Thanksgiving

This week has probably been my favorite week to date and I'm so mad that I didnt take any pictures (sorry mom) but it really was so much fun!

Thanksgiving day was a hoot! We had dinner with a family in our ward--the Zanazorro's--and they are an interesting and amazing bunch! The dad is a pure Chicagan through and through; accent and everything, while the mom is Hispanic. Their kids range from 9 to 4 and they are even rowdier than the Arkoudas household! They all live with Brother Zanazorro's mom who kind of reminds me a little bit of my grandma Chatterton.

So we show up to the Zanazorro's and offer to help with dinner and so Sister Zanazorro  (the older one) has us fix some sweet potatoes and the wants us to put them in the oven. Elder Royce and I volunteer to do that but we couldn't get the oven door to close because the pan was so big. The oven door just kept popping open. Fortunately, there was a lever on the door that Elder Royce pulled which slid the door shut and kept the pan inside. We looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and went into the front room to talk with the family. About 10 minutes later, we hear from the kitchen something like, "who in their right mind would pull the oven cleaning lever!?" Elder Royce and I turned and looked at each other and I'm sure my eyes were just as big as his and we both tried so hard not to laugh. Needless to say, our sweet potatoes were a little crispy, and we never found the courage to tell Sister Zanazorro that we ruined her sweet potatoes.

After a wonderful dinner (minus the sweet potatoes) we thanked the Zanazorro's, shared a brief lesson and then headed over to Braydeen and Willie's place. All the lights were off when we got there but we knocked anyway and found Willie all by himself. He told us that Braydeen was in the hospital and  that none of her kids were around and that nobody went to see her, so we talked with him a little bit and then went to see Braydeen. She was so happy to see somebody and her smile totally melted my heart. Not only were we able to turn somebody's rotten thanksgiving around, but I also gained a much greater love for my own family. To be honest, I kind of had a sour mood towards the beginning of the day; I was away from my family for the first time, I missed my grandma's cooking, I missed the good times with my aunts and uncles and cousins; yea, I wasn't the most greatful starting out that day. But something about sitting in that hospital with a woman who had no family to see her made me more greatful than I ever have been in my whole life for the family that I have, for the experiences and the fun and the good times and bad times. I love that so much, and I love all of you, friends or family!

The next day, suffering from a food coma, I had a realization! It is already the 26th of November! Where did the time go?! It felt like I was in  the MTC yesterday and yet I've already been out almost two months!? Time seriously flies out here and I hope it has for you all as well.
We went on exchanges that day with Elder Kirkham who was pretty much like a body builder before his mission. He gave me tons of advice for workouts and stuff and we talked a lot about humility and meekness. Pride is kind of a funny thing. We always seem to have it but nobody really wants it. It's really easy to be prideful and I've noticed that more and more out here as a missionary. But what I love that Elder Kirkham said is that the best thing to replace pride is gratitude. How fitting to gain this lesson the day after Thanksgiving and I'm so glad that I did learn that.

While on  exchanges, we had the opportunity to go tracting at some Spanish apartments (which was so much fun!). I love Spanish people so much: they are always so humble and so receptive to learn more about Christ and so nice too. Speaking with them (now that I can actually carry on a somewhat discernable conversation) is awesome and they love when some skinny, white gringo can actually talk to them in their language.

We met this older man, sitting outside smoking and I asked if we could share a message with him about Jesus Christ. He said yes and so I started to teach the first discussion, but the whole time, I could just tell that he knew what I was saying already--like when Alma could decent the hearts of the people--I knew what this man was thinking. So I asked him if he had heard this lesson before and he said that he had taken the discussions before but was put in prison for 5 years and just got out. I honestly had no idea what to say, I had no thought or anything, my mind was completely blank (and my companions couldn't help because they didn't know what was going on). So finally, I just started baring testimony and just like the scriptures say, my mouth was filled! After we all got back in the car, my companions asked me what I had said and to be honest, I still have no idea; but I'm pretty sure it was what that man needed to hear.

Onto a more humorous note, I figured out how to make home made tear gas this morning. All you have to do is put some Sriracha hot sauce in a pan and let it burn, then put some greasy sausage links on it the next morning. Super easy, quick way to make everyone in the apartment cough and tear up for about half an hour. Oh, and don't worry about smoke--this recipe hardly smokes at all--it just burns your eyes, nose, and throat.

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and I also hope you know how thankful I am for each and every one of you! I would not be here today without you all and I will always be greatful for that.

Man, I love being a missionary!

With love,
Elder Arkoudas

Transfer 2

Friends and family,

It has been another fantastic week as a missionary serving in God's kingdom! I love this so much and as hard as it is to be away from you all, this has been the best 3 months of my life!

I love D&C 15:6 where it says that if we're looking for something that will be the greatest worth to us, we should help bring souls unto Christ. Even though it's getting colder, and we're coming in at night more and more tired, I've never felt so excited and happy in my whole life.

OK, enough with the cheese; a lot happened this week!

Tuesday started off with transfers and it turns out that I'm staying with the English Elders until Elder Fong gets back. I'm still with Elder Boetcher but we have a new companion, Elder Royce. He is so awesome! I love him so much. Our time together has already included lighting the microwave on fire and driving half an hour home without using turn signals because "the blinker fluid was low". As a normal person, that seems like stupid little things, but as a missionary, you need something to break the monotony.

It started getting real cold here (like 20 degrees cold) and so we had to break out the thermals and scarves and coats and gloves and hats and yea, it's really cold. It's not even the temperature so much as its the wind! The wind cuts through you like a knife, but it is so much fun! One night, in fact, we were doing service for this family and we all thought that we'd be inside their garage moving boxes. Yea...no. we were outside the whole time in light jackets, tennis shoes and jeans. The second we were done and they closed the door, we sprinted to the car, booked it home and threw on like 6 layers of clothes. Finally, later that night at dinner, we warmed up again, but boy was that an experience!

Luckily I was able to have a lot of Spanish practice this week. I realized that my Spanish studies have been really lacking (even more than just not having a Spanish companion) and so I decided to change that; and I can testify that the gift of tongues is so real! As soon as I started to put effort into my studies and I started to pray for the gift of tongues, not only was I able to understand and communicate in Spanish but I was also given so many opportunities to do so. We found an entire complex of apartments full of Latinos and with only my limited vocabulary, and the spirit, we were able to not only find someone, but we were able to set up an appointment to teach someone! The Spirit truly is incredible!

I hope you all have a fantastic week and that you know how much I love and pray for every single one of you. My heart has been full this whole week of both love and gratitude for all that you have done for me; for the advice, the support both physically and spiritually, for all of the love you have shown me. I am a better person because of it.

With much love,

Elder Arkoudas

 Elder Boetcher, Elder Frehner and i just before Elder Frehner went home.


 I love these two so much! Braydeen and Willie, I'm going to try to get them to sing some black gospel music with me... "swing low, sweet chariot..."


 Elder Boetcher turned 20!

Chicago deep dish pizza.

We went "hiking" today (there was a park with trees so we walked around for a bit)

Six Weeks in the Burg

 Hello friends and family!

Well, one transfer has come and gone and it seems like just yesterday that I stepped on that plane and left Utah and the MTC behind. For this new transfer, I'm staying in Schaumburg and with the English Elders in hopes that Elder Fong will be back soon, so I'll let you know when he gets back. It could be anywhere from 1 week to another 6 weeks but there's definitely a purpose in this and I'm sure Heavenly Father's hand is in it.

Onto this last week, it was Elder Frehner's last week so he's all packed up and ready to go home. Lots of members have reached out to us and invited us over for dinner or lunch in hopes to catch him one last time. One of these members name is Brother Kokalis which is Greek for bones, and that's about as Greek as he is but he still thinks he's a full blooded greek. A funny story about brother Kokalis is that the second he realized I was Greek, he immediately assumed that I was not only from Greece, but that I spoke Greek, I ate Greek food, and that i needed to find a nice Greek wife when I got home. He's about 75 and is one of the funniest guys I've met!

So in commemoration of finding someone else with a Greek name, brother Kokalis took us to the local Greek hangout--a place called Kuzina's where he wanted to treat us to some authentic Greek food. As soon as we sat down, he started telling us about every item on the menu and exactly what that item did to his digestive tract. Even after we got our food, he still would not stop taking about his colon! What the heck Brother Kokalis?! I was dying the whole time and Elder Boetcher and I had to keep kicking each other under the table to keep from laughing.

It was pretty cool though, the waitress came up and looked at my last name and commented that I had a nice Greek last name and so I asked her if she knew what it meant and it really does mean "little bear"! So for the rest of the week, ive been Elder Little Bear...not the worst I've been called. The Spanish sisters in the ward still call me Elder Flacito (that's spanish for really skinny).

Another funny story for this week, we did service for this woman named Eila; she's from Europe and lives alone but has a gigantic garden in her backyard. She's constantly weeding, pruning, hedging, raking, etc. and so we offered to help her out. She's pretty old and can't do a whole lot of heavy, hard stuff like pruning big branches so for two hours, I followed her around and pruned branches for her while Elder Frehner and Elder Boetcher raked leaves and sawed branches. According to Eila, "if this whole missionary thing doesn't work out, you should become a master pruner". Someone will have to check up on that occupation for me and see if they offer that at Utah State as a major.

I feel bad because I went into this whole service activity with a hard heart, not thinking that anything would really come of it, but at the end, Eila kind of broke down a bit and talked to us about her upcoming surgery and how worried she was for it and it opened a new door to possibly teaching her in the future. It was a testimony builder for me of the power of service and how important it is that we serve everyone around us.

It's really impressed me this week just how simple the gospel is. Everything we do, church, service, missions, everything is all about the plan of Salvation and returning to our Heavenly Father. The gospel just tells us how to do that and I can testify that if we have faith in Christ, repent, are baptized and recieve the Holy Ghost,  and if we endure to the end, we will get to the Celestial Kingdom. It's just that simple.

As always, I love all of you and I pray for you constantly! I love hearing from you all and I'll try to respond as often as I can.

With love,

Elder Arkoudas

This is Kuzina's with Brother Kokalis. What a hoot!!!

Me in my Cubs hat, courtesy of Brian and Jamie Rees. Love you guys!

It's getting really cold here...

The Plan of Salvation

I don't think there has been a single normal week here in the "Burg" (that's what we nicknamed the Schaumburg area).

This week was awesome though! We had dinner with a member this week from India and she made us some authentic Indian food. It was so good! We also were able to teach an Indian couple and we're hoping to commit her to be baptized on Christmas eve.

Something invaluable I learned this week: if you try to make a goose flinch, and it doesn't, you'd better run as fast as you can in the other direction because that goose is now mad and is going to kill you. I don't need to tell you how I gained this knowledge but just so you know, geese are mean!

I also have a companion, Elder Boetcher, who reminds me so much of my brother Noah, it's not even funny. He always says things that are so funny and yet so politically incorrect and inappropriate for the moment. He kills me!

Now, onto some serious stuff. It was actually kind of cool this week, with regards to our lessons, because we ended up teaching the Plan of Salvation everytime, even to investigators who were new or who had already heard it before. It's like everybody needed that message this week, and then I realized that I was the one who needed to hear it!   I knew the plan of Salvation before and I knew what it taught, where we were before this life and where we are going after but I guess I never got to that core question which is, why are we here. I knew the Sunday school answers but it had never been explained to me simply enough for me to truly grasp it. And that is, the whole purpose of this life is to change from our "natural man" personality to be more like God. And every choice we make either makes us more like God or makes us less like God. The craziest part is that those few choices we make here affect how we'll live for eternity!

It's always so cool to realize these things for myself and then to be able to teach them more simply and powerfully. I have a testimony of the refiners fire, that God makes us who he wants us to be if we ask him to. It hurts. It hurts a lot, but it is so worth it in the end!

I love and pray for you all and wish you my best!

Love,

Elder Arkoudas 

To the Boys.....

This email is for the boys.

Advice from a missionary.

-If God want something from you, you'd better give it to him. If not, he'll take it and I promise it will hurt 10 times worse.

-If you try to make a goose flinch and it doesn't, you'd better high tail it in the other direction because it's now mad and it will kill you.

-In the bathroom, wipe twice with toilet paper and once with a wet wipe.

-Speaking of the bathroom, don't ever mix spicy food with milkshakes...enough said.

More next week...

 Halloween night we stayed in starting at 5pm for liability reasons. So we popped a huge bag of popcorn and watched "The Testament".

Back seat life

Elder Boetcher eating a bowl full of jelly beans and milk.