Throwback

Throwback to the beginning of my mission.

I mustache why you are looking so fine today;)

Dear friends and family,

So we got to drive around the transfer van all day Thursday (big white van just like the Arkoudas family drives around) and we also had some mustaches for a training that we were giving; I'm sure that you can put two and two together.

This week was very busy but we were still able to see a ton of miracles. As always, I'd like to share a story from this week.

On Thursday night we ate with a family in the ward and as we were leaving the restaurant, we noticed a man at the stop sign with his emergency flashers on. We pulled over and gave him a jump start and turned around in the parking lot, only to pull up behind him again--car dead for the 2nd time. By this point it was about 7:00pm and we were supposed to be at a lesson with our investigator in a members home and they lived 10 minutes away. So we called them and told them that we were running a little late and then helped this man (his name is Kevin) push his car into the parkinglot where he could wait for a tow. Funny enough, as we talked with Kevin, he agreed to let us teach him and he is actually coming to a chapel tour this evening. The interesting thing is that the member whos house we had the lesson with that night was driving the next day and his car did the exact same thing and rather than someone stopping to help, everyone just honked at him and passed him by. Now I don't share this story to toot my own horn, but this member even shared with us later just how much of an impact kindness can have on someone. As we go throughout the day, we can either leave people with a feeling of peace and love, or we can leave them feeling angry, frusterated and alone. I just liked the lesson behind that story.

I hope that you are all doing well and that you can look for opportunities this week to reach out in love and kindness to those who are feeling tired, helpless, or alone. Love you all!

Elder Arkoudas

A Romantic Valentines Day

Dear Friends and Family,

I would like to calm your fears about the title of this email, but it is true: I went on a date on my mission.

On Tuesday night we were invited by an investigator we are teaching to go out to lunch because Elder Glines is leaving and Wednesday would be the only day that she would be able to do it (she left for Hong Kong on Thursday). The only problem was she did not have a car and had no way to arrive at the restaurant. So we thought about it for a while and then decided that we would invite our recent convert Laura who has a car and doesnt do anything during the day anyway. So on Valentines day, after district meeting, we show up to the restaurant and take our seats and wait for our investigator Farren and Laura to show up. To be completely honest, I did not think beforehand that it would be valentines day, or that we would be going out to lunch with two women (one old enough to be my mother and the other old enough to be my grandmother), we were just excited to get out investigator a member friend and our recent convert an investigator friend.

So they arrive a few minutes after us and Laura is decked out in her white fur coat, make-up and freshly dyed red hair and immediatley blurts out, "So which one is my date?!" That is when I first started to feel uncomfortable. The rest of the lunch continued like so: Farren started ordering for us to the waiter in chinese so we didn't really know what she was saying; Laura, who is hard of hearing anyway thought that Farren was asking if she wanted "popsicles" instead of "potstickers" and then Farren complaining that the food wasn't up to her level of perfection. It was such a funny experience and now that I look back, I am so glad that we were able to take those two ladies out to lunch...even if they ended up paying. I'm sure it made their Valentines day.

On a more spiritual note, we have been working with a man named Adam for a very long time and he has showed so much potential, but he just wouldn't make the effort to come to church. The whole time he was saying that he really wants Sunday to be a family time, but that his wife was not really having it, and so he wouldn't come to church. Well this week, we tried our absolute hardest to get Adam to come to a baptism for the other ward. He was all set to come, but 5 minutes before, he told us that he would be too late to be able to come. We tried reaching out to him, but it just seemed like it wouldn't work.

So we sat through the baptism and it was a great service, and as we left the building to go get in our car, we hear a voice from behind us say, "hello Elder Glines." When we turned around, there was not only Adam, but his wife Yasenia and his daughter Samantha. He had dropped by his house, had picked up his wife and daughter and had come to the church building, all at around 8:30pm. So we quickly ran through a church tour with them and had a great lesson and even invited them to be baptized. They were very open to it and committed to come to church...AND THEY DID! 

I know that when we pray to our Heavenly Father for help and then try our hardest to follow his Spirit and do what we are supposed to, He will bless us with exactly what will be the best for us.

It was a fantastic week and I hope that it continues for all of you in your own lives and struggles. Love you all!

Elder Arkoudas

Pic. 1: transfer calls

Pic. 2: dinner with Laura and my new companion, Elder Champneys 

Pic. 3: my date...

SNOWMAGEDDON 2K18

Oh buddy, what a week!!!

Dear Friends and Family,

It is cold, clear, and crisp outside and an incredible day to be a missionary! I would also like to mention the fact that there is about 2 feet of freshly fallen snow blanketing the whole earth as far as the eye can see. Sounds dreamy doesn't it?

This week was a great week to do service! We were able to get into contact with many people to help them shovel their walks and we found many new people.

I want to take a minute to talk about the Book of Mormon and the power that it has in teaching. This past Wednesday we had a lesson with Brother Somchay in which we only read in the Book of Mormon. From a man who has been investigating the church for 40 years, he has never been able to read and understand what it talks about, and so we went slow, verse by verse until he understood everything. By the end of the lesson, he held up the book and said, "there is some pretty good stuff in here!" Yes there is my friend! Yes there is.

We also decided to read with one of our recent converts, Thomas, who is about 17. He asked us a question about fire and brimstone and why Hell is described like that, and so we flipped to a random page and started to read. Within 10 verses he had answered his own question and everyone's testimonies of the Book of Mormon were strengthened that day.

I love the gospel and I love how plainly it is taught in the Book of Mormon. I hope that we never take advantage of this tool that our Father in Heaven has given us to better know His Son Jesus Christ.

I love you all and hope that you have a great week!

Elder Arkoudas

1. We ate at a really sketchy Arby's (thanks YiaYia and Papou for the giftcard)

2. We dont always wear black, but when we do...

3. Exchanges

4. Exchanges 2.0

5. You really should have seen the other guy (the other guy was me...I was soaked)

From Octopus to Rattlesnake

Dear Friends and Family,

I was going to drop the "the English area life is hard" shpeel, but this week was just too good to pass up.

I don't know if I can take it anymore...a member took us to a 5 star restauraunt this week and we had to eat gourmet rattlesnake. This area is eating me alive...

In all honesty, I don't know why I have been so blessed. It was definitley nothing that I ever did and it has been such a miracle to be here. The rattlesnake actually tasted pretty good and the member was the sweetest old lady you'd ever meet--her name is Franny--and she is in a wheelchair, so when we went into the restaurant and we wheeled her in, a waitress came over and complimented us for being such "clean and well-mannered young men" and she even said that she wanted her daughters to grow up one day and marry young gentlemen like us. If that's not a compliment then I don't know what is. What a great day!

A miracle I would like to share this week happened on exchanges with my old companion, Elder Buttars. We went to stop by a lady we had talked to earlier that week but nobody answered the door. We had a goal of getting one new investigator by the end of the night and we still had not done so. It was about 8:30pm and time was running out pretty quickly, so we said a prayer and started knocking the doors around it. We even went so far as to trespass into some locked apartment buildings (it was hardly trespassing, somone let us in...kind of) but nobody was having it. We started to walk back to the car ready to go try somewhere else but something told us to go back to that first door and knock again. As we did, this lady's husband--David--opened the door (I think he had headphones on the first time) and we were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon, we got a return appointment and said a prayer with him and he became our new investigator! It was such a miracle and I am so glad that we decided to listen to that still small voice. I know that the Lord will never let us down if we follow every spiritual prompting that he gives us.

I love you all and I want you to know that this Church is true. It has blessed my life and I know it can bless yours!

Elder Arkoudas

Lunch with Franny

Exchanges