Editor’s note: Many are familiar with my daughter, Sara Arkell, also known as The Piano Gal. Sara has been called to serve in the New York Syracuse Mission. This is a series on her weekly letters that we will be posting on the site for those who wish to follow along with her mission. You can read her previous emails here.
What a week it was!! Lots of changes and fun adventures! I now have a new companion, Sister Aston. We’re already having a blast. She just hit her 5 month mark and has the cutest personality ever. We’re getting along so well! I’ve been blessed!
Saying goodbye to Sister Thompson was definitely sad! But I’m so grateful for the friendship we have and cannot wait to hang out once we’re home from our missions! We got Chick-Fil-A on Wednesday morning before heading to the mission office for transfers and oh, what a joy that was. It’s probably a good thing that I don’t have one in my area because I would definitely go there way too much, haha.
Got to see a lot of my mission friends at transfers! We stayed there for a while talking to everyone. My heart is always so full when I think about all the new friendships I have since coming on my mission. I’ll keep saying how forever grateful I am so God never forgets!!
The beginning of the week was sad because two of our favorite friends told us they don’t want to meet anymore. One told us our religion doesn’t line up with his beliefs about God and we found out that another doesn’t want to meet at the moment because she has a lot of things going on. It’s so important to keep an eternal perspective and recognize the good that we did do. Even if it was just introducing them to the church and sometime later on, they will come around. Please pray for them that their hearts will be softened and that they’ll have a desire to learn more about the church if that is God’s will for them!
On Saturday, we went to a craft and vendor fair in town. I am usually very nervous when contacting people in public places. It is much easier for me to knock on their door than just walk up to them and start talking. But we had a lot of success!! I sacrificed my fear and we saw miracles. We met a lady named Adrienne and a lady named Deb. They were at a Mary Kay booth and we had a wonderful conversation with them. I felt so normal and natural which was a wonderful feeling! Then Adrienne recognized that we were missionaries and said that some boys had stopped by her house a couple weeks ago and she had one of our “books” on her coffee table inside her house.
What are the odds that she would be at that fair that we went to?!! She’s not even from the area! But she took that as a sign that this was important and told us to tell them to come back to her house to talk more. Then her friend, Deb, said she has been looking for a church to go to so we asked her if she wanted a Book of Mormon and she said yes! She isn’t in our area so we got her phone number & sent it to the Elders, but what a miracle! It was so cool to see God placing us in their path and it all came full circle. He is SO GOOD.
Church yesterday was absolutely fabulous. We didn’t have any friends at church unfortunately but it was honestly a blessing in disguise because I had such a spiritual experience and it was a much needed refresh. We talked a lot about temples and I got really emotional because I miss the temple SO MUCH. It’s been 9 months since I’ve been and I want to go back so bad. I definitely took it for granted before my mission that we had a temple every 10 minutes in Utah and I could go whenever.
Don’t take the temple for granted!!! GO TO THE TEMPLE. You feel more peace there than anywhere else & in order to make through these times, you need the strength that comes from spending time in the temple. And if you don’t know what a temple is, email me back and I will tell you. It is the happiest place on earth!
This week is going to be great! It’s crazy that another week has passed but I continue to learn so much everyday. I don’t want to be anywhere else right now. I love being a missionary!
I love you all!! Send me letters! I’ll write back!
Sister Sara Arkell
421 N Levitt St, Apt 12
Rome, NY 13440