November 14, 2011 18-Month Mark

That´s awesome about Matt´s baptism, ha he must have more faith than me. Very cool, now you have to help friend him and make sure that he´s being taught the lessons of retention every week. It´s also important that he knows that that baptism is the source for more baptisms right now, so take advantage of finding through him and the lessons of retention. The missionaries better be asking for references in every visit. I can´t believe you remind me about my 18 month mark. Luckily you aren´t like some parents or sibilings who remind their missionary every month how much time he has left, ha ha. So, the money in my account, is that personal, or is that what you take out from to pay the mission, because if it´s 400 a month I´m going to be going home a lot sooner than expected... Also, thanks for doing pretty much all of my reapplication stuff, I have been doing my workouts and I´m pretty confident on my pushups and sit ups ability, just kinda worried about running maybe, so this week Elder Hunt and I are going to take our companions out in the mornings during exercises to go run a track right outside our apartment. Please find out if my mission zone leaders or someone else can do it too, it would be so much easier.

So cool things happening in the mission. We´ve been teaching this woman who´s been super depressed and hasn´t understood a thing of what she´s been reading, but she has been reading a bit everyday and because of that and her member friend inviting her she made it to stake conference this past weekend with her four kids, 2 of which are baptizing age, and said it was the first church she had been in that she loved and didn´t get a headache and is going back next week for sure. So with a little daily contact and teaching this week I have faith that she´ll make it to her baptismal date for the fourth. Hey, tell matt to keep pictures from his baptisms and we can do a cool tree activity when I get home with them that´s really inspiring and motivating. We have also been teaching another family that needs to get married but the husband likes to listen but doesn´t want to go to church or get baptized, but the wife does and even though these past three weeks she hasn´t gone to church even though we´ve gone to get them, she said that yesterday after we left she felt so bad for what she did and knew that what she did was bad that she got on her knees and asked Heavenly Father for forgiveness and said that she wouldn´t do it again, even if her husband doesn´t want to go. So basically she´s repenting, and she has two daughters who can get baptized and are interested too, so we just need to get them married now.

That´s all, I´ll let you go so I can go eat, HA HA, and so you can start writing me for next week´s letter :D! Love you.

Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis

P.S. I ate Seviche yesterday, a Peruvian dish that is raw fished cooked in lemon juice, as in without fire. Super good.

November 7, 2011 Missionary Advice

[Advice to new ward mission leader] There´s a ton of blessings that come from missionary work. Somethings that have always helped me are having missionary family home evenings. That´s an activity where the ward´s invited and invited to bring a friend or a current investigator. Those at the very least are good for building relationships with the members and helping them have more desires to help in the missionary work. They could also be centered around inviting the members to give references or make plans to invite someone to church or something. It also helps if I have a list of all the priests and elders who could accompany us and their hours of availability, so maybe if he could do a list like that. If the missionaries are good they should also be filling out a progress report every week with their investigators and less active members and recent converts that they are working with. As a matter of fact Matt could start out by asking them in their correlation meeting if they have that. That´s another thing, Matt should have a meeting with them everyweek to talk about their investigators and how the ward council can help bring them to church and involve them in the ward so he knows what to say in the executive comitee meeting (where the priesthood leaders meet together.) Other than that I´d invite Matt to read chapter 13 in Preach My gospel where it talks about working with the ward council and defines all the jobs and callings in the ward leadership, since I have no actual authority or stewardship to tell Matt how to be a ward mission leader. All I know is that our mission president is putting a ton of emphasis on teaching the lessons of retention to all of the recent converts within this year and last year and finding new investigators through them, because the best converts come through the recent converts. He also puts a lot of emphasis on teaching more lessons with member than any other lesson, so that´s why I included the part about hours of members, because we´ve found that by teaching 15-20 lessons a week and never less than 10 a week, missionaries baptize more. Maybe that´s just true for my mission, so I´d definitely ask the missionaries about what their mission president wants them to focus on and read Preach My Gospel rigorously to understand what these missionaries need to be doing and how they need help so the ward can baptize weekly.

Training is pretty difficult because it´s hard to speak English so much because I notice that my spanish always suffers a bit after speaking english. I am also responsible for teaching him how to be able to function as a missionary because it´s pretty obvious that we don´t become used to the missionary lifestyle right away. It´s also a good experience and a lot of pressure knowing that this experience will be shaping the rest of his mission, so I´m always trying to be the example. I honestly have no requests for christmas... I´m good on socks, maybe a tie, I donno...How about a baptism or some cool missionary skills.  Investigators only dig missionaries with good missionary skills :)

COn Amor,
Elder Arrowchis

October 24, 2011 New Companion Elder Lauder

Ha ha ha, alright I´ll write some more. I´ve actually have a lot to write about, I think. First things first, I have a new companion. His name is Elder Lauder and he´s from Salt Lake City, Utah and has six brothers and sisters and he´s the oldest out of all of them. So in otherwords He´s gotta look good for his family on his mission. That´s the other thing, this is his first area and so that means I´m a trainer. It´s super crazy the training program that they´ve given us, with a whole packet of things we have to study and goals that we have to meet during our companionship studies for the next 12 weeks (because that´s how long a trainer is supposed to be with his companion). The weekend before I received my new companion we had a super intense capacitación (uh, training meeting I think is the translation) about the final judgement and what the purpose of missionary work is and What I need to be focused on when teaching my investigators. Yeah, it was probably just as heavy as reading Jesus The Christ, which by the way I read and is super cool and it´s great that Jordan´s reading it now because he shouldn´t waste time reading it on his mission. I also want to read a ton of other church books when I get back: The teachings of all the prophets, The Miracle of Forgiveness, The Doctrine of Salvation, Articles of Faith... just to name a few. I´m going to call the mission president this week so I´ll ask him about the doctor thing and the letter, but could you ask the Major guy at west Point what I can do about the PT test, because supposedly I need to have a military officer or gym teacher take it, and i now know no one of the type... so I need special permission for my companion or maybe the zone leaders to do it? I don´t know, but we have been going out to run every other day and when we stay in I do sit ups and push ups like crazy.


That´s crazy that Cari is coming back already... what about Jenny Ward? I don´t remember who else went out around the same time as me, any one I know? Is there going to be anyone at home when I get there? All I know is that when I´m get back the only plans I´ll have every day would be to go to the temple, work out, practice soccer, study my math and chem engineering books, and read scriptures. Now I really don´t want to finish the mission, bleh. Anyway, this week´s been crazy training my new companion and all. I haven´t had a baptism forever, I don´t know why it´s hard for me to have the faith, but thanks to my companion he managed to commit 3 people to be baptized in our area just this week, so he´s super cool. We are also working a lot more with the members to help them give us more references and to go contact them in the moment, that way we have more success. I hope you two are ready because we I get back I already have a vision that at least every family home evening will be a super spirit fest to find people we can find the missionaries to teach. Just from what I´ve seen, life is so much better when the missionaries are teaching your friends. but for now I´m still struggling to be a baptizing missionary so I´m more focused on that for now, lo siento.

Well, that´s all for now, i´ll write more next week, AHAHAHA, the ultimate last words. Chau chau.

Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis

October 17, 2011 Trainer

Ha ha, first, tell Delia "Gracias Hermana, conozco las misioneras de Almagro asi que si queda en su area van a pasar para visitarle. Muchas gracias hermana que esté bien y siga leyendo, especialment cuando no quiera!". COuld you also tell Julio "Che, igual, cuidáte y seguí fiel para lograr el sacerdocio de melquisedec. hay que servir una misión, es lo mejor. Ayudá a sus hermanos y mama llegar los domingos. sabés que? Voy a entrenar un misionero nuevo! NO le conozco todavía pero escuché que será yanki, así que no va a hablar nada de castellano. Portate bien y hacé buenas cosas."

Yeah, there are cambios this transfer and guess what? I´m staying in my area, but I´m going to be training. I jsut had several training meetings and supposedly my new companion comes in tomorrow and the president said that all of the yankee missionaries are going to be training other yankees (okay so he didn´t say yankees maybe) and the other missionary who shares teh appartment with me is trainign too so it´s going to be crazy. We´re kinda rushed right now so ´ll write more next week. Love you and see you later. Thanks a lot for the letters and support, I´ll let you know how the first week of training goes.

Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis

October 3, 2011 No time to Write

Sorry, don´t have time to write more, hope you enjoy the pics and thanks for the love. Congradulations on the mission call, it´ll be great. January, i´m not going to see Jordan for over 3.5 years... Loved the corrections, thanks it´s good. Tell me if there´s anything I´m forgetting to do, I´m sure there is. I have not asked my mission president yet. Love you.

Con amor,
Elder Arrowchis