Fruits

Report from Mat's mom: Last night I got a phone call from Mat's friend, Eric Corpuz. Eric just received his mission call to the Phillipines Quezon City Mission and will enter the MTC on July 14! Eric has been attending BYU and we are so proud of all he has accomplished and the progress he has made in the short time he has been a member of the church. I can hardly wait for Mat to read his email on Monday and get the news about Eric's mission call.

Mat and Eric became friends in high school and Eric was taught by the missionaries in our home. Eric's many LDS friends were also instrumental in teaching him the gospel and encouraging him to be baptized by their examples and love. Mat baptized Eric when he turned 18 in September 2008.

Congratulations Eric! We love you!

Baptisms!

Hey Mom,

I can't believe the palm trees are already torn out. That would be a huge project. I'm going to miss those things. That's crazy that Eric's mission call gets in soon. It will be exciting to hear where he is going.

It's been a really busy and exciting week and especially weekend! Holly and Christopher Thompson are both baptized and confirmed members of the church! Saturday was a great day. We went to the church really early to start filling the font, but the hot water heater doesn't work very well so we spent almost five hours boiling pots of water on the stove in the kitchen and dumping them into the ice cold water to try and heat it up a little. We thought it would get warmer than it did, but I didn't know until I walked down into the water. It was freezing! It took my breath away for a second because I didn't expect it to be that cold. I had the opportunity to baptize Christopher first, and then I also baptized Holly. It was funny to see her reaction when she walked down into the font and felt how cold the water was. It was a really great day, and it's so awesome to see 3 of the 4 members of their family now members of the church. They were both confirmed by Elder Stephens, and it was amazing to see the change in the countenances of both Holly and Christopher when we visited them after church. Especially Holly. She seems so happy and bright. I'm so grateful and blessed that I was able to start teaching them and see them both baptized and confirmed. We definitely had the Lord's help. They will both be awesome members of the church.

The work is going great here, and I've been learning so much. I'm so thankful for the opportunity I've had to come to this mission and participate in so many amzing things! It's definitely life changing; for me and for those I've been blessed to teach and serve. The gospel is full of so many awesome blessings! I hope you're all doing well! Have a great week!

Love Mat

A Hockey Stick is Not a Golf Club

Well this week has been really busy getting everything planned for the baptism on Saturday, and getting everything taught to Holly before the baptism. It'll be another busy week making sure everything goes smoothly and we have everything ready for Saturday. So funny story: On Tuesday we had a combined young men's vs. Melchezidek priesthood activity playing floor hockey, and then a little football. We played floor hockey most of the time. Christopher Thompson (our investigator) and his dad came to play with us. They both play hockey in leagues. It was getting pretty intense as all church sports do, and so naturally I was trying to dominate the other team. After playing for only a few minutes I flung a really hard snap shot at the other team's goal, which was being guarded by one of the counselor's in the branch presidency. Apparently using golf techniques is too intense for hockey, because the ball went too high and nailed the guy right in the nose. I intentionally hit the ball really really hard, but I didn't intentionally hit him in the face. His nose was bleeding on the outside and his glasses flew off, and I felt really bad and apologized. In the midst of all this commotion I would just like to add that it was a perfectly aimed, straight shot. He got mad and left, and we all laughed about it afterwards, and he did too. He was just a little frustrated that he didn't react fast enough. People agree that I was lucky that his nose didn't break. So I learned a couple things from this experience. First I learned that combining golf and hockey techniques is pretty explosive (If you don't believe me, just watch Happy Gilmore), and second, I learned that you should probably not shoot as hard as you can when the goalie isn't wearing any protection. It was pretty hilarious. We've all had a lot of laughs from it. Anyways, the rest of the week was good and not as violent.

Holly and Chirstopher are both doing awesome, and will be baptized this Saturday. I'm really excited for it. I will be performing both of those baptisms. I'm very blessed and grateful that I will have the opportunity to participate in that. General Conference was great. I thought it was an awesome two days. Some of the people we've been teaching came out and watched, and some even got a little teary-eyed. It's a good break from the normal Sunday, especially in a small branch where a lot of the same people give talks frequently. So this week we started teaching an East Indian couple. They are Seik(?). We took a member with us that converted from Hinduism and speaks Punjabi. He helped translate when they didn't understand what we were saying. It's pretty interesting teaching someone who's beliefs are so different. Well, I'm excited for this week, and I'm really excited for this weekend when Holly and Christopher get baptized.

Love Mat