Dear Friends and Family,
This week: definitely in the top 10 greatest weeks of my life. It all started with a whole lot of service.
I don't know if you remember the woman Zelma who I talked about before (the woman we found when we felt prompted to go back to the car) but she is still studying strong with the other Elders and so Tuesday morning, we pull up to the other Elder's apartment for our usual early morning tennis and they tell us that Zelma is getting evicted from her house Tuesday night and needs help moving right then and there. So we ditch our normal tennis routine, and at 6 in the morning we head over to Zelma's to help her move. I'm pleased to announce that within 3 hours we had removed, packed, unloaded and put in storage ever large piece of furniture in that house, and it was an entire uhaul full of stuff! Good morning exercize!
The rest of the week was a great experience with finding and following the Spirit. Friday we started our daily planning session and I felt a really strong prompting to go to a very specific neighborhood that day at a very specific time. The only problem was that it was about 10 miles away and we were on bikes. We went anyway.
As we got there, the first person we wanted to stop by wasn't there...but we talked to their neighbor Christina and she was super nice--said we could come back another time.
We then went to visit someone else...also not home; but as we were walking down the street, we bumped into Maria and Sarai sitting outside in their front yard holding a yard sale. They were pretty hesitant at first to hear us out, but as we talked more and more about the Book of Mormon, they both became very interested and let us sit and teach them the Restoration. The coolest part was that they both lived clear on the other side of town and were only there to help their "cuñada" with her garage sale. If we wouldn't have been there at that time, we probably never would have found them.
Saturday and Sunday just prove that Elder Wightman and I are really not doing anything, we're just really blessed. Saturday we got a call from a member up in Naperville who is here for the summer doing door to door sales. She said that she met a lady who really wants the missionaries to come over. One referral---cha-ching! Sunday we got a text from a girl Lucy in our branch that just said, "Elders, Help me!" She explained that her boss really wants to learn about the Book of Mormon and about the Church but she didn't know how to go about it. She set up a lunch with us so that we can make a plan of attack (maybe not the best term...) on how we're going to dunk this guy (also maybe not the best term...). So there's one more member referral---double cha-ching!!!
And I can't go this week without giving an update on Jose Carlos. Most prepared individual I have ever seen in my mission. Just a quick backstory: we were just sitting in church one day, minding our own business when a member came up to us and said that they had brought their friend to church and that we should talk to him. He has been friends with this member family for a while and has come to church before. He says that everytime he does, he feels a peace that he wants for his life and he wants to know how he can have that forever. So we about fall over ourselves setting up lessons with him and today, during Sunday school, we talked about baptism. Later, just before our lesson with him, he tells us, "Elderes, today during the class, something told me that I need to be baptized. I think I'm ready to make that promise with God." Bare in mind, we met this man 3 weeks ago and he is on track and excited to be baptized the 1st of July. I love this Gospel!!!
Something I realized this week (ok, two things) is the importance of the Book of Mormon and the importance of Church in the eyes of those who are not members. We kept track this week: we handed out 12 Books of Mormon and our average is usually like 2 or 3. We also were able to invite more people to Church and our members--because they are incredible--made everyone feel at home. There is absolutely no harm in inviting friends and family members in just coming and seeing for themselves if they like it. It is our duty as members to MAKE SURE THAT THEY LIKE IT! We are the Church of Jesus Christ, we are his diciples and we had better act like it. There is a fire growing inside me that just makes me want to stand on a soap box and cry repentance with angelic zeal and It's all due to hard work and love for God's children.
I know that this church is true. Good luck trying to convince me otherwise. 1 John 5:9 says, "If we recieve the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son." The witness of God will always win out and that gives us something to place our hope. Trust in God and everything just seems to work itself out; trust me--It's changed my life!
I hope you all have a fantastic week and know that I love you all. You're all witnesses of Jesus Christ and you can all help someone become one as well! God Bless.
Elder Arkoudas
Pic.--Tennis Clan
Pic. 3--Spanish Conference
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