Samuel John Arkoudas, Illinois,Chicago Spanish speaking Mission: 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