Coming Unto Christ in Arkansas: Pierced ears, transfers, and, visiting lots of people

We went grocery shopping at Target this week and that was good because I love Target! We usually have to go to Wal-Mart. We also went to the mall so that Hermana Thornton could return a Christmas present. She took me to Claire's to try to get me to pierce my ears. She tried so hard to peer pressure me and I even watched some random older lady get her ears re-pierced. But I didn't want to do it because I'm scared! Why would I purposefully want to stab myself in the earlobe??? I don't even ever wear earrings! Hermana Thornton was sad that I wouldn't do it, but she was okay after I told her I wouldn't do it with a different companion. :)

We finallly went and got a picture with Gustavo. He's so awesome!

Hermana Thornton, Gustavo, and me

When we switched companions, it mostly just felt like we're on exchanges. The sest thing about Hermana MacFarlane so far is that she's super focused and nice and knows what she's doing.

The leaders of the mission are trying out using Skype, Facetime, iMessage, and Glide. aka my companion. They had a Skype conference call tonight to talk about it. Fun times!Here are all the people we worked with this week...

The STL's, ZLs, APs are trying out skype for the mission. 😁😁😁😁😁

HAHAHA Hna Viveros gave me this picture today from the branch Christmas party and I am just dying laughing at how bad it is. Look how yellow our teeth are. So bad.

They cancelled school on Friday. This is the worst it got! Haha

Ampara - Hermana Macfarlane said she's changed. Like in a really good way. Hermana Macfarland asked her why she decided to go back to church and stuff and she said she decided to forgive others and leave some stuff in the past! She said that sometimes it's hard to make the decision to go back to church. I really hope the branch will support her so that she can have some help as she does hard things. I really love her and I felt like I should suggest that she listen to the Book of Mormon in the car when she knows she's going to have a busier day. She loved that idea! It made me feel good to be able to suggest something that would help her be stronger in the gospel.

Emeris - We kind of just did a review on lesson 1 and checked to see what she remembered. And she actually remembered a lot! She totally gets Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon! I was so pumped to hear that she remembered stuff! And then Hermana Macfarlane was able to teach her how to pray. So it was really awesome!

Monica - I FREAKING LOVE MONICA AND WE HAD THE BEST LESSON EVER WITH HER TODAY! Because I love her so much, I'm going to tell you just how one of our lessons went. She was in 1 Nephi 13 and asked about the descendants of Nephi and the books that were mentioned. She said she loves the Book of Mormon and we asked if she had prayed about it. She had asked God if it's true and she feels good. She feels peace when everything is crazy and she reads. She realized there are 2 churches, God's and the devil's. At first she was saying that a lot of churches are good and then she asked why they don't have the book of Mormon. We shared the paragraph from the lesson1 pamphlet about their hearts are far from me and she realized that there is one church and the others are wrong, even though they have good intentions. She said she didn't want to go to church before but God told her she should at try so we committed her then. We then read in the lesson 3 pamphlet and explained how the plan for Christ is central. Mosiah 15:9. She understood that he is compassionate and he took his sins upon us. She understood faith to be belief and we helped her understand it's action too. She said even when it's hard we have to keep believing in Christ and she shared a past experience. Alma 32:21. Proverbs 3:3-6. She said she hasn't been repentant before but after we went through the steps [recognize, stop, confess, make restitution, keep the commandments, acknowledge the Savior] (using stolen marshmallows from the store for analogy) of repentance and she committed to repenting every night in her nightly prayers. Explained that faith and repentance lead to baptism. As we read through the pamphlet she felt the Spirit and read John 3:5 and she understood that it's a contract with God, not just for the church to get numbers which is what she felt before. We explained briefly the Holy Ghost and she wants that. We asked if she wants to be baptized. She said before that she would have said no, but she is feeling open to it now. We asked when she would be ready and she said she wants to wait but she feels like it might need to be sooner. She prayed right then to ask God about the 21 of Jan and afterward she felt good and happy but didn't want to commit. So yea. Best lesson.

Idaly and Mateo: ... haha... we thought her name was Italia before. She asked a really good question of if God and Christ are separate, why did God send Christ to suffer? Why not just do it himself? I didn't really know how to answer those questions without getting into deep doctrine so we told her we'd study it and get back to her.

Hermana Selles - I tried to take us to go visit Hermana Rivera but we went the wrong way on the freeway, so we ended up in Bryant. So, we just called the elders and asked where the Selles family lives so we could go visit Hermana Selles. She told us about how she and her husband met, a little about Argentina, a little about France, and their conversion story. We talked a little bit about the temple and she said that that's one of their goals. I'm so excited for them! I love them a ton and can't wait until they are sealed! We also talked a little bit about receiving revelation and showed her the modelos de luz video because the elders said she had had some questions about answers to prayers. We invited her to do more family scripture study because she said she studies the Book of Mormon every day, but they don't really do it as a family and she saif yes! I am so excited to see the blessings the gospel brings to their family.

Dulce and Wendy: We went with Hermana Bowen to go visit them and do some Personal Progress with them. A while ago, I was studying for them and I felt like we should start working on Personal Progress with them. Only Wendy was there so we took her and went to Panera. I think it was really good for her. Hermana Macfarlane asked if she wanted to go on a mission and she said: "Actually yeah, I really do." I'm just like okay, let's get you on a mission in 3 years. I think working on Personal Progress will be really good for her. We did Individual Worth #1.

Riveras: Yader and Joane called us and asked if we would teach Jaelyn the lessons because she turns 8 on Friday. So she's going to get baptized!! They were inactive for a while so they're concerned that she doesn't know enough. I'm 95% sure she's fine, but I love them, so I will happily go teach her. :) When we were talking with them about how we are going to teach her. When Hermana Macfarlane was asking/suggesting that they start reading their scriptures, like, as a family, every day... I just had the thought that maybe Jaelyn and Kiara could do the scripture journals that Mom made for Esther and Adele a couple of years ago. And the more I think about it, the more I like the idea. Like for the Lopez's, the Selles's, Hermana Hartin's boys, etc. So I'm totally asking Mom to send me some tomorrow!!!

Thank you all for writing me letters. I love you and I'm so happy to be a missionary. I love, love, love mail... hand-written or email. And I promise I'll write you back!

Love you all!
Arianna