Week 68: "the walls of the church shook."

I´m doing so well! The baptisms were amazing! When Samanta gave her testimony the walls of the church shook. It was incredible! The work is doing well but there is a lot to improve and my companion and I are going to do it. The zone is doing a really good job with baptisms, last month they had a total of 12 which is amazing! But I think we can have more....and the assistance in church has only increased in Rivera by a little bit. So we are really going to be focusing on increasing the assistance in the salon sacramental and baptizing the friends and family of the recent converts. Also Rivera doesn´t have a very good relationship with the stake presidency, but this week we had a break through. We went to the house of the 1st counselor in the stake and talked with him. He is super excited to work along side us now! But the work here is doing really well. Yesterday during the sacrament one of our investigators gave her testimony from her wheelchair in the back of the room! It was extremely powerful. One of the strongest testimonies I have seen on the mission. 

Elder Arbon

Week 67: "This week was the best and the hardest week of my mission."

This week was the best and the hardest week of my mission. For Christmas we spent Christmas Eve at the house of the stake president. Here in Uruguay they eat and open gifts the 24th at 12 o clock. We were allowed to stay out until 11 so it was a really great experience! On Saturday we were blessed with 2 baptisms, Blanca and Samanta. Blanca has been investigating the church for over 6 years now and finally decided to take the next step of baptism. Samanta is absolutely incredible! At the baptism she gave her testimony and it was so powerful! I know the Spirit was there at that moment! But it was the hardest week of my mission because I was changed to the zone of Rivera as a Zone Leader! It was really hard to leave Artigas. I love the ward, the leaders, the people, and the missionaries there a lot. But I love you all and have a great week! 

Elder Arbon

Week 66: "I'll see you in two days!"

I'll see you in two days! I love you and I will skype you at 4 o clock my time! My companion and I have to get everything ready for the zone, we're going to watch a movie together so I do not have very much time. But I love you and I can't wait to see you. I love you!

Elder Arbon 

Week 65: "He really taught us the importance of the Book of Mormon and the necessity of it in conversion."

This week was a great week! We had the opportunity to do division with the APs Monday and Tuesday. It was such a great experience because we learned a lot from them! On Friday we had another great experience to go down to Paysandú to do a zone conference with 5 other zones. We listened to the president of the area named Elder Walter Gonzalez. Such an amazing man! He really taught us the importance of the Book of Mormon and the necessity of it in conversion. It really was a great experience and I learned a lot! These past few weeks we have been working really hard with the familia Zapata. They went inactive a long time ago but are now coming back to church. Two of their kids, Mateo 14 and Victoria 12, are not baptized but have a baptismal date for the 28 of Dec. Also, Samanta, the daughter of Carlos, is also preparing to be baptized that day as well. We are waiting for her dad to receive the priesthood so he can perform the baptism! I love you all and have a great week! 

Elder Arbon 

Baby Jantz

Week 64: "filled up the font with buckets in 40 minutes."

This week was a really great week! On Thursday we had the opportunity to go down to Montevideo in order to listen to President Smith. It was truly incredible! We learned a lot of amazing things and I´m really excited to teach them to our zone. Saturday we had a great day.  We have a companionship that was having difficulties in getting along with each other. So we went and had an interview with the two of them. It was a great experience to see the spirit work through us in order to help these two missionaries. After that we got a phone call from some hermanas that were going to have a baptism that night and they said the baptismal font didn´t have running water. So we told them to come to our church. We got there about 6 o´clock and the baptism started at 7:30. The font usually takes about 3 hours to fill up. So my companion and I, and another companionship of Elders, and the hermanas filled up the font with buckets in 40 minutes. It was so much fun!!! 

I don´t have a lot of time today because we don´t have a Pday. The assistants are here in Artigas and we're doing divisions with them today and tomorrow.  I want you to know that I know this is the one, and only true church of Jesus Christ. I know only through the priesthood power in this church can we be saved. I know through the holy sacred ordinances of baptism, the priesthood, the temple, and the sacrament we can partake of the effects of the atonement. I know the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, he restored the true church to this earth so we can obtain eternal bliss.  I hope you have a great week!

Elder Arbon

Baptism of Carlos

Baptism of Carlos