hey mom

 this is hard.

not the mission. just trying to find something worth telling you guys about. i could tell you about the waterfall we went to last week, but that was just fun. not really important. or i could tell you about the wasp i saw wrestle with a spider the size of my thumb nail... but same thing. not really important. yeah this is hard...

this last saturday we went to the baptism of this guy diego. the hermanas in our district were the ones teaching him, so we went and sang a hymn in front of everyone. 

if you know me from home you know i dont really do stuff like that. before i would always get scared and nervous. but for whatever reason, i dont even get fazed anymore. i have sang in front of people like 4 times since i got here.

maybe latinos are just nicer than north americans.

but anyways it was nice to see someone baptized. i have been to 4 since i got here, and they are always very spiritual experiances for me. probably for the person getting baptized too... hopefully they are spirituall for everyone there, but i was just trying to say that i like them.

yeah other than that i have been reading the book of mormon a ton. i decided i wanted to read it in spanish all the way through before i finished my training. unfortunately i decided that when i only had 3 weeks left in my training, so i have been reading 30 pages a day for the last 2 weeks. but it is awesome. you really get to know the story really well, and it has noticably helped me with my spanish too.

anyways thats all for now,

elder arkoudas

hey mom.

this week was pretty good. pretty hard too, but dont worry about it, i came to an understanding today. so i had been struggling a little with just being here. not because it is too hard, but just not wanting to do it. anyways things were just kind of adding up and i wasnt feeling great.

then as i was cleaning the bathroom today (cause it needed it) i remembered a song from somewhere in the past. it kinda goes like this "what if your blessings come through rain drops what if your healing comes through tears, what if a thousand restless nights are what it takes to know he´s here"

and at first i was just kinda like oh yeah that is a good song, i think my mom likes it... and then i thought about how it has been spiritually and mentally hard lately, and i tried to apply the song to my life. and as soon as i did it just kinda hit me that this is hard because i need to grow. really the only way i can do this work, the only way i can get along with my companion, the only way i can not be homesick is if i turn to the savior for help. hopefully it doesnt take me a thousand nights to actually get there.

anyway i love you mom. i always joke with the other missionaries that i cant wait till monday to email my mom, cause i dont have a girlfriend. but it is honestly true, i miss my momma.

love, 

elder arkoudas