Happy New Year

Helllooooo Familly!

Well, well, well, an e-mail! Haha, thank you so much for writing me. I want you to know that even though i may give you a hard time over the e-mail lines, I never question whether or not you care about me! I know you do a lot and I'm grateful for it. Haha the internet here is workable in pretty much anyplace the missionaries will be going from now on. Mongolia is in interesting place like that. It's by no means cutting-edge in anything but they seem to always fit certain high-tech things into even the most remote places. One cool thing President Andersen said lately at our Mission Conference is that sometime within the next year they'll be looking to open up a new area or two in Mongolia. We'll soon be at around 200 missionaries and so we'll need to branc h out after all the ones we have now are strengthened. The key is that we have to find places with faithful church members that don't have a branch set up there. That might be hard but I'm sure there's a way if that's what needs to happen.

Anyways, wow so a lot is going on back home it seems! KW got married! Did he marry...what's her name...kelsey's sister...chelsea? or whatever her name was? anyways, tell him c ongratulations! Oh and it's probably better to send the pictures by mail. Although if you send them over e-mail i might be able to put them on a flash drive and print them somewhere. Lets try that first eh? Joseph's almost 6 foot? yea right! I don't believe it. Send me a picture and maybe i'll believe. haha. Anyways, i've been doing some secret growing of my own, or so the missionaries in my group said. Maybe i'll be 6'2'' when I get home! BOO Ya. but wow, that's awesome that Joeseph's getting big! Now he needs to put that body to use and play some football or lacrosse!

As for cold...well...It's been really nice here lately in Erdenet but it's been getting colder. I'm sure it reaches the -F every now and then and then soon it'll be like that all the time. but I think I'm pretty used to subfreezing temperatures now.

Ok, so last week I talked about how my companion and I were looking to step up our work and really put some feeling into it, really get our investigators understanding what's going on. I'm happy to say that this past week was one of the most fulfilling I've had on my mission so far. Of course they still have to do their part but I really feel that this week we have been successful in doing all we can to help them come unto Christ. And it's an amazing feeling. The presence of the SPirit and the rush of energy that comes with it's promptings; the flood of sweet peace that accompanies it's comfirmations; I love it so much! And of course, as we come to love these people more and more, it gets very hard to not get discouraged when they don't follow through on their commitments. It literally breaks our hearts and brings us to tears. But, as we're beginning to realize, not everyone is ready right now, to receive the gospel. Maybe later they will be, but right now we need to move on anhd find those people that really are ready to take those steps of faith and covenant with God. I think once we get this down our work is going to be amazing. This is a singular work. I love it so much because i learn so much from it everyday and I feel like i become converted little by little in things I didn't even notice before. there is so much room for all of us to improve and it's exciting to me.

Well, that's it I suppose for this week. The work is progressing. We've got a lot of baptismal dates set, but depending on whether or not these people follow through, will determine the final numbers on that. i love you all! Thanks for writing me and thanks even more for praying for me! ~Elder Cappuccio

P.S. for new years we had to be in 6pm to protect us from the drunks. At 1030 we were asleep but at 1200 we were rudely awaken by what sounded like the start of WWIII. It was so loud! They all had huge roman candles and other various huge fireworks and they were going off all over the city. I didn't really want to open my eyes to see it but I'm sure it was really neat haha.

-----Original Message----- From: marathomom@aol.com To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:05:04 -0500 Subject: Happy New Year Dear James,

Happy New Year. Ok so this should be the 3rd email from me this week, which should make up for not getting one last week. Thank goodness the internet is working now. It's nice that you can get the internet working for you so well in Mongolia, because I look forward to your weekly emails. When you first got called there, I thought we might not hear from you for months at a time. If you go out to remote areas will you still be able to email?

Amy went back up to Provo, It was fun having her here, I will miss her. We had fun getting together and playing music and singing with Jack's kids while she was here. In fact I still have Jack's drum set and and sound system in the living room. We might get together for some more "jam" sessions here. Betsy plays the drums, Jim plays guitar, I am attempting to play the bass and Jack is the sound guy. So Betsy and Jim can jam and I just fake it for now. Cali can be the lead singer, but she'd have to sing with us old fogeys.

It's been raining a lot here(for Arizona) and my roof is leaking again. Brother Willis is our home teacher now and says he would help us fix it for good. that would be nice. I paid someone to fix it, but it still leaks.

Joseph will be giving a talk next week in church about the Eager trip. He bore his testimony today and he might be taller than you when you get back! He's almost 6 ft tall now.

0AKW Hodgson got married last week and the reception was very nice and ran in to some old friends from past ward boundaries.,p> I hope you are doing well. We pray for you everyday. You are a great example of serving the Lord.

Keep the fire burning!

Love Always mom

Merry Christmas from Mongolia(Dec 28th email)

Alright well, I guess you just all talked to me on the phone so there was no reason to write an e-mail this week right? Anyways, it's me again and I want to say that it was really nice talking to you on the phone! I forgot to mention this but Joseph's voice was actually a little deeper. My little brother is growing up! It was neat to hear you all and realize that you're all just the same as when I left ya'll! haha.

Since we talked on the phone not much else has really happened. It's still not REALLY cold yet. It's pretty nice in my opinion. All those things about cold weather in Mongolia were a bunch of lies! But actually like, my companion was telling me that when he was little winters were a lot worse and a lot colder and with a lot more snow. So he's a big fan of the Global Warming theory because now winters in Mongolia aren't that bad! Oh well.

New Years is coming up pretty soon and we're lining up our appointments well. Making sure to meet with all the families that will give us good food! haha. Just kidding. Anyways, this week my companion and I are really going to work on helping our investigators really understand what it is we share with them. Then they'll really be living up to the title of "Investigator". In Mongolian the word is just Interested Person. It seems that some of the time it's this way. They are just interested in the church a bit. Investigator in my opinion has a more serious tone to it. They're getting into the facts and really searching. On the other hand, Interested is just like, hmm I haven't been to your church before, lets try it out! Now, of course, that's not all Mongolians because many of the Church members in Mongolia are very strong and understand and have a strong testimony of the truth of this work. Anyways, I hope that makes sense. This week should be really good as we look to develop the power of our calling more and exercise it in the ways we meet with people.

In the good news, the other day we met with one of our part-member families. Her name is Tonga and she's been a member for 5 years. Her father is a soldier and in Mongolia none of the soldiers or police are allowed to worship any religion. That's hard huh! Luckily, he is retiring in January so we're so ready to baptize that family! We met with them and showed the Restoration video. The next day they were at church! It was way sweet. Hopefully they'll keep taking those steps of faith and go all the way!

Alright, well have a good week! THe new year is coming! Lets all make really good commitments to be better people and to follow the Lord more clearly and definitively. I love you all very much. :)

~Elder Cappuccio