Back to Pasco!

Hola familia,

This last week has been pretty hectic. There have been lots of things that have come up that took time out of our missionary work. But we've still gotten some good things done.

Right after I emailed last week we started the long drive over to Kennewick. We mostly just talked and slept. We had the Zone Leader Council that night. Elder Bruce C Hafen from the first quorum of the seventy was there. We reviewed a lot of how we're doing as a mission and areas that we could focus on to improve. They really wanted us to share our true feelings and be completely open with them. It was really interesting.

I found out that my new companion is going to be Elder Godinez and that I'm going back to Pasco! I was really excited to find that out. I got to see him, Elder Waldo, and Elder Dudoich and a few other people that I'm good friends with.

Elder Becerra is going to be training the only Spanish missionary coming out this transfer. He's really excited and nervous. I'm super excited for him.

On Wednesday I got the fun job of driving all the way back to Vancouver. My leg felt really weird after we got back. It started to cramp up a little bit while I was with Elder Becerra that night.

We had zone conference on Thursday. Elder Hafen talked to us. It was really good but also really long. We started at 9 in the morning and we didn't end until about 4 in the evening.

On Friday we took Sebastian out with us. We picked him up at 12 and then took him back to his house at 8 when we had an appointment with his family. The day was pretty slow. We didn't teach a ton of people. I think a big part of that was because it was Friday. Everybody likes to leave and party because it's the beginning of the weekend.

Cornelio has been out of town lately as well as Roger and Deysi so not anything new to report for them.

We found a new investigator named Angelina. We couldn't go to her appointment and we didn't have her phone number. And when we went back she had been waiting for us. We felt really bad about that. We apologized and she let us in. Elder Becerra were trying a different technique today. We were going with just soft cover copies of the Book of Mormon. No backpack or anything else. Angelina let us into her house. We introduced the Book of Mormon briefly and then just read to her out of it. We just shared everything that the spirit told us to. The lesson was so amazing. The spirit was very strong and she was very interested. Elder Becerra read out of Ether 12 and I shared the conversion story of Alma the younger. We left her with a very strong commitment to read Mosiah 2 and then to pray and even to come to church this next week. Sadly I won't be here to see her again. Something feels really special with her though. She's an older lady probably in her 60s or maybe 50's.

The mini-missionaries did not sleep with us. In between the two days they went home and slept there.

Congratulations on your AP tests, Matthew. You're a smart kid. Put some of that brain power towards studying 3 Nephi 11 to the end of 3 Nephi this week. Focus on how Christ teaches the people. And then think how you might be able to apply that as if you were a missionary. Notice also how much he loves the people and is not just teaching them to teach a lesson. Especially in chapter 17, I love that one.

Jonathan that same assignment goes to you. Tell me about how the zip line is coming. Take some pictures of the construction of it so I can see everything you had to do to get it up.

I was just measured not too long ago and I was right at 6'2". Matthew might've caught up to me already. We'll have to measure up in a year.

I'm leaving for Pasco tomorrow, Wednesday, early in the morning. I have to drive to the Dalles. Then I should be free to do stuff for the rest of the trip. I plan on catching up on the millions of amazing letters that I haven't yet responded to.

I won't have time to send pictures until I get to Pasco. Sorry I've been so bad about that too. I've got lots of good ones though!

Love you family

Elder Ben Arnold