New Investigators, Magicians, Fasting

Dear friends and family,

this week has been another great one--we're 2 for 2 here in Arlington Heights with good weeks.

On Tuesday we had breakfast with one of the members from the ward and as we were talking, we found out that her son is a world-class magician. The story gets even better because her son was there at her house and after begging hermana to ask her son to show us some magic tricks, he came up and he literally is a world-class magician. He took Elder Yount's license and made it fly all over the place...and we were sitting outside!

On Friday we biked for about 15 miles--it wasn't too big of a deal--except we missed dinner that night and we had already committed to fast the next day. We got home exhausted and went to bed and when we woke up, we both were a little cranky. We have both been feeling a little under the weather lately which only made things worse and it was a battle just to get out the door and walk to the car. After a lesson with our new investigator Bernadita, we decided to walk around an apartment complex and talk to some people and we were both just not feeling it. I was nauseous and Elder Yount was super tired and so we made a goal to just talk to 5 people...and everybody that we talked to was super nice! I have such a testimony of the blessings we receive when we work hard on the hard days!

This last Sunday I was asked to play the piano again and it was a little better than last week but it was still pretty stressful. I was really hoping to have a good experience with the Sacrament, but the stress of blundering through a sacramental hymn became a lot of my focus. As the priests knelt to say the prayer I felt such a peace and comfort that all of my efforts were acceptable and that I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing. I am grateful for the testimony that I have gained throughout my mission of the power of the Sacrament.

I hope that you all have a good week and that you are able to focus on the Sacrament this week and enjoy the blessings of fasting this coming Sunday. Love you all!

Elder Arkoudas

Sorry, too busy to take pictures;)

This is breakfast...lunch...and dinner...