Farm hands!

Hola familia,

Today we had a pretty fun day. We went up to Connell and did some farm work. We laid pvc pipe in an apple orchard. The rows were really long. I still have that blue glue on my hands. I think it will be a week or so by the time it all comes off. Then we had a carne asada afterword. Which was really good.

Conference was great. There were several things that stood out to me. I think Elder Scott started it out with a bang. I learned a lot on how to better follow and recognize the spirit.

I really enjoyed Elder Callister's talk. I can't wait until I get it in the ensign so I can study it. He answered tons of concerns and doubts people might have about the restoration and all things that fall under it.

On most of the speakers I had quite a few notes except for Elder Holland. While he was speaking I just sat there during pretty much the whole talking staring at the screen intently. He had so much intensity and sincerity for what he talked about. Again I can't wait to study his talk more in depth.

Investigator wise conference was great. We had 4 people come. As well as a few recent converts, which included Leonardo and Felix! During the Priesthood session I was sitting in between the two of them. Before the first presidency spoke I explained to both of them who was going to be speaking. Then just as President Monson got up to speak I looked over at Felix and he looked back with this huge smile on his face. It was priceless. Then talking to everybody afterward, including Felix, Juan, Leonardo, and Victor, each person had had very strong feelings and were all very spiritually uplifted. Victor, who is going to be baptized on the 17th, was almost in tears a few times; that's what he told Elder Godinez. It really opened his eyes to the importance of what we taught him. During every session he was at, his eyes were glued to the screen.

Love you all,
Elder Ben Arnold

PS I didn't pluck a chicken, but I am the one that caught the one that Elder Montoya killed.

The little boy in the yellow shirt is Orlando, and his dad is Francisco. They are some of my most favorite people I've met on my mission. I've written him twice since I left Vancouver. I haven't gotten a letter back so I'm not sure how he's doing. Elder Becerra says that he's been doing good though.

Snapshots from Ben's mission

Cool Down

September 30, 2009

Hola familia,

I'm writing today because we had zone conference yesterday. It was really good. I really wanted to learn how I could be a better missionary and I was taught a lot of stuff by the spirit. I'm going to tell you about one activity they had us do because I want Amy to know about it and give it a try in her missionary work.

President Belnap had us do some role-plays on committing somebody to be baptized. We used the question "will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?" Then the "investigator", our companion, brought up a predetermined concern. After you've been a missionary for a long time it's really easy to address concerns. You just jump right in and teach using the scriptures and then recommit. But President Belnap wanted us to do it differently this time. He asked us just to wait and be patient after the concern was brought up. Then once the spirit tells you what to say that's when you speak and ask questions and address their concern. Even though it was just a role-play it worked amazing. The baptismal commitment turned into a very spiritual experience. This was one of the main things that I took from this zone conference. That we need to be more patient and listen to the spirit more often.

Victor is doing awesome. He has a baptismal date for the 17th of October. We're so excited for him. We should actually be meeting with him tonight at about 6:00. The thing that has definitely been key in his conversion is his fellowshipper, Devin. They work together so Devin talks to him all the time about his reading and other things like that. And of course like I said before he was the one that referred us to meet Victor. He just invited him over for dinner and to meet some of his friends (us) that could help him be more happy.

Yesterday Elder Garrett and I were on exchanges. We taught a lesson to a girl that is 18 years old. Her name is Yvette. She was baptized with her twin sister in Idaho. And right now is living with her dad while going to school. She found us while we were visiting the Ramirez next door. As we were leaving she saw us walk by out the window. She hurried and put her shoes on and then ran outside to catch us. We talked to her for a little bit then set up a time to come back. In our lesson we had invited Abby, the next-door neighbor who is fifteen to come over. After the lesson, since they're both members, we did some role-plays with them. Elder Garrett and I pretended to be their friends at school and stuff like that while they had a conversation with us and then shared a small pass-along card. They're both really excited to go out and share their cards with a few of their friends that they have in mind. I was thinking that you guys should have a family home evening and practice talking to your friends about the gospel. It'll give you a lot more confidence to do it in a real situation. The nice thing about role-plays is that you can mess up and it doesn't matter. The only people that see you is your family.

The weather is starting to cool down a lot here. After General Conference this weekend we have to start wearing our suit coats all the time. Which is fine since we're starting to need them right now.

We're really excited about General Conference. One, to hear the prophet speak and the apostles. And two, because we get to bring investigators to it. That way they can feel the great spirit and love that our living prophet has for us.

Well, have a great week, and spread the gospel
Love you tons
Elder Ben Arnold

Recovered

September 22, 2009
Hola familia,

I'm all better! Woohoo! This last week we haven't really had anything to report on. We got sick Monday evening and we were confined to our house until Sunday morning. That was a really long and really boring week. Mostly we just tried to sleep. My fever got up to 103.7. It scared me a little bit. We were in contact with the mission doctor and tons of people brought us over medicine and food and stuff. So we were well taken care of. Amy might find this funny, our highest number on our weekly report was a 2.

The baptism went awesome. Felix is a really good person. He's smart and he catches onto things really well. Even though he has a hard timing getting to church with work. We taught him about fasting a while ago and just recently found out by accident that he was fasting on fast Sunday with us. Even though he couldn't come. We've already shown him where the church is in his hometown in Mexico. He knew right where it was. He's excited to look it up when he gets there.

Something really sad happened this week. What's even more frustrating was that there was nothing we could do about it. Teresa got taken by the immigration and deported to Mexico. I got to talk to her on the phone and Gabi went to the immigration office to see if she could do anything. Nothing. I've been praying a lot for her. On the bright side she'll get to see her son again. And somehow she'll stay in contact with Gabi and Juan so I'll be able to find her I hope. It was just a really scary experience.

There's another person that we're teaching, Victor, that has been progressing really well lately. We just had a lesson with him last night. You can tell when a person is understanding what you're teaching them. Most people just listen to us to listen to us and then get us out of their home. But when a person is listening and understanding and wanting more the whole lesson just flows and the heavens feel like they are opened pouring down revelation. And that's what happened last night. We were teaching about the plan of salvation. Victor was like a sponge he just soaked up everything that we were saying.

I almost forgot. This week is transfer week. Due to being sick Elder Godinez and I didn't even get to go to ZLC. Oh well. We're both staying together for another 6 weeks. There's only one change in our district and only a couple more in the other district in our zone.

Love you family,

Elder Ben Arnold

Sick

September 17, 2009

Hello mom,

Elder Godinez and I have been sick with the flu since Monday night. We've had to stay at the apartment and rest for the last few days. We're just beginning to get better and aren't supposed to leave for the next couple of days still. We just had to come and print out some talks because we needed something to entertain our minds.

Our baptism was awesome on Sunday evening. I'll tell you more about it when we feel better.

Love you lots,

Ben

New Bible

September 8, 2009

Hola Familia,

Just yesterday we had an activity out at a park. It is something that the branch does every year. We had carne asada and played games. Elder Godinez started talking to one of the guys that came, not a member. At the end of the activity we got him and one of our investigators, Luis Fernando, to come and sit down with us in the grass to have a lesson. We reviewed the Restoration lesson a little bit. The coolest thing about it was that Luis Fernando who is not a member was testifying and adding a lot to our lesson. The other guy we had just met thinks that Luis is already a member. It was really cool.

Another awesome lesson we had; we taught Victor at Devin's house again. Devin is a member that invited Victor to talk to the missionaries in the first place. And this time Victor brought a friend, Martin. We watched The restoration DVD and a the very end of the testaments. The spirit was really strong. We were going to set a baptismal date with Victor that night but Martin was there. Martin didn't catch on nearly as fast as Victor did. He doesn't really like the story about Joseph Smith being called as a prophet. He was kind of funny actually.

Felix is still going to be baptized on Sunday. He's really excited about it. I'll let you know how it goes next p-day.

I'm really excited for the 14th. The new bible in Spanish comes out!!! It's going to make teaching so much easier. I can't wait. All of us missionaries always talk about it. Most of the members aren't very aware of it. In fact I was talking to Juan Saldana. He's been wanting to buy a new Bible. I told him that he needs to wait until the 14th and buy one of the new ones. He didn't even know about it. You'd think they would've announced it in church recently. I read they're only printing 800,000 though. Hopefully there will be enough to go around with the few million Hispanic members.

I can't believe that Amy has been out for 6 months. And her Spanish is beginning to take over in her English emails. That's so awesome. I can associate all of the mistakes she makes with some quirky Spanish grammar or spelling. That's so cool!

Well I love you family,

Elder Ben Arnold

Referrals

September 2, 2009
Hola familia,

This has been a very busy week. We had interviews which is why I'm writing today instead of yesterday. Interviews went well. Elder Godinez and I were the ones that were in charge of planning and organizing it. And we had to do a lot of training presentation stuff. It was a little stressful at first but it turned out well.

Just yesterday we went on exchanges with the AP's. Elder Duncan came into Pasco with me and Elder Godinez went over to Kennewick. Right after dinner we got a hold of Brother Miles and went and visited all of the members of his small apartment complex, it has four vacancies. We ended up teaching two of them and just talking to the third and setting up a return appointment. Talk about referrals received. And both of the lessons were both with Brother Miles there, which was a huge contribution. He's a lot like Kobe in his desire and willingness to share the gospel (I got the email from Amy about Kobe's missionary experience). The first lady, Adriana, has three super crazy little boys. They are so happy and full of energy. Since the lesson was in Spanish Elder Duncan was spending the whole time trying to calm these little guys down. They would grab onto you and take your scriptures. It was so funny. Anyway she was a really cool lady and hopefully will be able to come to church this Sunday. We're just going to have to provide a lot of fellowshipping to help with her little boys. The other girl we saw was named Aby. She's a really young mom with a boyfriend who doesn't live with her. Those young mom's with kids always seem to be pretty receptive. It's just something about being in the presence of a little kid that just came from the presence of our Heavenly Father. She actually was born in the US so we had the lesson in English. That way Brother Miles and Elder Duncan could participate. She said that she would come to church with Brother Miles this Sunday and she even offered the prayer at the end.

Teresa came to church this week! It's been a while since she's been. It brings me so much joy to see her progressing in the gospel.

Leonardo is still trying hard to come. I'm praying that his situation improves. He has such a strong desire to do what is right and he recognizes what he needs to do.

We had a really cool lesson with another member named Brother Lybbert. For now he works for his father in law on his farm. So he knows a lot of Hispanic people. He invited one of his friends over for dinner and had us come over at the same time. He told his friend Victor about us coming over. Later on during the lesson we found out that he expected the lesson to be really boring. Which means it wasn't. He's a really intelligent guy, a lot like Felix. He really caught on to everything that we taught about and he was really willing to do what we asked him. The thing that was crazy about that lesson was that it lasted for an hour and a half. Including a little bit of talking at the beginning because we were there for dinner too. It only felt like we were there for about 20 minutes. The time just goes by so quickly while you're sharing the gospel.

Then to top off our week of referrals just the other day we got two media referrals, which I haven't gotten very many of lately. We were able to get a hold of one of them yesterday and taught a great first lesson.

Just because of how crazy things have been and with Felix's bad work schedule it looks like his baptism will have to be pushed back another week. He's still really excited about it; we just have to keep working hard and get it to happen.

I got some DVD's! That means I'm going to actually be sending some pictures home soon.

This last week has also been the week for giving blessings. We have given probably 5 or 6 in this last week. It's not hard to do in Spanish anymore. Which is great because I can say what it is that the spirit tells me more easily.

I love you. Keep sharing the gospel.

Elder Ben Arnold