Christmas Temple trip

Merry Christmas 😊

Hey y'all!! 

Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday!! I had a really awesome day. My family and friends made it amazing! Shout out to my mother who ordered me my favorite cake. It was delicious. And Shout out to Trina Whittaker for kidnapping me and taking me to breakfast. You're my home girl and I love you a lot. And also shout out to the rest of the people because I had a great day. :) 

Transfers were this week, and I have the privilege to stay in villa de Paz for another transfer! Wahooooo! I'm also with sister Christley still, so we're gunna party and missionary like crazy. Since last week was a 5 week transfer, this week is a 7 week transfer... so we will be able to have an extra week of work! I'm excited to make this a busy transfer. 

We are teaching 3 people who we have put on date. They are such a sweet family and they feel the spirit so strong. They know that this gospel is true and it's amazing to see it in their eyes! 

I had many great experiences this week, and most of them being personal revelation or just feeling the spirit. It's funny, as a missionary I thought things weren't going to be as hard as they are. Being 100% honest right now haha. I have had really really great times, and really bad times. This week was a bit of a challenge for me. I was struggling with my morning studies, with being focused and being motivated. It frustrates me when that happens because I still want to do what I'm supposed to do, I just can't focus on the task at hand. President Griffin has recently given us a document to study about repentance/ forgiveness and mercy/ grace. It includes scriptures and questions on how we can be better or improve. I really love all of the quotes and scriptures that he has provided and I've found comfort in them. I love the quotes because they all talk about the atonement of Jesus Christ. 

"The Atonement does more than fix the mistakes. It does more than balance the scales. It even does more than forgive our sins. It rehabilitates, regenerates, renews, and transforms human nature. Christ makes us better, worlds better, than we would have been had there been no Fall." 

I love that!! I think I learn something new about the atonement every day. How blessed we are to know that we have a savior. 

I'm grateful for all of you. I'm grateful for the church, for my family and for this Christmas season. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! 

Did you know palm trees have thorns?... Because I didn't.

So earlier this week I thought I was super clever, and decided to

climb a palm tree. Well I didn't really climb it.... but I'll attach a
picture of what I did. Afterwards my hands were all cut up and I had
thorns in there..... BUT. It was fun.
So the Christmas season is approaching us.... and it's awesome to be a
missionary at this time! We have been doing a lot of finding, and
being with members. It's been fun, and we have had some really great
experiences. I have a lot of pictures, so I'll go ahead and attach
them.

Have a great week!!

We took some Christmas Pictures and check out the cow tounge!!

Yes I stuck my tounge!

Phoenix Misson Leadership training Dec 2016

I will poke you in the coconut!

Hey everyoneeee!!

Inside joke with some members we have..... ;)

So this week was great. We had our Ward Christmas party, which was
great!! And then we had stake conference. Elder frost of the 70 came
to our conference. It was really amazing! He talked a lot about
family, and how we need to have good relationships with our loved
ones. I really enjoyed his talk.
I've been having some really great spiritual experiences lately!
Sister Christley and I were out tracking last Friday, and we were
having NO luck at all. We saw some kids playing and we decided to go
up to them and offer them a Mesa lights card! We had out our number on
it in case their mom was interested. And she was!!!! That family
became some new investigators!!! It was really great and such a good
experience for my companion and I. I have been blessed!

I'm thankful for this work, and for the joy it brings me everyday.

Enjoy these pictures of yours truly... :)

Have a great week love 

Sister Arnold

Love these Sisters!

I hugged a 🌵 cactus

Cutie

My email titles are so random but idk what to put for this one so there you go

Hello!!! 

This week was crazy! I went on 2 exchanges, and had thanksgiving! I feel like I wasn't really in my area at all this week haha. But anyways, thanksgiving was really fun, and I hope you all had a great day. Sister Christley and I hung out with the contreras family all day!!! I had a blast eating tons of food and playing volleyball. At the end of the night bro contreras and I had a hard core game of volleyball goin on. I think we played for 3 hours. 

This week, a lot of people cancelled and were out of town. But, that was kind of expected since it was the holidays. Sister christley and I did a lot of finding and we tried to do some service too. We're just trying to keep as busy as we can!! 

Okay, but highlight of THE WEEEEEEK was when sister Dudley (aka my 2nd comp aka Mrs. Stott now ;) ) and her husband, Chris,  CAME TO VISIT!!! Seriously wasn't expecting it at all, and it was such an amazing surprise. I loved seeing them so much, it brightened my week. 

On a spiritual note, I'm thankful for prayer and for spiritual experiences. I love going into people's homes and teaching them about the restored gospel and how it can be such a blessing. It's amazing teaching people and seeing that spirit about them when they learn of this gospel. I know I won't really ever be able to feel this way in any other circumstance after my mission. It may happen a few times, but not as frequently as it does here. 

I'm also thankful for my family and my friends. I've met so many people on my mission that have changed my life and I'm eternally grateful to them. 

Have a great week!! D&C 112:10 

Mission leaders council meeting

To be a happier disciple of Christ

Hello!! 

this week was such a good week for me.

  I feel like since I've hit my halfway mark, things have just not been going my way! I felt as though I hit a huge brick wall, and it gave me this really bad concussion. Haha! (Im trying to get better at my analogies) Anyways! So I'm feelin super low, not spiritual, and I was just having a really rough time for a couple of weeks. I got transferred from Bethany Home, and that was hard. I had more added on to my plate of missionary work, and THAT was way hard, at first. All of these things were changing and my brain was going a million miles a second, and I felt like I couldn't catch up. But, it all changed on Monday night! I was sick of feeling the way I was feeling, and I didn't know what to do. So, I kneeled down and said a good and long prayer. (I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner) I felt an overwhelming amount of love from my Heavenly Father.... I honestly felt like I was alone for those past couple of weeks. Which is dumb, because I knew my family was helping me. I knew my friends were helping me, but I really did feel alone. My dad sent me a couple of scriptures that helped me immensely. The scriptures are so powerful, I've seen the way that they have changed not only my life but the lives of the people that I have taught. 

Psalms 144:15

Happy is that people, in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord. 

What a great scripture! It is so much better to be happy. I was also able to go to a leadership training called MLC. We had a lot of great discussions from missionaries and from President Griffin. At one point we were talking about what our dreams were. The assistants had us all write down a dream/ goal that we want to accomplish. I wrote down "To he a Happier disciple of Christ". When I wrote that down I had reflected of my past weeks and realized I wasn't being a happy disciple of Christ. I wasn't having joy while spreading the gospel. I guess I had a "A-HAH!!" Moment. Because it all was making sense to me! President Griffin then, talked about how we need to love our neighbor. I really loved this discussion and the scriptures that followed. We read in 1 John 4. It talks about how God is love. I love verse 16 of that chapter. 

16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

It's so important to show love to those around you. Having charity can be a hard thing, but when we show love to others we show god how much we love him. God loves everyone, we are all his children. When we show love to HIS children, we show love to him. 

This whole week has been a breath of fresh air to me. I've drawn closer to my savior, I've been able to reach out to people in a way that I haven't felt in a long time. I was stuck! And I wasn't sure how to get out of the rut that I was in. It's amazing how the scriptures, prayer and family can do that for you. 1 John 4..... well all of 1 John really made me think about my missionary work and what I want to accomplish in these next couple of months. I'm grateful for family, for my mission, for the scriptures and for prayer. I'm even grateful for those trials that go for weeks on end and don't seem to let up. Because when they do, you realize how much you've learnt about yourself and about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love this gospel with all of my heart and I know it to be true. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! Eat lotsa turkey.