Monday, April 28, 2014

Something goofy for mom who requested photos


Johnnie Paxson, a professional snowboarder, is a really good friend. He baptized his wife and confirmed her. Sister Martin below



Teaching the gospel is awesome



This last week was very uneventful. Except for Sunday. Elder Doyle and I were able to teach the teachers quorum because one of the teachers father was going to join them and he wanted to hear a lesson by us. We taught about the Restoration but sadly he wasn't there. The lesson still ended up being awesome! As a companionship we are becoming very good at teaching together. He would say something and I would testify and then add to it while continuing on in the lesson. I was able to teach the First Vision and it was the most powerful lesson I have taught so far. I noticed the environment as we taught and I brought it up. I asked did you notice that? That change? That's the Spirit. 
 
Elder Doyle also added that some times we teach the First Vision something ruins that spiritual experience. Satan knows that those experiences will lead to conversion. If all of our friends could experience that feeling or be in that situation they would not only have a different outlook on Mormonism but join our church. This gospel is amazing! 

Love you guys!!
E. Archibald 

P.S. somethings kinda goofy for you!

Monday, April 21, 2014

Easter + Baptisms = Amazing Week

This last week has been a great one overall. It started when I went on exchanges with a zone leader, Elder Solomon. He has been out a lot longer than I have and so I knew it was going to be a great day. The bad thing was that we had no lessons planned because we are building an new area. So we started out street contacting and it was incredible! We got a few potential investigators  and planted 6 Book of Mormons with some appointment times when we could drop by. But it didn't stop there. The next day we had an appointment fall through and so we decided to head over to one of our previous potential investigators and see if they were home. They ended up being home and they also let us in. We shared the first lesson and they really liked what we said. The funny thing was that they wanted us to come back before we even asked for a return appointment. Their reasoning behind it was that they thought we were sincere and honest. This is music to our ears!  My companion and I felt prompted to extend a baptismal invite and so we did just that. They said yes!!! On the first lesson haha it was amazing. As Elder Doyle and I continue to teach as a companionship we become more unified and teach very powerfully. I feel it every time we teach.
 
 You think that would be the highlight of the week but it wasn't. We had two baptisms and then on Sunday two confirmations and a baby blessing followed by a legendary talk by a youth speaker. Its crazy because usually youth speakers don't give long or deep talks but this one did and he did it with the Spirit. He spoke about how he really couldn't think of a reason why God existed. He was searching for that answer because he didn't want to just believe what his parents believed. So he searched but he never found an answer until one night when his parents told him to read and pray. So he did exactly that but he didn't receive an immediate answer. It was later when he laid on his bed and closed his eyes. He explained these flashbacks of events in his life that were amazing but instead of the original faces he saw God and Jesus Christ. And then he remembered when he almost drown, and his mom jumped in and saved him but instead it was Jesus. In the midst of this awesome experience a member named Brother Hopper had a prompting to ask this deacons father (which isn't a member) to be baptized. The father felt strongly that he should pray about it and that we the missionaries should come over and give him the lessons. This man has been going to church for years but nothing has worked to help him become fully convert. 

This Easter weekend was an amazing one. If I could continue to have days like that past few, I would be carried by the Spirit for hours on end. Everyday I'm out on my mission I continue to realize how much God blesses us and how the Atonement of Christ changes the lives of people willing to submit to His gospel. Im proud to be a Mormon and a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Love you!
E. Archibald

Monday, April 14, 2014

Relief Society and grandpa Powell

Holo!

This last week was a great one! Not for just me though. Congratulations Sophie! That's so awesome! I can't wait to see someone that I'm teaching reach baptism like you. It's truly amazing, isn't it? As we strive to get people closer to baptism it gets harder because Satan doesn't want that to happen. He wants us to be unhappy like him. So keep doing what you're doing and make your Heavenly Father proud.

We have recently found some new investigators and they are awesome. One named Anna-Marie.  She is kind of stubborn but she wants know the doctrine before she makes any commitments, so we try to clear things up and teach her the best we can so she can increase her faith. 
 
So far we have had a few teaching opportunities but not enough for what we had to do on Sunday. My companion and I were asked to teach Relief Society! 10 minutes before the class started we found out we were teaching about Hyrum and Joseph Smith and their relationship according the Joseph Fielding Smith. We felt really overwhelmed but we were going to wing it. We started out with a question and that wasted some time but when we actually started teaching the lesson the way it should have been the Spirit filled the room. We were talking about how Joseph Fielding Smith looked up to his grandpa Hyrum so much even though he never really had the chance to meet him. He spoke of his grandpas loyalty to the prophet and I never really realized how much loyalty he had. He suffered the tar and feathers just like Joseph but he got to watch it happen to Joseph so it was almost worse for Hyrum. In the middle of the lesson I talked about how our grandparents influence us to make decisions like Joseph Fielding Smiths grandpa did. Like Grandpa Powell did for me. He was an amazing man even though I was fairly young and had so much to learn about him he was still amazing. He would tell me about the time he was flying his plane and the pressure in the plane was so great that his ear were bleeding down the sides of his face. The man that entered the war at age 17 is one of my biggest hero's. 
 
I would like to thank all of my older brothers and my sister for being so awesome in their own ways. Its like my pizza analogy I used during my farewell talk. It's like I'm a pizza and I took a bit of everyone to add to me to make the ultimate pizza haha. Definitely not ultimate but I hope to be. Thank you Mom and Dad for this opportunity and the sacrifice made for me to be here.

Love all you guys!
E. Archibald

The Lost Manuscript

Hey mom
Sorry I had a huge thing written out and I tried to save it as
a draft but that was unsuccessful of course. And this week has been a
great one for me too. We have three new investigators for this week
and one of them was in a lesson with a Jehovah's Witness and it was
interesting because we taught the whole first lesson. We talked and
shared beliefs and we kind of backed all of ours off  of the Bible and
it was good. It made me want to learn more about the Bible just
because it was mainly my companion that was teaching the person or
sharing our beliefs that were backed by the Bible. That's what I'm
weakest in. I know a bit about the Book of Mormon but I just need to
increase my knowledge about the Bible.

This week was a decent one. Kind of uneventful besides conference and I
guess I'd have to say Dieter F. Uchtdorf is my favorite general
authority. His talk in the priesthood session was sweet! Sorry not
much to write about this week. Will write more next.

Love ya

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Green popcorn and buffness

Rhiannon  wrote:
Hey Bud how's it going?  We just finished family home evening and Theran gave a lesson about Ammon and his missionary work and how he served king Lamoni.  Theran found a picture from the gospel art kit... not sure if you remember it but he's very buff and shirtless protecting the sheep. the kids said you look like him ;) hahaha it was pretty funny.  We talked about what a great sacrifice you are doing and what a great example you are.  So the kids have some things they would like to ask.
Emmie would like to know if it's hard being a missionary? 
Also that she misses you and hopes your having a great time.  
Theran would like to know if you like being a missionary and if you like green popcorn ;) 
we are eating green marshmallow popcorn so obviously that's on his mind ;) 
Dylan wants to know if you've baptized anybody yet or teaching people.  
Trav wants to know If you wore any green for St. Patricks day?  Haha 
We would like to send you a package so if there's anything you want or need just let us know.  
Love you bunches!!!

Theran knows how to pick a good lesson that's for sure. Did you laugh because I'm not buff like Ammon?? haha rude.. I'm sure that spiced the lesson up a bit though! Answering Emmie's question: At first, being a missionary is hard because you aren't used to talking to strangers or talking to a lot of people about the gospel, at least I wasn't. But think of it this way, in sports when you have to run to get into shape- at first it's uncomfortable but after doing it enough it get easier. It's the same way as a missionary. At times it's hard but you adapt and eventually get used to it. Well Theran I have never had green popcorn but I do have a cool video to show you that might be as green popcorn. I will send it later today. Dylan I am working on that right baptism thing right now. We have people that want to be baptized but aren't ready just yet. When I get my first one I will send you a picture for sure!! haha for St. Patrick's day I actually stole/borrowed a kids green tattoo sleeve so I wore green for about two hours before I had to return it :/ I wouldn't mind some family pictures or something like that just to put on my wall. 
Thanks for all the support and love! Its great to hear from you guys when you write. Sorry for taking a while to reply been slightly busy haha

Love 
E. Archibald