Chuggin Along

I apologize that this email isn't the best or longest, during our Zone Preparation day activity today, and Hermana Missionary twisted her ankle and we kind of had to play EMT's which took a long time. This week was really good though!

The thought I wanted to share today is on the word consecration. As missionaries, you hear about being a consecrated missionary all the time but its a lot easier said than done. The problem with consecration is that a lot of people think that it means perfection; you always make the perfect decision and are always perfectly obedient. Consecration is not perfection.

As we go throughout our days, the question we ask ourselves is not, ''Am I being perfect?'', it should be ''is what I'm doing right now making me more like our Heavenly Father?'' That's what the purpose of this life is and so as long as we are trying to improve, we can say that we are consecrating ourselves to the Lord.

Other than that, this week has been same ole, same ole. We had quite a few lessons with investigators this week and sometimes it can be a little frustrating to hear people tell you how hard their life is and how they really want help but then don't act on the invitations we leave. A good analogy I though of is like a little kid with a hot stove. You can tell them to stop touching the hot stove, but sometimes they just keep touching it and then complain to you that their hand hurts.

I love this gospel so much and I love that it truly is our anchor in this world. We can always know that we will be happy as a long as we follow the teachings of this church and I love that.

Thank you all for your love and prayers and know that I pray for you all too.

Love Ya!

Elder Arkoudas

This is what Hispanics do to their trucks...

Power of Prayer

Friends and Family,

The power of prayer is so real! ¡Dios es bien misericordioso a sus siervos! My testimony has grown so much this week and I am so greatful for the opportunity that I have to represent the Lord.

What a fantastic and difficult week it has been!

Something Ive come to realize is that trials are not as bad as we make them. No matter what, we can always find the good in our situation and we can always make the best out of everything. Ive learned that this week more that ever.

Tuesday and Wednesday were real refiners fire days. Both Elder Hale and I have been kind of stressed lately with all thats been going on with our investigators, with our Branch, with eachother and with ourselves and our own trails and finally--Tuesday--it just kind of hit us both and we both got super sick.

We made a kind of dumb decision, because we had so much to do, and we just pushed through it by walking outside in the cold and the rain. That did not make things better, in fact, we both just got worse. Thursday was kind of the same, we both felt like garbage, but we started off walking a couple miles to our lesson with an investigator, and somewhere along the way, we just decided--subconsciously--to talk to everyone that we saw. Within the 3 miles that we walked, we probably talked to about 6 or 7 people who were all at least somewhat interested in learning more and we were able to set up a couple of return appointments.

One of the people we ran into was a woman by the name of Sherese. Sherese's son was just killed by a local gang, who is now threatening her to keep her from talking, her mother and husband just passed away and she lost all power to her house and has no food. 

One of my favorite hymns is A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief and my favorite verse is verse 5.

5. Stript, wounded, beaten nigh to death, I found him by the highway side. I roused his pulse, brought back his breath, Revived his spirit, and supplied Wine, oil, refreshment—he was healed. I had myself a wound concealed, But from that hour forgot the smart, And peace bound up my broken heart.

''But from that hour forgot the smart, And peace bound up my broken heart.''

What a powerful verse. It doesn't matter the wounds we have, the problems we face or the pains we feel; all of those can be forgotten when we serve others and turn to the Lord.
My own problems, struggles, and worries just melted away as I listened to this woman's trials and that truly was a blessing from the Lord.

Now we are in no way supposed to compare our trials to anyone elses, but by serving others, and helping them push through their trials, we will always find relief.

What does all of this have to do with prayer though? This whole experience with Sherese was an answer to my prayer. And the experience that we had with her was not the only answer I received this week. 

I know that when we pray in faith, and sometimes even in utter desperation, when we have nowhere else to go, our Heavenly Father reaches in to help us, to lift us up and to help us keep going. I got more help this week than I even thought was possible and I know that it is because we have a loving Heavenly Father and because I asked him for help. Sometimes that all we can do; and then go to work and watch him work miracles with us.

Thank you so much for all of your support, prayers, and everything that you all do. This weeks been a little tough, but I am grateful for the knowledge that I gained, for the testimony that was strengthened and for the patience and trust I found.

I hope that you can all learn or feel something from my emails, because I love you all so much and I just hope that I can in someone help you all in your lives. You all mean more to me than I can express and Im so grateful for all you do. Thank again for your example and love.

Love Ya!!!

Elder Arkoudas.

A Crazy Week

Im going to try to condense this whole crazy, jumbled up week into a couple paragraphs, here goes!

Tuesday we were able to put our investigator Adrianna on date but it took a whole day of walking in a bad wind and rainstorm to do it. We walked for about 5 hours straight in nothing more than rain jackets (pretty dumb on our part) in about 10 degree weather and froze like popsickles!

Wednesday was our Zone Conference and what a spiritual high that was! I am so greatful for this gospel and the absolute peace that it brings into my life and the lives of those I love.

It was interesting, we were talking to a man about the Gospel later that week and, after a while of getting nowhere, we finally just said to this man, look, even if this gospel and this church isnt true, we have experienced more joy and more blessings than we can even express...but...we KNOW that this Gospel and this Church are true and that they were restored by the Prophet Joseph Smith. What a powerful idea!

Thursday was another great day and we saw lots of miracles! To share one, we started off walking towards a less active members house when Elder Hale felt that we should just take a different path. So we started walking down this street that we had never been on before and we met this man, Alfonzo, taking out his trash. As we started talking to him, he didnt seem very interested, but after a few minutes of just trying to get to know him, he opened up to us, out of nowhere, and shared that his mom had just passed away and that he had a lot of questions about the life after this one. ¡GUAU, DIOS ES MISERICORDIOSO A SUS SIERVOS! It was such a testimony builder for me to see that God really is preparing his children to recieve the gospel.

Friday we had to exchange the car at the mission office for a brand new, 2017 Subaru Legacy (it is such a nice car) and I finally saw Elder Fong again! it was so good to see him and it was good for me to remember just how far Ive come since I was with him.

Saturday was good but as Sunday rolled around, things got interesting. For Sacrament meeting, I guess somebody forgot to bring bread, so the priests just broke Ritz crackers and we had that. It was strange, but the Spirit was just the same.

After Church, we were supposed to have dinner at an investigators house, and we were really looking foreward to it, because we had been fasting all day. She cancelled last minute on us and so we just went to our Plan B and started tracting. Never the ideal activity, but it was still good.

As we were tracting, we knocked on this apartment door and this is the conversation that proceeded.

*knock knock

quien es (who is it)?

Los misionaros

Prisioneros (prisoners)?

No, los misionaros!

Prisioneros??

No, misionaros, de la Iglesia de JesuCristo de Los Santos de Los Ultimos Dias.

Ah, misionaros... Pasanse! (come in)

this family then proceeded to feed us dinner of tomales and pasole!!! What a blessing from the Lord! He truly does look out for his servants, especially when theyre hungry!

I hope you all know of the deeply profound love I have for all of you. Its hard being away from everyone you love, especially when you realize that you all are going through your own trials, but I know how the Lord has blessed me and I know how he will bless all of you. His love is endless and I am so priveledged and humbled to be able to share it to my brothers and sisters.

Love Ya!!!

Elder Arkoudas

Starting the New Year Off Right!

110 wings. 

What a breath of fresh air...it reminds me of those Montana sunsets

Dear friends and family,

It has been yet another fantastic week and the work here in Bloomingdale is progressing faster and faster. We found two new investigators this week and we are staying pretty busy.

I'll stick to just a few things today to try to keep these emails a little shorter but man, were there some stories made this week.

Last preparation day (sorry, it's kind of a big jump back) Elder Hale decided to spend his $75 worth of gift cards to Buffalo Wild Wings on 110 wings. We brought them back to our apartment for lunch, invited the Bloomingdale English Elders, and then feasted. We wanted to be a little brave, so we decided to get a couple of the Blazin Wings, which are the hottest hot wing that they sell. Let's just say that 1. I dont handle deathly spicy food very well, and 2. That the only place that hot sauce hurts worse than in your mouth, in in your eye...

The other super cool experience we had this week reminded me of President Uchdorf's talk, 4th Floor, Last Door, because that's totally what happened. We had been tracting these Spanish apartments nicknamed, El Monterey all night and had not found a single person who was interested. Finally, and I guess it was just the 3rd floor, but we found this woman, Cristiana, who actually let us teach her a little and we even set up a return appointment with her. She was the last door we planned on knocking and it truly was a miracle! Maybe this week we'll get another couple of new investigators as well.

Saturday was kind of a rough day. Our car was towed for no reason, Elder Hale's card got shut down when we tried to pay for it, we accidently called the mission president when we were trying to call the vehicle coordinator and he wasn't very happy, and all of our lessons fell through. We kind of beat ourselves up over it, asking what we did wrong but then we looked back on the day, it was cool to see that everything happened for a reason. If our car wouldn't have been towed we wouldn't have asked a member who was having a rough time, and who needed to talk to someone, to give us a ride. We also just so happened to get back at the perfect time to meet up with the English Elders and give them a ride so they didn't have to walk in the freezing cold. We were also then, with the English Elders, able to all be together at the exact time a member whose wife just had a baby, needed some service done for him. 

I love the Mormon message, You Never Know, and I encourage all of you to watch it because it's so true. Sometimes the struggles and trials that we go through aren't to punish us, but it's to help others who need special help at that time. God has a plan, and in the end, all things work together for them that trust in the Lord...even if you have to pay $170 to get your car back because your companions card is locked down.

God bless you all,

Elder Arkoudas

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