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Sorry, but responding will have to wait until next week. Right now I have to go do splits with a member from the ward and then we are going to do more during the week, so hopefully this will help with the missionary effort in Grand Bourg! Also, today we went and played soccer with our district and cooked sausages in the chapel. It was fun, and I bought a photo album to keep track of all the alfajor wrapers I eat!!!
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
October 12, 2010 Elder Torres
This week was pretty interesting. Like I said, I got a new companion Elder Torres and he is from Salta Argentina. He was baptized 3 years ago and is 25, so he just barely made the age cut to go on a mission. He has an older sister who is working as a nurse in Capital here in Buenos Aires, and two younger brothers. Before going on a mission he was working in a theatre as a dancer. He did ballet and got paid to do it. So that´s pretty cool. Right now I am helping him learn English because we were told to help our latin companions learn English on their missions. He speaks pretty well and even has pretty good pronunciation. I never realized how hard English is to learn, only because of the pronunciation.
I don´t know if you remember the talk by president Arnold during general conference (“you stupid cow”), but he´s our area president and so we had a zone conference with him yesterday. It was interesting and he even used the cow story a couple of times. It´s really amazing to see these leaders in the missionary world work. He told us a lot of things we need to change.
Later on that night we had a pretty cool spiritual experience too. We were walking and we passed by one man standing in his doorway, and even though my companion didn´t see him I saw that he was staring at us so I decided to go and contact him. At first he wasn´t receptive but finally Elder Torres asked if we could go in and he said yes. Then we were teaching him and during the lesson we asked him how he felt and he said uncomfortable. That´s not the usual response so I started to panic at what we were going to say next. Then Elder Torres realized and confirmed that he just felt uncomfortable because he grew up Catholic and so this information about Joseph Smith and a restoration were new. So then at the end we invited him to pray and we got down on our knees. He prayed and afterwards said again that he felt uncomfortable. But when we went to leave you could see that the lesson had an effect on him because there was just happiness and peace in his face. That was a pretty cool experience about how the gospel can change lives even if you don´t understand it right away. We are going to go again on Sunday, because he works the rest of the days so it was really a miracle too that we encountered him.
Well, I´m still feeling kind of light headed (from being sick) so I´m going to finish now. Chao.
I don´t know if you remember the talk by president Arnold during general conference (“you stupid cow”), but he´s our area president and so we had a zone conference with him yesterday. It was interesting and he even used the cow story a couple of times. It´s really amazing to see these leaders in the missionary world work. He told us a lot of things we need to change.
Later on that night we had a pretty cool spiritual experience too. We were walking and we passed by one man standing in his doorway, and even though my companion didn´t see him I saw that he was staring at us so I decided to go and contact him. At first he wasn´t receptive but finally Elder Torres asked if we could go in and he said yes. Then we were teaching him and during the lesson we asked him how he felt and he said uncomfortable. That´s not the usual response so I started to panic at what we were going to say next. Then Elder Torres realized and confirmed that he just felt uncomfortable because he grew up Catholic and so this information about Joseph Smith and a restoration were new. So then at the end we invited him to pray and we got down on our knees. He prayed and afterwards said again that he felt uncomfortable. But when we went to leave you could see that the lesson had an effect on him because there was just happiness and peace in his face. That was a pretty cool experience about how the gospel can change lives even if you don´t understand it right away. We are going to go again on Sunday, because he works the rest of the days so it was really a miracle too that we encountered him.
Well, I´m still feeling kind of light headed (from being sick) so I´m going to finish now. Chao.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
October 3, 2010 General Conference
Alright, well I have 20 or so minutes to write, so cool. Yes, we went to a stake center to watch all of general conference, except for priesthood because that started at 9 pm our time and of course we had to be back in our apartment by then. I definitely liked how he was talking about the fundamentals when he lost his voice and said that was something fundamental, he needed to speak! And did you know, they don´t assign talks to the speakers in general conference. They just send them a letter saying "your have been asked to talk at this time for this long, and you will follow so-and-so." I didn´t know if you knew that, but I learned it from a talk Elder Bednar gave to missionaries about following the spirit. So really they are all inspired. I can definitely agree with what was said about video games, and even TV because I think of all the time spent on those and where has it gotten me? I´m not better at making friends and "hanging out" for it, and I could have spent that time practicing piano or fútbol or something that would last me longer. Yeah video games are fun, but in the end they take away from using this time on Earth for other things.
New news. I am still in Grand Bourg, but I have a new companion! My trainer went to Capital and I am here with Elder Torres. He already seems awesome, he talked with the cab driver for 40 minutes about the gospel while we went back to our area and now we are going to pass his name onto the missionaries who live in his area. Also, he is from Salta, Argentina. So I am going to help him learn English and he is going to vastly improve my Castellano. I´ll write more next week when I find out more!
Spiritual Experience for the week: I have learned that attitude changes everything! These past few weeks have been pretty harsh and hard to get through, only because we haven´t been finding many people or entering many houses to teach. Also, we´ve had no investigators in the church for awhile. But yesterday I just woke up and during studies decided that I was fed up with our low numbers so when we left that morning I just started doing contacts in the street. I talked to about 3 or 4 people just from 11 to 12 and we already started receiving references and contacting references, and we entered a house that Elder Nelson has been trying to enter for a long time and we had an excellent lesson and the investigator is interested in listening to us right now. He´s a mago and already understands faith from reading a book called El Secreto. In otherwords, we completed our daily goals, which honestly hasn´t happened a lot with us, and i believe a lot of it had to do with how my attitude changed and I was determined to do the things I should be doing, si o si. So now I will perservar hasta el fin and continue in this attitude. I just need to hang on to this desire to achieve our goals and I believe we will be blessed with more success.
I have to go now, but thanks for all the letters and notifications when somebody writes me.
Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis
New news. I am still in Grand Bourg, but I have a new companion! My trainer went to Capital and I am here with Elder Torres. He already seems awesome, he talked with the cab driver for 40 minutes about the gospel while we went back to our area and now we are going to pass his name onto the missionaries who live in his area. Also, he is from Salta, Argentina. So I am going to help him learn English and he is going to vastly improve my Castellano. I´ll write more next week when I find out more!
Spiritual Experience for the week: I have learned that attitude changes everything! These past few weeks have been pretty harsh and hard to get through, only because we haven´t been finding many people or entering many houses to teach. Also, we´ve had no investigators in the church for awhile. But yesterday I just woke up and during studies decided that I was fed up with our low numbers so when we left that morning I just started doing contacts in the street. I talked to about 3 or 4 people just from 11 to 12 and we already started receiving references and contacting references, and we entered a house that Elder Nelson has been trying to enter for a long time and we had an excellent lesson and the investigator is interested in listening to us right now. He´s a mago and already understands faith from reading a book called El Secreto. In otherwords, we completed our daily goals, which honestly hasn´t happened a lot with us, and i believe a lot of it had to do with how my attitude changed and I was determined to do the things I should be doing, si o si. So now I will perservar hasta el fin and continue in this attitude. I just need to hang on to this desire to achieve our goals and I believe we will be blessed with more success.
I have to go now, but thanks for all the letters and notifications when somebody writes me.
Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis
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