Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2007 4:37 PMSubject:
DAD!!! Hey dad! Here are some pictures! I hope this works. Turns out we get 30 minutes every pday to do some emails! Crazy huh? Well I’m not gunna lie itis rough here.Ok so I can’t attach pictures. I’m sorry. I really wish I could. I want to sooo bad. I can’t really print them here either. This card thing isn't working at the print place. But it will work in the field. It’s just the mtc puts a lot of restrictions on us ya know? Anyway give this to mom too. I love you both so much. I dont know if you've gotten all my letters? I hope so. It’s been hard. Very hard, but im doing my best. My comp is rough. We don’t click. I can’t understand a word he says… and he’s American. The rest of my comps in my district and zone are pretty cool though. It’s fun at times but real rough some others. I just feel like I should be so much further ahead than I am. I know its stupid and I need to pay my dues but you know me, no patience. I do what I can though.So any way I don’t really know what to say other than I love you Dad and Mom. You mean the world to me. I miss you two so much and I get sick when Ithink about not seeing you for two years!!! I’m so glad I got to talk to you mom! It was great. Wish you were there dad. But oh well, 6 months and you'll get to hear my voice? Well I really do love you.So lets talk volleyball. Haha its been my ticket into the hearts of my zone. We went and played sand volleyball for gym or sport as us Deutchers call it and I was just goofing off and stuff. But then I dug this one kidl ike 8 times and everyone has loved me since! Haha. Its fun here but like I said kinda rough. I hope the spirit helps me soon.We went to the temple today. That was rather cool, going to a different one. Well this is my email address. So get used to it. Send me his updates would ya?...Well I love you two so much. SEND ME TONZ OF LETTERS DANG IT! YOU DONTUNDERSTAND HOW GREAT IT IS TO GET THEM. AND DAD NONE OF THIS I ONLY GOT A LETTER A WEEK CRAP. I WANT LETTERS!!!!!!!!! 2 TIMES A DAY! LOVE FOREVER THE ELDER ARNETT
Sent: Fri 6/22/07 4:24 PM
Hey mom and dad,Well I cant really get pictures right now cause the mtc’s way censored but that’s ok keep them coming. I miss you guys man. I’m sorry I’m so stubborn sometimes but I guess that’s a good thing so I can stand up for what I believe in. I love you so much. I’ll send you a letter soon I just have no time on the internet. I love you so much mom and dad. Thanks for everything. Be ready for when I come home! I’m 2% done! Write me more man! I love hearing from you! I do. So write more! I love hearing about home and tell mom that when she sends my address and stuff don’t send it to everyone, just my good friends. Ok take care of things for me. I love you. And have some faith. So tell mom to calm down and trust k? I love you. chuss!E.ARNETT
Sent: Thu 7/05/07 4:40 pm Mom I love you!
Im sorry that I can’t write too much on here today. I’m so busy. Our schedules are screwed up today. I love you so much mom. I miss you. Tell me what’s going on at home! Im writing you as much as I can. More tapes! I loved it! Thank you so sososososos much!
I love you so much. Don’t forget me mom! I miss you like crazy and I’m so busy Im sorry. I'm halfway through my mtc stay! Crazy! I love you so much and miss you to boot.
Love Chad
Sent: 7/12/07 12:02 pm Hey mom,
Its been a hard week. A lot has been happening.
First off, the German’s coming along. Kinda. We did a street preach and I could say more than I thought so that was pretty cool.
I'm still having a hard time with my comp but we get along now.
_____________ finds out in about an hour if he gets his call changed. Crazy huh! He might not be going to -________! I dunno there really isn’t much to say cause nothing has happened! we lose our oldest distict this week so I’ll be the oldest as of Tuesday! CRAZY!
Mommy I love you so much. Write me good stuff please.
I love you mom.
Talk to you soon.
Chad!
Sent: 7/19/07 2:04 pm
Hey dad. Im gunna try to be on around 1. So be there if you can. If I’m not on by 1: 30 I’ll get on later and write you with another time. Much love paps.Love,Chad
Reynolds is going to Berlin or Frankfurt. I don’t remember. How you doing dad?
I’m starting to sleep again. How’s work? The dogs? Penpen (lacys baby)? I miss mom. My sleeping is off and the pills are making me sick. Things got better. What did the draft turn out like for the suns?
Dad I miss you Reynolds says hi.
I want another tape here!!!!!! And I don’t get dear elders til 6. The language is ok. Its not the greatest but whatever. It helps that I am sleeping. hey i think i have to go so if I don’t reply I’m sorry, I love you dad.
Sent: 7/27/07 4:47 pm
Parentals, Haha I love saying that. So i sent you a letter today telling you about what’s going on. But for a short little thing to tie you over, I’m fine. I promise. I write you guys every week are you not getting them? I hope you are. So life here is hard but thats how its meant to be. So don’t worry. Mom I dunno what treats I want, sorry. Um maybe some...I dunno really, another thing of beef jerky? Some chips? That sounds pretty good. So over all, I’m good. I miss you two so much! And whatever calling card is good, I just want to make sure I can call you from the airport and that I have enough minutes to be able to talk for as long as I want. I love you two so much and get me all the stuff I asked for soon or else I might not get them. Mom look online for a laundry bag with a strap. I need another towel too. Just look around. And yes, I love the wallet. Where to I get travelers checks? Help please! WRITE ME EVERYDAY AND TELL ME ABOUT YOUR LIVES AND HOME AND ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING! ...........please...:) I love you two very much. elder chad
Sent: 8/02/07 4:35 pm THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF ELDER ARNETT THE MISSIONARY TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WARD CALLED PIONEER.
1 Now behold, I Chad, Son of Jeff, have somewhat to say concerning you, the people of the land of my inheritance. Yea, I would that I may speak unto you because of the fullness of my joy.
2 Yea, for now is the time that I prepare to ride apon the wings of that great metal bird to the place that the Lord our God has called me. And I have been instructed in the manner of the way of the Elders before me; therefore, I do know how to pack.
3 Now I Chad, son of Jeff the Husband of Pam, who is great and fair in the eyes of the Lord, do have somewhat more to say concerning the Young Women in the Ward Pioneer. Yea I do rejoice in your writings, fore they did find me. And Oh how great the timing and tender mercies of our Lord! Fore it is no coincidence that your writings did find me in a state of sadness. Yea fore I was grieved at the hardness of the language of German; yea and for many other reasons was I grieved.
4 But behold, your letter did find me and did lift me up. Yea and for this cause do I direct a portion of my writings unto you, the Young Women of the Ward Pioneer in the land of my inheritance. My soul does rejoice because of your words.
5 Now my people, I do bid thee adieu for a time. Yea, for this shall be the last of my writings from the Empty Sea (MTC) for on the seventh day of the eighth month two thousand and seven years from the coming of our Lord, yea even Jesus Christ, I do embark into destiny. Behold, I do go unto the land that is torn because of the Wars of the World, and do preach of the goodness and mercy of the One and True God of Isreal.
6 Fore He truly is the Light and the Way.
7So now I do send these, my writings. I pray they find you in health and safety. Yea, and this is the desire of my heart. Chuss.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Germany Hamburg Mission" <2017709@ldschurch.org>
To: "Arnett"
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 5:52 AM
Subject: 6 pictures for you
August 10, 2007
Dear Brother and Sister Arnett
Your son, Elder Arnett, arrived safely on 08 August here in Hamburg.
Although he was very tired when we picked him up at the airport, we felt of his great spirit. He traveled to the mission home on the train with our assistants and there he began his mission by sharing information and testimony with a few of the passengers. He then arrived here at the mission home for a little rest, a nice meal and a testimony meeting, in German. We then sent him to bed for a well-deserved rest.
The next morning his new companion, Elder Lewis, came to pick your son up and take him to Essen. We have very carefully chosen those to train our new missionaries and we know that your son will have a great training experience with Elder Lewis.
Sister Thompson and I deeply appreciate your faith in sending your son on a mission and we will care for him as if he were our own son for the next two years.
P-day is on Mondays for the Hamburg Mission so you may wish to write your e-mail on Sunday evening so that he can read and answer it Monday morning. Attached are two photos of your son with us and also your son with his new companion.
Please feel free to contact us at any time with any issues or concerns.
With our warmest wishes,
President Wesley B. Thompson
Sister Rebecca L. Thompson
Sent: 8/13/07 2:17 am PAReNTALS!!!(AND EVERYONE ELSE!!!)
HOLZ COW IM IN GERMANY!!
ok first off the y and the z are switched here so when zou see a z think y cause im not gunna take the time to fix it.
oh meine gutte. germanz is so crayz. but i love it! mz first area is a huge citz named Essen. its so awesome. ITS STORZ TIME!!!
ok so mz first daz we prettz much sepnt travling. it was a 6 hour bahn(train) ride. boring. but whatevs it was still fun seeing the countrz. mz trainer is named elder lewis. he rocks. hes waz cool and waz good at missionarz work. im gunna learn tonz. anzwazs. so we get into essen right, and we meet our third comp elder leigh. were working as a dritte for a week or so until his comp comes back from oberhausen. its a long storz that i dont wanna go into. an apostate missionarz and new zone leaders and a girl here. za its kinda bad! but whatevs. so then we went out and did a little contacting that first daz but reallz we just wanted to get to know the citz. theres a few areas we need to avoid, but over all its a waz cool place. #then we had a dinner appointment that night with the kotzlik's. sister kotzlik is the onlz member so it was kinda fun. her son daniel is 17 and waz funnz, i wanna get to know him better. the food was amaying.
the next daz we had like a two hour planning thing for the week. just set our goals and stuff. thats where elder leigh is so negative all the time. he sazs the works dead in essen but its the most sucessful place in the mission. but whatevs.
so we went outside and tried to find some people. didnt reqallz work. then we went to stop bz some less actives, that was cool, none were home but i did mz first contact. i talked to this black guz named pastor tony. hes funnz. i went up and started talking to him and he was like 'zou speak english dont zou?' i laughed and said za. then we got his info and stuff. he admires the missionaries and wants to talk with us. we'll call him tonight.
im sorrz but so much has happened so im gunna hit the kez points.
the next daz we had an apointmnent made with a referral. we met him at the kirche. sorrz thats church. we sat down and started talking about what he has learned. hes been taught before. then after about 5 minutes he said before we go anz further, i think zou should know, i want to be baptized.
i wanted to hug him
i was so stoked! we meet this guz off the street and he wants to be baptiyed! im so excited! so september 8th, mark it as mz first baptism.
so then we went to this park where the stake plazs soccer on saturdazs and we got to talk with him and have him meet some of the members. i love the ward here. some reallz great people live here and thezre waz helpful. but we found out alot about lahib marcus. thats the name of mz baptiym. so anzwazs. he comes from iraq. hes be3en christian his whole life so he and his familz have been reffugies for thezre whole life. thez have been trzing to get into greece for a long time and kept getting sent back to iraq. its crayz some of his stories. anzwazs hes been living in deutschland for some time and knows he cant go back. he sazs he will two dazs before he wants to die. he wants to see his home land. mz real comp lewis has built a real good relationship with him and ive tried. the language is a definite barrier though. but i understand a lot actuallz. i understand more than elder leigh who has been here for 7 months sometimes. and i can respond which is cool.
so that was that.
then sundaz rolled around. it was a blast. i bore mz testmonz, i had to, and its was so funnz. i got up and said hi and it was mz first week in germanz and mz deutsch was bad. then i started to talk and when ever id start to sound out a word the whole congregation would be nodding their heads encouraging me. it was waz funnz.. i reallz like the ward. thezre sweet, although we have some crayz people too. like this guz who has been excommunicated 2 times and just got rebaptiyed. za, a lot of people are like that here though.
then i met this girl named ronja krane. we were teaching this zoung womens class and za she was there. shes not a member but sshe stazed with a familz that mz cousin james married into. so she knows mz name. it was so sweet. i wanted to kneel down and thank god right then. she wanted to know about an english class and stuff so were gunna set up a conversation class, her english is perfect though. she doiesnt even have an accent. but im just gunna trz to be her friend first and invite here to things, i think shes interested but she said her parents werent too excited that she wanted to go to church. well see...
then later that sundaz we taught lahib the first lesson. it was waz good cause we had a member familz the danalakis there. thezve gotten to be friends with lahib. hes reallz exxcited. so are we.
we then went to the bishops house to talk about the ward. findout partmembers and lessactives and all that stuff. he told us avbout this ladz who wants her 9 zear old baptiyed. so we have to teach her and get to count it. number 2 babz!! i cant believe it.
i cant believe how guided our lives are. its amaying. this week has been such a miricle. seriouslz. mz trainer is so cool and good. mz apartment is the nicest in the mission, but it is still prettz getto. ill send pics next week. mom would never live here. we have a bathroom a kitchen a bedroom and a studz.i think its 35 square feet. we will have 4 elders living there bz the end of next week.
the people here arent that rich. actuallz reallz poor compared to our standards. but i love em. and i love it here.
well we have a teaching appt here in a little.
im so stoked to be here now. i know everzone is sazing hang on and itll get better but im having a blast. its so sweet here, but i also went through a lot in the mtc. so its due. but i love it. i wouldnt trade it for the world.
i love zou and miss zou. talking to zou was so good. i loved it. well talk in 4 months though. i can wait, can zou?
loves,
chad
pictures will come soon. elder leigh is making us go now so za, next week though i promise. i love zou so much.
oh and i need like 50 to 80 € on mz personal account actuallz but like 200 bucks more on there. sorrz. but i have to get some stuff like a new backpack. mine wont work cause it rains 24/7 here. i have to get one here. sorrz. i love zou though! and i have to get some scripture cases so za. chuß.
Mon 8/20/07 3:53 AM
To:
pamiam1218@hotmail.comdad and mom,
sorry these are way short, but im so busy and i really neeed to get out of here. but i just wanna let you kjnow whats going on here.
ya the love parade is here. ew. but whatevs. europe is so diffrent than home
um the work was a dud this week. not too much happened but i still tried to have fun. i havent had a bad week yet but im scared for it haha.
yes mom, i still love my comp and its fun having 4 elders together. we joke around alot but we work too. its way fun.
dad, dont worry. like you said the past is past. i find my self thinking more and more about the work and less and less about everything else. all is well. i promise. and i love you, thanks for the advice.
the language is hard. i have a constant headache trying to understand it all. butim learning lots. ive already gotten alot of the cuss words in my vocab seeing as i hear them often every day. usually in my general direction haha. its funny i laugh every time. and no mom, i dont use them.
the mission life is way diff than the mtc. its so lax out here. and ive met a few apostates. its so easy to slip even on a mission. but dont worry, my feet are secure. im not moving.
i hope you liked the pictures. i have tonz but i cant really send them all. sorry guess your gunna have to wait 22 months.
i got your tape. i just bought a tape player today. my other one broke on the flight over. i dont know what happened but it refuses to play. i tried everything.
hey with money, im sorry but im gunna be spending quite a bit the first part here of my mission. theres soo much to buy to be ready. that backback i had sucked over here. i love my new one though.absolutely. its so comfy. anyways, sorry for running the bill but its kinda nessesary right now.
k i love and miss you both so much.
mom good luck with school. just be glad you only have 3 problem children cause i have 600,000. and they really hate me.
dad, keep on keepin on. i already painted the x for you! haha. hey tell cody hi for me ja?
any ways,
much love,
your son
Mon 8/27/07 11:53 AM
To:
Pamela Arnett (pamiam1218@hotmail.com)
----- Original Message -----
Geez, what happened to make Duffy and Jr to get in a fight? That makes me angry, but good choice... and how the heck did Duffy lose? Tell me he got a few good strikes in.So, I do keep a daily journal and will do what you told me to, but you have to realize my schedule is never the same so I never know how much I can write. I do the best I can though.I hope Uncle Cliff is ok. Tell Cam and all the cousins I say hi and love em. Tell them to drop me an email one of these days too. I'm happy for Cameron. That's so great he's doing this for real-- no more faking it-- its awesome.So this week was difficult. If you want the defintion of ineffective missionary work it's this, ´street contacting in the middle of preparations for the biggest gay and lesbian party that literally brings hell´. Try crying repentance in that situation.Last monday was Elder Lui´s birthday. He's the Italian elder in my apartment with me. We went bowling and had lots of fun. In the innen stadt (innercity) there are always booths with people trying to save some sort of animal. So there were about 12 missionaries standing around cause we were deciding what kinda lunch we wanted and this kid walks up and starts talking to us about whales. Someone said we were American and he starts talking English with us. He's from Jacksonsville. Fl and has this "gansta" accent. He asked us what we were doing here. One of the Elders mentioned we were missionaries. His attitude totally changed. He got all reserved and started acting like he had somewhere to go. We are used to that -- all Germans do it. He was standing next to me while I was doing a rubics cube, just showing off my madd skillz to the other Elders, and I asked, ´´what, are you scared of us?´´ He looked around and said no. I asked him if he knew what we did. He said not really. He had such a bad attitude. I told him we pretty much did what he did, but instead of saving fish, we were saving souls. I asked him if he wanted to be saved. He said maybe. I laughed and said when it is a yes to seek me out. He told me ok. His name is Thomas. I've seen him alot since in the innenstadt.My districkt was laughing so hard. They couldnt believe that I did that. Neither could I really. It was P-day, and I had a rubics cube in my hands. I go crazy when I have a rubics cube in my hands.Tuesday we had district meeting in Mulheim so we had to travel a bit.After Tuesday, we just did a lot of contacting, but we had to be really careful. The gay Loveparade really hindered the work. I was pretty upset about it. I can't believe so many people showed up. It should have been young single adult heaven, except for two factors, they were all drunk and they don't want god in their lives. It's ridiculous.On Saturday, the day of the Loveparade, we were locked in the church all day. President Thompson wouldnt let us out. We had to stay in Essen, though, because we had a few appointments. That night we had a ward talent show. It was a blast. The three other elders and myself lipsinked to "The Lion Sings Tonight". It was funny and the ward loved it. My ward here is awesome. There are a few guys who are American and I love talking to them. On Sunday, we went to the Stake President's house.That family is so funny. We had root beer floats! I was so stoked! I haven't had rootbeer in so long. All we have here to drink is tea, carbonated water, and apfelshorle (carbonated apple juice, weird I know, but I love it.). and water outta the faucet. But you have to be careful. My general rule of thumb is if it's brown, don't drink it, if it's green, dont drink it, if it's clear and you drink it, you still might be in trouble later that night -- and here I was thinking Europe was civilized!
We kind of live in the ghetto. I love it though. There are thugs everywhere. They walk around flashing their blades. I walk around flashing my missionary badge. Elder Lewis is scared for me--he thinks I'm gonna get stabbed.I saw a girl get hit by a bahn (train), it was a suicide attempt. I was very scared. Elder Lewis said that he's seen 4 people die... people jump in front of things all the time. The German people are just so depressed. They need the gospel really bad.Yesterday in church, there was this young man in the ward who was set apart as a missionary. He has been called to the Frankfurt mission, just south of me. It brought back so many feelings. After all the meetings were over, the ward members came into the chapel and all the kids around my age got up and sang "In the Hollow of Thy Hand" to him. It was very emotional. All four of us missionaries were up there and I think we were all tearing up. The Stake President put the piano bench in the front of the chapel and called him up. His dad and the bishop came up with him. He gave his girlfriend one last hug and walked up. He walked past us elders sitting on the side. He looked at us, he was so scared and excited. I remember that feeling, in fact I still get it.
Then, he was set apart as a missionary. A miracle happened as the blessing was being pronounced. I understood. It made me think of my setting apart.with Bishop Graham and President Greer and you DAD. All of us missionaries were crying, it was a tender moment and one that I will always treasure. It made me realize how much I apprieciate this opportunity. Yes, its a sacrifice... a huge one, but it's such a priviledge.And, that's my week in review. Here are some pictures just to show how Im doing and where I'm at.Much love.Elder Arnett
Mon 9/03/07 5:22 AM
To:
pamiam1218@hotmail.com
Security scan upon download
my dearest mother and father,
whats up! so this week has pretty much been one of those weeks! Murphy's law! where everything that could go bad, did. haha. and the best part is that i still had a good time. so here we go.
so on tuesday elder lewis and lui had a reporter follow them around and try to figure out just what it is exactly that missionaries do. it was a pretty big deal. some guy that works for public relations came up to essen last week and talked to us aobut what to say, how to say it, how to sit, how to answer questions, how to walk, where to look, proper posture, and gave us a full 2 or 3 year background on this chick that was to follow us around. the church is kinda scary...
anyways, they started out by doing service (im telling what they did so you get the background. i come into this story but elder leigh and i still need a lot of work with our german so we had an exchange that day.). the service part was good, but the members in this ward are friggin crazy. theres this member brüder Steinka, and he pretty much ruined everything for us. Everything we were told not to talk about, he talked about. plural marriage, blacks and the priesthood, church politics, kolab, what we do in the temple, blah blah blah, you all know the hot topics of the church. she took 5 full pages of notes on this guy. then she followed the elders around for a bit longer and took off. elder lewis was so mad.
so that was a bad omen for the week. really nothing happened. we wentout and worked, but the city was dead this week. to tell you the truth i think its because of the lack of faith from a few elders in this city. not to name names, but an elder in my apartment is alway negative! its so annoying! especially cause im golden! (we use the term golden instead of greenyout here because we have golden power. we know no limits and believe like crazy. hence the term golden. so when reffering to me as being a new missionary, the correct term is golden) but i can really see his attitude infecting the people of the ward. they should be excited aobut the work not annoied with it! but transfers are soon, and hes been here for a long time so we´ll see what happens. but ya, the ward is doing a forty day fast for missionary work, and its pretty cool. if the ward believes and really tries to further the work, then i have no doubt that huge things will happen in this city. one way that i decided to help is to do somthing i saw done in my home ward a while ago. we give boms to the ward members each week and make them promise to give them out during that week. i told them that if they did it a huge jump in missionary work would be seen.
this week was all contacting. we did all we could to find new investigators. and we found 2! one is this young guy i started talking to on the street. hes kinda american but is way better at german. so we talked a mixture of both. haha it was cool. anyways we had an appointment with him yesterday but he called us to reschedule and that never happens! they just dont care and leave you hanging. hes way interested and doesnt like the catholic church, so he went buddist. hes a cool guy. i hope things pan out with him for a number of reasons.
so Lahib, the iraq guy. we had a huge two hour lesson with him on saturday to plan his baptism and teach him a few more things. we thought it went well and he gave up black tea and all this stuff, but when we went over hte baptisimal interview questions with him, he had a few concerns with a couple of them. but they all were resolved and we were good to go. or so we thought.
when we went to pick him up for church everything seemed normal. he was waiting for us on the corner like always. he walked over to us and shook our hands. he said he couldnt come today. we asked why. then he informed us that he didnt want to come again. he said he had a bad feeling after he met with us. we explained that sometimes that happens when we remember things we have done or when we are about to do a life changing thing. he then gave another excuse, he said his family situation wasnt good enough. his brother was poor so he couldnt join the church. he was just looking for a way out. we kept trying to get him to talk to us, but to no avail. it was pretty depressing to me.we said bye and went to church. and that was that.
so no baptism next week. but we´re challenging for another this week. so we´ll see how that works.
i dunno, its really hard here in germany. i get letters from all my friends and they´re throwing down with the gospel. baptisms left and right. and im happy for them, but thats how people judge success. the german people are so stubborn. theyve seen so much heartache. i met a man who was in the battle of stalingrad. and another lady who saw her family die in a concentration camp. they dont believe in god and they want nothing to do with religion. a fourteen year old told me yesterday that ´jesus wasnt his thing´. these people have grown up not trusting their neighbors and hating the world around them. i see it in their eyes. its so sad. i havent had one person on the street smile atme since ive been here. they barely even say hello. they drink their lives away and refuse to think of the good things.
and that tends to make my job hard. i dont care if people judge me from back home or whatever. i dont care if i dont get one baptism (fyi there are a lot of elders who have that happen here). i dont care if i get cussed at, spit on, beer thrown at, or run down by a car. all i care is that i try my hardest. i wish that was the way mormon culture judged. not by the position you hold or the baptisms you have. ya, ive been a district leader. ya ive had good luck with the numbers ive been able to put up. but they arent what matters. true, they are important in the mission feild cause thats how we know if the work is moving foward, but i hate how people in the real world judge by them. one of the best missionaries i have ever met out here only has one baptism. and the whole mission looks up to him. but the world hears 'one' and thinks that he didnt do well. i dunno. we had a huge talk about it at zone conference. it kinda got us all a little mad at the world. but i guess thats just how it goes. sorry to vent.
as for the german language, this week was really good i think. i had a few moments when i felt like i understood almost everything. its an amazing feeling, let me tell you! And i also had an experience when i felt very comfortable talking.
i went on a exchange with my zone leader this week. i was with elder zander. hes this crazy canadian kid whos way funny and make me trunky for jameson! anyway we were in a city thats about 30 km away from this place. we went to a teaching appointment and started teaching this girl named stefie. we were teaching about temples and some of the things that go on there. she then started asking questions about the temple and then about sin. at one point me and elder zander looked at eachother not really knowing how to answer the questions. they were pretty deep and we had no idea how to go about answering them without scaring her off. but then an idea came into my head and i started speaking. it was sweet. i said everything i wanted to and used words i dont remember studying. i think its just stuff that i heard. then me and her started talking about how hard the gospel can be, but how when we really have a testimony it gets a little bit easier. she is way cool and does have a testimony and i hope all goes well with her. i hope to see her at my church for her baptisim. anyway the moral of this story is that the spirit is amazing and truly has no limit as to what it can help us do. God loves his children and wont hold back any answers because of my inadequicy. its something i learn more and more everyday. i really feel a lot better with my german. confidence is the key to speaking a language. be confident in what you can do and humble with what you cant. and alway work your friggin butt off. that seems to be a constant theme here in germany. shoot and all over the world.
so this letter seems kinda down but dont misunderstand my attitude. im happy. i do love this job. its tonz of fun even. sleep is a rarity, but i enjoy it when i get it. hahaha. everyone knows what thats like.
i love you. all is well i promise! im happy! hey and write me more. tell everyone too! i barely had any letters this week!!
and mom, im not mad about the letter im just warning you, if i dont have time at one point in these two years, dont be mad! i love you like crazy though. dont forget that. and i wanna write hand written letters, but it costs 2.30 american dollars to send stuff! ill do it when i can spare it though.
hey send me some clothes i can get paint and stuff on. i just need a molten shirt. and i would love american candy mom! dont listen to dad, we´ll see if it gets through ok? i love and miss you both.
love,
Elder Arnett
Mon 9/10/07 5:13 AM
To:
pamiam1218@hotmail.com
sup ma and pa!?
first off, mom! what the heck! dont listen to dad! write me tonz! i got one small email from you! i need more lovin! im here in lonly cold germany and the one girl i care about most doesnt even write me! come on! whats that all about! but i did get you tape and i am extremely appreicative of that. it was agoood to hear everyones voices even though lots were crazy sarcastic. thats so sweet that chris popped the baby thing with me on the line. it made me really happy. anyways, keep writin and dont stop! i need lovin! serious!
d-backs are still in the lead? i really didnt see that comin...
ok well, once again this week was friggin hard! it seemed like everything was falling through. serious. everything. every one of our appointments were canceled and ya. we were back to square one. so we decided to do alot of member work. less actives and partmember kinda stuff. its not my favorite but its kinda fun getting to know the people. the part member work is where its at though, only if you do it right.
ive come to realize that the elders here before me kinda ruined the ward. like the elders are way cool and i like em, for the most part, but they just screwed up. the ward doesnt really trust us. thats why we decided to do more ward work. and it seems to be paying off.
the book of mormon to the ward idea i had is so much better than i thought. yesterday, i had to give out three of my own! its sweet. i really really think this is going to help the work.
anyways back to the week. we went by on tonz of old investigators and old contacts. and we still have so much more to do! im pretty excited for this next week cause we have a lot of appointments made out.
before i forget, CASEY IS COMMING BACK!! WHAT THE HECK, HE JUST LEFT!!! i cant believe it. thats insane. and parentals, i love you and you know it, but these three months have gone pretty fast for me too. well at least this like month. this transfer has flown. we only have about a week left. if my miission goes like this im a bit scared. i know ill have hard times, but still...its fast. congrats casey and fam.
im really glad to hear cliff is doing good and that cam is too. i really have come to realize how much i love and miss my family. all of them. all 100 or some odd of em. i hope everyone reading this is doing good and i hope to hear from you at some point! i miss you all like crazy!
and if austin reads this, the song was a hit. the missionaries in my apartment especially like it.
anyway. so this week. it was rough. constant rain. and a lot of crazy things happened. like people did some pretty messed up things to us. i really dont wanna go into it, but i was mad, wet, angry, perturbed, frusterated, and ticked off. then i went home, showered, wrote in my journal, went to sleep and repeated the same steps the next day. all week long. it was just bad. but then saturday came around. and i love saturday cause it means the next day is sunday and in this case, sunday meant we had an appointment with a promising investigator.
then sunday came and i got a text (ha! take that dad! i have a cell phone and its glorious!). it was from this investigator and he had to cancel cause he was sick. i was mad but kinda glad cause investigators never tell you they cant do it. they just dont show up.
anyway lewis and i decided to go down to velbert instead. its in the very south of our area and mission. heres the story as i told it to pres...
But there are two things that I am really excited for. First, an investigator that we have. We had an appointment made out for yesterday, but it fell through. But the reason I'm still hopeful is because he called us. That means he remembered! And he is still way interested. He had to cancel because he was sick. And I don't think it was a lie, he sounded horrible!
And second, yesterday we were in the south of our area giving a spiritual thought to a family who just fasted for the missionary work, and to drop by on some former contacts and investigators. But it was getting late so we decided to start to head back. We caught a Bahn and were admiring the country. Then Elder Lewis said to me that we still needed to get our 20. We were at one of our favorite contacting spots so we jumped off the train and went out.
The place was dead. There was barely anyone anywhere. So we talked to as many as we could but were still short by about 12. So we decided to head over to the InnenStadt.
Now the InnenStadt is usually packed so we have a route we like to take that leads through some of the less populated streets. We find its easier to contact when there isn't so many people around. They usually seem to stop more often. But when we were about to take the road that we usually do, both Elder Lewis and I had a feeling that we should go up the main road. So, naturally, we did. We weren't walking for more than 2 minutes when this guy who was jogging took out his iPod and said, "Hey, you speak English right?" Elder Lewis and I looked at eachother and said "Ya."
The guy came over to us and said, "I wanna learn more about you." We were awestruck. This guy has read up on the Church and, in his own words, finds somthing attractive about it. He said he think it's a leap of faith, but that all religion is.
The phrase from Preach My Gospel came to mind, 'The Lord is preparing people to recieve you. He will lead you to them or He will lead them to you.'
Oh! The goodness and mercy of the Lord my God!
i forgot i had it. so thats that. it was way cool and we meet with him on thursday.
and thats that sadly. that was my week. i know its not that interesting, but its all that happened!
i gotta go help elder lewis get registered for byu. hes training me for the mission and im training him for the real world. its so funny! he goes home right before christmas, so i should be able to kill him, we'll see how it plays out.
i cant believe how christmas doesnt feel that far away. it is three months, but i dunno. its scary how fast this goes! james is 6 months through! and bj is over a year! its flippin crazy.
here are some pictures of the crazy wild here in deustchland! hope you like. some of these are off my comps camera so ya, thats why they're wanna be artistic! haha jk!
i love studying the language and the scriptures! oh my. it is sweet. serious! im learning alot about my study habits and how i should do it. i eat periodiocally during my 3 hour study sessions. im gunna get so fat! but ive actually lost weight since ive been on the mission. im only like 77 kilos now...
elder lewis and i have started excercising. its so funny. he got some work out tapes and he makes me do them with him. theres this ab one that makes me laugh so hard. the guy on the tape is such a flamer! but im still sore and we did it like 3 days ago. but i draw a line at palaties. i refuse to do any of that stuff with him!
OK well im off. today is a chill day and very much needed by yours truly. ive been sleeping, but still not good. i figure its a fact of missionary work! anyways. i love and miss you!
Tschüss!
Elder Chad
p.s. i had to change my handwriting for german! im perturbed!
Mon 9/17/07 3:43 AM
To:
pamiam1218@hotmail.comDearest mother and father.
Hey there parentals! i just wanna say whats up! im going to apoligize now cause i know that your not going to be satisfied with the length of this letter, but just know i love you.
so elder lui is going home in 3 days. we're partyin like its 1999 so he can have a good time. its really sad to see him go. he lives in verona and ya...its just sad. but ive learned some really cool italian phrases. i can talk to italian people here. cant really understand. but thats my life. ive learned some bad words in italian too...but i wont use those...too often! haha!
We taught that american named nicholaus. it was so amazing! it was so spiritual and he totally felt it. i feel like im in the movie the best two years. its so great though. im lovin it. we have another appointment with him on tuesday to teach the plan of salvation. im really stoked about it cause its so easy for me to teach. and i use alot of personal expierences with the family and how there is life after this one so i can see all of them again. it really invites the spirit, giving personal accounts. i just cant wait til i can do it in german.
yesterday we had a ward eating thing after church. it was so fun for me. the food sucked, not gunna lie. germans cant cook big batches but when its individual its amazing! anyways i just started playing with all the little kids. i had a friggin blast! i cant wait to get to play with all the little cousins everyone seems to be poppin out lately! but the ward really noticed me playing and started making fun of me! i just got up on the stage and said `hey! im the only child.`and then a kid named maneul threw a ball at me and i chased him. they all laughed. our ward is one third really cool people and two thirds crazy old people.
but some are extremely nice. this one member gave me an electronic dictionary to use as long as im here(which might be 6 months). its way cool, but i feel really bad about taking it! but she insisted. so i did. i promised to give it back though and wrote a huge sign and put it above my bed to remind me!
Its amazing to me how wwII still lives on. we talked to a man yesterday who was saved by americans no older than me. hes a nice old man. also, we saw a ton of anti nazis fighting alot of nazis. they are still around. i was gunna jump in and give those hard hearted germans a peice of my mind! but then i saw knifes and decided to turn around! haha. (jk mom, i wouldnt get in a fight. if i did itd be a one way ticket home! but i really saw a huge brawl goin down!)
micro bursts in AZ? i do miss those. the weather here has actually been pretty nice. no rain, but i do need to buy a jacket. im gunna do it this week. so put like 100 bucks on my card. thats only 75 euro and thats a really cheep jacket. i gotta find one i love and that will last two years. not like the missionary one, but a regular one for pdays, when we play soccer and when i wake up in the morning.
this second hand smoke will kill me! this lady is smoking right next to me, but a song by plain white tees is on the radio and that makes it bareable.
speaking of which, i still hear all of my favorite songs all the time. kids are always blasting them from their phones or theyre on loud speakers in the innenstadt. its redonkulous. i told pres i sometimes feel bad. he said `hey, if it doesnt damn ya, then your ok.` i laughed. hes a funny guy.
we had zone conference this past week again. but this time with pres kopischka. hes in the mission presidency and in the 70. hes way cool. i learned so much on how to be better, its just trying to figure out how to do it now. i dont know where to start.
this next transfer im only going to be speaking german. i hope it helps me. its so hard though. i hit a block two days before yesterday. i couldnt speak or understand. it was really bad. i felt like crying. but then the lord gave me a tender mercy and let me go play soccer with some people in the ward and a few inactives and an investigator. it was so good to get out and run. the germans are good and soccer! but bruder danalkiis (a guy in my ward who played semi pro!) took me under his wing and said i have natural tallent. i was surprised to see how far i could kick the ball and with so much accuracy. it was sweet. he taught me tonz on that day and i got a real workout. it felt so good. he says he wants me there every week. i told him id come if he brought someone we could teach. we will see how it plays out.
well mom and dad, i love you like crazy and miss you even more. or the other way around. which ever makes you feel better! i started a tape a few days ago and will get that to you....later haha. i havent gotten any mail in a very very long time so make sure you wrote the right address on it. mom i got the tape and stuff so i think its the correct one. im just chillin in essen. waiting for some lovin from the parental units!
oh ya, i get letters from bj and chad and jbev, but thats about it. plaw and deuce...i got nothing. hey maimai hiapo is doing really bad. somthing about her heart. pray for her. shes such a sweet little girl and bj is taking it hard. maybe call up coach and find out. send her my love would you?
k guys, thanks for everything. and you can write me more...i love hearing from you.
love,
elder ARNETT!!!
ps. dad you better work on your fishin skills you have just over 20 months to get ready for me. im gunna kick your trash all over the cheese hole! and keep the sports updates a comin. az is doin good.
and sorry, i didnt take any pictures this week....
k its time to go show elder lui a good time.
hey one more thing. k i want/need the following; -a harmonica. dont ask questions, just do it.-my religion book. its the purple one that i used for my world religions class. it would help so much out here.-my patriarchial blessing lamaneted and the size of a credit card. i read it so much. at least everyday and i would like a more portable one.-again money for a jacket. thanks so much guys! i love and miss you!
Mon 9/24/07 2:56 AM
To:
pamiam1218@hotmail.commom and dad.
hey you two. hows life back home? glad to hear all is going well.
this week has been really hard and good. right now im in a rather depressed mood though. so excuse the lack of entusiasim.
i was sick this week. that was hard. it was weird and i dont even know what it was, but it really stunk. i didnt like not getting out side.
so we got nicholaus to stake conference yesterday. pres thompson and pres sebald (stake pres) both talked. it was way good. nick felt the spirit. hes such a good guy. we challenge him to baptisim tomorrow. im stoked. he knows it true and he has a friend he wants to share this with. not even a member and already a missionary. we challenge another girl tonight. shes gettin wet for sure too.
after the stake conference we had a small zone conference thing too cause pres was here. he held interviews and all that jazz, hes a good guy.
so the reason why im depressed is because of german. its killing me. im trying to speak it but i get way embarrassed. ive never been embarrassed in my life until now. its a horrible feeling! and leigh just laughs when i do it. i hate it. hes way hard for me to deal with right now. hes so negative and always yelling and just drives any semblance of the spirit right out. its so hard.
i feel like im not a good missionary. the reason being is because i cant help people. i dont know what they are saying to me and i cant really talk back. lauren gave me great avice, act like your the best. just have that american attitude! and i try. i know confidence is a huge key of language. HUGE. but its hard to have when i keep getting put down. i dont mean to vent or make you think i hate my mission cause i totally dont. its just really hard for me to feel good about my self.
i dont need anyone of you to build me up, i just needed to get it out. sorry.
anyways, thats all for me this week. im sorry these are progressivly shorter, but ya. i have no excuse other than i was sick and not too much happened! im just way hard on my self this week. i think the fact that lui left was hard too. the elder that came in to replace him was edler curzon. good guy.
k well im out. much love parents. really i miss you alot. its hard not being able to just call you up whenever i want. especially during weeks like htis one.
love,
your boy.
Tue 10/02/07 7:08 AM
To:
pamiam1218@hotmail.com
Security scan upon download
parentals!
hey you two, no i didnt forget about you. some crazy stuff is goin down in germany. and yesterday the internet didnt work. im sorry im sure it was a long night but im well and everything is going great. heres something i received today,
Liebe Missionare bzw. Missionarinnen,
This last week there have been certain radical groups who have been causing riots here in Germany. On September 22 in Hamburg about 15 people were injured in clashes between the police and these radicals in the northern city of Hamburg. Around 700 policemen had to use water cannons and batons to disperse the group who had set up barricades on the street and set fire to garbage bins. In another city a group of foreign students were attacked with pepper spray after being stopped on their bikes. Other events have happened in cities where most of the riots and attacks have been made against foreigners. Radical groups will continue to seek publicity for their political agendas by creating more disturbances at various festivals throughout Germany.
As missionaries (and as foreigners as most of the missionaries are), you should be cautious and avoid public venues where violence may erupt.
Please be careful and aware of your surroundings. We do not want any accidents happening to any of our missionaries.
Elder Brinton
Mission Secretary
Germany Hamburg Mission
and since im in a big city, ya just lots of really weird stuff is going on, some hate groups are starting to break out... im good though and all is well.
things with nicholas are going so well. we took him to a baptism on saturday and he came to church on sunday. he is getting baptized but we just have to find a date now. on sunday we went to the stake presidents house with him for dinner and had an amazing time. it was so much fun. i gave the spiritual thought in german about my ankle and the hard time i had with that. it was way good. the spirit definately was there and helped me get the german words out. it wasnt easy by anymeans, but i finished it. ive been speaking german more and more. its so hard, im just stupid!!!
before i forget, some of the pictures are just me and my comps messin around at a train stop at night waiting to go home. the one of me and lewis in the kitchen is us doing service. we made cinimon rolls and gave them to our investigators. i bought a catus to remind me of home. his name is paco.. 1779 is of me sick. i hated it. it was just a cold or flu... and the pic of the two ladies and the girl is cool. the girl is getting baptized and the lady on the right we are reactivating. that is celina and sister von rauchhaupt. the lady on the left is a member, sis steinka
no i still havent gotten in contact with ronja but her parents are in the us now for conference. im stoked for conference, we get 3 sessions here. we miss sunday night for now, but whatever. im so excited. we had apostle predicitions at distrikt meeting today. it was fun i love my districkt. im gunna miss them. were half way through this transfer! woah! im four months gone! yikes!!! i need to step it up.
parental units, i love and miss you so much. im sorry i have no time this week. we have too much to do today and its no pday so i cant take my time on here. i love you two so much though. i miss you like crazy. i hope the lord is blessing you by my being out here!
mom, heres the ward thing. you can add what ever you want to it from in here too.
Liebe Pioneer Ward!
Hey! so my lovely mother sends me the ward news letter everyonce in a while and i love hearing about things back home. i noticed that the ward has a baptisimal goal for this year! WAY TO GO! that is so awesome and it is completely possible to accomplish! it all starts with a goal and then the kingdom grows. this ward is amazing and you invite and surround people with such warmness. sometimes here in germany the people are as cold and the weather. just be nice and make friends. dont be afraid to invite people over to your house for dinner and invite the missionaries! thats my favorite appointment! just think of 5 people you could share a message about christ with, and then do it. its so simple, but extremely hard. just always keep your eyes open for oppertunities to share the word and the lord will provide, thats what ive learned.
k i gotta go.
i love and miss you,
elder arnett.
Mon 10/08/07 3:24 AM
To:
pamiam1218@hotmail.comSup Eltern!
Well this week has been an interesting one. It was really a testimony builder for me. The week started off slow. Elder Lewis and I started to prepare for Conference by making invites to give to all the Less-Active Members and friends or contacts of the Church. Then we got to work passing them out. We tried to get to every single Less-Active and contact that we have recorded. We tried to give out the invitations personally, but if they were not there we would put it in the mail box. I think it was good. We now know where all these people live and they have seen us. We also set up a lot of appointments this next week with them.
This week we also did alot of member work. It seems like our ward is going through a very tough time. Everyone is losing their job and we are starting to notice family problems errupting. Aslo sickness is sweeping through the ward. So, Elder Lewis and I have been trying to see what we can do to help. We gave a lot of service to try to earn the members trust and show them that we really do care. I think that is the key, showing that we care and that we are in a position to uplift spiritually. Then yesterday we had a couple sweet experiences.
We had two investigators at Conference. One was Nicholas and the other was Celena. Nicholas has become friends with a member by the name of Sister Kötzlik. While Elder Lewis and I were doing something else in the ward building they got to talking. When we walked back over to them, Nicholas said they were singing our praises. We were a bit confused. Then he clarified. He said he was really thankful that he got us as "his missionaries". I asked what he meant and he told me that we seem to have an excitement for the work that some other missionaries don´t seem to have. Then Sister Kötzlik chimed in and said that it was also really good for the ward to see two missionaries who have the dedication that we do. She said that for the past while, the ward has kinda felt like the missionaries didn´t care. We assured her that we do. She said "I know because you show it." We all started tearing up. It was really one of the sweetest moments that I have had on my mission. I realized the importance of member work yesterday. What Elder Kopischke told us at Zone Conference rang true to me. "If you want the Church to grow in Germany, you have to work with the members. Without them, it will not happen. It will not happen."
We also set a Tauftermin (baptism date) with Nicholas. The 5th of November. I hope I am still around for that wonderful experience. It was amazing to have him at Conference. It is always a spiritual re-boost. It was kinda cool to see Elder Kopischke again, but on the TV! I really took Conference for granted before I came to Germany. I wish I would have paid more attention to it before! I realize now how much time I wasted before my mission. All the wonderful oppertunities I had. I learned alot, but I could have done better. But no point in crying over spilt milk. I just have to work harder now!
This weekend we have been doing one big super exchange. We had eight Elders in our apartment! It was so cramped but so much fun. We played guitar and sang and played games and swapped stories and all the things that misssionaries do when we get together! It really was a blast.
Ya, I did buy a jacket, but I had to pay with it with mission money. The bank would not let me withdraw more than 50 euro. I was kinda confused, and now I have no money to buy food! But no worries, I get money this week. I should get 100 euro because I had to buy so much stuff for the apartment and missionary supplies. Blah. Aber alles gute.
Thats crazy about the D-backs. I really can't believe it. I was under the impression that they sucked!
My address is
Raffaelstr. 12
45147 Essen
Germany
I think you have it right. And sorry but I dont know the address of the internet shop. It is somewhere in the innenstadt though. Good luck finding it!
Sorry about the picture situation, sometimes the computer I am on has a USB port and sometimes it doesnt. Next week I will grab one that does. Promise.
Ok well we have a few appointments today. I swear we work TOO hard. Just kidding, but we really dont have a p-day because we would rather meet with people that can not meet at other times of the week. We also never take the dinner break that we are allotted. Elder Lewis works me like a horse, but it'll make me better. Although when the weather gets cold, so do the people. Winter time slows the work so we will see what happens. Member work anyone?
Ok, much love. I miss you two like crazy. It was weird thinking you were watching saturday and sunday morning sessions at the same time! but it was 6 at night here!
Peace, Love, Crabs,
Elder Arnett
Chad Arnett (chadarnett@myldsmail.net)
Sent:
Mon 10/15/07 4:29 AM
To:
pamiam1218@hotmail.comdearest parental units,
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!25 YEARS AINT BAD!!
well this week has been really long and really hard, but we got a lot of good work done. i dont really know what to say and i know your going to be really dissapointed in this letter, but i dont have too much to say this week. im just really tired. but thats the life of a missionary right?
we set two baptisimal dates this week. thats pretty exciting. but i dont think that ill be here for either. i think i will be transfered on november 1st to some ohter area. its no big though. in an effort to have daily contact with one of our investigators, elder lewis and i have started running 3 times a weeks early in the morning. it works for daily contact, but ive never really been the morning person. i drag my self outta bed every day at 5.30 to go running with this guy. its pretty bad, but ive never been so motivated to run. i hate the running part but its good to have contact to Nicholas. ill do whatever it takes to make sure he gets wet! and ive already lost 2 or 3 kilo. just goes to show how fat im gettting. haha just kidding. im not gaining too much weight. infact im getting back to where i was before i left for my mission. still not there, but im tryin to gain! i want muscle and i should be gettin some soon. we do situps every night and i work out 3 times a week after running. its not heavy stuff, just pushups and goofing off with some weights. meh.
ok i gotta go. i love you and am sorry this is short. im just way tired and we all gotta run. id love some old fashioned letters too if you could. it would be sweet.
love and miss you two like crazy. hope you have a great anniversary. oct 15 right? a day that will forever live in infamy.
peace, love,
Elder Arnett.
Chad's cousin, Chea Lamb of Chea Lamb Photography, took some photos of Chad as he was preparing to enter the MTC. This is the now famous photo that later appeared in the LDS Church News.
DAD!!! Hey dad! Here are some pictures! I hope this works. Turns out we get 30 minutes every pday to do some emails! Crazy huh? Well I’m not gunna lie itis rough here.Ok so I can’t attach pictures. I’m sorry. I really wish I could. I want to sooo bad. I can’t really print them here either. This card thing isn't working at the print place. But it will work in the field. It’s just the mtc puts a lot of restrictions on us ya know? Anyway give this to mom too. I love you both so much. I dont know if you've gotten all my letters? I hope so. It’s been hard. Very hard, but im doing my best. My comp is rough. We don’t click. I can’t understand a word he says… and he’s American. The rest of my comps in my district and zone are pretty cool though. It’s fun at times but real rough some others. I just feel like I should be so much further ahead than I am. I know its stupid and I need to pay my dues but you know me, no patience. I do what I can though.So any way I don’t really know what to say other than I love you Dad and Mom. You mean the world to me. I miss you two so much and I get sick when Ithink about not seeing you for two years!!! I’m so glad I got to talk to you mom! It was great. Wish you were there dad. But oh well, 6 months and you'll get to hear my voice? Well I really do love you.So lets talk volleyball. Haha its been my ticket into the hearts of my zone. We went and played sand volleyball for gym or sport as us Deutchers call it and I was just goofing off and stuff. But then I dug this one kidl ike 8 times and everyone has loved me since! Haha. Its fun here but like I said kinda rough. I hope the spirit helps me soon.We went to the temple today. That was rather cool, going to a different one. Well this is my email address. So get used to it. Send me his updates would ya?...Well I love you two so much. SEND ME TONZ OF LETTERS DANG IT! YOU DONTUNDERSTAND HOW GREAT IT IS TO GET THEM. AND DAD NONE OF THIS I ONLY GOT A LETTER A WEEK CRAP. I WANT LETTERS!!!!!!!!! 2 TIMES A DAY! LOVE FOREVER THE ELDER ARNETT
Sent: Fri 6/22/07 4:24 PM
Hey mom and dad,Well I cant really get pictures right now cause the mtc’s way censored but that’s ok keep them coming. I miss you guys man. I’m sorry I’m so stubborn sometimes but I guess that’s a good thing so I can stand up for what I believe in. I love you so much. I’ll send you a letter soon I just have no time on the internet. I love you so much mom and dad. Thanks for everything. Be ready for when I come home! I’m 2% done! Write me more man! I love hearing from you! I do. So write more! I love hearing about home and tell mom that when she sends my address and stuff don’t send it to everyone, just my good friends. Ok take care of things for me. I love you. And have some faith. So tell mom to calm down and trust k? I love you. chuss!E.ARNETT
Sent: Thu 7/05/07 4:40 pm Mom I love you!
Im sorry that I can’t write too much on here today. I’m so busy. Our schedules are screwed up today. I love you so much mom. I miss you. Tell me what’s going on at home! Im writing you as much as I can. More tapes! I loved it! Thank you so sososososos much!
I love you so much. Don’t forget me mom! I miss you like crazy and I’m so busy Im sorry. I'm halfway through my mtc stay! Crazy! I love you so much and miss you to boot.
Love Chad
Sent: 7/12/07 12:02 pm Hey mom,
Its been a hard week. A lot has been happening.
First off, the German’s coming along. Kinda. We did a street preach and I could say more than I thought so that was pretty cool.
I'm still having a hard time with my comp but we get along now.
_____________ finds out in about an hour if he gets his call changed. Crazy huh! He might not be going to -________! I dunno there really isn’t much to say cause nothing has happened! we lose our oldest distict this week so I’ll be the oldest as of Tuesday! CRAZY!
Mommy I love you so much. Write me good stuff please.
I love you mom.
Talk to you soon.
Chad!
Sent: 7/19/07 2:04 pm
Hey dad. Im gunna try to be on around 1. So be there if you can. If I’m not on by 1: 30 I’ll get on later and write you with another time. Much love paps.Love,Chad
Reynolds is going to Berlin or Frankfurt. I don’t remember. How you doing dad?
I’m starting to sleep again. How’s work? The dogs? Penpen (lacys baby)? I miss mom. My sleeping is off and the pills are making me sick. Things got better. What did the draft turn out like for the suns?
Dad I miss you Reynolds says hi.
I want another tape here!!!!!! And I don’t get dear elders til 6. The language is ok. Its not the greatest but whatever. It helps that I am sleeping. hey i think i have to go so if I don’t reply I’m sorry, I love you dad.
Sent: 7/27/07 4:47 pm
Parentals, Haha I love saying that. So i sent you a letter today telling you about what’s going on. But for a short little thing to tie you over, I’m fine. I promise. I write you guys every week are you not getting them? I hope you are. So life here is hard but thats how its meant to be. So don’t worry. Mom I dunno what treats I want, sorry. Um maybe some...I dunno really, another thing of beef jerky? Some chips? That sounds pretty good. So over all, I’m good. I miss you two so much! And whatever calling card is good, I just want to make sure I can call you from the airport and that I have enough minutes to be able to talk for as long as I want. I love you two so much and get me all the stuff I asked for soon or else I might not get them. Mom look online for a laundry bag with a strap. I need another towel too. Just look around. And yes, I love the wallet. Where to I get travelers checks? Help please! WRITE ME EVERYDAY AND TELL ME ABOUT YOUR LIVES AND HOME AND ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING! ...........please...:) I love you two very much. elder chad
Sent: 8/02/07 4:35 pm THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF ELDER ARNETT THE MISSIONARY TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WARD CALLED PIONEER.
1 Now behold, I Chad, Son of Jeff, have somewhat to say concerning you, the people of the land of my inheritance. Yea, I would that I may speak unto you because of the fullness of my joy.
2 Yea, for now is the time that I prepare to ride apon the wings of that great metal bird to the place that the Lord our God has called me. And I have been instructed in the manner of the way of the Elders before me; therefore, I do know how to pack.
3 Now I Chad, son of Jeff the Husband of Pam, who is great and fair in the eyes of the Lord, do have somewhat more to say concerning the Young Women in the Ward Pioneer. Yea I do rejoice in your writings, fore they did find me. And Oh how great the timing and tender mercies of our Lord! Fore it is no coincidence that your writings did find me in a state of sadness. Yea fore I was grieved at the hardness of the language of German; yea and for many other reasons was I grieved.
4 But behold, your letter did find me and did lift me up. Yea and for this cause do I direct a portion of my writings unto you, the Young Women of the Ward Pioneer in the land of my inheritance. My soul does rejoice because of your words.
5 Now my people, I do bid thee adieu for a time. Yea, for this shall be the last of my writings from the Empty Sea (MTC) for on the seventh day of the eighth month two thousand and seven years from the coming of our Lord, yea even Jesus Christ, I do embark into destiny. Behold, I do go unto the land that is torn because of the Wars of the World, and do preach of the goodness and mercy of the One and True God of Isreal.
6 Fore He truly is the Light and the Way.
7So now I do send these, my writings. I pray they find you in health and safety. Yea, and this is the desire of my heart. Chuss.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Germany Hamburg Mission" <2017709@ldschurch.org>
To: "Arnett"
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 5:52 AM
Subject: 6 pictures for you
August 10, 2007
Dear Brother and Sister Arnett
Your son, Elder Arnett, arrived safely on 08 August here in Hamburg.
Although he was very tired when we picked him up at the airport, we felt of his great spirit. He traveled to the mission home on the train with our assistants and there he began his mission by sharing information and testimony with a few of the passengers. He then arrived here at the mission home for a little rest, a nice meal and a testimony meeting, in German. We then sent him to bed for a well-deserved rest.
The next morning his new companion, Elder Lewis, came to pick your son up and take him to Essen. We have very carefully chosen those to train our new missionaries and we know that your son will have a great training experience with Elder Lewis.
Sister Thompson and I deeply appreciate your faith in sending your son on a mission and we will care for him as if he were our own son for the next two years.
P-day is on Mondays for the Hamburg Mission so you may wish to write your e-mail on Sunday evening so that he can read and answer it Monday morning. Attached are two photos of your son with us and also your son with his new companion.
Please feel free to contact us at any time with any issues or concerns.
With our warmest wishes,
President Wesley B. Thompson
Sister Rebecca L. Thompson
Sent: 8/13/07 2:17 am PAReNTALS!!!(AND EVERYONE ELSE!!!)
HOLZ COW IM IN GERMANY!!
ok first off the y and the z are switched here so when zou see a z think y cause im not gunna take the time to fix it.
oh meine gutte. germanz is so crayz. but i love it! mz first area is a huge citz named Essen. its so awesome. ITS STORZ TIME!!!
ok so mz first daz we prettz much sepnt travling. it was a 6 hour bahn(train) ride. boring. but whatevs it was still fun seeing the countrz. mz trainer is named elder lewis. he rocks. hes waz cool and waz good at missionarz work. im gunna learn tonz. anzwazs. so we get into essen right, and we meet our third comp elder leigh. were working as a dritte for a week or so until his comp comes back from oberhausen. its a long storz that i dont wanna go into. an apostate missionarz and new zone leaders and a girl here. za its kinda bad! but whatevs. so then we went out and did a little contacting that first daz but reallz we just wanted to get to know the citz. theres a few areas we need to avoid, but over all its a waz cool place. #then we had a dinner appointment that night with the kotzlik's. sister kotzlik is the onlz member so it was kinda fun. her son daniel is 17 and waz funnz, i wanna get to know him better. the food was amaying.
the next daz we had like a two hour planning thing for the week. just set our goals and stuff. thats where elder leigh is so negative all the time. he sazs the works dead in essen but its the most sucessful place in the mission. but whatevs.
so we went outside and tried to find some people. didnt reqallz work. then we went to stop bz some less actives, that was cool, none were home but i did mz first contact. i talked to this black guz named pastor tony. hes funnz. i went up and started talking to him and he was like 'zou speak english dont zou?' i laughed and said za. then we got his info and stuff. he admires the missionaries and wants to talk with us. we'll call him tonight.
im sorrz but so much has happened so im gunna hit the kez points.
the next daz we had an apointmnent made with a referral. we met him at the kirche. sorrz thats church. we sat down and started talking about what he has learned. hes been taught before. then after about 5 minutes he said before we go anz further, i think zou should know, i want to be baptized.
i wanted to hug him
i was so stoked! we meet this guz off the street and he wants to be baptiyed! im so excited! so september 8th, mark it as mz first baptism.
so then we went to this park where the stake plazs soccer on saturdazs and we got to talk with him and have him meet some of the members. i love the ward here. some reallz great people live here and thezre waz helpful. but we found out alot about lahib marcus. thats the name of mz baptiym. so anzwazs. he comes from iraq. hes be3en christian his whole life so he and his familz have been reffugies for thezre whole life. thez have been trzing to get into greece for a long time and kept getting sent back to iraq. its crayz some of his stories. anzwazs hes been living in deutschland for some time and knows he cant go back. he sazs he will two dazs before he wants to die. he wants to see his home land. mz real comp lewis has built a real good relationship with him and ive tried. the language is a definite barrier though. but i understand a lot actuallz. i understand more than elder leigh who has been here for 7 months sometimes. and i can respond which is cool.
so that was that.
then sundaz rolled around. it was a blast. i bore mz testmonz, i had to, and its was so funnz. i got up and said hi and it was mz first week in germanz and mz deutsch was bad. then i started to talk and when ever id start to sound out a word the whole congregation would be nodding their heads encouraging me. it was waz funnz.. i reallz like the ward. thezre sweet, although we have some crayz people too. like this guz who has been excommunicated 2 times and just got rebaptiyed. za, a lot of people are like that here though.
then i met this girl named ronja krane. we were teaching this zoung womens class and za she was there. shes not a member but sshe stazed with a familz that mz cousin james married into. so she knows mz name. it was so sweet. i wanted to kneel down and thank god right then. she wanted to know about an english class and stuff so were gunna set up a conversation class, her english is perfect though. she doiesnt even have an accent. but im just gunna trz to be her friend first and invite here to things, i think shes interested but she said her parents werent too excited that she wanted to go to church. well see...
then later that sundaz we taught lahib the first lesson. it was waz good cause we had a member familz the danalakis there. thezve gotten to be friends with lahib. hes reallz exxcited. so are we.
we then went to the bishops house to talk about the ward. findout partmembers and lessactives and all that stuff. he told us avbout this ladz who wants her 9 zear old baptiyed. so we have to teach her and get to count it. number 2 babz!! i cant believe it.
i cant believe how guided our lives are. its amaying. this week has been such a miricle. seriouslz. mz trainer is so cool and good. mz apartment is the nicest in the mission, but it is still prettz getto. ill send pics next week. mom would never live here. we have a bathroom a kitchen a bedroom and a studz.i think its 35 square feet. we will have 4 elders living there bz the end of next week.
the people here arent that rich. actuallz reallz poor compared to our standards. but i love em. and i love it here.
well we have a teaching appt here in a little.
im so stoked to be here now. i know everzone is sazing hang on and itll get better but im having a blast. its so sweet here, but i also went through a lot in the mtc. so its due. but i love it. i wouldnt trade it for the world.
i love zou and miss zou. talking to zou was so good. i loved it. well talk in 4 months though. i can wait, can zou?
loves,
chad
pictures will come soon. elder leigh is making us go now so za, next week though i promise. i love zou so much.
oh and i need like 50 to 80 € on mz personal account actuallz but like 200 bucks more on there. sorrz. but i have to get some stuff like a new backpack. mine wont work cause it rains 24/7 here. i have to get one here. sorrz. i love zou though! and i have to get some scripture cases so za. chuß.
Mon 8/20/07 3:53 AM
To:
pamiam1218@hotmail.comdad and mom,
sorry these are way short, but im so busy and i really neeed to get out of here. but i just wanna let you kjnow whats going on here.
ya the love parade is here. ew. but whatevs. europe is so diffrent than home
um the work was a dud this week. not too much happened but i still tried to have fun. i havent had a bad week yet but im scared for it haha.
yes mom, i still love my comp and its fun having 4 elders together. we joke around alot but we work too. its way fun.
dad, dont worry. like you said the past is past. i find my self thinking more and more about the work and less and less about everything else. all is well. i promise. and i love you, thanks for the advice.
the language is hard. i have a constant headache trying to understand it all. butim learning lots. ive already gotten alot of the cuss words in my vocab seeing as i hear them often every day. usually in my general direction haha. its funny i laugh every time. and no mom, i dont use them.
the mission life is way diff than the mtc. its so lax out here. and ive met a few apostates. its so easy to slip even on a mission. but dont worry, my feet are secure. im not moving.
i hope you liked the pictures. i have tonz but i cant really send them all. sorry guess your gunna have to wait 22 months.
i got your tape. i just bought a tape player today. my other one broke on the flight over. i dont know what happened but it refuses to play. i tried everything.
hey with money, im sorry but im gunna be spending quite a bit the first part here of my mission. theres soo much to buy to be ready. that backback i had sucked over here. i love my new one though.absolutely. its so comfy. anyways, sorry for running the bill but its kinda nessesary right now.
k i love and miss you both so much.
mom good luck with school. just be glad you only have 3 problem children cause i have 600,000. and they really hate me.
dad, keep on keepin on. i already painted the x for you! haha. hey tell cody hi for me ja?
any ways,
much love,
your son
Mon 8/27/07 11:53 AM
To:
Pamela Arnett (pamiam1218@hotmail.com)
----- Original Message -----
Geez, what happened to make Duffy and Jr to get in a fight? That makes me angry, but good choice... and how the heck did Duffy lose? Tell me he got a few good strikes in.So, I do keep a daily journal and will do what you told me to, but you have to realize my schedule is never the same so I never know how much I can write. I do the best I can though.I hope Uncle Cliff is ok. Tell Cam and all the cousins I say hi and love em. Tell them to drop me an email one of these days too. I'm happy for Cameron. That's so great he's doing this for real-- no more faking it-- its awesome.So this week was difficult. If you want the defintion of ineffective missionary work it's this, ´street contacting in the middle of preparations for the biggest gay and lesbian party that literally brings hell´. Try crying repentance in that situation.Last monday was Elder Lui´s birthday. He's the Italian elder in my apartment with me. We went bowling and had lots of fun. In the innen stadt (innercity) there are always booths with people trying to save some sort of animal. So there were about 12 missionaries standing around cause we were deciding what kinda lunch we wanted and this kid walks up and starts talking to us about whales. Someone said we were American and he starts talking English with us. He's from Jacksonsville. Fl and has this "gansta" accent. He asked us what we were doing here. One of the Elders mentioned we were missionaries. His attitude totally changed. He got all reserved and started acting like he had somewhere to go. We are used to that -- all Germans do it. He was standing next to me while I was doing a rubics cube, just showing off my madd skillz to the other Elders, and I asked, ´´what, are you scared of us?´´ He looked around and said no. I asked him if he knew what we did. He said not really. He had such a bad attitude. I told him we pretty much did what he did, but instead of saving fish, we were saving souls. I asked him if he wanted to be saved. He said maybe. I laughed and said when it is a yes to seek me out. He told me ok. His name is Thomas. I've seen him alot since in the innenstadt.My districkt was laughing so hard. They couldnt believe that I did that. Neither could I really. It was P-day, and I had a rubics cube in my hands. I go crazy when I have a rubics cube in my hands.Tuesday we had district meeting in Mulheim so we had to travel a bit.After Tuesday, we just did a lot of contacting, but we had to be really careful. The gay Loveparade really hindered the work. I was pretty upset about it. I can't believe so many people showed up. It should have been young single adult heaven, except for two factors, they were all drunk and they don't want god in their lives. It's ridiculous.On Saturday, the day of the Loveparade, we were locked in the church all day. President Thompson wouldnt let us out. We had to stay in Essen, though, because we had a few appointments. That night we had a ward talent show. It was a blast. The three other elders and myself lipsinked to "The Lion Sings Tonight". It was funny and the ward loved it. My ward here is awesome. There are a few guys who are American and I love talking to them. On Sunday, we went to the Stake President's house.That family is so funny. We had root beer floats! I was so stoked! I haven't had rootbeer in so long. All we have here to drink is tea, carbonated water, and apfelshorle (carbonated apple juice, weird I know, but I love it.). and water outta the faucet. But you have to be careful. My general rule of thumb is if it's brown, don't drink it, if it's green, dont drink it, if it's clear and you drink it, you still might be in trouble later that night -- and here I was thinking Europe was civilized!
We kind of live in the ghetto. I love it though. There are thugs everywhere. They walk around flashing their blades. I walk around flashing my missionary badge. Elder Lewis is scared for me--he thinks I'm gonna get stabbed.I saw a girl get hit by a bahn (train), it was a suicide attempt. I was very scared. Elder Lewis said that he's seen 4 people die... people jump in front of things all the time. The German people are just so depressed. They need the gospel really bad.Yesterday in church, there was this young man in the ward who was set apart as a missionary. He has been called to the Frankfurt mission, just south of me. It brought back so many feelings. After all the meetings were over, the ward members came into the chapel and all the kids around my age got up and sang "In the Hollow of Thy Hand" to him. It was very emotional. All four of us missionaries were up there and I think we were all tearing up. The Stake President put the piano bench in the front of the chapel and called him up. His dad and the bishop came up with him. He gave his girlfriend one last hug and walked up. He walked past us elders sitting on the side. He looked at us, he was so scared and excited. I remember that feeling, in fact I still get it.
Then, he was set apart as a missionary. A miracle happened as the blessing was being pronounced. I understood. It made me think of my setting apart.with Bishop Graham and President Greer and you DAD. All of us missionaries were crying, it was a tender moment and one that I will always treasure. It made me realize how much I apprieciate this opportunity. Yes, its a sacrifice... a huge one, but it's such a priviledge.And, that's my week in review. Here are some pictures just to show how Im doing and where I'm at.Much love.Elder Arnett
Mon 9/03/07 5:22 AM
To:
pamiam1218@hotmail.com
Security scan upon download
my dearest mother and father,
whats up! so this week has pretty much been one of those weeks! Murphy's law! where everything that could go bad, did. haha. and the best part is that i still had a good time. so here we go.
so on tuesday elder lewis and lui had a reporter follow them around and try to figure out just what it is exactly that missionaries do. it was a pretty big deal. some guy that works for public relations came up to essen last week and talked to us aobut what to say, how to say it, how to sit, how to answer questions, how to walk, where to look, proper posture, and gave us a full 2 or 3 year background on this chick that was to follow us around. the church is kinda scary...
anyways, they started out by doing service (im telling what they did so you get the background. i come into this story but elder leigh and i still need a lot of work with our german so we had an exchange that day.). the service part was good, but the members in this ward are friggin crazy. theres this member brüder Steinka, and he pretty much ruined everything for us. Everything we were told not to talk about, he talked about. plural marriage, blacks and the priesthood, church politics, kolab, what we do in the temple, blah blah blah, you all know the hot topics of the church. she took 5 full pages of notes on this guy. then she followed the elders around for a bit longer and took off. elder lewis was so mad.
so that was a bad omen for the week. really nothing happened. we wentout and worked, but the city was dead this week. to tell you the truth i think its because of the lack of faith from a few elders in this city. not to name names, but an elder in my apartment is alway negative! its so annoying! especially cause im golden! (we use the term golden instead of greenyout here because we have golden power. we know no limits and believe like crazy. hence the term golden. so when reffering to me as being a new missionary, the correct term is golden) but i can really see his attitude infecting the people of the ward. they should be excited aobut the work not annoied with it! but transfers are soon, and hes been here for a long time so we´ll see what happens. but ya, the ward is doing a forty day fast for missionary work, and its pretty cool. if the ward believes and really tries to further the work, then i have no doubt that huge things will happen in this city. one way that i decided to help is to do somthing i saw done in my home ward a while ago. we give boms to the ward members each week and make them promise to give them out during that week. i told them that if they did it a huge jump in missionary work would be seen.
this week was all contacting. we did all we could to find new investigators. and we found 2! one is this young guy i started talking to on the street. hes kinda american but is way better at german. so we talked a mixture of both. haha it was cool. anyways we had an appointment with him yesterday but he called us to reschedule and that never happens! they just dont care and leave you hanging. hes way interested and doesnt like the catholic church, so he went buddist. hes a cool guy. i hope things pan out with him for a number of reasons.
so Lahib, the iraq guy. we had a huge two hour lesson with him on saturday to plan his baptism and teach him a few more things. we thought it went well and he gave up black tea and all this stuff, but when we went over hte baptisimal interview questions with him, he had a few concerns with a couple of them. but they all were resolved and we were good to go. or so we thought.
when we went to pick him up for church everything seemed normal. he was waiting for us on the corner like always. he walked over to us and shook our hands. he said he couldnt come today. we asked why. then he informed us that he didnt want to come again. he said he had a bad feeling after he met with us. we explained that sometimes that happens when we remember things we have done or when we are about to do a life changing thing. he then gave another excuse, he said his family situation wasnt good enough. his brother was poor so he couldnt join the church. he was just looking for a way out. we kept trying to get him to talk to us, but to no avail. it was pretty depressing to me.we said bye and went to church. and that was that.
so no baptism next week. but we´re challenging for another this week. so we´ll see how that works.
i dunno, its really hard here in germany. i get letters from all my friends and they´re throwing down with the gospel. baptisms left and right. and im happy for them, but thats how people judge success. the german people are so stubborn. theyve seen so much heartache. i met a man who was in the battle of stalingrad. and another lady who saw her family die in a concentration camp. they dont believe in god and they want nothing to do with religion. a fourteen year old told me yesterday that ´jesus wasnt his thing´. these people have grown up not trusting their neighbors and hating the world around them. i see it in their eyes. its so sad. i havent had one person on the street smile atme since ive been here. they barely even say hello. they drink their lives away and refuse to think of the good things.
and that tends to make my job hard. i dont care if people judge me from back home or whatever. i dont care if i dont get one baptism (fyi there are a lot of elders who have that happen here). i dont care if i get cussed at, spit on, beer thrown at, or run down by a car. all i care is that i try my hardest. i wish that was the way mormon culture judged. not by the position you hold or the baptisms you have. ya, ive been a district leader. ya ive had good luck with the numbers ive been able to put up. but they arent what matters. true, they are important in the mission feild cause thats how we know if the work is moving foward, but i hate how people in the real world judge by them. one of the best missionaries i have ever met out here only has one baptism. and the whole mission looks up to him. but the world hears 'one' and thinks that he didnt do well. i dunno. we had a huge talk about it at zone conference. it kinda got us all a little mad at the world. but i guess thats just how it goes. sorry to vent.
as for the german language, this week was really good i think. i had a few moments when i felt like i understood almost everything. its an amazing feeling, let me tell you! And i also had an experience when i felt very comfortable talking.
i went on a exchange with my zone leader this week. i was with elder zander. hes this crazy canadian kid whos way funny and make me trunky for jameson! anyway we were in a city thats about 30 km away from this place. we went to a teaching appointment and started teaching this girl named stefie. we were teaching about temples and some of the things that go on there. she then started asking questions about the temple and then about sin. at one point me and elder zander looked at eachother not really knowing how to answer the questions. they were pretty deep and we had no idea how to go about answering them without scaring her off. but then an idea came into my head and i started speaking. it was sweet. i said everything i wanted to and used words i dont remember studying. i think its just stuff that i heard. then me and her started talking about how hard the gospel can be, but how when we really have a testimony it gets a little bit easier. she is way cool and does have a testimony and i hope all goes well with her. i hope to see her at my church for her baptisim. anyway the moral of this story is that the spirit is amazing and truly has no limit as to what it can help us do. God loves his children and wont hold back any answers because of my inadequicy. its something i learn more and more everyday. i really feel a lot better with my german. confidence is the key to speaking a language. be confident in what you can do and humble with what you cant. and alway work your friggin butt off. that seems to be a constant theme here in germany. shoot and all over the world.
so this letter seems kinda down but dont misunderstand my attitude. im happy. i do love this job. its tonz of fun even. sleep is a rarity, but i enjoy it when i get it. hahaha. everyone knows what thats like.
i love you. all is well i promise! im happy! hey and write me more. tell everyone too! i barely had any letters this week!!
and mom, im not mad about the letter im just warning you, if i dont have time at one point in these two years, dont be mad! i love you like crazy though. dont forget that. and i wanna write hand written letters, but it costs 2.30 american dollars to send stuff! ill do it when i can spare it though.
hey send me some clothes i can get paint and stuff on. i just need a molten shirt. and i would love american candy mom! dont listen to dad, we´ll see if it gets through ok? i love and miss you both.
love,
Elder Arnett
Mon 9/10/07 5:13 AM
To:
pamiam1218@hotmail.com
sup ma and pa!?
first off, mom! what the heck! dont listen to dad! write me tonz! i got one small email from you! i need more lovin! im here in lonly cold germany and the one girl i care about most doesnt even write me! come on! whats that all about! but i did get you tape and i am extremely appreicative of that. it was agoood to hear everyones voices even though lots were crazy sarcastic. thats so sweet that chris popped the baby thing with me on the line. it made me really happy. anyways, keep writin and dont stop! i need lovin! serious!
d-backs are still in the lead? i really didnt see that comin...
ok well, once again this week was friggin hard! it seemed like everything was falling through. serious. everything. every one of our appointments were canceled and ya. we were back to square one. so we decided to do alot of member work. less actives and partmember kinda stuff. its not my favorite but its kinda fun getting to know the people. the part member work is where its at though, only if you do it right.
ive come to realize that the elders here before me kinda ruined the ward. like the elders are way cool and i like em, for the most part, but they just screwed up. the ward doesnt really trust us. thats why we decided to do more ward work. and it seems to be paying off.
the book of mormon to the ward idea i had is so much better than i thought. yesterday, i had to give out three of my own! its sweet. i really really think this is going to help the work.
anyways back to the week. we went by on tonz of old investigators and old contacts. and we still have so much more to do! im pretty excited for this next week cause we have a lot of appointments made out.
before i forget, CASEY IS COMMING BACK!! WHAT THE HECK, HE JUST LEFT!!! i cant believe it. thats insane. and parentals, i love you and you know it, but these three months have gone pretty fast for me too. well at least this like month. this transfer has flown. we only have about a week left. if my miission goes like this im a bit scared. i know ill have hard times, but still...its fast. congrats casey and fam.
im really glad to hear cliff is doing good and that cam is too. i really have come to realize how much i love and miss my family. all of them. all 100 or some odd of em. i hope everyone reading this is doing good and i hope to hear from you at some point! i miss you all like crazy!
and if austin reads this, the song was a hit. the missionaries in my apartment especially like it.
anyway. so this week. it was rough. constant rain. and a lot of crazy things happened. like people did some pretty messed up things to us. i really dont wanna go into it, but i was mad, wet, angry, perturbed, frusterated, and ticked off. then i went home, showered, wrote in my journal, went to sleep and repeated the same steps the next day. all week long. it was just bad. but then saturday came around. and i love saturday cause it means the next day is sunday and in this case, sunday meant we had an appointment with a promising investigator.
then sunday came and i got a text (ha! take that dad! i have a cell phone and its glorious!). it was from this investigator and he had to cancel cause he was sick. i was mad but kinda glad cause investigators never tell you they cant do it. they just dont show up.
anyway lewis and i decided to go down to velbert instead. its in the very south of our area and mission. heres the story as i told it to pres...
But there are two things that I am really excited for. First, an investigator that we have. We had an appointment made out for yesterday, but it fell through. But the reason I'm still hopeful is because he called us. That means he remembered! And he is still way interested. He had to cancel because he was sick. And I don't think it was a lie, he sounded horrible!
And second, yesterday we were in the south of our area giving a spiritual thought to a family who just fasted for the missionary work, and to drop by on some former contacts and investigators. But it was getting late so we decided to start to head back. We caught a Bahn and were admiring the country. Then Elder Lewis said to me that we still needed to get our 20. We were at one of our favorite contacting spots so we jumped off the train and went out.
The place was dead. There was barely anyone anywhere. So we talked to as many as we could but were still short by about 12. So we decided to head over to the InnenStadt.
Now the InnenStadt is usually packed so we have a route we like to take that leads through some of the less populated streets. We find its easier to contact when there isn't so many people around. They usually seem to stop more often. But when we were about to take the road that we usually do, both Elder Lewis and I had a feeling that we should go up the main road. So, naturally, we did. We weren't walking for more than 2 minutes when this guy who was jogging took out his iPod and said, "Hey, you speak English right?" Elder Lewis and I looked at eachother and said "Ya."
The guy came over to us and said, "I wanna learn more about you." We were awestruck. This guy has read up on the Church and, in his own words, finds somthing attractive about it. He said he think it's a leap of faith, but that all religion is.
The phrase from Preach My Gospel came to mind, 'The Lord is preparing people to recieve you. He will lead you to them or He will lead them to you.'
Oh! The goodness and mercy of the Lord my God!
i forgot i had it. so thats that. it was way cool and we meet with him on thursday.
and thats that sadly. that was my week. i know its not that interesting, but its all that happened!
i gotta go help elder lewis get registered for byu. hes training me for the mission and im training him for the real world. its so funny! he goes home right before christmas, so i should be able to kill him, we'll see how it plays out.
i cant believe how christmas doesnt feel that far away. it is three months, but i dunno. its scary how fast this goes! james is 6 months through! and bj is over a year! its flippin crazy.
here are some pictures of the crazy wild here in deustchland! hope you like. some of these are off my comps camera so ya, thats why they're wanna be artistic! haha jk!
i love studying the language and the scriptures! oh my. it is sweet. serious! im learning alot about my study habits and how i should do it. i eat periodiocally during my 3 hour study sessions. im gunna get so fat! but ive actually lost weight since ive been on the mission. im only like 77 kilos now...
elder lewis and i have started excercising. its so funny. he got some work out tapes and he makes me do them with him. theres this ab one that makes me laugh so hard. the guy on the tape is such a flamer! but im still sore and we did it like 3 days ago. but i draw a line at palaties. i refuse to do any of that stuff with him!
OK well im off. today is a chill day and very much needed by yours truly. ive been sleeping, but still not good. i figure its a fact of missionary work! anyways. i love and miss you!
Tschüss!
Elder Chad
p.s. i had to change my handwriting for german! im perturbed!
Mon 9/17/07 3:43 AM
To:
pamiam1218@hotmail.comDearest mother and father.
Hey there parentals! i just wanna say whats up! im going to apoligize now cause i know that your not going to be satisfied with the length of this letter, but just know i love you.
so elder lui is going home in 3 days. we're partyin like its 1999 so he can have a good time. its really sad to see him go. he lives in verona and ya...its just sad. but ive learned some really cool italian phrases. i can talk to italian people here. cant really understand. but thats my life. ive learned some bad words in italian too...but i wont use those...too often! haha!
We taught that american named nicholaus. it was so amazing! it was so spiritual and he totally felt it. i feel like im in the movie the best two years. its so great though. im lovin it. we have another appointment with him on tuesday to teach the plan of salvation. im really stoked about it cause its so easy for me to teach. and i use alot of personal expierences with the family and how there is life after this one so i can see all of them again. it really invites the spirit, giving personal accounts. i just cant wait til i can do it in german.
yesterday we had a ward eating thing after church. it was so fun for me. the food sucked, not gunna lie. germans cant cook big batches but when its individual its amazing! anyways i just started playing with all the little kids. i had a friggin blast! i cant wait to get to play with all the little cousins everyone seems to be poppin out lately! but the ward really noticed me playing and started making fun of me! i just got up on the stage and said `hey! im the only child.`and then a kid named maneul threw a ball at me and i chased him. they all laughed. our ward is one third really cool people and two thirds crazy old people.
but some are extremely nice. this one member gave me an electronic dictionary to use as long as im here(which might be 6 months). its way cool, but i feel really bad about taking it! but she insisted. so i did. i promised to give it back though and wrote a huge sign and put it above my bed to remind me!
Its amazing to me how wwII still lives on. we talked to a man yesterday who was saved by americans no older than me. hes a nice old man. also, we saw a ton of anti nazis fighting alot of nazis. they are still around. i was gunna jump in and give those hard hearted germans a peice of my mind! but then i saw knifes and decided to turn around! haha. (jk mom, i wouldnt get in a fight. if i did itd be a one way ticket home! but i really saw a huge brawl goin down!)
micro bursts in AZ? i do miss those. the weather here has actually been pretty nice. no rain, but i do need to buy a jacket. im gunna do it this week. so put like 100 bucks on my card. thats only 75 euro and thats a really cheep jacket. i gotta find one i love and that will last two years. not like the missionary one, but a regular one for pdays, when we play soccer and when i wake up in the morning.
this second hand smoke will kill me! this lady is smoking right next to me, but a song by plain white tees is on the radio and that makes it bareable.
speaking of which, i still hear all of my favorite songs all the time. kids are always blasting them from their phones or theyre on loud speakers in the innenstadt. its redonkulous. i told pres i sometimes feel bad. he said `hey, if it doesnt damn ya, then your ok.` i laughed. hes a funny guy.
we had zone conference this past week again. but this time with pres kopischka. hes in the mission presidency and in the 70. hes way cool. i learned so much on how to be better, its just trying to figure out how to do it now. i dont know where to start.
this next transfer im only going to be speaking german. i hope it helps me. its so hard though. i hit a block two days before yesterday. i couldnt speak or understand. it was really bad. i felt like crying. but then the lord gave me a tender mercy and let me go play soccer with some people in the ward and a few inactives and an investigator. it was so good to get out and run. the germans are good and soccer! but bruder danalkiis (a guy in my ward who played semi pro!) took me under his wing and said i have natural tallent. i was surprised to see how far i could kick the ball and with so much accuracy. it was sweet. he taught me tonz on that day and i got a real workout. it felt so good. he says he wants me there every week. i told him id come if he brought someone we could teach. we will see how it plays out.
well mom and dad, i love you like crazy and miss you even more. or the other way around. which ever makes you feel better! i started a tape a few days ago and will get that to you....later haha. i havent gotten any mail in a very very long time so make sure you wrote the right address on it. mom i got the tape and stuff so i think its the correct one. im just chillin in essen. waiting for some lovin from the parental units!
oh ya, i get letters from bj and chad and jbev, but thats about it. plaw and deuce...i got nothing. hey maimai hiapo is doing really bad. somthing about her heart. pray for her. shes such a sweet little girl and bj is taking it hard. maybe call up coach and find out. send her my love would you?
k guys, thanks for everything. and you can write me more...i love hearing from you.
love,
elder ARNETT!!!
ps. dad you better work on your fishin skills you have just over 20 months to get ready for me. im gunna kick your trash all over the cheese hole! and keep the sports updates a comin. az is doin good.
and sorry, i didnt take any pictures this week....
k its time to go show elder lui a good time.
hey one more thing. k i want/need the following; -a harmonica. dont ask questions, just do it.-my religion book. its the purple one that i used for my world religions class. it would help so much out here.-my patriarchial blessing lamaneted and the size of a credit card. i read it so much. at least everyday and i would like a more portable one.-again money for a jacket. thanks so much guys! i love and miss you!
Mon 9/24/07 2:56 AM
To:
pamiam1218@hotmail.commom and dad.
hey you two. hows life back home? glad to hear all is going well.
this week has been really hard and good. right now im in a rather depressed mood though. so excuse the lack of entusiasim.
i was sick this week. that was hard. it was weird and i dont even know what it was, but it really stunk. i didnt like not getting out side.
so we got nicholaus to stake conference yesterday. pres thompson and pres sebald (stake pres) both talked. it was way good. nick felt the spirit. hes such a good guy. we challenge him to baptisim tomorrow. im stoked. he knows it true and he has a friend he wants to share this with. not even a member and already a missionary. we challenge another girl tonight. shes gettin wet for sure too.
after the stake conference we had a small zone conference thing too cause pres was here. he held interviews and all that jazz, hes a good guy.
so the reason why im depressed is because of german. its killing me. im trying to speak it but i get way embarrassed. ive never been embarrassed in my life until now. its a horrible feeling! and leigh just laughs when i do it. i hate it. hes way hard for me to deal with right now. hes so negative and always yelling and just drives any semblance of the spirit right out. its so hard.
i feel like im not a good missionary. the reason being is because i cant help people. i dont know what they are saying to me and i cant really talk back. lauren gave me great avice, act like your the best. just have that american attitude! and i try. i know confidence is a huge key of language. HUGE. but its hard to have when i keep getting put down. i dont mean to vent or make you think i hate my mission cause i totally dont. its just really hard for me to feel good about my self.
i dont need anyone of you to build me up, i just needed to get it out. sorry.
anyways, thats all for me this week. im sorry these are progressivly shorter, but ya. i have no excuse other than i was sick and not too much happened! im just way hard on my self this week. i think the fact that lui left was hard too. the elder that came in to replace him was edler curzon. good guy.
k well im out. much love parents. really i miss you alot. its hard not being able to just call you up whenever i want. especially during weeks like htis one.
love,
your boy.
Tue 10/02/07 7:08 AM
To:
pamiam1218@hotmail.com
Security scan upon download
parentals!
hey you two, no i didnt forget about you. some crazy stuff is goin down in germany. and yesterday the internet didnt work. im sorry im sure it was a long night but im well and everything is going great. heres something i received today,
Liebe Missionare bzw. Missionarinnen,
This last week there have been certain radical groups who have been causing riots here in Germany. On September 22 in Hamburg about 15 people were injured in clashes between the police and these radicals in the northern city of Hamburg. Around 700 policemen had to use water cannons and batons to disperse the group who had set up barricades on the street and set fire to garbage bins. In another city a group of foreign students were attacked with pepper spray after being stopped on their bikes. Other events have happened in cities where most of the riots and attacks have been made against foreigners. Radical groups will continue to seek publicity for their political agendas by creating more disturbances at various festivals throughout Germany.
As missionaries (and as foreigners as most of the missionaries are), you should be cautious and avoid public venues where violence may erupt.
Please be careful and aware of your surroundings. We do not want any accidents happening to any of our missionaries.
Elder Brinton
Mission Secretary
Germany Hamburg Mission
and since im in a big city, ya just lots of really weird stuff is going on, some hate groups are starting to break out... im good though and all is well.
things with nicholas are going so well. we took him to a baptism on saturday and he came to church on sunday. he is getting baptized but we just have to find a date now. on sunday we went to the stake presidents house with him for dinner and had an amazing time. it was so much fun. i gave the spiritual thought in german about my ankle and the hard time i had with that. it was way good. the spirit definately was there and helped me get the german words out. it wasnt easy by anymeans, but i finished it. ive been speaking german more and more. its so hard, im just stupid!!!
before i forget, some of the pictures are just me and my comps messin around at a train stop at night waiting to go home. the one of me and lewis in the kitchen is us doing service. we made cinimon rolls and gave them to our investigators. i bought a catus to remind me of home. his name is paco.. 1779 is of me sick. i hated it. it was just a cold or flu... and the pic of the two ladies and the girl is cool. the girl is getting baptized and the lady on the right we are reactivating. that is celina and sister von rauchhaupt. the lady on the left is a member, sis steinka
no i still havent gotten in contact with ronja but her parents are in the us now for conference. im stoked for conference, we get 3 sessions here. we miss sunday night for now, but whatever. im so excited. we had apostle predicitions at distrikt meeting today. it was fun i love my districkt. im gunna miss them. were half way through this transfer! woah! im four months gone! yikes!!! i need to step it up.
parental units, i love and miss you so much. im sorry i have no time this week. we have too much to do today and its no pday so i cant take my time on here. i love you two so much though. i miss you like crazy. i hope the lord is blessing you by my being out here!
mom, heres the ward thing. you can add what ever you want to it from in here too.
Liebe Pioneer Ward!
Hey! so my lovely mother sends me the ward news letter everyonce in a while and i love hearing about things back home. i noticed that the ward has a baptisimal goal for this year! WAY TO GO! that is so awesome and it is completely possible to accomplish! it all starts with a goal and then the kingdom grows. this ward is amazing and you invite and surround people with such warmness. sometimes here in germany the people are as cold and the weather. just be nice and make friends. dont be afraid to invite people over to your house for dinner and invite the missionaries! thats my favorite appointment! just think of 5 people you could share a message about christ with, and then do it. its so simple, but extremely hard. just always keep your eyes open for oppertunities to share the word and the lord will provide, thats what ive learned.
k i gotta go.
i love and miss you,
elder arnett.
Mon 10/08/07 3:24 AM
To:
pamiam1218@hotmail.comSup Eltern!
Well this week has been an interesting one. It was really a testimony builder for me. The week started off slow. Elder Lewis and I started to prepare for Conference by making invites to give to all the Less-Active Members and friends or contacts of the Church. Then we got to work passing them out. We tried to get to every single Less-Active and contact that we have recorded. We tried to give out the invitations personally, but if they were not there we would put it in the mail box. I think it was good. We now know where all these people live and they have seen us. We also set up a lot of appointments this next week with them.
This week we also did alot of member work. It seems like our ward is going through a very tough time. Everyone is losing their job and we are starting to notice family problems errupting. Aslo sickness is sweeping through the ward. So, Elder Lewis and I have been trying to see what we can do to help. We gave a lot of service to try to earn the members trust and show them that we really do care. I think that is the key, showing that we care and that we are in a position to uplift spiritually. Then yesterday we had a couple sweet experiences.
We had two investigators at Conference. One was Nicholas and the other was Celena. Nicholas has become friends with a member by the name of Sister Kötzlik. While Elder Lewis and I were doing something else in the ward building they got to talking. When we walked back over to them, Nicholas said they were singing our praises. We were a bit confused. Then he clarified. He said he was really thankful that he got us as "his missionaries". I asked what he meant and he told me that we seem to have an excitement for the work that some other missionaries don´t seem to have. Then Sister Kötzlik chimed in and said that it was also really good for the ward to see two missionaries who have the dedication that we do. She said that for the past while, the ward has kinda felt like the missionaries didn´t care. We assured her that we do. She said "I know because you show it." We all started tearing up. It was really one of the sweetest moments that I have had on my mission. I realized the importance of member work yesterday. What Elder Kopischke told us at Zone Conference rang true to me. "If you want the Church to grow in Germany, you have to work with the members. Without them, it will not happen. It will not happen."
We also set a Tauftermin (baptism date) with Nicholas. The 5th of November. I hope I am still around for that wonderful experience. It was amazing to have him at Conference. It is always a spiritual re-boost. It was kinda cool to see Elder Kopischke again, but on the TV! I really took Conference for granted before I came to Germany. I wish I would have paid more attention to it before! I realize now how much time I wasted before my mission. All the wonderful oppertunities I had. I learned alot, but I could have done better. But no point in crying over spilt milk. I just have to work harder now!
This weekend we have been doing one big super exchange. We had eight Elders in our apartment! It was so cramped but so much fun. We played guitar and sang and played games and swapped stories and all the things that misssionaries do when we get together! It really was a blast.
Ya, I did buy a jacket, but I had to pay with it with mission money. The bank would not let me withdraw more than 50 euro. I was kinda confused, and now I have no money to buy food! But no worries, I get money this week. I should get 100 euro because I had to buy so much stuff for the apartment and missionary supplies. Blah. Aber alles gute.
Thats crazy about the D-backs. I really can't believe it. I was under the impression that they sucked!
My address is
Raffaelstr. 12
45147 Essen
Germany
I think you have it right. And sorry but I dont know the address of the internet shop. It is somewhere in the innenstadt though. Good luck finding it!
Sorry about the picture situation, sometimes the computer I am on has a USB port and sometimes it doesnt. Next week I will grab one that does. Promise.
Ok well we have a few appointments today. I swear we work TOO hard. Just kidding, but we really dont have a p-day because we would rather meet with people that can not meet at other times of the week. We also never take the dinner break that we are allotted. Elder Lewis works me like a horse, but it'll make me better. Although when the weather gets cold, so do the people. Winter time slows the work so we will see what happens. Member work anyone?
Ok, much love. I miss you two like crazy. It was weird thinking you were watching saturday and sunday morning sessions at the same time! but it was 6 at night here!
Peace, Love, Crabs,
Elder Arnett
Chad Arnett (chadarnett@myldsmail.net)
Sent:
Mon 10/15/07 4:29 AM
To:
pamiam1218@hotmail.comdearest parental units,
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!25 YEARS AINT BAD!!
well this week has been really long and really hard, but we got a lot of good work done. i dont really know what to say and i know your going to be really dissapointed in this letter, but i dont have too much to say this week. im just really tired. but thats the life of a missionary right?
we set two baptisimal dates this week. thats pretty exciting. but i dont think that ill be here for either. i think i will be transfered on november 1st to some ohter area. its no big though. in an effort to have daily contact with one of our investigators, elder lewis and i have started running 3 times a weeks early in the morning. it works for daily contact, but ive never really been the morning person. i drag my self outta bed every day at 5.30 to go running with this guy. its pretty bad, but ive never been so motivated to run. i hate the running part but its good to have contact to Nicholas. ill do whatever it takes to make sure he gets wet! and ive already lost 2 or 3 kilo. just goes to show how fat im gettting. haha just kidding. im not gaining too much weight. infact im getting back to where i was before i left for my mission. still not there, but im tryin to gain! i want muscle and i should be gettin some soon. we do situps every night and i work out 3 times a week after running. its not heavy stuff, just pushups and goofing off with some weights. meh.
ok i gotta go. i love you and am sorry this is short. im just way tired and we all gotta run. id love some old fashioned letters too if you could. it would be sweet.
love and miss you two like crazy. hope you have a great anniversary. oct 15 right? a day that will forever live in infamy.
peace, love,
Elder Arnett.
Chad's cousin, Chea Lamb of Chea Lamb Photography, took some photos of Chad as he was preparing to enter the MTC. This is the now famous photo that later appeared in the LDS Church News.
