November 29^th 2011

Well this week was a good one. It was rough going all those days without a p day but it was nice to have a short week till this one. When we don't get p day on Monday we call it marathon Monday. It was rough having two of those in a row. So thanksgiving was awesome! We ate with a family over in Elder Jones' first area. The dad is the bishop of the ward and his daughter is married and lives in our ward with her husband. She barely got home from her mission in Thailand a year ago! So it was fun. Her husband is a convert to the church and served a mission at 26! The family we were with, the Larsons, have 4 children. Two are married, one is on a mission in North Carolina in the mission Elder Jones is from, and the other one just graduated from High School and is getting ready for a mission. We had some good food. I got full super super fast. I have been eating a lot less lately, I eat apples a lot cuz I can take them with me out the door and they are good for you. Like dad always told me, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. I think he told me that about a few foods though. So couldn't eat too much. Elder Jones was in a lot of pain that night. He has a bad back and he tweaked it while we were playing football. He is just now starting to recover. It’s been rough on him, I feel bad. He did have like 4 touchdowns though so maybe it was worth it. He spent most of the night icing his back and put a heating pad on it. Since he was in the living room on the couch doing that the parents and the married daughter came in and talked with us. We had a real nice chat about the Gospel, about our future lives and ambitions and just talking about some fun things. We played the game Apples to Apples and had a good time. The TV was on the whole time with different football games on. It was a temptation not to watch. The rest of the night was good. Friday we had a busy day doing different things. I can't remember what we did. Saturday was good too but just like Friday I can't remember what went on. Sunday was a very very good day. We got all ready in the morning and went to church. When we first got there and until 20 min. into sacrament meeting Shauna McCartney was the only one there. Randomly an old investigator we haven't been teaching texted us and asked if she could come to church and we enthusiastically said YES! She did come for the second and third meetings. Just after we received that text Roberta and Serenity walked in and sat in the back, so we texted the mom of Shauna to see if Justin, her brother, was coming. The mom had gotten home late from work again so she was bringing him late. Just as Sacrament meeting ended, he waltzed on in with a purple suit coat and black MC Hammer pants on. It was ridiculous but he was there! So we had 5 people come to church and 4 of them are set up to be baptized this month! We are stoked. The rest of Sunday was kind of dull though. We had dinner with the Welch family who is the family that Michael and Mercy Slover, the last two baptizees live with. The dad cooks very very well. They were all bragging about his fried chicken so he finally made it. He has nothing on your chicken dad! He does make some good potatoes with Garlic and what not in them. Most people wouldn't like them but I love garlic. Then after that we met with all the missionaries. Since it’s after Thanksgiving we took the liberty to go Christmas Caroling as a zone to everyone’s investigators. It was a lot of fun. Monday was good as well. We went to all the apartments in the zone and did checks to see if they were clean. Then we went to the mission office to pick up a Spanish Book of Mormon for one of our investigators. She speaks Spanish and English but her husband only speaks English so we get to teach them. Then we had some lunch. We were able to see a few people and tract for a little while. We had dinner with the Thomas family. His dad just got made the Stake Patriarch a little while ago. They are a real nice young family. During dinner we got our Transfer Calls... Dun, Dun, Dun... President Lewis asked to speak to Elder Jones and I together so he could break the news to us so Bro. Thomas let us go into his 12 year old daughters room. It was a unique transfer call. For one there were David Archuleta, Demi Levato, and Selena Gomez posters everywhere. Then President Lewis said that he regretted to inform us that the Lord wanted us to stay together here for another transfer! So a year of my mission will be spent in two areas! I am super super excited! We are stoked to stay together. We both get along so well and we are doing some great work together. So that was exciting. This is by far my favorite area. I have been praying everyday asking to stay here. The Lord answered!

So Elder Jones was born and raised in a little town called Roanoke Rapids North Carolina. It has a population of like 5000. He loved growing up there and that is home for him but he is not opposed to move away. He loves his family and they are all there but he doesn't see much opportunity for himself there. His dad is a Lawyer. His parents are probably late to mid-40's He is the second oldest of Six kids. He has an older sister who is 23 and not married. He has a younger sister who is 17 and a senior in high school. He has another younger sister who is like 14. His little brother is 10 and his baby sister who is soo cute is 5. They all sing very very well and they all play the guitar. I have seen a few videos of them and it’s great. I might love his little sister so he can't marry Hayley. He hasn't showed any interest in her so idk. He is a great guy though. I am considering going to Utah for school just so we can hang out. That is where he plans on going. He loves Taylor Swift and so does his family. So we get along pretty well with that. He enjoys long walks on the beach, Horseback riding, and finger painting. Just kidding. I made the last three things up. Well, that’s it. So I want to do a Christmas card again but I don't know if I’ll have the money for them and stamps. If I do it I won't send it to 100 people again. Probably only like 30. So maybe you can help me with that. I really don't want much for Christmas. I just want to baptize a lot of people this year. Well things are still awesome. We are still striving to be as obedient as possible. I have discovered heaven in a bottle recently. It is Afrin Nasal Spray. It works wonders in my congested sinuses. I still take Benadryl every day but this helps me have a clear nasal passage way all day. So things are great. Some of the missionaries are making our hair turn gray cuz they aren't being obedient and we are finding out about it so we have to crack down on things. Well I hope everyone is having a good holiday season. We are having a fine time listening to Holiday favorites and classics. I can't wait till the day I can eat a Krazy Sub! Well I love you all. Have a nice week.
Love, Elder Tyler Pete Arnett

November 24^th 2011

So this email might not get sent cuz the computer is jacked so I’ll send this real quick
Love, Elder Tyler Pete Arnett

“He who thanks but with his lips thanks but in part; the full, the true Thanksgiving comes from the heart”. (J.A. Shedd)

This was a quote from the weekly email President Lewis sends to us. I liked it so i thought i would turn the tables on you mom and send you a quote. So this week was rough. It was hard going three extra days without a p day. Everyone was feeling worn out and stressed. I know now what the importance of having a pday is. So now we are relaxing after a great morning of Turkey Bowl. The team i was on won both of the games we played. The first one was good. We won like 4 to 2. I had a sweet touchdown pass and ran it all the way. I was very very tired after that, luckily i have ran in the morning for more than a week straight now. I am trying to get into better shape before i come home. It’s called Six months to Sexy. Trust me, I'll need all of the six months. I am finally starting to see some results. I think my muscles had to build up which made it look like, on the scale that it, i wasn't losing weight. Now I’m losing it. Hopefully i don't completely ruin everything tonight at dinner. The second game we played we destroyed the other team. It was 6-0. They never got close to scoring. I felt bad because we were playing two line man on both sides of the ball. These guys have never played football a day in their lives and i was just pushing them down every time. It was fun though. So tonight we have dinner with an awesome family. It is the Larsen family. They live in another ward in the stake. Elder Jones started his mission there and they really like him so they invited us over for dinner. Mom it might sound like we never get fed but we get fed almost every night. The ward loves Elder Jones and I. We don't quite know what we’re doing right because after Sunday we have 4 people set up to be baptized in December with the zone having a total of 11. I will be so so bummed if i get transferred. I've put a good word in with the big guys in the office so hopefully elder jones and i can stay together another transfer. Elder Jones is by far my favorite companion and this area is by far my most favorite area. So i really hope i can stay.

This past week was good. We did some good work. We are teaching a lot which is good because Elder Jones and I aren't too crazy about tracting but we do it at least an hour every day. The members are great and they love coming out with us so it’s never too hard to get the members to come out. On Sunday we had two kids of a part member family come to church. We have been teaching them since Manu was here and now they are getting ready to be baptized on the 21st of December. I think last week i told you about a lady named Roberta who came to church the past two weeks. We went up to her after church and asked if we could come by and teach her and she said yes and that she wanted her daughter to be baptized. So we have been teaching them twice a week and both her and her daughter are set to be baptized on the 10th of December! We are so excited. All these great things are happening. Elder Jones and I realized all these good things as well as that we could totally do more if everyone was working harder and more obedient, so we started leading by example and we now look for things that we can be more obedient on and it is way nice to have that good feeling. We talked to the zone about it last week and read the scripture in the Book of Mormon about the anti-nephi lehis burying their swords. I made cute little handouts with swords on them and the scripture with a place to write down what you’re going to give up, then we all put them in the paper shredder. Everyone in the zone has been seeing more and more miracles as we are all trying to qualify for the blessings of God. We are doing the best in the mission with 11 people set up for December. We ended November with 7 which was the most in the mission as well so we are excited to be doing work! Elder Jones and I figured out that we aren't doing anything that is leading to this success but that God is blessing us with it because we aren't doing anything to hold it back. Well this is the only computer that works so we have to be fast so everyone in the zone can email their families. Elder Jones is good looking but he has his eye on someone already... sorry. So i really want to hear about everyone’s lives back at home. Mom can only tell me so much. I don't want to come home in six months and not know anyone in my own house except mom of course. She still loves me... If you want to email me, I’ll print it out and read it and write you back... Or just write me a letter. I really want to hear from you all. Everyone in Elder Jones' family emails him every week. So yeah. I feel like i am holding up my end and mom is carrying all of the other end on her back. Thanks mom for being so faithful... I love you guys either way but I’ll love you more if you write me!

Love, Elder Tyler Pete Arnett

I wasn't very clear on this. Roberta has a Daughter named Serenity and they are set up for the 10th of December. Shauna and Justin McCartney are set up for the 21st of the same month. Love ya.

November 14^th 2011

I think the quote sounds better when I think of someone else saying it, not myself. So this week was really good. Despite some lost time here and there from being new zone leaders and trying to figure things out on the run, Elder Jones and I are seeing some good success. Its fun. Wednesday we had a good leadership meeting and things went well. Afterwards Elder Jones and I went to a delicious pizza buffet called Rico's. I guess it was huge in California back in the day but now there is only like one in Sacramento. So we went there. It is super good. The TV was on Sport Center and we saw all the good stuff on Joe Patterno and his friend. Man what is this world coming to! Also the commercials are ridiculous. Man. After lunch we were able to tract for a little while. It was fun. Then we had a pretty sweet miracle. We went to see some referrals that some missionaries gave us a week before and after two or three elder Jones had to pee real bad so we were about to go to Roberts house, the blind recent convert who is awesome. He said he could hold it for a little longer so we just kept seeing people who all lived in the same apartment complex. So we went and thought we were done but then we remembered one last one that was up on the third floor. So we went up to it and knocked on the door and this nice white guy with a beard answered the door. This part gets cool. He says he is busy babysitting two of his daughters and his house is a mess but he wanted us to come back on Saturday. Well we asked what his daughters names were and the first ones name was Kaylee. Elder Jones has a little sister named Kaylee who is 17 and super pretty, so I might be moving to North Carolina in 6 months. So that was fun but then he told us the name of the younger daughter and her name was Hayley. Well how about that. He has two daughters that have the same names as our younger sisters! So we talked for a bit then we asked if there was anything we could do before we left and he said no, just answer me this. (this is my favorite part) why did you come over to my house today? We replied that we felt we needed to stop by and that we almost missed it but we were prompted and remembered it. He got a real surprised look on his face and almost started crying. He said he had been praying the day before for guidance and he knew there was more he needed in his life religion wise. He told God that if this Mormon thing was for him that he needed to send the missionaries over the very next day. Well there we were. An answer to his prayer. So that was cool. The only thing is, he wasn't home for our return appointment on Saturday... but we will get him!!! The rest of the day would be a letdown compared to that story. We did have Chipotle for dinner which was mighty tasty. Wednesday we had a great district meeting. Elder Jones and I rewrote She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5. We made it missionary like. We played it for the zone. I started out singing it and I sucked. Elder Jones took it on the second verse then I interpretive danced the rest. It was fun. We taped it for the viewers to enjoy. I'll send the card home soon. The rest of the day I was with Elder Seigfried on exchanges. One area I am trying to work on is patience and the only way to strengthen something is to exercise it and push it till its tearing and about snap then release. That was an exact description of how the day went. But I feel like I am better from it. Oh and the girl didn't give me my jalapeno poppers when I paid for them only after she asked if I wanted them! Thursday was a good day. We taught a few people. We didn't plan the night before so looking at my planner right now isn't helping me remember what we did. Oh we had interviews with President Lewis on Thursday morning. It was really good. I love talking to him. He gave me some comforting advice. Friday was a swell day. We had weekly planning then we went out to lunch at a China buffet. It was good. We saw a few people afterwards. We tracted a little bit, then we had dinner. Member dropped it off to us. We had fried chicken from Raley's. Then we had an appointment fall through. We went to another really cool appointment. We had talked to an older couple the week before and missed the return appointment and she called and was mad but said we could back. So we went to the appointment and didn't listen to the spirit at all. They were asking great questions and we ignored them. We ended the lesson really really well when we finally learned our lesson and we will see them again this Friday. Their names are Tom and Annabella. Saturday was a crazy day. We got up and went to the church to play basketball with Leroy and the Elder quorum but Leroy and not one elder but like 4 people showed up so we left and then Leroy called us so we went over to his house and taught him. He is really struggling right now with unemployment and meeting with us is shaking up his family but he knows it is right so he is still going to meet with us and he came to church. We had a lot of appointments but a lot of them fell through. Our phone died so even though we were planning on skipping lunch we went and took lunch so we could charge our phone. Oh yeah and I bought an inhaler sometime in the past. We had to take a trip to the mission office to get our tires rotated and to pick up some supplies. It was fun. Saturday I wrote in my journal and I realized it was my 18 month mark so I committed to write in my journal every day the rest of my mission. I have failed already but I'll catch it up today. We had dinner with Robert and his wife Sandra and it sure was tasty. We always love hanging around Robert because he makes us feel good. He is a marriage and family therapist. So that is fun. I like to talk to him about music, movies and books. Its fun. So that was a good time. Sunday we had a meeting with the Stake Presidency. It was fun. I have decided that I want to spend my life in a room with a lot of people high up in a business and just talk about random stuff. Elder Jones is trying to convince me to go to LDS Business College for school so we can hang out when he goes to BYU. We'll see. So yeah that's whats going on. We had a good dinner last night. The mom made some amazing cookies that were almost as tasty as the oatmeal ones mom makes. Only when they are cold in the fridge with no chocolate chips and I dip them in milk. Man I will be looking forward to that someday. Maybe Christmas??? So I do like it when people honk at us when they drive by. But if you’re going to do it then do it early. Don't wait till you are right by the missionaries cuz it scares us. And I get scared easy! So don't do that. But I like it. So yeah. Things are going good. We have a lot of people we are working with. We found out a lady that came to church the past two weeks is a nonmember and has a daughter she wants to be baptized. We will be teaching her tonight so we are excited. The zone is setting things up for an amazing White Christmas. Well I love you. I won't be emailing till thanksgiving cuz next Monday we don't have P-day so don't be too bummed. Love you.
Love, Elder Tyler Pete Arnett

November 7^th 2011

You know Scott is right. My mission is AMAZING! This week was pretty good. Monday night was pretty good. We went to Deseret Book in the middle of the day to buy 17 Miracles. Then we went and bought some pizza for the zone. We had called the High Councilor from our ward that deals with the electronics and asked him to set up the projector in the cultural hall so we could watch it on the big screen. He has a son on a mission so he likes to do things for us and so he did set it up for us and also bought us some pizza so we had a bunch of pizza to eat. The movie was awesome. We all really really liked it. It really put things into perspective for all us and now no one wants to complain about anything. The whole mission loved it and it was great. We had a Zone Leader roundtable with President and Sister Lewis on Tuesday. We talked about some different things and it was pretty good. We talked about a new rule. It’s not really new but they are now enforcing it in the mission. When it is cold instead of just putting on a sweater or my cardigan like I usually do, we have to put our suit coat on first. So from now until it gets warm, which may not be till I am back in Arizona, we have to wear our suits. If we are still cold we can put a sweater on underneath but it has to be one dark solid color and v neck still so people can still see your white shirt and tie. Luckily I have two cardigans which pass, one is grey which I wore in my Christmas card and another one is red. I wore it on Saturday. If it’s raining we still have to put suits on then we can put a rain coat over it. Luckily I’ll most likely be in a car the rest of my mission so my suit should stay ok. Then we talked about a goal for baptisms this month. I had a lot of comments and we ended on the goal of 73 so when we hit 101 in December we will make our goal of 800 for the year. It will be a stretch because we only have like 15 baptized so far this month with like 38 people set up but we've all seen miracles and are all expecting and working for them. I did talk a lot to make the goal 73 so if we don't hit it I hope people don't look to me afterwards. But I know we can and we prayed about it and everyone felt the spirit and it was unanimous after the prayer that we will hit 73 this month. We ended last month with 85 which was five more than our goal so we were blessed a lot. I have been feeling so much better this week as well. I am still taking my medication but I feel like 100 bucks. We taught a few really good lessons this week. We didn't teach as much as we had hoped and we didn't find as many people as we wanted but we have some really great people. This weekend Michael and Mercy Slover got baptized. It was amazing. This baptism has been the biggest miracle and fastest baptism so far. It’s been awesome. President and Sister Lewis came to the baptism and that was really nice of them to be there. Elder Jones and I have been doing great. We both get along very very well and just laugh and have a good time all day long. The stories never stop and it’s always a shin dig when we’re around. Elder Jones has gotten a hold of a guitar and he plays it often at night and in the morning. He is amazing and can sing better than most the people on the radio. He sounds kind of like a mix between John Mayer and Daniel Beddingfield the one that sings the song, "I don't wanna run away but I can’t take it, I don't understand, if I’m not made for you then why does my heart tell me that I am?” Jackie has to listen to it and you'll know. I made a video of him singing an arrangement of a hymn he did and it’s awesome. I have already committed him to sing at my wedding and we have already started making a list of songs he is going to sing. I am excited to get married now. I haven't met too many people on my mission that I plan to stay in touch with and be friends with but I will definitely be friends with him. It’s great. So yeah that’s my week. The weather has been pretty good. It’s been cold some days with the highs in the low sixties to upper fifties. We can wear our suits all day and be comfortable. Some days we put our sweaters and cardigans on underneath cuz it’s a bit nippy. But yeah. Life is great. I am loving the work more now than I have ever on my mission and we are being blessed so much with success. I love being on a mission. I have learned so much stuff for my life on managing my life and helping others, organizing my time and talents and just working in general. It’s great and has helped me realize that really we can do anything. We just have to go for it. Sometimes taking the time to think whether something is possible or not makes us too late to accomplish it. We just have to have faith and fly. So I am excited to receive the letter and pictures. I love letters and pictures. I am still expecting some from my siblings so I will be waiting. I love you all so much.

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Love, Elder Tyler Pete Arnett