Monday, February 24, 2014

Love of the scriptures






The MTC was way fun. I was loaded with information and the Spirit. The spiritual experiences in the MTC were incredible just because the teachers constantly set the mood and when you’re just leaving your family you become humbled ha-ha at least I was. So the second night I gave a sister missionary a blessing and I’ll admit I was nervous but the Spirit was incredibly strong and it was exciting because I knew that this was just the beginning. :)
Right now I am companions with Elder Doyle. He is a BIG kid ha-ha. WE are both 6'3 and he is 350lbs. We pretty much scared all the investigators off and so we are currently looking for a way to make our appearance more innocent ha-ha. So far it’s been fun and i was only out for two days. the past couple of days we have been shut in because of the ice rain and snow so ya. You may be like, ice rain?! ya its sweet. It rains and then when it hits the ground it freezes instantly so all of the trees are coated with ice and it’s so so pretty!! ha-ha nah its cool but ya this place is awesome. 

My companion  is a big guy it seems as if we have been gaining some weight as a companionship because I’m almost back to 230 ha-ha which is pure steal I might add... haha nah just mostly steel;) so far I’ve slayed one gator!  We found her last Saturday and she let us in. We taught her about the restoration and it was pretty awesome. My companion and I are teaching her about the plan of salvation this Saturday and that one is kind of complex and it only gets more intense!! Seriously everything we have in the church just has such deeper meaning. When we did a scripture study we were readying this scripture, the first will be last and last will be first, we talking about it for 30 minutes. Different scriptures throughout the book of Mormon have amazing things within them that change us and spark thoughts that bring feelings and realizations. Since I’ve been out I have really come to love the scriptures and the content within them. I think one of the reasons I love being on a mission so far is because every morning I wake up at 6:30 and slowly get ready for the day but at 8 I get to study the scriptures for an hour and just think in complete silence, then work into companionship study and then the 12 week program for me. But everyday I’m loaded with about 4 hours straight of gospel and it’s amazing. I really liked what an elder told me the other day about the spirit. I told him i don’t feel like the spirit is really strong with me. He said that “it is strong. you just constantly have it with you every second of the day so you are used to having it, and if you were to lose it you would be able to tell the difference." 

Everything new



Hey parents,

Hmm well this last week was amazing! Went by so quick! I think that will continue to happen because we are constantly doing things. If we aren't tracting, we teaching a less active and when we aren't doing that we are looking for new gators (investigators). 

This last week I met with a new family from the ward every night for dinner. It crazy how much the members of the ward feed the missionaries. I feel bad ha-ha but it’s really good food so I’m not going to make them stop. I'd say my favorite family right now is the Lindorst family. They remind me of my brothers and family cuz they give me crap because of the dumb things I say ha-ha. I also met this guy named Saeed. One of the smartest dudes I’ve met my entire life. If you were to ask him about any religion and how structurally sound it is he can tell you. He is from the Middle East so he is very committed spiritually to God and the Mormon Church. He told me that our relationship with God should be better than a relationship with our friends or family. He is so right! God has given us literally everything and i think that we forget that-at least I do. 

I really like the area I am in right now. The members are awesome. There is a pro snowboarder, rock star, and magazine delivery guy! Ha-ha the ward is awesome and pretty much everything about my area is also. It rains every day here but I don’t mind. I've always been a rain kind of guy if I were to pick a type of weather ha-ha. 

This last weekend I slayed a nice gator! Ha-ha her name is Aquila and she is so cool! Has two cute kids and works out at Gold's Gym. We have a lot in common. like.... working out haha hopefully I can share that I love working out also and we can show that we as missionaries are human to even though we pretty much have super powers;)   We taught her about the restoration and she is so passionate about religious things and I'm jealous! She was very open to hear our message and accepted a Book of Mormon but as most of you know when exciting things happen I tend to get overly excited and mess up. So in the prayer I set myself up for failure. I was about to bless the family and i couldn't remember their name and then the awkward silence presented itself in the room. Then I heard a sound from the lady and I said 'what?' All in the middle of the prayer i might add. She said it a second time and then I said sorry and continued that prayer haha. Luckily she is very patient with the noob of a missionary. Definitely loving it out here though. Don't want to do anything else besides maybe eating my healthy food from my mommy....

Love ya, 

Elder Archibald