A Spoonful of El Enfrentar de Desafíos: Guatemala Mission- Week 19

This week was a bit challenging as we didn't see the success we were hoping for. Our numbers were low and we only ended with one baptism. Plus we had to deal with some of the blowback of baptismal date that fell. And then the husband of the family that we baptized early this transfer definitely (for now) said no to baptism and so we had to drop him. That was a sad day, but we bore powerful witness and word from his wife is that he is still reflecting over our words. And we only had 2 investigators at church despite our hopes for 5 or more. But let's look at the bright side of things, shall we?

It didn't rain quite as much during the week which allowed us to make our visits like planned, we did have a baptism and it was beautiful. We got to know another part of our area called Las Animas. I know, it's crazy that halfway through our second transfer we're still discovering more of our area. It literally is huge. And I know I say this about every new part of our area, but it's incredibly gorgeous. I was sad that I didn't take my camera with me because it's this cute little community built on a hill over a river. And the drive to arrive is prett scenic too. Other exciting news is that I cut my hair. It's to my shoulders now and I have bangs straight across. I'll try to send a picture when I can. I'm happy with it because I thought it would be crazy difficult to find a good hairstylist but it turns out there's one just across the street from our house. Tender mercy!

We started teaching a family with the last name Torres which was kind of cool. They can't have children, but have 5 nieces and nephews that are practically their children. They were a reference from another family in the ward which is awesome because they're carrying more of the weight in planning and we just have to show up to teach. It's great to see that we have so many investigators since when I first got to the area we had nobody. And now that transfers are coming up in another 2 weeks, I feel like I'll be leaving the area in good shape if I'm called to go to a different area. I don't really want to leave especially after finding out we're the only ones in the mission with a hot shower, but I've really come to love the people here and it will be hard to say goodbye.

I hope you're all enjoying your hot summers, swimming, watermelon, and flip flops. If you have some time, drop me a line. Love you all very much. Until next week,

A Spoonful of 4 Meses: Guatemala Mission- Week 18

This week I reached 4 months! It was worthy of a celebration so my comp and I bought pupusas. Which we do every week, really, but this week it was accompanied by my new stuffed animal that my comp won me from a machine and the card she made me where she called me by the wrong name. She has the tendency to do that. This week we worked a lot in all of the parts of our area which includes the main city or the name of our area and 4 or 5 other districts on either side of San Francisco. Basically we have a huge area and we should have more missionaries here but first we have to prove to the President that that's the case by baptizing like crazy a few months in a row. Which is what we plan to do. Our goal as a zone for July is 100 which is an extremely high number for a zone, but more than possible here.

We have 3 baptisms planned for this weekend, but we're fighting for more and challenging everybody this month while at the same time finding new investigators every day if we can. It's tough because to have success you have to be solid on every side: have baptisms set and maintained, work with other progressing investigators, work with non-progressing investigators to get them to progress if you can, find new investigators, and work with the members to get references. It's intense, but when we have all of these things in a day our whole attitude towards the work changes and we are happier.

I feel like I blank on all the cool things that we do in a week, so I'm sorry if my emails are boring. We had stake conference with the newly called Elder Falabella. He is one of my favorites. He is so meek that he can get anybody to commit to anything. He had everybody in the congregation paying attention which I was able to see because I was asked to play the piano for the general session. As everyone knows, I'm far from the best piano player, but literally nobody here plays the piano which is okay because their organ has hymns programmed into it, but still, they love having somebody play for them. I hope you're all staying healthy and happy and constantly growing. I love you all and am beyong grateful for your love and support. Until next week!

-Hna Cappuccio

A Spoonful of Feliz Dia de los Madres: Guatemala Mission Week 17

or Happy Mothers' Day! Also I'm almost certain that I'm off on my weeks because I was in the CCM for 9 weeks and last week was the end of my first 6 weeks in the field. So basically...I can't count. Oh well. 

I hope everybody's mother's day was fantastic. Here it's celebrated on the 10th or thursday of the past week and I was awaken to the sound of canon fire. At least that's what it sounded like. In my panicked state I tried to think of who in the small city in which I lived had I offended who also had a canon. It also didn't really cross my mind for the first 5 minutes that we were in fact still in the 21st century and canons as a weapon had indeed gone out of style. Apparently, that is the champines(guatemalans) idea of celebrating mothers' day. At 4 in the morning. 

We had transfers this week, but since I'm a newb I get to stay in my area for another 6 weeks. There's also a good chance I'll stay for another change after that because my comp will have already been here for 4 and a half months by the time transfers come around again. I'm not really complaining because we have a really good district and zone (the highest baptizing zone in the mission). I don't think I'd mind staying in Mazate for my whole mish, but that's me as a 6 week old missionary talking who knows how I'll feel in time. 

We had our first baptism this weekend and it was great, in spirit, not quite in reality because we didn't have an agenda prepared and we started an hour late. Besides the problems, the spirit was still there strongly and I had the opportunity to see this family enjoying the blessings of happiness that the Gospel brings. That was really the special part of it. Well, I hope everything is going well back in the states and for each and every one of you. Have a beautiful week!

Love,

Hna Cappuccio

A Spoonful of La Playa: Guatemala Mission Week 16

We got to go to the beach today! It was awesome. We didn't go swimming, but we still had a blast! I have some pictures, but I think they'll take to long to load on this computer so I'm going to wait  until next week to send them. The beach was sooo pretty, though the water is a bit more dirty than what I'm used to seeing in California. We even got to eat yummy seafood that was well-cooked and everything. It wasn't really as a reward but we don't typically get to go to the playa. 

This week has been a bit rough for reasons of illness and Satan. Firstly, my comp and I have been trading being sick. Well really just she got sick and then me and then her again. The only difference is that I save my illness for p-day. haha. Not intentionally. And Satan, man, how sad is it when you can see him working and suceeding with your investigators! We saw a lot of his advances this week but I just take that to mean we're really doing good work here. And it's true, we have really good opportunities for this month and a baptism planned for this Saturday. 

I don't have much more to share, just my testimony that I know this work will go forth to cover the whole earth and I feel privileged to be allowed to work in this area of the Lord's kingdom for now. These people are special, and I'm learning a lot from them and the especial struggles they face as Saints in Central America. Stay safe and blessed. Love you all!

Love,

Hna Cappuccio

A Spoonful of Helicopter Rides: Guatemala MIssion Week 15

This week has been a little crazy. It started out great as we set a date for a the baptism of our family for the 5th of May (aka this Saturday). If we can maintain it, I'll get to go to transfers meeting even though I'm not transferring to receive a pin for baptizing a family. Then we had an Area Attack in our area of San Francisco where the rest of our district comes and we all go out contacting to try and find new investigators. I did a division with another Hna in my district and it was fun to see the difference in teaching style and just how her personality translates into being a missionary. We found some prospects, but then later in the week were flat out rejected by some of them. And that kind of hurts in more ways than one. First of all, it's just sad that they're turning down something as good as the restored gospel. Secondly, some of them feel like they can't be completely honest as to why they're rejecting us.

Back to this week. My companion got sick, a 48-flu I think, and so that was no fun. We celebrated the birthday of our investigator with a delicious cake, only to not have him make it to church the next day. I also got to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting on Obedience. There were a couple times when I would get tongue-tied, but mostly  I did pretty well, at least, according to the people that were listening. And now for the most exciting part of this week: I can now say I know what it feels like to helicopter. For those of you who get queasy easily, I apologize for the following explanation. Helicoptering is when you have liquid coming out both sides of your body at the same time (i.e. vomit and diarrhea). Basically the idea is that the force your body uses to vomit makes it impossible to hold in anything else. I had this wonderful experience last night about 3 in the am and didn't get back to bed until about 5:30. I'm hoping it's just something bad that I ate that is on it's way out, but I still feel pretty awful. More on this later.

I don't know that there's much more left to tell. As always, I hope you're all doing well and always building your testimony of the Gospel. Have you read the Book of Mormon lately? It's an amazing book. I'm currently at the end of Nephi, the intermediary books, and the beginning of Mosiah, and I'm loving it. Be safe and happy and until next week!

-Hna Cappuccio

A Spoonful of Me encanta ver el templo: Guatemala Mission week 14

Family! Friends! 

I hope you're all doing well. I am doing fantastic. This last week was a super spiritual week because we had a multi-zone conference and then we got to go to the Quetzaltenango temple. It meant we didn't have a lot of time in our area this week, but it was such a good experience, I don't really wish it was different. 

Firstly, the multizone conference was great. It was kind of a lot of sitting down and listening which I learned from the MTC is hard to do without drifting off, but we had interesting enough material that I was able to do pretty well. We had a 70 come, Elder Gavarret from Uruguay, with his wife, as well as Pte. Maravilla and his wife. They all had great messages to share on how to improve our work as missionaries. And we got fed. That was nice. 

Secondly, the temple. Wow. It was so nice to go. It was all in Spanish which is the 2nd time I've done it in Spanish, but I was surprised how I understood mostly all of it. The Quetzaltenango temple is definitely one of my favorites because it is sooooo pretty. It's modeled a lot off the Draper temple so if you've been to that temple just picture that, but in Guatemala and with mountains in every direction. It's even on a hill like in Draper. I loved it. 

Sadly, it doesn't look like we're going to have a baptism this month, which is actually strange for this mission. Everybody has at least 2 every month. It has seemed to dampen my trainer's spirit a little because she wanted this first change of my mission to be the best possible. I'm not too worried about numbers for now. I know we're working hard and sometimes we're just given challenges like this. We do have a family we're teaching now that is super pilas (or awesome) and will probably be baptized in the next month. 

Stay safe and happy and until next week!

-Hna Cappuccio

P.S.: Enjoy the photos! I hope they work this time. Some are from the temple, some from the capital. I'll let you figure out which ones are which. :)

A Spoonful of Lluvia(rain): Guatemala Mission- week 13

So May officially starts the rainy season here, but April wanted to kick things off a little early apparently. If Arizona got one of these rain showers that we have in the middle of the day, they'd have enough rain to get us out of a drought and last us 10 more years. Despite this, we still manage to not have water in our little casa. It's actually a city-wide problem, and we're able to survive without it, it's just frustrating when you get done with your workout and go to take a shower when there is no water to do it with. And whereas I might have felt ok going without a shower for two days in the states, here it just feels wrong. 

I was able to attach some pictures so hopefully you can enjoy them. Most of them are from my MTC experience, and I have more but it was such a pain to attach them this is all I'm sending for now. I...don't remember which ones I attached, but I think there's one of each of my districts and some at the temple with the Guatemalan MTC president and his wife. And maybe one of our little casa? I'm not sure. 

So we found a family that's as close to golden as I've ever seen but they didn't make it to church this Sunday! It was kind of devastating, but nevertheless, we're continuing to work with them. We've taught them almost every day since our first lesson and we left them a Book of Mormon last time which I'm really excited about. The father of the family reads and remembers everything we leave with him and I know if he reads the Book of Mormon he's going to get a testimony, it's how it works. 

I will need to start making a list of all the interesting things that happen, because I'm kind of at a loss of what else to add. We got the keyboard in the chapel to work so I was able to play for sacrament meeting and because it was our ward conference, I accompanied our Bishop to Come Thou Fount. It was a neat experience to be able to help make the conference special. Anyway, I hope all is well with you all and if you're ever faced with the thought of what you should do, the answer is obvious, isn't it? Write Hna Cappuccio a letter! Ha, just kidding, reading your scriptures is a much better option. You realize how much great stuff they contain, right? K, Until next week!

-Hna Cappuccio

A Spoonful of La obra continua: Guatemala Mission- week 12

I just completed my first whole week in the field! Crazy. Although, to be fair, this week wasn't a full week. While you were all eating your chocolate bunnies and eggs, we were reading the Book of Mormon non-stop in the stake center in Mazate. It was Semana Santa here which means with all the processions and vacation-taking, it's both useless and dangerous to be out on the streets as missionaries. So we decided to take the challenge of reading the Book of Mormon in 36 hours. It was rough, but only in the sense that it's hard to sit in the same spot for hour after to hour. The actual reading was neat. I've never gone through the Book of Mormon so it was neat to see all the stories one after another. It definitely gives you a different perspective about the book. 

The only sad thing was that they don't celebrate Easter here so there's no such thing as chocolate bunnies or easter candy. How sad is that! They don't even really have good chocolate here. Nevertheless, I'm not seeing myself losing a lot of weight. All the hermanas I've talked to so far have said they've gained weight. The only ones that have lost weight have been because of parasites, and it's not like I'm actively seeking those. I'm kind of proud of my streak of health and want it to last as long as possible.

I really like my area of San Francisco. We have a cute little house and a little bunny, Roger (don't worry, we don't actually own it. It's our neighbor's bunny that can fit through a gap in the wall). So far we haven't been having a ton of success. People are either really catholic or really evangelical, and if they're neither they're really good at hiding. Still we have some investigators that are positive and with time we hope to have a lot of success because we're putting in the time and effort. My companion continues to be awesome. I really got lucky with my trainer. I'm trying to figure out a way to send pictures but I haven't been able to yet, but as soon as I do, I'll be sending all of the pictures I have from the beginning, some of them from the MTC seem like a distant dream. 

Just know that I'm safe and seeing the blessings of God in my life and in this work every day and I hope the same for all of you. 

Until next week!

Hna Cappuccio

A Spoonful of La Verdedera Capacitacion Missional: Guatemala Mission- week 11

Hello world!

 My bus didn't roll over the road, but I do have a different surprise. My visa didn't go through and so I'm in California waiting for it--San Francisco to be exact. It's kind of sad because I was really looking forward to meeting my President and my real trainer, but things like this happen and I just have to keep a positive perspective. 

April fool´s! I hope none of you were so easily fooled by that. And I know that technically april fool´s was yesterday but with the combination of it being conference it completely slipped my mind, so I figured I give it a shot in my weekly email. I'm celebrating a working enter bar so this might be a long email. 

So my first week in the field in three words would be: I LOVE IT! It's like exactly what I wanted if I had any idea of what it would be (which I really didn't), but I have a Latina trainer, Hna Ramirez from Honduras. She's fantastic. Obedient, patient, and open to suggestions. I really am in San Francisco, but it's an area in the zone of Mazatenango which is about one hour from Reu. 

I loved meeting President Maravilla. He's an enthusiastic man and they gave us all a warm welcome as well as a good laugh. We ate at his house the first night and he told the cooks to give the two Norte elders (who you should know would easily eat 2 plates of lunch or dinner at the CCM) a ton of food but when they saw them loading their plates. They couldn't finish their plates for probably the first time in their lives and to all the Latinos it was funny because they were always asking them for food or ice cream. I will admit I was laughing pretty loudly too, but partly because of President Maravilla's attitude about it all. 

In other news, I love my area. It really is named San Francisco for a reason. It's  built on a hill so we're either walking up a hill or down a hill no matter where we're going. We also have a village called Buena Vista which is a good walk from our little casa and it's in the jungle practically. Well, there are roads, there's just a ton of trees too. I inherited all of 1 investigator. The others were baptized before we came and so we had to focus a lot on finding finding finding. Families in particular. And we did find but we're now in the process of visiting which can be a tricky thing because people have such tricky schedules around here. 

Conference was perfect, wasn't it? I honestly loved all of it and could go on and on about it, but I've just chosen a few to highlight. First, Elder Andersen's talk in Sunday Afternoon. The question he posed at the beginning, "What does Christ think of me?" was something completely different by the end of the talk, anybody else experience the same thing? How the question was transformed by the Spirit to mean something so much more than the sum of it's words. So cool. And then President Uchtdorf's about not judging seemed to go hand in hand with Elder Holland's about how life isn't a competition. Elder Christofferson's was funny with his little nod to the interpreters. I was watching it in English so I don't know if they translated it or not. Hermaneutics, eh? I really appreciated Elder Hallstrom's as a missionary because it's so true. How I wish sometimes we could just go around a say "Look at our church. Look how well organized it is. Look at all the fruits of our labors. Look what the Church can help you do." But I realize how silly that wish is, because if an investigator is going to join the Church, it should be because they're truly converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not the Church. The Church is merely a tool in the goal of salvation for every human being. 

Life isn't so primitive here. We walk a lot, yes, but we also take a bus a lot and even tuc-tuc's which are small taxis that can fit 6 missionaries if you squish. There's a ward member that we pay for lunch and she's a good cook. There's also a ward member who does our laundry and we have a warm shower. My first day in Reu it rained super hard. And it rained again on Friday pretty hard and it looks as if it will rain today too. I'm totes fine with that too because it helps cool this place down. 

The humidity really isn't that bad, but after walking a mile, you can feel pretty icky. What keeps getting my goat is the bugs. Apparently my blood is a hot commodity around here because everyday I have new bites. And even though white people aren't new to San Francisco, I'm 99.9 percent positive I'm the only one there right now which means I get noticed a lot. Some of my titles here are canche, canchita, hermanita, among others. None of them are inherently offensive, just a bit annoying, but that's life in Guatemala for nortes I suppose. 

A Spoonful of Semana 10ish: El Gran Día: Guatemala Mission Week 10ish

Parentals! Tomorrow I'm leaving the MTC for the real mission life. Get
excited!! Here comes the big leagues. They gave us a whole 30 minutes
to write to you because I guess we don't get to write again until next
week but it's kind of funky because I just wrote on Saturday. So
whatevs, I'm writing again.                              I feel pretty
ready for the field, I can understand Spanish pretty well and speak it
well too. And I know how to work hard and am dedicated to this work.
To be honest, I'm mostly worried about my companions. I met an hermana
today who is from my mission who spoke about how sometimes in order to
avoid contention she just went with whatever her senior companion did
even if she had been told otherwise. I don't want that. Wouldn't it be
great if I just had a super obedient trainer?? I guess the real key is
just to be firm in my obedience and also learn how to be loving in
demeanor. It's going to be a challenge, I know it, but it's something
I'm going to have to figure out sooner or later.                Well
my President's wife should be emailing you tomorrow with a picture and
telling you that we made it safely to the mission, if that doesn't
happen you can just assume our bus rolled off the road and I died
somewhere between Guatemala City and Retalhuleu. Just kidding. I'm not
completely sure she emails you tomorrow so don't freak out if you
don't get an email.             Hope you're all doing fine. Oh, and I
have a challenge for you! They always say that the families of
missionaries are extremely blessed. I won't really get to see the
blessings, but you will, if you look for them. So try every night to
write down one blessing whether small or large that you saw in the day
and that way not only will you be aware, but you can give thanks to
God for his generosity and love. I love our Heavenly Father so much.
And will be eternally thankful to Christ for his love and sacrifice. I
love you both and hope you're safe and blessed. Until next week!!!
                   -Hna Cappuccio

A Spoonful of La Ultima Semana en el CCM: Guatemala Mission- week 9

Sadly it's true. My time in the CCM has come to an end. I'm not really
sad about much because I'm so excited to be out in the field, but it's
always incredibly hard to say goodbye to the people you come to love
and all my friends are heading out to their respective missionaries.
On the other hand, I've been quite annoyed by some elders in our
district so it will be nice to not have to see them. Annoyed is a nice
way of saying it. It does give you a greater perspective of the range
of missionaries there are and I have a better idea of what to expect
in a returned missionary.                                      This
week we got to go contacting in the street again and it was amazing!
It was just me and my norte companions but wowzers was it an awesome
experience. As far as numbers, we did a lot worse than our last time,
but yet at the end of the day I felt a feeling of peace as if the Lord
had accepted my efforts and I didn't worry about the people I
contacted and if they would join the Church because of what they felt
while talking to me. I know that God is aware of them and will not
forget them. We were able to teach a lesson. We had just literally had
the door slammed in a our faces when a man on a bike directed us to a
woman waiting in a window with her daughter. We talked to her a bit
from outside and then asked if we could teacher her and she said yes!
We shared with her about the Plan of Salvation and we were blessed to
be able to teach by the Spirit. We know she felt it because we were
feeling it too. We invited her to church and she accepted the
commitment. We had to pass on all the information to the Guatemala Sur
Mission President because it's their responsibility, but I actually
didn't worry about it much.                      It's fun to think
that I will have that kind of opportunity every day starting Tuesday.
I'm sooo excited to be out in the field. I'm already imagining what my
trainer will be like and my first area. I am ready to get to work.
They made us take this grammar test that had an introduction about how
MTC teachers should get all or most of the questions right and that
missionaries shouldn't expect to really do well unless they had been
exposed to Spanish grammar before. Can anybody guess how I did? Haha,
let's just say I think I could get a job at the MTC when I get back if
I wanted, which is great, because I do.                            I
would like to request everybody's address if they have never given it
to me. I give you permission to just send it in an email to me at
amy.cappuccio@myldsmail.net so that if I want to write to you, I can.
Which, trust me, I do. I've lamented over not having many people's
addresses already and would like to have them. If you want to just
give me your address by writing me a letter, that's just fine by me,
but make sure to send it to my mission address. Which should be on my
facebook...maybe. Anywho, I hope you're all doing well. I pray for you
daily, for your health and good spirits and your growth in the good
word of God. I love you all!                            Love,     HNA
Cappuccio

A Spoonful of El Tiempo Vuela: Guatemala Mission- week 8

El Tiempo Vuela...At least here in the MTC. We only have about 10 days left here and

that seems crazy to me. I'm quite excited to be getting out into the
mission field but it's hard to believe how fast time goes sometimes.
In a week and a half I'll be with my trainer in my first area teaching
real people...it's going to be great.                            If
there is anybody out there who doesn't believe in the gift of tongues,
then let me explain to you a little something that has happened. I
didn't speak any Spanish before coming to the MTC. I knew some
vocabulary words, but on the whole, nothing that could get my by in a
conversation. After only 8 weeks of studying Spanish, I can have a
complete conversation in Spanish, can teach the Gospel completely in
Spanish and understand almost everything I read. To compare, I studied
French for 3.5 years at BYU and spent 2 months in Paris and I now
speak as good in Spanish as I ever could in French. Naysayers will
point to the fact that I speak French as the reason why I could pick
it up so quickly, but I know that I've had divine help. I remember in
my setting apart the Stake President telling me that the Lord wanted
me to really learn this language and he has made me equal to it. I
don't know the purposes of the Lord in this, but I am willing to use
my skills in any capacity to help build the kingdom which is what I
intend to do.                           I don't have too much to share
about life in the MTC this week because it hasn't been too eventful,
but we do have another proselyting activity on Monday and we won't
have Latino companions this time. So, prepare to hear about our
awesome experiences with that next week. I hope you're all safe and
happy. And I love you all. :)                         Hna Cappuccio

A Spoonful of La Tierra del Libro de Mormón: Guatemala Mission- Week 7

This week we had the amazing opportunity to go to an outdoor relief
map of the whole country of Guatemala. It's pretty big so they had to
build small towers so that you could see all the parts of it. It's old
too so some of the original functions don't work anymore, like the
water that's supposed to be flowing for the rivers, lakes, and oceans,
but it was cool none the less. We had one of the MTC Presidency
Councilors explain to us how this land fits the description of the
Book of Mormon land. He went through a lot of the history and pointed
out different places like the place where they landed (which is
actually in Mexico on the border of Guatemala and also where Christ
appeared to the Nephites), Zarahemla, the river Sidon, and the land
Northward. It was such a neat experience. He also explained that when
they say ´´and they went up to the land....´´ it means up in altitude
which is common because there are so many hills and mountains (and
volcanoes) here.
                 We also got to go to a mercado in the city. It's kind
of like the streets in Rocky Point but it's a complex and all the
vendors have tiny stores with a lot cooler stuff. As you walk past
they all ask "¿Qué está buscando?¡Pase!" They were all really
down-to-earth and it was fun talking to some of them. I definitely
think you'd like the market, Mom. You're able to bargain them down and
everything is pretty cheap but they have some sweet table runners and
place-mats and, my favorite, hammocks.
         This week was a little hard because all of our friends from
the last 3 weeks left and besides being lonely for a day and a half,
we really missed them. They were all fantastic people and so funny and
I know they're going to make great missionaries. We got a huge new
group of missionaries though and they're great too and what's better
is there are actually more missionaries going to my mission! It's been
cool getting to know them and also the other missionaries that are
from there and finding out a little bit more about what it's like.
                                 This is a rather long email, so I
apologize. I hope you're all doing well and enjoying your March. It's
crazy to think that I only have 3 weeks left here in the MTC, but I
already feel ready to be out in the field. I'm just trying to learn
patience and find ways I can help build others in my district which is
actually harder than you'd think with the personalities we have. Ha.
Well, until next week amigos y familia!
Love, Hna Cappuccio

A Spoonful of La Vida de una Misionera: Guatemala Mission Week 6- Mar. 3, 2012

I can't help but comment on the speed of which time seems to fly by
here in Guatemala. It seemed to drag a bit in the Provo MTC,
especially the first and the last week, but ever since we got here it
has been going so fast. Our Latino friends that got here at the same
time as us are leaving on Monday and Tuesday and I'll be sad to see
them go, but I guess we'll be getting another batch so I shouldn't be
too sad.                                                           The
most exciting thing about this week is that we were about to go
proselyting!!! It was awesome. They took us out to Zona 5 of the city
and then let us loose all on the same block. Luckily they gave us
gringos Latino companions. I was paired with Hna Ramirez who also
happens to be my roommate and she was awesome. Whereas I was nervous
and unsure, she was bold, compassionate, and knowing.
                                      We ended up just contacting on
the street about 15 people. Out of that bunch we got the reference
information of about 11. We placed 2 Books of Mormon as well as
various other pamphlets. What surprised me was the willingness of
everyone we stopped to give us 5 to 10 minutes of their time. It was
such a neat experience to be able to look into their eyes and know
they were missing something that I could give them. Yet, I only felt
as if 3 or maybe 4 of them actually intended to follow-up with our
invitations. But that's how missionary work goes.
      Besides that, our scedule has been like normal, meaning chaotic.
They give us a schedule every week like they did at Provo, but then
procede to not follow it strictly. The only thing that is constant is
our meal times, which I still LOVE. A little too much, I think. I was
able to try a new fruit called a Jocote which is a size in between a
grape and an apricot with the taste between a pineapple and a mango. I
also got my first taste of mango yesterday! They just pealed them and
stuck all the mangoes into the fruit bar whole. It was awesome, though
difficult to eat.                               I have really been
impressed this week by Nephi. He really did have so much faith, both
in the words of his father and the words of the scriptures. He didn't
complain about the timing of the Lord in revealing his will or giving
him revelation. I think we  can all learn a lot from him. I hope
you're all doing well and staying out of trouble. I appreciate your
prayers and hope you know I pray for you all too.
With Love, Hna Cappuccio

A Spoonful of H-S-I: Guatemala Mission Week 5- Feb. 25, 2012

Those of you who have served Spanish-speaking missions will know what
HSI means, for those who haven't, it means Hable Su Idioma, or in
other words, Speak Your Language and it refers to speaking your
mission language all the time while in the MTC. As youc an imagine,
this can get pretty hard when you're a newb to the Spanish language,
but it does pay off. I've learned a ton in the last week and can
understand almost any Gospel discussion. It's harder when it comes to
discussions about pastimes because I've never learned a lot of that
vocabulary.                 The teachers have taken notice of my sweet
skills and have asked me to teach my district certain grammar
concepts, but I'm still learning a lot too so I'm not the most
thorough or knowing teacher out there.                          Our
devotional this Tuesday was with Elder Martino of our Area Presidency
with his wife. My headphone jack wasn't working so I listened to the
whole thing in Spanish and actually understood most of it. I found it
slightly amusing because during the end of his wife's talk, Elder
Martino began to doze off and didn't wake up until he heard everybody
say "Amen" and so he had to take a few seconds to reorient himself for
speaking, you'd think it would have taken him a while to speak with
power and the Spirit, but nope, he gave a powerful discourse from the
get-go. Thus, he supported my idea that the Church needs to put more
of an emphasis on Revelation through Descansar, or Sleep/Rest,
especially here at the MTC. That's something me and my companions came
up with this week and now it's an inside joke of a sort.
       We also got to go to the Guatemala City temple because it's
literally a block from us. Closer than the Provo temple is to the MTC
(And no hill! Haha). It was a really neat experience as it's a smaller
temple than any one I've ever been in and it's neat to see the temple
in a distant land so bustling with people.                      Well
we have about 4 more weeks here at the MTC which possibly could be
shortened (a sister in the group before me left in the middle of her
4th week here). DearElder letters get to us by Wednesday if submitted
by Sunday at noon Utah time and I'm pretty sure it's free. I hope
you're all doing well and remember that power comes from faith and
faith comes from a pattern of study and prayer. The Lord loves you
all very much, of that I am sure.  

Love, 

Hna Cappuccio

A Spoonful of El CCM: Guatemala Mission Week 4- Feb. 18th, 2012

That's Spanish for MTC. I made it to the Guatemalan MTC! Wow, I don't
think I can communicate how much I love it here. The temperature stays
in the 60 to 70 range all day, thus we never need jackets, the food is
cooked by our chef and his crew and is amazing (especially the bread),
and I have more of an opportunity to speak Spanish todo el tiempo (all
the time). I should warn you that the enter button doesn't work here
so it's all going to be one block of text. Lo siento! (Paragraph
break) Okay more about el CCM- all the nativos here are super nice and
have a lot of patience considering we talk
their ear off in poorly constructed sentences. The temple is like 10
yards from us and every day when I wake up and go down the stairs, I
can see it through the window. Yesterday we had the opportunity to go
to the Distribution Center (everything there is soo cheap. G's for
like less than a dollar) and we go to contact on the temple grounds.
There was a group of membros visiting from Honduras because their
temple is under construction now so we got talk to them and ask them
for references. (Paragraph Break) The flights over were pretty fun too
because when traveling in a group it's hard to go unnoticed. Some of
us even had some sweet missionary experiences and our flight to
Guatemala was pretty empty so we each got our own row to sleep. I'm
looking forward to my next 5 years here. I hope everyone is doing
well! 

Love, 

Hna Amy Cappuccio           

A Spoonful of El Fuego Purificador: Guatemala Mission Week 3- Feb 10, 2012

Or the refiner's fire. Which is sometimes what the MTC feels like. The teachers want us to have the most successful mission possible, which apparently means feeling like you're not doing anything right. I exaggerate of course, me and my companions are seen some great success, but we definitely have a long ways to go. I have enjoyed learning more about teaching as well as more about the gospel essentials so that I can be more converted to Christ and His Gospel.

One thing that I am continually impressed with is the power of the Book of Mormon. I've read it myself several times and know it is the word of God, but when you read it in the context of missionary work, everything is new and incredibly powerful to help our investigators come to Christ. I think that's what makes the Book of Mormon such a dynamic book. No matter how many times you read it, it can be new and more significant depending on the lens you read it in.

This last week has been like a roller-coaster, but by the end of each day I always come to the conclusion that this is where I'm supposed to be. I appreciate hearing from those who have written and sent things my way and I promise I've responded to everything so if you haven't received a reply let me know. We're preparing to leave for Guatemala next week and we're all getting really excited. Some of the sisters in our group have never left the United States, but all are a little nervous about going to a place where they only speak Spanish. I welcome the opportunity to speak in Spanish all the time.

Thank you everyone for your support and love and the next time you'll here from me, I'll be in the land of the Lamanites!

Love,

Hermana Cappuccio

A Spoonful of Yo se que... : Guatemala Mission Week 2- Feb. 3, 2012

.el Evangelio de JesuCristo y su iglesia fuen restaurados para el profeta Jose Smith. I can speak Spanish everyone! Haha, well it's still pretty rough, and obviously not fluent, but I've taken some serious strides. I can bear my testimony to anyone without notes and I do so about 3 times everyday because we count them as "contacts".

All the classes and devotionals have been incredibly spiritual and uplifting. This last tuesday we had a devotional with Elder Holland and Elder Nelson. Yes, you read right, (end of first email- added next email below)

.So the computers here at the MTC are really stupid. And apparently you can send a document by simply pressing the Caps lock button. The email continues below.

TWO GENERAL AUTHORITIES! At once. There were a lot of rumors that it would be the whole First Presidency, because we were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the MTC, but the two Apostles was just as good. I got to sing in the choir which was a really neat experience that I'm glad I did since I only have one more week to do so.

We got our travel plans yesterday and I will be flying out the 14th of February at night. I should be able to call during my layover in LAX. I'm excited to get to Guatemala, but I'm actually finding myself sad to go at the same time. I love my teachers here at the MTC and I love the feeling here.

We had an interesting experience this last week as we were thrown into teaching our first investigator the first Friday. We taught him everyday after that except for Sunday I think and then we found out yesterday he was our other teacher. Fun stuff. I accidentally asked him if he was married in the lesson and that lead to a pretty great reaction. Ha.

So, it's kind of hard to see all the other hermanas and elders get letters and packages every day when I've only gotten two letters, but they're families and friends sends them enough treats for the rest of us. And it's important to focus on the work. I really want to learn this language so that I can be the best instrument of the Lord as possible.

I hope you all are doing well!

Love,

Hermana Cappuccio

A Spoonful of Me llamo Hermana Cappuccio: Guatemala Mission: Week 1- Jan 28th 2012

Soy de Arizona. Hay 5 hermanos y hermanas en mi familia. I'd need more hands in order to count the number of times I've had to use these 3 phrases in the last 3 days. Everybody has a fun time with my last name, so I'll have to remember to thank my Italian ancestors when I meet them someday. So the MTC...I wish I could say the Spirit warms our physical bodies as much as it does our souls, but it's still incredibly cold outside.

I'm loving Spanish, maybe not as much as French, but my feelings of animosity towards Spanish really just stem from my unfamiliarity with it and I remember feeling the same way about French once upon a time. But seriously, since when is it okay to not say the subject of the sentence?

I love my district. We have 5 sisters and 5 elders which is probably one of the only districts with such even proportions. All the sisters are going to the CCM (MTC) in Guatemala and all the elders are staying. I'm one of the lucky ones that has 2 companions, Hmas Henderson y Schroeder. Hma Schroeder is from here in Orem and is going to my same mission and Hma Henderson is from Bakersfield, CA and going to Nicaragua.

Oh, so I have a quote to share. "The best preparation for a mission is learning how to change." -yours truly.  I feel like all the classes I took, books I read, people I talked to mean very little next to my willingness and ability to change who I am to be a better missionary. It takes a lot of humility, which I've discovered is quite painful in large doses. But I'm finding myself wanting to be a better companion, a better example, and a better disciple because that's what it takes to be the best missionary and I didn't come here for anything less than that.

I want to thank every and all of you that have helped me get to this point, you might not know what it is you've done to make an impression on me, but I promise you all have, and good ones. I pray God is watching over all of you and that each day you are getting to know him better. And if you have time, think of your favorite missionary and find time to write them a letter! (I can acccept if that favorite isn't me, but letters make every missionary happy--and that's a fact.)

With lots of love,

Hermana Cappuccio