Week 5 in the Mission Office

Good email this week, although David does mention that he tried to upload pictures and our server wasn’t working.  Not sure why.  It looked like it worked to me, but maybe there was some kind of glitch when he tried.  Maybe next week.

Be sure and read the addendum below on the “novia” comment…

Subject:  “You idiot. How could we be in a matchbox? Where are all the matches?”

I think I definitely forgot to say for the last couple weeks, thanks for the birthday packages! I totally appreciate the old but still good DVD player thing, which I haven't had a chance to use with investigators much, but likely will next change. Also, all the food you all sent was amazing. And I never knew Propel would be so good. So anyway, thanks for that.

Julie, I apologize for not mentioning the Jack Handys in my last email. I didn't have much time to actually get on and write. Let me tell you, though, I printed those off and me and Elder Oliverson read through them together. It was hilarious. We are still quoting them. However, I didn't see a couple key ones that I thought I would. I noticed the one about the guy telling the long story at the airport about buried treasure wasn't on there, nor was the soldering iron of justice, nor the golden hammer one. I just used nor three times straight. Nonetheless, thank you very much for those. They definitely made my day.

Here's a couple funny conversations Elder Oliverson and I were remembering that I didn't tell you about:

“Hey Elder, could you equip this plate with a tortilla?”

“Would you like a regular tortilla, or a tortilla with plus one resistance to fire damage?”

“Hey Elder, you know what would be God's greatest Christmas gift to me?”

“Jesus?”

Funny times.

So this week I got a little bit more comfortable in the office. I think this coming week it'll basically just be me running the show, and Elder French will just kind of sit around. The one thing I'm still worried about is not having my license. I was supposed to get it the first week I was here, but the office Elders are kind of baggy since they'll be leaving soon, so it hasn't happened. As of now, I just need to give my current license to the lawyers to do something, which will take a few days to do, and then I can get it. But we can't start that process until Monday. Which means that, if I'm lucky, I'll get it two days before Elder French and Elder Vasquez leave. Not much time to learn the area at all.

“WIDESCREEN! Left side: brrrrrrrrrrrr. Right side: brrrrrr... hey, what? What are you doing there?” “Oh, I've always been here. In fact, I think I'll live here.” “No, if you lived there you'd have a lot less non-broken bones, and more crushed spirits.”

We found a new investigator this week named Gustavo, I think. I don't completely remember. We taught him at this one member's house, which was good. He actually seems really positive. He's fifteen, and his brother got killed by gangsters a few years ago, so he had some questions about the plan of salvation. We taught him a little about that, but mostly focused on prayer and how we can get answers through it. We committed him to pray, and he accepted a lot more solidly than most investigators. We left him a pamphlet and a “soft” baptismal challenge (When you get an answer, will you get baptized kind of thing), which he accepted. Cool beans. The only kind of weird thing is that this lady that was there kept saying weird things. For example, Elder French (his comp had some stuff to do with the assistants, so he was with Elder Vasquez and I that day) was explaining to him something about prayer and testifying, and the spirit was great, and while he's in mid-sentence the lady jumps in and says, quite loudly, “Hey Elder Arrington, that bread that you're eating is called a novia.” Wow. Thanks for the FYI. There were also a couple points where she would mention doctrine that we weren't planning on teaching that day. Like Joseph Smith, outer darkness, who Moroni is, etc. It made the lesson a little harder, but it was still good.

Elder Falavela (I don't know how that's spelled) from the first quorum of the seventy came to give a couple multi-zones and meet with president, so on Tuesday president told us to have the office spotless and leave early so they could meet in there. We worked super hard and got it super, super clean and organized. We put the nice chairs in the conference area, we swept and mopped the floor, organized the books and boxes, threw away trash, etc. We basically redid the whole office. And got our normal work done. And left two hours early. And you know what thanks president gave us for our effort? He decided to have the meeting somewhere else and never saw it. That's lame. But we had the multi-zone with him yesterday, which was really good. He talked a lot about agency and obedience, and I think just the way he said things made me understand them a little bit more, and want to apply them. So there you go. That's a little growth there. Also we learned a few ways to get more referrals and such. It was good.

“And then I saw his hanky. I mean, he's not snarling. He's sneezing!”

That's about all I got today. Oh, but this morning I went to play soccer with the office Elders, like we do sometimes, and it was fun. They play on a concrete court thing, though, so it's a little lame. The point is, I was running to get a pass and shoot, and one of the Elders pushed me a bit, causing me to step on the ball, roll over it, across the ground, and into a ditch. My knee got pretty scraped up and I had blood dripping from it, but I just got up and kept playing. Because that's how much of a man I am. I took a picture of it and was trying to upload a few others, but the server seems to be down. But let me tell you, showering with that afterward was fun. It definitely took my mind off the cold water.

Thanks for the weekly updates and emails and such. Also, that is horrible about BYU, but that really will give us some more publicity. As a missionary, I tend to think that the more people see us and think, “why do they have those super strict rules” the better. Also, that means that they won't go win some huge national title while I'm gone. They should wait until I get back.

I love you all, and am super happy that James is finally home. The talk, by the way, was really good and insightful, but I think I either don't understand or don't agree with a couple parts of it. I want to listen to this thing that Dad sent me, though. Maybe it'll clear up a couple things.

“I have never said heck you son of a gun.”

I can't even type it right.

Elder David Arrington

Dave Frogley adds this clarification:  Hey all, just a quick note. The fact that the bread David was eating was called a "novia" is (I believe) supposed to be funny/ironic because "novia" means "girlfriend," "fiancée," or "bride."

To which David actually responds again:

Also, funny note about that: This is the conversation that sprouted from that (In Spanish originally)

"Hey Elder Arrington, did you know that bread is called a girlfriend/bride?"

"Oh. I didn't. But I guess I now have had more girlfriends here than in the states."

"And the bread that Elder Vasquez is eating is called a prostitute in most areas."

"So I've got a girlfriend, and Elder Vasquez is stuck with a prostitute. Fantastic."

It was quite funny, but as I explained, kind of at the wrong time.

Elder David Arrington

I know just what he means.

Week 4 in the Mission Office

This week we got a very brief note that concerned us:

Subject:  Really quick

We ran out of time to write right now, but I'm going to come back in a few hours to finish. I have a good half of my email written. Just don't freak out if I actually can't send it off until Monday. But it'll come.

Yea, I don’t think so.  We’re not waiting until Monday.  We would, in fact, “freak out.”  Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait that long.  3-4 hours later, we got the real email.  Good thing for him that he sent it!

The precursor to this message was much good about everything.  James went home from the hospital, David’s grandfather went home from the hospital.  And Lindsay’s baby Reese was born.  As we mentioned in our letters, “Yesterday was a good day.”

Subject: “Don't worry. Your computer is in a better place. Actually, it's in the same place, but now it's got a big hole in it!”

Yesterday really was a good day.

I absolutely love all the good news this week. I didn't really realize before now how many things were truly working against our family as a whole until now, when I see it all clearing. There you go. That should be good material for your talk, right Dad? It seems like in the last few weeks you've been given a ton of stories to share about adversity.

I feel like I should probably start reading my emails backward. Every time anything big happens, especially baby births, I get like five emails from different people that all say, “As I'm sure you've heard by now, Lindsay has had her baby.” or “You've probably heard already that James is doing better.” Actually I hadn't heard, but it's nice to hear the official news from six different sources before I read it from the actual person. It doesn't really affect anything I guess, I just thought you might want to be self-conscious the rest of your life.

Mom, I really appreciate you. Some of the things you say to me just fill me with joy. For example, “I forgot how much I love to spend money on my grown kids.” Oh Mom. Remember when I went on my mission and will have nothing when I get back? We'll have fun. Trust me.

Stacey, I'm sorry to hear about your ear thingy. That's kind of rough. I just had to say, though, that that's ironic that you had to wait hours for URGENT care. Ha. “He's in managed care. It's ironic, isn't it? He never managed to care for me.”

I also really laughed hard at some of the pictures this week. The one with Darci and the turkey leg probably wins, but the first one of Mike holding Reese right out in front of him gets honorable mention. Not because the picture is really that funny, but because I can basically hear Mike thinking, “Well, what do I do with this?”

But as I said, yesterday was a great day. You all know about the family stuff, but really for me it was good as well. We had interviews with president, and it was really awesome. He kind of machettied us a little bit since we still have absolutely no baptisms in the entire zone this month. That would be really bad if we end up like that. In all of President Lopez's time here, it would be the first time that it ever happened. But the interview really just boosted me and helped me to remember to do everything I can to become better. One of the last things that president said to me was that I should always ask myself if what I'm doing is the best thing I could be doing. That will help me to stay focused and active as a missionary. That's kind of something that you parents tried to teach me, too. Anyway, after that we went and taught the Vega family and Dennis, who are two of our investigators. They were really good lessons, and the whole time I was just focusing in on how I could invite the spirit more.

That's about all I have time for, but I want to explain really fast what happened today. This morning I had to go to the hospital to get a blood sample for my drivers license, and then we had to go to the equivalent of the DMV here to get the equivalent of my social security number so that I can get my license. Let me tell you, being in a foreign country isn’t really that different. You still have to wait hours at the DMV. So I came to write late and we ran out of time, and we had a zone activity where we went and played soccer, and now I am here again finishing this up really fast. I still don't have all the time I should, but there you go.

Thanks for all the support and all your emails. And for all the good news. This week was really refreshing after so many with bad news. I hope you all stay strong in your studies of the Book of Mormon, too. It really is a cool book. Also, I'm going to upload a talk to this email for you all to read. I want your opinions on it. That's an assignment.

I love you all!

Elder David Arrington

Week 3 in the Mission Office

As background, this message was preceded by a number of emails from the family articulating that little James De Rurange was back in the hospital ICU in critical condition.  It was a somber time for us all.

David is settling in to his office assignment, learning the ropes.  He also uploaded some pictures of the office.

Subject:  “The Cheat always freaks out when he sees a bear holding a shark.”

Wow. I really blew it. I spent basically almost forty minutes reading your emails, mostly because I was simultaneously trying to upload pictures. And my keyboard spacebar is broken, so it's really weird to type. So sorry if this is short.

The news about James is pretty horrible. I was kind of surprised in a not good way by it, but it sounds like everything that can be done is being done. Including, apparently, robbing my mission fund. Thanks for that. Actually, as I was reading from Julie that the kids were getting money together I told myself I would tell you all to take that out of my account. It looks like you know me perfectly. I will also, of course, start a fast after lunch today for him. Let me know if there's anything else I can do from thousands of miles away. That I can do next week, because unless you tell the Duzetts to tell Sam something in his Monday email to call me to say, I won’t get it until then.

For me this week was much less eventful. I'm still getting the hang of the office, but it's been really fun. I'm pretty on top of things, but I still just don't know some of my jobs. But I will soon. The only things of note that happened this week in the office that I have time to talk about would be that we got super ahead in our work, so I'm feeling pretty good about it. We kind of mess around there, though, and one day Elder Oliverson needed a USB drive from Elder French, but he wanted a frosty in exchange for getting him it, and then Elder Oliverson wanted one in exchange for buying him one, and so we got together and created a totally legitimate contract, notarized by me. We even got pictures of the signing. I could totally be a lawyer. However, now Elder Oliverson and I have been conspiring to get me one, too, so we scanned the contract and basically Photoshopped it so I get one from Elder French as well. On Monday we'll go in and reprint it, switch it with Elder French's copy, and grab his camera so we can Photoshop the pictures we took as well. We're diabolical.

My investigators are kind of not really there. We really don’t have much time to proselyte, so it's a little rough. More than anything we're teaching the Vega family, who read the Book of Mormon occasionally and have come to church before, but don’t want to come back because they don't have any fancy clothes. That's something that people have a problem with, here. No shirt and tie, no dress, no shoes, etc.

I did actually upload some pictures this week. They're mostly of the office. There are a couple of the place that we played soccer this morning. It was the first time in over six months I've played on a non-concrete field. Anyway, the room in the office where everyone is is mine. The guy at the computer, if I remember right, is Elder French. The other one in a chair is Elder Vasquez, my comp and the migration secretary. Elder Oliverson is the one at a computer in the other room, and he's the records secretary/really funny/seen almost the exact same movies that I have/that includes You've Got Mail, which we quoted for like half an hour one day/he's even seen the Tenth Kingdom. Oh yeah. This could be the start of something great. Elder Huaman (pronounced Wa-Mon (like pokeMON)) is the financial secretary in his own little office. The Peruvian. Also, There's a picture of Elder Gonzalez, who came into the office the same time as me as the new migration secretary.

Okay, everyone is getting ready to go, so I'm going to head out soon. Thanks for the emails and such, even though I don't have time to thank you each individually.

Oh, and Julie, I have an assignment for you that might make you laugh, so it's doubly important. Elder Oliverson and I were talking about how funny Jack Handys are, since he also knows those, but we need a list of them. So would you mind emailing me some kind of massive compilation of Jack Handys? That'd basically make my day.

I love you all! Tell James to get better, by the way.

And Elder Ballard, my ZL, says hi. And so does Elder Campos, my other ZL.

And the other day I used the word harom in a sentence. Don’t I feel educated.

Elder David Arrington

Week 2 in the Mission Office

Yes, David is no longer a teenager.  He’s gone and turned 20 years old in the mission field!  All seems well in the office as we learn more about his new assignment…

Subject for this week:  “You see, me? I don’t run into walls. It hurts.”

I will now attempt to answer any and all questions from you all. But I won’t get to them all, mostly because I don’t remember them all. Tough luck.

P-Day is now officially on Friday because the office needs to be open on Monday. I don’t know why it is okay to be closed on Friday, but it is.

My companion is Elder Vazquez, and he’s sweet. I don’t actually have many investigators to teach at this point, that are progressing at least, but we’ve got some referrals that seem really positive. And yes, I will miss being able to proselyte as much, but this office experience is already proving to be really fun, really cushy, and really get-machettied-by-president-a-lot. I guess those are all good.

Okay, I’ve already forgotten the rest of the questions. Sarah keeps bugging me about getting my new address out, so here we go: it’s the same. The way mail works is that it all gets sent to the post office, where it is now my job to pick up every Thursday. I sort it, and the zone leaders come by on Tuesday to pick it up, and then pass it out on Wednesday. Clearly, I have the advantage and get things early. Which reminds me, I did get a very nice letter from Grandma and Grandpa Arrington, Kaci McNeil, and Aunt Shawn/Uncle Mike. So thanks. And although they didn’t come until yesterday, I did get a package from the family and from Julie. So a BIG thank you for that. However, I haven’t been able to open them yet. I put them in the car and then found out I was going on interchanges, so I haven’t been back home yet. After we go bowling today as a zone I’ll head home and open them, though.

The big news this week is that I have insider information on something big. This big news has been common knowledge in the office for months and is just now starting to be circulated amongst the non-office missionaries. And I’m sure you’ll all have a million questions for me about it. Here we go. The mission boundaries are changing. When the new mission president gets here in July we are losing the Los Heroes, Lourdes, and La Libertad areas to the East mission, and we are moving the mission headquarters (president’s house, office, our house) to Santa Ana. That’s lame. That means the El Salvador temple will no longer be in our area. Stupid. I think that will also make us the El Salvador Santa Ana Mission. But not until July.

This week was pretty good, and pretty simple. The weekend was short because we have weekly planning all morning on Saturday and church at 1 on Sunday (fasting was a nightmare). And then Monday we were back in the office preparing for the ZLs to come pick up their zones’ stuff. Crazy times. My work there is kind of repetitive sometimes, but it’s more fun than that. And the people I work with are really fun. And we can order fast food delivery. Did I mention that before?

I can’t really think of anything super exciting that we did in the office. I called Elders to tell them some orders were in for various things, I created a small updated phone list that all of us in the office use, I updated the president’s wall in the office and in his house (the board that shows where all the Elders are in the mission), I did the mail run, we got a new printer, etc. I feel like I’ll have less to talk about now that I’m there.

I do have one crazy story for you all, though. Just last night I was in La Cima with Elder Ballard, one of our ZLs, and we went to go teach this family that was getting ready for baptism. It was a mom and her daughter, and they’ve been through a lot. They used to go to some other church but the pastor sexually abused this girl and she’s pretty messed up from it. But we got to this house and it felt strange. The girl was crying really hard about how she wants to get married to this guy she knows and have lots of kids with him, but that he doesn’t want to. Okay. Then she suddenly stopped crying and like went to sleep for seriously two minutes. When she woke up she seemed really dark and serious and she told us that she got an answer that she should not be baptized. Her story was that she went into the bathroom one day and just started feeling really strange and she heard some kind of voice say she shouldn’t be baptized. And she took that as an answer from God. We showed her a little bit about how that’s probably not from God, and then she kind of laid down for a minute again and then was really happy all of the sudden. Then out of nowhere she started sobbing again and talking about how her cousin wants to sexually abuse her and all this really, really weird stuff. And then back to the super serious I-don’t-think-I-should-get-baptized part. The whole time, by the way, we’re also trying to talk to the mom, who really wants to be baptized in the chapel that’s being built next to the temple. We were trying really hard to explain to her that she can’t because she doesn’t live there, and it won’t be opened until August anyway (by the way, the temple opens August 21). Also the whole time, their stupid little white dog was barking a lot and then quieted down but (I’m not even joking) it started trying to hump me and Elder Ballard’s legs and arms and just wouldn’t leave us alone. In the end, we left with the baptismal dates still somewhat in-tact, but we both seriously felt that that girl has some kind of demon. We were both thinking we should give her a blessing or something, but we didn’t. I think he and Elder Campos, his comp, are going to next time we head over. The mission is really weird.

Okay, that should suffice for now. I hope you all have a fantastic week, and that everyone is not sick, nor staying up all night with newborns. And a big thank you to Mom, Dad, Stacey, Julie, Sarah, President, Whatever bank we use, and myself for emails this week (one of my jobs is to email elders that got packages, so I got one from me saying that). And just a heads-up Julie, I did in fact get that last email, but I enjoyed reading it twice. You might want to think about shrinking your pictures down anyway, though, because they come out on my end stupidly big and I can’t see them.

I love you all! Thanks for all your support, and the birthday wishes!

Elder E. I’m-not-a-teenager-anymore David Arrington

David Arrives in Monserrat, Los Heroes

Apparently that’s pronounced “err-oh-S”, see below.

David surprised us with a letter on Friday.  Why, we might ask?  From what I gather, Friday is now his Prep day.  We had kind of settled into a system, and now everything changes!  Ok, we can deal with it.

The pictures below are from Atiquizaya taken mostly during the last week when he was there.

Let’s hear about his new responsibility as Mission General Secretary…

Subject:  Well isn’t that a pretty picture. Santa rolling around in a Panzer!

SURPRISE!!!

So, I have a couple of things I should talk about before getting into the meaty stuff. First, I have no idea why the email got to Sarah before the rest of the family. I always write to you all first, and then with whatever time (if any) that I have left, I write to Sarah. It was just weird I guess. As far as the iPod and the music and stuff go, I noticed that the music folder is now on there, and I would encourage any and all to add music to it. The iPod still hasn’t showed up, and at this point I think it’s just gone. Kind of lame, but there it is. It’s also great to hear a little bit more news about James, but since it’s only been a few days since I last wrote, there weren’t many updates.

Now I have a lot of things to talk about. As you all should be aware, I had changes this week. It was a little rough and unexpected, since that meant that two new Elders would be coming into the area without anyone to teach it to them, but they ended up coming a day before I left, since that’s when the new Elders come in, and one of the Elders in El Angel now was training him. So I took them to at least enough places to get them started, I think. And then Wednesday I got on the coaster and came to San Salvador.

I am now one of four missionaries in the Monserrat, Los Heroes area. That’s pronounced los err-oh-S (like the letter S), not los hee-rows. Monserrat is basically how it looks. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures yet, but I’m uploading a bunch of older pictures and goodbye pictures from this change. I’m kind of bummed to leave all those missionaries and families, but oh well. It happens.

I basically got to work asap with Elder French, who while not my comp, is kind of my mentor. My Yoda, I suppose. Apparently, while I’m at the office, we don’t really have companions. We just all work. And from what I hear, my companionship will get a cell phone, I will drive the car way more than anyone else, and I get my own office. Sweet perks.

This week I’m still just starting out, but I’ve been put to work. We needed to create some letters with pictures of the new Elders and the president to send to their families, basically letting them know that they’re okay and who their new comp is. So I did that, both in English and Spanish, for all the new Elders. I sent them to president and got them approved, and then we sent them out. Very exciting. As a luggage problem.

I also got to cut up and laminate a bunch of little mission-standard card things, call some people to get or give referrals, and the like. Yesterday we went on a Lyco run, which I’m sure stands for something, but I don’t know what yet. We just drove out into the East mission to stop by the distribution center and the post office, where we picked up people’s church material orders and mail, respectively. I like picking up mail, so I think I’ll enjoy this.

Things at the office are actually pretty busy, and there’s always deadlines coming up. For that reason, I guess, a lot of days I will be heading in early, staying super late, or some mixture of the two. For example, today, P-day, we had to go in for a couple hours to finish those cards and run them to a zone leaders meeting in Santa Tecla. But normally I should be leaving the office around 4 or 5 to go to my area. It takes about forty five minutes to get out there, and we have to take a few buses, but I think I like it. Of course, this is my first big-city area, so everything is really confusing, but it’s kind of cool. My comp is Elder Vasquez, from Guatemala, who is also the travel secretary. We went to visit a couple investigators and almost set a date, so that was cool. I also visited two members, and between the two of them got five referrals. That’s a lot better than in Atiquizaya. The only kind of rough part is that, as I said, we leave late and get there later, and in order to get to the house in time we have to leave the area by 8. For those of you at home doing the math, that’s between two and three hours of proselyting on a normal office day. I do get to work all day Sunday and Saturday, though.

The house I was living in in Atiquizaya was really nice. I don’t know if I told you all that. Most of the other houses are way smaller, way dirtier, and just worse. The fact that we even had the ability to hook up hot water was ridiculous. The house I’m in right now is the assistant`s house. It seriously puts the house in Atiquizaya to shame. Two full floors, four bedroom, four bathroom, washer, dryer, TV, garage, etc. It’s super nice. But, of course, it has to be. Nine Elders live there. And we’ve got two extra beds for when visitors come (seventies, for example). And we have a room literally full of mattresses, because when new Elders come or go, they sleep on the floor downstairs. That being said, the house is really unorganized. Not really dirty, just cluttered. No big surprise there, with how many twenty year guys live together.

San Salvador is big, but it’s also really nice. A lot of people here are really rich. And we have almost all fast food places I’ve ever heard of. But no Taco Bell. Last night I was hungry, so me and Elder Oliverson, the records secretary, ordered some McDonalds and had it delivered. We were going for Pizza Hut, but we barely called too late. Well, they closed early, because it definitely was not nine thirty yet.

There’s also a lot more technology here. And there’s several pretty big malls. I’m writing in one right now, and its soooo much better than before. The internet here is ridiculously fast compared to the Cibers I was writing at before.

What else is there to say? I’m not sure that I can check this email account more than every Friday, but it might be possible. I can, in fact, listen to music at the office, and my computer has speakers. I’m not one hundred percent sure that there’s a way for me to get online, though, since there’s probably some kind of internet filter system. We’ve only actually used the internet so far to access the mission database with all the missionaries’ profiles, so I have no idea if I can go to anything else. But we’ll see. Worst case I can just copy the music from here to a thumb drive (there’s a lot in the office) and listen to it there.

Alright, that’s about all I can think of talking about. I’m sure I’ll remember something later, but it’s going to have to wait until Friday. Thanks again for all your support. I’ll try to let you all know more about the work I do there. I’ll have plenty of time to do it. Office Elders are there for a long time. Elder French will have six changes there, I think, by the time I take his place. That’s like nine months.

Elder David Arrington

PS: Stacey, if you’re up to it I have a job for you. I listen to a lot of classical music in the car while we’re driving, since it’s the only radio station allowed, and I wanted to get better at recognizing what era the music is from, what style it’s in, what kind of orchestra it is, where the recessatives are, blah blah blah. All that stuff. So if you have nothing better to do (You don’t. You’re a stay at home mom with a helpless child that is only capable of minor neck control) you could throw together a review sheet of basically everything we learned in Music 101 and send it to me.

Week 24–Say Goodbye to Atiquizaya :-(

And goodbye to the iPod.  FYI, the term “thensologue” for those unaware is a word David made up himself meaning “quote from a movie.”  Sort of like “thrithamoth”, that blast of hot air that you feel when you open the oven.  I don’t make this stuff up.  David does.

Anyway, after nearly 6 months in the same city, David is moving on.  But where you ask?  Read on.

Subject: (from Groundhog Day) “I’m a god. I’m not THE god. I don’t think.”

This week was a week of change. Everything is different now. First, congratulations to Julie and Dave for James’s progress. That’s super good news! I’m glad that he’s doing alright, but am a little sad I haven’t seen this picture with his eyes open yet...

Biggest news chronologically: My iPod got stolen. That’s stupid. Here’s the story. I never take it out of the house because I’m, ironically, scared someone will steal it. So on Wednesday, when we had district meeting at the church, of course I left it there, sitting on my desk, plugged into the speakers, like always. Elder Hardy and Elder Gonzalez came late to the meeting, so they were still in the house for a bit, and the guys who bring our purified water came by. It’s two guys, so one started loading the water in the house, and for some unfathomable reason Elder Hardy and Elder Gonzalez both went outside to talk to the other guy. Good, guys. Leave a strange Latin in our house alone. After that, they left, but Elder Gonzalez had forgotten his Preach My Gospel, so he went back to the house to get it with Elder Pineda, another Latin Elder. When I got back to the house after the meeting, no iPod. But also stupidly enough, that was the only thing they took. Not my comp’s camera, not the speakers even. So I called the water guys, and it turns out that they’re the owners of this branch and have been running it for nine years without ever receiving a single report like this before. They even have police background checks and stuff. Crazy. But we’ve been investigating for a while now, and it seems like they’re the only ones that could have done it. But it’s stupid. And I feel bad, because if I catch one of them, he loses his job. It’s lame.

“Well, at least I’ve still got this watch.”
“You stole that from my kin!”
“Yeah, well he was going to rat us out anyway.”
“You didn’t know that!”
“Well I was borrowing it until we DID know!”

I’ll give a quarter to anyone who tells me what that was from.

Elder Wardlow and I finally had changes. He headed off to Belize this morning. It was kind of expected, since even the president told him to pack his bags, since he’d be leaving, over a week ago. But still. We spent all day Sunday saying goodbye to everyone, and reassuring them that I would come back with my new comp soon. I was kind of happy that he was leaving and not me, though, because next month we are basically guaranteed four baptisms, three of which are a super powerful, golden family. The fourth was a guy that has wanted to get baptized, but for some reason just wants to do it in February. And I was thinking that maybe Henry will get out of jail soon, so he might get baptized, too.

Still, waiting for changes was intense. We had bets on what was going to happen. I figured I would move up to Senior Comp or something, and Elder Hardy (came in the same time as me) would train. I didn’t even dare dream that I’d train. Or move up to district leader, even, although neither would have been odd as far as mission assignments go. It took forever for them to come, but they did last night. Elder Wardlow, being district leader, answered and got to know first, which is frustrating. Super intense. But here, at the turn, I must leave you, Arrington family, yes YOU Arrington family, sitting at your computers, awaiting your deaths for my murder.

Sorry, I couldn’t think of a good way to end that thensologue. Also, I have nothing else with which to say here before I move on except that this computer doesn’t want me to upload pictures. Frustrating.

Also, we got a baptism this week. His name was Alex, and it was really sweet. He knew all the doctrine, but didn’t handle the pressure of his interview very well, so he failed it. We retaught him, had another interview, and it was great. Then the baptism on Saturday. That makes five so far in Atiquizaya.

So yeah, changes came, and they weren’t what we expected. Elder Wardlow still was going to Belize. Elder Gonzalez is opening an area with a missionary who is changing over from the East mission. Elder Hardy is training. And me? I’m leaving. Two new Elders are coming into Atiquizaya. So much for my sweet family. An Elder Lopez gets them, and he’ll also be training.

And where am I going? San Salvador, in an area called, I think, Monserrat. As the new General Secretary of the Mission.

Wait, what?

I’m still not super clear about what that means, but this is what I’ve gathered. I’m the guy in charge of anything the president needs. When people call the office, be it upset parents missing their missionaries, area seventies, the prophet, etc., I talk to them. I will be in the office, and my job will basically mean I have to know more about our mission than any other person in the world, including the president. I’ll be working closely with him and the assistants, so I’ll learn a ton. But I’ll still have four hours or so to proselyte, and I’ve heard that the area is nice. And I get to live in an even nicer house than I’m in now. And Elder French, the current secretary, will train me for this change. Oh, and no big deal, but I get to drive a car.

So there you go. Make of it what you will, but I’m excited for this opportunity. Basically I’ll be in charge of all communication throughout the mission. And I get to pick up the mail, so I don’t have to wait forever to get letters.

Okay, I’m out of time, but hopefully that was a very exciting email for you all. Thank you Emily, Dad, Mom, and Stacey for your emails. I rather enjoyed them all.

I love you all, and keep emailing me. I love it!

Elder David Arrington

PS: Just in case you were thinking about it, you may not need to buy me a new iPod. I’ll be in the office for a while with a computer, so I may be able to just access a homeserver music thing if it works better. I’ll let you know.

Week 23 in Atiquizaya–A trip to San Lorenzo, on the edge of Guatemala

First I should point out that this letter follows the somewhat premature birth of Julie and Dave’s baby, so there’s a great deal of concern in the family.  As of this post, Baby James is stable, but still in intensive care.  We held a family fast for him last Sunday, which, of course, did not include David because we only reach him once a week.  But apparently everyone shared their feelings about the situation in their letters to him.

On the bright side, we got some great pictures and even a video!

Subject: “Jeepers? Mister?” “I was going for innocence!”

Wow. That was some intense email.

I guess the first thing is James. That’s some really unexpected news. So Julie, congratulations first of all. And Dave, too. I’m super excited to have a new nephew, as I’m sure you’re both excited to have a new son. I know that the circumstances are a little less than ideal, but I’m sure everything will be fine. It’s rough to see him like this, but pretty soon you’ll be taking him home and yelling at him for chewing on the remote control, or some other nonsense. That’s about all I think I should say about that, since I’m sure that’s all you’re hearing about now.

It was also a little bit sad to hear that Kyle’s team lost, but it happens. There’s always next year. And soccer. And it sounds like BYU is doing awesome, but I wouldn’t have expected any less.

Lindsay, I have to admit that your baby naming problem is a big one. Let me just rule out right now the name Renesme. I will not accept the child as my niece if you call her that.

On my end, it was a pretty eventful week. First, on Monday we went as a District to San Lorenzo, which is a second area that the Atiquizaya missionaries are in charge of. There’s just a little branch up there right now, but it’s growing. They might even get a church building soon. It’s a really beautiful area, though. I took a ton of pictures, but the computer I’m on isn’t wanting me to upload them, so we’ll see what happens. You might see a picture of me on a bridge, though. That’s a bridge to Guatamala, and I’m literally within inches of being there. We actually had to get special permission from some military guys that were guarding it to take that picture, since we aren’t legally allowed to go there. Also, I’m trying to upload a video I took from the top of this mountain hill thing. It was super beautiful up there.

David in San Lorenzo on a hill

We had a baptism on Saturday for a kid named Herson Cruz. His family was innactive and we reactivated them, and then worked with the dad so that he could be worthy to baptize his son. We are super close to them, and it was an incredible experience to see the fruits of that. They’re now really active and all baptized. Also, the service was really nice because we had a combined one with Atiquizaya. They baptized one, and we baptized Herson and this little girl who is still eight, so she’s not our baptism. And she just couldn’t wait another year for it. How selfish.

On Sunday we had an interview for Alex Fuentes, who was getting ready for a baptism. He forgot everything, though, and didn’t pass. We have to go review it all with him, but now he’s kind of down, so I don’t know how good or bad that situation is. Hopefully we can still do it this week, though.

We are also teaching the family of Raquel, who is an inactive member. We had taught them before, me and Elder Reyes, but they didn’t really want anything. Now, though, Elder Wardlow and I are really tight with them, and they came to church on Sunday, and they’ve read their assignments, and they were asking us if it would be okay to start just reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning. Um, yeah! They’re really positive, and it’s refreshing to have investigators like that again. And this time it’s a whole family. Awesome. I don’t want to get changed out of this area just so I can help them.

Speaking of changes, they’re coming up next week. We were at a special multi-zone this week, though, greeting the president, and President Lopez just said out of nowhere to Elder Wardlow, “Pack your bags, you’re leaving.” Wow. That is oddly direct, and completely out of nowhere. But he had talked to him about going to Belize before, so we’re thinking he is. So I might be here again next week. Crazy times in the mission.

I also talked to Elder Duzzett, and he’s doing really well. He’s in a super hot area, but he gets bikes and he’s starting to baptize there. He’s a really good missionary, too. I can tell.

Alright, I’m running out of time and I’ve still got two emails to write. I’ll talk to you all later, and thank you to Lindsay, Julie, Mom, Dad, Stacey, Dave, the office Elders, President Lopez, and Sarah for emailing me this week!

Elder David Arrington

PS: I haven’t been gone THAT long, Lindsay. Of course I still know what IAA means. I’m surprised you didn’t know that.