Monday, June 22, 2015

Getting Kennewick ready for President Lewis

Hey Mom!

The trek looks awesome! It's pretty amazing to see all the youth in the pictures and how old they are all getting. When i was back home they seemed so young. Adam Nielson looks like 5 years older with that beefy neck of his. Thomas is getting HUGE as well. Everyone is changing a ton. Its great!

This past week has just flown by! Seriously just flashes before my eyes. Elder Smith and I are just getting into a really busy part of the transfer and I would have to say our missions. We are preparing to receive President and Sister Lewis this next upcoming week. It is going to be incredible to see the revelation that he is going to have as he makes decisions on what mission policy is and also what we can do as missionaries to start and set the foundation for this mission. The plans that go into a mission are pretty crazy. We have the next 2 transfers planned out and ready so when they get here we can hit the ground running. Elder Smith and I are really excited to see everything start to form. Relying on the Lord is a must as we take on this responsibility. It's interesting to note that as we have these hard task everything else is magnified as well. Either mental, spiritual, or physically demanding things that make things harder to accomplish the work. Whether it is the lack of sleep or headaches we all have some thing. I know that it is for a specific reason. We have no choice to either lighten up or continue only to find ourselves becoming more and more stressed. The Gospel applies perfectly as we are faced with tasks that demand the best from us. It first takes an act of faith. Believing that somehow or in someway god will be able to help. A story within the book of mormon is a perfect example of this. In Mosiah 24 Alma and his people are persecuted and essentially enslaved. Burdens are placed upon their backs and they cry out to their lord because their afflictions were so great. That cry, that plea is that one thing that changes everything. An act of faith in which god can place a miracle within their lives. This is the result when they again have their burdened task.

Mosiah 24:15
15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.
These times of trial or of simply being busy are times where we can truly find our savior. In the midst of our hectic lives he has the one thing that can truly make the difference in being able to endure. Just like this scriptures stated, "the burden which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light." He won't remove the burden. He will empower us to bare these burdens and through them recognize his power and love as he helps us. Finding my savior and recognizing his personal love for me and everyone out there has changed my perspective for forever. I know that my redeemer lives!

Real quick! Could you try to pull some strings and grab a paper copy of my drivers license so that i have some documentation when my birthday comes around? If so great! Thanks for everything!

A New Assignment- APE


Monday, June 15, 2015

Tri-Cities and Kennewick, Wa Assistant to the President

Hey Mom!
The Tri-Cities area is awesome! This past Monday President Taylor called Elder Peterson and me and informed us of an emergency transfer. This last Saturday President and Sister Taylor picked me up and we drove to Kennewick, WA. 
It was a pretty intense drive. I was able to ask them many questions that I had concerning the new mission and just serving at the capacity of an assistant. It was awesome experience to spend some time with them for the last time in a long time. 

The pictures that are attached to the email were taken right before they left and I was off. Right when we got together as a companionship we were so busy. This coming week is transfer week and we had alot of planning to do. We currently are serving with 220 missionaries and are moving alot of missionaries around. This transfer determines who will be serving in the new mission. All the missionaries that I have met so far have been stellar. They all have a great spirit about them and you can tell they are really great at what they do. So far we have been pretty busy in the office but as for now its been really cool to see the difference in the approaches, teaching, and finding methods. Every mission has a different culture and drinking in this one has been pretty awesome. 

Elder Smith is my new companion. He is such a cool guy! Probably the most charitable person I've ever met. We are pretty excited to see where this transfer takes us as we work to open the new Yakima Mission. For now we are currently working with the Kennewick mission President, President Ware. President Ware is such an awesome man as well. You can really see where all the missionaries get their spark as you see President. He has done a great job in getting the mission on the same page and also unify them. I've learned that you can literally learn a large majority of things as you watch even the most tiny things. So for now we are working on setting up the new Yakima Mission office. It will be a great test of my ability to remember how everything was set up back in the Vancouver mission. Its going to be a large learning experience for all of us but we are welcoming it with opens arms. I know that was we continue in faith and rely wholy upon the merits and mercy of our lord and savior jesus christ we will receive the strength to endure every trial and every burden that will ever face us. Burdens and trials are really opportunities for us to grow and we rely on our savior. Every hurdle we jump over brings us that much closer to the end. We just want to make sure we are headed in the right direction. I love all of you! Thanks for everything!

E. Archibald

Random picture of friends of Matthews

Monday, June 8, 2015

Time For Some Change

Dear Mom, 
The Mondays are counting down and things are getting pretty crazy. Miracles are happening and the work has just blown up. We are teaching a ton and it's awesome! This past week we had the opportunity to teach a investigator that had set up the appointment a month before. The lesson we have with her is incredible. She expresses her beliefs and bears testimony of the truth that she does know and it is almost from where she left off with the previous missionaries 15 years ago. She expresses that she wants to be baptized but isn't sure on a date just yet. The lesson was so spiritual and we feel that Betty is so close to making this covenant. It seems like a reoccurring thing within our area. We have multiple people who are just waiting to be invited to baptism but something just has to click first and we are just waiting.
This is George Bradley. We bucked hay with him early in the morning. Such an awesome man! He let us pick huge bags of cherries as well. 

Today was also awesome. We planned a hike up to dog mountain. A huge hike! For missionaries at least. It took us a few hours to get to the top but it was worth it as you can see. On the way up I was able to help a missionary out from the beginning. He is a little bigger and hasn't worked out as much as he would have liked. But toward the beginning of the hike he said that he couldn't do it. His companion encouraged him as we continued on because he didn't want us to wait and that was the case for a little while up but I ended up relieving my companion and this other missionaries companion and then it was just him and I taking on this huge mountain. Slowly but surely we got to the top. He was terrified, tired, exhausted, thirsty, and afraid of heights but as we talked about the phrase "mountains to climb" we related this mountain to our missionary work and our life. We are going to be faced with something that we think we can never do or that just is inconceivable because we've never been able to do it before. This missionary had never really worked out before and was really struggling. We stopped for a second and we offered a prayer for strength and for an opportunity to see gods creations and to learn something valuable from this hike. I feel that we did. As this missionary and I walked and walked he gained confidence in reaching the top as he had recognized how far he had come. His persona, strength, and will power increased and his distance traveled did. As we talked to try and get his mind off of the cliffs surrounding us his words slowly changed from "I can't do this" to "I'm getting to the top." I know that that was only possible as he got up off of the ground where he was sitting and MOVED his feet. He excercised his faith and challenged his fears and The result was incredible. Not only did he make it to the top but now he can say that "I can do hard things."


Dog mountain was a blast. Elder Peterson and I.


This valuable lesson learned today will hopefully help him but I know it will help me. I know as I move my feet and challenge my fears I will come to know that any mountain is climbable with faith in Jesus Christ. 

Today I received and interesting phone call from President Taylor. He called and asked if We were sitting down and this made us go, "yea yea, just a second." We were preparing ourselves for something bad but he began to tell us this story. He had gotten ahold of the Kennewick mission president and had a good conversation with him. They talked about the mission splitting and what he was doing with his assistants. He expressed his decision was hazy and not really what he thought needed to happen this coming week and president had a similar concern with me. Didn't know where to put me, and this was his answer. President Taylor called me to be and assistant in the Kennewick mission to receive training on everything so that we can be prepared for the new mission president coming in July. So I will be serving in Kennewick this coming Saturday and leaving behind the Dalles so soon. I am excited to accept the call and serve closely with the mission president. This will be a mountain to climb for me that's for sure. Lots of the unknown in front of me but that's what a mission is all about. So I'm getting a little used to it. I want to thank all my brothers for their great examples. Also for my mom and dad. They did so much for me to get me where I am now. I hope to go and serve and BECOME something great. This new chapter of the mission and it's going to be great! We will see everyone in about 6 months!
Dog mountain was a blast. Elder Peterson and I.

Love, 
Elder Archibald