WEEK 74---PICS FROM THE WEEK

A massage

Not sure why they need a drone

Soccer skills

Oh MY!!! Study not study

In deep thought at church...more like a quiuck nap

WEEK 73-----How You Possa Understand Me If My Jaw Keep Locking

This week has been another slow one. The Elder that has his mouth wired shut, aka LOCKJAW, still can't be out working from the meds that he is on, so we have been taking turns with other Elders watching him, and we have drawn the short stick everyday... But I will still fill you in on the hgihlights of the week! 1. I just about threw my bike off out second story balcony.. 2. The Anti-Endrizzi staff. 3. Chocolate Poop.

1.) My bike has been acting up the past week, and it is sad because she's been so good to me. Now, she is just getting tired of lugging my fat butt around. She's seen better day. But I've been saving money to fix her up and I did! I switched her chain, got her new grips, new pedals, and a tune up. She is still a little muddy from the ride we took thre other day through the rain, but for the most part she is looking good. It took about 2 days becasue I have no idea how to work on a bike, and I wasn't about to pay a shop a fortune to do it. I was getting so frustrated with my bike (which is really stupid Iknow..) But I am a guy it happens haha. So as I was working on putting the new chain on the bike the tool I was using broke on me. and this was about and hour after working on this stupid thing.. I picked my bike up lifted it over my head and luckily an elder came out cause he grabbed my bike from me and set it down and told me to go to bed. I kind of feel dumb about it, but oh well. She is all fixed up pretty now.

2.) The Anti-Endrizzi Staff is a weadpon I created to keep Elder Endrizzi out of our room.. He always just walks into our room and just stands there while we are studying... It's so annoying, so instead of having him walk into our room for no apparent reason for like a good 3 solid minutes. We have trained him to not do so with this beautifully crafted bamboo spear. I split the end of the stick and stuck sticks in between them and wrapped some wire around it. and then sharpened the tips of the split end. So whenever he would walk in and stood behind us we would chase him out with the spear. This past week has been nothing but peace and quiet while studying.

3.) Oh my goodness this was the best part of my week! So Saturday night we had no one outside, no one answering so we decided to stop by some Relief Society Pesidents and Elder Quorum presidents to see if they had aNY body they wanted us to stop by. The first person we stopped by had us go to a part member family just to check in on them and share a message. Surprisingly we got in with the part member family. We shared a message and they gave us some chocolate to start well my comp didn't eat it right away and so it was sitting between his legs the whole message. We finished the messaged and the family asked Elder Lott to say the prayer and as he reached for his phone there was chocolate ALL over it. He lifted his leg and the Chocolate had melted everywhere. All over him, the couch, his phone. Everyone started dying laughing. It was so funny. So as we walked out all the kids started calling him poopy pants. Haha it was the best part of my week.

Anyways that's all for this week. Hope everything is going well. I live and miss you all. Have a good week!!

WEEK 72----4 More Transfers????

It is so crazy to think that I only have a few more months left and it makes me kinda sad. Arizona has been my home for the past year and some change. Time has been flying by. Anyways I am loving Queen Creek! The wards that I cover are awesome and we have a baptism coming up in a couple of weeks. I am loving every little bit of the work right now even though it has been slow lately. I kind of got used to just riding past people without stopping and talking with them, but since being with Elder Lott he has taught me to stop and say something even if it is just a "Hi , we are the missionaries!" I am grateful for what my companion has taught me.

 I am going to apologize. It has been a little slow this last week so there isn't going to be much, but here are some events from the week! 1. My companion is an Anti magnet!!!! 2. Quickest service EVER. 3. Joe Torrez.

1.) I don't know if I have told you guys in past emails or not, but my comp has a gift for finding/ running into Anti's, and it is so annoying. Literally the past transfer, so 5 weeks. I have been anit'd more than I have my whole mission... From magical underwear to brain washed, from multiple wives to the mental state of Joseph Smith (insane). And oh man does it fire up Elder Lott. Most the time I have to intervene, so we don't start making a scene. My favorite thing I have heard this paat transfer is that Jesus was a women. Elder Lott and I just sat there and laughed. Not the best thing we could have done.We asked the guy if he rmembers the baptism of Jesus Christ. and he said of course. And so we asked him what The Father said as he came out of the water. And he responded with, "Yes, He said this is my Beloved Son in whome I am well pleased." And proceeded to ask him what that was supposed to mean if Jesus was a woman? And he blow a fuse, and told us to leave, and stop trying to confuse him. It was a riot. we have fun with these guys we come in contact with. It crask me up so bad!

2.) Alright so here we go. So we have been doing this service for our sisters for a part member family.. This family just sees us as free help and doesn't have any interest with joining the church.We have tried telling the sisters that it isn't the best use of our time because she has not interest. We love being a service, but there is being a help and then being slaves. So we go to this house for no reason.. Well Elder Lott and I built these 24 ft by 6 ft. raised beds in a bout 30 minutes.. And then the lady that isn't a member blew up cause one of the other Elders in our zone tried talking to her about the gospel and she tossed us out, so we will see if we go back. I don't think so. Oh well. Hahah the zone gets their wishes.

3.) Joe Torrez is a LEGEND! I love him. Every time we go over there he is always 3 sheets to the wind! Dunk off his butt. We go over there and teach him, but he remembers everything. He loves is alcohol, but I thik he can change. Well this last time we went over he gave Elder Lott a drone and the next time we go over he said he'll give me a guitar. He is awesome. and when he is sober he's even better, but druck Joe is rad. I'll keep y'all updated on his progression!

But that is about it. We  are working hard and seeing miracles! Love you all and I hope all is better! I will talk to you all next week!

Love,
Elder Matua

WEEK 71--Well Golly... What Was That For?

This week hasn't been to crazy, but we have been doing work. So by the end of this transfer I only have 6 1/2 months left and that freaks me out. Anyways this week we 1. Put good Ole' Al on date. 2. Baci's. And 3. I got to see one of my best friends.!!

1. We have an Investigator, Mr. Al Thomas, and this man is spectacular! We haven't taught him anything yet. We had only met him once before this lesson. He just sits there and answers everything like he already knows. He's honest and not embarrassed to ask questions when things don't make sense. We'll his baptismal date was in March on the 25th for his mom's birth date. But, as we sat with him we told him that he can have her work done on her birthday, if he moved his baptismal date up. So Al Thomas will be baptized February 24th, and we couldn't be more excited!! He is so ready all we have to do is teach him the things he already knows. It is so cool to see how people that are prepared by our Heavenly Father are placed in front of you when you're doing all you  can.

2. This is the second best thing that happened to me this week. Baci's is a very expensive restaurant, but Elder Lott and I did not know that going into it. We didn't want to just get back up and just walk out so we faith dined SO HARD!! There wasn't a plate there that was under $20. So ten minutes in of us staring at the menu  a member walked up to us and said, "Why are you here? Did you save up your money to come?" And we told them that we didn't know it was so expensive someone just referred it to us. This generous man looked at us and said Elders you get whatever you want and tell them to put it on Todd's tab. Our faith was sufficient. And we got a $65 dinner paid for. It was a miracle!!

3. I got to see my little brother this past week. Wow was it a freaking surprise. We were supposed to surprise him, but he got me good. We were getting anti'd by some dude trying to tell us what we believe in. And as we were leaving I here a whistle and a Hey! And as I turned around I see Garrett standing there and I couldn't hold it in I was bawling my eyes out. And I don't cry that's the thing. We got to talk for a second. And then Saturday we went out to dinner and spent some time together and just talked. Man did I miss him. It was good to see him and I'm just glad he still isn't taller than me. So thank the heavens for that.. It was the best day of my mission!

Honorable Mentions:
I got to go out to lunch with an Uncle I didn't even know. He went to high school with my dad ages ago.

I got my bike all tuned up and fixed!

My district is lit as heck. We know how to flex a cute little Corolla..

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!

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