It's a Wonderful Life

Friends and Family,

Can I just say how great it is to be a missionary!? I had a dream the other night where I was in college and I literally woke up in a cold sweat...it was a NIGHTMARE!!! It truly is a priviledge to be serving the Lord and to grow and learn during this time. For anyone mission aged, thinking about going on a mission or planning on going on a mission...DO IT!!! I promise you that it will change your life!

Onto the week. Not a ton happened: we had some nice weather and so we thought that we were going to find a lot of people, but the part of Rockford that we cover is the type of place where people don't really go outside much...or answer their door and so our finding efforts were a little hindered. Nevertheless, we endured to the end and were able to find a few potential investigators this week.

Spiritual hightlight of the week was definitely when my companion saved our lives. The story starts as we were daily planning and decided to go to an area that is a little dangerous, but we planned to be out of there long before dark. As we continued to plan though, I just couldn't shake this bad feeling so we decided to stay away from that area and go somewhere else.
Just as we were about to leave for that area though, my companion got super sick and we had to stay inside while he basically laid on the bathroom floor waiting to throw up. Just as soon as the time that we were going to be in that area passed though, he was completely fine. Just as quickly as it came, his sickness was completely gone! We're not sure exactly what happened down there, but there were an unusual number of sirens that day and I definitely think that the Lord was protecting us. So don't worry mom!

We also had great experiences working with members this week. We had dinner with the Chavez family and decided to teach them the Restoration. I let my companion who's still pretty new take the lead on the entire lesson and man, I just love him so much! He said exactly what was needed for the family to trust us enough to refer their close family member who is not a member that really wants to learn more. It was a great testimony builder to me of the power of member-missionary work!

We also decided one day to do an experiment with finding. Instead of handing out cards and pamphlets, we decided to bring just Book of Mormons. So with 17 Books, two bike helmets, two really old and really terrible bikes, we set out to conquer the Projects of Rockford. Not a lot happened the first couple of hours...in fact, it seemed like people rejected us more than usual until finally, we met two hispanic guys who accepted a copy. As we went through the night, we found more and more success until--well after dark--we decided we should probably find a ride home. We stopped by some members house to see if they could drop us off, but they did even better than that and fed us dinner and wanted us to teach them something. Well, with the leftover Book of Mormons that we had, and with our goal to share the Book of Mormon every chance we got, we taught them about the Book of Mormon and gave them some to hand out to their friends. One girl even asked for three to hand out to three of her friends! 

And so, with only one Book of Mormon left in my bag at the end of the day, and with much gratitude in our hearts, we headed home after a long, tiring day of work. What a great day!

I want to just give my brief testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon. I know it to be the Word of God and I know that as we read it, we will find strength in literally every aspect of our lives. I know that to be true and I hope that all of you can find time to read even just a little bit everyday. I know and I can promise you that it will bless your lives.

With much love for all that you do and for who you all are,

Elder Arkoudas

Pictures!!!

1. Basically our companionship...

2. That's how many Book of Mormons we handed out.

3. My companion throwing up. I was bored and I wanted a popsicle...

4. What we survived on this week.

5. We are not as cool as we look...

 We biked...it was so cold...

I promise my belly is not as big as it is in this picture! I'm still skinny, don't worry.

 More Elder Wright pictures.

 My 3 Spanish companions!

I Can Speak Spanish!

Brothers and Sister, family,

The Lord is so merciful to his servants and to all those who follow Him. I have seen those blessings more this week than at any other time of my life and we have truly witnessed miracles!

There has been a new attitude forming in our mission, a new feeling and my mission President likes to call it the "Feeling of Finding". As a mission, we dropped every single one of our Standards of Excellence and replaced it with just one: Find 2 new investigators every week.

Friday night, we had interviews with our President and had not one single new investigator to show him. It had been a week of experiments (using the public transportation, finding areas with hispanics) and we were not really finding a whole lot of people to teach. We found a lot of good, solid potential investigators, but nobody had time to listen to us. That interview changed the entire dynamic of our week.

During the interview, our President asked us about the finding effort in our area and when we told him that we hadn't yet found any new investigators he challenged us to find 4 in the next 2 days. You probably dont understand how crazy that is. In all of my mission, the average number of investigators we found in a week is like .5 and now we were supposed to find 4 in two days!!! We bolted out of the church building, cancelled all of our plans and went out finding.

That night (after not finding anyone) we were heading home when I felt a very strong impression to stop and talk to a man getting out of his car. So we pulled over and just started talking to him. We originally just asked him if he knew any hispanics in the area and so he invited us inside so that we could ask his family members too. They named off a few houses and then the man, Wallace, out of the blue asked us what was different about our church and if we could teach him something. We sat down, taught the Restoration and had one new investigator by the end of the night. Not only that...he wants to be baptized.

Saturday we worked our hearts out to find all day and found absolutely nobody. All of our appointments canceled and our service activity with some non-members canceled on us too. We were pretty down-trodden; but as we literally collapsed in our apartement at night exhausted we got a little bitty text from Church Headquarters saying that we had just received a new referral and to stop by as soon as possible. Completely unrelated to the work we did all day, the Lord still blessed us with someone to teach.

Sunday we woke up with a game plan to literally find all day. As soon as church was over we were pounding the pavement, looking for anyone to teach and can I just say, the Lord guided our footsteps. We just so happened to be in exactly the right places at exactly the right times in order to find two new people to teach and to become investigators. We stopped by the referral and she became a new investigator right away as she enthusiastically invited us to come back the following day after we had taught her about the Book of Mormon and Prophets.
The next man, Ganny (from Nigeria) was just walking by to go sit on some park benches when we stopped to talk to him and he quickly embraced the doctrine of the Great Apostasy asking if HE could have OUR information so the HE could call US!!! It was pretty weird to be on that end of a contact.

All in all, we ultimately fell short one person of our goal. We were supposed to have a lesson with a friend of one of our members but she didnt show up and so we were left not really knowing what to do. We tried to stop by as many people as we could but in the end, we had to return home with only 3 new investigators. But as we lay exhausted in bed last night, I realized that, even though we fell short of our goal, we still not only met our standard of excellence, we exceeded it, and in two days as well. I cant wait to see what this week brings as we now know what it feels like to pour all of your heart, soul, might and strength into missionary work; and we've seen the miracles that it brings.

One of those miracles (and I apologize that this email is getting a little lengthy) was Spanish. My companion and I are both really new and out of the two of us, we dont speak a whole ton of Spanish; but this last Sunday (yesterday) someone was going to speak in english and they needed a translator. Instead of asking one of the many members that speak both English and Spanish, they asked ME!!! I was terrified, but I DID IT!!! I translated the speakers talk from English to Spanish! Dont ask me where I got the words but I know that I got them. Later that night, as we were out tracting, we found a Hispanic family that really wanted to Bible bash with us, but we were able to--in spanish--deflect the contention and leave them with a Restoration pamphlet and the Spirit. That has never happened to me before and it just goes to show what the Spirit can do through imperfect people like us.

I love this Gospel with all of my heart and I love this work. I can't express in words how greatful I am to all of you for the love and kindess you've shown me and I hope you all know just how much I love you. May the Lord in all of his infinite miracles bless and protect you, because I know that miracles have not ceased and that the Lord helps us according to our faith. Keep that faith alive because there really is no other way.

Love Ya!!!

Elder Arkoudas

P.S. Sorry for the long email. I'm just really excited!!!

Rockford is so BOMB!

First of all, Rockford is so bomb!!!

This city just looks so cool, not to mention all the amazing people here. It's kind of weird, I went from a lot of Hispanics and a lot of Indians to a lot of Hispanics and a lot of African-Americans (no, like literally, a lot of them are straight from Africa) and there is even a little section of town called Little Mexico that is overflowing with Mexicans.

The field is white!!!

The only downside to this week is that Elder Wright, my new companion is really sick. At first, it was just a little cough, then it turned to chest pain, then it turned to everything pain plus a fever until we finally went to the doctor and it turns out, he has pneumonia...

Needless to say, we weren't allowed to go outside this week, or interract with really anyone and lets just say it was a rough couple of days for him.

Other than that, we almost got mauled by a guard-dog, we accidentally interruped a drug deal and we saw a ton of miracles! It was such a good week!

I'm really excited for this new week and for all the miracles that we're going to see. I have a real testimony of this work and of all the blessings that our Heavenly Father has in store for us if we just endure to the end and trust in Him. I know that he lives and that this is His church. I'm greatful for the trials that we have, only because they make our prayers more sincere and our hearts more humble. My heart goes out to you all and I love each and every one of you. Good luck this week and I hope that you may feel the love of our Heavenly Father.

Elder Arkoudas

Isn't he so cute...
That building was so sketchy.

A Week Of Miracles!

I wish that I could explain all that happened this week and tell you just how merciful the Lord is to his children and to his servants, but I would have to write a book on it, that's how greatful I am!

Wednesday we had an exchange with the zone leaders and to be honest, that 24 hours changed my mission. I was with an Elder named Elder Hirschi and he is such a good example to me of diligence. That day, we made a goal of talking to literally everyone and so thats exactly what we did. If people were in their cars, we knocked on their windows, if people walked inside, we went and knocked on their doors and we literally saw miracles!

One person we saw (her name is Suli) walked into her house so we knocked on her door, and she told us that she would definitely be interested in learning more and that we could come back to next day. Miracle enough right!? It gets so much better! The next day, we finally contacted this referral we received about a week ago (Erika Hernandez) and she said that we could come back and then proceeded to give us her address. Her address was exactly the same as Suli's! We tracked into our referral!!!

We also were able to find a couple families this week and one of them (the Gomez family) even came to a baptismal service for other missionaries this last Saturday. The service was in English and none of them speak English so we hooked up the headsets and translated the baptismal service. It was pretty stressful getting everything set up, and we kind of ran around like chickens with our heads cut off all day, but in the end, it was so worth it. The Aunt Maria even asked us after the baptism, "why do I feel so much peace right now?" and we were able to teach them about the Holy Ghost. What a life changing experience!

I wish I could tell you all the miracles we saw this week, but there were just too many. And alas, just as the area is booming, we received transfer calls. Elder Hale has been here about 5 months and I've only been here for 2, so we thought for sure that I'd be staying, but I guess the Lord has different plans. Tomorrow I leave for Rockford IL, arguably one of the most dangerous cities in the USA (I'm totally kidding) but I'm told it's a lot different! I was so excited and I still am, but then I realized that I have to leave Bloomingdale. I really have grown to love the people here, especially the members and it feels like I'm leaving my family all over again! 

It's kind of scary and a lot to take in, but what I want to share today is that no matter what happens, it is God's plan. My testimony of this has strengthened so much this week and for that I'm eternally grateful! I know, without a doubt, that our Heavenly Father has an individual and personal plan for each and every one of us and that, even though it's hard...haha it is so incredibly, unrealistically hard sometimes to know that you have absolutely no control over something, it is all part of His wonderful plan for us. I love each and every one of you and I am so grateful for this gospel and the hope it brings into each of our lives.

God has a plan. And so long as we cling to the faith that we have in Jesus Christ, everything will work together for good, to them that love God, and trust in him.

Best wishes and congratulate my mom for her unfailing love for all her children, especially the brand new baby boy! I will have it known though, I was and will always be the biggest baby...

Love ya!!!

Elder Arkoudas

I love these people with all of my SOUL!

Oh, and it was 37 degrees today!!! We literally walked outside and had to take our coats off it was so hot!

I am adding his personal email to me this week because he has great news about his transfer..

Mom,

 I'm so glad, ecstatic, relived and a million other feeling rolled all into one to hear how well everything went! I prayed like crazy for you this week and I'm glad that those prayers were answered.

I'm glad to receive the news! I made a goal to not check my email until Monday so I didn't even find out until this morning and what a great surprise to wake up to! I don't even really know what to say because it hasn't really hit me yet. I would love to call you, but we'll just have to wait a couple months for mothers day.

This week has been such a boost for me, one that I desperately needed. We did so much work this week and it all comes from talking to everyone. We really did see miracles this week and I am so grateful for the week that it has been. We had one experience where, after days of working our tails off, we decided to have a lesson with the Gomez family after the baptism. As missionaries, you're not allowed to be in a room with women unless there is another man there, but Elder Hale and I were so gung-hoe about working and baptizing that we just kind of forewent that rule and had the lesson anyway. I didn't feel the spirit the whole time and I knew why too. I knew that we shouldn't be doing that, and the whole time I could just hear the words, ''I can do my own work'' over and over again in my mind. Finally, I asked Elder Hale to step outside with me for a minute and we talked about it. We were able to call some members who said that they had actually taken a wrong turn and were heading towards the church anyway (I know right) and so we were able to finish the lesson with the Spirit. It was a huge testimony builder to me of what I'm actually here to do. I'm not here to convert these people, I'm just here to learn to forget myself and tag along while the Lord does his own work. He has ALLOWED me to tag along, and in all honesty, I realize that now, so long as I do my part...as much as I can...the Lord will consecrate my efforts for the good of those around me.

The next email you get from me will be from Rockford IL and I am so excited! Elder Hale told me I had to tell you and so I guess I will, only because I'm kind of freaking out a little bit. They called me to be the District leader up there and also I'm training a new missionary. He's been out for 6 weeks already so he's not brand-new, but still...that means out of the two of us, I have to be the one to speak all of the Spanish, but such is life.

I love being a missionary so much and I'm looking forward to meeting baby Hyrum in about a year and a half. He looks really cute (and a little like me) and I'll be praying for you both.

Love you Mom!!!

Your son,
Elder Arkoudas