Just a Bit Trunky

Hello everyone! So my feelings right now are that I am excited! I went to the Lion King today... It was AMAZING! :) I Loved it so much!!! Broadway seriously is something amazing! I am so grateful for the opportunity! I wish I could just describe it all to you! It was pretty magical! The Singers were breathtaking! Ah! Freaking Sick! I loved it! Also I went to see/say bye to Cindy tonight. It was nice to see her... She is amazing! She is married now and her husband got baptized in the summer, and her daughter Kiki last May. And now she is having another baby! :) Joseph will be his name. He is due on the 7th of March :) I loved seeing her! Elder Stratton is serving in that area again, and he knocked the door and I was hiding on the other side of the wall.. I turned around and I had this 9 month pregnant lady running up to give me a hug! :) It was really nice to see her! She is one of my best friends! I am so glad we could teach and find her. That one person has made a huge influence in so many different people's lives. When we all come back here you guys will get to meet her :) It was sad saying good bye, but she told me to be happy and helped me out a lot! I strongly feel that she is one of the main reasons I served my mission. I am so grateful to God, that Elder Martindale found her his last week of his mission by looking up a former investigator. ... It made a huge difference in their lives and in mine. She tells me and Stratton we are her favorites lol! It makes me laugh! She is totally from Harlem. And it is sometimes hard to believe she is a Mormon. But she is, and that makes me so happy! :)  But the play was Amazing! I went with Elders Stratton, Peterson, and McCullam. It was the best pday of my mission. I hope you all can experience a Broadway show some time! It's to die for!Ah ! I love the LION KING! I will just tell you all about it when I get home! :P

At Cindy's after The Lion King

Work is good, companion is good! :) I love the mission! It's amazing! I will miss it more than anything. It has changed me forever. I really think I have enjoyed and loved my mission more than anyone else who has ever served one. It will shape my life in all ways. IT'S FREAKING NEW YORK! :) I LOVE THIS PLACE! AH! I miss Harlem!  But with all that nonsense said I am excited to come home! :) I actually just wish it would come. It's like when you rip a bandaid off slowly. It hurts, and I just want it to be off already! Seriously best place in the world= here. MY MISSION! I love everyone I have met. Missionaries, members, and investigators and random people in the street! Ah! I LOVE NEW YORK! I just want to make it clear, how awesomely amazing this place really is! :) My mission is the best. Yeah Linz will have fun in Brazil, but it's not here :P New York has Brazil and every other country in the world already here :) She will love Portuguese though! It's a cool language. I have picked a little bit of it up. It is very very similar to Spanish. Brazil seems pretty cool! I have a couple of good friends from there now :) She will love it!  Well I am starving and need to eat something! So you guys have a good night.. I will talk to you next week! I can't believe how fast this is all coming! Be ready for the time of your lives when I get home! :) I love you all! And Pray for each one of you! Love Mark! :) 

I'm Going to Miss Them All

Hey There Mamita! Como estas?? :) So I am doing just grand! Finally starting to feel just a tad bit nervous. Weird to think about it all... I did start writing my mission experience or death letter, yesterday... That was really hard.. .I love it here mom. I love what I am doing more than anything else I have ever done. I am going to miss it. These past 2 years have been amazing.. Sometimes it seems really long, but they have been way too short. I love the people here, and the hardest part is I don't know when I will see many of them again... A couple weeks ago Sister Munoz from Harlem sent me a letter, and a box of candy. That meant the world to me. People like her, and many others I have fallen in love with. When I left Harlem I thought it would be impossible to love other people the way I loved everyone there. Elder Hellberg told me I would have to divide my heart and leave a little bit with everyone, and I did not think that was possible... But it was.. I love everyone here so much.. From Members like Sister Munoz, to ward and stake leaders, to investigators, or to crazy people that yelled at me on the streets... I'm going to miss them all... I love my mission more than anything else... The City of New York is AMAZING! Its the Greatest, but the people are much greater than that. I'm going to miss everything about this place, I don't want to leave to be completely honest.. I love sharing the gospel and helping others feel the love that I feel each and every single day. There is nothing greater, and it really stinks that I'm not going to get to do this again... I thought leaving home was hard, leaving you all, friends, Melissa.. knowing that I would see you again.. it will be so much harder leaving here not knowing if I will see everyone again. Today we are going down to the city and I am going to go say bye to Nelson,.. I am crying just thinking about it.. Mom I would really like to come back here.. I know you told me back when I was in Harlem that you would not mind taking a vacation here.. I hope that is still the case. Y'all would love it!  You should not be surprised if I end up back here later on in life... But I don't know if that will ever happen... uh :(

 But on a good note.. I am very excited to see you all again! Home is like a mystery right now, kind of like the mission was before I left. I have no idea what I will do when I get there. One thing is for sure though, I will be helping Todd out a ton! And I am excited to do that! I love that little turd! I really just want to hear back from BYU so I can really start figuring things out. Hopefully by next Wednesday! So Jackson got accepted to Utah State and BYU-I? That is cool! Did he apply to BYU or has he just not heard back yet?  Well I am excited! I can't even imagine what it is going to be like coming home... But right now I am trying to block it out of my mind. But each day that becomes more and more impossible. I am really excited to see Greg again! It has been so long! We are going to have to completely start a new relationshiop.. 4 years is a long time. Too long of a time! So I am excited to do that again.

 We are staying busy! Things are great with Elder Heywood! We are working hard! We are working with Fernando and Lourdes and their family, they are having some troubles. But we are going to go find out more later this week! And also we are going to the college tonight.  Yesterday Elder McCullam and I went on a split! We had a good time, he got a little sick, but apart from that nothing to complain about!  Oh last Thursday we had an awesome training! Some people who work in the Missionary Department in Salt Lake came and gave us some awesome trainings! I felt just like a greeny again! It was seriously amazing! The 2 guys who came were awesome! Brother Watson (I think he is the head of the missionary department.) and Brother Donaldson (who was the mission president on the movie the District 2) Greg will probably know what I am talking about and Lindsay will know very soon as well! :) But it was amazing! They taught us how to be bold, and we talked a ton about the Doctrine of Christ, in other words the Gospel. And how we really need to call people to repentance.. ah.. I could talk about it forever! But let's just say it was amazing, and it changed me!  Apart from that nothing to report! We are working hard, and going to the city today and I am going to go play some Basketball down at the Temple.. Well the Church Building that is connected to the temple lol! I love you all... See you very very soon! :) Love you! Love Elder Mattei! :) 

4 more weeks!

I will be flying home the 7th. I went into the office the other day and I had Sister Dennison show me what was happening (so the Dennisons are a Senior couple, they work in the office. They are awesome. They went to the Kingsbridge English Ward when I was in the Bronx. I love them. If I go out to BYU I will be visiting them often. I am going there next week to make them Gumbo.) I will be flying into D.C. first, Elder Scaiffe and I both have a connecting flight there (He is in Stamford right now, his Greeny area, lucky dog) so I will get to say bye to my MTC companion last. Then if I remember right I will arrive in STL around like 1 or 2. I do not remember very well, so don't quote me on that. 

Well hopefully both Greg and i both get into where we want to. That would be very nice! And i will think more about the Math class when I know whether or not I get into Provo. And when Lindsay gets her call you guys should call the mission office and tell them where she is going. Then they could call me. Ask to speak to Elder or Sister Dennison, they will call me and let me know.

So I am really excited to go to that game with Todd! That will be a lot of fun! :) Thank you for that! :) I am really excited to go to a Blues game again.

So don't you worry about me working hard. I am more focused than ever! We have a lot of big plans for this last short cycle, and we are going to get a lot done! I have been coming home each and every night exhausted. Elder Heywood and I are working our butts off. He is a great last compaion. The push that i needed. He is a great kid! We both have been speaking a lot of Spanish as well! So I am happy and I am having fun! :) And I am online so mom if you want to talk I am here! I love you all.. See you in a