Last Transfer!

Hey There mom! :)

So to answer you question yes I am still ZL here in New Rochelle. Elder Kay was released and transferred. So I will finish my mission with Elder Heywood, he is from Mesa, Arizona as well. He and Elder Kay actually had some classes together in High School. He sounds like a nice guy. I met him once. Transfer meeting will be at 1 today so we have got to be leaving soon. Elder Kay was kind of bummed out. But he is excited because he will be in the same district as Elder Lewis. So I am kind of jealous because of that lol! I will be living with 3 missionaries who all hit their year mark in my last cycle.. There is 1 other missionary in our zone who goes home with me, Elder McCullam. He is really cool! I like him a lot! If I go to Utah for school we will hang out a lot. He started his mission in Albania, but got sick halfway through so he came here to finish. He has been in the Zone the whole time I have been. We have 4 new missionaries coming into our zone! The Portuguese missionaries who just came into our ward, are both training Elders who are waiting on Visas. Haha it's funny, because Elder Garibi is not even done being trained himself. But there are 4 of them coming and president needed a place to put them. 1 new area is opening up in Yonkers English, so we will have 2 new sisters in the Zone. So I am excited! I really want to work hard this last cycle and give it my all! There is still a lot to be done! I just want to make sure we get it all done! This ward has so much potential, and I really want to help with that.

Elder Kay has been awesome! I love him so much! He is one of my best friends. He taught me many good lessons, and we get along so well. He will be one of my best friends for life! I think one of the things he helped me fully realize is that in this life we walk by faith in the choices we make.. He has been there for me these past 12 weeks. I have been an emotional wreck lol! And very indecisive about things... Kind of like how I was before I left! I am just getting super nervous, and the two of us being together and going home together was not a good combo. And with him being sick and us laying around a lot of the time it was hard (he is completely better now :) We still have no idea what it was) So I'm going to work Elder Heywood's little tail off. Hopefully he is ready for it lol! I am sure he will be.He is just now getting called as a ZL and has been out for about a year. So he will give me the push that I need!

So I am good :) Glad to here everyone is doing well.. Well except for Greg.. Poor kid! That would not be fun! One thing for sure , is it does not look like Lindsay will be leaving in March, so I'm glad I will get to spend time with her before she goes! 

 You all are the best! Well I better get going! We have a busy day in front of us! I love you all! I may be back on later! Have a great week and talk to you/see you soon!!!! (I can actually say that now!) :)

Love you! Love, Mark!

I Will Go Where He Wants Me to Go

Hey there Everybody! Hope all is going well back home! :) So Mom and Dad I am going to try and reply to you both in this email.

So Mom I am glad you got to talk to President Morgan. Elder Fusco, one of our APs, told me last night that he talked to you and that you had called, wanting to talk to President Morgan. Not going to lie I was a little worried at first. I thought something had happened. haha but it was obviously nothing :) 

So thank you for sending the package! I could not tell if you had already eaten part of the cake or if it got smashed in travel lol! But Elder Kay and I plan on eating it tonight :) So thank you for sending that! We will really enjoy it!

And we are happy as well that Michelle was baptized! And so was she! And Elder Kay is doing alright. Sometimes he is good, sometimes he is a little worse. But overall he is doing a little better. He was good enough to play dodge ball with us today.  We are both just kind of confused as to what it is he has.  So just please continue to keep him in your prayers :) 

So I know we have already talked about this, but yeah I am just really super confused as to what I am supposed to do. So I  will just send in the app and go from there! So keep me in your prayers so I can make the best decision. 

So I am glad you guys had fun in Louisiana! I am jealous! I really look forward to going down and seeing family! I would really like to go as a family maybe during the summer. But even if not I would be more than happy to go down alone with some friends or something. Let everyone know that I miss them a lot, and I am thinking of them and praying for them constantly!  

And tell Todd I love him! and I will be home soon, and tell him to get ready to have some fun with his older brother! :) 

So haha just fun news, so I don't know if you all remember the LSU hat I bought when we all went down to Branson for a week with Mckeon and Tre. I bought it that night when we went shopping and Lindsay, Mckeon and Tre all told me not to buy it because it was white and I would ruin it within 2 months... Well I am wearing it right now and it is still not ruined :) I just felt like bragging about that lol! For some reason I am pretty happy because of that :P I was telling that to Elder Kay earlier and he did not seem to care, as I am sure you all don't lol! 

But I'm good! just staying busy! Transfers are next week! I kind of hope I don't go. I really love the people here, and I don't want to go to an area for just 5 weeks. But I will go wherever the Lord wishes to send me! I have no idea what is going to happen, but I will be sure to let you all know! Dad please take me to Orlando! haha that would be so much fun! I love Disney World! :) It is awesome! But enjoy your trips. Try to do something fun while you are there! And keep working hard! I really do appreciate all that you do for the family. Much much more than I did before! 

And I will think about if I want to go somewhere to eat.. A Shrimp boil would be pretty sick! I would like that a lot! and we could invite all my friends! I freaking miss those guys! 

Well love you all! Hope you have a great week! You are all the best! Let me know if there is anything I can do! :)

Loves!

Love your son, Elder Mark Mattei! :)

Another Baptism!

Hey There Mommy and Daddy!! :) So it sounds like you are all having a great time! :) Who all went?? I am jealous! I really would like to go! It sounds like y'all are having a ton of fun! Next family vacation??? :P But that is so cool that you are getting to spend some time in Mexico I would love that! I am happy for you that you are having such a great time though! You will have to tell me all about it! Sounds like an adventure!

Well so I was hoping you all could update me on where Lindsay is at with her mission papers! Is she done yet?? I'm really hoping she will get her call sometime soon! So keep me updated on that.

 So I've decided that I am at least going to send in the application to BYU... I've already done this much. Whether or not I will go if I get accepted is another story.. .I have got some tough decisions to make. I've realized that God does not control us, or tell us what to do at all times. But he lets us make decisions.. I think I understand my answers to prayers a little more clearly now.. He approves the things that we want to do. There can be more that one option. He lets us chose.. What is important to Him is that we are following the Gospel. So I now understand why I feel like I should go to BYU, why I feel like I should be at home, why I feel like I should go to LSU, and why I feel like I need to be with Melissa.. They are just options and he has approved all of them because he knows that all of them will take me to where I need to be... There is more than one way to skin a cat. There is more than one way to do things in this life. God has given us our Agency, our free will, and we have to learn how to act upon it.   Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should ^aact for himself. Wherefore, man could not ^bact for himself save it should be that he was ^centiced by the one or the other.. (2 Nephi 2:16).. So that is a principle I am gradually learning. And it is hard for me... Because sometimes I wish he would just tell us what to do.. But that is why we have the commandments and the Gospel. The rest is up to us.

So Elder Kay is going to the doctor today. Right now they have no idea what is wrong. The past couple days we have not left the house...  I love him. He is such a great guy! I really hope that you guys can meet him! Please pray for him. He, President Morgan, and I shared a tender moment in President's car the other day as we were driving to a meeting with the Stake Presidency.

So the baptism for Michelle this weekend was awesome!! A little hectic but really good! They were supposed to get there at 4 to have the baptism interview.. They got there at 5;30 (the time the baptism was supposed to start) and it did not start till like 6:15. Oh and her Grandfather, Hermano Bucay was supposed to baptize her, and last minute he could not come because of work issues so I ended baptizing her. I felt bad for her, because I know how bad she wanted her Grandfather to do it. But overall it was amazing! :) The spirit was super strong. 3 different times during the service Michelle cried. She felt so good! She is such a great girl! Extremely smart! and extremely spiritual! Now we are going to start working on reactivating her family.

Well that is about it for this week! oh one more question. Mom did you get the message President Morgan left you? We had a meeting with him this past Saturday and he said he called you. Ok well that is it! :) I love you all! Hope you are all doing great! You are in my prayers! I will see you soon! Mom hope you enjoyed your trip! and Dad I hope you are holding up the house well! :) LOVE YOU ALL! :)

Love Elder Mattei

Fun Evening with the Morgans

Hey There Mommy!!! :)

 

So let me tell you what is going on! :) So Michelle will be getting baptized for sure this Saturday that is coming up! Her Grandpa is going to baptize her so we are excited about that! She has her interview tomorrow! She is more than ready! She is such a smart little girl! We are extremely excited for her! And we are continuing to teach the rest of our investigators.. They are all progressing really slowly. The girls we were teaching at Manhattanville College are on Winter break right now so we won't be going back to see them until the end of January. Apart from that we are working really hard with what we have! We have also been working really hard with Less Actives. That is more or less the focus right now. To leave the 99 and bring back the 1! And that is something I have always enjoyed doing! There are such good fruits from Less Active work! Just look at what happened to our family because Dad was a LA! (less active) :) So great things come to pass because of it! And it is a great way to find part member families. Our ward has been pushing on it for some time. Our stake here has quite a problem with it, so it is something we are trying to work on!

 

So this past week all of the ZL's (Zone Leaders) had Zone Council with President Morgan! We just talked about how one of our new focuses would be working with Less Active and Part Member families! It was a really good meeting! We have them the first Friday of every month. It is one of the things I enjoy most about being a Zone Leader. We get fed lunch and just are uplifted by the spirit. Especially this time I came back feeling rejuvenated. After that I had an interview with President Morgan in the mission home. It was to renew my temple recommend... It is hard to believe that it has been 2 years... Yesterday I went to the Doctor's office with Elder Kay, and I was watching the news for a minute and they were talking about how it was the 2 year anniversary of when that congresswoman and all those people were shot in Arizona... That is hard to believe.. That was right before I came out. I remember talking to the podiatrist about that when I was getting my ingrown toenails taken care of.. (PS by the way when I get home I want to get the last one cauterized.) So yeah time is flying... And then Idk if he did, but President Morgan said he was going to call you mom. I gave him your number. On Monday evening Elder Kay,the missionaries we live with, and I had dinner with the Morgans. I made gumbo for them! He loved it! :) It was a lot of fun! I left them the recipe.. He joked about letting us stay over and watch the National Championship.. I had my fingers crossed! But it was a good night! Sister Morgan helped me cook, and she also made some delicious Cornbread! Everything turned out really good! :) I love that family! Their son Ryan is hilarious! I will always joke around about playing video games or watching movies with him. He would be totally down for it. He is about Todd's age. Way funny kid. So he pretty much told us Elder Kay and I will not be staying together.. We joked around with him about it, and it did not sound as if he was even thinking about it! So we will see in a couple of weeks where I will be next cycle! I would have liked to stay with Elder Kay, but if I move I would like to go somewhere I have served before!

 

But anyway the Morgans are awesome! I hope that you all can meet them one day! So you mentioned that Hockey is starting back up?!?!?!?! When?? And I do want to go to a game!!! :) Like for real that would be so much fun!

 

And yes Sister Dennison called asking me to mention to you about sending the stuff in.. So if you could do that asap! She really wants to know what airport I will be flying into, so you could just tell me and I could tell her. But still send it all in!

 

Apart from that all is well.. We still don't know what is wrong with Elder Kay.

 

So as of right now I still plan on coming home. But we will see what happens! We will just wait until the end of the month to see if we will send the app.. But as of right now. I plan on coming home and being with the family for a while! Maybe BYU later on down the road.. we will see! Well I love you all and I hope you all have a great week! Mom I will be on again later so you can get on and chat! Love you! :) Love Marky Mark! :)

2013 Brings Some Answers

Hello there! Happy New Year everyone! :)

So life is going good! This weekend we are getting to go back down to the Rockaways to do some final hurricane relief work for Hurricane Sandy. This time it will be the whole mission going though! I am not sure if Elder Kay and I will be going though because he has been having some health issues lately. I won't say too much but please keep him in your prayers! :) We have been staying home a lot because of it.. And it sounds like you all had a lot of fun over New Years. We just had district meeting on Wednesday. I made buffalo wings for the whole Zone, then we went and ate at the Quiroa's house, then came home. It was pretty fun! The only bad part was we had to be in at 6. But we played Monopoly and I won! Yay!! Then later that night I could not sleep, so I went and stood on our back patio and locked myself out of the house in the freezing cold.. I had to bang on the door for like 5 minutes at 10 in the morning lol! I felt pretty dumb. Elder Kay came and rescued me. 

 But as to why I could not sleep that will be the interesting part of this email... This past weekend Elder Kay and I did a 40 hour fast, so I could receive guidance as to what I am supposed to do with my future. I feel like I am supposed to do 1204890548947849058 different things and they all do not correlate. We prayed that I would receive an answer.. A little more in depth than that, but I will explain that later... For the past couple days I have been rethinking and thinking about staying at home after the mission... Why? you may ask. Various reasons.  And because I have already have been away from the family for so long... Your email today Mom came as an answer to that prayer.  Mom I would love your counsel on this as well as you Dad... But I am willing to stay at home and help out and go to SCC. I could transfer to BYU or LSU later, but I want to know what you all think. I have been thinking about it all weekend.. And even more so today. I will keep this short so we can chat mom. I love you all and everybody take care and have a great week! Love you! Love Mark! :)