Family,
Last Thursday Chile got a new President, I got a year in the misión, and we got shook again by three strong earthquakes. It was a great day! I can’t believe I have been gone so long! I am starting to hear things from new missionaries that make me realize that I really have been out for a good amount of time.
I thought you would like to know that we are hearing mice in our walls. I hope it doesn’t get to be a bad infestation like what happened there at home.
Happy Birthday Matthew!!!! I hope you enjoy what I sent you! It is pretty tight and I am going to buy one so we can jam together! Yesterday we met a girl that is one month younger than Matthew. Roxana lives in the street, she has been living there for four months. She told us her story sitting on a park bench where she lives with her boyfriend and 8 street dogs. She has a two-year-old son that was taken away from her. Her family paid a bunch of Peruvians to assault her and her boyfriend and kidnap her son. She hasn’t seen her son since and is trying to track down her mom. She got pregnant when she was 15 and moved out with her boyfriend, that she couldn’t marry because she was too young. It was a really sad story. She recently got a job in a Chinese restaurant and she will be receiving a pay raise here shortly. Her goal is to get herself out of the street and living in an apartment, then she is going to find her son. The gospel is so important and blesses our lives if we will just live it. Trust me, if I am learning anything from talking to people all day, it is that living the gospel makes life a whole lot easier. Roxana doesn’t have a strong belief in God, so we are going to start with that. Save the girl in the street, save the world!
Last night half of Chile lost power. We were walking down the street with Gabriela and all of a sudden everything went dark. We didn’t have cellular reception either, so we went to a member’s house hoping that they could call the Elders to come and get us. I thought about just walking back alone and we started to leave, but we quickly changed our minds. Two twenty something year olds from the United states and a fourteen year old girl walking down the city streets of Santiago without light - not a good idea! So we got a hold of the Elders and they came and walked us home. It was really nice of them and I am grateful to have Elders working in our ward, they take care of us! Our building had power by the time we got home, but everyone was worried that we were going to have a big earthquake last night, I’m glad to say we didn’t.
Rodrigo is going to be baptized this week! Yes! This week he and Claudio read 1 Nephi 3-5 and they loved it. Rodrigo spent half an hour recounting all that he learned and we didn’t really have time to teach anything. He compared Nephi’s brother beating him to Joseph from the Old Testament and the part when they cross the waters to Moses parting the red sea. It was a pretty spiritual experience to hear all of his applications. He has been smoking one cigarette less everyday and Saturday I challenged him to stop completely to be smoke free for one week before his baptism. Well guess what? He didn’t smoke yesterday and said that it really was pretty easy. Heavenly Father is helping him. We are hoping to baptize Claudio the week after, but with his schizophrenia we have to see if he needs a baptism or not.
Robinson gets back to Santiago today! I talked to him Saturday and he is excited to get back, start his studies and get baptized! He has been praying and reading everyday while he has been gone and he feels good about his baptism. I am so excited!
One of the things I loved most about this week was hearing our investigators pray for Ha. McNeil. They all miss her and are so grateful for all that she did for them. I just want to baptize them all for her. She did a great job here and I hope she is happy in Los Mares. I was a little bit jealous when she left for Los Mares, thinking of all the people there that I want to see again.
Mom, thanks for making me bring that emergency kit. I know I complained about the weight, but it has been useful and I would have been ok in the earthquake if I had needed it.
My companion is progressing a lot and I love her. I have found that really is the secret to everything. Love. If you are having problems with someone, just love ‘em to death!
Chau pescao,
Hermana Arnold
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