WEEK 65----SORRY JUST PICS THIS WEEK

WEEK 64--It has finally clicked...

I want to start out with a poem written by Philosopher George Santayana called "Better Part".

O world, thou choosest not the better part!
It is not wisdom to be only wise,
And on the inward vision close the eyes,
But it is wisdom to believe the heart.
Columbus found a world, and had no chart,
Save one that faith deciphered in the skies;
To trust the soul''s invincible surmise
Was all his science and his only art.
Our knowledge is a torch of smoky pine
That lights the pathway but one step ahead
Across a void of mystery and dread.
But, then, the tender light of faith to shine
By which alone the mortal heart is led
Unto the thinking of the thought divine.

I found this poem while reading in The Infinite Atonement by Elder Tad R. Callister. And what George Santana is talking about are those who fail to choose this better part.. Now I can't say much on this topic because I at times don't choose the "Better Part", but that's what's so wonderful. Even though at times we make the wrong choice or in ingonorance sin against our Father in Heaven we have the Atonement. Now I've been asked the question, "As a missionary you study a lot. Is there something you never tire of studying?" And my answer is always "The Atonement". My favorite scripture in the Book of Mormon is on this topic. It is Mosiah 14: 3-5. It says, " 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and aquianted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised." Did you know that out of the numberless amount of world's that had been created by God, our world, our nation was the only one wicked enough to beat, torment, hate, and crucify the Only Begotten of the Father? Blows my mind.. "4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." Our Savior in his time of pain and suffering he thought of us individually first. Through our individual griefs and sorrows.. Then. "5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." He paid the price for sins. The Atonement is the most important and most needed thing in our life, or at least it should be. When we feel like we can't turn to anybody in our times of need. We can look to our Savior because he has felt everything. I get so worked up about this because it has changed me. And I know if you allow the Atonement into your life it can change you as well. This last weekend we had Stake Conference for the Greenfield Stake, and all of the talks were on gratitude, and love, and having your sights set on our Savior and the Book of Mormon, and being in line with the Savior because He is in line with Heavenly Father. And I've just been Spiritually fed from it. I'm grateful for this gospel. I am so glad that I'm able to be out here in Arizona spreading this message.

Well anyways. Here are some highlights of the week. We helped our former Vehicle Coordinator Brother Ashton put up his Gazibo. I love doing that kind of work. We were flipped off by this dang tree... just driving down Pecos minding our own business and well I there she was. Of course it was me that had to bring it up and point it out. Oh well.. then he is a picture of the 4 out of the 6 Elders in my district. Now I'm going to try to explain this picture. From left to right,  Chadwick was angry at the guy taking to the picture who will not be named. But this old lady came up and said, "OH come on SMILE!?!?"  Chadwick obediently smiled for the kind old women and well as for me I still didn't want to take a picture in the first place so I had no desire to listen to her.. Now the guy the the right of me Elder Leavitt he always looks like that, but I can never tell whether he is constipated or trying to figure out why square no fit in circle. I don't know. Anyways my favorite, Elder Boujeé. Remember The Best Two Years? Remember Elder Calhoon? Yeahhhhh Elder Boujeé is the Elder Calhoun of the Arizona Gilbert Mission.. So you can say he always looks like that. It isn't bad. He's just always ready and excited for the day! And lastly we took Christmas Card pics and they are lit!!! All thanks to Mama Hoopes!!!!!!! Here's my favorite one. And thank you to Goodwill for the sick sweaters.

Well that is all for this week! I hope you all have a wonderful week. I love and miss you! God bless. Oh and Merry Christmas!!

Love,
Elder Matua

WEEK 63---"Never apologize for how much love you have to give. Just feel sorry for those who didn't want any of it."

This week hasn't been too eventful, but I'll give you the highlights. 1. Our service on Friday....
2. Segways. 3. It's still hot down here...

1.) Okay I love giving service, but this particular one was not my favorite. First off it was in a creepy as heck building. It was at the Gilbert Museum.... it's tiny, old, smelly, and it just gives you the heebie geebies... So what was going on was there was a silent auction there on previous decorated trees and what we had to do was help the winner of a tree wrap it in plastic wrap and haul it to their car. Okay so it doesn't sound as bad as it actually was. You get really dizzy from walking around a tree like 30 times added with the no A/C and the smell. It was just rough. While being there I fell down some stairs, got a big "phantom scratch",  and my comp got a killer bloody nose. So the stairs were all slanted and slick so I took on step and fell all the way down on my butt.. the phantom scratch came form the basement. Supposedly the basement is haunted and there's a lady that is always seen down there. And I walked down there with only a bruised butt. And I walked out with a big scratch from my wrist to my forearm and I didn't touch anything while down there.. I showed the guy in charge and said, "Yep she don't take to kindly to you Mormon guys too much, and I said, "she?" and he replied, "Yep her names Lucy." And 10 minutes later my companion went downstairs to grab some boxes and he came back up gushing blood out of his face! So it got a little sketch after that... but anyways I don't ever want to go back there...

2.) Not sure if I mentioned this last week, but there is a member in our zone leaders area that has 4 segways at $8,000 a pop. Well we had a lot of fun riding around at a park and racing and what not. They had off road tires on them so we were going everywhere. It was a lot of fun. I have a picture of it so I'll send that.

3.) Last year the temperature cooled down around the middle of November. This year it's still in the mid to high 70's to low 80's.. it's been toasty. We've been driving around with windows down and short sleeves. It is ridiculous.

That's pretty much it for the week. I hope you have a good week! Alofas from AZ!!

- Elder Matua

WEEK 62-"Death is not the greatest loss in life.The greatest loss is what dies inside while still alive. Never Surrender"

I would like to start by saying I am very thankful for all of you in my life. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I did. mainly because I didn't get over stuffed, and had some down time to just relax. But this week has been quite eventful. 1. We have a baptism on the 23rd of December, so a Christmas baptism. 2. Mistaken Miracle. 3. We got some pretty sick M&M's.

1. We are teaching the sweetest girl. She is 23 and she is autistic. The family is all members, but they have been letting their daughter decide for herself when she wants to be baptized. We taught her the first lesson on Friday, and she soaked it up. She is set for a Christmas baptism. We are so excited.

2. Our mistake was, we were asked to not stop by a family because the ward doesn't want to push this family further away from the Church. Well this name came up as uncontacted. Well the last name wasn't the last name we were asked not to stop by so we went. And, well, we knocked.. They answered.. and... They loved us!!! We got along so well with them! They were so nice and we got to talk to them. They complimented that we were the coolest Elders to stop by in a while, and so we just talked and then asked if there was anything we could do for them. It was a miracles.

3. There will be pictures of the M&M's They have me and my companions nicknames on them. They were given to us by an investigator. They went to Vegas for the weekend and they got them for us.

Well sorry there isn't a lot of stuff from this week but it was a good week. Love you all have  good week!! talk to you later!!!❤

We'll post the M&M pictures when we can find them. Sorry.

WEEK 60- this wee has been sick!!! Also, 10 months left...

First off thank you all for the Happy Birthday wishes. I had an amazing day even though half of it was fast Sunday..

But onto the good stuff. Me and my new comp have had a blast the past 3 weeks, but while doing the work. 1. My Comp and I love to explore. 2. Mesa Visitor Center. 3. Cryo Treatments

1.)  For this week we set out on a quest to find the attic to every building in our stake and have Comp Study up there, and boy did we succeed. 4 buildings in 4 days with 4 attics. We had a lot of fun with this. So we have a Master key, and we would go around to every door trying to find the stairs or latter to the attic. It's really creepy up there. It feels like there are people up there with you and they are just watching you as you dip, weave, and crawl over the 2 x 4 beams. Or the air vents.

2.) So 2 times this week we went to the Mesa Temple Visitor Center. Once we went with a Recent Convert, Jason Hair, and we were able to teach him about the power of the Temple. He is so easy going he had no questions.. He just wanted to get right into doing Temple work. And the other time we went was with another Recent Convert, Julia Kearney, and she is the same way. We taught about the Sealing power of the Temple, and how the work that we do in there is sacred. Well no questions came from her either. She already has an appointment with Bishop Thursday to receive her Temple Recommend. But, both times we went it was very spiritual, and cool to bear testimony of something you love. I love the Temple. And I am truly blessed to have a Temple in my mission. A lot of missionaries don't have the opportunity to attend the Temple while on their mission.

3.) Okay "COOLEST" part of my week. You can say me and my Comp have been the COLDEST any missionary had ever been while being on their mission... And I am in FREAKING AZ!!! So their is place owned by a member from my comps last area and he told us to come in on a P-day and come try it out, and we did!! It was crazy! It's called Cold Front Cryo. It's like a mini one body freezing sauna, and boy does it work wonders. You get into this capsule, and they select regular (-284 degrees), intense (-292 degrees), strong (-306 degrees), or extreme (-321 degrees). They turn it on and then the capsule gets filled with Nitrogen, and it is COLD... I choose the -306 degrees for 3 minutes. What it's supposed to do is burns calories, boosts your mood, soothes aches, and takes away soreness. It was amazing! We also got to wear these sick white robs, with old grandpa tube socks, and the best part.... CROCS!!! Me and Chadwick were looking flyyyy!

Well there are the highlights of my weeks! Thank you again for all the birthday wishes! I love you all. Have a good week, and God Bless!!!

WEEK 58---"How can sky be the limit when there's footprints on the Moon?"

Alright so I got a new Companion and I am so excited for these next 6 weeks. His name is Elder Chadwick. He has been out 17 months, so only 2 transfers ahead of me. He is from Windsor, Colorado. Just East of Fort Collins. He is a STUD! This past week we have seen a lot of good come from our long hours of biking and the hard work we've been putting in. But let's start with my favorite. A funny moment. This may not be funny to you but it brought a smile to my face.
So we were looking through the area book to see who we could stop by before we went to dinner. Well a name Colette Cordner came up and it sounded to familiar, I was like oh sweet let's go see her. We looked up the address and started to bike there. We got there and I just couldn't figure out why the name was familiar to me. Well we knocked on the door and I just laughed and Elder Chadwick gave me this look like why are you laughing!? And I said, "Hey Sister Cordner how are you doing?? Elder Chadwick meet the former relief Society President." She replied with, "Fine! What can I do for you Elders?" So, we shared with her that we had a referral to stop by her because she had filled out a card at a concert that Gladys Knight put on like a year ago and the referral had just come through. Then she told us she only filled that card out to get the free CD... So this "golden referral" ended up being a freaking amazing member.. Funny right? -_-

Anyways... Investigator updates: We still have a set baptism the Saturday and we are stoked! All we need is an interview and we are good to go. We have a couple investigators progressing really well. Our investigator Wilson just moved out of our area which sucks.. Jason Hair is doing very well and he received the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday!! As you can see things are doing just fine here in ole' Gilbert, AZ!

This week we were able to meet a few new people who are wanting to know more about the Gospel and it gets me so excited! We met the sweetest old lady that asked us to come back. So we are gonna go back and teach her about the Restoration of the Gospel. We met a young man who said he was interested, but will have to talk to his parents so we will see how that goes. We also met an elderly man who says he hates all religions, but ours has always stuck out to him. He's the one I'm excited for. This next Monday I hope I have stories for you all.

Well I love you guys and thank you for all the prayers I am grateful to have family and friends like you all. have a good week!!

Zone pumpkin carving activity

Tai Pumpkin 1

Tai Pumpkin 2

With Sis. (Maddie) Snow, RM served in the Philippines

My NEW comp, Elder Chadwick

Me and Elder Tanner

Zobe, the miniture camel cow???

Riding in the trunk

The Lewis Family

Me and Elder McKown

Sunday treats from members.....so spoiled!!!

WEEK 57-This is a sad week...

This week was my last week with my favorite companion. We've seen good success in this area. We've been able to see changes in those we have taught. Elder Mckown taught me that there is multiple ways to do missionary work. It isn't a wrote, scripted work. You have to be human and you can be You. Just more mature for me. This transfer has been real.
But let's get into the good stuff.
Here is a funny moment.
So we went to say goodbye to a family that Elder Mckown was super close with. And as we were leaving I heard and big slap and I looked and the oldest daughter was still grabbing Elder McKown's butt. I. Was. In. Shock. I died laughing while Mckown turned like 100 shades of red in .3 seconds. Long story short she was dared by hee sister to do it.
Here is a miracle.
We are teaching this girl. Her name is Julia. And she is awesome. And she is amazing. We call her the platinum investigators. She's another Jason. If you remember back to my last email a couple weeks ago. Julia is ready to be dunked. We just have to teach her the lessons. She is living the Gospel. She has met all the requirements. We are just waiting for her baptismal date which is November 4. Our second lesson with her she told US that she had a date for baptism. She's just awesome. So she is our miracle for the week.
Now not a whole lot has happened this week. Besides my companion packing, visiting families to say goodbye, having lessons, talking to people on the streets and getting rejected 100 times a day. But one thing I will remember was one of the talks given in sacrament meeting the an RM gave about families. I love my family. I am grateful for my family. I don't know what I'd do with out them. In his talk he said that without families God's plan wouldn't be complete. It wouldn't work. And I agree. I don't think if be able to make it through life on the right path with out a family to keep me on it.
With that I love you all and I hope you all had a good week. And I hope you all have a better week this week. Keep it real.
Love,
Elder Matua

That's our cowboy....what a dork!!!!

He must be missing his Kujo

WEEK 55----DUNKED!!!!!!

This week has been a wild one. And whenbi say wild I mean wild!!!! Crazy busy so let's get to it. I'm only going to be telling the important things throughout the week.

Tuesday: We had an amazing district meeting. We learned how to better work with our new technology and how we can help our investigators through Facebook. Let's just say me and my comp killed it. We got a few lessons set up and we had a couple lessons over Facebook messenger. Later that day we had a lesson with Jason Hair to finalize his baptism program and set up a daybfor his interview. Let me just tell ya. Jason is amazing. We tell him what he needs to do and he does it no questions asked because he said, "Before I even started taking the lessons I knew it was true." Which if you didn't know never happens. So it was cool to see someone act without thinking because of how strong his faith was.

Wednesday: We had our last required lesson with Jason. And of course he said he would commit to living the 20 commandments and the law of Tithing which is amazing. So many people get caught up on those things. Anyways. That's the only my important thing about that day.

Friday: See as a missionary our weeks are very different than yours back at home. We dread Fridays and look forward to Mondays. So we had weekly planning as usual and that sucked, but afterwards the day went awesome. We had a lot of referrals to stop by and all of the answered the door except one and we got to talk to them and set up return appointments. It was awesome. Later on we had Jason's baptismal interview which went very well. All we had to do then was get him in the water and dunk him. AND IT HAPPENED, but more on that tomorrow. We then had a lesson after the interview with a family that is amazing. They are less active, but we have good lessons with them. They actually came to church on Sunday, so hopefully we can get them started backup again.

Saturday: The only really important thing that happened on Saturday was Jason's baptism, and it was a amazing. He was so ready, and the spirit was so strong.

Sunday: We had church for 7-8 hours...... Not important I just complain about that a lot. Haha. We also threw a child in a pool.

Well that is about it. I love you all I hope you have a good week. Talk to you next week!!!

WEEK 54?---This Week Has Been Chill

I'm sorry I've been slacking on emails. But today I'll start with something I heard this week that I will probably apply for the rest of my life. It's from Elder Natress of the Seventy, and also former Mission President of the Arizona Gilbert Mission he said, "Plan precisely, but execute flexibly."  I love that quote. As missionaries, not everything goes to plan. Lessons get cancelled, doors get slammed in your face, you go to contact people and they say they're not interested, etc. But you either have a back up or you have to be light on your feet to come up with something to do to be effective. I've found this quote to have already helped me in this work. I've never not been busy this transfer, and I'm loving it. Although my comp goes home this transfer and is a little trunky. He still realizes that he's not done until he's been set apart. So it's been a good transfer so far. 

Here is a quick funny moment of this week. So, we were having a lesson with our investigator this past Thursday, and we showed him a picture of Jesus getting baptized. And he said, "Woah is that guy really trying to slap Jesus!?" And his girlfriend (She's a member.)  called in from the other room and said, "NO!? That's him getting baptized!" We all started to laugh I felt bad cause of course he didn't know, but I couldn't help it. 

Well I haven't sent you an email for about 3 weeks and I'm sorry. So here is a run down of those 3 weeks. My new companion is Elder Ethan Mckown. He's been out for 23 months. He is from Odessa, Texas. We have been able to teach quite a few people. We have 4 investigators in this area and all are progressing which makes me so happy.  

We are teaching a lady and her 2 kids. Here's what's cool they are FLDS, so they already have a testimony of the BOM and Joseph Smith. We are just working now towards how there is a prophet on the Earth today.  We have a guy named Bob. He is in a part member and he is a stud. Last week he came to church by himself without his wife although he only stayed for sacrament meeting he still came and that's progress. 

Here are pictures of me and Elder Mckown at a Greek Orthodox Monastery. We went and we had a blast learning about these people who don't even leave this place, and the lives they live and how they worship. It was cool. All of them asked us about our lives and our religion so it was a win win.

I am having a blast in my new area and I love the people here. We are having a baptism this weekend for a stud, Jason Hair, he is so knowledgeable, and he us so open to everything. We are too stoked.  I hope all is well. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Matua 

Greek Orthodox church visit

My new comp, Elder McKown

WEEK 49- I Love Bella Vista!

Well this email is going to be short cause we have a lot to do this week, and we are running everywhere to get things done, so this week we have seen so many miracles with the people that we are teaching, and even the members doing missionary work. But, first let's start with some funny moments this week.
1. I scared THE CRAP out of Mama Hoopes.
We stopped by to grab some left overs, and to chat for a second. It seemed as if no one was home because they were all in their rooms. Well we walked upstairs to find out where they were, and we heard the door unlock so we started walking back down to see who it was, and PERFECT! Mama walked in totally clueless that were there, and I let out a most girlyest scream and it was amazing. To me it was, but Mama started crying. She said, "I thought my family was dead!?" I felt bad, but I loved it.

2. We tried to talk to this guy on the street. He was in his drive way just standing there. We started to approach him, and as we tried to start a conversation with him. His big ole' wifey come stormin around the corner, and just starts screaming at us. This guy was like a child when she came around. She was saying like, "I'm tired of this s***. We are not doing this today! Jimmy move your a**." And the guy shut down, and put his head down, and started walKing with her saying, "Sorry guys. I really am." And she would scream at him to shut up and not talk to us. It was sad for him, but we just laughed our heads off after they walked inside.

3. We had Zone Sports with the Florence Zone. We played scatter ball. ULTIMATE SCATTER BALL. So scatter ball is just a free for all dodge ball game. But this time we had 2 teams the Bella Vista Zone, and the Florence Zone. The Ultimate part of the game was we were playing with huge exercise ball. Well like always I show no mercy, and this sister was getting mad because our Zone was winning and she doesn't take losing very well. Anyways I was getting fired up and I was going HAM. Well I had the ball and the Sister was in my sights. I cornered her and I took that ball, jumped in the air and chucked the ball at her. Yeah that was a mistake. Her face turned bright red, and she yelled at me so bad that it went from yelling to sobbing in a matter of seconds. Did I feel bad?? Not really cause she was only mad that they were losing.. So yeah. It was a funny moment to me, but not to her. Hehe oops!?

Well I know I said I had a lot of miracles, but I have to go, so I can't get to them this week, but I will for sure get to them next week! I love you all and I will talk to you soon! Love you!!!