Chicago Bound!!!!

12 Sí, yo sé que nada soy; en cuanto a mi fuerza, soy débil; por tanto, no me jactaré de mí mismo, sino que me gloriaré en mi Dios, porque con su fuerza puedo hacer todas las cosas; sí, he aquí que hemos obrado muchos grandes milagros en esta tierra, por los cuales alabaremos su nombre para siempre jamás.

Alma 26:12

Well its the start of my last week here at the MTC and I am going out of my mind with excitement!!! The next time I send out an email (I actually have no idea when that will be) I will have sent it from Chicago Illinois! How cool is that!?

This was such an exciting week and I have so much to say but I'm going to stick to the 3 main essentials.

First, on Wednesday of this week I had a checkup in town to make sure my tongue was ok. Originally they wanted to put me under and do surgery on it and I said no because I'm my mother's child, so I adamantly had them cut it right then. He said it would probably heal back up and would be a waist and that I was making a bad decision but I did it anyway (don't get me wrong, I respect doctors immensely, I just thought surgery was a little over the top for a small little cut I almost did myself!). My tongue--as much as the doctor hated to admit--is fine. Incredible even that it is perfectly healed almost as if it was always like that. Sometimes I do know what I'm talking about or rather, the Lord knows what he's talking about.

The other EXTREMELY exciting thing to happen this week I won't actually tell you. But you can find out if you watch the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference. If you WATCH the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference.

And finally, and this is where I'll end, the spirit works in many wonderful ways and I learn that more and more each day. In class, my teacher asked what we want to become in life. That hit me. What is it that I want to become? I could not answer that for the longest time, days even. One day, Elder Tate had a doctors appointment so I sat in the MTC waiting room for about an hour and just watched LDS commercials about family. They all kind of have the same message, "Give your family everything, give them your time" and it was then that I realized that my goal, and the goal of the church and God's goal is to make me a father. A Teacher here, Brother Egget, told us one day, "I don't like how much the MTC teaches missionaries to NOT think about their future families. That's why we're here is it not? To teach people that you have something that will make their family one million times happier and that I'm going home to do just that." Literally everything the church is about is about families. This mission is bringing families unto Christ and preparing me for my own family. How cool is that!?

Now the real last thing I'll say is this. I know I haven't said a whole lot about my companion, Elder Tate, and that is not on purpose. He's a great kid and he has taught me more patience than 8 (almost 9) siblings ever could've. I am greatful for the opportunity to serve with him and I'm greatful for the things he's taught me.
I hope you all know how much I love you! I am so excited to serve the Lord and preach his gospel and I hope you will all be blessed with anything the Lord can spare. I give credit to all of you and I hope you know that I represent the Lord first, myself second, and then all of you. Thank you for helping me get here. I love being a missionary!!!

Elder Arkoudas.

I apologize, I have no pictures this week. My camera kind of fell out of my pocket when I was singing and dancing in the rain a few nights ago and it erased all my pictures... but don't worry, I was singing a hymn!

One Whole Month

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.
Moroni 10:4-5

Well, I'm still alive. It's crazy to think that it's already been 4 weeks here but then again, it seems like I've been here my whole life.
The highlights of the week go as follows...

Wednesday my district was able to serve as Host missionaries for those new missionaries coming in. As parents would drive up with their sons and daughters we would take their luggage and take them to get situated. It was pretty fun but all I could think of is, "Man, I'm sure glad my mom didn't cry this much..." Love you mom!!!

Thursday my companion got sick again... for the 3rd week in a row. At first, I thought he was faking but then we went to the doctor (3 times) and sure enough, he's legit. So I missed one session of class and then we rotated companions so that I didn't have to miss an entire day.

Friday we had an evening devotional with our Branch President and he shared the scripture John 4:17-19. It says that Love is the opposite of fear. I found that really interesting because shouldn't faith be the opposite of fear? If you have faith in Jesus Christ then you shouldn't fear anything right? Yes, that is right; which means that love and faith are very closely related. If we have faith in the Savior, then we love him; if we love somebody then we have faith in them, but if we lose someones faith in us, we lose their love. In turn, if we lose our faith and hope for those in our lives who make wrong choices, then we no longer really love them.

Saturday was toilet cleaning again here at the MTC except this time, we volunteered! It must be something in the food here... Speaking of which, during breakfast that same morning, and Elder in my Zone, Elder Anstead, said something that quite possibly changed my life. We were talking about service and he said, "If you treat your companion like you'd treat your future spouse, then you'll make a great husband someday." Being out here on a mission has really made me think about what my purpose is here on the Earth and I've found for myself that ultimately, it's to have a family. So you can bet that my companion has been very happy after that revelation.

Sunday was choir practice and oh, how I love choir practice. We're singing "Hope of Israel" and the director was talking about the Lord shaping us into his army. "Most of the time," he said, "the Lord has to hurt us to make us better; in fact, the Lord DOES NOT protect us from pain, he PERFECTS us through it." For the first time in my life, I actually asked the Lord through prayer to hurt me; because that's how I become better.

Monday, after choir practice on Sunday night, I woke up and realized that the Lord would waist no time in perfecting me. One thing after another hit me over and over again throughout the entire day. It's almost as if I'm the marble and Heavenly Father is chipping away those unwanted parts of me piece by piece (well actually it feels more like chunk by chunk). It feels SO GOOD! (that wasn't sarcasm, it's actually pretty cool).

Alright, so funny story for the week. The boys (sorry, Elders) and I decided to turn the shower room into a sauna. So we hung up some sheets in front of the doors and turned all the waters on scaulding hot and just sat in there. We even sprinkled some peppermint oil in there for the full effect. It was by far the best night so far. Then the Branch President found out and needless to say, we were not able to do that again. Whoops...

Another funny story happened at breakfast yesterday. I usually have a hard boiled egg every morning because they have a lot, I like hard boiled eggs, and it's pretty much then only thing that doesn't have soy in it, so my companion (and pretty much my whole district) wanted to see if I could eat 12 of them. So I did. I ate a dozen hard boiled eggs in less than 15 minutes and man I felt great! I'm like Gaston!

Thanks again for all of your support. I hope you all have a wonderful week and know that I pray for all of you everyday.

Con todos mis pensamientos,

Elder Arkoudas

My district

My comp and I (how cute)

Us being artsy fartsy with Elder Barney's $700 camera

Week Number Tres!!!

"Y cuando recibáis estas cosas, quisiera exhortaros a que preguntéis a Dios el Eterno Padre, en el nombre de Cristo, si no son verdaderas estas cosas; y si pedís con un corazón sincero, con verdadera intención, teniendo fe en Cristo, él os manifestará la verdad de ellas por el poder del Espíritu Santo; y por el poder del Espíritu Santo podréis conocer la verdad de todas las cosas."   Moroni 10:4-5

Well I'm still alive. It so crazy to think that I'm now halfway done with my stay here at the MTC! Chicago here I come!!!
His week was chock-full of spiritual experiences starting last Tuesday night when we heard from D. Todd Christofferson... yeah, the Apostle! He talked about the missionary purpose and how to push past discouragement. I can even begin to describe all that he taught! It was so incredible just to see him, let alone listen to his counsel!

Wednesday I was able to give the account of the First Vision to a pretend investigator (not that it matters, the spirit is just as strong) all from memory... in Spanish!!! What a miracle that is, that I was able to memorize a story that long, important and sacred in such little time and then be able to relay it in a way that can bring such peace to the hearts of those I teach! I take no credit because that was all the Spirit!

Thursday we had the opportunity to teach another investigator who's from Guatemala and she speaks no English! Due to the Gift of Tongues, however, we were able to share with her the message of the Book of Mormon and of the First vision. After the lesson, she asked how she was supposed to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. Earlier last week, we memorized Moroni 10:4-5 and we're able to teach her and commit her to pray to know the truth of all things. She did and it was the most incredible, heartfelt prayers I'd ever heard! Later, she said she felt a warmth in her heart and we were able to testify that that was her answer. I can't wait to teach this message to those in Chicago because of how incredibly happy it makes everyone who will recieve it!

Friday was alright. My comp was sick all day and I didn't feel too good either. We set some mission goals and one of mine is to learn one scripture in both Spanish and English every two weeks (one week for Spanish and the Other for English) for the rest of my mission. In order to stay accountable to that, at the beginning of every week, I'll include in my email the scripture that I learned that week! Feel free to give me a hard time if I miss a week.

Saturday started off with some service where my comp and I cleaned toilets yet again! I'm really not complaining because we're pros at cleaning toilets now so we get done super early and have some time to relax before class.

Sunday we were asked to bless the Sacrament in Spanish and it was pretty cool! Super hard, but very spiritual! And then.......we got to hear from M. Russel Ballard!!!! Two Apostles in the same week! His message was on missionary life and obedience and it literally answered every question that I had!

I am so grateful for all the support I receive from all of you as well as the Lord and I cannot wait to bring this great message to the people of Chicago. I have a testimony of this Church, of this Gospel and of Christ my Savior, in who's power, I can do literally anything!

God bless you all,

Elder Arkoudas

 Pic. 1: Spanish Study

Pic. 2: Lunch!

Pic. 3: Floral tie Friday!!!

\

Scott Peterson

"Your tongue will be loosed..."

Well I made it two weeks but not without incident. My new retainer was cutting my frenulum (this thing that makes you tongue tied) so I had it snipped. It hurt like heaven but at least now I can stick out my tongue (something that  I've never done in my entire life!!!). It's truly the little things in life... and it's also super ironic that my tongue was literally loosed at the MTC!
I apologize that last week's letter was so short but we could not find out how to work the computers until our computer time was almost up. This week I'll share my experiences so far. First of all, if you have not partaken of temple breakfast, I encourage you to do So! With thanksgiving in your heart! Maybe it's just because the food is so "not spectacular" every other day that it was so good that day but seriously, the only thing better than temple food on p-day, is going to the temple on p-day.  The Provo temple is so amazing and the spirit is so strong there with literally hundreds of missionaries visiting there throughout the day and week.
Another cool thing to happen this last week was an experience I had Saturday night. One of my teachers, Sister Evans, asked for someone to play an investigator. Nobody volunteered so I raised my hand. She asked me if I had a friend that was a nonmember and I said yes. She told me to pretend to be that person as she committed me to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and as she did, I felt the spirit so strongly that not only did I see myself as that person on such a personal level as I had never felt before, but I was also able to carry on a flawless conversation in Spanish! When it came time for me to pray, we knelt down and I began to pray with words I don't remember learning. I also realized that while, yes, I was praying AS my friend, I had never personally prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true for ME. Of course i knew that it is true, i had just never asked for that witness. As soon as I realized this, I received a powerful witness that it is true. It wasn't until Sunday morning, during a talk on agency, that I realized, God cannot give us a witness unless we ask for it. He won't infringe on our agency by sending us pure truth unless we are ready to accept it and the way he knows that we are ready to accept it is when we as with real intent.
My Spanish, or as I've come to call it, the Spirit's Spanish, is coming along too well to be anything short of a miracle! We had our first investigator yesterday and her name is Hely. She's from Guatamala he does not speak a word of English! Yet my comp and I could not only understand her but teach her as well! The power of the spirit is so amazing and I can't wait to meet with her again. We only met with her for 25 minutes and yet I already love her so much! That's the coolest part about being a missionary: being able to see others potential and man, do we have a lot of it!
I testify that Christ lives and stands at the head of this church. I know that He died for us; but more importantly, He lived for us so that we could have a perfect example.
With all the love in me corazon;),
Elder Arkoudas

P.S if someone wants to send me some snacks I'd be much obliged;).

P.P.S. It's only your salvation at stake if you dont...

P.P.P.S. I'm totally kidding.

P.P.PP.S. kind of...

I love all you guys!!!

 We said this every night before the pageant in Nauvoo.

 Look! He can stick his tongue out! Now we can't tease him!

 Samitch is back!

 I found my friend from Nauvoo (Elder Parker Debry)

 The first picture is for my dear Mother. Here you go mom. I took a picture of me pointing to my mission...

The second happened yesterday. There is whats called a "tie draft" where you put in a tie and you pick a different one. I'd say the I got a deal...