1-18-16!

Hello hello everybody! This week was great!

Events I experienced:
On Monday, I wrote some letters, one to J, an old investigator, and to the Carcassonne Ward, letting them know how I am. They told me to write, so darn it, I'll write! That's about all there is that's worth to share.

On Tuesday, we helped Nes and Mil with their family history. We're trying to get them to go on the temple trip in February, and we are trying to help them to find an ancestor to bring to the temple! We also helped Frère Drem give a blessing to Elo. Whilst porting, we found a cool guy named Rach who really wants to stop smoking! We'll try to help him with that. And then we saw Sister F with Frère Four. She's a less-active who is SUPER quirky! She's awesome, she's a lot like me actually. I really hope to be able to connect with her and help get her back to church.

On Wednesday, we saw Elo and Nes! We are reteaching the lessons after baptism. We taught them the retab, and that went really well. Nes opened up and talked about his conversion, how he heard Frère All give a talk on forgiveness the first time he came to church. He was really touched, and that got him motivated to reconcile with his Heavenly Father. Then we had Ward council, and that was ok.

Thursday was awesome! I did an exchange with Elder Underwood in Perigueux! Perigueux is a beautiful French town. We went to an outer town called Vergt, did some tracting and passing. We found a Portuguese man for Elder Berry to teach, since he speaks Portuguese. We also contacted two people who asked a lot of good questions but lacked the faith/desire/both to obtain them! It was pretty sad to see, but that happens often. We came back, passed a member named Mar, and then our evening rendezvous with Ced fell through. But it was a super super fun day! Elder Underwood is super fun and has a really great spirit about him.

Friday was super fun! We got up and took a 7:32 train to Bordeaux for a zone training at 10. We talked about how we are going to achieve our goal of 250 baptisms for 2016. President Brown is pushing for families. He created an acronym for preparing to find and teach and baptize families:

Purity-being pure and capable to receive revelation for our sector
Amour-loving everyone and getting them to feel it, "for perfect love casteth out all fear"
Persevere-never quit and rely on the Lord to help us find who we need to teach about the Apostasy

Many French people hate religion. Why? They don't know about the apostasy foretold by Paul and the prophets of old. Their church is all they've known. So, we're going to ask people about religion. They'll tell us what they don't like. Then, we will offer them "a more excellent way," as the book of Ether says. We're pretty excited about it! I really think it'll help lead us to more baptisms and better missionary work.

Saturday, I was sick. We cancelled with Fernando and Roxaine and everybody else. Moving on.

Sunday! Still sick a little. Went to church, did weekly planning. Yup. Being sick stinks.

Lessons I learned:
Perfect love casts out all fear- fear of rejection, failure, others, ourselves, anything! When we fear, we lack faith, in Him and in ourselves. And we don't love people as much as we should. When I find fear in me, I rebuke myself by reminding myself that I don't have the right to do a so-so job, to pass them up, to "get it next time." If we have a perfect love for others, we will be concerned for their salvation, and we won't care about anything else, any of our other fears!

(free) Advice I have:
"See Others as They May Become" by President Monson, October 2012 Gen Conf. I often expect investigators, members, missionaries, EVERYONE to be perfect, to not make mistakes, to understand immediately, etc. Then I disappoint myself when a I realize that my expectations were unrealistic, and I look at their faults as the reason. President Monson has taught that we need to see people's potential, not their shortcomings! That is the only way to be accepting of others.

"An Attitude of Gratitude" by President Monson, April 1992 general conference. Check out this part:
"Accentuate the positive; Eliminate the negative. Latch on to the affirmative; Don’t mess with Mr. In-between. Good advice then. Good advice now. This is a wonderful time to be living here on earth. Our opportunities are limitless. While there are some things wrong in the world today, there are many things right, such as teachers who teach, ministers who minister, marriages that make it, parents who sacrifice, and friends who help. We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues."

What more can I say? A wonderful talk about one of the biggest lessons I have learned on my mission.

I love you all! Thanks for all you do! Have a great week!
Love, Elder MacArthur

Ben & Elder Underwood on an exchange

Bordeaux zone