new stuff!!

i think i know what my mom always meant when she said vegetables are good for you. this week was definitely good for me. not that i enjoyed it, or that i want to have another like it, but it was good for me in the sense that vegetables are good for you. you know that later on you will be glad you had them.

basically what i was trying to say is that this week was a little rough, me and my companion get a long all right, but it was definitely work to adjust to a new companion and speaking spanish all the time. (if i am being honest mye and my trainer never spoke spanih outside of lessons.) but it is all good i grew a lot from this last week.

there is a family here that have known missionaries for 2 years. but they never made changes in there lives to progress. and with my trainer we talked to them every once in a while, but never really progressed with them.

then in comes my new comp. we talked with them kinda harshly if i am being honest. asked them what they have applied, what they have learned from their time knowing the missionaries. the answer was not much. then we asked how they felt about our message, and they said it is a normal message of christ.

that was when we wosked them a little. (wosk means to chastise. more or less.) we said that because they never acted on the things the missionaries taught they havent seen how wonderful this message is. and because they never acted they have recived the blessings heavenly father wants to give them.

after that we invited them to pray, and hopefully they do. because if they do they can start to realize that this isnt just an ordinary message. this mesage is the whole gospel of jesus christ.(that sentence souns cooler in spanish just btw) 

i had a good talk with an elder here about measuriong success. and he said that you cant measure success by baptisms. there is an elder here who has over 70 baptisms. but he is a jerk. this elder told me that it doesnt matter how many people you baptis, if you dont end up becoming more like christ through your mission.

i really liked that thought and related it to some thing the profeta joseph smith said while they were building the temple in nauvoo. he said that they werent just building a temple, they were building them selves. through their sacrifice they were becoming the kind of people who could enter the temple.

by serving a mission i invite others to follow christ by showing them the way. but what does it serve me if i dont come unto him too?

one day we were walking down this side street by our house and a taxi drove past us. as he was passing out of the corner of my eye i say a flash of what looked like water. i took a few steps and then turn to my companion and asked if the driver threw something at him. he just nodded his head and looking at his face i saw that he had some liquid all over his face.

the driver spit or threw water at us!!!

the next day we were walking down this same road and a taxi drove past us and Boom!  i get a face full of what i hope was water!!  the same freaking chango (that means monkey) threw water at us again!!

i wish i could say i walked away like peter rejoicing to be abused for christs sake, but i am going to be a honest i was a little upset.

i hope you all have a good week,

elder arkoudas