January 24, 2011 Dreaming in Spanish

Spanish is starting to get to me, I´m forgetting how to speak proper English. This past week I´ve hit a huge stepping stone on my mission, I had my first dream in Spanish. All of us were in a classroom with a ton of other people to take a test to see how fluent we were in Spanish. So amongst doing other things at one point I started speaking Spanish to practice before the test. It was soo cool!!!

We found a dog who was actually friendly while walking and even though we didn´t do anything to attract it, it started following us until we got all the way back to the house! It was really friendly but then we went inside and it went away. Then during the next day it found us again and did the same thing! So we called it Casper. We don´t feed it because we can´t have pets. I´ll send pictures next week, but it looks like a big Mika, definitely brought back some homesickness (for Mika, not for any of you :p ).

I was also reading True To The Faith about family history and I came across this awesome quote "As you receive priesthood ordinances in behalf of those who have died, you become a savior on Mount Zion for them. Your effort approaches the spirit of the Savior´s atoning sacrifice. You perform a saving work for others that they cannot do for themselves." I love receiving confirmations from general authorities about personal revelation I receive!

We also found this amazing family who invited us in and then we spent an hour talking with them about the restoration. They were all paying attention and at one point my companion pointed to a picture of Christ holding a lamb and he asked what they saw. They said love. Then he pointed at the wife holding her baby and asked what they saw. That really opened her eyes! The father was also eager to listen after he asked a question and the 11 year old daughter even read the introduction where it talks about what we need to do to know if the Book of Mormon is true, and she understood. Really cool family.

Yesterday we also had divisions with Elder Labra, an assistant to the president, and passed by our other two families that we are teaching. That experience was great and really taught me a lot. Elder Labra is really humble and was able to teach directly according to the needs of our investigators and really invited a spirit that helped them all understand. President Gulbrandsen also came to our sacrament meeting and talked with our investigators who showed up (8, a personal record!) and really helped them a lot. Today I am really gratefull and can see a little more clearly all the blessings that the Lord has given me. I´ve also been studying a bit about Grace and it said that without the grace of Christ we cannot participate in building his kingdom. In other words, without completely relying on the Lord for help I will not be doing missionary work, just walking all day or becoming lazy and trucho.

Glad you liked the photos and sorry that I ´can´t send any this week because I forgot the cables to send them back in the house, but next week I´ll send photos of the full hot dogs that we ate (also called Italianos) and pictures from today, which was the best P-day in the history of P-days! I don´t want to ruin the surprise because the pictures will bring more shock and awe than my simple words, so I´ll hold off until next week. Needless to say I got my wish answered in coming to Ushuaia. Also, I´ll attempt to do it phonetically: U (like in you) suai (like s•why) a (like Arrowchis). Hope that comes out. Also, a suggestion for scheduled scripture study could be to read the chapter from Gospel Principles that you are going to study during the week and write a talk. Or get a preach my gospel and study for topic and lesson. There´s also a section on Christlike attributes that is very helpful for seeing where you should start studying, with a personal test and everything. Thanks for sending all the letters and for praying for me. Don´t be afraid to get to know your neighbors, I´m always surprised at how we ask random people the names of their neighbors and they actually know! I never the names of our neighbors... Love you.

Con amor,
Elder Arrowchis