Monday: Pday In Lyon! We got to go to vieux Lyon, and I got to spend it with my last 3 comps, Elder Ramsey and Fiala and Eberhard. It was a great privilege. We went to family home evening...with brother M, his daughters, and Fab!!! It was the best night ever. I am so lucky to have been able to see them.
Tuesday: MLC, very spiritual experience as always. We got to watch the video "Strength beyond my own" in French with video clips of the Paris temple! We are all very excited for the consecration here in our mission. President Brown challenged us all to polish ourselves for the next 5 weeks to be ready for the consecration. I will do my best to do this.
The rest of the week wasn't terribly interesting, I did have a cool exchange though! I was with Elder Encarnacion, who is normally in Angoulême. We did a lot of walking, so we got to talk a lot. He actually lost a close friend not too long ago, so it was really good for him to talk and have time to get his feelings out. We met an Australian member, and gave him a blessing in the forest. It was cool. We had nowhere else to go, but it was super great, he was very grateful for our visit. And Elder Encarnacion, he is a really cool guy! His parents had a band in the 90s called Moonpools and Caterpillars. Check them out if you want, I have never listened to them but I will when I get home! They are all very musical, and Elder Encarnacion was offered jobs writing music for tv commercials before his mission once he became discovered. Don't be surprised to see him on MTV someday. Actually, MTV isn't really music television isn't it? So never mind, I hope you never see him on MTV. Maybe the Voice. Or American Idol. I'm not sure if that still exists either.
On Saturday, we helped Eysines and Agen elders with their baptisms, both in our chapel. They were the two baptisms in our mission this week. So we went to all the baptisms mission-wide. 2 for 2. Pretty good. They weren't ours though haha.
On Sunday, Cy, Ru, and Mi came to church! They are all pretty new investigators. Mi, we haven't even taught her the restoration yet but she's come to church twice. We have high hopes for her!!
Something that I learned this week: Go to 3 Nephi 19. Look at the way the Lord prays. Do we pray like that? Verse 9: "And they did pray for that which they most desired; and they desired that the Holy Ghost should be given unto them." Their prayers were sincere, because they had real desire, or real intent; another way to say it is "full purpose of heart." When the Lord prays, he thanked His Father first thing, always. He always prayed for others, his prayers no matter what were always for others. Even if we need to pray for strength, pray for help, pray for comfort, pray for faith, etc. we must have a desire to receive these heavenly gifts for the benefit of others. And the Nephites got this. Verse 24 describes the power behind their prayers: "...and they did not multiply many words, for it was given unto them what they should pray, and they were filled with desire." Are our prayers guided by the spirit? Have you ever noticed that a day full of hard work, desire, and positive attitude is so much easier to write about in a journal, or to tell Heavenly Father about than a day with no motivation and no desire? If we really do all that we do with desire, we won't need to wonder what to say or pray. It will be given to us, by the Spirit. If our desires are righteous, and we have the faith to act on them, we can never go wrong.
I love you all a lot. Have a good one :)
Elder MacArthur
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| Us (Ben & Elder Encarnacion) and Brother Chi |
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| Elder Ramsey! |
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| Cleaning the font for 2 baptisms on Saturday...none of which were ours haha. That kinda hurts in a prideful way, but it was great to see a baptism in Bordeaux! |
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| MLC |
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| FHE with V.M....true love |
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