Elder MacArthur's Mission to France : 7-6 à 7-13

Bonjour everybody! This week has been hard, but great nonetheless.

Events I experienced
J. She has had problems recently. We taught her tithing this week and she did not take it too well. It is understandable I guess, but still sad nonetheless. I think she will get baptized soon, because she has seen so many miracles already in the past few weeks. She has stopped taking the lessons, but I know she will miss feeling the Holy Spirit. I know she will be baptized. Your prayers are appreciated. I could go on for hours about how hard it is to see somebody come so close to happiness and then turn away, but alas I don't have the time today. We need a miracle, but we are in luck, because God gives His children miracles everyday when they are faithful!

Our interview conference with President Brown was awesome. We were all a little worried about what he would be like, but he is super and we all are happy to have him as our mission president. My interview with President Brown was awesome. He is really good at making people feel loved. I am sure he is an inspired man and will help our mission a lot.

I taught a man named A. with Aimé and Elder Perry this week in Montpellier. Elder Perry is the zone leader along with Elder Olsen and my exchange was fun. We were able to talk to a lot of people on the streets and even though Elder Perry was sick, we still had a great day.

I saw on a map in the ZL apartment in Montpellier: "Dwight Schrute from Scranton, PA- Assistant TO the President". That map is for all the elders who have lived in that apartment to sign, their name and where they are from. That made me laugh wayyyy too much!

I wrote down my goals for what I want to be like after my mission. I got really detailed and very very specific. It really helped me a lot! I encourage everyone to make goals, it really helps to get the most out of life.

Things I remarked
If you are walking in severe heat and a breeze comes to you, it feels awesome. If you want more cooling effect, you can't just keep at your previous pace and hope the wind picks up. You need to walk faster towards it! If we want more blessing, more spiritual wind in our lives, we must do our work to feel that spiritual wind. The Lord will always do His part and keep His promises. The wind will always be there for us, but we need to spiritually accelerate towards Him if we desire more spiritual relief. We must run (in all diligence) towards the wind of the Lord in order to bless ourselves and others. Jesus never did anything without the wind from His Father.

Forgiveness unlocks blessings and happiness for us.

Lift where you stand. Maybe you think you could do more somewhere else or in some other position, but the Lord has put you where you are for a purpose. So do the best with what you have and know that it was meant to be so!

This work is what you make it. Honestly the mission could be so easy if I wanted it to be. But I don't want it to be easy, not at all. I want to do my best to give everything I have, and if I don't make it hard then I am cheating myself, the people in Carcassonne, and the Lord. "Will a man rob God?" I certainly hope not.

Lessons I learned
We need to do our part, D&C 11:20, be worthy of His help. If we want the wind, we must run into it

We cannot control what others do, only ourselves! We must try to perfect ourselves to perfect others. Yet if we focus on ourselves, we won't progress. Christ perfected Himself not by worrying about His progression, but by giving His life for others. "No, we are not earning heaven. We are learning heaven. We are preparing for it (see D&C 78:7). We are practicing for it.” -Brad Wilcox

Saved by grace AND changed by grace. A great thought! We are all saved by grace, but do we allow Christ's grace to change us?

(free) Advice I have
General conference talks! Talks are always nice.
"Lift Where You Stand" by Dieter F. Uchtdorf
"Forgiveness" by Gordon B. Hinckley
"His Grace Is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox

Thanks for all your support everyone! I love you all and I hope you have a great week.
Love, Elder MacArthur

Ben reluctantly answers some questions from his family: Haha Dad, I have little time to answer all these questions! I'll try, but please ask less questions in the future haha. My French is good, perfectly fine. I can follow the talks perfectly well. I get tongue tied sometimes and use English words but that's fine. Elder Garside is a district leader, Yes, it's us, an equipe of elders and an equipe of sisters from Perpignan in the district. We eat pasta, sandwiches, and breakfast food. Our ward mission leader (DMP in French) feeds us very well. He is a retired Vietnamese chef. We eat a lot of Frère Vital leftovers because he makes us lots of food. Members feed us a little bit after service projects. We never have any dinners that don't follow service haha. Carc is small, we walk everywhere. I sweat a lot. So it goes. We met with the [new mission president] Browns. If there is any way to be just as awesome as the Roneys, they have found that way. We have an hour of personal [study], hour of comp, hour for language, and I have first 12 weeks study with Elder Garside; so we have about 4 hours every day when we can manage it. All of our study is focused around our investigators' needs.