Looking for Pedro?

Glad to hear all is going good! Tell Aunt Cindy the next time she is here I will see her for sure (Well as long as Huerta is my companion) Martindale is the one who did not want me to see her, but I just talked with Huerta and he said if she is still here we are going to for sure see her! I felt so bad last time and not going to lie I just would really like to see her!

Well home definitely sounds different! Thats so crazy to think that Greg will be home soon! Good for him I am happy for him! Sounds like all is good! Harlem is, well Harlem! I love it though! Its all black and Hispanic people and very much different than south Manhattan. A lot of homeless people and people living on the streets! A ton of people though! Very Depressing at times, but all good. The thing I have noticed most about Manhattan is it smells like straight weed all the time!! Everywhere you go. We hear gun shots everynight! uhm... yo no se.... uhm what all do you want to know? there is the subway, a lot of cheaper places to eat than South Manhattan. Part of our area is nicer, but there are no hispanics there so we never go there. We also go down by the temple to teach a recent convert of theirs, and we have special permission to go down there. South Manhattan is awesome as well. I love going into central park. Its so pretty. The first like 2 weeks here I had allergies for the first time in my life. When we came into the mission home it was so green, and so are all of the parks and stuff it is crazy! I really do love it! If we were not on the 19th floor and it did not take so long to get out of our building (because the Elevators don't work half the time) Trust me running up 19 flights of stairs is not fun! But I would love to go running in central park in the morning, but it takes like 10 minutes for the elevators to get up to our floor because they stink lol! Haha but we threw a mouse out the window yesterday lol! I have a video of Elder Lewis chucking it out lol! It was really funny! Stupid of him, but funny lol; :) Okay I think this will just be my email home today, unless mom finishes writing soon, but yeah... Uhm well a lot has happened here the past couple of weeks!

Our New investigator Carlos has a baptismal date :) July 23rd! It is pretty awesome! We teach him in English, he is a bit slower but a great guy and really sees how God is impacting his life. Next time we teach him we are teaching the Plan of Salvation. His father has passed away so I think knowing this will play a huge impact on his life! Also Elder Lewis and I taught the first lesson to Arlen our new investigator as well! That was another good experience. Right now we have 13 investigators so it is really difficult to talk about all of them! But Lysalo is good. She does not have a baptismal date yet :( But she wants to be. She is having a lot of family problems. We are talking again with her tomorrow and she will hopefully tell us something good and when she wants to be baptized! She is ready! haha she just does not realize it! I'm just happy to see that this really will help her come closer to God!

The main thing I have grown to love is these people here! More than anything I want to understand every single thing they say to me! But they are awesome! I really know who they are and what they care about, and it is great to see them making a change in their lives. They understand what their potential is, and I just get to know so many awesome people. I feel my relationship Growing with God as theirs does. In all reality when God blesses them, he is really blessing me too. Because it makes me happy to see them happy and doing what is right!

I have been thinking about home more lately and thinking just about how awesome of an experience it will be to come home in 2 years and see everyone again! I know that it will be a happy time in my life, but just like when I left home, when I leave my mission as well it will be a very bittersweet time in my life. I really do love it here. I can't help thinking about home sometimes and you all and Melissa and my friends, but I know this is where I am supposed to be. How is Melissa doing? I have not heard from her in a while. Also how are my friends doing? You said you saw them not long ago. That must have been weird having them at the house, without me being there.

I just miss doing a lot of stuff back home, but it can wait till later :)

I really want Melissa to meet Greg when he comes home. She would always say "Its hard for me to imagine that you have another brother" Well now I would like her to meet him.  Getting mail is awesome! I love opening the mail box and having something! Its nice to see how people back home and friends are doing. Because I really do care about how they are doing so SEND LETTERS!!!! :P But I have gotten 3 from friends the past 2 weeks so thats been good! I have to catch up on sending a lot of mail!! I'm so slow! I'm doing that today so it will be all good! Oh I need to use the Credit Card to buy more socks today. I am getting more so I only need to do laundry every other week so I can save money. Laundry is expensive here!

Okay Dad PLease! I have asked for the Gumbo recipie like 209382590848094384095904385 times from Granny and Mom lol! Please have one of them send it! My Bear as well!!!!

But here you go just so you know how a day runs here I will give you a quick run down..

6:30 Wake up and Try to work out! I always do at least 100 dips before I get in the shower, but 5/7 times a weeks I will work out I would say. Its really hard to make myself work out in the morning Its just really hard.

7:00 Wait to get in the shower... there are 5 of us it takes forever. Normally I just lie down and close my eyes and try not to fall asleep. Sometimes I will make pancakes... If we have milk and eggs... Seems like I am the only one in our apartment willing to buy them.... lol!

8:00 Personal Study which I love! Always learn something new!

9:00 Comp study

10:00 Language study

11:00 Lunch/ Sometimes we do service at the food shelter!

12:00 go out and go to appointments, Meetings and other stuff! Going to appointments and meeting with members and investigators is my favorite!

Then do that till about ten! Sometimes get dinner and stuff in between! Last night we had dinner with the Kegans who are some senior missionaries and we were doing service by translating a Boy Scout Manual into Spanish for the BSA! So that is pretty cool! I like having dinner with the Hispanic families and having the new kinds of food! We eat rice and beans a ton though! lol! Sometimes they order Pizza and that is always fun too. But like yesterday we taught our investigator Cindy (she is new) she has been taught before, but this area got white washed like a year and a half ago and she fell through and the missionaries never came again (how, IDK she had a baptismal date) She is a way cool lady she has a 7 year old daughter too and she told us yesterday she wants her daughter to serve a mission! We also teach her well Spanglish lol! We meet with her again Monday!

Well just some funny things that have happened... Did I tell you I made steak like 2 weeks ago??? Sister Tabone (A Sister in our District) bought it and I made it! It was way good! I told her I had made it tons of times, but really it was my first! She was impressed when I told her it was my first time! lol! It was good though... Thing is we had no knives or forks so we ate it with our hands :) haha! Oh and yesterday Elder Huerta called the house lol! We were sitting around in the chapel waiting on Elder Martindale to come back from a split and I was like "You know how easy it would be to call home?" And he was like "yup let me see the phone!" So I gave it to him and he asked for our number and I told him in Spanish completely joking around! So then he acted like he was saving it and I was like "What are you doing?" Then he acted like he pressed talk and I tried Grabbing the phone to hang up and his cheek actually really did press "talk" and it rang for 6 seconds lol! So then like 10 minutes later Mom called back lol! And He was like "You estoy buscando por Pedro?" And I was like "No" Because I realized he was freaking out lol! And he was like Pedro! Pedro! And mom was talking to him lol! Then Ten minutes later the A.P.s called and we freaked out lol! but they just needed to talk to Elder Martindale about him going to the temple today. But Elder Huerta felt so bad and was really worrying that he worried mom! Haha it was funny, But I'm just glad I didn't have the phone, because I always answer then look who it is lol! But yes! So sorry about Elder Huerta being an idiot lol! Okay Well not much else to say!

I need to go! Well I love you and hope all is great! I love being here, and I love being able to help other people! Oh yeah I got some funny pictures to send home soon! Okay well got to go I love you all! Glad to know all is good! Well I will talk to you all soon! Love you very much!

Love Mark!!! or Elder Mattei I don't care I'm still Mark to you all! lol!

Oh last night I fell off the top bunk trying to grab my blanket from Elder Huerta lol! It was funny! Don't know why I am telling but whatever! Okay I got to go! Love you all :)

And regarding the Book of Mormon musical winning the Tony: We get to have really positive conversations with people about it! People see it and obviously know its a joke and become interested! aparently the temple is running out of Books of Mormon to give to people because they want to know more about it!  Any Publicity can be good publicity I guess :)  some guy tried hugging me yesterday cuz it won lol! I also met a guy who played in it lol!