Monday, August 29, 2011

Week 8 & Pictures

HOLA FAMILIA!
     I can't believe it! i'm almost done here at the MTC. The time has flown by. its crazy. this will be my last email from the united states in a very long time haha. This time next week i could be in some jungle somewhere speaking broked spanish to some Hondurans...i cant wait! It still isnt quite real for me yet...but i guarentee that it will be once i land in the Toncontin airport in Tegus. I'm really wondering how my spanish is going to be; when i talk to natives here i can understand about 90% of what they are saying and i can reply most of the time with something that might kinda sorta make sense haha.
    Alright well it's been a pretty normal week as far as the first few couple days go. On sunday it was elder snow's birthday and we had a little party for him, it was a ton of fun...i'll just have to send home some picture of it haha. 
     last monday i think it was, my old teacher Hermana Pete ate lunch with my district and she brought her friend who is also a teacher at the MTC to eat with us too. I forget his name but he is from Tegucigalpa. So i talked to him a lot. it was cool, after the first 5 minutes or so he asked where i learned spanish and i just said "uhmm...pues..aqui." (well...here) and he was really surprised at how well i spoke...i dont know if he really meant that or if he was just trying to be nice haha...either way. But i was talking with him more and he told me some really cool stuff...first off, the Tegucigalpa temple is for sure going to be in my mission boundaries (Comayaguela)! and secondly he told me that my mission home is in the Tegucigalpa mission boundaries which means that our mission has permission to go basically anywhere in tegus. He also was teaching me how to understand how Hondurans speak, they use this weird conjugation called vos...not vosotros. but i guess its a little weird to listen to at first but i'll get an ear for it after not too long.
     on Tuesday there was a devotional from Claudio D. Zivic from the First quorum of the seventy. it was awesome. he is from argentina. He basically talked about how we need to imagine ourselves and what we want to be two years from now and do everything we can to become that. Our life is like an echo, we get everything back that we put into it. Reminded me of the Avett Brothers' lyrics "Decide what to be, and go be it." Anyways that was a really good night.
     On Wednesday i hosted again and showed the newbies around haha. I hosted one missionary from Cherry Creek and then we ran into his friend here who is going to be on my flight to Honduras. He seemed like a really cool guy so i'm lookin' forward to getting to know him better. There are 11 people in my travel group going to comayaguela. Its a really cool group of missionaries... the ones that i know at least.
     Today we went to the temple and that was awesome as usual. and then i've just been doin P-day stuff since. I need to write some letters.
Mom- so i'm not sure if you've sent a package already, but i think i'm set on everything i need...I got the floss things from brett and ashley and then i bought those stickers at the bookstores here. Thats crazy about the new bishopric, they are going to be awesome. i wish i could've heard YOu and dad speak in church.
Dad- I got your letter with the calling card and church news. thank you so much! so i land in ATL at 6:30 am...which i think is 4:30 am in CO...but i'll be in the airport for 4 hours so i can wait a couple hours for people to wake up haha. also i did get that package with the DVD of my pictures in it. Im going to ahve to wait til i'm in the field to transfer the pics onto my thumbdrive...but thats only in a couple days...WOW.  I'm so excited for you and mom though. I've been praying that you guys will be able to get everything you need to get done taken care of and beable to have some peace in the final moments before you leave! It seems like quite the list of things to do. Oh, i also met 2 elders going to Frankfurt while i was hosting, i had them write down your names and to keep an eye out for you in the institutes and such. I'm sure the ward is going to miss you a lot too as bishop...it was the refiner's fire...a cool quote from a devotional here from Dennis Simmons from the seventy "Sanctification is the process we take to be cleansed from the world. It is cleansing, purifying, changing, repenting, recognizing, suffering, growing, accepting, seeking, avoiding, thanking, appreciating, laughing, crying, choosing, exalting, opening, understanding, abandoning, submitting, regretting, giving, striving, and loving. This is your sanctification process; this is your refiner's fire."
Ali- Thank you so much for the pictures! NYC looked like it was so much fun. Kenzie Rose is gorgeous, i miss her! i laughed so hard with the pictures you photoshoped Jonas and Miles into haha. i bet they LOVED that. So are you all settled in into your place in LA? how's matt liking getting out of NY finally?
Well I love you all so much, youre in my prayers. The gospel is true. the book of mormon is true.
Con mucho amor,
Elder Archibald
ps. someone should send me a weather report for Tegucigalpa :)
Pictures from Elder Archibald







 

Monday, August 22, 2011

Week 7


Hola Familia!
     This week FLEW by. wow. I think if i counted right I only have 10 days left until I should be on a plane headed to HONDURAS. My district is supposed to get our planes de viaje (travel plans) sometime today, i'll send another message once I find out when my flights are and such. Chances are i'll have a lay over at some point and be able to call home, so i'll let you know when that might be...who knows, maybe i'll have a lay over in Denver haha.
    Anyways, i'm tryin to remember the happenings of this last week. it was a lot like most of the other weeks here...they kind of all run together. But i did find out that Elder Briggs and my friend Elder Deyoung are travel companions and they leave this wednesday or tuesday or something so i introduced them. i'm super excited for both of them. Also i had a friend Elder Vasher leave to the Tampa FL mission so David and Whit should keep an eye out for him. Which mission is Brock Avery in again?
     I also sent my SD card to the house last Saturday...have you gotten it yet? And i also sent mom a letter in the mail back to the house. I got the email that dad send to all the missionaries announcing your mission! They are going to be so pumped for you. Did you announce it over the pulpit last sunday or is it this sunday? 
     On Tuesday for the Devotional, Elder David F. Evans from the first Quorum of the seventy came to speak to us. He spoke on the importance of teaching our investigators who heavenly father is. In a lot of cases we will be the first to teach them that they are literal spirit children of god, their father. He didn't really include a whole lot of new info, but it was a good reminder nonetheless. I'm gonna miss the firesides here every sunday and the devotionals ever tuesday when i'm out in the field.
     On Wednesday I got to do hosting and show the newbies around. It was a lot of fun to welcome all those missionaries in to the MTC. lots of tears. haha. It was also just super nice to do something out of the ordinary from our regular schedule. That took a few hours and i got to hang out with the friends that i've made here. I'm pretty sure i'll get to do it next wednesday as well.
 
David & Whitney: It was so awesome to get your letters! It sounds like the location of your condo is so nice; close to the ocean, right by the pool, lots of fun stuff for the boys to do. That sounds super fun about David being able to ride with all those bikers and be a part of a peloton...i bet its way different. Thats also good that he'll be able to start at the hospital soon. is he going to be doing more reconstructive surgery there than cosmetic? I LOVED whitney's letter too haha her spanish is really good...its cool that i'm actually able to understand that stuff now. And, of course the stories and quotes from the boys are awesome. my district loves the 'Jonas says' portion :) ahhh i miss those kids. Tell them that the pictures they colored were awesome and tell jonas thanks for the note and song. it was fun getting 3 letters 3 days in a row. oh and the articles are the BEST to get. that article about hospice care was suuper interesting. i also loved that talk from elder cook....the clippings of the random stories were super intertaining too. I definitely would enjoy some more of those in the future. YOU ARE THE BEST!
 
Well thats about it from me this week. i love you all so much.
 
Con Amor,
 
Elder Archibald

Sunday, August 14, 2011

MTC picture

Elder Archibald with he's cousin Elder Wood
 
This is the only picture we have of Elder Archibald in the MTC. We had to steal it off of his cousin's facebook page. Hopefully he'll get the photo kiosks figured out so we can get some more pictures. 

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Week 6

Hey family!
Well its been a great week...the time is FLYING by. Its crazy, I have a little more than 2 and a half weeks left! My expected departure date is on the 29th, i think i'll be getting my travel plans a week from today. i cant wait to actually be a missionary haha.

I got the package yesterday and let me just say...THANK YOU SO MUCH! that was such an awesome package to get. Basically all the candies i've been craving, and the ties are always fun to get. I needed some extras to give away as parting gifts to some of my friends here.

Well it feels a little like a groundhog day week, but there are some random things that were cool that happened. We got a new teacher for my district to replace Hermana Pete, her name is Hermana Staib. She's a really great teacher and super nice...but it made me realize really how amazing my other teachers are. Not that staib isnt good, but my other teachers were just that good.  Also there has been a pretty big change in curriculum here at the mtc and how class is structured. rather than just teaching once a week at teaching resource center (TRC) where we go to teach mock lessons, we are teaching everyday in class with "investigators". and then once a week we go to the TRC to teach volunteers, except they dont pretend to be investigators, its basically like we go and just talk with them about the gospel and share a message based on what their real needs are as a real person. I like it a lot more.
Also for the devotional on tuesday Cecil O. Samuelson spoke. he talked about how we need to always need to be on our best behavior as missionaries because you never know when your actions could turn soemone away from wanting to hear about the church...and besides, god is always watching anyways. also almost everyday for about an hour, for my language study, i go and just talk to some of the advanced elders in spanish. it is really amazing to me how well i can understand what they are saying. we'll see how much i have down by the time i'm in Honduras. hopefully it wont be a huge adjustment. also ms. bradley sent me a dearelder yesterday. it was a surprise but really nice to hear from her. it was really thoughtful of her to send me that note. It was very encouraging. 

 i see elder briggs quite a bit, i'm so jealous he's leaving like next week haha. i also havent seen my friend  mitch winter though.

Another cool kind of analogy we were talking about in class is about faith. Faith is like when you're walking up an escalator thats going down. If you keep a steady pace in working and moving up you'll stay still right where youre at. if you start moving slower or stopping all together then you move backwards and down. In order to progress in faith you have to walk faster and work harder than the world is bringing you down. Don't ever quit!


matt and ali, Comó están! gracias por su carta. Quiero ver los fotos de nueva york! solomente dos más semanas hasta matt vuelve, si? la pregunta sobre, si yo teneré un compañero y una area que son muy dificil, comó yo actuaré? Es una buena pregunta y debo pensar lo que haré. Estuvo raro con las otras personas que fumar y beber en nueva york? Mi español esta yendo asi asi, pero es mucho mejor que antes el MTC. No puedo hablar y escribir muy bien, pero puedo entender mucho cuendo estoy escuchando a los avansados y cuando estoy leyendo. Pues, necesito practicar más! me escribes en español el próximo vez y podemos practicar la idioma. Brett tambien.

well i love you all so much. you're in my prayers. i look forward to hearing from you. the church is true. joseph smith was a prophet. the book of mormon is true.

con mucho amor,
-Elder Archibald

ps. still trying to figure out how to get pictures home. i tried to make a cd today but the kiosks were out of order...like always. its frustrating, but i'm just gonna try to go everyday and see if i can do it.


Week 5

Hola Familia,
     So to start off thank you so much to dad for sending me that package with all the ties socks and reese's, that definitely made my week haha. I love getting stuff in the mail :) and also i know that mom said she sent me a letter before awhile ago but i havent gotten anything in the mail, if she hasnt sent it yet then all well haha. I also paid for my typhoid pills it cost $48, and there's a thing in the mail that i'm supposed to send home for insurance stuff so i'll be sending that today most likely. also i got a letter from the DMV about my driver's licence extention sticker, it said something like "we regret to inform you that the extention was unable to be processed..." it needed a $3.00 fee with it. i can resend it in with a check for $3.00. it'll my last check i have... i'll be back on email in a couple hours while i'm doing laundry so hopefully you get this and can tell me what i should do about that.
I've seen taylor a couple times now around, he seems like he is doing awesome. we saw each other on our sunday walk at the temple and took a picture. i'll have to either mail home my SD card so you can get pictures off or i can burn some CD's i think of the pictures and send them home. It seems like the photo kiosks are always out of order though, its kind of frustrating. I also saw scott this morning, he got in yesterday. we ate breakfast together and he seems like he is so happy to be here. he is going to be an aweesome missionary. Mitch Winter gets her next wednesday on the 10th, i want to try and host and possible get to welcome him into the MTC. i'll let ya know how that goes if i'm able to do it. i think that would be so much fun. usually they dont let you til you are in your 7th week or something, but i still think i might be able to.
Gym is fun as always haha, i'm getting better at soccer. i play with all the missionaries from central and south america...its so much fun. its also fun to hear all of the different accents from different countries. i've been trying to practice my spanish a lot with them, most are from Chile or other places around there. but there's this Elder from puerto rico, and he has the coolest accent haha. I also play a lot of sand volley ball outside, i've made some good friends, Elder Deyoung (he's going to the Lubbock Texas mission like Scott) and Elder Bowman.
Every tuesday morning my zone has service. it starts at 6:00 am so we have to wake up and 5:30 which is kind of a bummer, but its alright. we clean another residence hall...just do vaccuuming, sweeping, trash...etc. we were at another place before, but we got switched and i like it so much more. the other people that we worked for that worked at the MTC were these really sarcastic rude ladies, but now we work under these really nice older men...it makes such a difference and makes me happy to do service when the people who tell me what to do are actually nice and say thank you.
There are a TON of new missionaries in my zone/branch now. we get about 2 new districts every week. we have about 4 districts of native spanish speakers too which is AWESOME. i love being able to practice spanish more. i think there is like a total of 95 missionaries in my branch. its a lot. I can't believe that pretty soon my district is going to have the most seniority; only 4 weeks left. its been flying by. my last p-day feels like it was yesterday.
Last tuesday for the Devotions Elder Geruld N. Lund from the first Quorum of the Seventy came to talk to us (he wrote The Work and The Glory) anyways, he talked about faith. He gave 2 preconditions for recieveing faith: 1. Must have a soft heart and 2. must be tought truthful things. then he went on to  tell the three steps to recieving faith: 1.must have a desire to recieve knowledge and faith. 2. action. When we have hope we need to act on it...that is our trial of faith. 3. and after we act on our hope then we recieve a witness from the holy ghost and our faith will be built. I cant wait for mom and dad to get to come to the Firesides and Devotionals. there hasnt been one boring one yet since i've been here.
Whats goin on in the outside world? Sports? any big events? Whats going on in the family? How are david and whitney liking florida? the boys? Heather liking work? any hot dates haha? Glad to hear john and dad got back from Vegas and that they had a good time doing gagglesoft stuff. How are brett and ashley and luella liking St. George...hopefully it starts cooling off there soon. only another month of summer haha! How was ali's trip to NY to see matt? i sent her a letter to the house, i'm not sure if she got it. I also got Kelli's dear elder. good to hear athlete is continuing to progress. and i wish i could see aiden around mackenzie, i know he's going to be such a good big brother to his little sister. He's such a good kid. I miss him so much! any ideas for names yet for the baby?
Well i love you all so much. hope to hear from you soon. Write back :)
The gospel is true. Joseph Smith was a prophet. The Book of Mormon is true.
con mucho amor,
Elder Archibald

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Week 4: Hi Again

Hey there, I just finished my laundry and i have a little bit more time to write so this will just be a really random letter. So before i forget, do you think someone could send me the rest of my Brother bott and mission prep notes that i had in that file on the mac desktop? also, i'm just sitting here chilling with Elder Collinsworth...from the BYU basketball team haha. He's a cool guy. We're just talking about Mark. He says that his older brother loves coach Pope and that he's so excited to get back from his mission and play for him. He's headed to Russia, and has been here for 10 weeks and has 2 more. i'm glad i only have to be here for 9 weeks haha.   I keep meeting more people going to my mission with me, i'm really excited they all seem really cool. My spanish is coming along pretty well too, its pretty incredible how much we learn in just a month...but having said that...i have SO much more to go. I can understand everything my teachers say when they speak spanish, but its pretty hard for me to understand some of the other native speakers in my zone. but i keep trying to talk to them as much as possible because its really really good practice. Also, i like getting those missionary letters your forward to me. I'm glad brock is doing good...kind of a bummer about his companion always having to sleep though.  well...love you lots. miss you.
 
love,
Elder Archibald.

Week 4

Hey everyone,
     Another week gone here at the MTC. It was a pretty good week, i'm back to 100% health. A lot of missionaries have been passing around a cold but i've been trying to stay clear and wash my hands a lot. that hand sanatizer you sent me in the package is coming to good use. I also thought i felt a little bit of a cold coming on, but i took a couple zicam throughout the day and felt a lot better. And i've also been eating really healthy...mom would be proud haha. A salad with every meal, and lots of fruits and veggies. I'm wondering if i'll have to let out my pants like Brett had to in the MTC haha.
     Lots of missionaries in my zone are headed out to their missions, lot's of my friends left on monday. I'm pretty jealous. I just want to get out there and start working! I've been meeting a lot of other missionaries headed to my mission, and i'm really excited; they seem like some really cool guys that i'll like to be around. I've also met missionaries going to the Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula Missions. Which brings me to some bad news, i think that the temple is actually JUST outside my mission bounderies...BUT I'm pretty sure that the comayaguela mission will get to visit the temple a lot because i think its only like 5 or 10 minutes outside of our boundaries. I was kind of bummer when i found out, but either way, i'm super close to a temple and its really exciting.
     I'm in a threesome companionship now that Elder Daniels is gone, his old companion Elder Crist is with Elder Snow and I. He's from Gilbert Arizona. I get along with him pretty well and he is helping me out with the language pretty well.
     I ran into Rich and Leanne Call the last few days, it was really nice to see them. They got to meet my district and Rich was talking to us in spanish, I was impressed at how good his spanish actually was! We were just talking about random stuff and how they liked the first few days, from the sounds of it they are loving it.
     here's a fun story, so yesterday i was eating dinner in the cafeteria with my district just like a normal day when someone came and sat next to me. I looked up and saw that the president of the MTC, Pres. Brown came and sat down right next to me in the seat to my left. He read my name tag and said "Hi Elder Archibald! how are you doing?" i responded saying hi and exchanging pleasantries like that haha. Then he asked where i was going on my mission and where i was from and things like that and we were having a great conversation. and then things got a little more interesting...He asked me to give him 10 scriptures on the atonement from the book of mormon off the top of my head. i drew a blank at first but then started listing some off with the help of some missionaries in my district. Then he asked me to give him 6 scriptures on baptism...then 3 on the Holy Ghost...then to tell him "my purpose" as a missionary word for word in english and spanish haha...then told me to tell him D&C 4..i couldnt do it in english but i told him in spanish haha. Then he told me a passed the test haha. He said that he was preparing for a talk he's giving in a conference and needed some scripture references from those topics haha. He shook my hand and told me that he made note of my name...so this means that i might have to either say a prayer during a devotional or sometimes he calls up random missionaries to talk on whatever subject during the devotionals haha. speaking of devotionals the last one was great. elder simmons from the 70...former 70 i think actually, came to talk to us about how this mission is our sanctification period and it is our refiner's fire. Another thing i love to do is on sunday nights they show movies and usually they have a talk from Elder Holland, if they do i always try to go to that one. He is amazing. I love listening to him when he talks to missionaries. He knows how to inspire and always talks about how his mission meant EVERYTHING to him.
     class is going great as usual. it is our teacher Hermana pete's last day on saturday because her 3 years are up. so our district is still kind of bummed about that. hermano Wheeler is stickin'around though so i'm happy about that. 'He's my favorite. I think i figured out that his dad is an area 70...Richard Wheeler.
     today has been an awesome p-day so far. we woke up and did some personal study and then as we were leaving to go to the temple i saw taylor! He lives in the building right accross from mind. i could only talk for a minute or two because we were on our way to do a session at the temple, but it was great to see him. i'm sure i'll be seeing a lot more of him. He seemed happy and like he was doing great. The temple was awesome today too, this was the first week we could go because its been closed for cleaning and stuff.
I havent got the package from dad yet...but i'm really looking forward to it haha. who thought i'd be so excited about ties? also i'll be lookin for my driver's licence extention sticker in the mail, thanks so much for doing that for me...i know how busy mom is with her to-do list.
     So how's everyone in the family doing? Whats the latest with David, Whitney and the boys? any interest in their house? how do they like floriday and the new job? How's heather doing? Dating life? work? other fun adventures? how's John and Kelli and Aiden and the little sister to be? How's brett, ash, and luella? Thats fun that Ali is going to visit matt in NYC. there are a bunch of elders in my zone going to the NYC missions. Hows mackenzie?  Also thanks to ali for doin that thing on my facebook asking for addresses. It would be nice to get everyone in the family's addresses too.

well i have to go get my Hep A2 shot. i miss and love you all! youre always all in my prayers.

Love,
Elder Archibald