Sister Arndt's Italy, Milan Mission: 2016-11-30 Learn by Example, It's Easier

Learning from example is so, so great because you just take the best
from what other people have already tried. Learning from experience is
so hard and makes you realize ALL of your shortcomings and how you're
NOT where you want to be and you have a LOT to learn.

This week was a lot of learning by experience. I realized I'd been
slipping in lots of things I used to do good at, that I wasn't paying
enough attention to my companion and her progression as a missionary,
that I had a lot of room for improvement in things I've never even
done and should have been doing. That's good though! Because now I'll
come out of these experiences and be a better person. It's just very
humbling.

We had a really funny/sad thing happen this week, cioè we had two
back-to-back lessons planned in church with the same member to help us
teach. The first one didn't show up. The second one didn't show up. We
were there for two hours. He's in the bishopric so he just did other
work and made fun of us while I sat by the heater cuz I was sick as a
dog. He's a funny guy. Anyways, the second investigator who was
supposed to come is this atheist lady who seems to actually be
interested in the missionary lessons, rather than just for curiosity's
sake. She is the teacher for a group that the church hosts but isn't
associated with for people who have lost work. So she was supposed to
come at 4:45. She came at 5:30. She teaches at 5:30. She showed up,
apologizing for being late, and sat herself down in front of us at our
table. I looked at the time and I laughed,
"Silvia........it's 5:30."
"....oh"
*still sat there*
"Okay, so maybe we can see each other on Friday?"
"Oh...um okay, yes. Yes on Friday at 4 I can :(."

I just thought that was so funny because she WANTS to hear this
message! I was like, hon, we're sorry you're late too but you have
other responsibilities to attend to. We also had a second lesson with
a college student and she pulled out her Book of Mormon...she had READ
into those first few chapters, had marked it ALL up, and was so
excited about it! She explained the whole story in her own words,
begged for the "spoiler" about what happens to Laman and Lemuel, and
then proceeded to ask us all kinds of historical questions. It was so
crazy for me because that was the first time, even IN the church, that
I had ever seen someone take the Book of Mormon so seriously! It was
amazing and made me rethink my perspective on the Book.

Anyways, Mormon messages aren't my go-to for anything except a couple
times we've watched them during lunch as if we have tv for once, but
the one the church just came out with for Christmas is SO beautiful,
it's seriously made me cry like 3 times in lessons. If you're reading
this, I'm finishing here, so just pull up LDS.org and watch it right
now it's like 2 minutes and it's really good. I love you all! Thanks
for everything!

This invite is for my family too just watch it because it's nice and I
know it will make you feel good because it's just really nice and I
liked it a lot so I hope you all get to watch it and tell me what you
think.