As we emulate His perfect example our hands can become His hands, our eyes His eyes and our heart His heart. - President Uchtdorf

Monday, June 26, 2017

WEEK 40

I have to say.... I. HATE. THE. HEAT. So last Tuesday it got up to 122. Tied the record for that day. Crazy huh? Since then it hasn't gotten below 107. And when you wake up in the morning it's still mid 90's. Come to Arizona people it'll remind you that you don't want to go to Hell. But time flies in just a short 2 weeks I will have been out 10 months. CRAZY! I love my mission! We are teaching a man that has recently gotten out of jail and looking for a life that will keep him straight, and now he is learning about the Gospel and loving it. He is amazing. He comes to church, reads, and prays. What more could you ask for. He is well on his way to entering the waters of baptism. Haha after he's off parole.We have been working our butts off to find more people to teach, because we only have 1 investigator.. Well I was home sick, like always, but my comp went out with one of our zone leaders and found 2 potential investigators that said we could come back and they set up times for us to come and share messages with them! So I am super stoked! I don't have too much to share since I have been sick for a couple of days, but we are doing good. Even though the heat is near unbearable we just keep pushing with faith that the Lord will bless us and trust us to teach his lost sons and daughters. I love you all. Sorry there aren't any pictures I am still working on getting a camera, and sorry for the short letter not much has happened this week.
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Love,
Elder Matua

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

WEEK 38-Many Miracles and Funny Moments

This past week had been probably one of the best weeks of my mission. We were busy and working hard all day everyday. Like to the point where I was dozing off in lessons from running around so much. But, the Lord sure did bless us with some miracles for the obedience, and funny moments just cause we all know Heavenly Father has a sense of humor. 1. Rika, and her kids. 2. Street contacting is not as easy as it looks. 3. The people of Wal-Mart. 4. Got a referral.... for the Spanish Sisters... 5. I messed of my Father's Day/ belated Mother's Day Gifts..

1.) Rika (Reekuh) is a golden investigator that just moved into our area. She is amazing. We have been teaching her and trying to get her in contact with our Ward Employmen Specialist. Well we set multiple appointments to have our W.E.S. come and meet with her and get her set up with some work. Well of those appoinments were dropped, and forgotten about by our W.E.S.
Well at Ward Correlation we have been talking about Rika, and finally our Senior Couple said will take her! And they said let's stop by tonight and we will get an appointment with her. My comp was about to say no, but something told me to say yes, and so I did. Even though we haven't been in contact with her for a couple days cause she got a temporary job for a few days. Well MIRACLE. Right as we pulled up to her house her garage door opened up and there she was. Long story short. She got set up with the Churches Employment Facilities.

2.) We have so many weirdos in our area. In one of our wards the average amount of teeth in someone's mouth is about 10. Hahaha. And it makes Street contacting hard. I try not to laugh at the people we talk to. I know I'mm horrible. We were talking to a guy just yesterday, that was just super weird, but he listened to us so we just talked with him. By the end of it we asked if we could come back, and he didn't give us a response, so we asked again and he tapped his ears, and started doing some gestures with his hands. Yeah my man was def... We didn't know how to deal with just saying bye, so we just waved and got on our bikes and rode of so embarrassed. The other funny thing was a member drove by us, and he knew the guys was def, and when we stopped at his house he said, "Yeah I was going to stop to tell you guys, but I thought it would be a funny letter home." Well he wasn't wrong....

3.) This funny moment happened just today. So while we were at Wal-Mart we were walking back to print some pictures off, and of course all the kiosks were taken up. And they were these black ladies yelling at eachother. Hahaha one of them was saying I ain't paying for your pictures!? You broke? That's yo fault.! Another one was yelling "how in the hell do I do this crap!? I was born into slavery. we didn't have this stuff back then!?" Then there was this little old lady. saying, "I hate black women. Too loud." Well seeing as she was black I wanted to tell her ma'am so you are saying you hate yourself? Hahaha. Well it wasn't even 2 minutes later that we turned the corner to had towards the bike section and 2 Wal-Mart workers a male and female came crawling out behind a part of the isle that was built up into a fort looking thing, with vests messed up and hair everywhere. They saw that we saw them, and they like darted to the next isle. I tried to not think about what might have happened back there, but I couldn't help it. I went up next to the girl while pretending I was looking for something and said," Sooooo. Lunch break was pretty crazy huh?" I walked away and I turned the corner and got a glimpse of a tomato red faced Wal-Mart employee. Hahaha Oh so good. I love Wal-Mart!!

4.) Yeah real short. We went to a former investigators house, and we got in contact with them the first time. Unheard of by the way. And we got to talking with them. They were so close to being baptize, but they just weren't ready, so we asked if we could come back, and they said," No it's okay. We aren't interested, but if you send the Spanish Sisters that would be great!" Yeah that was very awesome  hear....

5.) Well I order my dad a new watch, and got my mom a belated Mother's Day present. I meant to send it to myself so I could send a letter with it, but that was a bust. I sent it straight to my home. So I muffed up the plan. That's okay. They still loved it!

 Well I love you guys! I miss you all. God bless! And I will talk to you Next week!

Love,
Elder Matua

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

WEEK 37--The South is Growing on Me

This week has been CRAZY busy! It's been hard to keep the days all in order and remember what we have one what day. Which is good yet it's also really bad. Don't want any leaders getting mad. Oops. So this week has been filled with some weird, funny, crazy, inspired, etc moments. 1. David Rowden/Chicken feet 2. Early morning soccer. 3. Samoan Sniper hahaha(; 4. I am not a fan of little kids in testimony meetings (sorry to those with little kids) 5. Elder Pearson and Zone Conference. 6. Goodnight Elder.

1.) My comp says this was inspired. I say it was God punishing me for being mad at my companion. We were about to head home for the night at 8:00 to start some paper work. And my comp and I had a last minute thought to stop by a part member family, the Rowdens, and so we did. For the first time, we met our investigator May. We haven't met her, but she's been being taught in Chandler. But that's another story for another time. Well we finally got to meet her and they had just gotten dinner, but they let us in anyway. We got to talking, getting to know May and what not when she asks if we want some Thai food. (she's Thai) So she brings us some bombin' pork dumplings then asks if we want more. Of course being nice we say sure even though we ate only a couple hours ago. Well she plops something on my plate, and my eyes almost popped out of my head. Yeah it was a chicken foot. I was like uhhh I think KFC messed up?? Hahaha She was like just eat a toe and spit out the bones as you eat the meat. I was like oh heck no. But I had to be a man, so I took a bite of the middle toe, it tasted really good. I just couldn't get past that it was a chicken foot. I choked it down and quickly took a chug of water and threw a couple of tootsie rolls in my mouth. Oh gosh. That was the first and last time I eat a chicken foot.

2.) This ones short. We play zone sports every Tuesday and Saturday morning at 6:00 a.m. I was not trying to play. But my ZL came over and got me to play. Well 3 minutes in I was so close to the goal. My teammate crossed the ball to me and I kicked that ball like it was Garrett's butt. And low and behold a sister jumped in the way right as my foot touched the ball and WHAM straight to the forehead hahaha. Now I laugh cause not even a minute ago she yelled to everyone, " I BETTER NOT GRT HIT IN THE HEAD THIS TIME!!" Yeah you spoke too soon. I felt bad until she spit attitude at me for an accident she threw herself into. So I brushed it off and the rest of the game, when I got the ball she stayed away from us. I scored 4 times cause of her fear of getting another pentagon imprinted on her forehead.  Hahaha

3.) Have you seen American Sniper? Haha trick question it's rated R. If you have repent cause I had to. Oops sorry mom and dad(; Anyways we were doing a service at a part members family and as we were wrapping up she said, "you could do me a huge favor?" Then proceeded to hand us pellet guns and said," Have fun!" I thought my comp was going to say not but he said, "Well they aren't FIREarms?" My comp is EXACTLY obedient. So him saying that opened up an hour of popping birds off. I got 6, Elder T got 2, Elder Barney got 6, and Elder Romero got 15... cactus' hahaha he sucks at shooting. And yes we counted the cactus he hit. It was a blast and we got cookies for doing the service so that made it that much better. If you need me for any extermination jobs call me in 15 months.

4.) Short and simple. IF YOU KID IS UNDER 8 DONT LET THEM BEAR THEIR TESTIMONY. It's awesome they want to share what they know, but there seems to be a pattern in kids sharing. They say the same thing as the kid before them or they freeze up and stand their for 5 minutes and run off the stand and crying hysterically. Again sorry to those with little kids.

5.) Such a beautiful experience to have a General Authority come and talk to your mission. I got so much out of this. Go and read "Converted Unto the Lord" by Elder Bednar. Amazing. My testimony was built and strengthened with every word that came out of Elder and Sister Pearson mouths. Know that we are not the light but we are the carriers, conduits, and messengers of the light. The Gospel, Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ, and Heavenly Father are the light. We should walk Circumsoectly before god or in other words walk aware and heeding the consequences that follow the choices we make, and teach/ preach with unwearied diligence. We should be one with the Savior in doing the will of the Father. I am so grateful for the words spoken to me yesterday from my peers and leaders. So amazing. I will never forget the way I felt in that meeting. Also remember that we don't have to travel for to find those who are ready and willing to receive the message of the Restoration of the GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. Nothing compares to the blessings given to use members of Christ's church especially when we are living the Doctrine of Christ.

6.) Here's another short one. So 10:30 hits and my comp and I say out nightly companion prayer. Keep in mind Monday was a busy day of being out in the sun doing service around a farm. Well we finished the prayer and I holed up and brushed my teeth as my comp knelt down to say his individual prayer. I lied down and quickly past out. Well what do you know I wake up to my comp in the same position as he was when he was saying his prayer the night before. I was laughing so hard and called the other Elders in and we just died laughing and that woke him up. Oh man that was priceless. But sadly he woke up before anyone could get a camera to snap a pic.

Man this week was insanely busy. I wish I had time to tell you all everything that happened. I hope next week is filled with the same exact stuff. It made the week fly by being busy and working hard. I hope all is well at home. I miss you guys. You are in my prayers. God bless. I love you guys! I'll talk to you next week!!!!

P.s. It has already hit 113.

Monday, June 5, 2017

Look who found the Elders? Sis Mullenaeaux, Elder Mulleneaux' Mom. He's serving in our Stake

Hoopes family

Going home with a rack of ribs...Thanks Hoopes Family

Drone pic




February 13, 2019 Today we dropped off our baby and 3rd missionary to the Provo MTC. It has been a day of mixed emotions.  We ...