10-24-16

Hello hello everybody!! What happened:

Monday-pday chez le President Brown! Way fun. We played basketball, volleyball, had a great lunch made by Sister Brown. It was lots of fun. I got to talk to lots of zone members and get to know them better

Tuesday- M.T.! We found an Indian less active woman in the areabook. We went over with a member, and taught her. She has a long complicated story, but quickly, she has no testimony but loves Jesus Christ. We're going to help her gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. After that, we had RCM, and then dinner with la famille H! They invited a family over too. A few weeks back, we helped this family move for the whole day. Now they have a Book of Mormon and are going to come to church. Members can do so much more missionary work than we can, honestly.

Wednesday - F from Toulouse! Super great contact. I met this dude on a bus, he was the nicest guy ever. I had been struggling a little with bus contacting for the past few weeks, and this contact helped me get back into it. We also taught a lady I had found 6 months ago with Elder Nadauld! Her name is Mme. G. She is older. We taught the retab, she agreed with everything, but was hesitant to read the Book of Mormon. Ugh. I don't know why people nod their heads and say "yes" to everything and then obviously don't understand what we just told them haha. Weird. Afterwards, we had a rdv with an old ami named S. He is not interested. I won't divulge more. Then we had a week one coordination meeting with the office elders, Lyon ZLs and the assistants. We worked out the schedule for the trainers coming in next week. That's always a fun meeting. After, we had dinner with the B family. Their family friend, R, was finally there! I got to meet him, he's really cool. If we start to teach him the lessons, he'll get baptized for sure.

Thursday - raclette with the L family! They are awesome. Fr L is hilarious and they have the cutest family. We went over to the institute and gave M (recent convert) a blessing, then back to the church to teach D! We taught the plan of salvation finally. It went well. Our member there,  Brother Tropel, was a help. The lesson still went well. To end the night, we ate dinner with Brother and Sister S, and sister A. They are all young people. And English speakers. It was fun! We talked about missionary work, and next dinner they'll have a friend over.

Friday - we were both sick, so we rested. We got transfer calls! We are both staying here in Ecully. So I might stay one after as well, because this is Elder Burri's last transfer. I'm happy to stay here, it's the best. Our zone is jumping up to 26 people too! We got two new equipes. We had dinner with G (recent convert) and A (our ami). It was great! We gave A a blessing as well, he was pretty sick. After that, we had a sleepover with the assistants, Lyon zone leaders, office elders, confluence Chinese equipe, and Val de Saône elders. It was to celebrate elder Landry and Leon 's last week in the mission. It was super funny!! Elder Landry told us the story about a girl who stalked him....and still is. Haha it was great.

Saturday - we all played soccer together with about 30 Africans! There were so many there. We found Jer, an old ami there too!! We lost his number, so we got it back, and now we're seeing him again next week. I contacted a guy in the bus who told me that our conversation made him want to start praying again! That felt good.

Sunday - Z zone lunch, beef Wellington. Soeur Z is the best cook ever. We said goodbye to Sister Burton and Elder Landry, went to church, had dinner, then came back to send in Ecully zone numbers. Since assistants are a duo again, we're going to help them translate the mission newsletter into French. So we started at 10 and finished at midnight. It was pretty fun actually, a good language study. It really helped them out, gave them an extra two hours of sleep.

I am eager for this next transfer in Ecully. It is insane to think it's my 13th transfer, only 5 left. I know this transfer will be full of miracles. We want to baptize someone so bad. Our amis D, I, S, J, and V are all preparing for baptism. If we teach them with members, they will be baptized for sure.
During my personal studies last week, I studied charity a lot. It really helped me to see what I was doing wrong and correct it.

This transfer, we lost Elders Landry, Battezzato, Walton, Shirley, Ramirez and Hekking. Those are all great elders, it stinks to not have them in the zone anymore. I'm so grateful to have been able to work with them and meet them this transfer. Elder Landry will be sorely missed in Ecully. But Elder Menzel is great! Everyone loves him. He makes a great addition to the Ward. We are excited to have him here with us!

For this upcoming transfer, I have set my personal goals:
1. "Love is the Key"
2. "Meekness and power"
3. "Unaffected by pride"

These are things my mission president has counseled me on. They are the best goals I could have. I'm excited to devote myself to these goals and become better each day. As I read the miracle, I saw the baptisms in Brive and Carcassonne! I was so happy! It has been forever since Carcassonne had a convert baptism. It's been a while for Brive, too. It's the best feeling, to see a baptism happen in your old ville. That gave me great joy today. I can't wait to see those great wards again.

We had an incredible miracle this last week. We fixed a rdv with a man in the area book, named V. He has seen the elders a few times, has a Book of Mormon chez lui in the Congo. We met with him and testified of the restoration. He himself has been critical of his church, and is very humble, open, and prepared. He agreed to another rdv and will come to church, because he doesn't like the spirit of the church where he goes! He is the kind of person that you look at and say, "He looks like a church member!" We have high hopes for him. he understands the restoration and promised to read he Book of Mormon.

Our zone is incredible this transfer! We have the finest missionaries in our zone. Elder Burri and I know that the zone is capable of great things this transfer. We have thought of things we can do to work harder and be better. We will have a weekly challenge for the whole zone to work towards, perhaps the challenge given in the miracle. With some concentration, motivation, and follow up, we will all be able to teach lots of lessons in the presence. Elder Burri and I thought that 400 lessons in the presence for our zone this transfer could be a good goal.  That is slightly above five lessons in the presence per equipe per week. We will do it! This will be a faith-building transfer for sure. We have to do so much better to get to 250 baptisms. It's going to be hard, but we will do it.

Advice I have:
"Love All," by David B. Haight. An excellent General conference talk!! Simply beautiful.

"Whether you think that you will succeed, or you think that you will fail, you are right." -Henry Ford
How sick is that quote?! Very true.

I love you all!
Elder MacArthur

Our church made it onto the town map! (See right edge of map)

Elder Burri, me, Landry, Menzel, Wade, Sister Burton and Bright! The Ecully squad