Elder MacArthur's Mission to France : 3/13/17!

Hey everyone, this week was a great week!

Monday - We had lunch with the sisters before catching our plane to Lyon for MLC.

Tuesday - MLC, it was very inspiring. We were motivated by President Brown and the zone leaders were rebuked for not baptizing. It was rough, but it was needed. After MLC, we took a plane home, that was very delayed due to strikes in Bordeaux.

Wednesday - Things fell through, so we went to La Teste (by the coast) to pass a less-active family, les Lac. The mother spoke to us, and said she'd come to church. In the evening, we had FHE, and lots of people showed up!

Thursday - We had district meeting, which was focused on increasing our faith. It was very inspiring and I really appreciated the things that Elder Hansen had to say. After district meeting, we had a pasta that made us sick, and it was really sunny and hot and I did not feel good at all. But I fought through it and despite the opposition we had a great day. That day was the hardest I've ever had on my mission, I just felt not good enough and discouraged, but it passed. Even after an inspiring event, we come down to earth so to speak, and it takes all you have to get back up. In the evening, we taught English class and had 2 amis there! It was a great success.

Friday - Weekly planning, RCM, we passed the Mou family in the morning. We asked who we could see in the neighborhood and they just told us that nobody was Christian, or interested. Kinda hard to respond with something after that but we tried a little, and sure enough, they were right. We tried to see Rud but he wasn't home. We called the Cat family to wish M a happy 6th birthday, and they were all super sparcd that we called.

Saturday - Samedi sportif, we played basketball with two Chinese amis, Ning and Ya xin, not sure on the spelling. They were pretty good! We got to give them a tour of the chapel, and they seem to appreciate it. We show them the baptismal font and they were curious, they do not know anything about Jesus Christ. After a few round it was falling through, we went out and passed some people on our ward list. We stumbled across a Tahitian association for Tahitians living in France, they were dancing and singing and it was pretty cool. We contacted a woman named Wen who was crying. We asked her why she was crying, and she told us that she had failed her driving permit test and that she would not be able to work without a license to drive. Getting a drivers license and France is pretty hard, and we felt bad that we couldn't do much for her. But we testified of God's love, and of faith in His Son. She gave us her number so we hope to see her this next week! We ended the day with dinner at the Vem's. They are really cool, they gave us Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Yum.

Sunday - We had church, and the Lac family came! Yay! We went over to T, A, and W's house after church to follow up on their missionary work. They are three RMs who are super good friends, I knew T when I was in Brive, I ate Christmas dinner with him a year and a half ago! It's cool to be in his ward.

If you get a chance, listen to "Healing Water" on the 2017 youth album. I really like this song. If you speak French, listen to it on the French cd when it comes out, en plus I know the girl who sings it! It's a great song that talks about the purification of the spirit when we repent. I love the idea of being as clean as earth right after rain. It's a wonderful song that teaches us correct principles. I know that we can change, thanks to Jesus Christ's atonement. We can become someone better. We can be free of sin, we can bind Satan, we can be clean.

I love you all! Have a great week.
Love, Elder MacArthur