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! :) 

Blessed to Talk to You

Hello everyone! Well this will be rather short considering I had the blessing of talking to you all yesterday! I miss you all! I just want to say that! It really made me happy to see you all! Now I can't wait until I will be able to do it in person and give each one of you a giant hug! :) 

We were fortunate to be able to speak to Mark for longer than we expected.  He is doing great and looks great too.  Most of this email was related to his college applications.

Well Mom that is about it sadly :/ lol! I will be able to say more next week! But Yall already know everything! Tell everyone I say Hi! and I am excited to see you all soon! But don't go getting trunky on me, because that will only make me trunky! Love you! 

Love Mark! :) 

Still Chillin' in New Rochelle

Hey everybody how are you all doing?

I am great! Still chillin' here in New Rochelle with Elder Kay. Neither one of us were moved! So who knows how much longer I will be here, I may finish here or I may get transferred my last cycle! So I am going to keep this extremely short that way I have more to tell you all next week! Plus I have not received an email yet today lol! But I never got my 12 days of Christmas package that you said you sent.. I received the Tree and the box from Granny (Thank you very much by the way) :) but I never saw anything more than that. And we live with the office Elders so they have been checking for it daily.. IDK, did you send it or... yeah. I just really hope that it is not lost somewhere in the mail. So please let me know! I will be getting on tonight to check my email again so we can talk about it then.

Apart from that I am excited for Christmas, and more than excited to talk to all of you! I need to know what time will be best. We will be using a member's computer. So please let me know! :) I was thinking around like noon my time? What do y'all think? Whatever is most convenient for you all! 

So they are opening up a Portuguese area here in our ward. They will cover the same exact areas as us. Which is like 5 cities, the 3 biggest being New Roch, Mount Vernon and Port Chester. So that will be nice to have more than just the 2 of us in the ward. :) 

Monday night I saw Hermana Mena from the Stamford ward. She is the bishop's wife. We were walking around in Port Chester at night and she basically jumped out of her car to come and say hi to me! :) That was really nice seeing her! Then last night we came to the chapel to attend a meeting for a missionary in our ward who is preparing to depart for his mission to California. Renato Villa, he reports to the MTC today. He is the son of the Bishop here. It was really nice being able to talk to him, and contribute my thoughts and feelings about what a mission is. Then while we were at the meeting there was a Sister who came in that was about to be released by President Taylor (Stake President of Westchester Stake). It was weird talking to her, knowing that would be me in just a few short months... 

We did a Secret Santa gift exchange between the missionaries here in our Zone. I bought Elder Vanner a remote control Helicopter. It is way sick and only 10 bucks. I might go buy me one. But knowing me I would probably break it! And Elder Pickard bought me a glass chess set. So looks like I am going to learn how to play chess :P I have completely forgotten. Dad you taught me years ago. All I can remember now is the the little horsey moves in a L shape lol! I was most impressed with the gift Elder Kay and Elder Eliason made for another missionary, Elder Stevens.. They made him a bull whip! It is way cool! Elder Kay has one too, but the one they made him is super legit. I am thinking I am going to make one for myself. 

So I will be sending my S.S. their gift hopefully by tomorrow! I hope it gets there by Chistmas Eve :) 

Shot Calls came Sunday night, and it appears that Elder Eliason will not be living with us anymore and that he will be going down to finish his mission in South Manhattan. I am really happy for him! He has wanted that for a long time! As for me I am doing just great! Nothing at all to complain about! I love and miss you all! Hope all is well and I am pumped to talk to you all next week! Love you! 

And yes, I did hear about the shootings :( Newtown is in our Mission. :( That made me really sad... I think I said one of the most sincere prayers of my life after I heard about it. I still can't believe it.. I could literally write a whole page with my feelings... But I will refrain. There was a son of a family in the Yorktown stake who died :( It makes me sick knowing someone could do that to a bunch of innocent little kids. Moroni 8 gives me so much comfort! Knowing that all those little children will be redeemed because of the grace of the Savior..

IDK how to skype. When I get on tonight you write out and tell me what will be best. You can do it from FACEBOOK? I did not know that. 

Well I think I hit everything else! I miss and love you all! Love Marky! :) 
Love Mark! :) 

Getting Ready for Christmas

Hey Mom I am going to have to be rather short today because we are going to try and hurry to go down to the city so we can get some shopping done and go see the tree!  at Rockefeller Center  Well first off Lion King tickets are a go! Elder Dennisen bought them for us. I owe him 97$. We are going the 20th of Feb. So two weeks before I go home! :) It will be a fun last cycle! So transfers are next week! I have no idea what will be happening! But I will let y'all know next Wednesday! uhm... Oh! Thank you for sending the packages! I am excited to get them! :) I did open them up day by day last year.. Except for the last one... haha I kind of cheated on that one, because I knew what it was. But thank you for that! I am excited to get it! But I am even more excited to go shopping for my Secret Santa today! :) 

Crazy that Lindsay is getting all of that together! I will get home, and she will leave just like that! Almost is not fair! But I am excited for her!! :)

So good and bad news. This year I will only be able to talk for an hour :( But good news is I can skype! :) If you guys want me to! or you could just wait to see me when I come home?? IDK. I kind of like the latter! It would make it more of a surprise! :) But you all decide! Well like I said I have like no time today, but I will email you next week, and be calling next week as well! Maybe I will be in a new area.. Maybe I won't! I guess we will see! :) I miss and love you all! You are in my prayers! Remember what this time of year is really about! 

Love you! Love Mark! :) 

The End is Coming

Dear Mom and Dad! How are you both doing?? :) So I am going to try and answer all of the questions that you both asked me! I am not feeling too hot today but, I will try to make this email interesting! So Mom first of all don't be grouchy! lol! J.k! I don't know about you guys but I am really excited for Christmas!! I am so pumped to call home! So do you want good news first or bad news first?? Well I guess you really don't get to choose because this is an email, so I will start with the optimism. Well Mom it will be for you at least, I don't really know how I feel about it.. I am coming home the week of the 5th of March.. So a week earlier than I thought. Apparently that is going to be a 5 week cycle, because of the influx of new missionaries that will be coming in... There will be 40 coming into the 14 going home... Last conference really pumped some people up! So yeah, I am still not sure of the exact day, but I am fairly certain I will be gypped off a 2 year mission by a day or 2 lol! But it's good to know there are so many people willing and ready to serve.

The bad news is that Michelle will not be getting baptized this week, not even this month :( Her bap is pushed to the 4th of January, due to some issues with the chapel being used, and her family wants her to be more prepared. So it is still going to happen. Just not this weekend. We were invited to the English Ward Christmas party though... So the free food will help heal the wound a little bit lol! 

So this week we had Zone Conference, it was really good! I liked it a lot! Elder Johnson from the Seventy came to speak to us! We talked about how we could develop ourselves into being better missionaries. So it helped a lot! The spirit definitely  makes everything worth it!  It was good to see a lot of the friends I have made... It's weird though... I don't know anyone anymore.. I'm getting old. I still feel like I am a greenie though.. I really do not want the end to come.. I am scared! I have no idea what is going to happen!  Elder Mattei has been out longer than most of the missionaries in his area, so he does not know most of the newer ones.  It is becoming more apparent that "the end" of his mission is getting closer.   This can be a "scary" and confusing time for a missionary as he is still trying to focus on the work at hand, but is beginning the process of transition and begins to think about life after the mission. 

So with that said, I don't know if I will die here or if I will die with Kay. Dying refers to the end of the mission.   Anything can happen. I have never been so unsure about transfers. I don't feel like I am am going to get moved.. But it is possible.. I would really like to go back for my last cycle and die in Harlem. 

So today for Pday we played Dodgeball and had a Christmas breakfast in our Pajamas with the Zone. Elder Kay and I cooked. It was a lot of fun! We played dodgeball last week as well! Then a couple weeks ago we hung out with Elder Lewis! Next week we will be going to the city to see the Tree in Rockefeller Center. We don't have a tree in our apartment so that kind of stinks :/ I am half tempted to go to my old Bronx apartment and ask for my tree back lol! But I won't do that. 

So I bought Taylor Swift's Christmas Album from Target last week! IT IS SO GOOD! :) I freaking love her! haha! Sorry that's my random thought of the day! 

So Dad you asked what my favorite areas have been.. It's easy to say. As much as I loved them all. Harlem # 1, then Stamford, then the Bronx. And so far this is my least favorite. Not saying at all that I don't like it.. it's just not the same. I liked Stamford a lot! The thing that makes this place good is who all I am living with. But not going to lie.. having 3 missionaries who are about to go home in 1 apartment is not the best idea.. It makes it really hard on me. But I miss my old areas a lot! I talked to Hermana Baltazar on the phone the other night and that was really nice! That made me happy! But this mission is amazing! I have made such good friends. The hard part will be staying in contact with everyone.. some of my best friends I have, have been made here. I just wish you guys knew them. I miss my boys back at home a ton as well though. I am so excited to see them again! 

So I do want to go to the Broadway show. Will you look at Ticket prices in Feb on a Wednesday afternoon?  I really need to get them soon, I need to go talk to the Denisens who work in the office and have them buy them. Elders Baba, Stratton, Peterson and I will be the ones going if we can get tickets. So as of right now that is still what I want for Christmas. but none of them are willing to pay more than 100 buckaroos, so if the tickets are too much and out of their price range I will have no one to go with. So I will just have y'all send me money for Christmas in that case. But mom you can do a 12 days of Christmas thing again! I really enjoyed that last year! :) 

So yup that is the life! :) I am just about done with my Essays, so I will send them to you in a little bit mom so you can tell me what you think! 

This week we went to our investigator Lourdes' house. It was her daughter's birthday, and some members who were in Stamford are related to them so I got to see them so that was really nice! They were the ones who gave me their phone to call Hermana Baltazar lol! But when I got here they were already teaching Lourdes and her family, so I don't think it was any coincidence that I came! All things happen for a reason! Mckeon taught me that! :) 

Both of my suits are in decent shape. They have a few problems.. But I just wanted a grey more fashionable suit... haha I think that is the one thing you will find a little different about me when I get home.. I am more into fashion now. You can thank Elder Hellberg, Elder Eliason, and Elder Lewis for that.... And Portillo. And Just New York in General.. It kind of rubs off on you. so yeah lol!

So that's about it! I am good! I am happy! and I am hungry! So I am going to go eat now! I miss and love you all have a great week! :) 

Love Elder Mark Mattei! :)

My English Stinks

Hey there mom! Sounds like everyone is doing good! Thanksgiving went really well! We went to the Rejas family's house, and also to the Galvez family. The Galvez's are really cool. We normally visit with Norma and Alejandra. Norma is 22 and we are teaching her boyfriend George, and Alejandra is 18 and she is married and has a 1 year old son named Sammy! I like them a lot. We also visited with them on Sunday, and we had a really good heart to heart with them. They opened up a lot, and let us know some of their concerns and things . It was sad to hear some things they told us, but I saw so much progress in them both. I really would like to see the both of them return to full activity in the Church. 

So Thanksgiving was great! Both of our appointments were part member meals! :) So it was good! I enjoyed part of the Cowboys game with George when we were visiting Norma and Alejandra on Thanksgiving. He is a huge sports fanatic! He is majoring in Sports Management and has promised me some hookups if he works for any big teams lol! He is way cool. The 3 or them have become really good friends of mine!

So to answer your question Michelle will now be baptized on the 8th! We just got to figure some things out, because apparently there is a party going on here at the Church that night. So it may be moved to the 9th.. But we are not sure yet. Either way it is going to happen! :) She is such a smart little girl! We taught her the Plan of Salvation at Church on Sunday and I was amazed at how fast she picked things up and how much she understood! She looks like she is 8, and acts like she is 16. Its the weirdest thing! She is only 11! 

So we have been helping the English Elders (Eliason and Plouzek) teach some college girls lately. There is a girl in there ward named Mariah and a couple of her roommates have a lot of questions about Mormons.. So she did not have all of the answers so she invited us over.. That was about 6 weeks ago. We go to the college campus each week and teach about 4 college girls the gospel. Not going to lie the first time it was REALLY WEIRD to be on a College campus. She even took us to dinner at dining hall there.. Crazy awkward, then her friends asked us some of the most ridiculous questions... The first time there were about 8 of them.. the ones who were not really interested kind of fell off. We are now teaching Melissa, Kristin, and Melina. It has been a lot of fun! And they are all reading and Kristin and Melina have even come to church a couple of times! I am really interested to see what happens with them! I think all of the interest came in after General Conference with the new announcement that sisters can now serve at 19. Because Mariah decided she was going to leave at the beginning of this summer. So naturally her friends had questions. She is a really good girl and a great example to her friends! I have a lot of respect for her!  It would be extremely hard to be going to college, and be as active in the Gospel as she. 

So no more news for BYU as of yet. I have progressed a little on the essays. The good news is I am almost done! So all that will really be left to do is edit and send it all in... And Mom I don't know what to tell you about the Seminary thing. Call and ask them. I have no idea why it keeps turning up empty. We should figure that out though. :) 

Oh and yes we did get to go back down to the Rockaways in Queens! Friday we went with our stake and I led one of the Groups! That day President and Sister Morgan went down as well, along with their son Ryan. It was really good! We worked our tails off! There is still so much to do! We did not finish working in the 1 house we were working in that day. Then we went down again on Saturday as a Zone and we spent a whole day at a house working! The family there bought us McDonalds so it ruined my fast food and soda fast! But it was all good! We had to crawl into a little 4 foot hole in the side of their house and clear stuff out from under it, as well as rip up their wooden floorboards. It was fun and a lot of work! I was so happy to serve them! It was one of the best experiences of my mission.. I will never forget it! We really helped people.. over the 3 days combined I did over 18 hours of service.. I was dead each day and slept like a baby! I don't even want to know how the South Missionaries feel.. I love serving! I hope and pray I can do something like that again! :) It was the experience of a lifetime. We helped others as the Savior would! And we were happy as we did it :) 

So life is good ! :) I am happy as always! I need to know who I need to buy my secret Santa gift for this year so you guys should let me know ASAP :) And I just want to apologize to you all.. My English stinks. Spanish has really messed up not only how I speak in English but how I write lol! I really need to take an English course when I get home. 

Stinks to hear hockey is still on hold.. At this point the NHL probably won't be back on till next season...  But glad to hear LSU is in a bowl game! Makes me really happy to know that Notre Dame is the football team that they used to be! I hope they destroy Bama when they play them.

I love you all! I hope you have a great week! I will talk to you soon! :) 

Love Elder Mark Mattei! 

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey there mommy! :) I will try to reply to everything you asked. You wrote A LOT! and I have very little time. So seeing David was awesome!   David Phillips is a childhood friend of Mark's who used to live in O'fallon and just returned from a mission to Colorado.  It made me really happy to see him! :) And David told me you saw the video. Some other missionaries in our Zone told me that I was in it! So I saw it! I am glad that made you happy! :) I knew that it would! :) 

Thanksgiving will be good. We are going to visit the Rejas family. It will be fun. No Macy's day parade :( And no Turkey Bowls :( So I am kind of bummed out about that! But it will be all good! We are going to make the best out of it.

For Pday we went up and visited Lewis! I am looking of a new suit! So Elder Lewis is trying to help me out. I really want a grey one. I was looking at H and M today. Now we are at a.. well, not really investigator's house, but guy they visit's, house. And he is really funny. The missionaries have been visiting him for over 30 years!! Still not a member.. Not really investigating.. I think they just come over here to hang out. He is really funny. His name is Mike. I would love to come to this area just to get to know him.

So I am glad you talked to President Smith! Thank you for all you are doing Mom to help me prepare for the application process I really appreciate it! I really appreciate the letter from Brother Tuttle! so make sure you tell him thank you for me :)

So we will probably have the opportunity to go do service in Queens again this weekend! I am hoping that I will feel better by then. I have been sick the past couple of days! But I am excited for Thanksgiving.. kind of lol! But more excited for Christmas that will be here in just a few short couple of days!

Well I got to get going! I have a line of people waiting behind me to email! So I love you all! And I hope everyone is doing alright! :) You are all the best! have a great week! you are in my prayers! :)

Love Marky! :)