WEEK 70---2 Chinks Down and We're Still Chubby (I think he's referring to his belt??)

This last week has been awesome! Elder Lott and I have been putting in work. While still trying to have fun. Here are a few highlights of the week. 1. Sinus Cleansing. 2. Virus was baptized! 3. Road Tripping.

1.) This was the 2nd best thing that has happened to me this week! I love with Elder Kestner and he has this bottle that squirts saline through your sinuses and cleans them out. Oh boy was it freaking hilarious! I'll send the video but only watch if you have a strong enough stomach. It felt like I wanted to throw up, but it didn't even hit the gag reflects. It shoots out the other nostril and out your mouth. I'll just let you watch.

2.) We worked with Viri for about 8 months and last Friday she was baptized!! She is amazing. I remember 6 months ago when she was still going through some hardships and struggling to understand the gospel, but now she has entered the warmers of baptism and partaking of the blessing that come along with it. And a year from now hopefully I can see them be sealed as a family.

3. Today we have been everywhere. Now, our mission isn't too big but it takes forever to get around. We hit the most Western border, Northern border, and Eastern border. Just to go see some knives at sporting good stores... I am beat..

Well sorry it was much this week.. But thank you all for the love and support! T-minus 7 months!? God bless and have a good week fam! And I apologize the video won't load of us clearing our nostrils..

1st Picture: That's me with a 300 lb bear on my bac!!
2nd & 3rd pictures: Viri's Baptism.
4th Pic: our lit man's corner (out apartment is too small for a man cave...
5th Pic: A 57' Chevrolet Bel Air with a whopping 678 ponies under the hood!?
6th Pic: My New Zone!

WEEK 69---Chinky and the Chubbies

This past week has been so awesome! My new companion is Elder Jaxon Lott (from Idaho Falls) and he is one heck of a missionary! This past week we have been working hard to get this area back up into the green. Right now our areas is struggling but from trying to talk with everybody and contacting old refferals, old investigators, and old potentials, so I'll keep you updated.

So here are some highlights of my week. 1: Ping Pong Table. 2: Swampy Service. & 3: Nerf War in the Dark.

1.) Our sisters in our zone asked us if we wanted a ping pong table that had been sitting at their house for forever. Of course we wanted it, so we went and picked it up. Now remember we have small little Corollas. We had a 1/3 of it stuffed in the trunk while the rest we balanced on the back rack tied to the car with a jump rope and a bike tube. Shoot we were proud of it. And successfully we made it back home safely and played ping pong from 9 - 10:30 that night.

2.) We were asked if we could help out with a service, but we weren't really informed on what exactly we were going to do. Let's just say I don't ever want to do it again. It was fun, but it was so nasty!  We were pulling our cat tails, lily pads, and big ole' rocks. We cleared that thing. We also cleaned everything out of their yard, and threw it all in the burn pile. It was so cold...

3.) We have an artillery of Nerf guns in our house. And last night we had a Nerf War in our apartment in the dark and you got out when you get shot in the face. It was rough cause I got shot right between the eyes. I think our downstairs neighbor hates us cause we are so loud.

Well sorry there wasn't a whole lot this week, but it's been good. Have a good week! Love you all!

Love,
Elder Matua

PS: He was transferred 2weeks ago and is now serving in the Queen Creek Central Stake and covers 3 wards: Desert Wells, Motelena and the Hastings Farms 2nd

WEEK 68--"We are all born with a shovel, and Jesus Christ is our ladder out of the holes we dig ourselves into."

Today is better sweet.. Today I said goodbye to one of my favorite areas I have served in. I wish  I could have stayed just 1 more transfer, but I know my Heavenly Father needs me somewhere else in His vineyard. I'm just sad because this area is where The Gospel finally clicked. Where I finally realized that I'm just a tool in the Lord's hands. I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to serve here and serve along side the members of the Settler's Meadow, Ray, and Catalina Wards.

Here are some of my highlights from my week. 1. Elesha and Jamie. 2. The best Primary Teachers ever!! 3. When Elder Chadwick and I are tired it's best to not be around us.
1. Elesha and Jamie:
    Elder Chadwick and I were able to see 2 of our Investigators enter into the waters of baptism on Saturday. Quick back story on Elesha and Jamie. Elesha just fell into our laps. One of the priests in Ray ward, Daniel Taylor, took a dinner message challenge we gave and just ran with it. He asked his friend Elesha if she had read The Book of Mormon, and crazy enough she had. TWICE!? And a couple days later he asked her if she would like to take the Missionary discussions and she agreed. A week later we met with her. Elesha came from an FLDS background. She was apart of the community in Colorado City, Arizona. Or, better know as the community that was ran by Warren Jeffs. Luckily before crap hit the fan Elesha and her family got out of that lifestyle and moved to Mesa. 3 weeks after we met Elesha she was baptized. She was so amazing to teach. She practically tought us haha.
   Now for Jamie she was an interesting one. So Jamie is slightly autistic she is 23 with the mentality of a 13-14 year old. She was owned by the state from early in her life until about 17 when the Petit family began fostering Jamie. Well before she could be be adopted she turned 18, but the Petit's still took her under their wings along with the other 10 kids. (I'm not kidding). And let her decide on her own when she wanted to be baptized. We met Jamie and about 6 weeks later she was also baptized. Haha I guess it's okay to double dip when it comes to baptisms right?

2. The Best Primary Teachers Ever:
     Yesteady in church during Catalina Ward we got asked if we could sit in on a class while the teachers ran in to watch their daughter be set apart in her calling. So we sat down in front of five little 4-5 year old kids. These big huge eyes just staring at us as if we were like big ugly monsters that just crawled out from under their bed. It didn't take long for them to warm up. We asked them a few questions then taught them how to play hang man, and oh boy it had me rolling laughing. We would tell them to guess a letter and they would scream out numbers or they would repeat the letter a million times. But needless to say it was cute, and entertained me for the time being. Well Sister and Brother Medina returned, and one of the little kids says as we were leaving, "You the bess teachas I eva had!" So that was fun!

3. When Chadwick and I Are Tired It's Best to Stay Away:
    The past couple of days Elder Chadwick and I have been on one. We have been trying to find ways to just make people feel awkward or try to get one another to mess up in front of people. Now this may not seem funny to you, but we were dying laughing.
     Bear with me cause this story is hard to follow along. So at Elesha's baptism the closing song was "Because I Have Been Given Much". We made it through the 1st verse fine but on the second line of the 2nd verse I started singing the second line of the 3rd verse to see if Chadwick would follow along. Sure enough he did, and I'm like 200% percent positive I've never heard a human being make the noise Chadwick made. He was trying to sing  the second verse but with me singing the third verse he mumbled this noise that sounded like a beached whale! We were laughing so hard through the rest of the song we couldn't even sing. And the bishopric the whole time was just staring at us. But luckily we held it together through the prayer.
     This next story was just yesterday. While we were at church it gets boring just shaking hands with people and saying good morning so we decided to shake it up a bit. I told Chadwick to start shaking hands with a dead fish (a limp hand). Right after I said that the former bishop walked in, a former mission president/stake president walked in, and a counselor in our mission presidency walked in. I told Chaddy I was going to do it, but I didn't. Haha he looked like a fool and we just couldn't stop laughing at the looks these men were giving him. President Lowder from our mission presidency stopped and said Chadwick you need to work on your hand shake. And Chaddy started crying he was laughing so hard. We grew tired of that one so we moved on to calling priests random names as we shook their hands. Like "mango cake", "lug nut", "honey bunch", stuff like that. We would say something like, "What is up mango cake!?" Or "How you doing lug nut?" And they would just say, "Oh uh hey haha?" OH man yesterday we just couldn't stop laughing yesterday...

And today has been hectic.. We went and played Ultimate Frisbee against another zone in the mission. We got demolished... We then went to Joe's Farm Grill for lunch and oh my gosh it was so good! I got a gouda garlic bacon burger. AMAZING!! If you ever come down to AZ you have to try Joe's Real BBQ, and Joe's Farm Grill! You won't be disappointed. After that we went to Sodalicious, and played some Jenga as we sipped back a dirty Dr. Pepper. After that we went and got haircuts. It was my first time going to an actual barber since being in AZ, and I forgot how much I missed getting a fresh cut. So, it has been an eventful day. I hope all of you are doing well. I love you and miss you all! Have a good week! And I will talk to you all next week!