Week 73: "When we sin Satan wraps us up in chains and the only way to break those chains is by repentance!"

This week was an incredible week! There was so many things that happened! The best thing that happened was the baptism of the family Pintos! They are a family of 3...the dad, mom, and a 1 year old kid! I love the family! That Sunday they invited us over to eat dinner with them. It was so awesome because they live in a tiny shed, one room without a kitchen or bathroom. But they are so amazing! Something that I learned this week was about repentance! In order to be converted, you have to repent. When we sin Satan wraps us up in chains and the only way to break those chains is by repentance!   We had the opportunity to go down to Montevideo to have a meeting with President Smith and all of the Zone Leaders. It was such a blast. We ended up staying down there 3 days. We got there the first day and my old companion, Elder Lopez, and I decided that we wanted to go to Burger King. So we left to Burger King and about 4 other companionships decided to come with us. So as we were walking, a storm hit with a lot of rain. We were also with some hermanas as well. So we sent them in a Taxi and we were running down the main street of Montevideo with our bags soaken wet. It felt like "Hobos on the Loose" again! During our meeting with President it was really inspired and filled with the spirit. One of the things that he said was that in order to be converted to the Gospel you need to repent. That really hit him. I know it sounds like a common saying that we hear all the time but I have learned that the key to the spirit is repentance. Also I learned that the key to animo (the best translation would be excitement) is the Book of Mormon. I loved that! The first thing we should do every day is...start with a kneeling prayer...read and mediate the Book of Mormon. With that comes the animo! I loved it!!!!!!!! We got back Friday night and on Saturday we had a baptism of a family! It was absolutely incredible! I had the opportunity to baptize the father...What a great experience! On Friday...Carlos Falco...my convert in Artigas came to visit me during church. It was so great to see him! Today we had a zone activity! We made zone shirts and painted them together and then we had a water balloon fight! It was so much fun. We also got changes this week! I will be staying here in Rivera and my new companion is Elder Zapata from Spain! Love the guy...he lived in the same house as me in Artigas!

Elder Arbon