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