July 18, 2011 Obtaining Charity

Well, please thank the missionaries for getting Jordan to realize how hard it is to teach and be a missionary! I don´t know how long it took the lesson with you guys, but normally the longest we try to go is 45 minutes maximum. Try doing the lesson in 15 hahahah! To help with the first vision we use the pamplets. I don´t know if you´ve seen the first lesson pamphlet but when we teach one companion relates Joseph Smith´s experience and the other shows the picture of Joseph seeing our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We actually use the pamphlets quite a bit, especially to help people make commitments.

Thanks so much for the packets! I finally got it and boy I knew my momma loved me when I opened it up and saw that bouncy ball. I think that was one of the best gifts. You did send S´mores stuff and Elder Amasio and I tried a couple last night, I forgot how delicious they are! THis week in the district meeting I´m going to divy up the rest and give it to the other missionaries to try. Luckily in the two other companionships there´s one north american so they can all learn how to do it right! I also liked the ties, very snazzy and cool. Also thank Jordan for the shirt he sent, I guess I can accept having a BYU shirt since it´s of where my brother went to dorm... I also thought the ballerine cookies were good and the S´mores goldfish were really cool, thank Amanda for me. Thank the McPHerson family for the socks, those are always useful, especially down here where it gets a bit colder. Thanks a ton for the two CD´s, they are really cool. My companion is already making a copy of the Josh Groban today, ha ha. Thank grandma and the passeys for the letters and yeah, it was awesome.

I haven´t heard anything about the new Harry Potter movie here but I did see a trailer and it looked awesome. I can´t wait to see it afterwards oh man! Yeah that is crazy about how long it´s been, I don´t remember well but I think Brian Lynn got us into the books because I at least remember going at midnight to buy the book with him one time early on. By the way, what´s SYTYCD??? Oooh, so you think you can dance. So how was that? Did anyone get the plane ticket? Thanks for keeping up to date on all my West Point stuff, I was actually about to ask if you have the physical test, because it´s already now past July and I need to see where I stand, pero mal. I also have a favor to ask: could you email some of those West Point pictures to this address waldo.mena@gmail.com ? This is the war history fanatic and would love to see some pictures, especially ones of me in uniforms ha ha. If you could do it today too it would be awesome because we have dinner with them tonight.

Now for spiritual stuff. We had a zone conference this past week and it was very different, president told us he taught us things that he didn´t talk about in any other meeting. We spent the whole morning talking about Charity. First he asked all of us who we wanted to become. So we told him what type of person we wanted to become and then we talked about the requisites for obtaining charity. He taught us that we can´t practice having charity, it´s not a talent we can develope. Charity is like a pair of glasses that when we put on changes our view of someone because we see them as Christ does. I´ve learned that after having an experience like that we are changed forever because even if we end up falling and not becoming more Christ like we cannot deny the thoughts and impressions we had for that person. It´s a love and understanding and a desire for their well being that goes beyond anything I´ve ever experienced before. It´s also helped me realize the importance of people getting baptized RIGHT NOW because really they will be cast off forever after this extremely short life and never be allowed to live with God or Christ again. It´s amazing how often we forget the purpose of this life and how important our daily effort to learn the gospel is. I´ve also learned that if people don´t go to church they will not convert, it is absolutely important that they get to church, not just so they can get baptized, but because they will not receive the revelation they need in order to know that it is really worth it to convert and join this church. This past transfer has been incredibly hard because of the 5 weeks so far, I¨ve only had one investigator in the church for two of those and after her third time going she told me that she didn´t feel the spirit anymore and wasn´t sure if she wanted to get baptized anymore. She also wasn´t reading and praying everyday so going to church couldn´t help much without those two things too, but still I´ve learned that we need to do all we can to get these people to church. Like our mission president told us, would tying these investigators up and carrying them on our shoulders be too much or overexagerated to get people to church for their first time? No, not at all. I´ve come to understand more the importance of going to church every week and taking the sacrament.

That´s what I´ve been learning in my time here, and thanks for all the support and send my love to everyone there at church and at PCM.

Con Amor,
Elder David Arrowchis

July 7, 2011 Quick Update

ahhh man, sorry I can´t respond more. The internet cut today and we haven´t been able to get back to a ciber until now, and that´s just to check. We have to go get ready but I´ll let you in on the sparknotes:

1. we celebrated the 4th of July today with hotdogs, hamburgers, and the sisters made brownies with ice cream. Then we played fútbol.

2. I still don´t have my new companion and am back with Elder Amasio (my zone leader, from Anaheim). He´s Tongan and is going to teach me the Haka (like the New Zeland all blacks). I think I´m not going to get a companion until next transfer (3 more weeks). These numbers are terrible and it´s my first week as compañero mayor, que triste! But nonetheless I feel an amazing excitement even though I have no idea what to do to baptize in my area and it seems hopeless, the Lord really is watching over us and guiding us.

3. GOOD job with the missionary efforts. All it takes is a testimony, don´t be chicken, you get better with practice and it´s cool to see your friends get baptized ;). Thanks for doing those things, it makes me feel better and motivated to hear you inviting people to go to church and to meet with the missionaries.

4. I just finished buying souveniers today, so now you have a jersey (and of course I have several, hehehe).

5. Love you all and will write more next week.

Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis

June 30, 2011 Reading the Book of Mormon

I´ve come to realize the great importance of reading the Book of Mormon. I was on the bus one time in Grand Bourg and I was too scared to do a contact with the man sitting next to me so I started getting really stressed out and depressed and then I took out the Book and the strongest feeling of importance and magnifisense (I don´t remember how to spell en inglish) came over me. Since then I have been able to share my testimony strongly about the Book of Mormon and haven´t doubted it even in the face of tough investigators who want to fight it. THAT´S WHY JORDAN NEEDS TO READ THE BOOK OF MORMON EVERYDAY, SO HE STARTS THE MISSION BAPTIZING, UNLIKE ME! emphasis just in hopes that he heard it through the email :) . That´s what I studied today in Helaman 15. I think it´s verse 7 that talks about how because of the unfatigable diligence of the lamanites to bring their brothers to a knowledge of the truth of the gospel they were having daily baptisms. Right now we are working on getting to the point where the members help the missionaries find new investigators so we can one day get to where the missionaries help the members no más teach their friends, and that´s how we are going to be baptizing every weekend.

Yes, I am trying to stay healthy by varying my diet and trying to eat more fruits and I am doing my exercises like crazy. Me and Elder Amasio made the goal that by the end of this transfer we are going to have six packs, so we´ll see who wins. By the way, my companion still hasn´t been able to come down so this week a missionary (from my group actually) named Elder Allan came down from Rio Grande and we spent the week in my area. He´s still here and we have no idea when the planes are going to be able to bring our companions. We might be looking at another month, but that depends on the volcano. I heard the last time something like this happened there weren´t consistent flights until 5 months after. That would be cool to me, a year or more in Monte Olivia. Well, got to go now and bust some heads in fútbol.

June 20, 2011 Still No Companion

Well, I have not gotten my birthday package and I have not gotten my new companion yet.  I still don{t know when he{s coming and it{s been a week.  I{m still switching off being in my area and then going over to my zone leader{s area, but this week I think we are going to spend a lot more time in his area because he has a baptism this weekend.  It{s been crazy down here because I don{t have my phone and my companion already ran out of credit so we can{t make any more calls until about the 23 of the month when we should get more credit.  I am tired and I have no idea what to write.  This past week was also a bust, it seemed like the little time I had in my area I wasn{t doing anything good because we just couldn{t find our investigators in their house or with time to talk to us.  Other than that I had a couple of spiritual experiences.  One was that the Presidente counciled us to say a quick prayer before knocking on a house asking the Lord to bless us with His spirit and to find new investigators.  We did it in Elder Amasio{s area and even though the member said he was leaving he gave us a reference and we went over and there was a family that let us in.  We taught a lady and another guy and that guy ended up going to church the next day.  He{s also married (which is rare) and has interest so that was a blessing too.  In another appointment we had we started teaching and I felt impressed to share what I had learned in my daily study that day about how if we aren{t going to church, reading and praying everyday, having family home evening, doing all the small stuff we aren{t inviting the spirit into our life and he doesn{t have power to bless us with desires to stay worthy because satan will have power over our hearts and that{s when we start feeling more jealous, offended, angry, or whatever negative feeling or thought.  It seemed to help the investigator with his doubt and we felt the spirit a lot.  Love you and hope everything is going good there.  I{ll let you know next week if I am still without a companion, ha ha.