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?