Week 27: "If the first six months were suppose to be the hardest then I've got paradise for the next 18."

Great week! The baptism of Maria is postponed until the next week because our ward is going through the temple today with a member that is taking out his endowments because he leaves for his mission this next week. It´s okay though, we get another week to prepare her for baptism. The area we are in is doing so good, we were so blessed this week. The hard work is starting to pay off. God put a lot of new people in our path to teach. On Tuesday we were walking home and a guy, Rubin, and his wife called us over. He used to live in Rivera, one of the most northern departementos in Uruguay, and while he lived there he was a corto plazo (temporary missionary) and he left on a mission to the states but he had to come home to fix some things. After he got home he fell away from the church and is now living with his girlfriend that is 16. But he told us he wants to come back to church and she wants to go with him. So we´re going to get them married and have him baptize her. I´m so excited! Also, we have this little kid named Elias. He is so funny, every time we go over he talks to us about video games and tries to get us to play them with him. Today we played futbol with him and all the kids from our barrio. It was so fun! Also, we have Nahuel. He´s about 13, he´s a capo. If he comes to church this week we can baptize him with Maria the next week. He´s really funny, every time we go over to his house he won´t let us have a lesson this week unless we play a game of futbol after with him and his cousin Shayla. But it was a really good week, it´s going to be crazy in the next coming weeks. We´re opening up 11 new areas and 7 of them are hermanas. We have to find all the houses and make all the contracts for them. But I´m excited for it! I really loved the quote you sent me. It made me think of the Doctrine of Christ. The Doctrine of Christ is Fe,  Arrepentimiento, Bautismo, Espírtu Santo, and Preservar Hasta el Fin...true, but if you look deeper at the Doctrine of Christ it isn´t just to do those things, it´s to show our Father that we love him enough to put aside our desires and do His Will. In the end that´s the purpose of this life, to do God´s will.I´m going to be honest with you...I love it here. I´m not just saying that to make you happy either. If the first six months were suppose to be the hardest then I´ve got paradise for the next 18. I truly have learned so much on my mission. Not just about this Gospel, but about myself. I´ve learned that who I was before my mission wasn´t the man I´m suppose to be, I´ve learned who I want to become. That boy who left Pleasant View, UT won´t be coming back. I´ve realized that I have too many faults to count, but it makes me grateful that God gave an opportunity to find and fix these faults. Man I love my mission. You might have to come down to drag me home because I don´t know if I´ll come home on my own free will.

I love you all and I hope you have a great week.

Con amor y honra,

Elder Arbon 

Week 26: The Good and the Bad

This week was crazy in the offices because of changes so we didn´t get a whole lot of time in the field but we still got a lot of work done. I love the offices but can´t wait until I get all day to work in the field. I love my calling now as an office Elder but it´s just I wish I had more time in the field preaching the word, but I love what I´m doing and I´m going to make the best of every second I got. I´m so excited! But transfers were crazy, we were running all the over the place. It was a lot of fun though!  Next change we´re getting 24 new missionaries. Locoisimo!  I heard a rumor that some of our missionaries in our mission might go over to Argentina to help open some missions over there! Crazy hu? This week flew by! With the changes we were busy every second of every day. On Tuesday we gave a presentation to the new missionaries and then I stayed with them that night. It was a lot fun, we woke up early and had a push up contest and then got them ready to meet their trainers. I got some really bad news though. My last comp got transferred to Montevideo so I got to see him for a little while. We were talking about our area and then we started to talk about Marta. She was suppose to get baptized last Sunday but during her baptismal interview they found out that she had committed a major crime in the past. She killed someone with a knife and she planned it out. So now she has to write a letter to the prophet but she didn´t want to do that. That really hurt when Elder Manning told me that. But some really good news is that we were teaching Maria and she told us that she had a dream that her son told her she should join the church. Made my week! She´s reading the Book of Mormon daily and she´s really excited about being baptized!  She has a fecha for next Saturday, I´m counting down the days. I´m looking forward to that more than I have for all of my P-days...combined! But this week I realized that I haven´t learned anything on my mission, but at the same time I´ve learned everything. The things I know now are the same things I will know when I´m 80 years old. I know the Jesus lived a perfect life, suffered for our sins, died on the cross, and was resurrected. I know the priesthood keys were restored to José Smith and I know the Book of Mormon is true. People are always looking to over complicate things, but that´s not our church. Our church is simple and true. Man I love it. I love you all and I hope you have a great week. 

Con Amor and Honra,

Elder Arbon

Week 25: "the real reason for the doctrine of Christ is to show God that we´re here to do his will, not ours."

I love the offices, we´re busy every second of everyday and I really enjoy that. This week was such a great week. We haven´t had a lot of investigators lately so we´ve been doing a late of finding through menos activos and recent converts. But one day we were crossing this busy street and this little sweet old lady stops and says ´Mormones.´ Right there was an answer to our prayers. We helped her cross the street and talked to her for a few minutes. The next time we met with her we had a good lesson and she came to church last week. On Monday we had a noche de hogar with her and the mission leader, it was really good. But the other missionaries in the office brought one of their investigators and it was no bueno. She´s a little older and a little bigger but we were taking a picture after the noche de hogar and she put her hand on my butt cheek, and not just the top half but the bottom half and held it there for at least a minute while we were taking pictures. I almost had to go in to the mission president to have a talk with him, I´m just playing! The other missionaries thought it was pretty funny. Also this week we got to eat lunch with the President because changes are next week and we´ll be really busy Sunday through Thursday. This change was only 4 weeks because of the change in MTC schedules. But while I was at his house I went to the Distribution Center to buy some things and I ran into Cody Barlow. He´s the kid that knocked me retarded. It was so good to see him, he´s serving in the Uruguay Montevideo mission. He´s a capo! But I learned a lot this week, especially a lot about the Doctrine of Christ. My institute teacher sent me a letter describing the Doctrine of Christ. Most people will say it´s fe, arrepentimiento, bautismo, Espírtu Santo, y Preservar hasta el fin and that´s true. But the real reason for the doctrine of Christ is to show God that we´re here to do his will, not ours. I love you all, I hope and pray for you every day.

Elder Arbon

Listen to ´Give It All to Him´ by Tel Dyer. 

Week 24: "I want to bear my testimony that I know without a doubt in my heart that I know this church is true."

It was a great week this week. Last Saturday we had the baptisms for Aldo and Sophia. The baptism was amazing and everything went so smooth. Their uncle baptized them and on Sunday my companion and I got to stand in the circle when they were given the Holy Ghost and confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was truly one of the best moments of my mission so far. To be able to help one of God´s children receive one of his most precious gifts, the gift of the Holy Ghost. This was truly such an amazing experience. We had a rough day in church though, we didn´t have any investigators attend this week. It was raining that day and when it rains the whole country shuts down. No lie! So we spent most of church trying to throw people over our shoulder and bring them to church but with no exito (success). It was good though, adds fuel to the fire to work even harder. Gloria is doing good, but she was going to go into her operation on Thursday so she didn´t want to walk in the rain and get sick for her operation. Then her operation was cancelled, but she has been really sick lately so we haven´t been available to sit down and have a lesson with her for a while. Sunday night my comp butchered my hair, I look like I´m straight out of boot camp. This week we did a lot of finding and we tried mostly through contacting. We didn´t have a whole lot of success and we had a meeting with the bishop today and we´re going to have a meeting with him tomorrow to receive some names of some menos activos (less active) so can help complete part member families. Also this week I did a lot of driving. I was a little nervous at first because the drivers here are legitimately nuts, but I learned that there is no such thing as a right of way. Their philosophy is, take it or lose it. So I´ve been doing that this week. I received a letter from the Fast and Furious movie crew and they said they wanted me to be their stunt driver but I told them I have to finish my mission first. Ha. But today was really fun, we went to Ciudad Vieja. It was so beautiful. It was a lot of fun. I love offices, it´s a lot of work but that´s why I love it. I´m finally starting to get the hang of things though, the only thing now that´s really holding me back is my Spanish but I know with time that will come. I can understand a majority of what they are saying and I can hold the conversation, I just don´t have my full personality so I can´t connect with people a whole lot. I still really like my companion, he´s a hard worker. We both have the same goals to work hard and be obedient so we get along really well. My comp and I wake up a half hour earlier to go for a run and a TRX band workout. This week I learned a lot about faith. In order to have faith we must first believe in ourselves. We must first do the things God wants us to do, and when we do those things we will be able to feel we are worthy to receive his love and his blessings. If you feel you are unworthy of God´s love how could you love him and if you don´t truly love and believe in him how could you have faith that he exists? I want to bear my testimony that I know without a doubt in my heart that I know this church is true. I´m grateful for Satan, because without his temptations how could I become better and I´m grateful God loves me enough to chasten me. I love you all and I hope you have a great week.

Con amor y honra,

Elder Arbon