Letters from Home

Dear Elder Jamo,

I liked your explanation about why you didn't get as much mail when you were a district leader. Here's another view on that... you have to give us time recover from the news that you were made a district leader, jk. We're just not used to writing letters in this computer age, email is so much faster and easier. Did you get the package i sent? And the cinnamon rolls from your grandparents? Grandpa says they almost didn't accept them at the front desk, because they said they are supposed to be mailed. I will send another package with some contacts and razors and other goodies soon. I posted your email address on the blog, so maybe some people will email you.

Ryan Burgoyne got his mission call this week. He got called to Long Beach, CA, but as a Cambodian language missionary!? That's got to be a tough language too.? Where does that rate? Who teaches you Mongolian? Do you have members from Mongolia here teaching you or former missionaries? It's great to hear how well you are doing learning the language. It's amazing how much the Lord is able and willing to help us if we just seek it. My friend Jacque had to have surgery on her thyroid this week, so she is out of work for 10 days, which fortunately gives her time to get one more Sunday meeting in so she can get baptized. She works on Sundays right now, so she has only attended twice and she needs 3 meetings for baptism requirements. She knows it's true, she has already had a pretty good experience with hearing the spirit tell here it's the true church.

I didn't know it got so hot in Mongolia! I hope you can email pictures home, I'm interested in seeing what it's like for you over there.? Amy and I will be going to New York in July. What would you recommend that we make sure and see or do while we are there? We already bought tickets to Phantom of the Opera, front row on the upper Mezzanine! We're staying with a friend of mine in NY and my mom got us the plane tickets, so we are all set. It will be cool, but a short trip, only 3 days, which is good so I won't spend too much money!

My sister Alex is having a baby on July 7th, so you will have another girl cousin in a few weeks! We might go up and visit them while we are in Utah, if they want company so soon after the baby.....not sure yet.

We love you and hope you get lots of mail and everything that you need. I always let people know I have a son on a mission whenever I can. it gives me a chance for my own missionary experience!

Keep the fire burning!

love always, mom

Letters, Love, and Life

san ban-o! How is everyone doing? You are right about being excited to hear from you and to get letters from the family, it's something i look forward to every week! There's one thing that i probably should let you know that will make a lot of sense: Apparently, there is a curse of some sort that makes it so Elders called as District Leaders just don't get a lot of mail. Since they are the ones that pick up the mail for the district, they just can't get any for themselves! Therefore, I sincerely apologize for asking for more letters, there was no way to control it! Now that I'm not District Leader anymore, i find myself getting letters all the time so I am very happy :)

Being a Zone Leader is a lot of fun. As I'm sure you know my character already, you know I like to talk to people and get to know new people. That's one of the things I get to do as zone leader! Just last night, two new districts came in and Elder Finuf and I got to go meet them and take them on a tour. It was sweet! They all seem real cool. One group is going to Indonesia to replace our one Indonesian elder (Sadly his visa got delayed so he's still here. haha). The other district is a mix of elders going to San Diego, Arkansas, and Alabama. I seriously love introducing them and taking them on the tour because we're like the first elders to get to know them and spend time with them. It's way cool. On the flip side, you have to spend a lot of time away from your studies doing things for the zone so it is kind of hard. However, I would have to say that it is a great experience to see how the Lord blesses you for doing His work. Even though Elder Finuf and I are constantly away from Mongolia doing Zone things, it seems like the Lord is helping us to learn Mongolian that much faster so that we can stay with the rest of the group. In fact, I KNOW that He does that, because I have felt it so much already.

About the whole warming Mongolia up with our missionary spirit, that might be a good idea in the winter, but I recently became aware that 100+ degree weather is not altogether uncommon in the two months of summer they have. Guess when those two months are? Yup. Right when we get to Mongolia. haha. We have an Elder in our District named Elder Plowman. He's from Idaho and he thrives on the cold weather. I'm pretty sure he about cried when he heard the news. Meanwhile, my companion and I just looked at each other and laughed because it would be just like home!

I got to see Tyler yesterday, it was awesome! I knew he was coming in so I was looking for him all day and he found me during Dinner. We talked for a good amount of time and then I saw him again as I was giving the tour. Turns out he is in my residence hall so I will definitely be going to his floor alot.

About Aca, when I first talked to him, he said to call back at the beginning of the July. So i'm going to wait about two more weeks and call him up again. It's a really exciting idea because if he has read the Book of Mormon and if he has prayed about like he said he would, I can just imagine the blessings that will have come into his life. I've been praying for him all the time and I know that if the Lord wills it and if Aca is willing to open up and follow the Spirit's promptings, he will be blessed.

Serving this mission has opened my eyes to so many different blessings and I've started to understand just a little bit about the intricacies and many wonders of it. As we were in class the other day sharing scriptural insights, I shared a scripture from Isaiah 10. It's verse 13-15 i believe. It just talks about how we, as instruments in the Lord's hands cannot boast over the things we are doing. It would be like an axe boasting about the tree it chopped down even though it was really the hands using the axe to chop it down. I really love that analogy. It also brought me to remember the words of King Benjamin in Mosiah when he talks about being an unprofitable servant to the Lord. He says that even if we spent every second of every day serving the Lord, we would still be unprofitable servants! When you first read that, it's quite sad. Even if you want to pay the Lord back for all he's given you, you could never be equal with him. King Benjamin elaborates that the Lord is constantly giving us the breath to live with. More than that, he gives us commandments to follow and as soon as we follow them we are blessed and so we again are in debt to him. What a merciful concept! To thing that we, even the most worthy of us, is an unprofitable servant, and still God is willing to do all that He can to bring us back to Him. It makes me want to do the very, very best that I can so that I can be the least unprofitable servant out there, but it so hard. That's why I love this Gospel. It's a Gospel of love. What else beyond love could drive our Heavenly Father to do this much for us?

In a choir I'm in (I'llL tell you more about this later) we are singing This is the Christ. Those lines in the song that say "how many drops of blood were shed for me?" just sends shivers down my spine. How much anguish have we caused the Savior, and how much more will we cause Him? My hope is that I would never pain the Savior again and that is what I strive for. Still, he is our Saviour, our Redeemer, and our Lord and he atoned for our sins willingly, not being forced. He has taken on our sins and he will willingly forgive us of them if we will just follow the way He has prescribed. Moreover, he knows EXACTLY the pains that we suffer in our everyday lives. Who better to turn to in our struggles and trials than God and Jesus Christ? They have said time and time again that They will carry our burden if we will give it up to them and follow them. It's amazing to think about isn't it? That so many wrong choices can be overridden if we work to change our lives, repent, and strive to become like Jesus and Heavenly Father.

I know this church is true, more than I've ever known it before. Keep trying to read from the Book of Mormon every day because it is from there that we can find the strength of the Lord. I love you all so very much and I will be writing you letters if I haven't already. I will also be writing Dad and Crystal today. I love them too! They are definitely included in the "I love you all category". Thank you so much for everything and I hope things go good for you.

Your Elder,

Elder James Cappuccio

P.S. could I get more contacts sometime soon and like more razor edges? Love you!

On Fire

From: marathomom@aol.com To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:12:51 -0400 Subject: on fire

Dear Elder James,

It's always so exciting to get your emails and letters, so I know you probably get just as excited to hear from us.? I heard from Cali that the girls at camp could write missionaries from our stake at the service project tent. According to Cali, you had the most letters, so mail is on the way! I hope to get a few things together this week and send you a package. We won't be coming up to Utah until July 12th, so I wanted to get you some treats and stuff before then. I checked into the DearElder service and I decided to go with the dear grandmother service instead....my mom says she will bring you by some fresh cinnamon rolls this week.

Today was Tyler Fisher's farewell.? He'll be up there in the MTC on Wednesday, so you may have already run into him by the time you read this. He gave a nice talk and since it was Father's day, spoke about his father a bit, saying his father helped him get to where his is today, and his mother did too, but it's not Mother's day so he's only going to talk about his Father... that got a few laughs. Anyway, here is your dad's and Crystal's address, 1409 E Park Ave, Chandler, AZ 85225. I don't know the other addresses you wanted, so I'll get Amy to send them to you.

Thanks for the zone explanation, it was very enlightening to those of us who haven't been on missions yet. Sounds like you are getting a good opportunity to learn to serve and I can see you enthusiasm is probably very contagious, because it bursts through to us with every letter that you write. You remind me of the hymn, "The Spirit of God like a Fire is Burning" cause you are 'on fire.' When you hit Mongolia you might raise their average temperature a few degrees and maybe thaw out some of the frozen Tundra....hmmm that gets me thinking, maybe missionaries are the cause of global warming.....

As far as news from the world, nothing too exciting, and since your pal Ron Paul isn't going to win the election you might as well be in Mongolia. At least Hilary Clinton is not in the running anymore, that would have been a nightmare, Bill Clinton back in the Whitehouse....

Thanks for all the letters you have written to your brother and sisters, they really enjoy the personal message you send them. I love you and know that we are all blessed by your serving the Lord for the next 2 years. I was also wondering about the man named Aca in Texas, did you ever get to talk to him again?

Love and prayers, always mom

MTC Week 4 and "I'm a baller" pronunciation revealed

Haha...yea, i was hoping Joseph would like what I put. Well you tell him it's pronounced "bum-bug-chin" haha. About the e-mails. I can get e-mails from anyone and everyone if they so choose. I can only answer one e-mail a week so that'll be yours but I can always write them a letter in response. About the Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD, yea you could send me that and I could use it. One of our roommates has a CD player with speakers so that would be awesome. Is it the new one? I wanted that! Oh, and I got your letters too! It was really great to get those and I hope to get one from Joseph sometime soon. I really want Dad's address so I can send him and Crystal a letter! I'm sorry to hear about work. Being in the MTC is like being in a complete different world! We hear about nothing! Then again, that's probably a good thing haha. About Elder Eyestone, he already left about a week and a half ago. He was only there for 3 weeks and so he's gone. I saw him all the time we were here though and it was awesome to just see how he was doing. He seemed to be getting really comfortable with being a missionary and I'm excited to hear anything about how his mission goes over there. Ok, so i'll give you a little layout of how the districts and zones are set up. Each Wednesday new missionaries come in. They'll group the missionaries into small groups of anywhere from 2-14 or so missionaries for the same area/language. (For English it's a little more liberal about location) These are called Districts. For the Mongolians, we only have one district of Mongolians the entire time we're here. However, bigger missions/languages will have multiple districts learning the same language in different classrooms. So each district has a district leader. Now, they then bring together a bunch of districts, and put them into a zone. From what I know the zones aren't organized by any certain pattern because we have a district of Indonesians, Malagasy (Madagascar), Mongolians, and English-speaking. Anyways, they all are a zone and they live in the same residence halls and have pretty much the same schedule. We all meet for church and are presided over by a branch presidency which consists of Brethren from outside of the MTC coming in for our meeting and such. Each Zone has a companionship as Zone Leaders. It's kind of interesting because a District only has 1 district leader whereas a Zone has 2 Zone leaders in a companionship. Just because there are more Elders to look after. In our Zone there are....somewhere around 30+ elders in 5 districts. We have one district that only has 1 Elder! It's kind of funny. This week has been really great. My companion and i were sustained as Zone Leaders on Sunday and we've been pretty busy ever since. One thing we get to do that I'm excited about is to meet the new missionaries that come into our district on Wednesdays and give them a brief tour. I like doing that kind of stuff. We also are there to help the District Leaders out and lift our zone as best as we can. I honestly have to say I love doing this because I get to feel the Spirit so much more in looking to inspire these Elders. I'm so grateful for it! I mean as it is, the Spirit is so prevalent in this MTC but this callings give an added measure that I am so thankful for. The devotionals and firesides here have been really great. This last tuesday we had a Quorum of the Seventy (Elder Mervyn B. Arnold) speak on how to preach the Gospel with all diligence. He had a bunch of good points and I know our whole district was really inspired by the talk. The thing that stood out to me the most was his testimony though. When he bore his testimony, he bore it with such power and Spirit, it was amazing. I told myself that I wanted to be able to bear my testimony like that, and in order to do so, understand the doctrine and principles so thoroughly as to command that knowledge. Also, on Sunday, our district held an awesome District meeting were we talked about goals we want to set for now and for the mission. As soon as we got on that track, the Spirit sparked this burning desire in our hearts and it was amazing! I just felt it so thoroughly as we worked together to identify ways to make the biggest affect on our mission. I have got to say I have a really good feeling about the Elders in our district. They are a very special group and I just can't wait to get out into the field with them and see what we can accomplish. We've been told a lot recently that President Hinckley wanted to double baptisms internationally but that we have not accomplished that yet. We are going to be the missionaries to start that going at least in Mongolia. I just know it. Well I don't have much time left but I'll try and share some more things I've learned while I was here. Don't waste time: Here at the MTC we are given a lot of time to work on the language and the doctrine and it's really made me realize how precious time is. We don't really have a lot of it to spend doing things outside of what will bring us closer to God and our family. Certain responsibilites, of course, require us to provide support for familes and so on, but outside that, time is so precious that it just can't be wasted. In the devotional on Tuesday, Elder Arnold expressed thoroughly how much our Heavenly Father loves us. I believe that and I know that. He loves each and every one of us SO much! That's one of my favorite parts to teach in the discussions because it's amazing! He knows us individually and loves us. We are his children and we lived with him for 'thousands of ages' before we came here. You better believe that he absolutely loves us and that he wants only the best for us. Moses 1:39 tells us that. His whole purpose is to get us to become like Him, to inherit his kingdoms and glories and to receive eternal life and exaltation. What amazing love that He and the Savior have for us! They have devoted every second of their time since the beginning of the world for that purpose! I love all of you so very very much! Write back soon! ~Elder James Cappuccio I need Dad's address, Jayson Marshall's address, Elder Clawson and Elder Millers. Love ya! -----Original Message-----

a question or two for you....

From: marathomom@aol.com To: james.cappuccio@myldsmail.net Date: Sun, 08 Jun 2008 19:58:06 -0400 Subject: in the zone Dear Elder James, It was great to hear about your experiences in the MTC so far. Joseph and Amy liked the letters you wrote....Joseph was telling everyone that you wrote "I'm a baller." in Mongolian on his letter, he thought that was cool, however since you wrote it in Mongolian, he wasn't quite sure how to pronounce it.... Well, I guess a few questions I have for you would be, can your friends send you emails or only your family? I gave everyone your correct address, so I know they can mail you. I hope you got our letters.? Amy and Cali will be at camp all this week, and Joseph will be home by himself. He's taking summer school PE and has an A in it so far! Another question is, if I gave you a CD of Mormon Tab music would you have something to play it on? I bought you one, but didn't know if I needed to get you something to play it on too. Work is good. They closed down a Chase loan center in Pennsylvania which was lucky for us, cause they could've picked our site and so now we should be busier....but the economy is not good, so it won't be easy either.? I'm just glad I have a good job and I know I am getting extra blessings for having a missionary serving the Lord. Keep up the good work on learning the language, I know it is hard,, but you are going to get extra help along the way and be able to convert people because they can see how much you care about them. How long is Elder Taylor Eyestone going to be there? Do you see him much? How's he doing? How many Elders are in your Zone? Are zones divided by places you are going? Like are all the Mongolian missionaries in the same zone? Because it just seems odd that you and your companion are both zone leaders if you were in the same district to start with.....as you can see I've never been on a mission, so I don't understand the whole set-up. I love you and pray for you always and all the other missionaries too.? Keep that spirit burning bright! Love Always, Mom