Thanksgiving Week

So this last week or so has been pretty slow with Thanksgiving coming up and the really bad weather. I kinda told u about sliding into the ditch. Our tires were bald and I put the car in low gear and all of a sudden it starts sliding to the right into a ditch. We were under a blizzard warning and you have to watch out for snow drifts as well. I walked in some snow yesterday and it was up to my knees in some places. Basically yesterday we sat inside all day long and it was pretty boring. So it's been really cold here. 

This week we will be eating dinner with the Kupers and lunch with the Gonzales. Brother Gonzales is less active and not in our area but he and his wife are the ones that own Pure Energy (the gymnastics place where Greg jumps on the trampolines).  I made a bet with him that if the Saints win he has to go to church for 3 weeks and if the Saints lose I have to leave him alone about it for 3 weeks. We will likely both watch the game and have a good time. 

For Christmas don't get me anything I have to really lug around. I think gift cards will be ok. Don't get me a lot tho cause today I'm gonna go and buy some boots to wear for snow and stuff. They cost about 60 dollars.

I heard about the pat down thing. I don't really see the big deal in it as long as you are having someone of the same sex searching you. I guess maybe it's a little extreme. But the scanners I don't have a problem with. The pat downs might be kinda weird tho. No we didn't find out much more about the drugs that went missing. I think they trust us though that we didn't do anything. I think I will be staying and training but then again who knows. Does Mark talk to Melissa much about religion? To be honest she gets most of her information off of anti websites and I don't think will look at it with an open mind. 

How are granny and pop pop doing and grandma and grandpa and Aunt Cindy and them? Are yall gonna go down to New Orleans again for new years or anything?  It's cool that Tre  came by to come see yall. I find it interesting that Lindsay is really set on going on a mission. I didn't think that would ever happen lol. Most girls get married before they go on one. She will have to wait until she is 21 to go. So she still has quite awhile. So what all have yall been up to? I'm tryin to think of stuff I did this week but really we didn't do a whole lot. Anyways sorry this is short but I don't have much to say. Anyways yall have a happy Thanksgiving and take care.

 

Love

Elder Mattei

Elder Mattei on his birthday last year - sent from Sis Garcia

Another Baptism

Callies baptism went really well. I was excited to see him get baptized. The Assistants came to our baptism because Elder Nelson had helped teach him and he told me he didn't ever think Callie would get baptized. We will meet with Mark sometime later this week. I think he will be baptized at some point eventually. We started teaching this family the Bodenhoffers. She is a recent convert and wants her kids to be baptized. 

This week I didn't get to do much work in my areas because I was stuck in leadership meetings. Apparently President Cannon thought I should go even though I'm not training or a district or zone leader. Which that probably means I'm gonna end up training. Basically these meetings lasted for about 8 hours for 3 days. We would role play and learn how to teach better. It was pretty helpful but it was really long. Then I rode up to my area with President and Sister Cannon because I had no ride back there so they gave me one. It was pretty cool to be able to talk to them and get to know them a little bit more. 

We also had something bad happen at our house. The people we live with called us upstairs and asked us about why they were missing a ton of pills out of their medicine cabinet. They were missing Hydrocodone and a ton of anxiety pills and stuff. Me and my companion had no idea how they went missing. I don't blame them for being suspicious cause we are the only ones there. I know my companion didn't take them. So the next day I went and talked to President Cannon about it and told him I thought another missionary could have taken them. Cause when I left for these meetings my companion went with 2 other missionaries and they stayed at our house for a little while on Wednsday. I suspected one of the missionaries of taking them because I know he had a really bad drug addiction before his mission and his real mission is supposed to be in New York but he is in Idaho because he has to finish his probation. I honestly think he took them cause there is no other way they would go missing. President Cannon interviewed him after I told him about it and apparently the missionary passed the interview. I still am suspicious about him taking them though.

Last night we went to contact these people Bob and Sue, and I asked her where Bob was. She was like he cheated on me and I threw him out. I was pretty shocked. Both of them are less active. Actually Bob is excommunicated. They were both living together and I guess Bob was cheating on her with 6 other girls. Its just shocking how far people can fall cause Bob used to go to the temple like once a week and stuff. I felt really bad for her though. We were there for 2 hours and she was steaming almost the whole time. We ended up staying till 10 at night. I shared a message about the atonement of Jesus Christ and she started crying and we gave her a blessing of comfort. I think this could actually get her activie. But she has had a hard life and was asking us why her life is so hard and told us some things about what happened to her in her life. I'll probably cook her some gumbo and bring it to her. She is from Arkansas so she likes it. 

Thanksgiving I think I'm gonna go to the Gonzalez. They are the family that owns the Pure Energy place. Then I think we will spend time with the Kupers as well. We teach the Kupers. They are a very nice family and I enjoy going over there. I enjoyed Scott's message. I miss all of them as well. It won't be too long till I can hang out with them. I'm glad to hear that Mark and them enjoyed the LSU game. LSU offense sucks though. I got Mark's letter this week. I will write him back when I can. I wasn't able to last week cause of all those meetings and stuff.

But anyways no I don't wear my glasses. I probably should. To answer your question I have no idea how much snow they get here. Last winter was a mild winter but I think Missouri probably gets more snow than here or about the same. By the way I enjoyed that email from Brother Russo. Tell him his Rams need to learn how to win on the road lol. Im gonna go play some football but I'll write more when I get back. Im back from football and extremly tired. I had the most amazing interception. I like stretched my right hand as far up in the air as I could and caught the ball with one hand and I had like 4 tds. But then again Im also playin people im more athletic than, but it was fun. Anyways yall have a good day and I hope yall have a good week.

 

Love

Elder Mattei