May 7, 2012 Jesus is the Christ

Alright, so we´re all excited for skype this saturday, yeah!  I just hope everything works out because I definitely don´t plan on stressing out to get it done.  So I was thinking Skype at 4 pm Saturday.  I don´t imagine it will be a long call... just setting up plans of arrival and saying I love you ha ha.  So Daddy at 4 (my time) on Skype and mommy at 4:30 my time.  I have no idea the difference so you´ll have to look that up on the internet.  It might be 12 pm and 12:30 pm in California...

This is the weirdest experience of my mission, preparing for all these things to get done in order to go home.  Today the secretary to the president called me to tell me when my exit interview with president is (saturday morning).  So I´ll tell you how that goes in the call.  Well, it doesn´t matter either because all I know and am thinking about is how we´re going to baptize this week so boo ya!  Here´s my letter to Grandma [80th birthday].

Hi Grandma it´s Elder Arrowchis.  Congradulations and feliz cumpleaños!  That´s so exciting, now you can eat all the cake you want and everybody has to do what you say!  The mission has been going great, learned a lot about life and our Heavenly Father through fun and exciting times and rough and really trying times, but it´s a great preparation for life.  I was thinking the other day about me being a child of God and the thought came to my mind that I know that Jesus is the Christ and that He suffered for all of my sins and it is only through him that I will receive the remission of my sins.  Love you and see you soon!

Con amor,
Elder Arrowchis

Thanks for all your help and we´ll talk more on Saturday, there´s no more room and my companion has to type still too!

April 30, 2012 Working Hard

Wow I can´t believe that Donald Redmond is already back home, no it´s too soon!  No way it´s already been two years.  So yeah, don´t worry about spanish materials, I´ll save my spanish books and stuff to send to Jordan when I get back, plus a spanish shirt and Argentina Boca jersey to get into the spanish mood, ha ha.  Well, I´m also definitely excited about helping the missionaries in our ward because I don´t want to be one of those bum return missionaries who doesn´t do any more missionary type work when I get back.  I´m also super excited that Jordan´s going to be speaking spanish, oh man this is going to be so much fun.  It´s actually a pretty cool feeling (like a blessing) that Jordan is going to learn Spanish and I can actually help him a little with that.

Yes, I do plan on doing skype.  I´m not sure what day but probably the Saturday before mother´s day since we can´t PAY for internet cafes on sunday.  Let me know your hours of availability and I´ll send back a response.  Plus, I don´t go to the mission home until Monday since we live fairly close, so I´ll be in my area until Monday morning. 

I really don´t feel like I¨m going home, how weird.  Not that I really want to anyway, only to see you guys again, but studying and keeping busy, yeah.  Wow, I really don´t know what else to write, plus this past was another week really hard.  I´m trying my best to work but the results aren´t coming, so I guess I have to repent more. 

Well, I´m currently making a spreadsheet of everything I´ve accomplished in the mission according to my weekly numbers, so I´ll write more next week!  Love you and thanks for all the support.  Call you in 2 weeks!

Con amor,
Elder Arrowchis

April 23, 2012 Planning for Success

Alright, sorry for writing so little last week but it´s just been super hard in the mission right now. Not just in our area and our zone, but overall in the mission we´ve been struggling. I heard from Elder Bruce (ex companion and now assistant) that a lot of areas and zones are struggling. Right now what´s really hurting us is church attendance. The past couple of weeks we´ve found quite a few new investigators, but we haven´t had success in bringing them to church. So now this week our whole focus is getting people to church, at least everyone has a larger list of investigators to work with. Something I saw with Elder Bruce in this zone is that one week we aumented our church attendance a ton and 3 weeks later the baptisms burst up as well. There´s a direct relation with that so we are super excited to start hammering it into our missionaries this week to get their investigators to church by planning specifically each day what they have to do and teach and who is the right member to help that investigator get to church.  If there´s anything I learned in the mission, it´s that everything requires a lot of planning and detailed planning to have success.

That´s also great about West Point, but honestly I don´t know why but I just don´t feel the pressure or relief right now. Maybe when I get home and have to start a study schedule to relearn Chemical Engineering I´ll feel it all, at once! But yeah, huge miracle. That unfortunately means that I can´t get married until I´m 25. That´s another weird thing about the mission. I was never really huge on getting married, I mean I always wanted to and knew I had to do it, but I was never really excited about it. Then in the mission, not even because someone brainwashes us, I´ve started having super strong desires to have an eternal companion some day and start having a family. Blessings of the mission I guess as I´ve started to understand the doctrine of Christ and the Gospel more and to see the effect it has had on people here.

Actually President Gulbrandsen told us a story one time that a similar miracle about planting desires in someone´s heart. He said that when he was stake president there was a couple that didn´t divorce but split up. The wife didn´t want to have anything to do with the husband, but the husband was still hopeful that his wife would return. All that Pres. Gulbrandsen told the husband was that if he lived the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he would be blessed. He didn´t tell him that his wife would return and didn´t even actually think that she would. So then sometime later, still separated, Pres. Gulbrandsen had another interview with this brother who had completely changed his life around and seemed better. The brother said that he now understood that it didn´t even matter if his wife returned, by repenting and living the Gospel he realized that the most important thing was his relationship with God and that he wasn´t bothered anymore about his wife not returning. Then a bit later the wife had an interview with Pres. Gulbrandsen and told him that she was kinda scared because she didn´t want to have anything to do with her husband, but that morning she woke up and had the strongest desire of love toward him that she couldn´t explain. So yeah, that won´t always be the outcome but it is so true that the only thing in this life that matters is our relationship with God and if we are living the Gospel, then he´ll take care of the rest so we end up happy.

Thanks for your prayers and support and I´ll write more next week (just in case you were doubting).

Con amor,

Elder Arrowchis

April 9, 2012 Baptism of Alejandro

These weeks have been difficult with the work.  We just aren´t finding like we used to and aren´t having success like we used to so I started fasting more to find out how we can improve.  One thing I noticed is that the revelation usually comes in the form of simple actions that we could apply.  Maybe the Lord´s trying to teach me about being patient while enduring to the end as well.  This past friday we actually had a cool experience.  President Gulbrandsen gave a special Easter devotional.  We were only in the offices for an hour in the morning but he spent the whole time talking about Christ and the atonement and resurrection.  It was very spiritual and really boosted our desire to share the Gospel with everyone.  We also had another zone leader council on Tuesday and it was cool.  We ate tacos again with brownies and ice cream.  The Hermana Gulbrandsen always cooks something really good.

We had a baptism too.  It was a boy named Alejandro and we found him through one of our recent converts, it is his nephew.  He started coming to church with his cousin and liked it and even started going to the activities and seminary!  It was a cool baptism and is definitely not my last.  I realized that I am a lot more like you than I thought (or maybe even wanted to be before).  Talking with my companion we noticed that we´ve gotten a bit lazy and lax in our desires to work hard and baptize and change our area and the zone and we think it´s because we took some advice to "slow down in the turbulence" like Pres Uchtdorf said, but we both are stress addicts!  We were comparing how we worked and how involved we were with the other missionaries at the beginning of our time together and now and it seems like by slowing down we have become more lazy.  So we´re going to try going back to putting on pressure and working hard.  So we both work better underpressure I think.  I´ve also realized while studying, planning, and taking notes that I also like lists, ugh.

Anyway, that´s all I got for now, there´s no port to transfer my fotos so I´ll try to send them next week.  Thanks for keeping my facebook and credit cards updated, I´ll check to see if my debit is expired or not.  Love you lots and write more next week.  hopefully this West Point wait will be over as well.

Con amor,
Elder Arrowchis

April 2, 2012 Final Transfer

Fa, it was super weird saying goodbye to one of our all star missionaries last night who goes home today.  Look him up for me, his name is Jordan Christensen.  He was super cool and it felt weird to think that I`m next.  Then I realized I need to baptize still so I stopped thinking about it.  Today was cool, we went to an all you can eat place called the Finca and I ate a ton of ice cream, yeah, and a piece of pork cooked on the grill.  Now we are writing at the ciber and I`m trying to think of what to do so that our new missionaries in the zone and the ones that stayed start off on the right foot this transfer.  Ah that`s right, I stayed here!  And my companion stayed too, so I`m going to end the mission speaking like a Chileno!  Super cool, I`m going to come back home and not be able to speak proper English.  We`re also super excited to start working again and this week we have a consejo de lideres with President (just the zone leaders and the assitants), so we are going to start the transfer pumped.  I`m super excited to devote myself completely to the Lord and really find those people who are ready to accept baptism and go to church and read the Book of Mormon and pray.  The Lord did promise us that, the field is white already to harvest, not in 3 months but now!  So that`s going to be our main focus, is teaching the recent converts their lessons of retention to teach them how to bring their friends and family to church and then finding those investigators who have been prepared ya!

Anyway, I`m also going to need to find my math book from West Point and my Chemical engineering book because I`m going to need to do some studying!  So yeah conference, I was actually feeling bumbed out because we didn`t manage to bring any investigators to any of the sessions, so this week we are super focused on finding the Lord`s prepared who are willing to go to church this Sunday.  I don`t have time to waste on people who are half interested in going to church, I need to find people who are willing.  This transfer we also have interviews so it will be my last chance to ask President things before my final interview.  I`m also excited that we made a better plan with my companion to help the members become more involved in the missionary work too.  We plan on sharing scriptures about the Doctrine of Christ with them and leaving the less active members commitments similar to that of investigators to help them grow in their love for the Lord and their neighbor too.  Our vision is to help the less active and the old members grow to the level of faith of a recent convert.

Some things I really liked about the conference was the talk about recognizing spiritual revelation and following it.  I`ve also never heard a general authority spend so much serious time talking seriously about dreams.  Which means that last night I dreamt about getting home standing in the living room, looking around, and having no idea what to do, ha ha ha.  I don`t need an interpreter to tell me what that means, so even more reason to forget myself in the work here and now while I can.  I also really liked the talk about the difference between being active in the church and active in the Gospel.  Here in the mission is when I`ve come to understand better what it means being active in the Gospel, because when our focus is on being active in the Gospel we aren`t annoyed by all the meetings in church or anything because we understand and see that we are helping other of God`s children progress toward qualifying for celestial glory.

Well that`s about it for my week, I`ll let you know how everything goes this week.  I`m ready to end it running my heart out, and my mind out, and my strength out.  Love you and write more next week.  Chau Chau.

Con amor,
Elder Arrowchis

March 26, 2012 The Field is White

Alright so I want to respond to your email first this time because talking about plans for something other than baptizing sounds more stress relieving right now.  So here´s my thought, so it stays "flexible", I get there, we go to your house, I unpack my stuff, I go to saddleback and hit up Brother Greiner institute at 12:00, and then at 1:00 we all meet up at Ted´s or something for an awesome breakfast burrito (I´m thinking I´ll be with my dad at institute but I don´t know).  Then after talking and stuff I´m with Dad until my release, and then we go to your house and I eat some awesome food and chat, and then sleep for the next week, while going to institute, and the temple, and taking out the trash, and cooking, and studying math and chemical engineering, and the scriptures, and the miracle of forgiveness, and dancing, finding people for the missionaries to baptize...  Yeah.

Talking that sunday is perfectly fine.  Even better, I´ll still have all the scriptures from the mission running through my head ha ha.  The only problem is they´ll be in spanish.  I was also thinking, and if anyone asks me to give a blessing I´m going to ask to do the first anointing part, because if they truly have faith in the blessing that´s enough because I have no idea how to speak or do it in English, ha ha ha!

So this week has been a super heavy week, re pesado.  Lots of stress and plans failing and low numbers, so we´ve been learning how to cope with that.  We talked with President this morning and he gave us advice from one of President Uchtdorf´s talks about when we encounter turbulence the best thing to do is not to speed up to try and pass through it but to slow down actually.  So we are going to try and apply that this week by focusing on the little things that I´ve learned and know I need to do and pray that the Lord sends success, especially for this general conference weekend.  One way I´m applying it is that I had the thought that well the field is white already to harvest, that´s the Lord´s work not mine, and so I could be sitting down sleeping and that still wouldn´t change how white and ready the field is to be harvested, only I wouldn´t be receiving any fruits from the white field.  So we´re not going to focus on how bad last week was and what we need to do to improve from there, but rather start with the approach of a new missionary.  A new missionary doesn´t know anything of past doubts or excuses because he has no experience with those, so therefore he works completely based on faith.  So we are going to plan without taking into account the doubts and excuses investigators/members have given us and only seek to do the will and plan of the Lord, the way a new missionary would find it. 

Let me know how everything goes with West Point.  Right now I´m not even anxious I´m so worn out, I just feel complete that I did everything that they requested of me.  love you and write more next week.  Chau chau.

Con amor,
Elder Arrowchis

March 19, 2012 Non-cool P Day

Alright so here goes the big long email.  I´m not sure what to write, so I´m just going to pour out what comes out of my mouth.  First and foremost, that fax I sent might be a bit confusing in box 20, so if they ask each box says the same thing, I think it´s a "no" or "normal",  and the signiture is to show that I didn´t forge it.  Second is that that trip took our WHOLE P day, so my companion is a bit molested (annoyed in english) and I need to make it up to him because we´ve only had one cool Pday in a while now.  He just completed a year and a half a couple of days ago so I´m going to buy him a kilo or so of ice cream, maybe just a half a kilo.  Just so you know, we get about 50 bucks a week for spending and today I spent about 15 on groceries, HAHAHA.  What a difference but here it feels like a lot.  There´s also a bunch of easter eggs in the store but they are super expensive, so actually i might just buy one for my companion, there we go I´ll buy him an easter chocolate egg.  Bunnys aren´t that popular here.  It´s super humid today again and it looks like it´s going to rain now. 

This week we need to find some miracles because we didn´t baptize last week and we don´t have any set baptisms for this week, so we need to do some work.  We are also stressing out because the zone is just not producing the results that we want them to have, and we don´t know exactly what else to do to help them because we call them every night and try to help them with their doubts and the doubts of their investigators, we keep track of their records and try to help them work in more efficient ways, we are trying and trying to help all of them achieve a vision of real growth in the celestial kingdom, but it seems like a lot of times they just get mad or simply don´t listen!  It´s like having kids or something, we know what to do to help them but they don´t put it into practice.  We actually have one missionary who recently got super excited because he saw a girl get baptized who had to drop just about every bad sin and this Sunday even wore a skirt to church to her confirmation.  Complete miracle and now we have seen a huge increase in his faith due to that miracle.  It´s funny because he is a super obedient missionary but never really had the vision, just obedient because he knew he had to be and wanted to be obedient.  Basically he was a Sam.  So I started telling him to pray for a response whenever he would ask me doubts and even though he got frustrated he started praying and now we see that he does have a vision and is achieving levels of success that he just didn´t even think of before.  It´s great!  Now he´s more of a Nephi. 

Other than that, I don´t want to think about going home, but what were your plans for the pick up day?  I was thinking that since you dropped me off, my dad picks me up (with you there) and I spend the day with him until I´m released (I´m assuming it will be in the night) or until dinner, and then I go with you from dinner on.  Just a thought.  I haven´t thought about what I want for dinner, but yes for dessert I want a root beer float.  Actually, your homemade lasagna sounds really good right now.  And I plan on going for teds burritos for lunch and sushi for a merienda, ha ha.  Anyway, gotta do zone leader stuff in these last 5 minutes, love you.  Chau chau, let me know if there´s anything in particular any of you want from Argentina.

Con amor,
Elder Arrowchis

March 12, 2012 No Time

Sorry, no time, write more next week.  Love you,

Elder Arrowchis

March 5, 2012 Visionary Leadership

Yeah, it´s kinda fun to baptize.  It´s also kinda fun to eat alfajores.  Things are getting super busy here because Elder Ramirez and I have been struggling quite a bit to get the zone organized and moving, we finally are getting there today with all the materials we need, so hopefully this week will be better than the last.  This week we also have a conference with the zone leaders and district leaders so that should help because we have two new district leaders in the zone.

I´m still working on developing this "visionary leadership" deal.  It´s really cool what we´re learning here about vision and about how we need to know the why of what we´re doing instead of just accepting the rules.  That gives us the drive we need to want to follow the rules and also to make our own plans inorder to accomplish our objective.  That´s when it becomes our objective, and not just our mission president or the assistants objective.  It´s really neat too, kind of like Nephi was the only one who supported his dad and acted on his own direction to accomplish the commandments received through their dad.  He had the vision, and in 1 Nephi 2 it explains that he achieved it by praying and receiving a confirmation for what his dad had told him.  Laman and Lemuel never wanted to know and Sam it seems obeyed to obey, and did not receive the vision.  That´s the difference between being a Sam and being a Nephi; Sam obeys but Nephi understands.  Yeah when I was down in Ushuaia it seemed that everyone wanted to get a job in the factory because they paid the best and had the most stable hours.  It was huge down there.

So another spiritual experience we had this week was that we were walking down the street in front of a members house and they had told us that across the street lived less active members.  We saw a lady sitting outside there and talked to her and she listened to us and accepted to be baptized.  We then decided to try and visit a less active family before going home and a man called out to us in the street.  Normally we don´t stop because at night they usually do that to rob us, but this time we did stop.  He turned out to be going through a really rough time and after talking with him and his mom we learned that they had been to church before but a long time ago and that missionaries had passed by too.  So we commited them to read and pray and get baptized and they accepted.  That´s another things we are implementing here in our zone only, is counting how many times a day we invite people to be baptized.  This really shows how focused we are on calling people to repentance through baptism and if we have received the vision of real growth in the celestial kingdom.  So yeah, good stuff.  Well, time to go and now more pictures, so I´ll get the paper signed and faxed in and also the doctor appointment.  Love you lots and thanks for all the help you´ve given me with the West Point application.

Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis

Jose C Paz II Pictures

 Elder Arrowchis

 The family we baptized and her friend on the right in the Nueva Pompeya branch

 The baptisms that we had this past weekend: a boy who´s family is returning to church, a mom and daughter whose other daughter was confirmed last week, the daughters of a family we have been teaching for awhile

The baptism I did, Bishop did the two sisters, and a recent convert did the mom and her daughter.

February 27, 2012 Time to Baptize!

Okay, time to baptize! So I don´t have a lot of time right now because I´ve had a ton of things to do, but hope you enjoy the pictures. SO yeah, this past week we worked like crazy! Elder Ramirez has a very concentrated style of working, especially when it comes to dealing with the other Elders. I´m learning a lot from him about counceling with the other missionaries to help them aument their faith in order to gain a vision of achieving more and setting higher goals while still being realistic. For instance, this last week we started counting how many times we´ve invited people to be baptized. This past week we achieved 8 and because of that urgency and boldness we had 5 baptisms where we only would of had two otherwise! It´s great and I am just super stressed and super excited to just start baptizing and confirming (because it all depends on a missionary´s mindset no mas). It´s a great energy that comes from repenting myself everyday and looking to help and serve others instead of staying content with the success that I am given. It has a lot to do with trying to retain the remission of my sins as explained in Mosiah 4. That is also relieving to know that I don´t have to worry about West Point right now, just keep exercising every morning and not letting myself go on the sweets and fatty foods. Could you also let me know if I need to reschedule that doctor appointment to finish the sheet for my eyes? Well, I sent pictures this week so I´ll leave off on the writing a bit.

About those who were baptized: The boy of 9 years we found because his family is inactive but started coming back to church and wanted to baptize him. The mom and her daughter we found through our recent convert, who is her daughter, and with that family they just came prepared. The older daughter showed up to church one Sunday, basically baptized herself, and then we started talking with her mom and younger daughter. The mom read everything and had been living all the commandments her whole life and the night before her baptism her daughter prayed with her to know if she should get baptized and she felt like she should. The other two girls are part of a family we´ve been teaching since I got here and they decided to get baptized this week too. We actually dropped them but the whole family came last Sunday and they accepted fechas. Now it´s just time for the Dad to act! Love you a ton and thank you so much for all your help with West Point and letters and stuff.

Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis

February 20, 2012 Staying in Jose C Paz II

Faa, so yeah there have been some changes. I´m still in my area Jose C Paz II but my companion changed. Elder Bruce was called up to be an assistant to the president and my new companion is my other old zone leader, Elder Ramirez. He was my zone leader two transfers ago and now he´s here with me so we´re going to flood this zone with baptisms and converts. It´s great to have him because he´s Chileno (from Chile) so I´m going to help him learn English and he´s going to help me get back into Spanish speaking mode. If he´s the one to end me then hopefully I will get back home and not be able to speak English too well.

Anyway, so yeah Noelia´s confirmation went great and this week we are expecting at least two more baptisms. One is a 9 year old boy whose parents were inactive and his mom started coming back to church. It´s kinda bad but also funny, but at least here if a kid is 8 years old and not baptized the missionaries don´t really even talk to him, but as soon as he turns 9 they´re at the door! Ha ha ha, that´s because if one of their parents is a member and they get baptized at 8 they don´t count for the missionaries, actually we don´t even hold the keys for that baptism it´s a ward baptism. They other one is Noelia´s mom who is super prepared only she is a bit doubtful about following through. Other than that, I´m not sure the PT test is going to work out because it´s super hard finding time to do it, so just send in the "excuse". There are no running tracks around here, and none with pull up bars, only in Parque Chacabuco which is 3 hours away... So yeah, I still don´t know what to write about after two years, I´ll start taking more pictures this transfer, and I´ll tell you more about the baptisms. Here´s something you could write me about, have you had any experiences with praying and receiving an answer, or when were the times that you felt the Lord´s love for you most? Thank you and talk more next week.


Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis

P.S. there´s an elder Hunt here who said his brother is near Salmon, I already wrote Jordan so we´ll see if they find him ha ha.

February 13, 2012 John 4

Well the good news is that we had a baptism this last week. A woman named Noelia showed up to church on her own a two weeks ago and said she wanted to be a part of the church, and she had no problems to stop her progression and was doing everything necessary to develope her faith to get baptized, so she was baptized on Sunday. Now we are teaching her mom and her younger sister and her sister is so cool that before I even finished explaining how to do a prayer she started praying, so I just stopped midsentance and listened. Another miracle is that a member from another stake in Capital showed up today, because she used to live here, and brought her brother and sister in law who were married recently to church and they want to learn more about the Gospel. We also had the highest sacrament meeting attendance this past week since I´ve been here which was cool. When I got here we only had around 70 but this past week it got up to 105.

Something that the mission president just shared with me today was John 4. It is when Jesus is talking with the Samaritan at the well and it´s interesting to note that when his disciples had gone to town, eleven of these spiritual studs, they only come back with food and Christ teaches them pointedly that they needed to be focused on finding another type of food. Then John continues to teach us the importance of finding investigators through the members as he shows how the people in town came to listen to Christ because of the woman at the well sharing her experience with them, and then they believed in Christ´s words and were converted. He was doing missionary work through his recent convert! Que tal.

Con amor,
Elder Arrowchis

February 6, 2012 No Electricity or Water

So yeah, here´s my week. We had all those capacitaciones [training] and pretty much worked every day from 6-9, so we tried not letting let get to us and accepting that excuse. I´m really learning a lot right now about not accepting excuses and making plans, ha ha my kids are going to hate me. The missionaries tell us that they don´t have any investigators to make plans, and so we tell them that´s an excuse and what´s their plan to baptize this weekend ha ha. Then if they still don´t know we invite them to pray because that´s really the only way they´ll find a plan in the first place. Also, two nights we had no electricity or water and it was about 90 degrees or more in the apartment with super high humidity. I wasn´t dry once that night, or asleep longer than 2 hours total, ha. I had to stand up during church because I was falling asleep but bad. This week I am going to practice throwing a basketball and take the test somewhere next Monday, so yeah. Other than that nothing great to report, no baptisms or amazing miracles that I can think of right now. Love you and let me know if there´s anything I can do for you.
Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis

January 30, 2012 Two Baptisms

Wow, just wow. SO much going on and I am sooo tired, ha ha. This week has been super crazy! First of all it has been between 80 and 100 degrees farenheit every day with high humidity! On top of that, we had two baptisms and two confirmations. One was a boy named Facundo who is 10 years old and the missionaries found him before because another girl investigator they were teaching went to his house and shared the Book of Mormon with him and told him to read the introduction and pray about it. So he did it, and started listening to us. Now he was the first of all of them to get baptized and he got his parents to go to church on Sunday, and now they´ve accepted baptismal dates!

Next is Adrian, a 39 year old man. He started many months ago and actually declined getting baptized, then accepted, and then didn´t show up to his baptism and the missionaries have been trying forever to get him baptized. This week he talked with the bishop and said he wanted to get baptized. So we went with faith and did everything, and then Saturday morning he sent a text saying he didn´t want to get baptized. We talked with him and he later asked if there was still going to be his baptism that day. We told him of course and we´d see him at 6 in the church. At 4 we passed by his house and he wasn´t there and no one knew where he had gone. We went back to the church to fill the font and he would not answer his phone. So what we did is at 6:30 we got on our knees and asked God if it was his will and desire the Adrian got baptized Saturday. We felt that he needed to or he wouldn´t get baptized ever. So I felt a knew confidence that it was possible. We said another prayer asking to know the Lord´s plan to get Adrian bapatized and then started counceling to know our plan. I ended going with a member to look for him at his home or his barbershop, which he wasn´t there, and then we started heading back. As we were arriving at the church he sent us a text that said that he was in Capital and was on his way over. So we waited there until 8:45 and he showed up and got baptized. I still don´t know what changed his heart but something happened and we saw a miracle!

That´s about it for now, it´s super crazy and busy being a zone leader, any extra time in the mornings or at night are spent calling the district leaders. So yeah, I´m going to read Jordan´s email and then get back to you about West Point. Love ya!

Con amor,
Elder Arrowchis

January 23, 2012 (to Jordan in MTC)

Well that´s cool to hear that you are liking the food and the MTC.  I was kinda worried but it seems like things are going well.  You are off to a great start.  I liked your letter, just make sure ot keep that humor up because that will help with your spirits and animo.  AND I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN YOU´D FIND A LOOPHOLE, such a schmoozer, even with computers ha ha. 

Well I don´t know what else to share since you didn´t ask any questions so I´ll just let you know what´s been going on in my life, since now you can relate a bit.  Two weeks ago I was called as Zone Leader and it´s really difficult but a nice challenge at the same time.  I have no free time, which means almost no time to eat at night or in the morning, but I´ve already been learning ton which is cool.  This week we were talking with Elder Foster about leadership and vision.  What he said about vision is not just setting goals and making plans to achieve them, but rather picture a person and what they are capable of achieving and becoming.  Vision comes from pondering what does the Lord want for his children at this time, in this place, under these conditions.  It´s like Nephi in 1 Nephi chapter 2.  Why did he obey his father and actually achieve finding the plates when his brothers didn´t do either, because he had vision and not just blind obedience.  It´s interesting to study, because he started just wanting to know the mysteries of God and in prayer he received his answer, it says the Lord softened his heart (felt God´s love for him) and He told Nephi that what his father said was true.  That gave him the vision he needed to trust his leaders (God and Lehi) to have a vision of achieving success when they gave him a commandment.  It´s interesting the order in which he received his revelations and then the commandment to retrieve the plates. 

Well, enough for now, talk more next week.  We have a special leadership training this week so I´ll probably talk about what we learn from the 8 fundamentals next Monday.  Love ya and find your vision of what God wants for Elder Jordan Arrowchis at the MTC, during these three weeks, under a super spiritual atmosphere.

January 16, 2012 Divisions with AP

So this past week went by super, super fast. I arrived and the next thing I new it was already Friday. I actually got to go in divisions with the assitants to the President this past Friday which was really cool. I learned a lot about analyzing numbers and studying the gospel to discern and meet the needs of my missionaries. So this Elder Bruce and i plan on going on divisions about 2 or hopefully three times, which means 3 days out of the area for someone. The life of a zone leader is crazy, but I pray that the Lord will bless me to be able to do it. It´s also been super hot here, so that hasn´t helped. Ha, ever since getting here I´ve been tired all the time. Good thing I had some West Point training to teach my body to keep going even when my eye lids and brain are almost turned off. Actually sometimes I think some of the best lessons I´ve had are when I´m tired and don´t really comprehend what I´m saying, ha ha ha. Luckily today I don´t feel as bad so hopefully it was just a test of my diligence and desire to serve.

Oh wow, Jordan´s letter has definitely changed since being in the MTC. Ha ha ha, before he´d write how much fun he was having and what funny things I¨ve seen and now he asked me if I have any teaching tips or great scriptures to use for teaching. It´s going to be great to see the change in Jordan as he goes through his mission. Well I´m going to read the Mission President´s letter to us right now and respond to Jordan´s email and then let you know if there´s a problem with the medical packet. thanks again for everything and the plan is to have everything turned in before Saturday. Love you.

Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis I

January 9, 2012 Zone Leader in Jose C. Paz

Wow so this is just an exciting week for everyone. I can´t believe that kid is now the Lord´s representative of the Lord, ha i guess that means no more bad jokes about him. He still looks like a kid to me. So that´s crazy about the change too at the MTC. If Jordan writes you after this email, since i haven´t emailed him yet either, send me his email account so I can email him next week, just in case he doesn´t get around to emailing me. So now you´ve finally gotten rid of the two kids in the nest, what are you going to do now because you´ve already been to Disneyland 100 times. Anyway, enough about Jordan, "I wanna talk about me, wanna talk about my, wanna talk about numba one on, my, me, mine..." Ha I just thought of that song the other day and how we listened to it everyday taking me to Aliso Niguel.

So anyway, you´ll never guess where I´ve been sent to. I left my area yes, and Elder Lauder stayed and his new companion is actually one of the elders that was in my last district so he´s excited since he already knows him. My new companion is Elder Bruce and get this he´s from San Juan Capistrano and went to CAPO high school and his family picture is in front of the Newport Beach Temple too! He also ends a transfer after me so I definitely need to go to his homecoming in June. So yeah my new area is called Jose C. Paz and which is in the zone Sarmiento, the same zone where I started the mission! We passed by two of my old areas on our way here in the Remis, El Talar and then Grand Bourg. They looked so different. The other thing about Elder Bruce is that he is also the zone leader for Sarmiento, which yeah means that I´ve been called to be zone leader too. Whoof, when Presidente called me last night I could not believe it. I feel so humbled right now because this is such a big responsability but I know and feel the the Lord is confident in my ability to help this zone and all the Elders in this zone become better and achieve more. I feel a bit intimidated too because there have been a bunch of great Elders that have been in the area before, usually zone leaders such as Elder Martinez, and now I´m here but I also feel that the Lord wouldn´t have sent me here if I couldn´t help in some way. Also, with so little time left I figure this will be my last area too, more than likely, so I´m here to love the members too the end. I don´t know what else to share because I still have to get to know my area but I´m super excited to be working here. Hey send a line to Emerson Martinez and Alan Nelson to let them know that I´m here in Jose C Paz because I´m pretty sure they were both here before.

Thanks for all your love and help with getting me to West Point, again not possible without you. I´ll look into the DodMerb stuff because there is a mission doctor so I´m pretty sure he could do it for me, we´ll see.


Con amor,
Elder Arrowchis, The First

P.S. could you facebook friend these two, Dallin Mower from Idaho and Elder Daniel Carlson? Thanks. Also, Dallas Bruce from San Juan Capistrano?