July 26, 2010 E-mail

Hey mom!

Well I have a change. I’m being put in a different area with a different comp for 10 days.... not too happy about it, but the Lord says right?

We didn’t baptize anybody, but I still hope and pray that in my next area we can baptize someone on my last weekend here. I’m just gonna work my feet to the bone (instead of 'hands' because of all the walking...). Our stats weren’t too great this week, but I still feel good about the work we did. For instance, we saved a man's life. I think the Lord will justify the lack of lessons for literally saving a man’s life.

Elder brown, Osman (our investigator), and I were walking to the park where we usually teach Osman, when we saw what appeared to be a drunk man. When we saw him all three of us walked towards him instead of just passing by, and we noticed that he had dried blood all over him. He had received several deep gashes to his neck and face and was losing blood. He lives on the street, and some punks decided to cut him one morning at about 5 am with large shards of glass. The contusions were severely deep. We were amazed he was still alive. They had missed the jugular by about a centimeter (and it was visibly hanging out of his neck) and had also missed the throat by the same distance (also visible). So we did what we could and called the cops, who weren’t the most helpful really) and, after much debate, Elder Brown and I persuaded the police to take the poor man to the hospital. We didn’t find out what happened with him, but I’m sure he is fine. It was a real eye-opening experience that I don’t hope to repeat.

Everything else is going well here, but there isn’t much else I can do for the area. We have been invited to eat by all of the leadership of the entire stake pretty much, like, this afternoon with the Stake President and his councilors, tonight with Alfredo (the non-member multi-millionaire husband of a really cool sister in the ward), tomorrow afternoon with the bishop and his family, later that evening with the second counselor of the bishopric, and tomorrow night with the family from Spain that got baptized a few weeks ago. It’s pretty cool to see the effect that I caused in the ward and stake. It is a special feeling to be loved and cared for by people you hardly know. I can’t really describe it. I’m quite sad to have to finish the mission early(to get home in time for school), because I could have stayed in the area until September. But it’s time to keep on truckin’!

Love you guys! Enjoy the last few weeks without me!
Elder Arntsen