10-12-15!

Bonjour everybody! I had a KILLER week! So here it is.

Events I experienced:

Monday! Pday! Haircut!

Tuesday! An exchange with my district leader, Elder Bryce. Super awesome guy! Love him to death.

Wednesday! Two hour layover in Narbonne. Pizza. Mmm. Porting. Lots of it. Street lessons! Pretty good stuff.

Thursday! Elder Hansen's legality in Beziers! Then we home taught the T family with Bishop Jacas. And bible prophecies! 2 Kings 19:30; Luke 10:2; 2 Néphi 33:10; D&C 75:24; Moses 5:31. We decided that I would be staying, and receiving an old missionary.

Friday! TRANSFER CALLS. I am staying to do a 4th transfer in Carcassonne. I will have served at least a fourth of my mission in Carc by the time I leave haha. I am receiving Elder Stutz, who is coming from Vitrolles. He is awesome, I have met him before!

Saturday! We had a good-bye lunch with Frere V and S! Asian buffet! Mm. Then we cleaned the chapel. We have cleaning assignments. Oh well. Service! Yay! Then we contacted and packed. Well, I didn't pack. Ohhhh yeah, and our only steady ami J yelled at us a bunch today and dropped us, the 3rd or 4 time for me. So yeah. Even if she does want to see us again, I'm not sure she's willing to change, so I'm not sure if we'll even be able to see her. It's rough. I was pretty down today, with Elder Hansen leaving and Josette dropping us and everything. I always get über nostalgic when comps leave. Which has been every transfer call so far for me!

Sunday! Cried. A good amount. Had a sister moment haha. Ok, had LOTS of sister moments. I really grew to love Elder Hansen. It's hard to say goodbye, but he's still in the zone, so I'll see him at least! Yeah. Crazy. 3 transfers over. By the end of the next one, I'll be 1/4th done!! WHAT. I still feel like a bleu haha.

Monday, new comp! Elder Stutz! Super cool! So excited! He loves LOTR so I'm in love.

Lessons I learned:
I got pretty down this week, with everything that's been going on. I had such high hopes for Carcassonne when I arrived, and 4.5 months later, sometimes I feel like we have nothing going for us. Sometimes I forget all the wonderful miracles I have seen, all the blessings that the Lord has given me. No, maybe we don't have many progressing investigators, maybe I have not baptized anyone yet, but the Lord has blessed me a TON. When we forget Him, we forget the whole purpose! I started to feel sorry for myself, I started to feel sad. But happiness is a choice, and it's a lot easier choice when we remember Him and count our blessings. So please. Count your blessings! Be grateful, and most of all, be happy! That's what the Lord wants for us, we are that we "might have joy."

From my boy Jeffrey R: "Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles.
Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?

"You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him?

“When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions.” (“Missionary Work and the Atonement,” Ensign, Mar. 2001, 14–15). I cried as I read this out loud in a rendezvous this week. Sobbing like a baby. Incredible stuff. When we are rejected, we are standing with the Savior! What more can I say?

Püppenhaus: doll house in German. Hahahahaha!

(free) Advice I have:
"You are here on earth for a divine purpose. It is not to be endlessly entertained or to be constantly in full pursuit of pleasure. You are here to be tried, to prove yourself so that you can receive the additional blessings God has for you. The tempering effect of patience is required. Some blessings will be delivered here in this life; others will come beyond the veil. The Lord is intent on your personal growth and development. That progress is accelerated when you willingly allow Him to lead you through every growth experience you encounter, whether initially it be to your individual liking or not.

"When you trust in the Lord, when you are willing to let your heart and your mind be centered in His will, when you ask to be led by the Spirit to do His will, you are assured of the greatest happiness along the way and the most fulfilling attainment from this mortal experience. If you question everything you are asked to do, or dig in your heels at every unpleasant challenge, you make it harder for the Lord to bless you." -Richard G. Scott  This is so true! I can't explain this any better than it has already been explained.

"On the example of the Savior himself and his call to his Apostles, and with the need for peace and comfort ringing in our ears, I ask you to be a healer, be a helper, be someone who joins in the work of Christ in lifting burdens, in making the load lighter, in making things better. As children, when we had a bump or a bruise, didn’t we say to Mom or Dad, “Make it better”? Well, lots of people on your right hand and on your left are carrying bumps and bruises that they hope will be healed and made whole. Someone you know is carrying a spiritual or physical or emotional burden of some sort, or some other affliction drawn from life’s catalog of a thousand kinds of sorrow. In the spirit of Christ’s first invitation to his twelve Apostles, jump into this work. Help people. Heal old wounds and try to make things better." -Jeffrey R. Holland

Elder Uchtdorf talked about how we over-complicate our discipleship in this last general conference. If we go around "doing good," the Lord will be with us, because we will be walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

I love you all! Really! So much. Onward and upward!

Love, Elder MacArthur

Elder Hansen & Ben

 

Goodbye!

Ben & Elder Stutz!