Sunsets with Robin, and my first talk

Helllloooo,

This week went by quickly... On Wednesday we had a fabulous dinner
with a member in the North Valley Ward. We stood on her balcony
afterwards and watched the amazing Arizona sunset!! Her view is
honestly really sweet, she told us that in the mornings she sees hot
air balloons front right outside her balcony!! I love Arizona...

I also gave my first talk in sacrament meeting this week... Yep, thats
right. Ive been on my mission for a year and this is the first time
I've given a talk.. ha!! Before my mission i heard that missionaries
literally give talks all the time.... but not me ;)

My talk was on service. I introduced myself... did the whole schpeal
(lol i dont know how to spell) and basically talked about my mission
and how important service is. I think it went pretty well...

This week i had some really cool experiences with prayer. I had
moments where i was just like "Heavenly Father... i cant do this right
now... i need help" and i have never felt so loved in my entire life.
Ive always heard of people saying that when they pray they feel like
God is literally hugging them.. Well, i felt that this week. I
literally felt like my Heavenly Father was hugging me so tightly and
that he knew who i was and he cared for me. It is probably the most
amazing experience i have felt, and I couldn't help but cry. I love my
Father in Heaven and i know that he loves each and every one of his
children. He weeps when we are sad, and he rejoices when we are happy.

I love this gospel, and i will forever be grateful that i served a mission.

-Sister Arnold

1. ROBIN!!!
2. My area is so pretty
3. Le district... eating crawfish...

Avocado ice cream

Heyyyyy,

This week was super exciting, filled with a lot of fun and running
around everywhere because we were super busy. It's a great thing!! I
was able to: 1. Brush horses for service.  2. Eat Avocado Ice cream.
And 3. Have a lot of fun while doing it and also seeing sister Bingham
and it just made me so happy.

OKAYYYY. So, there is a family in our ward that we do service for
every Thursday before dinner. We were going to pull some weeds in the
back yard when our member goes, "well actually would yall be willing
to brush the horses? They havent been brushed in awhile... so they
need it.." UMMM YEAH WE WILL. That was a cool experience. I also
braided the horses hair... apparently im good at it and should do it
for horse shows... I guess thats my next new job.

We had dinner with the bishop of the North Valley ward this week, and
that is where i tasted the delicious avocado ice cream. My companion,
Sister Posadas, is from the Phillipines and she said that she missed
eating avocado and cheese ice cream. He didn't make the cheese ice
cream... but he did make the avocado one and it is so. FLIPPEN. Good.
I highly recommend making some if you have an ice cream maker. its
probably one of my favorite flavors of ice cream now... So that was
fun!!

We went to the temple on Friday night, because sister Posadas'
investigators were getting sealed. It was a really amazing experience
to see a family being sealed together. Ive been to a sealing before,
but this one was different because the parents were getting sealed to
their 4 kids. I didn't know them at all, but it was still such a
spiritual experience. I love the temple so much.

I think my mission has really made me realize how much God loves his
children. This week we were also able to give food to two homeless
men. We just gave them some leftovers that members had given us, but
the two men were so thankful and appreciative. They didn't really want
to learn more about the church, but you could just see how grateful
they were.

Im grateful to be a missionary at this time. At the beginning I didn't
really know what my purpose was for serving a mission. People would
ask me, "so why did you decide to serve a mission?"
I gave them some vague answers that they were good enough with... But
I now know why I am out here and why this is so important. Im here
because i love my Heavenly Father, and i know that he loves me. I want
everyone to know that they have someone who loves them! I also know
that the gospel has blessed me, personally in my life. Im thankful for
the opportunity and for all of the wonderful people that i have met!

I love you all. Have a good week!!

P.s- i love sister Posadas

Love, Sister Arnold

1. A picture of some of my area, and my truck
2. Horse fun ( I could've made a really dumb joke but I didn't...)
3. Phoenix temple at night!!
4. It was raining and the mountains looked cool... so why not...

Don't dab at the table !

Hello!! 

So we were at dinner with a member and her kids were being fun and crazy and one of them "dabbed" at the table... and the mom said "don't dab at the table" and we all just started laughing so hard because..... it was funny..... 

This week was good, sister posadas and I have really been trying to get to know all of the members and offer service! Doing service is my FAVORITE thing to do. And if the missionaries in your area ever come and ask to do service for you.... let them... I promise that they will be the happiest campers alive. 

We had MLC ( leadership meeting) and zone meeting this week. So it was busy!! I really love going to MLC because I get to hear from the leadership in the mission, see president and sister Griffin, feel the spirit, and see some people that I haven't seen in a long time!! It definitely motivates me to do better after every meeting. This past MLC we talked about a lot of different things.. President Griffin gave a really good discussion on grace. He talked about how grace is everything that comes through Christ. Grace includes the ability that Christ is able to look past our imperfections and forgive us of our sins. He also went on to talk about our weaknesses and how we need to realize that we have both strengths and weaknesses, and that we can improve our weaknesses little by little. 

Zone meeting was fun. I gave a discussion/ role play on repentance. I started out with talking about what repentance is... and I asked the missionaries a few questions. I had them write down how they personally would want to be taught repentance, and why repentance is so important to them personally. I then had them do this repentance document that president Griffin has given us. It's really neat, it gives a bunch of scriptures of repentance and grace and mercy and a few others things. Then we role played! We did a big role play with all of us... the spirit was very strong! Definitely a highlight of my week.  

Life is good.. it gets hard at times and sometimes you feel helpless, but I can testify from experience that Heavenly Father is there with you always. He is always. There. Even when you don't think he is, and you just feel down. Pray! And he will wrap his arms around you. I know he loves each and everyone one of us.. 

Pictures: 

1. This is a sequence of me... at MLC. a sister dared me to fit as many suckers in my mouth as I could. So of course... I took the dare. I thought I was being sneaky until I fit as many as I could... and drool was coming out of my mouth and my mission president looks over and sees me. He starts walking over and he just starts laughing so hard. He then whips out his phone and says "send all those to me... we have to show the whole mission this" :-) so might as well send it to you. Plus I stunk at taking pictures this week. So this is for your viewing pleasure. 

1 Year???

Hello everyone!! 

This week has been crazy, just because of transfers and changing everything. It was actually a really good week though! 

In this area, my companion and I are over two wards. The North valley Ward, and the Daisy mountain Ward. It's fun to see the differences in the wards, and meet so many people over these past few days! People here are so friendly and welcoming, I love it so much already. 

I've been out on my mission for a year already.... and that is absolutely crazy to me. I honestly don't feel like I've been out for a year! I can say, that this has been the best/ hardest/ most rewarding year of my life so far. Missions are hard, but worth it. I've been able to grow spiritually, more than I ever think I could back home. I've been able to meet people, and create lasting relationships with them. I love my Arizona family, and my mission family. I know that all of these people have helped me along the way, and I'm grateful for them. 

I'm grateful for this year and a half of full service that I'm able to give to the lord. I've been able to learn more about myself and more about my relationship with my savior. It's just amazing. I'm proud of myself, and the growth that I've been able to see in myself. 

I'm grateful for my savior, and for my father in Heaven who has helped me throughout my whole life. The atonement is something that I have been trying to study and understand more clearly. I haven't figured it out all the way, and I don't believe I will for a long time, but I know that i have a testimony of it. The beautiful love and act of the atonement gives me hope, and strength. 

I'm grateful for this past year. These next 6 months are going to be full of work, service, and friendship. I'm so excited to see what's in store!! 

Love, Sister Arnold 

ADIEU!

Hello!

This week is transfer week. I am being transferred!

It's been a great three months in the villa de Paz Ward. I've been
able to grow so much while I've been here. Each area that I have been
to allows me to develop a greater love for my savior and the people.
I'm excited for this new area that I will be going to! So, I will be
serving in the daisy mountain Ward. I actually think I have another
one too (I just can't remember the name... sad face...) and my new
companion is sister Posadas! She is from the Phillipines and I am SO
excited to be her companion.

A lot has happened this week.

I was able to go to the temple on Saturday. Sister Miyazaki and I were
companions, and we went together because of our beloved Madison
Sarager!! We both were her missionaries and she went through the
temple this past Saturday. It was such a special experience to see
her, and be able to be there for her. The temple is my favorite place!
I wish I could stay there forever.

On Monday we did a huge service project as a zone. A member from one
of the wards in our stake need help shoveling rock. He had 3 tons of
rock to shovel.... so we were there for awhile. It was really fun
being able to be with a ton of missionaries and doing service!!

I'm excited for this upcoming transfer, the things that I will learn,
and the people that I will meet!!

Love Sister Arnold

When you scare your companion.... literally everyday

Heyyyyyaaa.

For those of you who remember.... I love to scare people. And all of
my poor companions have suffered through his while being with me. I
have literally scared sister christley every day this week. And every
time I do, she screams so loud and it's just the funniest thing. I
love scaring people....

ANYWAYS.

This week was really really good! We had the opportunity to do a lot
of service this week. I'm not sure if y'all know about the "just
serve" app/ campaign. But it's really cool!! There's an app that
allows you to see what service is needed around the area. This
organization called "Project connect" was a service that we did this
week. We all met at one of the stake centers and basically helped the
homeless for the entire day. People give donations to this
organization so that we can help the people get clothes, showers,
food, ID, haircuts, licenses, food stamps, and a lot more stuff. So
what we did, was we got a packet of the persons information and we
were their tour guide/ friends for the day! It was really fun. We
would walk around with them, gran some food and talk about the things
that they needed to get done that day. The first guy I was able to
help was named Kyle. He has been living on the streets for 2 years
now! So, we sat down and ate some food and got to know him better. We
took him to get a haircut, clothes, and some other things. It's really
cool to see how grateful he was for this service. And plus it just
felt good to help him out!

We had a lot of lessons, and fun times this week. Transfers are next
week... (AH!) so we will see where I'll be going or if I'll be
staying.

I have been reading a lot of out the New Testament lately and I love
it. It's cool to read about the parables that Christ teaches to the
people.

Continue to serve, love, and be as Christ would be.

Love y'all.

-Sister Arnold

Do you want to pet my Arizona dinosaur?

Heeeeelllloooooo!

We street contacted into this guy on Wednesday, and he asked us if we
wanted to pet his Arizona dinosaur... Arizona dinosaur aka his little
old dog. It was sooooo funny! My companion and I were trying so hard
not to laugh as we tried to share something spiritual with him. He was
just a really nice man with an Arizona dinosaur!

This past week we had interviews with our mission president. I love
interviews!! It's nice to see and talk to President and Sister
Griffin. They both go home this July, so they mentioned that they have
talked to the new mission president and wife. I'm excited to see who
it will be!

This past week I started reading The New Testament AND the Book of
Mormon. I really have enjoyed reading the New Testament. In Matthew it
talks about Christ, and the miracles that he performed on earth. Well,
that's just a little bit about what I've read. So far, I am enjoying
it! In one verse... I think it was in chapter 16 of Matthew, I read
about Christ teaching the people on the shore. He was in a boat and
was teaching those on the shore. I stopped reading, and thought about
what that would be like... to stand on the shore and hear christ's
teaching... to hear his voice and SEE him. What do y'all think it
would be like?

I was reading in Mosiah 26: 29-30 and it says:

29 Therefore I say unto you, Go; and whosoever transgresseth against
me, him shall ye judge according to the sins which he has committed;
and if he confess his sins before thee and me, and repenteth in the
sincerity of his heart, him shall ye forgive, and I will forgive him
also.

30 Yea, and as often as my people repent will I forgive them their
trespasses against me.

Verse 30 especially stood out to me. As OFTEN as we repent, we will be
forgiven. How comforting is that? It just makes me think how merciful
our god is, and how extremely fortunate we are that we have a savior
that helps us through our trials.

Missionary work is amazing. Keep doing all you can do!

Love, Sister Arnold ❤

1. Da district
2. Haha my companions expression says it all
3. Your favorite Sister Arnold!!! (Well hopefully)