I Love Illinois!!!

Friends and family,

As the subject line states, I love this place! This last Sunday, Elder Wright and I realized that our area actually goes clear down south to Byron, IL so we took a little drive down there just to check things out, and it is so pretty down there! Spring time here is really really green and the rivers and lakes are amazing. We are so blessed!

This week was a really good one, yet again and we are really starting to get somewhere with our investigators. For example, this week we helped our investigator Alicia paint her fence (as seen below: isn't she so cute) and it was so much fun! Her husband really doesn't like us and so we thought that it would be something nice to do so that it can soften his heart a little bit. In all reality, he doesn't let Alicia come to church on Sunday and so we prayed for help to know what to do, and the answer came literally the next day when she said that she was painting her fence. So much fun!

We also got to wish our friend Jaime Ramirez (now Elder Ramirez) off to his mission in Southern Mexico. He actually left today and he is going to do so great!

We found a family this week! There's 6 of them and they are all baptismal age and they are so awesome! They have a pet bird, Litto, who, during the lesson, just flew and landed right on my shoulder. The dad stood up to chase him away, but I told him he was good and so he just sat there for basically the entire lesson. The family said that that never happens and that it must be a sign or something (it definitely was...)

Speaking of investigators, our investigator Eddy took us to a building that he works for that used to be owned by Al Capon. It was kind of his get-away building for when things got too hot in Chicago and he's got a giant safe down there; so we got to go down there and tour it! Eddy's family also used to be in the mafia (that's completely unrelated from how we got to tour Al Capon's secret hide-away).Perks of missionary work.

All in all, it has been an absolutely fantastic week this week and to finish off this email, I'll just tell one cool spiritual experience. After church yesterday this guy Marco comes up to us (he's 19) and askes us if we are busy. A little bit of a back-story for Marco: a few days ago at school, he was doing a science experiement and it blew up on him, buring his face and arm. Marco is also a really tough guy and kind of has his image to uphold and so when he asked us for a favor, we went over to a room in the church and he just broke down a little bit in front of us and asked us for a blessing because he was in a lot of pain. As we gave him the blessing, I know that I wanted to just say that he would be healed; that everything would be good and even that he could be completely better right then and there, but as I recognized my own desires and then threw those aside, I felt the Spirit work within me 100% and I can't even remember what I said, except that it was exactly what he needed to hear.

I love the gospel and I am so humbled to be able to hold the Priesthood. I've heard a lot about conversion lately and it truly is inspiring to see the conversion that has taken place in me. I'm not anywhere near perfect, or fully converted, but I see now the truth behind the saying, "the most important convert on your mission is yourself". May we all try to be a little more converted today than we were yesterday and remember that Jesus Christ is there for exactly that reason. I love you all and I pray for you always.

Good luck this week!

Elder Arkoudas

Easter!

Dear friends and family,

This week was such a good week and an especially spiritual week too. Our Branch President asked all of the missionaries to give talks as well as provide the musical number for Sacrament meeting and it was such a sacred experience. We sang, "Yo se que vive mi Señor" And the spirit filled the whole room and hit each one of us like a wall. The members felt it, our investigator Emma felt it, and I could feel--If even just a tiny bit--the love the our Father in heaven has for his children. It was awesome!

The rest of the week was really good too, we found a lot of new people to teach and so hopefully we'll see some baptisms pretty soon. It seems like everyone seems to get religious around Easter so maybe we'll see some more miracles.

Just a continuation of last weeks thought, I've still been thinking a lot about discipleship and missionary work and we had a cool experience with that this week. We were driving down town and I noticed this guy walking down the road and had the impression to stop and talk to him. We were already late to an appointment, so I just kind of ignored it (I know...not cool...) but as we were driving back, 30-45 minutes later, I saw the same man walking down the road. I got quite a rebuking from the Spirit, so I stopped the car and we went up and started chasing after this guy. Finally we caught up to him and just started talking to him and walking with him and we probably walked with him a good mile. We just talked about Easter and about the Bible and he even invited us to come help him study the Bible sometime. As we parted ways, he looked back at us and then said, half-jokingly, but also with a lot of feeling, "Don't forget about me!" The love that I felt for that man (his name's Gary by the way) was so incredible and it made me so greatful for those 2nd chances that Heavenly Father gives us. I think that if we had gone up and just tried to give him a card or start preaching to him nothing would have happened; but because we walked with him and spent the time to get to know him--just like Jesus Christ would have done--the whole attitude of that contact changed.

I am so greatful for the Gospel in my life and especially in the lives of those I love. Man, this life would be lonely without it and it really puts it into perspective of how most of the people on earth feel today. I know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ and I'm so greatful to each of you for your prayers and for your support.

Love you all and Happy Easter,

Elder Arkoudas

P.S. We found this wall and just had to take a picture. I can't really read what it says so we'll just assume that it's all good things...

P.P.S. Also funny story, but not really. Don't let another missionary give you a haircut.

Discipleship and Service

Dear friends and family,

This week was a really quick one but at the same time, so excruciatingly slow. Both Elder Wright and I fell under the weather but on separate days so we were bed ridden a couple days this week.

Other than that, we had exchanges with the Zone leaders this week which were awesome! I got to go with Elder Wells this time and we had an absolute blast. We started out just walking down through this neighborhood and as we were walking we passed by 3 guys raking a yard. We stopped and offered to help and the main guy was a little hesitant to let us help (this was a job for them) but as Elder Wells and I grabbed some rakes and started raking up a storm they quickly warmed up to us. Anyway, the main guy, Lamar, as we finished turned to us and said something like, "I'm never going to forget this day, this was so cool. I've never had two guys just come up and help me like this and do such good work too! Can I get your number so that we can talk when I'm a little less busy?" What a powerful testimony builder for me of the power of service.

This kind of leads me to the main message of my email today which is about Discipleship. For a long time I just thought about trying to be a good missionary instead of just trying to be a good disciple of Jesus Christ and it kind of made me stiff and buisiness-like--not really the best "example of the believers". As I watched General Conference though, along with some other experiences lately, I realized that the best representative of Jesus Christ is one of his disciples, someone who is actively trying to become like Him.

One of my favorite talks is "Symbol of our Faith" by President Hinckley where he talks about what is the true symbol of Christianity. My favorite quote from the talk goes as follows...

"As His followers, we cannot do a mean or shoddy or ungracious thing without tarnishing His image. Nor can we do a good and gracious and generous act without burnishing more brightly the symbol of Him whose name we have taken upon ourselves. And so our lives must become a meaningful expression, the symbol of our declaration of our testimony of the Living Christ, the Eternal Son of the Living God.

It is that simple, my brethren and sisters, and that profound and we’d better never forget it."

I just want to add my testimony to that of President Hinckley's: as members of the true and living church of Jesus Christ, it is our solemn DUTY to be kind; to be true; to be helpful; and to serve as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ served, with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength so that we may--someday--be perfect, even as he is perfect.

I love you all and I hope that this week is full of opportunities to be more like our Savior. I know that he lives, and I know that he leads this church through modern day Prophets and Apostles; I KNOW that is true! God bless you all and keep you safe!

Before I close though, I do want to share a super cool story that happened this week. We were walking in kind of the sketchier side of town and we met these 3 guys and started talking to them. The conversation started out ok but quickly changed to these 3 big black guys almost yelling at us, spewing nonsense about how King James was really black and that the Cannanites in the bible are really good guys--yea, it was weird. But as these guys are bashing with us, this woman pulls up to us and asks to talk to me. Of course I'm excited because I think she wants to talk about the Gospel, but then she pulls out her Rockford PD Detective badge and says really calmly, "Rockford Police, can I talk to you for a second?" Now I'm REALLY excited because now I think that she's going to ask us to go undercover or something (I don't know...) and so we ended our conversation with our 3 Cannanite Brothers (I'm sorry, I shouldn't say that) and go over to talk to a real life detective. It was kind of anticlimactic because she just wanted to make sure that we were ok and to rescue us from our Cannanite brothers but in the end, it was cool and now I know that there are guardian angels out here protecting those two white guys in the projects (and now you can know that too mom).

Love you all!

Elder Arkoudas

1. Sick day. Elder Wright was really feeling bad.

2. Chicago style deep dish.

3. 7 patties...7 hours of regret...

Rockford is [still] the Best

Friends and Family,

I love this place so much! I wish that I could tell you all of the experiences and people that we've met this week and that you could feel at least a little bit of the Spirit that I was able to feel (especially during General Conference) but seeing as you are all left only to this emial, I hope that this email can do a little bit of that.

I'd like to share a couple experiences from this week: a few funny stories, a few miracles and then a quick spiritual thought.

On Wednesday, we were riding the public bus system when all of a sudden, we got a call with a 415 area code--The Logan Utah area code. I kind of freaked out a little bit, but it turned out to be an old missionary from the mission who is going to Utah State right now and she gave us a referral in the area. We actually stopped by that day and the referral--a girl named Isabel--became one of our new investigators.

Now the spiritual part. As we were talking to Isabel she told us about her grandma who is really sick right now and dying of cancer. As we were leaving, Isabel told us that if we had time, we should stop by (her grandma lives just a few houses down) and say a prayer with her. Of course, we did and it was such an incredible experience for both me and Elder Wright. As we talked about it afterwards, we realized that we both were able to feel such pure and Christ-like love for Jovita (Isabel's grandma) and the Spirit that filled the room was so special and personal for her. I am so greatful for this opportunity to tag along in the Lords work and to be able to witness such incredible miracles.

On a less spiritual note, there is this dumb goose that attacks Elder Wright and I every day! There is this pond in between our apartment and the bus stop that this goose lives in and literally everyday--without fail--this goose flies from the middle of the pond directly at us, hissing like a cat. Elder Wright is so funny and always freaks out. Ok...we both do, but that thing is mean. We named him Chuck (I don't know why) but I will try to capture video evidence this week.

This email, and week, wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention General Conference. I don't know if it was just because I'm on a mission now, but this conference was really special for me. I could go on and on about why, but instead I want to share about what happened right after. We had a less active member come to watch Conference and she brought her husband who is a non member. At about 6:30 last night, we got a call from this guy, his names Eddy, and he started off by saying, "hey brothers, are you busy? I really want to know how I can become a member of your church. I just want to join my wife so that we can be happier..."

It was such a testimony builder for me that the Lord is preparing the hearts of the people here and that we aren't the converters here, the Spirit is. If you could send a few prayers this way for Eddy, I know that he would be especially greatful...and so would we!

I hope that you all got to watch Conference this last weekend. I know that Thomas S Monson is the Prophet of God on the Earth today and I would encourage all of you to follow his council to read the Book of Mormon. I know that it is true and directly from our Father in Heaven. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer.

Love you all and send my best!

Elder Arkoudas