Posts
The big city isn´t so bad, actually it kinda reminds me of San Diego, but maybe fewer bigger buildings, I can´t remember how many were in downtown San Diego. It´s funny, but everyone here has heard about California. There hasn´t been one person who´s asked where´s California. It does get really confusing here with the buses though and trying to know which one takes me where, but that comes with time and luckily I have at least 4 more weeks to learn it. It definitely is a little weird to not be in Ushuaia and it kinda hit me that two weeks after I left they had 10 baptisms planned for that weekend, only because that´s not the first time I´ve left an area and they started baptizing a bunch. But I know the Lord sent me here for a reason and I can help this branch in some way. One cool thing is that it´s really fun to listen to my companion talk because he can be kinda sarcastic when talking to less actives and it´s funny how he can relate with the people and break the ice for example when telling about Nephi and his family "and so one day Lehi gets outta bed, talks to his family and says hey we gotta get outta here, I just had a dream. So they leave everything behind, their house, their money, their tv, their playstation, their cell phones, grab their little bags and their little camels and go out to the middle of nowhere. I´m not even sure if they had pillows." His humor can be funny but sometimes he can be a test of patience because he is very similar to me and I realized that he does a lot of the same things that I do, ha ha (for example assume I know what he´s thinking when he says something). Other than that he´s very motivated and a great worker. The other two missionaries that we share the appartment with are really cool too and funny.
Thanks for the letters and actually this past week I did receive the application packet. next week I´ll get the essay to you and a rough timeline (if you could help me out with things like PCM work and everything) and question: How does my mission president submit my letter of recommendation? Does he write it and i mail it? Or does he mail it? If so, to where? Grácias mami. Love you and have fun this week with Jordan´s call. Remember, he´s serving to baptize.
Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
September 12, 2011 Transfer to Congreso
I got a haircut today and man I feel better. Hey guess what, I´m in Congreso, Capital Federal de Buenos Aires! Yeah, it´s a lot hotter here... I can´t wait for summer... anyway, the branch is awesome and the members really love us, the missionary before me was here for 6 months and did a lot to earn the love of the members so now I´m disfruting that. We again have lunch everyday of the week and when people cancel there´s a couple members always ready to cook for us. Not only that but they cook pretty good. No offense but I can´t say that I´m one of those people who miss momma´s cookin´, not because you cooked bad but because the people here cook so dang good! Ha ha, one lady said that she knows how to cook a chicken by taking out all the bones first without disarming the form of the chicken. Then she cooks it and stuffs it full of ham and cheese. Yeah how cool is that, I´m going to see if we can´t go over one P-day to learn how to do that. She said that when she was younger she learned how to cook from an aging chef. There are also a lot of really cool members here who are willing to help us. one recent convert accompanied us for 7 hours one day! Then her husband always leaves with us when we show up, he actually expects it! So yeah, the branch is cool and even has some return missionaries. This past weekend we actually had a baptism. We really had two planned but one of them turned out to be a member already, he just didn´t tell us at first because he was inactive and wanted to come back to church, and the other one was a person who couldn´t find their info in the database, so he had to be baptized all over again for the paperwork. But it´s still a baptism!
It´s also really weird to think that I´ve only been here a week because it feels like I´ve been working here forever already. I guess that comes from trying to love the people so much. I also can´t believe that today I celebrate 16 months in the mission... that´s how much time my trainer had when I was with him! That´s how much time Elder Torres had when I left him! And they both already finished the mission! This is so weird, I still feel like I have maybe 6 or 7 months in the mission field. Anyway, other than that things are pretty cool here. I´m with Elder Valenzuela who´s from Mar De Plata here in Buenos Aires and yup he talks like a portaiño. He has 5 meses in the mission and is actually just waiting for his visa to go serve in Venezuela. He´s cool and good at soccer.
So this week has been the week of putting baptism dates. I´ve learned the importance of getting people baptized, like I told Jordan, without baptism our friends and family have literally no chance of being able to return to their heavenly parents after this life. Sometimes to motivate myself i think of one of the people I´m teaching and I wonder how I would feel to see them rejected from God´s presence during judgment day and know that i could have said something to help them accept the Gospel in this life. That always helps me want to make more contacts in the street and keeping working for my investigators. That´s why when people say that missionaries only want to baptize to look good with numbers their wrong, because the missionaries who baptize a lot are the ones who realize that God wants all of his children to be baptized, now. So what we´ve been doing to put baptism dates this week is passing by old investigators who already have been to the church more than three times and have been taught a lot of the lessons, basically they only lack getting baptized, and reading a scripture with them, then kneeling down with them and having them say a prayer asking if the Book of Mormon is true or if they should get baptized for the day we set for them and then reading in the pamphlet of the Restoration about prayer to help them realize the answer that the Lord gave them. Doing this I also realized the importance of being obedient. In the first part of the mission I was always obedient to follow rules no mas because that´s how West Point trained me. I also realized I was miserable and wanted to leave the mission because i felt sad and useless. Now I realize that by being obedient I am showing love for God and through my faith to be obedient he blesses me to feel loved and more important I feel the confidence that when i ask the Lord to bless an investigator with an answer to their prayer about the Book of Mormon, He is going to answer that prayer in the moment and then I just have to help the person recognize that answer. I know that´s true because in every visit this week, actually every time in my mission, where we´ve done the prayer with the investigator they have received their answer in the moment, every time. That´s why I know the Lord wants missionaries to baptize and wants people he blesses us to get to know to get baptized now, because He has never stalled in blessing someone with an answer when they have the faith to read and pray with us in a lesson. That´s why Jordan needs to know he is serving a mission to love the people so much that he wants them to acheive the salvation, which means he wants them to get baptized because that´s how they start their journey. In other words, Jordan´s purpose as a missionary is to baptize.
Love you all and thanks for the letters and advice and everything. Have fun getting Jordan out of the house and don´t forget to invite your friends to church. By the way, Jordan should be going out with the missionaries 2 to 3 times a week for a hour and a half or more even if they don´t have appointments set and are just traveling around, especially if he´s not working anymore. Chau chau.
Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis
P.S. General Conference is in a few weeks, don´t forget to read your scriptures daily to prepare!
It´s also really weird to think that I´ve only been here a week because it feels like I´ve been working here forever already. I guess that comes from trying to love the people so much. I also can´t believe that today I celebrate 16 months in the mission... that´s how much time my trainer had when I was with him! That´s how much time Elder Torres had when I left him! And they both already finished the mission! This is so weird, I still feel like I have maybe 6 or 7 months in the mission field. Anyway, other than that things are pretty cool here. I´m with Elder Valenzuela who´s from Mar De Plata here in Buenos Aires and yup he talks like a portaiño. He has 5 meses in the mission and is actually just waiting for his visa to go serve in Venezuela. He´s cool and good at soccer.
So this week has been the week of putting baptism dates. I´ve learned the importance of getting people baptized, like I told Jordan, without baptism our friends and family have literally no chance of being able to return to their heavenly parents after this life. Sometimes to motivate myself i think of one of the people I´m teaching and I wonder how I would feel to see them rejected from God´s presence during judgment day and know that i could have said something to help them accept the Gospel in this life. That always helps me want to make more contacts in the street and keeping working for my investigators. That´s why when people say that missionaries only want to baptize to look good with numbers their wrong, because the missionaries who baptize a lot are the ones who realize that God wants all of his children to be baptized, now. So what we´ve been doing to put baptism dates this week is passing by old investigators who already have been to the church more than three times and have been taught a lot of the lessons, basically they only lack getting baptized, and reading a scripture with them, then kneeling down with them and having them say a prayer asking if the Book of Mormon is true or if they should get baptized for the day we set for them and then reading in the pamphlet of the Restoration about prayer to help them realize the answer that the Lord gave them. Doing this I also realized the importance of being obedient. In the first part of the mission I was always obedient to follow rules no mas because that´s how West Point trained me. I also realized I was miserable and wanted to leave the mission because i felt sad and useless. Now I realize that by being obedient I am showing love for God and through my faith to be obedient he blesses me to feel loved and more important I feel the confidence that when i ask the Lord to bless an investigator with an answer to their prayer about the Book of Mormon, He is going to answer that prayer in the moment and then I just have to help the person recognize that answer. I know that´s true because in every visit this week, actually every time in my mission, where we´ve done the prayer with the investigator they have received their answer in the moment, every time. That´s why I know the Lord wants missionaries to baptize and wants people he blesses us to get to know to get baptized now, because He has never stalled in blessing someone with an answer when they have the faith to read and pray with us in a lesson. That´s why Jordan needs to know he is serving a mission to love the people so much that he wants them to acheive the salvation, which means he wants them to get baptized because that´s how they start their journey. In other words, Jordan´s purpose as a missionary is to baptize.
Love you all and thanks for the letters and advice and everything. Have fun getting Jordan out of the house and don´t forget to invite your friends to church. By the way, Jordan should be going out with the missionaries 2 to 3 times a week for a hour and a half or more even if they don´t have appointments set and are just traveling around, especially if he´s not working anymore. Chau chau.
Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis
P.S. General Conference is in a few weeks, don´t forget to read your scriptures daily to prepare!
Monday, August 29, 2011
August 29, 2011 Ricardo Baptism
Yesterday we had a baptism! This week we were teaching our investigator family and we found out that their 11 year old son was reading the Book of Mormon like crazy, went to several youngmen´s activities, and has been going to church consistently for a couple weeks. This last Sunday was his third assistence (need 3 to baptize) and we felt that he should be baptized this week. So we asked his family and they said alright and then his mom told him and he yelled "Yipeee". Apparently he was asking his mom already if he could be baptized or what to do to be baptized beforehand. Even though he baptized solo we felt that it would be a help to the family and to the ward to have the baptism. SO what happened? Tomorrow the mom and dad (who´s already a member) are going to sacar turno to get married and the date will be the 9th of september, baptism the 10th, confirmation the 11th, and the sister missionaries in the center were talking with his other brother of 15 and he accepted a baptismal date for the 17th of september. So many blessings from the Lord.
Which brings me to what I´ve been studying this week. We finally saw Presidente again and had our interviews. He told me in my interview that I needed to study in Preach My Gospel chapter 6 about patience and diligence. I did so and I found out that the Lord blesses us with tests of patience in the mission before he blesses us to find investigators to build our love for them because if we don´t have enough patience with them when we find them we aren´t going to have the love we need to have to help them through all the trials that lead to baptism. It´s also to help build our faith so that we can believe that the Lord will bless us in our afflictions. Then I was studying about diligence and I learned that by being diligent in our work we are showing the Lord we love him and that we love the people we work for. This corresponds to the two commandments Christ taught us, love they GOd and love they neighbor. Therefore if we are not diligent we are not keeping these two greatest commandments and the Lord cannot bless us with miracles. Then I was studying about prayer and I realized that I need to change how I pray. In 3 Nephi 27 Christ comes to the disciples and asks them what they want him to give him. Then in Ether Christ instructs The brother of Jared how to build the boats but that he can´t have windows or fire for light. Then he asks him what he would have him do. I realized that the Lord never once did something for these people that they themselves couldn´t do. That´s how the Lord expects us to pray, to first make a plan and do all we can and know how to do and then ask the Lord humble, acknowledging that we don´t know how to make something happen and acknowledging that He can, to give us a miracle. The brother of Jared knew how to work with metal, so he created rocks and asked the Lord to make them shine because he didn´t know how to do that. That was the faith and miracle of the Brother of Jared, seeing the Lord´s finger was just a side effect of his faith.
Just remember that the Lord loves you dearly and that if you pray to him for missionary experiences and for the courage to speak and to fill your mouth in the moment, know that he will bless you. As Doctrine and Covenants teaches us several times, the process is first open mouth, then filled with Lord´s words.
Love you and say hi to everyone. Tell O-Dawg Che el choripan está pero de diez.
Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis
Which brings me to what I´ve been studying this week. We finally saw Presidente again and had our interviews. He told me in my interview that I needed to study in Preach My Gospel chapter 6 about patience and diligence. I did so and I found out that the Lord blesses us with tests of patience in the mission before he blesses us to find investigators to build our love for them because if we don´t have enough patience with them when we find them we aren´t going to have the love we need to have to help them through all the trials that lead to baptism. It´s also to help build our faith so that we can believe that the Lord will bless us in our afflictions. Then I was studying about diligence and I learned that by being diligent in our work we are showing the Lord we love him and that we love the people we work for. This corresponds to the two commandments Christ taught us, love they GOd and love they neighbor. Therefore if we are not diligent we are not keeping these two greatest commandments and the Lord cannot bless us with miracles. Then I was studying about prayer and I realized that I need to change how I pray. In 3 Nephi 27 Christ comes to the disciples and asks them what they want him to give him. Then in Ether Christ instructs The brother of Jared how to build the boats but that he can´t have windows or fire for light. Then he asks him what he would have him do. I realized that the Lord never once did something for these people that they themselves couldn´t do. That´s how the Lord expects us to pray, to first make a plan and do all we can and know how to do and then ask the Lord humble, acknowledging that we don´t know how to make something happen and acknowledging that He can, to give us a miracle. The brother of Jared knew how to work with metal, so he created rocks and asked the Lord to make them shine because he didn´t know how to do that. That was the faith and miracle of the Brother of Jared, seeing the Lord´s finger was just a side effect of his faith.
Just remember that the Lord loves you dearly and that if you pray to him for missionary experiences and for the courage to speak and to fill your mouth in the moment, know that he will bless you. As Doctrine and Covenants teaches us several times, the process is first open mouth, then filled with Lord´s words.
Love you and say hi to everyone. Tell O-Dawg Che el choripan está pero de diez.
Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
August 23, 2011 Being Humble
Ha, very cool the pictures. Well, I would´ve sent pictures but being as it is Tuesday I didn´t want to carry my camera and camera cord around all day so I´ll mail them next week. How´s Jordan doing on getting his papers mailed in?
Faa, I´ve come to realize that the mission is all about being humble. Being humble enough to accept the Lord´s help, humble enough to follow mission rules, humble enough to admitt that I don´t know how to do the work alone, humble enough to follow exactly what my mission president asks me, humble enough to not exclude my companion in planning and teaching, and humble enough to choose doing good over doing bad (in my case being lazy). This past week was a bit rough but I think it was mostly because due to a lack of energy so this week we had a pretty good district meeting in which we talked about praying with real intent and that many times we get into a routine and although we are being obedient to the letter of the law (in my case praying before entering every house) we may not be obedient to the spirit of the law (in my case praying before entering with real intent). That really humbled me because I also realized that there is a difference between those missionary robots who are obedient to follow rules, and those successful missionaries who are obedient to be obedient. Supposedly the mission president comes this week and I believe it´s more likely because now the flights are all regularizados. So finally we are going to get to see Presidente and have our interviews. These past few months have been a crazy learning experience for me. I´ve been humbled past the point that I thought I could be humbled and still felt very prideful. It´s made me think what does being humble really mean.
That´s sounds awesome about the bread, I actually really want to learn how to make bread because the two times I´ve tried here it hasn´t really come out too good. There´s one investigator here who made us bread and it was soo good that I´m going to see if we can organize a P-day to go over to her house and show us how she does it. It sounds really easy ingredient wise, the difficult part is in amasar(kneeding?) it. So that´s awesome.
Thanks for all the help with the West Point stuff, I´ll do my part over here. Transfers are in 2 weeks so I doubt that the mission president will get it in time to carry it down here and I hope I don´t get moved to a new place because if not I have no idea how I´m going to pass it... but I´m sure the Lord will help. By the way, is it just me, or does Jordan seem a bit chubier? HA ha ha ha. Love you all and will send pictures next week.
Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis
Faa, I´ve come to realize that the mission is all about being humble. Being humble enough to accept the Lord´s help, humble enough to follow mission rules, humble enough to admitt that I don´t know how to do the work alone, humble enough to follow exactly what my mission president asks me, humble enough to not exclude my companion in planning and teaching, and humble enough to choose doing good over doing bad (in my case being lazy). This past week was a bit rough but I think it was mostly because due to a lack of energy so this week we had a pretty good district meeting in which we talked about praying with real intent and that many times we get into a routine and although we are being obedient to the letter of the law (in my case praying before entering every house) we may not be obedient to the spirit of the law (in my case praying before entering with real intent). That really humbled me because I also realized that there is a difference between those missionary robots who are obedient to follow rules, and those successful missionaries who are obedient to be obedient. Supposedly the mission president comes this week and I believe it´s more likely because now the flights are all regularizados. So finally we are going to get to see Presidente and have our interviews. These past few months have been a crazy learning experience for me. I´ve been humbled past the point that I thought I could be humbled and still felt very prideful. It´s made me think what does being humble really mean.
That´s sounds awesome about the bread, I actually really want to learn how to make bread because the two times I´ve tried here it hasn´t really come out too good. There´s one investigator here who made us bread and it was soo good that I´m going to see if we can organize a P-day to go over to her house and show us how she does it. It sounds really easy ingredient wise, the difficult part is in amasar(kneeding?) it. So that´s awesome.
Thanks for all the help with the West Point stuff, I´ll do my part over here. Transfers are in 2 weeks so I doubt that the mission president will get it in time to carry it down here and I hope I don´t get moved to a new place because if not I have no idea how I´m going to pass it... but I´m sure the Lord will help. By the way, is it just me, or does Jordan seem a bit chubier? HA ha ha ha. Love you all and will send pictures next week.
Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis
August 15, 2011 New Family
Alright, it´s sounding better. If you could please mail the application packet yesterday, that would be awesome because I would like to get it here because a member here is a physical education teacher and so I´m pretty sure that meets the qualifications for someone who needs to give the test. I also have no idea how to get the medical list done, but here in Monte Olivia the branch president could help because he´s a doctor and there are more people here in Ushuaia who know how to speak English. Thank you very much.
I did finally get my phone so I am super stoked about that, which also shows in our numbers for this week that we were able to organize more members to go out with us and teach lessons with member present. Also, we are planning a mission activity with our branch mission leader but we don´t know of any activities to do other than watch a movie. Do you or the sister missionaries have any ideas that we could use for games with big groups of people/ family size group of people? Thanks. I can´t believe you made the sister missionaries late. Are you at least giving them references and inviting people to listen to the missionaries? You gotta help them out a little bit for giving you their time.
This week has been a lot more miraculous. Our investigator who is progressing came to church with two of her 3 kids and they all loved it and want to come back this next Sunday and then her son went to a young men´s dinner with the young men´s president and today they played soccer with us. We also had a talk with her last night about the law of chastity and she told us that she wasn´t married legally to her husband but then told us with excitement that when her husband got home she was going to have a talk with him about that. Then she gave us a pizza size slate of bread that she just finished cooking, which was really cool. We also were able to meet with more people to teach them and did so with members accompanying us which is always better. Tell Jordan that´s the secret to having success as a missionary, getting along with your companion and working with the members, and of course praying for charity towards all of them. The rest of our district as well seems more excited as others are finding people to baptize and have interviews this week. Oh right, now that I´m district leader I have to do the baptismal interviews for all the missionaries now, que loco. So this week we plan on working even harder to have the right member with us in all of our lessons and now that we´re finished we are going to go get a haircut and cook some banana bread. It was such a good feeling to see the progress the district made this past week, I honestly felt like crying. Last transfer was really rough and it´s such a relief to feel that the Lord is blessing us and guiding us and now we are seeing success for our hard work all this time here in Ushuaia. That´s something that I would like to know as well, why did the Lord want me to be down here in one area for so much time? It would be interesting to me to find out that response.
I´m afraid that it´s still easy for me to speak English as well because now I am helping my companion try to learn English I think a lot more in English, but I´m trying to only think in Spanish! Also, thanks a lot for the Josh Groban CD and the MOTAB, they´re awesome.
Love you all and write more next week! Tell me how it went inviting one of your friends to church next week!
Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis
I did finally get my phone so I am super stoked about that, which also shows in our numbers for this week that we were able to organize more members to go out with us and teach lessons with member present. Also, we are planning a mission activity with our branch mission leader but we don´t know of any activities to do other than watch a movie. Do you or the sister missionaries have any ideas that we could use for games with big groups of people/ family size group of people? Thanks. I can´t believe you made the sister missionaries late. Are you at least giving them references and inviting people to listen to the missionaries? You gotta help them out a little bit for giving you their time.
This week has been a lot more miraculous. Our investigator who is progressing came to church with two of her 3 kids and they all loved it and want to come back this next Sunday and then her son went to a young men´s dinner with the young men´s president and today they played soccer with us. We also had a talk with her last night about the law of chastity and she told us that she wasn´t married legally to her husband but then told us with excitement that when her husband got home she was going to have a talk with him about that. Then she gave us a pizza size slate of bread that she just finished cooking, which was really cool. We also were able to meet with more people to teach them and did so with members accompanying us which is always better. Tell Jordan that´s the secret to having success as a missionary, getting along with your companion and working with the members, and of course praying for charity towards all of them. The rest of our district as well seems more excited as others are finding people to baptize and have interviews this week. Oh right, now that I´m district leader I have to do the baptismal interviews for all the missionaries now, que loco. So this week we plan on working even harder to have the right member with us in all of our lessons and now that we´re finished we are going to go get a haircut and cook some banana bread. It was such a good feeling to see the progress the district made this past week, I honestly felt like crying. Last transfer was really rough and it´s such a relief to feel that the Lord is blessing us and guiding us and now we are seeing success for our hard work all this time here in Ushuaia. That´s something that I would like to know as well, why did the Lord want me to be down here in one area for so much time? It would be interesting to me to find out that response.
I´m afraid that it´s still easy for me to speak English as well because now I am helping my companion try to learn English I think a lot more in English, but I´m trying to only think in Spanish! Also, thanks a lot for the Josh Groban CD and the MOTAB, they´re awesome.
Love you all and write more next week! Tell me how it went inviting one of your friends to church next week!
Con Amor,
Elder Arrowchis
Monday, August 8, 2011
August 8, 2011 No Cell Phone
[In response to waiting for West Point application] Man, this West Point business is annoying, they need to get their acts together those slackers. I don´t know if I want to go to West Point anymore, seems to me they´ve all gotten fat and lazy. Maybe Anapolis is higher caliber now, geeze luiz. Anyway, I don´t even know how I´m going to get any of this stuff done down here, so it will literally be a miracle if I get back there. Yes my new companion finally came, his name is Elder Bravo and is from Santiago Chile. yeah, otro Chileno. But it´s fun helping him learn English. Making those weird vowel sounds is fun to practice like cat, bid, myth, dude... que divertido. He likes to play sports and studied for a year at a very good culinary art school for cooking, so we´ll see what kind of stuff I can learn from him. So now I am in my area all the time, however the Lord has decided to test my patience yet still because the office Elders forgot to send my cell phone with my companion when he came down and I´m not sure when they´re going to send it. In other words no one can contact us hardly ever and we have to pass by all the members to organize visits and lunches, which is good because it gets us working with the members more but still makes it hard to organize anything with the District. Other than that I´m doing good, Elder Amasio taught me the Haka and we had fun playing soccer again this week. We also found a family who the dad went to church for the first time this last week since 35 years and his wife was reading in the Book of Mormon the other day and told us that just after starting she was filled with so much emotion that she had to go to the bathroom, and she´s not one to cry either. We also taught her 15 year old son and he seemed to have interest too because he noted a difference in his mom. It truly is incredible the change the Gospel can have in someone´s life if they just take the time to really read the Book of Mormon with an open heart.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
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
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
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