6-29-15

Bonjour tout le monde!

Experiences I had:
I went on an exchange with elder Olsen on Tuesday, we went to Montpelier! A big town, very beautiful and generally awesome. We had a really cool lesson with a part member family, Frère C. (Peruvian) is less-active but has shared the gospel with his wife M. (Czech) and their children because they have started asking questions! awesome stuff.

Elder Garside and I did service this week for Frère N., a man in the ward who needed to remove a lot of bricks from his yard. So remove them we did! It was a lot of fun, we had help from Frère V. who, at 82, has more energy than I do.

J., our ami with a July 18 baptism date, knows a song I grew up singing whilst roaming the cavernous halls of Charlemagne elementary. "Lundi matin, le roi, la reine et le p'tit prince sont venus chez moi pour me serrer la pince, mais comme j'étais parti, le petit prince a dit, 'puisque c'est comme ca nous reviendrons mardi'." A great song! That was fun to sing with her. And she's just really awesome too, so tant mieux pour moi!

We taught a friend named P. of a member named S., who is a great member missionary. I gave him a Livre de Mormon, my first personally-placed LDM! Good feeling.

President Monson in a 1975 October Gen Conf address gave an off-the-cuff talk to a little girl in the balcony of the tabernacle in Salt Lake City, because the Holy Ghost told him to. In 2007, President Monson shared that in 1993, he sealed that same girl (now grown-up) in a temple of God. How cool is that! I thought a lot about prophets this week and how amazing their lives must be.

Last thing. the young adults program in France is called Jeunes Adultes, or JA, pronounced "jeeeee-ah." the first time I heard this I thought they were talking about Jihad. So that confused me.

Things I remarked:
Miracles exist! if we want to see miracles in our lives and in the lives of others, we need to have faith that they can happen, That they WILL happen if we pray for them and live worthy to receive them.

Also, we are so blessed. People living in the good 'ole USA are so blessed. we have so many wonderful physical blessings and Latter-day Saints have been given an exorbitant amount of spiritual blessings on top of that. It's 103° F right now. I have never been more grateful for things like short sleeves, ice, the wind, and shade.

Lastly, the power of prayer is real. Honest, consistent prayer that moves us to live righteously and act as Jesus would changes lives. I know this because I have seen it at work in Carcassonne. I have seen it in my own life as well. If you think prayer can't help you, you are so wrong! Try it out, and I promise, with honesty and consistency it will change your very nature.

Lessons I learned:
We need to be 100 percent committed, 100 percent of the time. If we want to be happy we need to do our best work in every facet of our lives. Use all of the faculties you have been blessed with to do as much as you conceivably can. Chiefly, this includes a constant effort to become better people every day, every hour, every minute. Is it hard? Yes. Is it worth it, even imperative? YES.

(free) Advice I have:
"Ours is not a feeble message. It is not a fleeting task. It is not hapless; It is not hopeless; It is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of the Almighty God, and it is to change the world." - Jeffrey R. Holland

The gospel of Jesus Christ gives the maximum who, what, where, when, why, and how to our lives. We should make copious efforts to give that to everybody!

à plus! je vous aime beaucoup.
Love, Elder MacArthur

Only 1 picture from the camera this week. Again last p-day we had zero time for la cité (the cool castle), But today is the plan! This is of the center street in Carcassonne.

Somer Joe this is for you. Apparently crêpe parties are a thing in France.