Success and Trials...

Dear Family and Friends,

I apologize for my letters being so horribly written. My English is getting horrible.

First of all, the weekend of conference, we had very little opposition, we got to go to two sessions of conference, but had 5 people attend, first was the Jiminez family: Grey, her son Justin, and her daughter Ladt. Then, Monica and one her son Sabastian. We found both of these families by a miracle. Monica we found that Saturday night, Justo, we went to Zamora Huayco Barrio and a member had her as reference waiting for us. The referral is her step daughter, who for quite a while has been attending christian churches, and is honestly searching for the truth.  She went the Sunday morning session of conference.  She hasn't accepted a baptismal date, but if she knows the church is true, she will be baptized. Family Jimenez, we just found by contacing them in the calle, they told us that they didn't believe in the Virgin Mary, they accepted a Book of Mormon, after a couple visits with them...they accepted to prepare for a baptismal date....they also went to the Saturday morning session of conference...we are really praying and hoping that they will progress.

Dia Miercoles (Wednesday), we realized that a member who is our mamita ( she makes us lunch every Wednesday) had brought two of her work friends Friday night to clean the capilla (chapel). They literally took 3 hours to clean the church. They left around midnight, and the next day one of her friends that helped clean, Se llama Yaima Torrez came with her son and watched the Saturday afternoon session of the conference and we didn't even know it! We really had 7 people come to the conference, but that is okay...what really is important is the following up and we have a sita (discussion?) tonight with both of the member's friends...we are excited to teach them.

This week thus far, has been difficult, the whole week, no member was willing to accompany us.  It rained about half of the week, and my compañera this week has had a few hardships, she bought some bad milk, she received a ripped 20 dollar bill and no accepted it. Stuff was not happening her way. It was really hard for me to make mistakes, and not forgive myself,. This week and in many occasions, the Adversary attacks me through my self-esteem, and so I get into this vicious cycle of feeling sorry for myself and not changing...but I know that is not what repentance is about. I learned that need to set small goals before I can reach the big ones. As a companionship  we learned that during times of trials we have to look at it as sign to grow, a time of gratitude, and a time to grow in the love that God has for us. Many times God wants us to learn something when something isn't going our way, usually it is because ewe need to think of a solution, this week we are going to teach the lessons differently in a way, that our investigators can have the message stick in their heads, and they can have a spiritual experience.

A scripture that really helped me this week, is found in Helaman 5:9-11, 17-19, The missionaries Lehi and Nefi (how she spells Nephi now) remembered their objective to invite people to come unto Christ and to be baptized, they remembered their fathers and there reason for coming to the promised land, they remembered the words of the prophets, that if they keep the commandments, and build their foundation of Christ, they can never fall. and and ''they did preach with such great power and authority given unto them...therefore they did speak with unto the great astonishment of the Lamanites, to the convincing them, in so much that there were 8 thousand of the Lamanites who were in the land of Zarahemla and round about baptized unto repentance''

I know I just need to remember why I wanted to serve, so that families can be together forever, and taht I can learn to become a true disciple of Christ and have a pure love for all men. Yo Sé que este es la Iglesia de JesuCristo, Yo Sé El murio para mi and yo Sé que El vive hoy dia, y algún dia vamos a vivir con EL en las eternidades...me encanta este gran obra!

Les amo muchismo
Hermana Arnold

Editors note: I can vouch for how poor her English is now.  I was talking to a Spanish teacher that i work with and he said that this is good because she is almost certainly gaining a mastery of Spanish. Each time I put one of her letters on her blog, it gets more and more difficult.  I am thankful for Google Translate.