Yall Have a Happy New Years

Elder Mattei with Aaron

The best present we could have received this Christmas was getting to speak with Greg for a while! He sounded great and seems to be doing so well! It was a bittersweet experience, but we're so glad he's happy and grateful for his service and example to his friends and family.






Things are going better with my companion though. He is just different. This week was pretty good though.
Elder Mattei had mentioned in a letter home as well as during our phone conversation that there were some issues with his latest companion. He's learning patience and endurance which is what his mission president counseled. We also counseled him to look for the positive in his companion. I marveled at the maturity and wisdom that Greg demonstrated during our conversation as he acknowledged the fact that all companions will present certain challenges and how he is learning to focus on the good. Hello! Where's my son, Gregory???? This surely wasn't him telling me to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative?!

I got the book you sent and I enjoyed reading it. Many thanks to those of you who contributed short notes of encouragement to Greg!!!


Those socks I mentioned are called wolverine socks. These were a gift from the mission president and his wife. They are apparently VERY warm which is a must for a missionary in Idaho these days! President and Sister Yardley also called him on his birthday and sang Happy Birthday to him. He thought that was so nice. The Garcias, a family that he and his companion are working with, also threw him a party, plus several missionaries called him and some sent him gifts. Plus he said he was Very Surprised by the birthday cake I sent. So despite the challenges with his comp, I hope it all made for a nice day.


It stinks that my memory card fell out. I had a lot of pictures on there, even some from my first transfer. Its aggrivating but its ok. Yes, the memory card that we've been waiting on for weeks now is gone. The envelope arrived with a huge tear. I was just sick about all those pictures lost forever. So I'm sending preaddressed, stamped, padded envelopes to him now so that we don't have a repeat of this misfortune.




Aaron came to church and he said he really liked it. He said he would like to be baptized but it will be sometime before he can be baptized. He is a pretty big guy and pretty ripped. So it's really exciting that will happen hopefully sometime soon. This is apparently a new investigator that they're teaching.


It's good to hear that Todd is doing good in hockey. He needs to try and do better in school though. On Christmas, Elder Mattei also told Todd to pull up his grades. Again who is this person? He cares about his little brother's grades. . . WHO KNEW?


Elder Mattei also mentioned that one of the missionaries in his zone is preparing to become a trainer. He's getting a greenie (new missionary) next week. He's so hopeful it's another young missionary from O'fallon, MO! We're keeping our fingers crossed! (One of our close friends' son, Elder Trevor Gonthier is at the MTC right now, and will be going to Idaho on Tuesday, next week. I told Trevor several times before he left to pass my hugs onto Greg ~ I have a feeling he'll be seeing him pretty soon, even if they don't end up in the same zone.)


We are trying to stay busy teaching and stuff. We get the day off on New Years which is nice. LSU plays on New Years. Hopefully they will win.


I don't have a whole lot to say since I talked to yall on Christmas. Not a whole lot has happened since then, Not a whole lot, except . . .


I can't believe the Saints lost. I hope that they start playing a lot better than what they have been recently. I don't know what's up with the Saints. I hope they start playing better soon. They have no excuse losing to Tampa Bay.


Next week I will hopefully have some more stuff to say. But it was nice talkin to yall on the phone. Yall have a Happy New Years!


LoveElder Mattei

Happy Birthday Greg!

Here is an email I received from a sweet sister in Nampa, ID who had offered to help in surprising Elder Mattei on his birthday. I met her through a Missionary Mom's email group.

Gracie,
My husband and I had a lot of fun taking the cake to your son !! I got their number from another Missionary. When I called it, your son answered. My goal of calling was to make sure they were going to be at their home. So I had planned what I was going to say and of course messed up my words once your son answered the phone (I panicked a little)...
I said I needed to bring someone or something over to your companion today.
And of course he sounded curious and confused because of my stumbling over my words..
I asked what their schedule was like, and he said they had some paperwork to fill out and would be gone for a while.
He also said they had a party at 5pm.
After a few more words, by now I had him really confused because he said "Let me give the phone to my companion, he may know what you are talking about.."
So his companion gets on with a strong accent, and my first thought was, 'oh crap, is he going to be able to understand me!!'
So I said something like, "Is Elder Mattei right near you because this is a surprise for him, I talked with his mom, I need to bring a surprise over to him because it it his birthday tomorrow; make sure when you talk he does not get what we are talking about so we can keep it a surprise; I want to bring it by while you are at your home; what is your scedule like"
(Keep in mind that this whole time I am talking slow and hoping he can understand me and repeating several times about Elder Mattei not finding out anything)
So I told his companion, we would be there at 4:30. He said that would be fine.
We went and got the cake (which looked great!)
We were running behind, so I called his comp and said we on our way and he said they would wait until we got there.
His comp answered the door beaming from ear to ear, by himself. He was very nice and he is from France.
He knew who we were, I asked where Elder Mattei was and he said "I told him to stay upstairs"
He saw we had a cake and called your son down.
We walked in and your son was confused, of course
I told him I had emailed you thru a Missionary Moms email group we are both a part of, and offered to help with a cake or something.
He acted shy and not quite sure what to do..
He said he was very surprised, and I told him that you had told me you had already sent him birthday things.
So he started to get a little red and said several times he was surprised and I told him that was the way it was suppose to be.
Your son is a very sweet young man!!
We took a few pictures of him as you can see.
He thanked us, we talked about different Elders we all knew.
Your son did say that he needs to send you his SD card.
I told him that would be an awesome gift for Christmas, especially since I am a RM's mom and I know what it was like. haha
I also said that I would be checking back with him in a couple of days to make sure he sends it to you!
It was so fun to do that! And yes, I did get your check, thanks!
If there is anything else you need, PLEASE do not hesitate to let us know!
We did tell them if they come our way to look us up and I spelled our last name and told them where we live.
His comp deserves some definite Kudos for helping !!

Only a Little Bit

The Garcia Family

Well, this week we got a short email that answered some of our questions. So here's what we've found out ... We were happy to hear that Elder Mattei had received his package that contained his birthday gift as well as 12 Christmas presents for the 12 Days of Christmas. However we don't know if he is opening each gift on a different day or if he opened them all up at once. We're hoping he chose to open them one at a time, so that he has something to open Christmas morning.

He indicated that he would soon be writing Thank you notes to those of you who have sent gifts the past few weeks. He also said that he would soon be mailing the memory card to us, so hopefully more pictures and maybe even a video will be up soon. I'm really looking forward to seeing pictures of him, not to mention we supposedly trade memory cards, so I've been waiting on a card for my camera for 3 weeks now. :)

He likes Caldwell. It appears that he is living with a rather young family: 3 children, kindergarten age and younger, two of them named Lily and Nathan. We figured that they were living in a separate part of the home, but he said no their room is right next to the kids'. We found that rather interesting and very different from what we're used to here in St. Louis.

It looks like he travels by car, mostly. He and his companion are primarily working with less actives. (Those are members of the Church who seldom attend Church services or meetings.) He specifically mentioned the Garcia family whom he really likes,but I am not sure if they're members or investigators. No baptisms are pending at this time. And lastly, their meal situation is greatly improved. He said he's getting a lot more meals in Caldwell! He promises to write much more next week. We just can't wait to talk to him Christmas Day!!!

In Caldwell Now

Well about the phone call, I can probably call from the Mission phone considering its sprint and it won't cost either of us money. I would prefer to call maybe around night time since mom may be working. Or maybe during the afternoon sometime. My companion will have to talk to his parents during the morning since his family is all in France. Things here have been going well just a bit stressful because my companion works really really hard and it gets to the point where it stresses me out because I need a break. I think he is a good guy and a great missionary but he works way too hard. It's kinda like he is a robot. All he wants to do is teach teach teach and it's hard for me to talk to him about anything that isn't related to church. I have to have a lot of patience because I have trouble understanding him sometimes. He is also the worst driver ever. Worse than Lindsay lol. A timely comment: Within 30 minutes of Greg sending this email, Lindsay and Mark were in a car accident. Thankfully neither of them was hurt, but Greg's old Camry was totaled. OOPS! He wouldn't pass a drivers test I don't think. He has an international license but I let him drive because I want him to learn. He has trouble doing just basic parking and he ran a red light way too late. I have been driving lately because of all the snow and ice because he can't drive in that and I have driven in it before. But like I said he is really nice and is a hard worker. I'm glad he is a hard worker but in some ways I think he overdoes it because sometimes it makes me miserable because he sucks the fun out of everything. Like I just need a break sometimes because my medicine makes me tired and it just stresses me out. Other than that I have no problem with him. Most people think he kinda needs to chill out sometimes too and just learn to have fun and be more social. Last night we had a bon fire at the zone leaders house. Our Zone is awesome. We had like our whole zone there and we stayed up till 3 am. We had a bunch of boy scouts that couldn't start a fire so we had to use lighter fluid lol. It took like 30 min and it was probably about 6 degrees last night and below zero with wind chill. It was a lot of fun. I got to know people a lot more and I had a lot of fun. I took some pictures so I will be sending my memory card home soon. I had to sleep on the floor and get up at 7 am. But I really enjoyed it and it's like a once in awhile thing we do like maybe once a transfer. We call them P-day eves. But anyways I need to go. Take care. Please send my GPS soon because I really need it because my companion doesn't know the area the best and we keep having to turn around and stuff because he doesn't know the area and its wasting miles so I really need a GPS. Okay we got the HINT!

Love

Elder Mattei

- Are you staying with a family? yes, Bro. and sis. Perkins

- If so what are their names and do they have children, etc? they have 3 children and one on the way. I don't know all their names yet

- Do you have your own room, etc.? Yeah, its a pretty nice house

- How long has your companion been out? I think 10 months

- You said he is from France, what part? Southern part of France

- Do you both get along? Yeah we both get along well.

- What Wards are you serving in? Caldwell 9th, 15th and 5th ward

- How many missionaries are in your area? Maybe 10?

- Anyone you know or have worked with? Elder Nelson and thats it

- Are you currently teaching anyone? Yes a ton of people

- How are you doing on money and such? Money is decent but I don't have a whole lot cause of groceries and such

Stressed Out and Wiped Out

Greg is being transferred to Caldwell, ID tomorrow. I think he was ready for a change. It's only about 30 minutes west of where he is now ~ So on the other side of Boise.


I spent last night with Russ and said goodbye to him and I also got a chance to watch the Saints game and they killed the Patriots. I have been stressed lately with packing stuff and making sure I have everything. I have to sleep on the floor tonight at another Elder's house. I'm gonna head to my area tomorrow at some point. President talked to me today and told me he is sending me to that area because he knows I'll work hard. I'm really tired right now because I have not slept well the past 2 nights because I have been busy packing and stuff. Today I went and played racket ball at a members house. It was a lot of fun. They have their own built in racket ball court and their house was worth at least a million dollars. We have another baptismal date set but I probably won't be there for it. Her name is Andrea and she is twenty years old. She is really nice and we taught her the first two lessons before I left. Yes I know Elder Nelson. He is cool and get along with him pretty well. I'm extremly tired right now so I'm sorry if this message is short. I have been busy all day and yesterday so I'm about wiped out.

Love
Elder Mattei