2/27/17!

Hey everyone.

Transfer 16 is here. Ouch!

Today is transfer day. I have been transferred to Bordeaux and my new companion will be Elder Fiala. I have met him a few times before and he is really cool. Although it was sad to leave early on, I will still be able to come back for MLCs and exchanges with Elders Wade, Menzel and Underwood. So it's like I hardly ever left at all!

I love Bordeaux, it is one of the prettiest towns in France. I'm excited to be here, and my companion is great! I am excited to get to know the area and bless the people here. My last week in Ecully was fantastic.

Elder Ramsey will stay in Ecully and get Elder Stahl, a Swiss German missionary who is incredible! I am excited for him.

I love being a missionary. I would say more but I have to go. I love you all!

Elder MacArthur

Ben with new companion Elder Fiala in Bordeaux

Ben with Elder Ramsey and Brother Mab

Ben with S.

Elder Ramsey and Ben display the side effects of the hospitality of the members of the Ecully Ward in Lyon

Service project in Lyon

2/20/17!

Hello hello everyone!
This week was fantastic!

What happened:
Monday: Chill p-day, we visited some cathedrals with the sisters, and we set up for zone conference. We had interviews with President Brown, and it was a wonderful experience as usual. Funny story: President can read minds. In the middle of our interview, President asked me "is there something that is stressing, worrying, or troubling you, Elder MacArthur?" And there was! I was not planning on talking about it at all, but President Brown felt the Spirit tell him to ask that question. The Holy Spirit is real! And so the rest of that interview was my answer and his advice. Basically without too much detail, I was concerned about how to keep my eye single to the glory of God. And he gave me great advice, he quoted Ecclesiastes 3:1 [To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven].

Tuesday:  Zone conference! It went super well. Our song went very well!

Wednesday:  We went out for lunch with Sister Kemp, our mission nurse. It was really fun. We got her flowers and she loved them! We also got to teach Fab! He hasn't been feeling well, and so we were grateful to see him. We taught him the third lesson, and it went wonderfully. He will need prayers to come to church, he doesn't want to force his son to come but doesn't want to come alone, so please pray for Fab. Afterwards, We went to Grenoble and did a baptismal interview for U. This has been the third interview I've done, and it was great. President Brown did part of the interview. U passed! And he got baptized this Saturday.

Thursday:  RCM, we had lunch with Sister Has, and we taught her daughter, Far. She accepted a baptismal date! We are not sure why, and if she has real intent, so we'll teach her about that next time. Then we ate dinner with the other elders at Bas and Sr. Rop's house, it was really good to see him. He has had a hard time coming to church, so getting a moment to see him and the family was awesome.

Friday:  We were with a member from Chalon who knew Elder Ramsey. We tried to pass lots of people, we ate lunch with Sister Th, and it was incredible! She is an amazing cook. We encouraged her to come to church (her family is against it) and she said that she would talk to her family.

Saturday:  We got tombez-vous' hard, but near the end of the day we helped Sr. Meb paint her wall. We couldn't find another man so we went with the sisters, which worked out well because we left a little early. We went to have a sleepover with the assistants, it was really fun!

Sunday:  We woke up, and Elders Ramsey, Menzel, Underwood and Wade sang happy birthday to me and gave me two kilos of Agen Prunes. We had church, and the Nice Bishop's family came to church in Lyon! It was fun for Elder Wade and I to see him again. After church, we worked on weekly planning, and went to the Z's house for dinner! Sister Z made me birthday cupcakes with peanut butter and it was delicious. We got to jump on their trampoline! It was super fun. A great way to end the week, best birthday ever.

I really felt the power of focus this week. Not because I was always focused, but because when I was, things went well. When you are worried or afraid or annoyed, it is so easy to cast your gaze on the great and spacious building, or anything, really, that's not Christ at the center. The only way to stay afloat is to not worry about the storm outside, but focus on moving forward and what is good. Kinda like the game "Operation," if you are distracted by the obstacles, you will mess up and fear will overtake you. So don't fear, don't doubt, just live right.

I love you all!!
Elder MacArthur

Ben & Elder Ramsey and Sister Kemp (mission nurse) have lunch

Bishop Meunir and family from Nice visit Ecully Ward.  Elder Wade and Ben both served in the Nice Ward.

Celebrating Ben's 21st birthday with the Z family

Ben & Elder Ramsey enjoy kebabs on the train returning from Grenoble

K & C Z wishing Ben a happy birthday

P-day at President & Sister Brown's home

The crowd at President's P-day

Zone Conference February 2017

Zone Conference

February 13, 2017

Hello everyone! This was a great week.

On Monday, we had a cool RDV with our potential Mat! We talked about the plan of salvation and temples with him, we taught him with the As! It went really well.

Tuesday, we helped the B family move! It was great, they are the best family in the world. They aren't in our Ward but they really needed the help. We ended the day with dinner with Brother Hen and his wife, Mar. We had tajin, quiche, and lots of good food. Brother Hen hasn't gone to church in a while, but we are becoming good friends with him and hopefully his heart will be softened.

Wednesday, we planned a lot for zone conference and we had dinner with the B family! It was awesome. A few less active members were there and so it was a great chance to see them and strengthen them.

Thursday, we saw Sr. Has and shared a message with her. We then went on a mini exchange with the assistants, I went with Elder Menzel and we had dinner with the Tor family! It went really well.

Friday, we had awesome miracles! We saw a less-active on the metro, got a new Mexican young women potential (who we will be passing to the sisters) and we met our old ami Kev! We stopped by his gym, "the house of gains." He was there with his wife and friends. It was good to catch up with him and hopefully we'll be able to teach him again. He raps for a musical group called Electrophazz. Check them out, I haven't heard their music but they look cool. We also practiced our song that we wrote for zone conference! It is really good.

Saturday, we had studies and went to the bishop's granddaughter's baptism, we got a few new potentials! The Poms are great missionaries. We then had dinner with Sister Meb and Sister Bay and her son, S at Rose Indien! It was really good. S is less-active and it was really good bonding time with him.

Sunday, really fun day! We had church, did our feu de joie hour, where I figured some school stuff out. We planned some more for zone conference, and we had dinner with brother Hon! He showed us how to make banane plantain, an African dish loved by Africans everywhere. We had fried chicken and other delicious things. He loved teaching us how to cook. We sang a song for him and he loved it! We gave him Alma 5 to read and we are coming back in Thursday to follow up.

It was a great week! I love you all!
Elder MacArthur

Brother Hon and Ben

Elder Ramsey, Br Hon, Ben & two friends

P-day at St. Jean

P-day shopping spree

St. Jean and Fourviere!

Baptismal font outside St. Jean

Sunrise from Ben's apartment

2-6-17!

Hey everyone! This last week was great!

Tuesday - We saw an older woman in the Ward, JS. We talked about the Paris temple consecration and she has friends who want to go! We also made pizza with the B family and Sister M's family. The Ms are less active so it was a good thing to be their friends. We had Elder Underwood with us, so it was fun being a trio!

Wednesday - I had an exchange with Elder Smith from Val de Saône. It was lots of fun as always. We went around and used their car to visit less actives that live far away, it was really productive. Our rdv with Fab fell through, his son was in the hospital. Please pray for him! His son will be ok, but it's hard for him to come to church when he wants to be with his son. We did some good contacting around the universities, and shared a message with the H.G. family. We met F, Sr. H's daughter, for the first time. She's a new investigator now. She didn't come to church but we'll see her again soon.

Thursday - District meeting, we talked about how to help our investigators. It went very well. After our RCM, Elder Ramsey felt inspired to go pass a family. They weren't there, but right next to them lives a less active named F.H. We knocked on his door, and he let us in for the first time! We met his wife, and we fixed a RDV for next week to eat with them. She is going to make us a tajin, and we are making them chocolate chip cookies. It was a miracle that we saw them!

Friday - We passed some members, saw M.T. (less active) for the first time in a while. She was really appreciative of the visit. We started planning for zone conference too! We're working on an arrangement of the spirit of God, and we are writing some new lyrics too. It should be pretty good!

Saturday - We cleaned the chapel, because it has been super gross recently. The new year came and nobody knew who was supposed to clean, so nobody did. We then went to go help Sr. H's ex-husband move out. We asked him what we need to do to have a successful marriage and be a good husband (this is after getting to know him and finding that he was open to talking to us). I won't go into detail, but it taught me a lot. When a relationship is built upon [worldly values], if that is not repented of and rooted out, it will ruin the foundation and destroy the marriage. Without fail. It was clear what Mr. G thought his relationship was built upon, and because of that, it didn't last. God intends marriage to last forever, so the foundation needs to last forever as well.

After this, we played ninja with Brother M and his daughters. We shared a thought about the temple, and Brother M committed to go back to the temple in July! His two youngest turn 9 in march, and hopefully he'll be able to baptize them around April or May! It is so cool to see his part member family completed. The day he gets to baptize his daughters will be the happiest day of my life. I am so grateful to have met him!

Sunday - Church, very good. We had a guy named A come afterwards, an hour early to the Val de Saône Ward. So we taught him the retab and went to the Val de Saône sacrament meeting with him. It was their Ward conference, and President Léporé spoke. He is amazing. I took about a whole page of notes. A loved it too! We fixed another RDV with him for next week. We will have to pass him, he lives on the other side of Lyon. Elder Ramsey gave him a card at the Val de Saône baptism we went to a few weeks ago. Super cool miracle! We finished the lyrics for our version of the spirit of God, it's awesome. Great week!

I love all of you, have a great week :)
Elder MacArthur

The dream team!

 

Another church we saw...Jesus gives keys to Peter. I wonder what those two keys symbolize?