Ariel On A Mission!: Father's Day weekend

Mumma!

I remember Bishop Sullivan from when I spoke with Harold Carlson in the Atlanta ward right before I left. I don't know him too well But from the little experience I have had with him I thought he was a great man. I thought Jack Biels might be called to the presidency again. That's funny. Does the new stake president pick his counselors or does the general authorities? What is Stefan going to do now? How did President Parker seem?

Thanks for clearing up the baby name mess for me. I am not jealous of you having to fly for so long but you get to be there for Khats sealing and that is a thing to be jealous of. Make sure you take pictures! And take a good book so you can be entertained! And say hello to everyone for me!! I'm glad that you and Dad went to the temple with Eli. I was thinking of him on Wednesday. I'm excited to come home and hopefully go with him. I think that would be really neat.

So this week for FHE we made soft hearts out of play dough that Sister Openshaw made. We taught about why it is important to have a soft heart and used the example of Nephi praying to Heavenly Father that his heart would be softened so that he could understand the words of Lehi. Afterwards we shared pictures of our families and Thomas said I got my hair from dad and everything from you :)

We visited XXXXXX on Tuesday and told him that when we came back on Thursday we wanted to hear the plan that he and his wife made to help him quit smoking. On Thursday he and his wife had worked together and he has a goal and now we're all working together to help him. I was so proud of him for finally setting a goal and a plan especially with his wife. It's not easy to quit an addiction like that alone. He needs the help of his wife to be responsible to someone.

Our trip to the temple is going to work! I'm not sure if I told you guys already but we're helping four people prepare to go to the temple for temple baptisms and two to receive their patriarchal blessings. It's so fun to see how excited everyone else is. Going to the temple I think will help all of them individually but also help our little branch's testimony be strengthened. This week was a lot harder for me to be patient with Bruder XXXXXX. It is always a work in progress. I think the most frustrating this is that he labels people from their past actions and doesn't allow them to change in his mind. Don't label people. Everyone can change.

On Friday we went to ASB to play with the old ladies. Frau Kluger was there. She kept petting my face and just being silly and another older lady was getting so frustrated with her telling her she had nothing in her head anymore. Old dementia ladies can be snotty. OH!!! We had a lesson with Herr XXXXX! It was really impressive to me to see how much he digressed because he hadn't been meeting with us or doing those things he is supposed to do like praying or reading his scriptures. We read one chapter in the Book of Mormon with him and when we were done he said it was such a long chapter! Herr XXXXX would read and study for hours at a time before and ten minutes was too long for him. It was really the first time I ever actually called someone to repentance. He knows what is true and what he should be doing and he hasn't. We told him plainly why he feels stressed and that he knows the only way to happiness. By the end he knew what he needed to do and agreed to start taking the Book of Mormon to work with him again. It gave me a little taste of what Heavenly Father feels like. He tells us plainly how to succeed and then when we don't do what he says we get stressed and frustrated and ask him why we're feeling that way. Silly.

Frau XXXXXXX came to church yesterday and loved it as usual. She is so cool! Well I love you! Have a great week! Pictures are of our FHE activity :) Fly safely!
Love you!
-Ariel Nell