Week 80: "To be able to hear the words from living prophets, it´s absolutely incredible!"

I have learned so much from President! The things that are different is that we are always with president, he doesn´t like to be alone. If he talks in a stake conference he always asks us to come with. So we get less time in our area but I love it anyway. It´s great working with missionaries and helping them stay motivated. The living conditions are incredible! We have an air conditioner, washer, and dryer! I feel like I have died and gone to heaven! Haha There are 4 people in our apartment and 2 APs! We don´t even have time to workout! We are always traveling or have to do something really early in the morning. On average we get about 4 hours of sleep. We don´t get to see the ocean from our house but we live really close to it though! The thing for an AP is there is no such thing as a normal day, there is always something going on. A meeting of a capacitación that we have to prepare for or a meeting with president. But in the diaro my companion and I talked about the importance of General Conference and the effect it can have on the investigators. I cannot wait until conference, I love conference so much! To be able to hear the words from living prophets, it´s absolutely incredible! The most exciting thing that has happened while I have been AP is that we had a companionship be locked in a house of a less active and were beaten. That was pretty crazy! But they are okay now! We are always on the go! And yes, we are visiting all over Uruguay, last week we were in Paysandu and this week we are doing interviews so we are going to be traveling all over the mission. It´s going to be a lot fun! But this week was crazy! On Tuesday we went to the airport and picked up the oros (new missionaries). That whole day we capitations and then the next day trained the trainers and went to the temple! It was incredible! We did baptisms for the dead with a corto plazo (temporary missionary) because she was just recently baptized and hadn´t taken out her investidura. It was so incredible! I loved every minute of it! I truly felt the spirit so strong! Yesterday we had concilio, that is where we meet with all the zone leaders and we have a capacitación. It was such a great concilio. The spirit there was so strong! We talked about the importance of members in the Work of Salvation! We talked that members should come out with the missionaries not just for lessons but for a period of time. So they can help not only baptize, but also retain the recent converts and rescue the less actives! But it was such a great experience...the spirit was so strong during the meeting, I loved it! 

Elder Arbon 

Week 79: "we get a call from President asking me to be one of his assistants."

I am so sorry I have not been able to write these last few weeks. I would like to tell you what has been going on! On Friday, my companion, Elder Zapata, and I were walking in the street after a lesson and we get a call from President asking me to be one of his assistants. I was so excited! I was a little sad I was leaving Rivera but I was so excited to be able to work with President Smith. He also told me that we would be leaving the next day. So, that night I said good bye to everyone and packed. The next day my companion and I left to Artigas! President Smith spoke in a stake conference so we met up with him there! It was so amazing to see all of the people from there! It truly was such a blessing! After the meetings were over that Sunday we traveled back to Montevideo. On Monday, my companion and I did something called the, “Diario.” It is a letter that we send out to the whole mission sharing what we feel the mission can improve on. The rest of the week we met with President and helped him with the changes of the mission. Our área is incredible! I know you will not like to hear this mom but our área is in Cerro! It is the most dangerous zone in the mission…I love it! We are working with the family Rodriguez, they are a great family. This weekend we went up to Paysandú for another stake conference. I love traveling with President. He is such an inspired man. I have learned so much from him in just one week! He has taught me that I’m not perfect and I have a lot to change! Haha but he is an incredible man!

Elder Arbon

Week 77: "source of true joy!"

I´m doing really well! We have a few really great investigators right now! The big problem here in Rivera is marriage. A lot of the people here aren´t married so that complicates the baptism a little bit but they are progressing very well. On average every week we are teaching from 30 to 40 lessons. My goal is 50 but there is always something to be done in the zone so there are days we don´t get as much time proselytizing as we want. But our next baptism is coming up by the end of this month. It is a married couple! It is a great couple but they are going through a lot of trials right now so they are very indecisive. They say that when they started listening to the missionaries their lives began to get harder, but that is always what happens. That is the time when Satan will attack the hardest and the strongest because he knows that this is the source of true joy! I love my companion. He and I get along really well! Have a great week!

Elder Arbon

Week 76: "this week as a zone we had 10 baptisms!!!"

Things are going really well here. This week was an absolutely incredible week! It couldn´t have been better! On Wednesday we, as a zone, went down to Montevideo for a zone conference! For the zone conference we talked about the plan of salvation with president and then we went to the temple as we were fasting. It was by far the best experience I have ever had in the temple, there was so much personal revelation. I learned so much about the Fall, Adam and Eve, Satan, and about the wonderful gift of repentance! It was incredible! Also this week as a zone we had 10 baptisms!!! It was awesome! My companion had the opportunity to participate in one of them. It was incredible. Also we learned in conference that the zone of Rivera broke the record of the mission with the most investigators in church for the mission! Super cool experience! Also this week we were able to give baptismal date for a family we are working with, William and Patricia. They are such an amazing family and are changing a lot. The 29th of this month they are going to be baptized. I can´t wait!

Elder Arbon

Week 75: "I told myself that I would never stay in the house, it doesn´t matter if I was dying, I will be in the street working my tail off!"

This week was a super good week. I got sick one the days. I drank some water from the tap and it beat me up pretty bad. I was throwing up all over the place. I had to run to the bathroom in a few houses where we were teaching! It was kind of funny! But I told myself that I would never stay in the house, it doesn´t matter if I was dying, I will be in the street working my tail off! But it was an amazing week!

We were really busy with finding furniture for new houses, baptismal interviews, and meetings with the zone. It was a really good week! Our last convert, Daniel Pintos, received the priesthood this week! I love that guy! He is such an amazing man and will be a leader in the church one day! This week as a zone we were blessed as well! We had a total of 5 baptisms this week and the next week we will be blessed with 10! I can´t wait! It´s going to be a blast!

Elder Arbon