Let Freedom Ring!!!

It was yet again a bitter cold night on the banks of the Delaware River in late December 1776. Soldiers sat huddled, praying that defeat would be delayed just a little while longer. In the months previous to this bleak night, American troops struggled to come out on top of battle after battle. Since General Howe of the British Army had arrived on Staten Island with his 30,000 plus troops, the Americans had suffered losses, both physically and emotionally. In the Battle of Long Island Howe and a 20,000 man army drove the Americans back time after time. Washington's army escaped an attack which would have lead to much destruction when he planned and executed an extraordinary rapid movement withdrawing all of his troops in the middle of the night leaving General Howe to discover empty camps in the early morning. This left New York open for Britain’s taking. Later Washington and his men engaged in the Battle of White Plains. Americans were forced to split their troops leaving some at Fort Washington and other to go fight. Unfortunately both were defeated and the American strong hold was lost despite Congress’ plea to keep it at all costs. Washington and his men continued their retreat through New Jersey. In passing they learned of Congress fleeing to Baltimore, leaving them completely and utterly alone in their battles with their enemy. With a small band of only 6,000 men, George Washington was left to wait on the banks of the dismal river. General Howe announced that there was nothing more for them to do other than wait for the Delaware River to ice over, then he and his Hessian troops would invade and end the war. Morale was low on the American side. Defeat after defeat left them discouraged and out manned. It was cold, they were tired, and soon they would be defeated for good. Fortunately, God inspired the minds of a few men.
Thomas Paine wrote in his treatise titled The Crisis, "THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God." With in days of it being published, Washington had this read among his soldiers. Thomas Paine couldn't win the battle for them. He couldn't give them warmth or food or shelter. But what he did was more than all of that. His words gave them the morale to continue on; to live to fight another day. George Washington, the bold genius, devised a plan that would save this young country and ultimately lead to their victory over the war. In the middle of a frigid Christmas night, American troops gathered together in a variety of boats. As they navigated men, artillery, and even horses through the blocks of ice floating through the river, Colonel Henry Knox commented that the crossing was accomplished "with almost infinite difficulty." Following their landing Washington gathered his men and commenced to what is now known as the Battle of Trenton. He easily captured the Hessian troops in about 90 minutes and though their position less than ideal continued their fight. Lord Cornwallis of the British army took notice of his position in Princeton and thought he had Washington pinned between Trenton and the Delaware. Much to Lord Cornwallis’ dismay, before the next morning Washington had forged and carried out yet another movement in which American soldiers left fires burning bright through the night and, moving silently, attacked the British army and secured a position in which they could rest and regain strength. Though the war didn't cease till October of 1781, this moment in American history turned the momentum of the war and led to the triumph of this Young American country.
Men had fought long and hard with many giving their lives for the cause. Wives were left widows, children were left fatherless and fathers lost sons in the treacherous battles. The reason for this war was Freedom. Britain, their mother country, was imposing unfair taxes in attempts to raise money for debts acquired in a previous war. British Parliament in reaction to American boycott’s passed what is known as the Declaratory Act in which they stated that Britain had “full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America ... in all cases whatsoever". Though American colonies weren’t represented in Parliament, Britain assumed the right to make laws and changes to colonial government. The patriots weren't having it. They decided to lash out in rebellion for a cause that they knew to be right. No man was to be "bound in all cases whatsoever". That right belonged to God only, and even He, the greatest of all, grants unto us our agency, the Freedom to choose. Today we are in a battle similar to the one our forefathers were waged in. But this battle began years and years ago. In the council before this world began, our Father in Heaven called all of his spirit children together to discuss plans for earth life. He presented to us the opportunity to leave our heavenly home and come to earth to get a body. He told us of the choices we would have to make while here in this life. One, Lucifer, presented his plan. He said he would come down to earth and he would force everyone to follow God. It was too risky in his eyes to let people come to earth and have that chance to mess up. With his plan no one would be lost. God could have all of his children again. But we wouldn't learn and we certainly wouldn't be free. Lucifer wanted all the glory. He wanted the praise and power. This was opposite to the plan God had envisioned. Christ stepped forward and offered himself. His plan was for everyone to comedown to earth and be given the freedom to make their own choices. We would all make bad choices in our lives so he offered that he himself would come down and live a perfect life. He would then give himself up as an infinite and eternal sacrifice so that, if we chose to do so, we could accept and allow him to redeem us from that fallen state. It was clear as it which choice was the right one. Satan was furious and gathered as many followers as he could to side with him to rebel against God and Christ. For their rebellion, God cast Satan and a third of those in heaven down to earth with out bodies. We know which side we chose because we are here today with a mortal body. Each of us has made that one right choice in our lives. No matter how bad anyone has screwed up they can know that at one time they made one right choice. The war in heaven was all about choices. Just like our forefather, it began because of Freedom; Freedom to choose.
That war that began long ago is still long from being over. Satan tries to persuade us to make wrong decisions all the time. Rarely are we free from his temptations. He is miserable and he wants us to be miserable with him. There are choices we have to make everyday of our lives. Some of them don't really matter in an eternal aspect. Such as, What should I wear to work today? or What kind of cereal should I eat for breakfast? Some of them are a lot harder like, Who should I Marry?, What should I study in school?, or even, Should I keep watching this show even though it is a little dirty? Some of these decisions won't make a difference two weeks from now. No one cares that I wore a pink shirt to work last week. But others like, who should I marry, could impact us for the rest of forever. It’s all about choices and I think for most of us we make the right ones. I feel like most of us try to use good language and listen to good music. Most of us want to marry someone with similar standards as our own. But I also feel like we tend to shy away from making the "big" decisions we are required to make. It is intimidating to decide what you want to do for the rest of your life as a career. It’s intimidating to decide what you want to study in school to get you there. It’s even intimidating to make that final leap into marriage. Fortunately we don't have to make these choices on our own. Satan wants us to choose those options that will lead us to failure but God is rooting for us. It’s the final inning today and I’m not sure if God wears hats but if he did I’m sure he’d have his rally cap on. He wants to help us but we have to access the help he’s given us. He has given us many tools to find answers to many of life’s questions. We have the scriptures for example. They answer questions that man has been faced with since the days of Adam. We have the words of modern prophets to guide us on matters of today. And the one I feel is most important is a direct communication with God in prayer. I was able to gain a strong testimony of prayer early on in my mission but it was strengthened more as I was finishing it. In returning home from my mission just a short while ago, I was faced with a lot of these important life forming decisions. About a month before coming home, my Mission President had all the missionaries going home in my group fill out a return home plan. In it included what my vision was for my future family, career, and church service. It also asked for goals that would aid me on my way to creating that vision and then action items to achieve those goals. I felt super overwhelmed, so I began with a prayer that God would comfort me as well as help me know what a worthy and realistic vision was for my life. I immediately felt comfort. The choices were still there to be made but God had comforted me so I continued filling it out and I felt his help as I did so. But even after that experience, returning home was scary. It’s easy to write it and read it on paper but I actually had to start doing those things. So I prayed some more to ask God what exactly he would like me to be doing. In the month and a half proceeding my return home I have been blessed with many opportunities that I believe God has given me as answers to those humble prayers. I have been blessed with a good job that I can later make into a career which has also helped me decide what to study in school. I have been presented with schooling opportunities by people who care about me which has helped me decide what will be right for me in where I should attend school. I have seen God's subtle hand in my life and in answering these questions I’ve been presented with and I feel extremely blessed. But making these important choices isn't all Satan is trying to attack us with.
I think one of Satan's biggest weapons of today is getting people to do nothing at all. So many people today think they can get away with doing nothing and still get something out of it. The saddest part is that there are many politicians trying to make that easier for them! Too many people rely on Government hand outs. Much of the working class today is paying to provide for those who don't do anything at all. This is not what our forefathers were envisioning when they framed our country. From modern revelation we learn that the founding fathers of this country were inspired in the choices they made. In the Declaration of Independence we read "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights"... That we are endowed by our creator is a religious principle that we believe in. To be endowed means to be given a gift or provided for. So what our forefathers, being inspired, were trying to tell us was that we are provided for by our Father who is in Heaven. The government can only do so much for people. They have limited resources and, quite frankly, too hard of hearts to impact the needs of the world today. God is the only one that can give us what we need. We are living in pretty hard times right now and I believe things are only going to get harder. But you know what they say... "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going". Ok that doesn't apply at all to this situation really. But it kind of does. When things start getting real tough, we need to be the ones out there fighting for what’s right. The more horrible the world gets, the more righteous God’s people will get. Let’s refer back to the writing of Thomas Paine. "THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country..." I feel like NOW is the time that is really trying men's souls. There is so much for us to worry about and though we might not be "shrinking from the service of our country", scripture has alerted us that in these last days "men's hearts will fail them". The Summer Saint or maybe the Part-Time Priesthood holder might fall under the pressure. It is just too hard to do it on our own. We need God's help. But that endowment from God doesn't just come with out any effort on our part. We have to work for the blessings of heaven. We learn from the scriptures that when we receive any blessing it is because we were obedient to some commandment (D&C 130:20-21). So to be endowed we need to act, to make those choices, to do what’s right. I learned this lesson early on in my mission while serving in my first area. My companion and I were working hard to find people to teach and baptize but we weren’t seeing too much success. One week our Zone Leaders came to us and asked us why we weren’t reaching all of our goals. We had been asked to talk to 125 people out on the streets a week and we were only talking to maybe 50 in a week. They promised us that if we did all we could to reach those goals and to do our part God would provide. So we put it to the test and worked super hard. We talked to as many people as possible every day and by Friday evening we had talked to our 125. That Saturday we were on exchanges but my companion and the missionary he was with had a huge miracle in our area that I was able to feel the blessings from. They went to a return appointment that we had set up earlier in the week with a younger guy with a young family. When they got there the family was in the process of moving. The guy wasn’t home but his dad was and he wanted to talk. Usually when people want to talk it is usually either really good and they will get baptized or its bad and they want to bash. This guy wanted to bash. So though they shouldn’t have, they did bash with him. About 5 min. into their bash a man in a shiny silver convertible pulled up to the driveway and just stared at them. He was a grungy looking guy, wearing a shirt with the sleeves cut off. He was covered in tattoos and had a fatty goat-tee with an athletic build. All those combined with driving a nice sports car make him look pretty intimidating. They thought he might be the guy’s buddy coming to take care of them if they beat him in the bash but after five min. he drove off and they continued their bashing. About 20 min. later, as they were finishing up their conversation with the kid’s dad the same scary man drove up and they thought ok here it comes. What happened next they did not expect. He called them by Elder and introduced himself as Jim Jordan. He told them about his wife named Julie who struggled with medical issues. She suffered from severe migraines and had been in and out of the hospital quite a few times in the past couple of weeks and it was taking a toll on their family. He asked them if they would come over and give her a blessing around 1 and afterwards they would talk some more. They scheduled it in and continued on with their day but only a few minutes later, at 11, Jim called and asked if they had time right then to come over. They did, so they went over and after giving Julie a blessing Jim told them that he wasn’t a member but Julie was. He had been taking the lessons a few years earlier while living in a smaller town named Davis. He loved the church and even though the members were a little weird he wanted to be baptized. So the missionaries began preparing him and his daughters for their interviews. While in the interview they found out that he was on parole which would keep him from being baptized at that time. The missionaries didn’t handle it as well as they should have and he was a little offended so he and his family stopped attending church. Well a few years later and over his parole he had the same desire as before to join the church. He later introduced us to his two young daughters Mikayla who was 13 and McKenna who was 10 and he said they were ready to be baptized as well. When I met them for the first time he asked me, “So what has to happen for us to be baptized because we’re ready?” We explained to him what would happen and they were excited. He said he had wanted to talk to missionaries for a while but he couldn’t ever find them but that day when he went out to get some groceries and medicine for his wife he saw them standing there on the drive-way of the bashing man’s house. He waited for a while but got nervous so he just left and told himself that if they were still there when he was coming back, he would talk to them for sure. It was a huge miracle that Jim was able to find us and that they were that ready to be taught. We only received that blessing from God because we did what was asked of us. Jim, Mikayla, and McKenna were all baptized about 5 weeks later and it was the first baptisms of my mission. God has given us the freedom to act for ourselves. Countless numbers of men and woman have given their lives to preserve that freedom. Many more still fight today with that same drive. It would be disrespect to those who lost their lives in preserving this great cause if we just sat here doing nothing. The government can't help us. Only God can and to receive that help we have to use that freedom of choice that was given to us way back in the pre-mortal existence.
I think Thomas Paine said it pretty good when he said "Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods..." Essentially, the more work it takes to accomplish something, the greater the reward in the end. The prophet Joseph Smith was given the same promise in a revelation recorded now as D&C 121:7-8 “My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; though shalt triumph over all thy foes.” At this time when our country celebrates the heroic acts of the many men and woman who have fought and now fight so we can continue to have the freedom that we fought for before this life, let us make a choice, the right choice. Let us do something. Let us be something. These things I know to be true and you can too. Good day sir.

ELDER ARNETT COMING HOME!!!! THIS IS IT!

This week is transfer week so we will not get a letter from Elder Arnett until Tuesday, May 15th.  By that time Marilyn and Max, his parents, will be on their way to pick Elder Arnett up.  His release date is Thursday, May 17th.  We will be having an Open House for him at our home at 635 N. Windsor Circle at about 8 pm until when ever the evening of May 17th.  Come by and say Hey to him!

His homecoming talk will be Sunday, May 27th at 8:30 am at the Stake Center on Brown Road in between Gilbert and Lindsay Roads.

1 WEEK & 3 DAYS TO GO!!!

May 7^th 2012

Well it sounds like everyone is having a good time. Maybe Porter grew too fast and that’s why his back is jacked. Jackie sent me the picture of the family in front of the tree and porter is taller than all the girls. Braden is too but Porter is young for that tall! You should get it checked out. That’s awesome about Braden and Hayley getting their blessings! I have loved mine and it has helped me out on my mission knowing what i need to do and how and what not. So that’s cool. That would be cool if Braden was a General Authority. And as for Hayley. Man two dates with Brian? That seems fun. He would be a cool brother in law. I got David's announcement for graduation on Thursday which was the day he graduated so that was fun. It was actually kind of funny well no it wasn't but on my birthday i didn't get crap in the mail. The day was actually kind of a bum day altogether but then on Thursday i got a bunch. I got Jackie's parcel in the mail a letter from a friend and David's announcement. It’s like they always say, Better late then never, but never late is better. So yeah that was good. I got my blue suit dry cleaned last week and it looks pretty good. It’s a little big on me but it’s a nice suit. On Monday night we had dinner with our ward mission leader and it was fun. His family is pretty awesome and it was a good time. I had to sing my Phantom of the Opera for them as well. I think about half the ward has heard it now... People are starting to film it now. It’s really not that good. I just get into a lot. If you can remember the piston choir concerts with Mr. C-Rap. It’s even better than that. Tuesday was fun. We had a Zone Leader Conference. I like spending time with all the other zone leaders and President Lewis. It was a good meeting. We visited a lot of people this week and we saw a little bit more success. Wednesday was my birthday. We had a cool little miracle in the morning. So Dewey Ray writes to the missionaries in the ward pretty often and he puts some scripture studies on the back. Well one day i was reading through one and it was similar to a lot of the others. He said it helped his mission baptize 1000 people in a year. So i thought i would piece a few of them together and call it the Bible/Book of Mormon connection. So we made pictures and stuff and had the scriptures marked and we have been trying to share it with a few people. Basically it takes someone through the bible showing what it is who wrote it and stuff and then you show that there were people in America and since God loves his children (which you use scriptures showing that he loves them anywhere in the world) he would raise prophets there. So we went tracting in the morning which usually isn't too effective but we didn't have anything else to do so we did it and it was in a nicer neighborhood which usually doesn't result in much but we were following the spirit and we went there and met a guy named John. He was old and invited us in right away. He got us some water and told us he was a Catholic Bishop. He asked if we were going to share our message with him or if he could share one with us so we said well how about both and he said ok. So we shared our bible/book of Mormon connection lesson. Some of the things we read in the bible he didn't know and he didn't even know where the book of Mormon came from and who wrote it. He was amazed and intrigued. He then shared his message which the Catholic Church sends to his Ipad every day and it had to do with Paul and another person in the bible being set apart to preach the gospel. He looked at us and said that's what we were. We were set apart to preach the gospel and we were sent to him. So that was cool. But then he said he wanted to invite us to a study group he has every Wednesday night but it wasn't at his house that week so he didn't want to be impolite to the people so he said the next time it’s at his house he wants us to come share it with his whole group of about 8 couples. He said they need to know about the book of Mormon because people don't understand where it came from. So it was pretty cool. The rest of the week was good. We were able to teach a few new people and reach many of our goals. Things were going slow but we can see that they are steadily picking up which is good because it feels like our success will be lasting and consistent in the future rather than just spurts of baptisms here or there. So yeah it was pretty good. So this week on mother’s day i will call around 4:30 or 5. I don't want to Skype because i am still on my diet... But i will call. I am excited for you to come here and meet some of my friends! Well i hope everyone has a good week. Love You!

Sorry it’s so short. I will see you soon enough. Next week i won't email till Tuesday and by then Mom and Dad will be here! Man it’s gone by so fast and its not slowing down these few weeks. 

--
Love, Elder Tyler Pete Arnett

2 WEEKS & 3 DAYS TO GO!!!

April 30^th 2012

Well Jamie just emailed me the Gender of the Baby! I shared the Dr. Quote with the zone and they loved it. So this week was slightly better than last week. It was hard to push through working hard because i go home so soon and it would be hard to work hard without seeing success all that time but i did stick it out this far and now it seems a lot easier to work hard for only two weeks. I mean football camp was a whole week and i could work hard all that time so yeah its going to be good. We have a lot of work that needs to be done. On monday evening we went and said bye to Jason. He left for I think Georgia tuesday morning but had to be in a Hotel by 10 on monday night. So we went by their house to say bye. It was really sad to see a Dad have to leave his wife and 3 little boys. The oldest is like 4 and then 2 and barely born. But in six months they will fly his family out to North Carolina where he will be stationed and they will live there for like two years. So now i have a good collection of people i will know in North Carolina so i will have to go out there and visit everyone. Tuesday was good. We had interviews with President Lewis. It was really good. We just talked about being a good Model for the Zone as a zone leader. He said even if we aren't seeing success we still need to work hard so others will when they aren't seeing success. They set up my Departing Interview and it will be on May 8th so a little bit before i go home but it will be good. They gave me a Return Home Plan worksheet to fill out before that interview. It wanted me to write down what i want for my life in Family, School, Career and Church then to set goals and make plans to achieve the goals. It was pretty hard actually and i started having a similar feeling i had in the MTC when i was staring at 2 years in front of me and i was scared and overwhelmed. Its going to be scary starting my life and family and career and it was overwhelming filling it out. But i did remember an awesome experience my second day in the MTC. I was feeling super overwhelmed of the task ahead and it was making the day really hard to focus and what not. So i prayed and asked God to help me feel comfort and to not think about how long and hard it will be but to just focus on whats happening now and do what i need to do now to produce my future goals. I didn't even notice that my prayer was answered until the end of the day when i realized that since that prayer i was so distracted with things to learn and practice that i was no longer sad and down. It lifted me right up and so i gained a big testimony of prayer and answers to prayers my second day in the MTC. I even wrote that experience down in my journal and i have gone back and read it a couple of times. So as i started the worksheet for going home and i began to get those feelings i knelt down and asked God to comfort me and help me Focus on the now and in minutes i was able to focus on the worksheet and write everything down with faith and excitement. I didn't feel overwhelmed at all through it. I do still feel it a little bit when i think about my future life but its all good. But yeah so we had interviews this week and it was good. We had to go down to the building thats next to the temple for our interviews. So we got there a few minutes early and we walked around the temple. It was pretty warm out but it was a nice walk. I love the Sacramento Temple. Its pretty. You should come check it out when you come here. We saw a lot people all day and we were able to teach someone so that was good. We switched up for exchanges at night. I went with Elder Wyatt in his area. It was fun. He goes home the same time as me. I told him he can meet you guys. He is super cool and i like hanging out with him. We stayed up a little late talking. The next day we were on bikes cuz their area is a bike area and it rained all morning then stopped till dinner then from like 6 till whenever it stopped in the middle of the night it rained again. So it was fun. Its a lot easier to go out and bike all day in the rain knowing that you don't have to do it the next day and if you did it would only be for three more weeks. So we had a good time. Thursday we had District Meeting. It was really good and we enjoyed it. We don't do anything anymore so its fun receiving trainings again. We had a couple of appointments but they all fell through. So we had a member with us name Brother Paugh. Its said Paw. Hes white but his wife is phillipeno. So he was with us so we went and saw Delores. She is an older lady.h She tells us the craziest stories about how everyone is out to get her. She told us one once and it was awesome so i went home and wrote it down. I doctored it up a little to make it more intense but it was pretty good already. I'll have to tell you all my stories i've thought up out here. I think they're pretty good. But we taught her and she wants to get baptized but she needs to come to church. Shes in the hospital a lot because she is old and frail. So she didn't come this week cuz she had Kidney stones but hopefully next week. Friday we had weekly planning which was pretty cool. We planned for the week. During lunch i have been working out a little so i can be in better shape when i get home. Things are going good. I was doing really good on my diet but when i was with Elder Wyatt we went to Godfather pizza buffet. So it backed me up a couple of days but as of today i am at an all time low! So yeah. I'm not going to make it as far as i wanted but i think i'll hit my original goal. So thats good. We saw a lot of people again on friday. We didn't see much from it but we did work hard and we set up a couple of return appointments with people. Saturday was pretty good. We helped our mormon hands on over to Ancel Hoffman park which is a golf course/nature reserve. The nature reserve is called Effie Yeaw. It was cool. All the California was doing Mormon Helping Hands last weekend and the weekend before that. Thats why i said we helped our mormon hands over there. Just in case you didn't get that. The Elder Quorum in our ward was in charge of re-roofing a big huge bird house so we helped with that. I have never done a roof but i learned a lot. I learned how to cut wood. Use a hammer. Use a nail gun. Not fall off a roof. Balance. and put all the crap on that a roof needs. It was fun. It took a while but it was fun. We had to redo like everything. We had to make the trusses and stuff. It was fun though. They had a guy there that was filming with a camera. Someone said he made video of it and they said i was in it a lot. So the guys said he'll email it to me but you won't see it till i come home or else it will expose my weight loss to you. So yeah the roof was cool. I got a little bit of a sunburn but its almost gone now. We did some other cool stuff so that was awesome. Sunday was good. We went to church. I liked it. Someone signed up to feed me on my birthday. Its the Plenerts. They are super cool so i am excited. My birthdays on wednesday just incase you forgot... So yeah that was my week. I hope everyone is doing good. I am getting excited for my friday fun when i get home. I should probably start sending some stuff home... cuz i don't know if it will all fit in my bags. Or... you can just have extra space in your bags that i can put it in... Let me know. I am going to get my blue suit dry cleaned this week so i can wear it when i get my black suit dry cleaned next week. I want to wear my black home on the plane but i want it to be nice. So i'm getting dry cleaned and i'm not wearing it till the day i go home. So yeah its exciting. I love you! bye...
--
Love, Elder Tyler Pete Arnett

So for those of you that haven’t seen facebook, Jamie and David found out today that they are having a boy!  We are all so excited.  The doctor’s quote that Tyler refers to in his letter is that when Dr. Holmes first started doing the ultra-sound, he commented immediately that he already knew what it was.  He then started doing measurements and making sure of everything and this was his quote:  “There is no doubt, something is sticking out!”  So a boy it is.  Also for those of you that don’t know it is only 2 weeks and 3 days left until Elder Arnett returns.  We again are so thrilled and can’t wait.

Marilyn

3 weeks & 3 days left to go!!!!

April 23^rd 2012

Well even though everyone’s life is boring it is nice to have some variety in reading. It was good to hear about everyone. It started to actually get hot this week. It was high 80's at the beginning of the week then it got up to the high 90's in the end of the week. It felt a lot worse than it was because we went from 65-70 all the way up to 99 in like two weeks. But it’s been good. I don't have to sleep with my blanket on anymore. I just use it to hold on to ha. With the warm weather everything started growing again... which results in allergies... which was not fun. Saturday was the hottest day and we were out all day walking a lot trying to find people and my allergies were killing me. At some doors my eyes would just start watering so bad that it looked like i was completely crying. My nose was super itchy and runny as well. Luckily we meet with our Bishop every Saturday and go over the progress of the work in the ward. He is a Doctor and he noticed how bad my allergies were and asked if i was taking anything for them. I said yeah i took Benadryl which doesn't make me tired anymore cuz i take it every day with a Claritin. He said that it makes people constipated so he said i should get a nasal spray. Well i tried that road before and it screwed me over cuz you can only use it for three days or your symptoms get worse if you stop using it. So i told him that and he said, not the kind a Dr. prescribes. So he went and looked and he just so happened to have a sample kind of the nasonex nasal spray. He said it’s not habit forming and after taking it for about a week it works pretty good. I read the little leaflet and it said it should kick in about 11 hours after you first use it and then it will be in full force after a week or two. Well it is already working and i feel so much better. But i still can't sleep with the air on. Luckily i grew up in Arizona where i became accustomed to sweating in my sleep. So that’s been fun. This week was pretty rough honestly. After having those meetings last week we decided to make all the necessary changes in our planning in our area so we could baptize more. Every night our plans look amazing and it looks like something great is going to happen but then we go out and do them and after a little while nothing happens and no one is home or interested so we continue on with faith and believing that something is going to work out in the later evening. Well each day we ended and felt like nothing has happened. And we go back into planning at night and we plan out a new day doing everything we have been counseled to do and making changes on the previous day that might not have been too effective and then the next day nothing happens again. We don't think it’s a lack of faith because every day we expect to see miracles and expect our plans to work out. We have been trying to be as obedient as possible and we are working our butts off. This last Saturday we worked so hard. I was dead by the end of the day. I had nothing left. I can think of one day that i have worked harder on my mission and it was with Elder Manukailea and we were on bike, i didn't have an inhaler and we tracted for 3 hours straight. So we don't know what’s going on. We think it could just be a trial and testing period but we really do desire to baptize right now. I don't have much time left and i just want to baptize people! Is that an unrighteous desire? To want to baptize as many people as possible in the short time i have left? To work my hardest and see the fruits of my labors? I mean I’m still going to work hard till the end no matter what, success or not. But i would like it better if we saw something from it. We do a self-evaluation and look at our area each night and try to figure out what we’re doing wrong but it’s getting to the point that we can't see anything... So we will just keep working hard and doing all we can to baptize and whether we baptize people or not i will know i finished to the end. So yeah that’s what has been going on this week. That’s cool that i get some time before my home coming talk. I was thinking about trying to find out the topic out here so i could prepare but now I’ll have plenty of time when i get home to prepare. And i like the idea of getting released right away. About Andrew and Hudson being engaged... Man that is insane. I could find some new guy friends to hang out with but i think I’ll just get married too... Honestly i have been thinking about my future back home and what i want to do and stuff with working and school and stuff but i can't seem to think of anything to do with friends other than trying to find a wife. I don't know if it will be the first girl i date or not or if it will be as fast as theirs but if i find her i don't see the point in waiting... You’re probably going to freak out about me not caring about how long it takes. But oh well. I don't want to wait to get my life started. But Hudson and Andrew both knew those girls really well. I can't think of any girls i knew that are 1 available or 2 that i would date. Not that they aren't pretty and cool but i just don't think of some girls as my wife. Who knows, maybe that will change when i get home and get to know some of them again. But yeah. It’s all good. If you think about it, Andrew and Marianne being engaged already isn't that crazy. He's been home for 3 months. Jamie and David only dated for like 3 months and they didn't even know each other before. Andrew and Marianne have known each other for a little while now. So it’s not that crazy. And Hudson knew Kyleigh and they had a thing before the mission so that’s not that crazy even though it was super-fast. So yeah. Work, School, and Marriage. That’s my objective when i get home. So yeah have a good day. Love ya! --
Love, Elder Tyler Pete Arnett

4 weeks and 3 days to go!

April 16^th 2012

You know mom it’s kind of funny that you should mention the Ghana thing. There is a guy in my ward, Brother Cobbinah who taught our Sunday school class one week and he is from Ghana. He was there when all of that happened. He is in a book that the church used to make that talks about it. He was the second person in Ghana that got a book of Mormon for the group. He said on the first day the church came there 82 people got baptized. They had full on branches and stuff before the church even got there. So that is pretty cool. It was there family that we had Easter Dinner with. They are a super cool family, maybe I’ll introduce you to them when you come here. They always make me sing my Phantom of the Opera. So about the dinner thing. It is against the rules unless i get permission for it which probably won't happen. When the Reidheads came i just didn't ask but i am trying to be obedient till the end so i don't think it would work out. And i don't think they would let you take Elder Stradling and Elder Jones out, but you will get to meet Elder Jones. So that is a bummer but we are blessed for our obedience. Elder Heaton does just about anything anyone could think of. He played Football in high school as a running back and he did other sports. But he is also a fitness and health fanatic. He is from Idaho Falls, Idaho. So yeah thats that. This week was great! A lot of things have changed in the mission over this past week which i am totally stoked about because now i can work a ton harder! Also Elder Heaton and I made some new awesome friends. Last Monday night we had dinner with the Pinnegar family. Now there are like fifty billion Pinnegar families in our ward. The parents who are kind of old. Then they have three married sons who all live in the ward and they all live on the same street... So it’s pretty confusing. We had dinner with Jason and Anita which is what i will now refer to them as from here on out. So they had signed up on our calendar and in talking to them we realized that they were actually pretty cool. So that was cool. Towards the end of dinner they said they would take us for dinner that Wednesday because we didn't have a dinner so that was real cool. On Tuesday we worked our butts off. We were told sometime in the morning that someone from the MTC was visiting and was giving a training to President Lewis and his assistants and one of them wanted to come out with Elder Heaton and i to teach people and then to come home with us and plan at night so we cleaned our apartment during lunch. Well they said that President Lewis was the one that would come with us so we met a couple of people that day and set up some appointments for that evening and they were really good. The first was Tina who had taken the lessons from the missionaries before but she couldn't quit smoking so she stopped taking the lessons. We had a good lesson with her but she canceled our return visit later in the week and said she wasn't ready yet. Then we taught Larry who was a guy we had knocked into. When we had first met him he was super great and asked a lot of good questions and was excited for us to come back but when we came back he didn't want to meet but he let us in any ways and the first thing he said was that he would say no but he wanted to know why we thought he should join our church. Well we went in and started talking and found out he didn't believe in God so we talked about that and he started asking some more questions again. He asked why we do what we do and what incentive there is for us and we told him why we were there and what we believe and he was amazed. The lesson was good but when we offered to come back again he said no and that he didn't want us knocking on his door anymore but we persisted and finally got him to let us come back just to say hi. Well when we went back later in the week he warmed right back up to us and invited us in and we had a great conversation on repentance and forgiveness of sin. At the end of that lesson he told us we could come by anytime so things sure changed. I think the spirit worked on him. We had our District Meeting on Wednesday which was good. Elder Heaton prepared a cool training so it was fun. When we went to dinner Wednesday night Jason and Anita said that they were going to cover for his parents who were supposed to feed us on Saturday but couldn't so they were asking what we wanted to eat and we asked what was an option and they said well our breeding rabbit outside is infertile so we are going to eat him soon so you want to have that. Well Elder Heaton has killed and eaten a lot of Rabbits so he said he would love to and i have never had rabbit so i said of course as well. Well they had never butchered a rabbit so Elder Heaton offered to teach them how so we went back on Friday and had a hay day. I actually killed it... We stuck a bar behind its head and i grabbed it by the back legs and pulled it real hard and it broke its neck. Then Elder Heaton taught them how to do everything else. So that was fun. Don't worry, i got a lot of pictures. We had it for dinner on Saturday and it tasted amazing! It was like a really good moist turkey. So i like Rabbit and they said it’s the most lean meat. Well in being around Jason and Anita so much this week we realized that they are super cool people and they are now our friends! We love them. But Jason is leaving on the 26th or 28th i can't remember. He is in the military and he has a 6 month training in i think Georgia so that’s a bummer but we still have some time left with him. So they are now some of our best friends. On Thursday the MTC guys gave a training for all the District and Zone Leaders. It was awesome. They were freaking hilarious and super bold with us. They said our mission is having a lot of pointless meetings which is true. They said they noticed that we even had some meetings to plan for other meetings that we weren't even supposed to be having. So they cut out a lot of our meetings. They said our leaders were doing way too much administering rather than ministering. They told us what our new role as Zone Leaders is. Basically they said just be the best missionaries in the mission. They said our first focus is to baptize in our area. Then to bring other missionaries into our area and show them how to baptize. We don't do anymore trainings at District Meeting. We actually don't even meet as a zone anymore except to play sports on pday. They want us to rotate each week going to the districts district meeting. So it’s pretty cool. They took away a lot of Managing responsibilities and are just having us lead by example. They also told us to stop focusing on baptismal invites which is funny cuz i just talked about it last week. They just want us to baptize people. They want our mission to double our baptisms and i am going to do everything i can to do it in my area till i go home. I asked President Lewis if i could stay and he said he wanted me to but i couldn't. So I’ll be coming home the same time. So yeah that was basically our week. We are super excited to work hard and baptize more people. So yeah. I love how all of the previous email talked about Porter. He sounds like a stud but i would like to hear about other people. I now i am coming home soon but i like knowing what’s going on. So yeah. I love you! Bye!

--
Love, Elder Tyler Pete Arnett

5 weeks 3 days to go!

April 9^th 2012

This week sounded eventful. Well not really actually. But it sounded like everyone had fun. Our week was pretty good. We worked our freaking butt's off. Since Elder Fitt was being transferred, we spent the rest of the night after dinner to get him all packed up and what not. On Wednesday morning we went to the mission office bright and early to wait for my new companion Elder Heaton. He got there about nine and we hung around with some of the missionaries that were going home the next day. A lot of them are my good friends so i wanted to say bye to them. We were able to be in the meeting where the new missionaries get their trainers. I love that meeting, especially having seen it from all sides. Being the new missionary, being the trainer, and just being a bystander. Its fun to watch and it’s exciting to see the missionaries. There was a HUGE kid from Samoa there that played football for UofA before he came out. The kid is giant! But he seems nice and is going to the Tongan ward. We went out to lunch with Jake Larson. He was the son of the people that Elder Jones and I had thanksgiving with. The mom called Jackie to tell her i could skype. I love their family. Elder Heaton was in their ward for 6 months so they love him as well. We went to Chipotle which i love! We had a good leadership meeting after lunch and our District Leaders are awesome! One of them is a brand new District Leader. He was in North Sac when i was there and he has grown so much and is a great leader. Elder Heaton and I don't have very many people to teach so we have been visiting a lot of people. We tract a butt load all day and see random people that are potential investigators and less active and part member families. It’s so nice to work hard again! We want to find a lot of people and one of the things we are asked to do as missionaries is to invite people to be baptized the way its outlined in Preach My Gospel. We call them invites and we record them as numbers that we keep track of. We are asked to get 3 per missionary per day which is 42 in a week for a companionship. Invites are probably the easiest things to do but no one does them. They don't think that it will lead to anything. I don't know if any of you have read 7 Habits of Highly Effective people. I have earlier in my mission which i was supposed to but i took a butt load of notes on it and i use them for training and stuff. Well in the book they talk about the Circles of Concern and Influence. Everything we are concerned about that we worry or think about is in our circle of concern but only those things we can directly control are in our circle of influence. Well the more you concentrate on your circle of influence the more it encompasses things in your circle of concern, like baptisms. So we decided a long time ago when i was in North Sac that invites are the easiest thing in our circle of influence to control. We just have to get them. Well when we do we baptize and when we don't get them we don't baptize. So Elder Heaton and I instead of getting the 42 this week we got 91 which is a butt load and it means we had to talk to 91 people long enough for them to understand our message and to decide whether they want to be baptized or not after us inviting them of course. So that was insane and it took a lot of hard work and sacrifice. Our goal for this week is 150 which will stretch us a bunch. My record is 106 when i was with Elder Manukailea. We worked super hard for that one. So yeah thats basically what Elder Heaton and I did all week. We tracted a butt load of houses. Apartments, neighborhoods, random people in parking lots. Everyone. It was fun. We had a Mission Leaders Council on Friday morning. It was fun. I love getting together with all the leaders in the mission because most of them are my friends. So yeah this week was great. I love Elder Heaton. I couldn't have asked for a better companion to finish my mission with. I'm still trying to figure out what i did to deserve this. Its so nice to have someone that is not only willing but pushing for obedience and hard work the same as you are. And he loves having fun and telling stories. He will probably be my second favorite companion after Elder Jones. Elder Heaton though is huge into fitness and stuff. He has me on a new Low Carb. diet. Its great and i feel so healthy and I’m losing weight again after my plateau. And he helps me on what work outs i should do to get the results. He is super skinny, like 165 lbs. but he is ripped out of his mind. So its fun as well. We get along so good and we love a lot of the same things. So yeah i am being extremely blessed right now. Well yeah that was my week. I hope everyone is having a good time in sunny AZ. Its warming up a little here. Finally. But its still only in the 70's. I love it though. Well i love you. Bye!

--
Love, Elder Tyler Pete Arnett

6 WEEKS 2 DAYS LEFT & COUNTING!

April 3^rd 2012

So to start off before i forget, i need to get a new inhaler so yeah just a heads up. I should be good on my breathing treatment medicine. I did get sick so i was taking them more frequently but i still have like 60 vials and i don't have more than 60 days left so i should be good. Well it sounds like some exciting things are going on back at home. You don't know how jealous i am that you all have seen Hunger Games and i haven't and that the Avengers will come out before i come home. How did Grandmas song go "Jealousy your eye balls are popping out" or something about the color green or something? That’s all i can remember. But yeah my eye balls are popping out. That was super cool that Porter hit a home run! Way to go man! Keep it up. And that’s great about Ellie and all the kids in the ward. We represent! The three little pigs all look so different! And the chain is classic and it would be Jamie who made it. Her and those paper chains. I loved the story about Dad meeting Elder Allen. I am going to find him when i get home and take him out to lunch. That would be super cool. I'll take Hudson and Jackson with me when i do it too. But yeah that’s awesome. So this week was good. Honestly i can't remember a thing we did. We did help the ward finish up some home teaching. They had been challenged to reach 100%. They did it back in December but the following months, January and February they only got like 11% done and the Stake President didn't like it so he challenged the whole Stake to get it in March because Elder Koelliker from the Seventy is coming to our Stake Conference this month and they want to show off to him and show that 100% is possible. Now that i have a little different of a perspective of life and God and the church i look back and see how crappy i was. The people we go see with the Elders Quorum are mean to us and Less Active and don't want us to be there at all but we still do it because we’re asked to. Back at home we had some of the easiest families to home teach. Not only were they active but they wanted us over there and they were great amazing people that were fun to visit with. I wish i had done more. But we did get everybody visited and stuff. It was good. So as you all know we did have transfers. We thought for sure Elder Fitt and I would stay together and he would send me home and then go home 6 weeks later. It made sense and we were excited. But that’s not what happened. I am staying here in Carmichael to finish out and Elder Fitt is being transferred to the Sacramento Zone to be with a newer zone leader as well. It’s going to be best for him. When i was with Elder Manukailea it was hard for me to learn a whole bunch because he did everything and didn't need my help and i couldn't see where i could help so i just kind of went along for the ride and had a good time working hard and baptizing. Well it’s a similar situation with Elder Fitt and I. When we have to do trainings and stuff i like to prepare for them well in advance so that i can work out things. A lot of times he just sits down and listens with everyone else so being with someone that is pretty new themselves should help him grow and become a better leader. I am ecstatic about my new transfer though! Elder Heaton is coming in to be my companion. He will be a brand new zone leader after only being a District Leader for one transfer which isn't too common. He was in the North Sacramento zone with me for three of the 4 transfers i was there and we got to know each other pretty well. He was just kind of puttering along but Elder Jones and I saw a lot of potential in him and he really has stepped it up and is an awesome, hardworking missionary. I really have had the strongest desire to finish strong. I think about my feelings quite often and i think about how i will feel after certain events take place and I just do not want to live the rest of my life regretting the last few months and weeks of my mission. It’s kind of funny that you shared that analogy with me because Sister Jardine would use the same one but as i have gotten into leadership and had more challenging things i have realized that it really is like running. Except it’s not on a track or even on flat land. It’s like running up a mountain and at first your kind of jogging real slow and it’s pretty flat but then something comes and you have to start picking up the pace with the mountain slowly becoming steeper. The steeper the mountain gets, the Faster your expected to run. That’s how i have felt as i have been a Zone Leader. I felt like my responsibilities have grown but they expect me to produce more. And then more and more things come up and it gets harder but you still have to run fast and you get real tired. But then you get to the point where you realize two things. 1. I can just sit here and kind of putter along and be average and just ride out the rest of my mission because it’s such short amount of a time that not too much could happen and then feel like crap the rest of my life or 2. Work my butt of till the end because like the running analogy so clearly implies, you'll be done running in just a little while and while yes it is hard, you'll be able to rest up some when it’s over and then you will feel great that you served God to the end. And then you have to choose one. You can't choose both. There is no middle ground. Either your Great or you’re not. I didn't want to leave here. Elder Heaton works very hard and is a great missionary. And he is a fitness freak! He is insanely ripped and works out a butt load and is always on some diet plan so he will help me with this last stretch of mine. Elder Fitt and I wanted to go on a diet. We would always say that we would start the diet "tomorrow". It’s like Professor Harold Hill said, "If you keep pushing things off till tomorrow, you'll end up with a lot of yesterdays". I don't think that’s an exact direct quote but i can't look it up. I think President Monson actually quoted that once so it’s cool. So i am super excited that now we can get things rockin here! I have had a lot of thoughts on my leadership style and stuff and i don't think it was super effective. So i am revamping things this transfer. I was always trying to find the next quick fix thing that the zone could do to baptize more and be better but it’s not working. So my goal this transfer is to instill in everyone a more long term perspective that will help us all be more effective and everyone will baptize. That’s what i want to leave the zone with. So hopefully it all works out good. I was able to write down a lot of my thoughts and ideas to make more sense with scriptures and stuff so it should be good. Conference was amazing! I love President Monson. My favorite talks though were by Elder Halstrom and Elder Bednar. They were great and i can't wait to go back and read them. I loved conference though. Elder Fitt and I were thinking though, Conference makes us think about home a lot. Especially priesthood conference because we would go with our dads and then go out to eat with our families. It’s not a bad thing but it can be bad if we sit there and think about it too much. Honestly i have been doing pretty good. I usually don't think about going home till night time when I’m tired and going to sleep and i don't have as much control over my mind. But it’s all good because we’re going to work our butts off these next six weeks and baptize! We have a lot of great new additions to the zone coming this week with transfers and i really think everyone will work hard and we'll start seeing more success. I hope everything is going great! I can't forget about Jackie. She looked like she had a blast in Boston! She should tell me how it went and how she likes her new job. Oh and as for working at the bank. I would love to work at a bank especially if i had a schedule like David has had where i can work a lot and go to School a lot. Well yeah. Things are going great here! Hopefully our weather gets good and things start rocking. Everyone have a good week. Love you! bye.
Elder Tyler Pete Arnett

Just a little note about the Elder Allen that Tyler mentioned. There was the elder in Tyler’s mission that when Tyler first arrived that looked a lot like his best friend Hudson. So he went up to him and introduced himself. Long story short which we have told you about is that the elder was from the same island as Hudson and Jackson Halm and he told Tyler that he had a brother that was adopted to a family in Mesa, Az when he was a baby. He said that he had prayed and prayed that the Lord would help him find his brother and that he would be able to meet him. Tyler set him up with the Halm’s who did think they knew the family that had adopted the baby. They had since moved to Washington but they put the two in contact with each other and it did turn out to be the elder’s brother. Sometime during the summer, the Allen kid received a mission call to Arizona. Then he was able to go and serve a day with his brother in the Sacramento California mission and they were able to meet and enjoy each other. Well on Tuesday, March 27^th Max had gone to the Temple early in the morning with Shawn Allen. As they were dressing to get ready for a session, Max noticed that there were missionaries there also getting dressed for a session. A couple of them looked Tongan and Max mentioned to Shawn “what are the chances of one of those Elder’s being the brother to the elder that was in Tyler’s mission?” Shawn told him to ask. So Max asked one of the missionaries if there was an Elder Allen there with them. The missionary commented “yes, right over there!” And pointed to a missionary. So Max went up to the young man and asked “are you Elder Allen?” He looked at Max strangely like how did you know my name and then said “yes.” Max asked him then “are you from Washington?” Another puzzled look and another yes answer. Then Max told him “my son is Elder Arnett serving a mission in the California Sacramento Mission.” At first he looked puzzled and then Max said “my son introduced your brother to the Halm’s.” His face lit up and he said “your Elder Arnett’s dad? And you know the Halm’s?” He was so happy to meet Max and Max was thrilled to meet him. He told him that if he was ever in the Mesa area to contact us because we have so much family and friends that would love to feed him. He is currently serving in Paradise Valley. It was amazing and so fun for Max to meet him. He went to shake Max’s hand and Max told him “no this deserves a hug!” And then gave him a big hug. Are there coincidences? I think not!

March 26^th 2012

I might just have to buy me some Kiwi! I'm not a huge fan of it but it’s OK and if it helps my asthma it sure tastes a lot better than my inhaler. But it’s OK. I did get a little sick this weekend and i hope to kick it off today. I thought it was very minor so i bought some stuff and then i got worse so i broke down and bought my mucinex and i take my sudafed now too. They are the extremes but they work the best so i am now on them and hopefully i can get this crap out of my chest and be back to normal. Elder Fitt and i decided we'd start running but since we made that decision i have been getting sick so i need to get better. I plateaued on my diet and weight loss and still want to lose some more so running it is. This week was pretty good. We weren't able to teach as much as we would have liked but it was still good none the less. So Matthew was baptized! It was the hardest easy baptism I've ever had. He was super super solid and he had an amazing strong testimony so we didn't have to do any convincing or much teaching. He already knew everything so we just had to go through the lessons and prepare him for his interview. After he had his interview we realized he lived in another ward's boundaries so that was a bummer but much of his fellowship was in our ward and we had already started putting the program together. Well we hadn't had everything filled out by last Sunday so we told him we would sit down with him for a few minutes in the week to figure some things out. Well he didn't know when he could sit down so we told him we would call him but he didn't want us to call his house because his parents would get mad so we would have to call his friend and she would call him and give him our number and then he would call us. So we had to do that a couple of times and then he decided he didn't have time to meet with us so we tried to figure everything out over the phone but he didn't have anything done like who he wanted to speak and what not so we told him we would take care of it. We found this all out on Thursday so it was a rush to get everything together. But we did get it all done and it turned out a lot better then we thought it would. He asked me to baptize him and so that was good. President and Sister Lewis came to the baptism and that was great. There was a lot of people there. Most the people from our ward that knew him were there and then the bishop and the young mens president and a few young men came from the ward he is supposed to be in came to support him as well. It was great. Then he was confirmed in the ward he is supposed to be in so we went to their sacrament meeting and Elder Fitt confirmed him. It was fast Sunday here because of conference next week so they had testimonies. Matthew got up and bore his and it was awesome! It was probably the best recent convert testimony i have ever heard. He talked about not doubting what you know to be true especially when you’re sharing it with others and he talked about how he shared a Book of Mormon with one of his friends before he was even baptized! So that was pretty cool. We had a great Zone Conference this last Friday. Everyone that spoke in it did a very good job. I had to speak like a billion times though. President Lewis asked everyone in the mission to prepare a 5 min talk on the Atonement and to make a copy of it to give to him and then he would call on a few people to give their talks. Well i didn't think i would have to give mine because i would be participating in the program a couple of times. At your last Zone Conference they ask you to share your departing testimonies and since we only have Zone Conference every other transfer and if anyone has been keeping track i only have one transfer left i was asked, ahead of time, to share my departing testimony. Also they asked each Zone Leader companionship to give a 20 min training to all the missionaries and they would break everyone up into four groups and rotate them so we had to train 4 times for 20 min on Companionship Planning. It went pretty good. But since i was going to be doing those two things i thought for sure i would not be called on to give my Atonement talk but i was wrong. I was one of the two people who were asked to give their talk so when i said everyone that spoke did a good job i was joking because i spoke the most. But i felt like i did ok and it was pretty good. I was able to share a lot of my feelings and thoughts with everyone so it was fun. The whole Zone Conference was good and i was able to see a lot of missionaries that I’m friends with. But there are a butt load of missionaries i don't know because they are all new! Hudson did email me and told me he is Engaged. That's insane. But i know Hudson and Kyleigh pretty well and I’m sure they love each other. That's cool though. Jackson also emailed me some pictures of him and his family. His little girls are soo cute and they look just like him! It’s crazy he has such a big family already! But yeah it’s cool. About Rose. Her whole family is all members of the church. They are just super less active. Elder Hatley and his companion before me ran into them tracting and then recognized their name on the ward list. Rose just turned 12 this week so she is a little older. The older sisters are smart and do a lot of cool good things like sports and stuff so she just wants attention. I hope things are going good. Those two temples are pretty cool. I finally wrote Christiaan a letter because i haven't since he's been out. I emailed him but he doesn't have time to email much back because of the fact that he's in Africa! It’s crazy that he is there. Well i love you! Have a good week.
Love,

Elder Tyler Pete Arnett

March 19^th 2012

I'm sorry for not emailing too much last week. We were meeting up with two other zones to play football and we had a good long drive to meet at the turf fields we were playing at and we didn't want to be late being the zone leaders of one of the zones and all. I am glad we were on time too because the zone leaders from one of the other zones showed up like 30 min. late and everyone was griping about them. It was fun though playing football. One of the zones was really big so we played our zone and another vs. the big zone which happened to be North Sac, where i just came from. They had probably 8 more players than us and we were killing them. Elder Fitt is really good at QB and we were getting a lot of interceptions so we all decided to split up into four teams and have a tournament. We won our first game and lost the second. But it was still pretty fun. So that’s why i was so rushed to email fast. After the sports we didn't have time to email more cuz we wouldn't be near the computers and stuff. So yeah that’s the reason why. It sounds like everyone enjoyed their break. I think it was spring break for a couple of schools around here but it sure was a crappy one if that’s the case. It rained all week long. We got plastered on Friday and Saturday and it was on and off pretty good yesterday. We did stay pretty dry and i held out pretty good until today. Elder Fitt starts getting sick if the heater is running and i start getting sick if it’s too cold while I’m sleeping so we switch on and off each night but the past two nights it was freezing and we forgot to turn it on so we woke up to like 55 degrees in our apartment. So i got up at 4 this morning and turned it on. Believe you me i won't forget to turn it on tonight. But i am not sick, I’m just congested. Like you know the area behind the nose and mouth where the two meet? Well that’s where it’s sore which usually means I’m starting to get sick but i can catch it with this much notice. Also, luckily the forecast shows for no rain so far this week and it will be getting up into the mid to upper 60's so that’s good. My temperature tolerance has changed quite a bit. Back home i would put a sweater on if it was in the 60's now i where my short sleeved shirt if it’s 63 or more! So hopefully i don't become a wimp to the Arizona heat. But yeah so i have wanted to say this for a few weeks but i keep forgetting. My new camera broke... i took a picture of me and another missionary and the strap was around my finger and when he took it to look at the picture my finger yanked it out of his hand and it fell to the ground on the open lens and then it wouldn't work because it said it had a lens error. That probably could have been fixed pretty easy but i tried to fix it myself with force and now there is a bad lens error... So i don't know if it had a warranty or anything? It should be less than a year old depending on when you bought it so maybe it can be replaced. I figured out how to get my old camera to take pictures pretty good but the new one is clearer still. So yeah i have forgotten to say that for like a month. Also mom, we have been going to Safeway because it is close to our apartment and i use your Safeway club card and you now have 3 gas rewards saved up which means you get 30 cents off a gallon! If you fill about 15 gallons that’s like 4.50! So yeah you have that. You probably knew and stuff but i just wanted to make sure it doesn't go to waste. So there’s that. So Elder Perry and Elder Maynes did visit us last week. I totally forgot to even mention it in my email last Monday. It was pretty dang cool! Elder Maynes had a really good talk and so did Elder Perry. Elder Perry talked about some things they are going to be working on with the wards and they want our help. They want the ward to rescue 10 less active families with a priesthood holder in the home and they want the missionaries to teach the people. They said we are the best teachers they have and a lot of these families have unbaptized children. So that’s going to be cool. He talked to us about the church and how it has been set up and organized since the beginning of time. He also talked about the international recognition the church has been getting because Mitt Romney is running for president. He said we are going to be getting asked a lot more questions about what we believe and that if we stick to the doctrines in the scriptures rather than things we might have heard from someone then we will never go wrong and never be confounded. So that was really cool. One of the coolest things though was when i saw an old friend there! The whole Sacramento mission was there as well as half of the Roseville mission. Well when i was walking through the chapel filled with around 300-400 missionaries i heard someone yell out "Petey?!" which i don't hear too often and i turned around and one of my friends i hung out with a lot my Junior year with Jordan Banner was standing there! His name is Dexter Van Lueven. I don't know if that’s how you spell his last name. But he is in Aaron Allen’s ward. Honestly i didn't even know he was on a mission! He had to wait a little while but he is out! He has been out 17 months so yeah that was cool. He thought i had finished but i haven't but it was super cool to see him. It was like the stories in the Book of Mormon when Alma the Younger and the Sons of Mosiah meet up and they are super excited because they are all still in the faith so strong. That’s how it felt. He came to my Farewell but i haven't heard from him since then. So it was pretty cool. It was fun to see him and to know he is out here. So that was super exciting. This week was good though. We found out that Matthew the miracle find lived in a different ward so we talked to him yesterday about it and he knew so he won't be getting baptized into our ward but he will be getting baptized this Saturday. So that was a bummer but it’s still great that he is getting baptized. Rose is being bad. She is super disobedient and she is rude. She loves talking back to her parents and she doesn't do what they say so they said it will be awhile till she gets baptized. So that was lame. She is so close but so far. We weren't able to meet with Angela at this week which was a bummer. But we will visit her this week so we can get her prepared for her baptism on April 21st. We were able to add a new investigator this week too which was really cool. Last December the stake president challenged the stake to get 100% home teaching well our ward did it so he has extended the challenge once again. So our ward has been working hard at that. One of the guys in our ward named Cody Hill was visiting one of his ladies and she wasn't home but in the retirement home was another lady who worked there and she asked what he was doing and they had about a 45 min. conversation and she was pretty interested and has a lot of questions so he set up an appointment for us to go over with him to teach her. So we did and it was great. Her name is Debbie and he mom was a member but her dad didn't want anything to do with the church so the kids were raised Baptist or something. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she was pretty excited. So yeah that was cool too. I love when members do the finding for us! So this week was really good. Hopefully the rain stays away for a good time and that it warms up soon. I hate rain. So yeah that’s it. I love you. Have a good week.
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Love, Elder Tyler Pete Arnett

March 12^th 2012

Well things sound good back at home. I don't have much time to email so i will try and just give a quick update on things. This week was really good. We were able to teach a lot and we had fun doing it! Rose is still doing good. She is reading her scriptures more so that is real good. We are still just trying to get her mom to pick a date. We were able to talk to her mom for a few short minutes but they were pretty busy this week with dentist appointments. But things will work out. We made a fancy reading calendar for Rose and her sister Felicia so hopefully that helps them with their reading. Angela is doing real good as well. We weren't able to meet with her at all this past week because we were pretty busy at the beginning of the week and were planning on the end of the week to meet with her and her family but her and her son both got sick so we weren't able to make it over there and teach them. She did come to church though so that was awesome. She is telling everyone about her baptism so hopefully things can work out by then. They should because it is over a month away! Matthew is the kid that has been coming to church that was just given permission to be baptized by his parents. He is 17 and a great kid. We were able to sit down with him on Thursday and teach him. Man has he done his research! He knew everything! We went through all the lessons and just asked him to explain each one and he gave some really good answers as if he has been reading out of Preach My Gospel. We watched the 20 min. restoration video with him and he told us he has watched it a bunch of times on Mormon.org. He says it is one of his favorites and we could tell because he quoted along with the video half the time. Then we went over the Baptismal interview questions and he was giving some amazing answers to those as well! He was able to get his baptismal interview on Sunday and will be getting baptized on the 24th of this month! So that was pretty awesome! Initially we had set him up to be baptized on the 17th but our ward is having meetings all day and everyone wants to be there so we pushed it back a week. That’s not too bad because it gives us and him more time to prepare. So things are going great! Sorry i can't email too much this week. We are short on time. I got an email from Hudson today too! So that was good. I wrote him a letter and he responded so maybe you can get me Andrews address and he will follow suit. Well i got to go love ya. Bye!
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Love, Elder Tyler Pete Arnett

March 5^th 2012

That was a freaking long email. But I liked it. So yeah the free mason thing didn't have anything to do with her baptism being pushed back other than she wasn't able to come to church and people need to come to church to get baptized. So yeah. It could have been a cold that pushed it back but yeah she came this week. That is insane about Hudson and Kyleigh. She is a real pretty girl and sings very good. They dated a little before and hung out a lot so it doesn't surprise me but man my friends need to wait for me to get home and catch up. In regards to Jackie’s email I don't plan on getting married the week I get home, I need to find a girl first, but why wait? I mean if it’s not meant to be then I wouldn't marry her but if I feel like it’s what God wants for me then I’ll go for it. But yeah. They need to wait for me. Or at least write me a freaking letter so I can hear from them and hear how it’s all going. Oh well. All in due time. Things are going pretty good out here. Our people are progressing nicely and things are moving along. Rose was able to make it to church this week. Her older sister Felicia who is 16 came as well. It’s funny because she acts like she doesn't like spiritual things and stuff but she has read everything we have asked her to read and she comes to church when she can. She doesn't go to Sunday school because she thinks her teacher is weird but she does go to young woman’s and sacrament meeting. It’s funny. I think she feels the spirit and knows what’s right but wants to still be cool so she doesn't act spiritual. But yeah so Rose came to church and we have been teaching her consistently. She is ready to be baptized but her mom needs to give her the ok and we never see her mom. She works at Taco Bell a lot and at night too so if she is home she is sleeping. So we are trying to sit down with her and start planning for a day. Angela is doing very good as well. She has picked April 21st to be baptized. It’s super far but she does have some things she needs to work on. She drinks alcohol not like a drunk but socially and she smokes medical marijuana. I hate that it is legal here. People think because its legal it’s ok and because a doctor says it’s ok then it is. It sucks. But we have taught her about it and told her that she needs to quit and she is working with the bishop so that is good. So we will keep preparing her for April 21st. Then we had a huge miracle this week. It was awesome. So two weeks ago a kid came to church with this girl and I guess he had been before just to check it out and he liked it so he came again. So we talked to him but he said he didn't want to join yet. Oh and his name is Matthew by the way. So last week he was at church again and this kid that is going on a mission this week gave his farewell talk and talked a lot about baptism and we over hear Matthew telling someone else that he needed to be baptized so of course we jump on it after church and tell him we are the people to talk to about being baptized and we asked him why he keeps coming and he said that his friend had given him a book of Mormon so he read it and prayed and asked God if it was true and he said yes so he knows it’s true so this is now his church so we invited him to be baptized and he said he needed his parents’ permission first so we kind of wrote him off thinking that since he won't meet with us and since his parents won't give him permission he won't go anywhere. Well he walked up to us at church yesterday and said hey my parents gave me permission so how do we do this. Well he wasn't too sure about meeting with us but after sacrament meeting he sat down with the Bishop and he told him that he needed to take the missionary lessons and get an interview from a missionary and get baptized. So that is what is going to happen! We are super pumped and yeah it was pretty crazy and a miracle. So this week has been good. Elder Fitt is from Houston Texas. And yeah. So things are going good. We are still working hard and I am trying to finish strong. I don't know exactly why Elder Perry is coming but I am super excited to meet him and Elder Maynes from the presidency of the Seventy. So it will be awesome. There will be like 400 missionaries there so I don't know if we will all get to shake hands with them but it will be cool to meet him none the less. So yeah we are pretty excited. President Lewis is back! I was able to speak to him on Saturday morning and see him a little bit last night so it was awesome. Yeah so we found out how bad he was. Our bishop is a doctor and knows about that stuff. He said he was close to dying and it’s a miracle that he is back now. So we are all so happy and the work will go forward with as hard as possible. So yeah. Things are good. I love you all. So since I have been out I have been singing the last song to Phantom of the Opera when they are down in the dungeon and all three of them sings well I sing it with all three parts. The family we had dinner with last night asked me to do it for them. So it was good. I love doing it. One of my dreams is to play the Phantom in a musical. So yeah. Have a good week!

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Love, Elder Tyler Pete Arnett

February 27^th 2012

So first off I did get my inhaler finally. I was dying without it. So I am happy now. That is super exciting about David and Jamie. Honestly I thought I was going to have to be the first one to have a baby but now there is no rush. I am excited to be an uncle too. I love babies. Everyone here has babies. Especially in my last ward because there were so many young couples. The part that sucks is as missionaries we can't play with babies or kids too much. We can't pick them up, hold them, let them sit on our laps and stuff. So I just give them toys make funny faces and laugh and stuff. I pick them up to put them on the couch next to me and they like that so it’s good. So I am excited to come home and not after too long have a baby niece or nephew to play with. That’s cool. Congrats! I'm glad Ellie got the letter. I like writing her letters. So the truck. It is not the same one I had in Jackson. It is silver. Elder Stradling is up in the mountains but it’s a different area than the one I was in. So the trucks. They have each vehicle in the mission for either 3 years or 50,000 miles so the cars that are up in the mountains go through the miles faster because they have larger areas and the church wants all the cars that entered the mission the same time to mature in miles the same amount of time so they took all the trucks out of the mountains and brought them into low miles city areas so they can let the other cars catch up. So I got me a silver Chevy Colorado. 2011. So it’s good. But it doesn't have an aux port for an ipod so we have to listen to cds all day. And we don't have too many of them so we have listened to the same cd 20 times for 5 days now. But we like it so it’s all good. Rudy and his family... They still live up in Jackson. Well most of them do. Rudy and Dusty split up about a month after Dusty got baptized. She was fed up with having to provide for the family and to come home after working 2 jobs and have Rudy gang up on her with all the kids and give her crap. Rudy can't get a job because he is a convicted felon and has served 8 years in prison. So Dusty took off and then told Rudy he should leave so she could raise the kids and provide for them and he said ok so he left and she came back. So now Dusty and all the kids except eve still live there in Jackson. Eve is somewhere down here in Sac going to school for something. I don't know all the details because we can't really check up on them too much but that’s all what I have heard through the grape vine. Porter should take the sacrifice of having an A hour and do choir. I understand that he wants to do sports and I think he should as well as be in weight lifting but maybe not do the Spanish. Its good but I wish I would have done choir in high school. All my friends were there and I love singing and it really is something you can do for your whole life. So I think he should make the sacrifice and do the A hour. Our weather has been pretty nice here as well. This past week it was 70's most of the week but it cooled down to the low 60's and upper 50's. But it does feel good. It cools down and lot more in the evenings here than it does back at home which sucks but I just put my suit coat on and I’m fine. We haven't had too much rain this year so that’s good though the forecast shows a little for the week. Hopefully not too much. It said it was going to rain today but it is clear blue skies right now so hopefully they are wrong. This week was good. Elder Fitt is a real good guy. He is pretty weird and goofy like me but he tries to keep the cool appearance too so he goes in and out of it rather than I am just weird all the time until I need to be spiritual or dignified and even then it’s questionable. Elder Fitt and I get along pretty good though. He thinks I am pretty weird but he likes it. He is from a big family as well but his parents did it a little different. His oldest brother is 28 then it’s him and he’s 20 then his little sister is 18 then his parents had quadruplets! and there was 2 boys and 2 girls from that and they are all 14. So a little different but it’s a big family none the less. Things are going good. We are trying to find some more people to baptize but it’s been a struggle this week. Rose is doing good but she had her Free Mason stuff this week so we pushed her baptism back a week. Angela is doing good as well. We had a good Mission Leadership meeting with President Weston and that was awesome. Half way through he walked in and said he had just got off the phone with President Lewis and he has received clearance from the church doctors to come back on March 2nd so this Friday he will be back!!! So we are super stoked. Also we are having another one in a life time opportunity. Most missionaries go their whole mission without hearing from one apostle and next week on the 8th we have the opportunity to hear from a 2nd!!! Elder L. Tom Perry will be holding a mission conference for our mission along with half of the Roseville mission on March 8th. He will also be speaking to us with Elder Maynes from the new Presidency of the Seventy. So we are stoked!!!! So that will be exciting. I am grateful to email home today. I hope everyone is having a good week. Love you! Bye.

Love,

Elder Tyler Pete Arnett

February 21^st 2012

Well this week was really good. We had a lot of good things happen and we worked very hard. So I am now completely over my sickness so I can get back to working out in the mornings and what not but... my inhaler ran out on Friday and we didn't have time to get into the pharmacy on Friday or Saturday and then of course everything is closed on Sundays doctor stuff wise and so I was excited to get it all done on Monday but of course it has to be Presidents day and so they weren't open then either. So bright and early this morning I went over to Walgreens and they didn't open till 8 at the pharmacy so I had to wait for that but they faxed Dr. Burrell and asked him to refill my prescription and so whenever that happens I can go in and buy my inhaler so hopefully I have money... So yeah that happened. So I am excited now to get back into working out and stuff. We have to go outside to do some of our work outs and stuff and its cold so it messes with my asthma so I need to puff my inhaler before I go out there but it was out. I could take a breathing treatment but they take 20 min. and I don't want to wake up 20 minutes early to be able to work out after a breathing treatment. So yeah that is good. We were able to have a good lesson on Monday with a lady named Jennifer and her son. They had attended the Gladys Knight event and requested missionaries. It turns out she has taken all the lessons before when she was younger. Her sister was baptized a while ago and she took the lessons with her but didn't want to get into religion. She said she was living a different life then but that she is now ready to get spiritual and to make changes in her life so that was exciting. We were also able to teach a lady name Angela who has been investigating the church for a while now. Her husband and son were baptized in September of last year and are waiting on her so they can all go to the temple and be sealed together. Well Angela hasn't wanted to set a date for a while but she had made the comment that she wanted her friends that she grew up with, that are LDS, to be there and so she is trying to figure that out. Well I had dealt with that before with Megan Hall and so we went over Monday night and told her to contact her friends and set a date. Well she hadn't by last night so we went by again last night and set April for the month she is getting baptized. We don't have a specific date yet but that's a start for how slow it was going before. We were able to teach Rose a few times this week. We talked with her mom about a date for her to be baptized. I don't remember if I told you about her or not. I probably didn't because the past few weeks I was telling you all my dreams and life ambitions. Well Rose is 11 years old and her two older sisters Felicia who is 16 and Kayla who is 15 along with her mom and dad are members. Rose is the nonmember. Well we have been working with her to be baptized but her mom said she needs to be more obedient to them and stuff because she is a problem child. So we were working on that and this week we brought it up and her mom said she isn't as good as she feels so we talked about it and about how if she is just shooting for nothing she will never get there but if we set a date she can work to be good by then. So we set the date for March 3rd for Rose to be baptized. Since that lesson her parents said she has been doing a lot better. I think it might also have to do with the fact that the day before they bought her a phone and said if she is bad they will take it away so that has been helping as well. So we have them preparing to be baptized soon. So not this past Sunday but the Sunday before we had our blitz and I went with Elder Kelley who is one of the Assistants to the Mission President or AP. Well he is going home this week so they would be needing a new one and they call the new AP a week early so he can be trained on all he needs to do. So I was with him when he made the call and guess who it is?! Elder Jones! So that was super exciting. He has been in our zone for about a week now and it has rocked. I love him and now I can finish my mission with him! It has helped a lot with the trunkyness. Well on Thursday at District meeting he told me some awesome news. Logan Ferguson was going to get baptized on that Saturday! I had worked with the Ferguson family, or as I might have called them the Inglis Family since my first transfer with Elder Manukaila. We were teaching one of the older sons Dominic and he wasn't progressing at all. Then Elder Jones came in and we started working with little ole Logan. He is 10 I think. So we taught him a lot but his Grandma Sis. Inglis would never come to church. She along with her son Roger are both members. Roger never came either because he was a truck driver and was on the road 20 days a month then home for 10. So it was hard for him to come on his day’s home because he had so much he had to get done. Well right before I left north Sac he had had a seizure while on the road across the country and had to come home. Well they didn't like that so his trucking license was revoked and he lost his job... Well because of that he was humbled a lot and decided he needed God to make it through so he returned back to church. Then he started bringing Logan and then Logan started going to scouts and then he wanted to get baptized! So it was awesome. Brother Call from North Sac came and picked us up from over here in Carmichael and took us over to the baptism. Elder Jones and I miss him so much. He said the ward misses us a lot too because the new guys aren't like us. So the baptism was good and I was able to see a lot of old friends. Some of them I told we would come by right before I left so I could introduce them to you. So that will be good. So Elder Jones is really good at singing so he sings at all the baptisms. Well another missionary had been asked to give a musical number so he asked elder Jones to sing with him and they were going to sing A Capella. Well Elder Jones knew I sang so he invited me to sing with them and so I did. We sang Abide with Me Tis Eventide. I never really listened to the lyrics but singing them I understood them and I love that song now. It was fun to sing again with some people that knew how to sing. The guy that plays the piano for all our baptisms in north Sac was in the military band and he plays like 5 different instruments. He said he has perfect pitch and said that none of us went off pitch the whole song so that was fun. Also it was fun because Brother Call said that was his favorite song and he loved it. He thought it was a shout out to him from us because he told us it was his favorite song but the other elder who had never met him before chose it. So it was good. So this week was a good week. I bet you all are wondering what is going on with Transfers? Well I am staying here in Carmichael! Hopefully to finish my mission or as we call it die. Elder Hatley is leaving to go be a zl in El Derado zone. It’s just like Jackson and Ione but it’s another part of the mission so that's exciting. It’s not a moment too soon either. Honestly we haven't gotten along all too well. Hopefully now with a new companion I can have an opinion again. Or at least an opinion that doesn't make me wrong or dumb because that's what I like. Apparently A1 sauce is for people who don't like good steak. But my new companion is going to be Elder Fitt. He was trained by my trainer as well, Elder Faka'i so that's cool. I am kind of nervous because he hasn't been too obedient his whole mission but he is an amazing missionary and he works very hard. They want me to mold him into the best leader possible so I hope I can overcome the bad. Good always does so this should be fun. He is a cool guy. He was an all-state QB in high school but has gained a lot of weight since then but he is still real athletic so I think we will have a good time. So yeah that’s what is going on right now. I wrote Ellie a letter for her birthday but I didn't send it till Friday so it should be getting there soon. Well I love you all and I hope you have a good week. Way to go Porter in winning City. You’re a beast. Love you!
Love,

Elder Tyler Pete Arnett