7-18-16

Hey all. This week was different, for sure.  What went down:

Monday was sick. We hiked Dog's Head (Tête de Chien), a little mountain next to Monaco. The view was beautiful and it felt good to walk around and hike in shorts and a t shirt. Elder Raherimandimby and I went back earlier, I bought a wallet, renewed my bus pass, then we chilled at the apt for a little before meeting the others at the mall. I was looking to buy a French watch for soldes, but all the good ones were gone. Then we emailed, had some food, and we went to the Single Adults' FHE. We shared a thought on the temple and invited everyone to find an ancestor to bring to the temple. K's aunt, who is starting to investigate the church, loved the thought, as it cleared up some questions that were raised at church last Sunday. Hopefully we'll have our first lesson with her this Friday!

Tuesday was phenomenal. We had studies as usual, lunch, lots of calls, a few RDVs fixed, then we tried some business contacting. The idea with this is that amis found at business places will have less problems with money, getting to church, transportation, etc. than other people. Plus, we know how to find them again! So I saw a record store, and we popped in and I talked to the owner about jazz for a while. He was playing some John Coltrane and he was sparc'd that I liked it. I asked if he had MoTab, but he told me that "il y a que la musique du diable ici, mon garçon" so I had a good laugh. He said that his religious and political views stay at home, so I got a little stonewalled there. But he accepted our card! I did sweeten the deal by buying a 5 euro CD haha (The Jazz Messengers) that has some of my favorites on it, namely Art Blakey & Lee Morgan. Win-win. After that, we went contacting in Gaibaldi Square, and taught a lesson to two women our age, C and O. We got their number, they have our book (the Lord's book), and they said they'd talk to us again! They were really cool. We also met a young German woman named S who needed help moving the next day. We exchanged numbers and were frantically searching for Das Buch Mormon at our apt when she texted us saying "thanks for the offer, but please don't come over tomorrow." It was a real shame! We finally found the book, we'll find some way to get it to her. We have her address so it shouldn't be too hard.

On Wednesday, we saw our ami Al next to Monaco, and taught her about temples. It went really well, but she might be moving in a few months so she didn't want to accept a baptismal date (for that reason). Hopefully she stays! We got back, called people, contacted, then went to a church dance! We met the friends of members, got their numbers, and left haha. We couldn't dance anyways!

Thursday, exchange with Elder Loveland from Toulon! We saw a member, contacted, got four numbers! It was good fun. Not much else to report.

Friday. As you may have heard, there was a large terrorist attack in Nice Thursday night, just five blocks away from us. We didn't hear anything after going to bed Thursday night, we woke up the next morning and realized everyone had been trying to call us! Our mission president called our phones 40 times, members had been sent to check up on us, but we slept through it all! Embarrassing haha. Now we make sure to leave our phones on loud, not vibrate, when we go to bed. We were told to stay in the whole day, so we found things to do. Some awesome members brought us food (we were six in the apartment) and we ordered Pizza Hut so it wasn't all bad. It was a very somber moment in Nice. But carry on we must. All the missionaries and members of the church were not physically harmed, which is a great blessing.

Saturday was good, we taught Al and M, contacted, normal stuff.

Sunday was a normal day. M and Al came to church, which was always cool. I translated a talk at the pulpit for Brother Os, the Australian second counselor in the bishopric. It was weird, giving a talk, but not being responsible for the words haha.

What I learned:
A lesson I learned this week: never fear. My inclination at first was to be afraid, but I realized that there are much scarier things in this world. These attacks are nothing to be afraid of. I will not fear because Heavenly Father wants it to be that way! I take great courage in remembering Elder Packer's words of being "just plain never frightened." That is something I am working towards. I have never been a courageous person, but the gospel has helped me go in that direction, and being a missionary of course helps as well. I hope to always fear God more than Man, but I really hope to always LOVE God more than Man. Fear is transitory and doesn't last, it is a poor motivator. With time, it is easily overcome. Of course the scriptures mean "respect God," not fear Him. But our love for Him motivates us more fully to keep his commandments. Love is insurmountable, untreatable, untouchable in the right circumstances. Sometimes I find myself loving man more than God. I try to reverse this, and when I do, I know that He is happy with me.

(free) Advice I have:
"Anonymous," by President Monson, April 1983 Gen Conf. A super talk that stresses the joy we can have when we give and serve and love, not letting our left hand knoweth what our right hand doeth!

Love you all! Thanks for being great.
Elder MacArthur

The view from the Eze castle!

Roman ruins

French cheese ad