el Hijo de Dios

That's really neat that you had the missionaries over. I hope that I get to visit with members often up in Washington.

It's been an awesome blessing to get so many letters from you. One missionary in our Branch has only gotten a couple. It wasn't until just recently that he got them. Everyone shares all of the goodies that we get. Elder Sudol is one of our roomates had his birthday on Saturday. His parents sent him a big cake and his girlfriend sent him a ton of candy. Everyone appreciated getting some extra sugar in their systems. By the way I really enjoyed all of the candy and cake bars that you sent me. I still have some of the nerds.

Sorry for the misunderstanding on Jonathan's letter. I'll make sure I address it to the right person next time. I'm glad that you have decided not to tell anyone my email address. I would rather spend most of the time writing to you.

The word for son is "hijo", pronounced "eeho". As in "the son of God", "el Hijo de Dios". By the way Spanish is coming along really well. I don't know if I already told you but we've been saying all of our prayers and baring testimony in Spanish for a while now. I have really noticed the gift of tongues helping us to learn the language at an extremely quick pace.

If there's anything I've learned while here in the MTC it is to prayer before everything you do and invite the spirit to guide and help in doing whatever you are about to do. The difference when I study without verses with is more than a ten times difference. The spirit is the best teacher out there.

I hope Matthew gets better soon. There's been a sickness going around our Branch lately. I hope I don't get it. We already have a lot of work to do. Learning Spanish is a daunting task. I need all of the energy that I can get. Which reminds me that I've been eating a lot of food at meal times. I'm up to at least 145 pounds now. I forgot to weigh myself yesterday. It's a good thing that we get to exercise often in the MTC. Elder Burr and I are pretty focused during that time and we push ourselves pretty hard. I wish that I could take a 3 to 4 hour nap sometime. We have the Lord strengthening us, so we'll be fine.

A wise missionary told us that here in the MTC the weeks feel like days and the days feel like weeks. It's completely true. The days seem to last forever. Mostly because you work so hard all day long and we're not used to doing that much in a single day. It's crazy that the two week mark is coming up tomorrow.

Elder Burr and I have just about got the Zone Leader responsibilites down. We organized our first sacrament meeting yesterday. It went pretty smoothly but we'll do even better next week. Mostly we've been working on helping the missionaries in our Branch to overcome any problems and to keep on task. You have to let them do whatever they want, but we have to set a strong example, which we could do better at, and lovingly encourage them.

I love you all very much, I love every letter that I get from you. Hopefully I'll be able to answer some more of the comments and questions you had for me in a letter later today. I'm about out of time and I don't want to lose this email.

Love Elder Arnold