Sunday, February 9, 2020

The Tale of Arnold Armstrong

It was the phone call that would change everything.  I had almost been on my mission for a year and I was struggling.  It was bitterly cold and I was dealing with seasonal depression and anxiety.  It was a difficult time for me and I was feeling very discouraged.   After one particularly frigid morning, my companion and I were home for lunch when the phone rang.
           
            “Hello, Missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,” I said, trying to sound cheerful.  No joke, this is the conversation that greeted me on the other end:
            “Hello, you’re the Mormon missionaries right? Well, my wife is a member of your church, well…she’s kind of a jack Mormon, she hasn’t been to church for fifty years but she recently had a stroke and she really wants us to get bonded in one of your temples.  Well, I understand that in order to get bonded, you have to get baptized first.  Here’s the thing, I love my wife and want to make her happy but I’m 78 years old and I have emphysema and have to be on oxygen and wouldn’t really survive going under water so we’re going to have too skip the water part, is that ok with you?”
           
Honestly, at that moment I was strongly tempted to laugh, but I set up an appointment to meet with him.  He actually lived in the apartment building right behind us.  My companion, Sister Elliott, and I met with him the next day. His name was Arnold Armstrong and we had been with him for about five minutes when it was clear how much he absolutely adored his wife, Dolores. After her stroke, she was living in a care facility in downtown Winnipeg and it broke his heart not to be near her.  We also met that day with Arnold’s daughter, Barbara, a delightfully sweet lady who loved both her parents dearly and took tender care of them.  We taught them the first discussion about Joseph Smith and the restoration.  He listened politely but it was clear he felt no emotion about the story of the First Vision.  As time went on and we met with him more, we could tell that he had little interest in the church itself, he simply was willing to do whatever it takes to make his wife happy.  He was a little offended when we told him there was simply no way to get around the water requirement, baptism by immersion was what the Savior taught and that was the way it was in his church.  We began to pray that not only would the baptism be able to take place, but that Arnold would have a change of heart and become truly converted to the Savior and his gospel. 
            
About a month after that first phone call, Barbara called us to let us know that Arnold had been hospitalized with some lung complications. We went to visit him that night and he was pretty discouraged.  We didn’t try to teach anything that night, just listened to him and then said a prayer together.  We were just about to leave when I had the feeling I should sing a Primary song to him.  I sang him “I am a Child of God,” and for the first time, I felt like he had truly been touched by the Spirit. He was in the hospital for about a month and we would come to visit him several more times.  We taught lessons, sang songs, and just bore testimony.  I think it was one the most extraordinary things a person can experience when you are teaching and the words just flow into you, a complete conduit for the Spirit.  I knew how much Heavenly Father loved Arnold and how much he cared about him being taught the gospel and being baptized.  During this time, Arnold and Barbara gave me the nickname of “Sister Cool” because I was always responding with “That’s cool!” to stories he would tell.  It was one of the sweetest experiences of my life to watch little by little as Arnold’s testimony grew and blossomed. 
           
After he was released from the hospital, Arnold went to live at the same care facility that Dolores lived in.  It was wonderful that they could be together again, and we made several visits to them both during the first few weeks.  But, the care facility was out of our area, and eventually we had to turn the Armstrongs over to the elders in the area.  It was hard to let them go, but we trusted the elders and knew they would be great for the Armstrongs.  As time went on and his health declined, it wasn’t looking like Arnold would be able to have a baptism in this life.  He would start feeling better and then decline rapidly.  But then one day we got word that he had finally decided to set a baptism date with the elders.   He believed in the church.  He loved the gospel.  He loved the Savior, and he wanted to be baptized…no matter what the cost. 
            
A few days after Arnold had set the date, President Limoges, a counselor in the stake presidency came with us and the elders to meet with Arnold and Dolores.  While he was talking to Arnold, I sat and chatted with Dolores, but I caught one thing that Arnold said, something that changed my life forever.  “You know,” I heard him say, “I’ve been meeting with missionaries since 1959, and I never really listened to any of them, until she came along.” The words were some of the most important I’ve ever heard in my whole life.  I knew his conversion had nothing to do with me, and he knew that too, but for some glorious reason, Heavenly Father had called me to come on this mission and be the one to reach one soul, one lost sheep, a 78 year old man and help bring him to the Savior. What a blessing! What a privilege! My mission was tough for me with several health issues, depression and anxiety and terrible homesickness at times.  But at that moment, it was all worth it. 
            
The baptism was scheduled for two weeks before I was to go home.  The night before his baptism, Arnold starting coughing up blood and was rushed to the hospital.  They were able to stabilize him and we went to see him a few days before I left.  He was doing much better but he still looked so pale and week.  I asked him if he was sure that baptism in this life was something that he still wanted to do.  He could have his work done for him.  I would be sure of it.  He looked me in the eyes and said “I don’t care if I have to crawl down into the font, be baptized, crawl out of the font and die on the way home, I am doing this because I know it’s true.   It’s what I have to do.”  
It was the last time I would ever see him in this life.  I left to go home two days later.
            
On July 28th, 2001, Arnold Armstrong was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  My mission president called me after the baptism to tell me the story.  There were two missionaries in the font, one to baptize him, one to hold his oxygen tank.  The missionary raised his arm to the square, said the prayer, and then the other quickly removed Arnold’s oxygen and then replaced it when he came out of the water.  Unfortunately, he was not immersed all the way and so they had to do it again.  Already exhausted, Arnold prayed out loud for Heavenly Father to help him because he wanted this so badly.  There was not a dry eye in the room.  The second time worked, and Arnold Armstrong came up out of the water reborn. 
            
He went home to God four years later.  Dolores passed away later on that year.  I still am in contact with Barbara and when we talk, I remember so many of the sweet experiences I had working with her parents. I have no doubt that Arnold and Dolores are involved in the work on the other side.  If I had one message to give to missionaries it would be this:  If you are struggling, don’t give up.  The person or people God sent you to find could be calling you tomorrow.  You can be struggling and God will still use you to find his lost sheep.  Twenty years ago today, I entered the MTC.  My life was never the same again.   I am so grateful for the chance I had to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I am so grateful for my dear friend Arnold Armstrong and that chance that I had to share the most precious thing in the world to me.


It was the phone call that would change everything.  I had almost been on my mission for a year and I was struggling.  It was bitterly cold and I was dealing with seasonal depression and anxiety.  It was a difficult time for me and I was feeling very discouraged.   After one particularly frigid morning, my companion and I were home for lunch when the phone rang.            
            “Hello, Missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,” I said, trying to sound cheerful.  No joke, this is the conversation that greeted me on the other end:
            “Hello, you’re the Mormon missionaries right? Well, my wife is a member of your church, well…she’s kind of a jack Mormon, she hasn’t been to church for fifty years but she recently had a stroke and she really wants us to get bonded in one of your temples.  Well, I understand that in order to get bonded, you have to get baptized first.  Here’s the thing, I love my wife and want to make her happy but I’m 78 years old and I have emphysema and have to be on oxygen and wouldn’t really survive going under water so we’re going to have too skip the water part, is that ok with you?”
            Honestly, at that moment I was strongly tempted to laugh, but I set up an appointment to meet with him.  He actually lived in the apartment building right behind us.  My companion, Sister Elliott, and I met with him the next day. His name was Arnold Armstrong and we had been with him for about five minutes when it was clear how much he absolutely adored his wife, Dolores. After her stroke, she was living in a care facility in downtown Winnipeg and it broke his heart not to be near her.  We also met that day with Arnold’s daughter, Barbara, a delightfully sweet lady who loved both her parents dearly and took tender care of them.  We taught them the first discussion about Joseph Smith and the restoration.  He listened politely but it was clear he felt no emotion about the story of the First Vision.  As time went on and we met with him more, we could tell that he had little interest in the church itself, he simply was willing to do whatever it takes to make his wife happy.  He was a little offended when we told him there was simply no way to get around the water requirement, baptism by immersion was what the Savior taught and that was the way it was in his church.  We began to pray that not only would the baptism be able to take place, but that Arnold would have a change of heart and become truly converted to the Savior and his gospel. 
            About a month after that first phone call, Barbara called us to let us know that Arnold had been hospitalized with some lung complications. We went to visit him that night and he was pretty discouraged.  We didn’t try to teach anything that night, just listened to him and then said a prayer together.  We were just about to leave when I had the feeling I should sing a Primary song to him.  I sang him “I am a Child of God,” and for the first time, I felt like he had truly been touched by the Spirit. He was in the hospital for about a month and we would come to visit him several more times.  We taught lessons, sang songs, and just bore testimony.  I think it was one the most extraordinary things a person can experience when you are teaching and the words just flow into you, a complete conduit for the Spirit.  I knew how much Heavenly Father loved Arnold and how much he cared about him being taught the gospel and being baptized.  During this time, Arnold and Barbara gave me the nickname of “Sister Cool” because I was always responding with “That’s cool!” to stories he would tell.  It was one of the sweetest experiences of my life to watch little by little as Arnold’s testimony grew and blossomed. 
            After he was released from the hospital, Arnold went to live at the same care facility that Dolores lived in.  It was wonderful that they could be together again, and we made several visits to them both during the first few weeks.  But, the care facility was out of our area, and eventually we had to turn the Armstrongs over to the elders in the area.  It was hard to let them go, but we trusted the elders and knew they would be great for the Armstrongs.  As time went on and his health declined, it wasn’t looking like Arnold would be able to have a baptism in this life.  He would start feeling better and then decline rapidly.  But then one day we got word that he had finally decided to set a baptism date with the elders.   He believed in the church.  He loved the gospel.  He loved the Savior, and he wanted to be baptized…no matter what the cost. 
            A few days after Arnold had set the date, President Limoges, a counselor in the stake presidency came with us and the elders to meet with Arnold and Dolores.  While he was talking to Arnold, I sat and chatted with Dolores, but I caught one thing that Arnold said, something that changed my life forever.  “You know,” I heard him say, “I’ve been meeting with missionaries since 1959, and I never really listened to any of them, until she came along.” The words were some of the most important I’ve ever heard in my whole life.  I knew his conversion had nothing to do with me, and he knew that too, but for some glorious reason, Heavenly Father had called me to come on this mission and be the one to reach one soul, one lost sheep, a 78 year old man and help bring him to the Savior. What a blessing! What a privilege! My mission was tough for me with several health issues, depression and anxiety and terrible homesickness at times.  But at that moment, it was all worth it. 
            The baptism was scheduled for two weeks before I was to go home.  The night before his baptism, Arnold starting coughing up blood and was rushed to the hospital.  They were able to stabilize him and we went to see him a few days before I left.  He was doing much better but he still looked so pale and week.  I asked him if he was sure that baptism in this life was something that he still wanted to do.  He could have his work done for him.  I would be sure of it.  He looked me in the eyes and said “I don’t care if I have to crawl down into the font, be baptized, crawl out of the font and die on the way home, I am doing this because I know it’s true.   It’s what I have to do.”  
It was the last time I would ever see him in this life.  I left to go home two days later.
            On July 28th, 2001, Arnold Armstrong was baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  My mission president called me after the baptism to tell me the story.  There were two missionaries in the font, one to baptize him, one to hold his oxygen tank.  The missionary raised his arm to the square, said the prayer, and then the other quickly removed Arnold’s oxygen and then replaced it when he came out of the water.  Unfortunately, he was not immersed all the way and so they had to do it again.  Already exhausted, Arnold prayed out loud for Heavenly Father to help him because he wanted this so badly.  There was not a dry eye in the room.  The second time worked, and Arnold Armstrong came up out of the water reborn. 
            He went home to God four years later.  Dolores passed away later on that year.  I still am in contact with Barbara and when we talk, I remember so many of the sweet experiences I had working with her parents. I have no doubt that Arnold and Dolores are involved in the work on the other side.  If I had one message to give to missionaries it would be this:  If you are struggling, don’t give up.  The person or people God sent you to find could be calling you tomorrow.  You can be struggling and God will still use you to find his lost sheep.  Twenty years ago today, I entered the MTC.  My life was never the same again.   I am so grateful for the chance I had to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I am so grateful for my dear friend Arnold Armstrong and that chance that I had to share the most precious thing in the world to me.


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