First Baptism

Dear Family,

I will not be able to answer your questions that you asked in that email because I lost the email I printed out, lol. Sorry it took so long for me to write and for the very short email. But I have no ipod and right now I'm broke. Most of my money went towards buying medicines for colds and stuff like that with the mission money. I also haven't really been fed dinners much either. I don't really mind too much since I'm trying to lose weight. I just eat a big lunch to make up for it. I ate at this really good Brazilian restaurant last week. The meats and steaks were so good! They walk around and just cut meat off for you to eat. It's like $20 per plate but you get as much meat as you want. I also tried chicken heart just to say I have tried it. It was chewy and tasted pretty gross. The people we were with were laughing at how I looked when I ate it. The lady also put a video on her blog of me imitating Bill Clinton. I gave her your email Mom so yall could see it. I just found out the Saints killed the Giants. The Giants were undefeated and supposedly the best NFL team. I'm glad to see that the Saints decided to do well for once when I'm on my mission. Hopefully I will get to see a game.

Russ's baptism was yesterday. It was really good and we had a better turn out than expected. I confirmed him this morning. I was nervous but it turned out well. Elder Bingham gave me some crap last Saturday about Florida beating LSU. He was cool about it though. He is a big Gator's fan. Back to Russ though. He has really different Native American beliefs and (believes in)government conspiracies. I like to think of him as Fox Mulder, but stranger.

By the way my coat fits fine. Jackie's baptism was delayed. Another guy we met wants to be baptized. So things are going well. I'm getting a new companion on Wednesday. His name is Elder Garlock. Hopefully I like him. Just so yall know I meet a lot of strange and messed up people. I have a much better attitude towards people who drink and do drugs now. I feel more sorry for them and want to help them. I used to pretty much think they deserved what they got. So my mission has changed me some. Tell Granny, Pop Pop and Stephanie hi for me. Show them my letters. Thank you Thomas for the letter you sent me a long time ago. I enjoyed reading it. Yall need to send me a copy of my Patriarchal blessing and some MoTab.

Take care,

Love Elder Mattei