Change

July 27, 2009
Hola familia,

Oh moses smell the roses I am so jealous of all the diving adventures. So jealous. I need to see pictures. I can’t believe your vacation is over either! Time is going by so fast. We have transfers this week. Next transfers Matthew and Jonathan will have started school. Loco.

Ben’s letter last week was so good, don’t you think. It is funny, lots of times when I read his letters something very similar has happened to me. We also try to find people with the Spirit and had a good experience with it this week. When we have to contact we start with a prayer and then follow the promptings. On Saturday after saying a prayer, Hermana Spielmann opened her scriptures to a scripture about the Liahona. It talked about having confidence in the Liahona or the strength of the Lord, from this scripture I took that we needed to approach our contacts with confidence that we would be able to enter the house and teach the gospel. So in this case I didn’t have feelings of where we should go but how we should do it. So we started knocking. I did the contacts with the most enthusiasm I have, a huge smile, and excitement. At the third house a little girl came to the door and we asked to talk to her grandma. She ran off to call her and I prepared to put everything on the table for this contact. Elvira came to the gate and I followed through with my plan, ask you can imagine she let us in, who could say no to my huge smile? We talked to her about prayer and learned that she doesn’t really believe too much in churches, her friend was baptized in the Catholic church, our church, and now in the Evangelical church. Despite this concern she was really receptive and I could see in her eyes that she needs the gospel in her life. She has such a happiness about her but also a longing for something. Yesterday we returned and taught her the first lesson and she accepted a baptismal date for later in August. We are going to visit her tomorrow and hopefully we can have a strong lesson about the great apostasy and the restoration to show her the importance of having the church of Jesus Christ on the earth today.

I confiscated my first package of cigarettes this week. Christian, the recent convert that can’t talk, has been having problems with smoking again. He didn’t want to give us his cigarettes, but I made him make a choice between his cigarettes and having the ability to talk again with his son. He chose help from the Lord with being able to talk again. So I have a package of cigarettes on my study table. I am going to find inspirational scriptures to wrap around them, so that when he has the urge to smoke, he will read the scripture and hopefully choose to get rid of the cigarette.

I am changing. I want you to know that studying and living the gospel really does change a person. Last week in district class we were practicing teaching and I got frustrated because I didn’t have an opportunity to share some scriptures. I struggled the rest of the lesson and at the end the Elders asked what happened, why I shut down. They thought I was struggling with the Spanish which made me more angry. It was one of those days that us Arnolds have where the smallest things make us mad. I have struggled with this in the past, recovering from the anger during these days. In the past I just accepted that it was one of those Arnold days and that tomorrow would be better. But here in the mission this doesn´t fly. I can´t do missionary work without the Spirit, I can´t understand Spanish without the Spirit. So when we got back to the house I kneeled down next to my bed and asked for help to release my anger. It took a good 5 or 10 minutes, but I came out of our room with a completely different attitude, ready to be happy and work hard. I am so grateful for the progress I have made as a person during these four months and for the help of my heavenly father in doing so.

I love you all so much. I don’t want to be transferred this week and I don’t want my companion to go either, but we will see what happens. The whole ward is saying goodbye to Hermana Spielmann because she has been here for 4 plus months. So who knows where and with whom I will be emailing next week!

Muchisimo Love, Amy