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?