Following the Promptings of the Spirit(March 8th)

Alright, well, this is Elder Cappuccio, signing in from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The weather is warming up and so are the sentiments of the people. Last week's letter wasn't anything special and so i'll apologize for that again. But, I did promise that this letter would be fraught with great spiritual experience and in answer to that promise, the Lord really blessed us with abundant spiritual experiences! At first, a sort of funny, ironic experience: For the past 2 weeks I studied Hope in hopes to become a more hopeful missionary. Anyways, as I studied the scriptures and gained more understanding about it, our work was just rough! We couldn't find a new investigator for the life of us! We were getting burned left and right! It looked like there was no sign of success anywhere. As these events happened I couldn't help but feel really upset and wonder what when wrong and all those kinds of things you think about at those times. Then maybe the 2nd night it finally occurred to me, the Lord was trying to test and improve my Hope! As soon as i realized this, our work just took on a whole new brightness. Even though some people were still just rude and would burn us or wouldn't even give us an ear, I was able to find solace in the fact that the SPirit was next me and guiding me. President Andersen told a way neat story that relates to hope for all of us as members of the church. In Hawaii there is a very big football fan that loves to watch Monday Night Football. Unfortunately, when it starts, so the local tv station replays it at night. But because this guy really likes football, he listens to it on the radio and then watches the game again on tv at night. He says that knowing the outcome of the game as he watches it really changes the way he views the game. If he knows the team he's rooting for is going to win, when they fumble the ball or throw an interception, it's disappointing but he knows that in the end it will be ok. Just like that, we as members of the church, know the final outcome of this game/battle between good and evil. We know that in the end Christ will triumph over all and so when things just don't go our way, we can still be happy knowing that if we do the things we need to do we will be on the winning side. Then it becomes easier to be patient, to have charity, to not get depressed over the temporal state of things. So then on Wednesday we had a way neat experience. After we finished teaching English and did our studies, we were waiting at the bus stop for a bus to take us to our area. It didn't come for ever! We waited and waited and waited. Then, just as one was coming for our area, we got a text message from one of our members, she said she was at the church and wondered if we could go teach her. We had to make a split decision as the bus was there and we either had to get on or not. At first my mind was made to go to our area and work. However, after second thought, it seemed right to go to the church and teach her. We followed that prompting and in response we were able to help a beloved daugther of God understand what she could do to receive the fulness of blessings that she had the ability to receive. The Spirit was almost overpowering in that room. That lesson was brought about by the Spirit and it was amazing. Then, the second miracle happened. We have a new member that has become inactive lately. We set a time to meet with us on Tuesday and she burned us. We were very upset. However, as we were singing the opening song in our lesson with our other member on Wednesday, she poked her head in the door! My jaw dropped in amazement and I received a second powerful confirmation by the Spirit. After finishing our 1st lesson, we went down and were able to teach our other new member a powerful, spiritual lesson. It turns out that she had misunderstood and we couldn't get through to her phone on Tuesday so we had been pretty sad about that. Anyways, I just have to honestly say that we followed the Spirit that day and were blessed abundantly for doing so! The other day we got this video about the life of President Thomas S. Monson called "On the Lord's Errand". On the back there is a quote that says, The sweetest experience in life is to receive a prompting and act on it and later find out that that prompting was in response to a prayer or a need. And I want the Lord to know that if He ever has a errand he needs to run, Tom Monson will run that errand for Him." That quote inspired me and that Wednesday Morning I prayed for the opportunity to repsond to needs and prayers and then that happened. THe Lord answers prayers. So yea, I love this work, things are going good here and one of the really neat opportunities we have in this new area is working with the members here. Pretty much all the members in my area have one need or another, most of them are inactive and so we've got a great blessing to work with them to redevelop their faith and their testimonies. It truly is a great experience to meet with this people that have once before felt that stirring in their breat and just work to get them feeling it once more. I hope you all are having a great great week. I love you all so much and it's good to hear about you all. I'm sorry to hear that Cali was sick! About 3 of our investigators/members were sick this week as well. It's not cool! How's Joseph and Amy doing? They don't write me anymore, I hope their still alive. How about Crystal? She's almost graduated College! Unbelievable...Well, I hope your work is ok mom, I suppose that this time is not the most happy time in America but I know that despite the external circumstances, it's what goes on inside us that will really determine our happiness and the happiness of others. WIth that insight, I encourage all of you to look for ways you can lift where you stand and make the days of others a little brighter. Doing this will make all the difference in your life. I know that this is a principle of the Gospel because I have felt it as I have gone about this work and the Holy Spirit has born witness of it to me. Once again, I love you all! ~Elder Cappuccio -----Original Message----- From: marathomom@aol.com To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net Date: Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:56:54 -0400 Subject: Re: Helloooo Dear James, Yep you caught me off guard this week. With church late and then choir practice and then dinner, I just got a chance to write you. We had a pretty good week. Cali got sick but only missed one day because she actually likes school and would rather go sick than stay home. Her birthday party was this Saturday and she tried hard to get better by then. She wasn't all the way better but well enough to not cancel. We did a luau theme and I made cake that looked liked a volcano with red and yellow lava frosting coming out if it. Speaking of food, sounds like you are not starving with all the buuz you ate last week! I thought you would come back skinnier, but I may be wrong! Well, I'll be excited to read about you latest experiences next week. Hope your soccer skillz shined last week=) Take care and keep the fire burning! Love always. mom