom@aol.com
To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net
Date: Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:17:33 -0400
Subject: Sunshine from the valley of the sun

Dear James,
 

Hope the week's been good for you.  We had a nice week. Cali made the 8th grade 
volleyball team, she should write you about it, right Cali? She sitting next to 
me. Joseph got ordained a priest today, so now he gets to sit up in the front 
and bless the sacrament.  I wish you were here to congratulate him, but you can 
write him an email and I will forward it, or just write him the old fashioned 
way.  Three more years and he will be leaving for a mission too and maybe Amy 
too. Thanks for being such a good example for them and everyone in Mongolia.




I took the Z4 up some mountain roads to test my new German driving machine.  it 
was cool turning those tight corners going faster than normal but not crazy 
fast. I might let you test drive it for a few seconds.....




Crystal and David are buying a house in Mesa.  It's a foreclosure(lots of those) 
for only $59,000. She is taking a few classes and working at the museum until 
she takes the GRE to get in to graduate school.  I think she wants to get a 
Master's degree instead of being a doctor now. 




Amy drove the Taurus all the way to Provo by herself with no car or driving 
problems.  We had to get some stuff fixed on it first. She went early so she can 
make money before school starts.




I'm making some whole wheat bread today.  I haven't made it for awhile so I hope 
it turns out okay.  I decided I (and everyone else in the hou
se) need to start eating healthier and work out more so you can recognize me 
when you get back.....




We are still baking and waiting for it to get under 100 but we have 2 months to 
go......

Keep the fire burning!




We love you!


mom 

"President: I Actually Had Fun on my Mission...."-Aug 3rd

Wow...my little brother is all grown up!  His voice is deeper, he's taller, he 
can drive...goodness!  Oh, sorry, I forgot to tell you congrats about the 
Beamer.  I was a little shocked to be honest with you but I definitely want a 
test drive when I get home ok?  Lately I've been talking with my companion and 
we've come to a great realization about the importance of education!  It is so 
important!  In the Gospel as well as out of the Gospel.  Be educated.  Study the 
scriptures in and out, over and over because the person that studies them wont 
forget them and then will be safe in keeping the commandments of the Lord.  In 
Mosiah chapter 1 it talks about that exact principle...without having the 
scriptures open before us every day we are led to dwindle in unbelief.  It 
doesn't happen right away but little by little as we let the small unimportant 
things get in the way of the small important things, we forget the commandments, 
the principles and the spirit of the Gospel and fall into unbelief.

Work is good. Work is fun. The other day I was kind of playing with Elder 
Steinberg and he started laughing. I told him: "Uh oh, you're going to have to 
let President Andersen know about that. 'President: I accidentally had fun on my 
mission, I'm sorry!'" He got a kick out of that. But in all honesty, my lame 
jokes aside, he is doing TONS better. This last saturday and sunday is throat 
was hurting and he was kind of sick. I told him to still yell and he did. It 
really is helping. Thank you President! And his character is starting to shine 
through more! I don't have to prompt him for conversation all the time now. He 
has his own comments, his own remarks, his own ideas. Yesterday, we were 
planning and I asked him what we would teach our one investigator, Lutsaikhan. 
He said he didn't know. I told him to find out. He didn't like that. But, he 
stuck with it. He thought and thought and thought. he felt like he didn't have 
any ideas and wanted me to help. He kept with it. LAter in the day when I asked 
him what we would teach, he told me about a way good story in the Old Testament 
that applied PERFECTLY to this investigators situation. It was wonderful! 
Undortunately, we didn't get to present it, but it definately was only something 
he could have come up with and was inspired of God. We'll use it in the next 
lesson we teach him! He is becoming such a good missionary!

OK, now our investigators are doing good as well. We've got Byamba, he's going 
to get baptized in two weeks. This last Sunday he invited his older brother to 
church and he is almost the exact same! They just ask amazing questions. I hope 
that the results will be the same with him as well. They could definitely be two 
missionaries in a year or so...

Then there's Enkhbat. He's quiting smoking and he's succeeding! He just got such 
a strong desire to become a member.

We've also got this father named Munkhbat. We gave him the Book of Mormon and 
he's all the way in Alma! We ended up teach him and his neighbors the Word of 
Wisdom while teaching the 2nd lesson last week and he's started to quit smoking. 
Also, as we met with him the other day he's mentioned how reading the Book of 
Mormon has helped him to be calmer and fix bad situations in his family. We 
still have to work with his wife to get her on board but I am just so impressed 
with him! Oh, and his little son Orgil is the cutest little guy ever.

In general, things are just going good. The Lord is blessing us so much with 
people to teach and opportunities to serve. I definitely need to get better at 
writing daily in my journal to catalogue all the ways in which the Lord answers 
our prayers. It truly is amazing!

Well I love you all and am grateful for your support and your love and your 
prayers.  Don't forget to be happy and help others to be happy.  Choose the 
Right!

~Elder Cappuccio

P.S.  Thank you SOOO much for sending the package I LOVE youu!  But I loved you 
before you sent any package, remember that!

-----Original Message-----
From: marathomom@aol.com
To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net
Date: Sun, 02 Aug 2009 23:20:39 -0400
Subject: Re: goodies on there way, here and there!


 Dear James,

I hope you had great week and that this gets to you before you send one to me, 
but I'm kind of late because we just got back from eating dinner for Joseph's 
birthday. Can you believe your baby brother is 16 now! He needs much more 
driving practice before I let him get his license too. But he is getting 
better. I let him drive us to the restaurant in the truck. 

Amy leaves this week for BYU. She's going to take the Taurus up there if we get 
it fixed in time. The radiator fluid is leaking from somewhere and it keeps over 
heating. I guess i bought my new car just in time. Or maybe buying the new car 
made my Taurus so sad it stopped working.....

I mailed your package on Saturday, so you should get it in about 3 weeks. Lots 
of sweets in there, along with the stuff you wanted, white journal, pens and 
sticky notes. 

Thanks for the inspiring words, I'm going to forward your letter to your email 
list. I have a lot of people ask how you are doing, so it's always good to hear 
it form you. I got your letter back from the primary today and read it again. 
It was very cool, so if you want to write on e to them again, I know they would 
appreciate it.

Take area and keep the fire burning!

WE love you,

mom and familiy

Testifying with the Spirit-July 26,2009

There was this one 5star guy we met awhile back and were meeting with him 
although he lived outside our boundaries. Well, very fortunate for us, it turns 
out he moved into our area to be closer to his work and so we're still meeting 
with him and he's set to get baptized in two weeks. He's a way awesome guy, like 
21 almost 22. He's very studious, and pretty spiritual. The other day we were 
teaching the Law of Chastity and he told us how despite the temptation from his 
girlfriend and his friends he had never gotten involved in it. Impressive huh! 
He really has a great moral integrity and it just seems like this world hasn't 
gotten to him. I love it! His name is Byamba.

Alright, then there's Lutsaikhan, I'm kind of worried about his faith, he's been 
tested very fiercely. He's been waiting a month now to get baptized and still 
has a month to go, but it's hard because he kind find work (he's about 48) and 
he has the opportunity to go to Korea and work there. We've met with him and 
taught about how the Gospel provides the way for us to be sustained in our own 
land and that seems to have comforted him a bit, but these last three weeks he's 
been absent from church for various reasons (Naadam ((he went to the 
countryside)), A relative was really sick, and he got some work in the 
countryside). We need to teach him a little better about the Sabbath Day and I 
think he'll be fine. Another hard thing is that his family isn't as receptive to 
the Gospel. We've tried to involve them and it hasn't happened yet. I can tell 
it's hard on him. But, he reads the Book of Mormon and the Investigator class 
book every morning and prays twice a day!

Zaya, that one girl that we started meeting with awhile back is doing good. We 
had that one intense meeting last week were we told the dad why he couldn't go 
to the countryside. Then we found out that he did, which really got us feeling 
down. However, I guess we heard wrong because he really didn't go! He stayed 
here in the city working at his other job. Now my companion and I are way 
stoked. We've got to work a way for him to have Sundays off and then we'll be 
able to prepare them for Baptism! A family!

This last week we've been meeting with these two families together. It's been 
really neat. The daugther is a little angel and has great faith. One time as we 
were closing off a lesson, the dad of the other family asked, "how can I get one 
of these books[book of mormon]?" We had given the one family one and kind of 
forgotten to get another. "We'll give you one!" We said. "Ok good. Because after 
you guys left that first time, I felt really good inside. I want to read that 
book". Amazing huh! He wanted us to sign the book so we're going to get one and 
write our testimonies in it and sign it then give it to him. In the meantime we 
gave him another one and when we dropped by his work the other day he had it 
open and he's like, "I've only been able to read here and there. I'm in 1 Nephi 
13". This guy his awesome. His name is Batmunkh. His little son is named Orgil 
or "Peak" and he's hilarious.

Another miracle is this guy named Enkhbat.  We can't take any credit for this 
one at all.  He was meeting with missionaries before and then went on work to 
work at a mine in the countryside.  Now's he's back and in our area.  He really 
wants to become a member, but he smokes.  He's determined though so we've set 
goals and we're working with him to overcome his addiction.  The other day at 
church as we were heading to Priesthood he starts to head for the door and we're 
like, "wait! what are you doing!" and he's like, "I'm just going to get a 
drink".  Well, 5 minutes later he comes back with an ice cream cone and sits 
down in Priesthood with us.  At first I was kind of confused, but later I 
understood.  That day he had only smoked once in the morning and in order to 
calm his craving he had to get something else so he got an ice cream cone and 
heading back in.  We haven't taught the Sabbath Day yet either so it's not a big 
deal.  It's actually just way neat to see how he's trying to keep his goal and 
quit smoking.  It was way helpful for him to come to the baptism this week with 
us because this 50 year old man got baptized and shared with the congregation 
that he had smoked for about 30 years and tried to quite numerous times but 
never could do it.  Then he met with the missionaries, and through the goal of 
getting baptised and joining God's true church was he finally able to 
successfully quit smoking.

Elder Steinberg and I are having some experiments with food as well.  We made 
tacos with spanish rice the other day and are surviving well on french toast and 
hashbrowns every morning.

Umm...other interesting things...I think one thing I really started enjoying a 
little more this week is testifying with the Spirit.  In each lesson or in each 
contact on the street, there's usually a time when you can look them right in 
the eyes, smile, and testify powerfully of a principle that they need in their 
life.  It's not always the same, but the Spirit comes in and it feels great.  
That's why it's great to be a missionary!  Your job is to be a transport for the 
Spirit and help people find what they're really looking for in life.  So yea, 
we're working hard, things are going good, and the Lord is blessing us 
abundantly.

Thank you sending a package!  I love you all!
~Elder Cappuccio

P.S. a little funny thing about Mongolia is that sometimes people will just 
randomly buy fireworks and let them off.  Last night there was like a miniature 
firework show 200 yards from our apartment with some pretty large fireworks.  It 
was neat.
-----Original Message-----
From: marathomom@aol.com
To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net
Date: Sun, 26 Jul 2009 20:22:48 -0400
Subject: goodies on there way, here and there!

Dear James,



We did some school shopping yesterday, so I bought some of the stuff you need, 
but  I still need to get the journal and some pop-tarts and gushers.. Joe said 
you liked Cheez-its so we bought a box of those for you.  I hope to end it out 
by Wednesday and it takes about 3 weeks, so hopefully you have something to keep 
your journal in until this gets there and then you can transfer it over.  We 
bought stuff to send to Jack's daughter's husband who is Iraq right now.  He 
likes getting care packages too. Jack's sister who lives in Minnesota, has 2 
children on missions right now and she forwards their letters to me.  I don't 
know them, but it's always cool to read about missionary experiences.




We've been cleaning out the garage to make room for Jack's woodworking equipment 
and tools and my new car!  Well, it's not exactly new, it's as old as my 2003 
Taurus, but it only has 33,000 miles on it(Taurus has 110,000) and it's a BMW! 
 I am buying a Z4 convertible, dark blue and it's costing me about the same as 
the Taurus per month.  I paid that off a few months ago and only have a couple 
payments left on the truck, so it's very affordable and very cool.  I'm going to 
let Amy take the Taurus up to BYU, but when you get back you will have to share 
it.  I was thinking you could both stay at my parents house to save money and 
carpool together to school. We'll have the summer you get back to figure things 
out,=2
0but I am just letting her use it, not giving her the car.  You all have to buy 
your own cars just like I did. Unless Cali gets really rich and famous from her 
singing career and then she might buy you all a new car.....=)  Which reminds 
me, I need to sign her up for some voice lessons. 




Peaking of singing, I volunteered to have the choir practice at our house in the 
morning so that will be cool.  Our living room has Jack's band equipment in it, 
so it looks like a music room.  I need to practice my violin more, which any 
practice would be more right now and also practice electric bass and keyboard. 
 We have a really nice keyboard, which is Killian's from Christmas, but he 
shares.  I always thought it would be cool to have all my kids sing and play in 
a band, so next summer we can play around with that idea too. 




Well, I hope you have a prosperous week and I appreciate all your great letters 
home.  The gruesome blood and pus parts aren't that exciting to me, but I'm sure 
some people stayed tuned for your letters especially for the juicy parts like 
that.  As long as it doesn't deter them from wanting to serve a mission....Thank 
goodness you don't have your camera!  Any advice on how to avoid getting boils 
to start with? 

Take care and know we are praying for you.

Keep the fire burning!




love always,




mom

Fajitas,Watermelon, Icecream Cake and, yes, more Boils-Jul 19th

Why hello dear family!

So this week I finally took care of the boils.  It was tough the first few days 
cause you can only bathe them in hot water and then wash them really good.  
Then, after rubbing a lot on your pants as you walk all day (that hurts a bunch 
by the way), they eventually break.   Then it's fun.  Each morning and night 
there is a good amount of blood and pus to clean/squeeze out.  Sometimes it just 
goes ahead and bleeds all over you anyways.  Anyways, it was enjoyable to take 
care of those three boials for the last couple days.  Now they're just inactive 
volcanos and should  be completely gone soon!  Hope you enjoyed reading about it 
as much as I enjoyed dealing with them! :)

This week we got to eat at a Senior Couples house!  It was heavenly.  We had 
chicken fajitas, potato salad, watermelon, and ice cream cake.  After that, we 
walked a little slower.  But it was beautiful.

The work, like that food, is also beautiful.  This sunday, Zaya brought her mom 
to church.  She was way shy at first and came with her sunglasses on, but she 
loved it.  She said it was great.  We also had another member bring these 
sisters to church and we'll be meeting with them and their family this week.  
Lutsaikhan fasted this week so that his family would be more receptive to the 
Gospel.  This week we had a lot of spiritual experiences in lesson as we taught 
by the Spirit and were bold with our promises.  I think that is the best part of 
missionary work outside of seeing someone getting baptized.  Teaching a lesson 
by the power of the Spirit and seeing the effect in the responses and 
expressions of the investigators.

Well, I love you all!  Keep on keepin on.  And we will too!
~Elder Cappuccio

P.S. Package?? :) You know I love you a lot!

-----Original Message-----
From: marathomom@aol.com
To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net
Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:42:07 -0400
Subject: Re: Good Morning!

Dear James,

Spiritual Experiences Abound, Zaya, Miga and Sugar-Juy 12, 2009

Aha, you wrote in a hurry.  Clearly I'm not important to you!  And thus I will 
use this sentiment to blackmail you for a package. Muahaha.  Haha, jk.  If you 
were on a mission I don't know if I'd still be writing you!  So how is 
everything?  The work is going great here.  I was reading in the missionary 
handbook today and how it says that we should share spiritual experiences with 
you guys when we write you each week.  I realize that even if my days are filled 
with those things, they usually don't make it onto the e-mail page!  So i'm 
sorry!  I'll try better to make sure you get the very best of our missionary 
experiences here in Mongolia.  This week is a good one to start with because it 
was awesome!

Anyways...lets see where should I start...Zaya and her family!  So Zaya is that 
one girl that we started meeting with way back when and couldn't get baptized by 
herself.  We've been meeting with her family lately and one day we decided to 
commit her mom to pray.  SO we teach a great lesson and at the end ask her to 
pray for us, and she declined.  We were all egging her on and encouraging her 
but in the end she's like...nah, I can't.  So, without pushing it too much we 
closed the lesson with Zaya giving a prayer and set up a time to come again.  Up 
until the next time Zaya and her mom practiced together on how to pray and so 
the next time we came by and taught about Joseph Smith.  To close the lesson, 
Zaya's mom, Chuluntsetseg (Rockflower) gave the closing prayer.  Afterwards, she 
told us how wonderful it felt and how like as she closed her eyes to start to 
pray, the words just came to her and it wasn't a big deal.  Then she told us how 
Zaya's faith had helped them steer away from a divorce and how meeting with us 
has really changed their family in so many ways.  I'm so excited for this 
family!  We're going to meet with them again today.  Hopefully we can work with 
the father's work schedule and get him to church more often.  Then the next step 
is baptism!  Then the temple!

Then on Tuesday, we were striking out pretty bad on lessons.  No one was home, 
and we were getting kind of disappointed.  As we were walking down the road we 
saw a lady pushing her water cart and we were just like, "let's help her!".  SO 
we go offer to help and start talking as we push her cart.  It turns out she had 
gone to church earlier with her dad and they were somewhat religious.  As we 
push the cart, we catch up to the father who is like a 60 year old man.  Turns 
out this man had like...7 kids!  Ridiculous eh?  So most of them are grown up 
and moved out but two still live at home and so we were invited in and were able 
to teach a way powerful lesson.  For the most part they were all paying rapt 
attention.  Unfortunately, over Naadam they were selling khushuur at the Horse 
Races so we couldn't meet with them, but we're excited to meet with them this 
week and keep them moving along.

THen there's Khatanbold and Miga. We met them on Wednesday and it was awesome.  
Khatanbold apparently went to our church and met with the missionaries at 
another small town and so when we went to meet with him, he already knew the 
Joseph Smith story and how to pray.  He's way awesome, about 19 years old, 
defintately missionary material!

Then, I think my favorite new investigator is Sugar and his family.  Ok, ok, so 
if you just translate the letters it spells Sugar, but it's more like Sogar.  
Anyways, this man's story is quite sad.  He used to live in the countryside 
where he was a herder and a taxi driver.  Then a couple years ago he came with 
him family to the city and got work here.  Just over half a year ago, he got 
into a serious accident and as a result he had internal bleeding in the head.  
Now he's speech is retarded and he has trouble remembering and doing stuff.  Now 
he's got no opportunity to find work and his wife is now shouldering the 
responsibilities.  The first time we met with them, we were trying to contact 
another referral we had.  They turned out having gone to the countryside so we 
just met with this father and his three kids.  It was really powerful as we 
taught about the PLan of Salvation. The kids are pretty smart and got involved 
in the lesson very well.  Then last night we stopped by again and the mom was 
there.  She is just as wonderful as the rest of the family!  They are excited to 
keep meeting with us but her work is really rough.  She works from 6 in the 
morning to like 10 at night as a bus fare collector.

Anyways, so the work is going good.  We got a lot of new investigators this week 
to pump up our work.  It's usually not heard to get Mongolians in on the first 
lesson, but it is harder to keep that excitement going as they encounter 
obstacles and temptation.  But, as I studied today in Jacob 5, if we take out 
all the bad in someone's like immediately, the tree cannot grow!  So it's 
important that we grow with opposition.

Well, I love you all.  I hope everything is going good for you.  Haadam was 
really cool.  We got to go watch the opening ceremony and some horse racing on 
Saturday.  Everywhere except the stadium were like a ghosttown!  Oh, yea, and 
about the boil...well I was only joking last week but this week I'm not.  I kind 
of was scratching an itch there and I...well, I spread it.  Now i've got like 3 
new boils growing...SORRY!  It's all good though.  It'll be fine in no time I'm 
sure.

~Elder Cappuccio
P.S.  Hey, I need a few things from America...My journal is finished, and while 
it's not like a dire need, I kind of would like to use the same journal!  So, 
the journal is the kind you get from Deseret Books they're like the side of a 
normal page, with different colored covers and the word "Journal" written on the 
front.  They're pretty plain and the inside doesn't have anything special 
either.  Just A title page and pages for entries.  It's the same journal I've 
been using since like 9th grade so...that's why I want to keep using it.  
Please, if it's available, get the white cover journal!  Also, if you could just 
send some regular Bic pens, the ones with the black caps and white bodies, that 
would be greatly appreciated  The clear body ones are also good, especially in 
the winter, so you could send those ones but they're more expensive.  Then I 
also need just some regular post-it-notes to use each day.  And then well, since 
that wouldn't fill a box by itself, feel free to add butterfingers, poptarts, 
skittles, beek jerky, gushers, and Nutty bars!  If you could send that out 
within a week (doesn't have to be rush delivery, that's expensive!) that would 
be greatly appreciated.

Also, I've found out that you can get DVDs and Music for very cheap here.  The 
movies are all from China but they're good quality.  They're usually about 2.50 
a movie and then the music CDs are usually pretty cheap.  So along that line, I 
figured if there were some movies you wanted me to buy and bring home for the 
family, just let me know and I could probably get them for ya!  

~Elder Cappuccio

-----Original Message-----
From: marathomom@aol.com
To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net
Date: Sun, 12 Jul 2009 21:42:07 -0400
Subject: Re: Good Morning!

Dear James,



that was a nice letter last week, except for the part about the fake leg and the 
pus splatter on your suit.  Hope you don't have to have too big of scar, but 
then it would match our football scar anyway. I am writing this at the last 
minute so I want to send it before you write, so this is really short.  Hope you 
had a good week with your new companion and I look forward to hearing \some 
great new stories.

Keep the fire burning!

love always,

mom

4th of July in Mongolia and the Boil Saga Continues-July 5th,2009

Dear Family, 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

I regret to imform you that when you see me next, I will have one real leg, and 
one fake one.  The boil quickly turned into a flesh-eating virus which then 
mutated into an alien species and ate my leg.  It was gross.
Ok, but to be honest, the leg is fine.  It hurt for like a day or so, and then I 
got some antibiotics, and treated it with hot water.  I do have some puss 
splatter stains on the pockets of my suit though :-/  Haha, I bet you're 
enjoying all this!  So yea, it's almost all the way gone now.  I think the 
inspiration to cut a hole at first was a good idea.  It allowed for the puss to 
come out easierly without having to lance it.  Thanks for praying about it!

So, the 4th of July just happened.  That was a hoot.  We went to this apartment 
complex where all the American expatriates live.  All the missionaries in the 
city went and participated in the festivities.  Notable events were, almost all 
you could eat American hot dogs, brautwursts, and hamburgers; a tug of war 
contest; and fried pig.  It was cloudy, windy, and rainy so it wasn't the best 
party, but it was a good time.  It was really wierd because all the other 
Americans there are usually just there for two reasons: Military, or Missionary.  
Rarely will you find someone here just for business.  So I could kind of talk 
with the military ones but it was always wierd talking with the 
missionaries...what do you talk about?!?!  But, we did manage to find 4 really 
cool people.  They're here doing some internship for their MBAs this summer.  
They go to the University of Boston and they're from all over the world!  The 
two guys were from Kazakhstan and Turkey, and the two girls were from Korea and 
Italy.  I told the Italian my last name was Cappuccio and she said, oh, so 
you're from the southern part, like Sicily.  YEAAAA!  We're connected to the 
Sicilian mafia!  I always had a hunch...haha.  Oh yea, and American people, just 
like Mongolians, like to get drunk so by the end of the party there were some 
pretty wasted people.  Then they started dancing a little inappropriately...and 
all the missionaries left!

The work here is going good!  We had three of our investigators at church.  One, 
Lutsaikhan is going to have to wait two months to get baptized but its ok!  
We're using the time now to get the rest of his family interested and so instead 
of 1 person getting baptized, we'll have 4!  He's down for the idea especially 
because he's kind of worried about his son making the right choices.  He said 
he's started to smoke...

The other two were a father and his daughter.  The daughter, Zaya, has been 
going pretty steady and she's found a lot of friends in the Young Women's 
program.  I'm very grateful for that program.  The dad is part Chinese and 
because of that doesn't really associated with a lot of people.  He's kind of 
afraid of that because in Mongolia it still is a bit of a stigma to be part 
Chinese.  Anyways, he came and he said he really liked it!  Unfortunately, he's 
got work all this week and so we'll be working with his wife this week and then 
all three of them again next week.  The finding is going good as well.  We're 
finding new families and other men that are pretty interested.  One thing that 
kind of is hard for our branch is getting to church.  The boundaries of the 
branch don't even reach the church building and the farthest member is maybe 45 
minutes by bus from the church.  So the people that come are very dedicated, but 
it is a little hard to first build that dedication.

As for the exchange, my companion, Elder Cardinal is going to Murun!  He's way 
excited for it too.  He leaves today at noon and he'll be flying out there.  
Murun is by the big Khuvsgalt lake in the the North Western part.  And me?  I'm 
staying here with Elder Steinberg!  Elder Steinberg was in the group just after 
me.  A funny thing about us is that while we were at BYU, we were in the same 
hall in Heritage.  He opened his call before mine, but because of his 
availability date, he entered after me.  He comes from the DC area and actually 
knows Billy Nixon (now Elder NIxon) who played with me on the BYU Lacrosse team.  
So we've already got some good connections and we're looking forward to spicing 
up the work here!  I'll tell you one sweet thing about him: So, usually the 
standard of excellence in the mission is 20 lessons a week.  While Elder 
Steinberg was in Darkhan with Elder Amardelger, they did on average, 35 lessons 
a week!!!  That's amazing eh?  Not to mention they were teaching 10 hours of 
English as well.  So I'm excited to work with him and get our work poppin' like 
it was in Darkhan for them.  The following e-mails should be really 
action-packed.  So don't go anywhere!

Well, I love you all.  I love the work more, but you guys are number two for 
sure!  Keep on keepin on.  And don't remind me when i come home, it's all way 
too soon.  Two years isn't nearly enough time!!!  Tell Elder Stock hello for me, 
I meant to ask about him last week but forgot to.  I'll definitely have to hang 
out with him at BYU.  So next up to go is Elder Oakey right?  Goodness, then 
Elder Clawson, then Elder Miller.  AHHHH...  Oh, and I got the pictures, you 
guys all look good!  Especially Joseph.  My old companion said he could be in 
the Mafia with that looks.  Well, it's in his blood.  Alright bye!

~Elder Cappuccio
-----Original Message-----
From: marathomom@aol.com
To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net
Date: Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:01:12 -0400
Subject: Re: Good Morning!

Dear James,

Greetings from hot dry Arizona and Happy 4th of July a little late. I know you 
are only in the ROTC program, but when they mention the armed services personnel 
I think of you and you being in the Army and I am proud that you are willing to 
serve your country and be a good influence wherever you may serve.

 We went up to PIne/Payson for the 4th of July.  We went 4-Wheelin and hung out 
at Jack's parents cabin.  Joseph didn't go, but Amy, Cali, Killian, Jackson and 
Hannah went, so it was a big family outing.  Next year you will be here! yeah! 

Did you get the pictures I sent from the wedding?  I haven't had time to 
organize them or print any out.  I will send you some actual printed copies when 
I do. I might attach a picture of Joseph, if I remember.  

Anyway church was good.  I couldn't find my scriptures, so I grabbed your old 
set.  I found your Pooch pod notebook, where you keep spiritual quotes and 
thoughts.  It was cool to read those. Travis Stock came back from his  mission 
last week and spoke in church last Sunday.  He is still the same somewhat but 
much more grown-up and able to express himself and his testimony.  He still 
mutters funny things under his breath in between sentences though.  It was cool 
to hear him bear his testimony in Korean.  If I closed my eyes and listened I 
wouldn't know it was a American, he sounded really good, not hesitation it just 
flowed and I imagined you doing the same thing with Mongolian.  That's truly 
amazing! Just as the stake president blessed you to become so proficient at the 
Mongolian language that you earn their respect, I see that happening in your 
letters and your desire to serve and teach them.  Oh, yea and Travis is going to 
BYU, so you can see him when you get back up there next year.He is living with 
his mom in the Provo area now applying to get in

Hope your boil is better and I hope your grandma doesn't read that letter.  She 
might send you a case of iodine or even deliver it personally =).

Keep the fire burning! WE love you and pray for you and all the missionaries.

Love always

your mom