April 22, 2014 E-mail

Mommy!

I´M GOING TO TRAIN!!! FOR REALS THIS TIME!!!! WOOHOOO!!!! And I’m staying in Caballito again. But it’s so exciting because we saw so many miracles this week!! We only started working Thursday and we reached numbers that we usually get in the whole week! Old investigators who didn’t want anything accepted baptismal dates!!! And we got to go to the despedidia. So at the end of every transfer there is a testimony meeting in San Fernando where all the missionaries that leave bare their testimonies and it’s really cool but in order to go we have to have had someone come to church and bring a recent convert or an investigator. So Saturday in the night I called an old investigator to see if she wanted to go but she didn’t answer. Then she sent a text a message saying that she didn’t have her phone with her but what’s up? So I invited her to church Sunday and to the despedida she said yes. She came to church and then afterwards we talked, and she said that she had started living the law of chastity, and she knew that it was true and that she was already in third Nephi and she accepted a baptismal date! Then she came with us to the despedida!! Her name is Jessica! She´s so great!!! Well that’s just one miracle but we saw so many!!!  

Easter was good! We ate fish and rice and potatoes! We ate with a Peruvian family yum!! They are the best cooks!! Then yesterday I went and bought a little chocolate Easter egg to celebrate and it had a surprise inside! So I bit in and I took out a little cross key chain and one of those little kiddy tattoos!!!! The Egg of Iniquity! Hahaha!!! But it was yummy!! I love you all!! I hope you enjoy Michael’s graduation!!!!!

I love you so much!!! Have the best week!!

Hermana Arntsen

 Sisten Arntsen, Sister Sanchez, Elder Clawson, and companion

April 14, 2014 E-mail

Mommy!

I’M ALIVE! Don’t worry! I just got sick Sunday night and we couldn’t leave to go email until today. But I’m all better now. Well, before I forget I have to tell you that transfers are next week so I won’t email until Tuesday. And.... It looks like I’ll finally be training!!!! It’s not 100 percent for sure yet but it’s pretty possible!! This week was so great!! We found some great people to teach who are really looking to find the truth! Julio is extra special. He is a divorced single father of two, I think and he is gold! He came to church and loved the classes! Most importantly the members befriended him!! I have all confidence that his experience would have been completely different if they hadn’t helped him out!!!!!!!!!! It was fast and testimony meeting and later he said that he was even about to go up and say how his experience had been in church!! Later that night we taught him about the Restoration, and he said that he wants the conviction that the other people had bearing their testimonies!! He is so great!! We also found Louisa and Freddie, a young couple from Perú with a little girl. They are really great and are reading to Book of Mormon; they just need to repent, get married, and into the waters! Haha, just kidding. Pretty much no one is married here like you said.

I love the photo!!!!!! THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!!!

Love you so much!!!

Hermana Arntsen

Sister Ayre, Hermana Arntsen, Hermans Duran, and President Ayre

Megan's birthday cake!

April 7, 2014 E-mail

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!! This year I celebrated my birthday with a SUPER BAPTISM! All the stake had to come to our chapel to watch conference, so all the missionaries had to have their baptisms at our chapel. There were eight I think. I lost count, haha! It was great. All the missionaries sand “I Know that My Redeemer Lives.” I accompanied and my companion and my District Leader played the flute. It was really great. It was also really great because we got to see the other sisters. In the Stake of Liniers there are two zones of missionaries and each zone has one companionship of sisters. So the other sisters had to come obviously, and we didn’t feel so alone or drowning entirely in a sea of elders! (haha!) 

I also ended up celebrating my birthday sick. Wednesday we had Zone Training and we got there early, and while we were waiting for the elders to come who had the keys to the building I started to feel a drain of energy and by the time we got home from Zone Training I had a 101 degree fever. We had to stay in that day. But the next day it was gone and we went out to work. And even the next day I was still really tired but could work, but then that night I started to feel bad again and the fever came back. In the morning of course I felt better though not 100 percent and then at night after working I felt horrible. Finally, we arrive at yesterday. After conference I grabbed my District Leader and the Zone leaders and asked for a blessing. Immediately I felt better and the fever had been gone ever since. THE PREISTHOOD IS RESTORED!!!! THE TRUTH MADE KNOWN TO MAN!!!! What a blessing that when I was sick I had an army of over twenty worthy elders stuck in the same building! 

Conference was really great!! I loved it!! Carmen, our investigator, came. She is so great (referral from members!) but isn’t married and doesn’t want to either. But we talked with the sister that gave us the referral and she said that she and her husband want to come with us to visit Carmen and her boyfriend one day. MEMBERS HAVE THE POWER!!!!! If that was made clear enough in Conference I just have to say it again. haha!

Speaking of Conference I have to give some follow-up. Elder Ballard could not have been more direct on that subject. Do you have a copy of Preach My Gospel? It’s actually really great and not just for missionaries. It’s a “guide for missionary service.” Note: doesn’t say full-time missionary service, just missionary service. I know you’ll love it!

Today I’m going to buy a little cake to celebrate! Thank you for all your support! I love you! Treasure the Book of Mormon! It holds the path to eternal life! This work is TRUER THAN TRUE!!! IT IS THE TRUTH!!! LOVE IT!!! SHARE IT!

Love,

Hermana Arntsen

April 1, 2014 E-mail

Mommy,

That is exactly how it should work. The members help us find and we help the people they care about earn a place in the Celestial Kingdom with their families. The broadcast was really good. It was last night for us. It was really great. Everyone came to our building because it’s the biggest which is SUPER convenient for us because we live one block from the church. I can’t believe my birthday came so fast. It´s crazy!!!

Yeah, I’ll need new clothes because my jeans won’t fit--I’ve gained about fifteen pounds, because of the food. The diet of the average argentine consists of pastas; empanadas, it´s kind of like a calzone; milanesa, basically breaded and fried anything--it can be chicken or beef or veggies or rice and chicken, or I’ve even had one made of soy which was pretty yummy; pizza, which is more simple than our pizza, it’s basically cheese with bread but yummy; asados, which is the most delicious selection of all types of meat beef, chicken, pork, chorizo, blood sausage, and other parts that we don’t normally eat but are yummy on the grill- asado means grill but it’s grilled but it’s a ton of meat; bread with every meal; alfajores, which are the most yummiest little treat made of a cookie cake and dulce de leche, which is similar to caramel and dipped in chocolate. That’s what we eat. It is the most yummiest, the most delicious, but the most fattening. But SO GOOOD!!!! Find an authentic argentine restaurant and eat there!!

This week was great! One night we came back in the evening to plan, and I was just absolutely exhausted and I had a horrible headache; I think I was a little dehydrated. We finished planning and it just got worse, so I got ready for bed and lay down, and it was a miracle that I slept my head was pounding so badly. I woke up and I still felt bad not as bad but icky, but we went and worked anyway and that day was a miracle!!! We taught five lessons with a member present, and in the midst of it all my sickness went away. I didn’t even notice it was gone until later, but I learned a powerful lesson in obedience and losing yourself in the work. It was such a wonder tender mercy of the Lord. I’m so grateful for the health that I have and to be here right now as a representative of the Savior!!! There is no better work and there is no limit to this work!!! We are all a part of it! You too are a representative of the Savior!!! You promised to be when you were baptized. The only difference between me and you is that I’m set apart to help people repent and be worthy for baptism. Other than that we have all the same responsibilities to find people to accept this message and to help them in their journey of conversion to the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ before and after baptism. I LOVE IT!!! May we all take advantage of the time that we have to serve in this great work!!!

I love you!! Thanks for the birthday whishes!!!

Herman Arntsen