The Leyvas

Dear Friends and Family!

THE LEYVAS ARE GETTING BAPTIZED!!! You have no idea how excited I am for this! They had their baptismal interviews yesterday and are going to be baptized this Saturday. It took a few days of us running around like chickens with our heads cut off (I know what that looks like...) in order for it to happen, but now it's finally here and we are so excited! Please pray for them this week. They are pretty nervous (confident, but nervous) and all the prayers would help a ton!

As for the rest of this week, it was pretty busy and really good. I can't complain in the least bit. We were walking down the street one day and walked past this guy sitting on a curb smoking a cigarette. So we stop and talk to him, great guy--his name is Chris--and we start talking to him about the Restoration. Now we've done this a thousand times before, but for some reason--this time--something just hit me and kind of filled me up (I know it was the Spirit) and when I testified of Joseph Smith, Chris just smiled and said, "I believe it, I can see it in your face." I don't know why that impacted me so much, but it was definitely a defining moment of my mission.

This whole week, in fact, has been a lesson on listening to the Spirit. We had a lesson with our investigator Christian and we had prepared like crazy for it. We started the lesson very practically and logically and started trying to "prove" the Restoration to him and about mid-lesson I heard the distinct voice whisper in my ear, "Who's the teacher here?" Immediately my attention changed from what I wanted to teach and focused on being an instrument and the lesson changed immediately as well. It was so cool and things just started clicking in Christian's mind. It really was a miracle!

Well, I wish that I could tell you everything that has happened this week and smash it all into one email, but for now I'll just leave you with a testimony: I know that this Church is the Church of Jesus Christ. I know because I've prayed about it, I've studied it, and the Spirit of the Lord witnessed to me that it is true. If you ever have doubts, so does everyone; but I hope you all know that Elder Samuel John Arkoudas knows that it's true.

Love you all and good luck this week!

Elder Arkoudas

Fasting and Biking

Dear friends and Family,

First of all, I don't recommend that you do the above two things at the same time...especially in the Illinois heat. Saturday we experienced the after effects of that, and it was miserable!

But I feel not to murmur, because this week was absolutely spectacular!!! There is so much that happened that I wish I could put down, but for now, I'll stick to the two or three best stories!

On Monday we started prostelyting at 6:00 as usual and we started with a prayer. Now we had been talking about specific prayers where you ask for specific blessings and so we decided to try it. Well, I prayed for the first thing that popped into my head, and that was that we would find a new investigator that day who was wearing a bright green shirt. Weird right? Yea, well the story gets better.

We started walking down the road and were about to turn left when instead, we saw a woman on the other end of the block wearing a bright green shirt. So we chased after her and as we talked to her, she said that she would listen to our message if we went to this place with her and drank some stuff. I know, it sounds bad, but we checked it out and it was just this experimental protein drink and she needed 10 people to drink it 4 days in a row in order to graduate from her class. Well, needless to say, we followed her to this place and as we walked in, literally everyone was wearing bright green t-shirts. The woman Griselda is now our new investigator!

The next story has got me so excited, I really can't express it in an email. OUR INVESTIGATORS ARE GETTING BAPTIZED ON THE 27TH! It has been such a blessing to be able to work with them and to feel the Spirit work so strong with them. Their names are Antonio and Olivia Leyva and if you could pray for them, that would be much apprechiated!

When we taught them on Wednesday, we committed them to baptism and they said yes, but Antonio said that he wouldn't be able to come to church this Sunday because he was working and it was going to be really busy that day. Well we told them about fasting and asked them if they would fast with us so that he could come--even just for sacrament meeting. They agreed and all day Saturday we fasted (we also biked about 25 miles that day which is the part I don't recommend) and waited Sunday morning to see if they would come or not. 

Sure enough, they both walked into the chapel at 10:55 and my testimony of fasting shot strait through the roof! Antonio said that he just said a prayer at work and then asked his boss to let him leave for an hour and his boss said yes. It was a complete and utter miracle and I am so excited for their baptism!

I just want to share a little bit of my testimony, that has been strengthened a lot this week. I know that when we sacrifice something for God, he pours out his blessings upon us. When one door closes, he always opens up a better door; I have seen that throughout my mission and I have seen that this week. The scriptures say,

9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
(Matthew 7:9-11)

I know that when we ask and when we are willing to do whatever the Lord commands us to do, it is then when we are in the BEST position to recieve his help.

I love you all and I hope that you have a wonderful week! And trust in the Lord, He knows better that you do!;)

Elder Arkoudas

Pic 1: Goats!

Pic 2: Cook out with our investigator Mauro

Joliet...The Promised Land

Friends and Family,

I love this place so much!!! There are rivers, draw-bridges, barges, and most importantly...HISPANICS!!! We were able to find 5 new people this week and they are all so awesome!

One of them is Maria Luna and she is so funny. We were just riding past on our bicycles when we saw her trimming her hedges--well, we almost ran over her on our bikes...but anyway--she was trimming her hedges and so I pulled my bike over and whipped out my trusty pocket knife (thanks again Swink family!) and started cutting little branches one at a time. She was laughing at that and telling me to stop, that it would take me two years to do (I told her that was fine;) and then we asked if we could share something with her. She said that she was really busy and that she had to clean and then she was going to get tacos. Well we offered to help and she declined and so after a few minutes of negotiation, we decided that we would go get tacos and then we could talk while she ate. Just as we started off on our bikes again though, she called after us and said that she was coming with us. So we had a nice lesson in the little taco shop, Los Comales.

In my studies this week, I have been reading a lot about charity and kindness. As we sat in our stake conference session this last week, I was kind of getting lost in my own thoughts, until the spirit hit me like a brick and taught me this eternal truth: Our eternal progression depends on how we help, serve, lift, and support others on THEIR journey of eternal progression. Charity and kindness are the characteristics of eternal progression. We cannot succeed without them.
I love President Monson's talk in the Priesthood session this last general conference because it outlines exactly that. Even our Heavenly Father's work and glory is to help us along the path to eternal life--His kindness and charity is what helps us progress to become more like him and so the more we develop those attributes here, the better we will be in the life to come.

I love this Gospel with all of my heart and I know that this is the true church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know that because I have studied and I have prayed and I testify that I recieved a witness from the Spirit that it is true.

Thank you for your love and support. I love you all and I hope that you can all find ways to love and serve your fellow man. And I want you to know that you have each already served me in helping me be where I am today.

Love you!

Elder Arkoudas

A member gave us "mochilas" from Guatemala!

 My new comp. Elder Wightman.



The BARGE...

Transfer Calls! Joliet, Illinois

 Friends and Family,

Well, it looks as if I'll be off to a new area this next week and to be honest, I'm a little bummed! I love Rockford so much and even more, I love the members here. As we bore our final testimonies yesterday in Sacrament Meeting one of my favorite members (I totally have favorites) Hna. Pelayo was just sitting in the row crying. AHHH, this is just as hard as it is leaving home!

That being said, I am so excited to move down to Joliet, Illinois with my new companion: Elder Wightman. He's a pretty new missionary and I'm so excited to work with him.

Awesome story from this week: There is a member in my branch who is "muy embarazada" (she's pregnant) and yet she signed up to feed us dinner one night. You have to understand that this woman is going to have her baby any day and so Elder Wright and I promptly called her and told her that we would be bringing over the food for dinner. So with every hispanic fiber I could muster, we made some dang good enchiladas for her and she said that they tasted like they were made by a true hispanic. That tickled my pride just a little bit.

Ok. Spiritual thought for the week (and this one was a really powerful one for me): I've been reading the scriptures every morning in both English and Spanish and it has been so cool. It goes by so painfully slow, but it helps me to really focus on the words and the doctrine behind the words and I thought that it was really cool when I find something in Spanish and then find something totally different when I read the same verse in English. 

Anyway. I found a scripture in 2 Nephi 2:24 which says,

24 Pero he aquí, todas las cosas han sido hechas según la sabiduría de aquel que todo lo sabe.

24 But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.

I love this scripture so much because it lets us know that there is a plan. I love the Book of Mormon and I testify that it is true. What more can I add to this simple scripture that testifies of not only the Plan of Salvation, but of the love that our Father in Heaven has for each of us.

I love you all so much and I'm greatful for this opportunity that I have to serve. It has been so hard and so rewarding (it's been pretty fun too) and I know that this is how the Lord strengthens his young people.

Good luck this week, all of you!

Elder Arkoudas

Eddy and his family

Los Alfaro

Los Belmontes

Los Paz

Los Chavez

Joseph

Los otros Chavez (Los Guys)

Los Ramirez

Elder Wright Tribute