Elder MacArthur's Mission to France : 12-26-16!

Hello everyone! Merry Christmas!

(Family) I sent you a Christmas package today.

This week was great! Here is some of what happened [transcribed from photos of Ben's journal]:

Tuesday, 12-20-16: Today was great! We passed lots of less-actives. As we were passing a less-active, I. M. (a less-active and part-member family) called us and asked us for a blessing. Her mom who is in the Nice ward had called us earlier. We knew of her situation. So we booked it all the way over to l’hopital de la Crois Rouge. Red Cross Hospital. We gave her a blessing, and after the blessing she said that I had mentioned lots of things from her patriarchal blessing! It was so cool to see the spirit working. Now, we are finally going to be able to get in and meet her family, her nonmember kids! We’ve been trying to see her. The door finally opened! After that, we went back up to Ecully for dinner at the H home. It was really good, as usual.

Thursday, 12-22-16: Really fun day. For studies, I read in Mosiah about Alma the Younger and his conversion. I only started the chapter, because there’s so much to think about. I almost finished the life of the Savior, too. I have 2 sections left, and when I’m done, I’ll give it to Elder Ramsay. In the morning, we went by the assistant’s place to get their keys from a lady who found them. We then went up to their place and spent a solid 2 hours cleaning. We got their apartment really clean, as a Christmas present. They are going to be shocked when they walk in and everything’s clean. On our way back, we ran into R!! She still doesn’t have a phone, and she wouldn’t give us her address, but she said that she had been in pain and seeing the doctor for her arms. Once she’s better, she’ll come back. We took a picture of her with all of us. We then got a big bowl from the church and some baggies from Sister Brown. Then we made a bunch of cookies. Grenoble Elders Abrey and Masen came in for an exchange. I was with Elder Abrey and it was really good. We saw the S family and gave people cookies.

Friday, 12-24-16: Another good day. We had our District leader Training with Elder Smith and Abrey at the church. I think it helped a lot, they seemed to enjoy it. Then I went on exchange with Elder Laurens. We passed lots of less-actives around Vieux Lyon, and we had dinner with D. M. He lives in our sector, but he goes to Val de Saone ward. He made us some African food, it was really good! He’s only 20 years old, like me. We asked him about his family and friends, and about our friend at foot on Saturday. We want to invite them all to an activity at the church, to celebrate the Christmas season all together. Lots of them, like D, are far away from family, and they could use a party and company during the holidays. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve! It’s gone by so quickly. In one day, I’m going to be skyping my family!

Christmas here has been wonderful! I love you all!

Elder MacArthur