Life As A Spanish Elder

Hola friends and family!

Wow, it is cold!!! But I'll get to that in a minute. First of all, wow, I love being a Spanish Elder! Elder Hale and Elder Vasquez are the absolute best and they both kill me! Elder Vasquez got sick this week and so we had to stay inside and baby him all day, but let me start from the very beginning of last week.

Monday night we had a lesson with a professional model which Elder Vasquez was pretty excited about. Elder Hale kept yelling, "lock your heart Elder!" And Elder Vasquez would keep saying, "but she's a supermodel!" It was so funny. It got a little less funny when we had to walk to her house at about 7:00 at night (it gets dark here at 4) which was about 3 miles away; but we had a good lesson and we're hoping that she will come to church.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent tracting in about 10 degree weather and it was so much fun! No really, it was soooooooo much fun. We met this man named Albert and actually set up a lesson with him for later.

Thursday was weekly planning at the library which was another 3 miles away but this time, it was 2 degrees outside. So we bundled up and threw on almost every piece of winter clothing we had on and Elder Hale, thinking he looked like Batmen, kept walking around going, "Soy Batman! Donde esta Rachel!?" I lost it, it was so funny!

Friday we woke up and Elder Vasquez was deathly ill. We had a lesson with Albert so he toughed it out. We taught Albert the Restoration and planned beforehand, to teach very simply--not knowing that Albert knows a lot about the scriptures. In fact, he's learning Hebrew so that he can study the scriptures in Hebrew! Yea, he's awesome. But after the lesson, Elder Vasquez looked pretty bad, so we hurried home and spent the rest of the day inside. Elder Vasquez just slept (he had a fever of like 101!) So Elder Hale and I worked a little bit on Spanish and then pretty much went crazy. 

Being cooped up all day made us a little claustrophobic so we decided to go to dinner. So we practically carried Elder Vasquez down to the car and threw him in the backseat then drove to Portillos. They have something called a cake shake which is ice cream, blended with a piece of chocolate cake. They are super good and so of course, Elder Vasquez  (as sick as he is) decides to get one, along with a double bacon cheeseburger. Yea, he was throwing up all night.

Saturday we woke up and Elder Hale and I exercised while Elder Vasquez slept off his Portillos. I think Elder Hale has made it his personal mission to make me  "buff". He gives me the hardest workouts and I've kind of become addicted. Working out is so much fun in the mornings, even though we use some pillows and the ironing board as our bench. He also makes me so much food for breakfast every morning so that I can bulk up and I know that it's working, because I've gained 8 pounds this week!!!

Later we had our ward Christmas party in Schaumburg (we're working both areas for now) and it was super fun. The Elders Quorum had a musical number they were supposed to do and I guess they didn't plan very well because they came up to us and told us we were singing. OK, sure. So we sang in front of the whole ward.

Sunday we had 2 Sacrament meetings, we taught gospel principals in Spanish, had a full blown meal for Elders Quorum, and sang in front of the whole stake with our zone for the Stake Christmas devotional. I love being a missionary!

I'm grateful to you all for the love and support you've shown me and I'm grateful for this 

opportunity I have to be away from you all, only because of the greater appreciation I have for the blessing that you all have been in my life so far. Thank you for the prayers and just know that I love you all so much!

With love,

Elder Arkoudas

I've got lots of pictures on my camera which I will send next week. Sorry about that.

Elders Quorum Fiesta During Church!

 The roads

 Our Zone!