September 28, 2015......"Jesus didn't just baptize"

Well friends and family another week has come and gone and its pday

again. This past week was slow as this transfer has been. Honestly I

can say it's been one of the least successful transfers ( baptism and

investigator wise ) of my mission. And that's okay. I've come to

realize that a mission is not about baptizing I know I've said this

many times but I just feel like I'm here to help and serve more than I

am to teach and baptize. Some missionaries spend their whole missions

thinking they are only successful if they baptize a lot of people. I'm

not sure where that mindset came from but I say that is false. If you

work hard and if you are obedient then you will be and feel successful

regardless of how many baptisms you get. Now don't get me wrong, it

does stink when people you are teaching and are progressing turn away

the truth. And sometimes it does stink when no one will listen ( like

this transfer) and you can't find anyone, but when those times come

it's important to realize that Jesus Christ didn't just baptize people

when he was here. He helped people whether or not they received him. 

 I've had one baptism my whole mission and that was Courtney, 

and if that is the only baptism I have when I return home then my

 mission will have been a success. Because Courtney is active 

and is awesome and will hopefully serve a mission

soon. I'm not here to stack up my numbers, I'm here to help those that

need help. And if we are blessed with people who are ready and willing

to be baptized then that's a plus, not the reason I am here. Now this

email is pretty serious and some of you will think I'm dumb for saying

these things but this is what I've seen in my mission. I love you all.

Here's some pics!

1. Me spinning a ball whilst reading the word of God whilst Jesus is descending
2. Me when I finally got my birthday package
3. Florida ( it had just poured rain 10 minutes earlier )

September 21, 2015....At least his bike was ok and Elder Chugg and Curt!

Friends and family hello!! This week was pretty good. We got the car a
little early due to another Elders bike accident. He's ok and so is my bike.  We were on exchanges and Elder Chugg was riding my bike.  His arm is in a sling but he's ok.  So, a bunch of members kept talking about an earthquake in Chile and I was flipping out when I heard haha worried bout my brother Curt but Denise sent an email and it said he was all good so that's good. Stay safe man love ya. But yeah this week was pretty good we were able to visit quite s few people. A lot of our
time is spent trying to find new people to teach. There's not as many people in the area book here as there was in Olympia so it's a little
different haha. But the week was good. We are still trying to find a family. We have the faith so we're doing as much as we can we know e
Lord will bless us because he always does his part, we just have to do ours first. The bible bashers came to Book of Mormon class again this
week and the stake president handled them. Long story short, they asked their questions and he answered everyone of them and they got
owned by a real man called of God. It just reassured me that these men that are called as our bishops and stake presidents are literally
called of God. They are not called of men but by God. It was for sure a testimony builder for me. And a motivation to study the Bible
more. ,They were throwing things from the Bible I didn't even know it talked about! So my studies will include the Book of
Mormon of course but I will now include more or the Bible. We're down to week 5 of the transfer which just blows my dang socks off man haha

 it's gone by so fast. Elder Ferrin is going home in 2 weeks, so there's that. I'll hit my 10 month mark pretty soon. But who's counting?

Curt and Gunnar and Luke and Gator have all been out for ages now. Oh and also Curt, there's a family who
just moved into our ward called the harpers and their son Riley is coming to Santiago north in like November man so there's another from
Florida that's coming to the promise land in Chile! You'll have to look for him and say wassup! he's a chill kid. So Lorenzo Martinez and
Riley Harper are both members from my mission who got called to Curt's mission. Pretty cool!!

 Well I just want you all to know how much I love you guys. That Jesus is the Christ and it is through his Atonement that we can
become the best we are supposed to be and return to our Heavenly Father. I'm grateful for my Savior and his willingness to take the
burdens of the world on himself. I'm grateful for my friends serving throughout the world and for my family who root for me back home. Life
is so good when our key source of happiness is the Lord. He is the light and the life of the world. My life have been enhanced immensely,
not through worldly possessions or other people but through the love I have felt from my Savior Jesus Christ. Keep pushing and always trust
in him and never ever give up because he didn't. Love ya guys - Elder Armijo

Just some pics: 

Selfie

Elder Chugg (In the arm sling)

Elder Bravo

September 14, 2015........."I'm here for 2 years preaching this Gospel that I believe to be true"

Friends and family,

  What's good!! Another week down here in DeLand and it was a good one. We had a zone conference on Tuesday and that was good I guess. I'm not a fan of big meetings. So I won't lie I did fall asleep a few times.  Honestly I just wanted to be out working and serving someone not sitting in a meeting from 8am to 4pm. Anyway, We also got flu shots and when they asked us if we were getting one I wasn't sure because momma always took care of deciding that for me LOL so when they asked I was like well I'm just gonna do what my mom would want me to do and get one lol. Some missionaries didn't get them which is understandable you never know what the government is putting into your body when you get one of those. But I'm not sick so all is well. Elder Ferrin didn't have to get one cuz he was sick haha. Then Wednesday we had Book of Mormon class which is what we have every Wednesday night for people to come and we read from a chapter of the Book of Mormon and discuss it. But two weeks ago a group of men from the bible baptist church here came and that time. It almost got contentious but they were nice and wanted to learn more. Then this week, Ahh man we almost had to throw down with these guys. They came and not even half way through the chapter they started going off on why we're saved and how we're not saved by our works and blah blah blah blah As I'm listening to them ask these questions and throw out Bible verse after Bible verse it just hit me, I am so grateful to have the knowledge that I do have. Elder Bravo finally spoke up and pretty much just said guys were here to study the Book of Mormon if you have questions or comments that don't concern the chapter we are reading write them down and save them for another time, otherwise get out, lol but he said it nicer than that but they said okay and we finished the chapter. Then after the class they just went in again they singled off and started talking to out members and some talked to us and this whole time I'm just thinking these guys claim to be Christians yet they come to our church and try to tear us down, the very same thing that satan is trying to do. Long story short I bore my testimony and told them look I'm here for 2 years preaching this gospel that I believe to be true.  You aren't gonna convert me to your Bible church when in reality you probably don't even love the Bible truly. You just pick little bits and pieces and choose what you like about it. Then the Stake President came in and told us we had to go. It was intense but it was good testimony wise for me to realize how awesome and lucky we are to have the restored gospel and how readily available it is to us. I love you all and hope to hear from you soon!

Elder Armijo

 

1. Selfie with Elder Ferrin

2.Selfie with Elder Chugg

3. Loner pic while bowling

4. District P-Day (Bowling

 

 

Sent from my iPad

September 7, 2015...."The past is to be learned from but not lived in"

Well friends and family another week down and it's already week 3. I'm not a fan of how much time is flying but then again I am. Haha this week was really slow. We weren't able to see that many people. In fact it was probably the worst week I've had on my mission lesson wise. It's been a transition going from Olympia where we had so many people to teach we could barely fit them all in, to here where we are just barely teaching 10 people a week. Now I will always be the first to say it's not about the numbers. But I can't help feeling like we can do better actually I know for a fact we can do better. There's not much going on in this area right now and that bugs me. It bugs me that we don't have anyone to teach that we aren't helping anyone prepare for baptism. However, I think that's why i was sent here because the Lord knows not working bugs the crap out of me, he knows not having people to teach and not helping people come closer him frustrates me haha. I'm all about having fun like I couldn't serve a mission if we weren't aloud to have fun whilst doing it, but there's a time for fun and there's a time for serving the Lord and on a mission serving the Lord takes the priority. I came here to help others come closer to Christ. So, just as I did in my last area, we are going to pray that we can find a family specifically a family of 5 this time. We are going to work our butts off and I know we will find others in the process of finding this family. Me and elder Ferrin are gonna turn up here in DeLand and make his last transfer one to remember. My mission has been awesome, hard, and tiring and sometimes I want to quit, but awesome. I'll end this short email with a quote that has nothing to do with what I wrote but I just love it, it's by Elder Holland, he said. " The past is to be learned from but not lived in, we look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes and when we've learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we've experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future, faith always has to do with blessings, and truths, and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives" sometimes our attachment to the past outweighs our confidence in the future. I have fallen into this trap for a while now, but as elder Holland said we are to learn from the past, not live in it. I love you all have a good week. And also thank you so much to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday and sent me stuff. I love you all so much. It was a good day. 

Elder Armijo  

PS. shout out to my girl Chandler Myers on getting called to BRAZILLLLLL!!!!! You will be such an awesome Sister love ya kid. 

Pics:

1. The Dean Family where I had my Birthday Dinner

2.  Elder Ferrin and I

3.  Elder Ferrin and I again

August 31, 2015..."Let me just start off by saying how stoked I am for this transfer!!"

Friends and Family,

Let me just start off by saying how stoked I am for this transfer!! My new area is called DeLand 1 and that's the ward also DeLand 1st ward. We are like 60 miles from my last area and its a lot more Green out here but it's so sick. We are car sharing with 2 other elders, elder Bravo who is our District Leader and his trainee Elder Chug . Our apartment is way bigger than Olympia I actually have room to think here it's nice. My new companion is Elder Ferrin and he's from freaking Gilbert AZ! He's such a boss man we clicked right away. The sad part is he goes home in 6 weeks therefore this is his last transfer in the mission. His whole mission he hasn't had any companions from AZ and then he gets me for his last and I'm from AZ obviously so we're gonna party hard I mean work hard ;) so needless to say the Lord has again blessed me this transfer. I don't know why I get so worried when transfers come around haha. But I know that since Elder Ferrin is going home after this transfer that means I will be here for at least 2 transfers or 12 weeks. So I'm happy to be here. We aren't that close to other missionaries geographically which is a change but that shouldn't be a problem. We have been just stopping by members and less actives this past week so I can get to know them and learn the area better. I'm really good at remembering streets and how to get places so I should pick up the area pretty quick. This area is wayyy bigger than Olympia hahaha. So this week on bikes will be interesting. The last 3 weeks in Olympia we had the car so I haven't biked in like 4 weeks Hahaha but I'm getting fat so it will be good I can lose some weight. The towns or cities that we cover are Debary, FL and Orange City, FL. I like it over here it's a change from being in the city. The people are different as well and I see a lot more trucks with confederate flags on them hahaha. But I really do love it here so far and I'm glad to be serving with Elder Ferrin for his last transfer. Hopefully we both don't get to trunky haha. This Saturday is my birthday so I think we're gonna party pretty hard :-) or just eat at members house and teach some lessons hahaha. I love you all hope you have a good week. I'll try and take some pics on my birthday. 

Elder Armijo