3-28-16!

Hello hello! This week was incredible. Possibly my best week ever.

Events I experienced:
Monday was awesome! Lots of baptismal prep, district meeting prep, and starting an exchange with Perigueux! Really fun. We got to do FHE at the church and I met Mag, a really cool member that I have heard a lot about.

Tuesday was more exchange with Elder Little. We did a lot of tracting, and area book work. He was so excited to be on exchange with me it was cute! Haha he's a great guy who really seeks to improve.

Wednesday was a blitz in Limoges! Elder Quinn was with me for the day. It was so fun! He's the funniest guy ever, and he's a great missionary. 15 transfers under his belt, he's got a lot of good advice and taught me lots of things. We saw K, a Nigerian ami, and a cool Nigerian named Mon! They're awesome. They gave us cake. Mmmm. We invited everyone in Mon's house to listen to our message, and now they have a new amie! Africans are wonderful.

Thursday...district meeting! The only one of the transfer. I was pretty nervous beforehand, but just before I walked in, I said a little prayer and all fear left! It went very well, we discussed Alma 26 at length, the Book of Mormon, converting people by the gospel of Jesus Christ. We painted a shirt! Time to paint. We talked about Elder Christofferson and what he taught us, and about the apostolic blessing he left with us. It was a really uplifting meeting, and I think everyone liked it! I was relieved, it turned out better than I had expected.

Friday! Transfer calls!! I get to stay in Brive and get a 2nd shot at last transfer haha. I'll be able to become a better district leader and a better companion. My thesis is this: if you aren't able to really love someone in one transfer, the Lord gives you another haha. After calls in the morning (which was messed up, President always starts with Bordeaux zone on the west and works over eastward, but he had to call Swiss first due to borders closing, so we were waiting like scared idiots. Lamentable)

I had an exchange with Elder Haskin! It was great. We came back to Brive, and J-L had his interview with President Brown. He passed! P Breezy said he had been "extraordinarily prepared," which was a big SPARC. We taught J-L afterward, then went home, dinner, and went back to the church for a RDV with the O'M family, Fr. and Sr. O'M. We asked them if they wanted to be married in the temple. It went a little something like this:
Me: So have you thought about this? What are your thoughts?
Frere O'M: it is something I would love very much.
Sister O'M: *talks for 20 minutes straight, including every marital complaint she has ever had, every church complaint ever, a third of Ireland's history, one relevant anecdote, two irrelevant ones, and three expressed opinions of what the French are doing wrong* then says "So that's my opinion on that."
Me:.....So, is that a yes, or no? I didn't, uhh, really...umm...get it all, there, ya know.....
And by then we had to go to be home on time. Hilarious.

Saturday! I had an apricot eclair. Incredible. Weekly planning and lessons with Elo and Mil, Nes, and SD. Great day!

Sunday was good too. Did Sunday calls, gave the sacrament to Frere Cal, and ate crêpes. Good day. 10 month mark. Scary...

 Lessons I learned:
I'm staying! That means I have unfinished business. I'm excited to stay and improve on my last transfer. If the Lord ever gives you a second shot at something, that's because you need to improve! Take advantage of second chances.

(free) Advice I have:
"Trust in the Lord" by Elder Scott, April 1989 Gen Conf. Wow! G-Scott lays it down! An inspiring, personal, and powerful talk about being rigid in our resolve to emulate the Savior. Even if we are ostracized because of our beliefs, it doesn't matter. Never has. Never will. Talk to Job, he'll tell you.

Going into transfer #8! Ahhhh I'm getting old. Love you all! Thanks for the support!
Love, Elder MacArthur

Elder Quinn and Mon and CAKE

Quell homme, our zone leader Elder Rellaford 

WE PAINTED A SHIRT WITH THE PARIS TEMPLE

3-21-16!

Hello hello! This week was one of the best weeks of my mission! Maybe the best!!  Events I experienced:

On Monday, we got up, did some groceries, studied, and got on a train to go to Bordeaux. Met up with the Lormont Zone and flew over to Lyon! Lots of people went to Master Tacos so I tagged along, although I was fasting. That was hard. Master Tacos is amazing. Oh well. Next time. We got back to the office elders' apartment, where we roomed with the Lormont and Toulouse zones, 40-ish elders in all I think. Fun! I got to see a lot of old friends, old companions, it was great.

Tuesday...it's the one and only T-O-double D, DTODD!! It was an amazing conference, he spoke many things that are too marvelous to be written. More like my memory is as reliable as Bill Buckner's glove. A Red Sox allusion to the baseball fans out there. I did take notes though:

Elder Dyches:  The central purpose of life is change -strength and struggle are traveling companions -our mission will clarify who we are and refine who we will yet be -we see the full picture as we become changed missionaries

Sister Christofferson:  The devil is really mad at us, so we've done something right -they who are with us are more than those against us

Elder D. Todd Christofferson:  "What can I say if they have read all my talks? I'll have to re-read them myself!" He's seriously so funny you have no idea -write down spiritual insights -we are assigned to a mission partly because of the president and his wife -we help lead them in the path of repentance -true repentance includes a baptism, the commitment of obedience "30 seconds before death" is the best time to be baptized (a funny joke) -nobody says they wished they had found the church later -the best time to be baptized is now, as early as possible -virtue is the truth that Jesus is our Savior, that will help them change -the key to solving unbelievers is reading the Book of Mormon -you don't have any hope of them listening to your arguments, but if they read the book or Mormon, the Lord will argue with them -we don't need a separate missionary life, our normal life should be our missionary life -with out a dependable law, neither us nor God could cause anything, just "random chaos" -we offer justice to people, through repentance and mercy and grace, fallen men can rise up to be with Christ, entrance into the kingdom of God -we carry the kingdom of God in our hands -grâce takes away the sin and the stain, leaving us sinless and spotless, whole and holy -we can't always sustain success, so when we fall... -be quick to repent -be able to recognize the Lords's voice, His spirit, what he's telling you -that's our test, hear it and follow it -thank the Lord for your ability to follow his voice, and pray for an increased capacity to follow -this is all real, Jesus is the Christ, the resurrected Christ, and that makes all the difference.

It was an incredible conference, he did a Q&A like he did when I saw him at the MTC. Very instructive, very easy going. When I got to shake his hand, I had no idea what to say. He said "Elder MacArthur, it's good to shake your hand." And I probably said something dumb like "you too" I don't remember. All I remember is that I was too scared to compliment him on his tie (and he'd say I like yours too and I'd offer to trade and then I'd get Elder Christofferson's tie and I'd instantly win life). Haha it was awesome. Afterwards, we broke our fast and I got to catch up with everybody! It was super fun. Afterwards, we took a plane back to Bordeaux and stayed in the zone leaders' apartment.

Wednesday, I woke up and went back to Brive on exchange with elder Kimble! He replaced me in Carcassonne, and I replaced him in Brive. I love him! We had some great things happen. We were accosted by a man who claimed to be Jesus. He told us to find a hill (any hill) and wait there because the earth would be flooded. He had no idea who Thomas S. Monson was so we're safe. Yeah he was interesting.

Thursday was great, we got to teach S and J-L. Both lessons went really well. P, S's boyfriend, keeps hiding when we come over, we'll need to fix that. But how...interesting. We taught J-L at the All's house. We had lasagna afterwards, it was heavenly.

Friday was good! We saw Nes, who is struggling a little bit, but he's coming to church on Sunday so that's good news. We also ate dinner with Frere Lab, who cooks really well and critiques even better. He's interesting. He loves the missionaries! I ate a hot pepper and it kinda spoiled the meal for 20 minutes but I regained my taste eventually.

Saturday was good! We helped the Hubs get wood, Elo went with us too. We got done so early that we were able to take a 30 minute walk/hike in the woods, and it was beautiful! I really enjoyed that. It's getting warm in Brive, it feels almost like summer. We saw S again too! Our two other RDVs fell through, but that's ok. We realized that J-L's baptism needs to be this Saturday, and we know he's ready! He just needs to realize it also. Pray that things go well, please!

Sunday was incredible as well! An old ami of a member came to church and wants to get baptized! We got a referral from HQ, we went out to deliver a BoM and find a family of 7! They want to get baptized too! Incredible miracles! We have 3 exchanges his next week but we'll do our best to see them.

Lessons I learned:
See Tuesday. I can't fit it all in there, sorry...but I will say this. Faith+obedience+diligence=miracles.

(free) Advice I have:
Read Alma 26. I think everybody in the world should read this chapter frequently, once every few months at least. One of the best chapters in the Book of Mormon.

Ahh I could only write a fraction, not even a hundredth part of the things that were written, for it suficeth me. Love you all!
Elder MacArthur

Ben & Elder Richmond after the conference in Lyon

Ben and Elsers Thangaraj, Steadman, Kahn & Bentley in Lyon

Ben and the BIG croissant

Ben re-unites with his transfer 109 group at the Lyon conference

3-14-16!!!

Hello hello!!! In less than 24 hours I'll be personally meeting Elder Christofferson. I'm stoked for that!! But first, the week...

Events I experienced:
Monday was great!

Tuesday was good too. We had dinner with the bishop. He's a huge Star Wars nerd and loves Legos. He has more Legos than anyone I've ever seen. It's pretty cool. We got them to make a family mission plan!

Wednesday was good. It hailed and rained, so that stunk. We taught Sam D., and did some tracting. Everything else fell through. We even tried to volunteer at the Red Cross, but they said they didn't need us. So we can't even get a job volunteering. Ouch.

Thursday was great, I went on exchange with Elder Richmond, one of my zone leaders. We got to talk to a lot of people and we saw P so that was awesome. P is a hilarious less-active member. I love Elder Richmond! I replaced him in Carcassonne, so we got to share Elder Garside stories. And, back in Brive, Elder Rellaford and Storti invited San to be baptized...and she said YES to April 16th! Such a cool miracle. Yes!!!!

Friday was good! Very busy. We got to have a lesson with Elo, Nes, and Mau. They all went well, Mau is not super open still but he's reading the Book of Mormon and giving it a chance, so that's cool. We'll see where that goes. We also met a new potential who has met with us before, we got her number so hopefully we'll see her soon. We had a lesson with Had too, we found him a few weeks ago. He started talking about how he is the rightful prince of Arabia. Yeah so it got very obvious very quickly that he's "interesting." Nice bloke, but...

Saturday was great, we had a good lesson and delicious lunch with J-L.

Sunday was good too, we found a new potential amie and fixed a RDV with a less active, so very productive! Our zone has 17 new engagés this week (investigators with a baptismal date). Our district has 16 total. Like Daniel's vision, the stone is rolling! Our engagé prayer list quadrupled in the past couple months! Up,to 4 pages! It's nuts. At last count, we were at 177 new engagés as a mission in the last month. Our goal was 187, the last numbers aren't all in, but we totally got it, no doubt!

Lessons I learned:
3 Néphi 8:7 in French: "7 Et il y eut des éclairs extrêmement vifs, comme on n’en avait jamais connu dans tout le pays." Haha it's perfect because it talks about the Brive eclairs!

Alma 16:16,17 describes France, really the whole earth right now: "And there was no inequality among them; the Lord did pour out his Spirit on all the face of the land to prepare the minds of the children of men, or to prepare their hearts to receive the word which should be taught among them at the time of his coming-That they might not be hardened against the word, that they might not be unbelieving, and go on to destruction, but that they might receive the word with joy, and as a branch be grafted into the true vine, that they might enter into the rest of the Lord their God." Our mission has been prepared by Jesus Christ for the coming of one of His Apostles. Of that I am one hundred percent sure.

(free) Advice I have:
"The Divine Gift of Repentance" by Elder Christofferson, October 2011 Gen Conf. An excellent talk for everyone, since we should all make repenting our business. Elder Christofferson wisdom right here: "In reality, the best way to help those we love--the best way to love them--is to continue to put the Savior first. If we cast ourselves adrift from the Lord out of sympathy for loved ones who are suffering or distressed, then we lose the means by which we might have helped them. If, however, we remain firmly rooted in faith in Christ, we are in a position both to receive and to offer divine help."

I love you all! I'm off to see an apostle, a wonderful servant of God (sing that to "off to see the wizard" tune). Ciao ciao :)

Love, Elder MacArthur

Brive countryside

Elder Richmond, Ben and eclairs!

Ben, Elder Storti, and an enormous chocolate bunny.

3-7-16!

Hello hello every person who reads this. Only a week left before we see Elder Christofferson! Here's what happened in my neck of the woods, channeling my inner Al Roker.

Events I experienced:
Monday was great! Got a bad haircut, at least it was cheap. That's about it.

Tuesday was better. We visited a less-active, and we saw our new ami Mau. He's very skeptical and very Catholic, but he'll read the Book of Mormon so that'll change his mind. We also got tracted...by Jehovah's Witnesses! They didn't stick around for too long after discovering who we were. They were very nice and respectful, which isn't always the case. Then we headed up to Perigueux for an exchange!

Wednesday, I was with Elder Underwood (ancien sous-bois) and it was great! We got to teach their family of 6, and four of them are getting baptized in April! The G family is really cool. After that, we ported in the rain! It was a little miserable but anything with ancien sous-bois is fun. We got back and ate tacos (French tacos are American, ok Mexican, burritos) with Elders Little and Storti.

Thursday, I had an exchange with Elder Thangaraj! We were in Brive. It was super fun! He's a really cool guy, loves sports, soccer, we have a lot of the same interests actually. Comes from Sri Lanka, well his dad does at least. We had dinner with members at the end of the day so that was cool!

Friday was pretty good, we got to talk to Frere O'M at the end of the day about some of his non-member kids, that was instructive and helpful.

Saturday was great! We got to have Skype interviews with President Brown. He just asked me what I wanted to talk about, and I asked him to tell me a story! He told me about the first baptisms in Brive, and even had a 40-year-old picture to show me! It was really cool. I told him the apostate ex-branch president lived right next to us (literally, right next door) and his eyes lit up and he started taking notes. So I hope he comes to visit Brive soon haha! He'll at least come for the new chapel dedication in September. He used to be the Montpellier branch president back when it first opened, and he went back a week ago for Aur's baptism (who I have taught 3 times!) so that was a cool experience, he was really touched to see the ward doing so well. He also asked me about my driver's license, so that freaked me out. It was a great interview!

Sunday was good, we taught J-L after church, and we had 5 Amis at church: Sr. Coj, J-L, San, her boyfriend P, and Sh O'M. It was packed for the second hour! We went to give the sacrament to Frere Cal, and they fed us crêpes and cookies afterwards so it was a win. We engaged them to make a family mission plan!

Lessons I learned:
I learned stuff I promise. I just didn't write anything down...well here's something. We can learn just as much from great examples as bad ones. I got to see lots of different missionaries of different capacities this week and I learned that I can learn just as much from the best missionary as the worst missionary. It sounds weird, but it's true. When I was young and had comps that I idolized, they taught me how to be a missionary, I thought they taught me everything. But during rough times, I have learned patience, long-suffering, meekness, charity, and lots of other things. It's a different kind of learning, but it's equally as important. Without adversity, I would become a lopsided missionary. It takes good and bad, opposition in short, to make us whole.

(free) Advice I have:
"When Thou Art Converted" by Elder Christofferson, April 2004 Gen Conf. This talk is all about being converted to the gospel, going beyond just having a testimony. It's a fabulous talk that I recommend.

"The Light of Hope" by Sister Dwan Young, October 1986 Gen Conf. One of the best talks I have ever read by anyone. I'll be darned if this isn't one of the best talks ever. I am studying hope from PMG chapter 6, and this is a must-read for anyone studying hope! It clearly defines hope, and sister Young speaks fluently and eloquently about how we can have hope and what it allows us to become.

It was a great week. Thanks for your interest and your prayers and your love. I love you all! Until next time. Ciao ciao.
Love, Elder MacArthur

The zone, getting hyped for Elder Christofferson...I'm proud of my work!

Angouleme gare, with old Comic Con ads!

President Brown's photo of the first Brive baptism!  (Shown to Ben during his Skype interview.)

2-29-16

Happy leap day! How does one celebrate leap day? I don't know. Ok moving on

Events I experienced:
Monday was a super p-day. I got 6 Devred ties for 30 euros. Excellence. We taught J-L at Frère Vil's FHE! It went very well. We talked about obedience, scriptures and prayer. We taught him how to receive personal revelation. A good day!

Tuesday was cool, we got to see J-L again. We taught him the 10 commandments. Pretty simple, we focused on repentance and helping see that he can be forgiven of his past sins. I found out from Nes that his sister passed away last week, that's why he's been depressed. Please pray for Nes, that he'll be able to keep hope during his trials. After planning and some porting, we saw the Cojs! We had dinner, and Frère Vil did his home teaching visit. Then we took a little time to talk about baptism with Sister Coj (non-member wife of Frère Coj) and about how goals help us succeed. So, we set a date for September 24th, when she can be baptized with her daughter in the new Brive chapel! Frère Coj was super excited, sister Coj too. Okay they were all excited haha! Super cool victory there.

Wednesday was good! We got 4 new potentials today, an incredible miracle! One of the potentials said he wanted to meet with us to talk about the bible. I'm excited! He didn't sound like a basher, we'll see. We passed an old ami who owns a jewelry store, and we had a great discussion in his shop. He says he's too busy but it was neat to hear that he still thinks about us and remembers the members too. We passed another old ami from years ago and he promised to read the Book of Mormon and pray seriously with real intent! I'm not sure he really wants to change, but we'll see. Maybe the book will help him change his mind. We saw Elo as well, we taught her tithing and fast offerings. No problems there. She left our rendezvous to go be home taught, she's been integrated very well, it's such a blessing!

Thursday was good, we got to see 3 member families! We engaged the Dre family to make a family mission plan. We visited with Soeur Fa to see how she was doing with her goal to quit smoking. We taught S Den about the 10 commandments. It was a great day. And we made apple crumble for all of them. They loved it! Frère Hub also came and helped us transport old bikes to the dump. I'm not sure if I want to own a trailer when I'm older, I feel like I'd become everyone's servant/friend-only-when-they-need-help-moving-something.

Friday was INCREDIBLE! We had zone training in Bordeaux. We came up with a zone game plan to get ready for Elder Christofferson to come to our mission. (I just found out we'll be flying there, from BDX to Lyon, with 2 zones in one apartment the night before-30 elders hahaha). We are working on preparation, unity, and faith-faith to find. We have a challenge to engage 187 amis to baptism before the conference in 18 days. We have 30 days to do it, 18 days left. If we have faith we can do it, for Christ will strengthen us (Philippians 4:13). It was one of the best conferences I've ever had. Coming back to Brive, I went on exchange with Elder Rellaford, and it was a blast!

Saturday, our exchange. We had a ward missionary activity, we contacted and ported around Tulle. We found a new ami, his name is Fr, he now has a Book of Mormon and we're seeing him in a month. I hope that rendezvous sticks. We came back, switched companions, and went to help out Frère Vil clean his warehouse. It was very fun! We went back for the rest of studies, dinner, and weekly planning. During the 17 days left before Elder Christofferson, the district leaders are calling everyone in their districts every day to see how they're doing with the challenge. I'm glad Pangouliviers is so solid, we all have the faith to make it happen!

Sunday was great! We got to teach J-L the word of wisdom, it went well! He said he'll stop drinking wine and coffee. And an old amie, San, came to church! She is going through a lot right now, but she said God told her to go back to church! We're seeing her on Thursday, we hope to get her back on track for baptism!

Lessons I learned:
Ether 12:9 says "Wherefore, ye may also have hope, and be partakers of the gift, if ye will but have faith." This is why faith is so important!

PMG page 159 says "Avoid the tendency to say things such as, 'Do you have a few minutes that we could teach you a message about …' Rather, develop the habit of immediately beginning to teach and testify as you meet people. You will find more people to teach as you testify and allow them to feel the power of the Holy Ghost." Having the faith to teach on the spot has helped me a lot his week. A man once said: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, God’s work in your life is bigger than the story you’d like that life to tell. His life is bigger than your plans, goals, or fears. To save your life, you’ll have to lay down your stories and, minute by minute, day by day, give your life back to him.”

The Lyon stake president was invited to an event at Salt Lake City because the Lyon stake has the highest retention rate for convert baptisms in all of Europe! What did the president give as a reason? "Their ancestors helped them before baptism, and now they are going to the temple to help their ancestors in return." Now the church missionary committee is instructing for missionaries across the world to talk about temples, something we have already been doing since President Brown got here. This is not to brag or self-congratulate. I'm just grateful the Lord blessed President Brown to know how to be one step ahead of the game, ahead of Satan! This is proof to me that our mission president is inspired.

(free) Advice I have:
"Why Marriage, Why Family" by Elder Christofferson, April 2015 Gen conf. This talk is awesome! Very applicable for our day. In preparation for our conference with Elder Christofferson, we are reading one of his talks each week.

"He Loved Them unto the End," by Elder Holland, October 1989 Gen Conf. An excellent talk about how Jesus the Christ loves us-always. A quote about he Atonement: " The Light of the World stepped away from human company and entered the garden grove to wrestle with the prince of darkness alone. Moving forward, kneeling, falling forward on his face, he cried with an anguish you and I will never know, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” (Matt. 26:39.) But he knew, for our sakes, that it could not pass and that he must drink that bitter cup to the dregs!..His disciples, understandably, were weary and soon fell asleep. What of Christ’s sleep? What of his fatigue? What rest or slumber will sustain him through such an agonizing ordeal? That is simply not his concern here, nor does it ever seem to be. He will endure. He will triumph. He will not falter nor fail us."
What more can I say? That quote says it all.

Thanks everyone! I love you all! Have faith and don't ever give up, we aren't latter-day quitters, after all.
Love, Elder MacArthur

Former Carcassonne Elders - Unidentified, Ben, Elder Richmond and Elder Stutz

Bordeaux Zone

Upper Brive-La-Gaillard

2-22-16!

Hello hello everyone! I had a great week! A great start to this transfer!! Here's the poop. And yes I am using that word correctly.

Events I experienced:
Monday, I hung out with the Bordeaux zone leaders after we dropped off Elder Brill. We went to HFC (Haddurh Fried Chicken) and stuffed ourselves for 6 euros. Then we went to do emails, and left to see Avenue St. Katrine, the longest continuous street of shopping in Europe! We were gonna get some sweet ties but then the office called me and told me that my comp had missed his train in Neuchatel, so I left Bordeaux 30 minutes later, instead of Tuesday morning. I took a 4 hour train to Montpellier alone. It was kind of weird haha, I just read the missionary handbook and read the Book of Mormon, couldn't use my iPad. I got into the gare at 7 o'clock, picked up by Elder Storti and Elder Whiting, one of the Mont zone leaders! He's a good friend. I also saw Elder Spencer again, my old zone leader! He's from Oregon so that makes him super cool I think. Actually, I know many idiots from Oregon. Whatever, he's awesome. I got to do dishes in the Mont apartment!! It was so fun for some reason, reminded me of the old days. Simple service is my favorite. I'm hoping my parents don't read this paragraph and make me do all the dishes when I get home haha. After, we had dinner and went to bed.

Tuesday was low-key. A 10 AM to 2:30 PM train from Mont to Bordeaux. Met the zone leaders in the gare, got my sack (with my razor-I had a mini-beard at this point), on s'est kebabé. Verb we made up: se kebaber. If you know French/kebabs/both you're laughing right now. Then we took a 4 to
7 PM train to Brive. Yuck. But we found this really awesome potential amie named El!! She's about our age, might like us haha but hey! She has a BoM and our number, we have hers, and we'll probably see her again. She asked a lot of existential/philosophical questions, but some good ones too. All the time I was thinking like Darth Vader, "search your feelings! You know it to be true!" It was a miracle that we met her, our train plans got cancelled TWICE before then. Super awesome!! The Lord always puts miracles in our path, it's just up to us to discover them.

Wednesday was good. We saw Élo and SD, two recent converts. They both went well! Elder Storti is a great teacher, I like teaching with him. We did a lot of contacting, invited people to our ward activity on Saturday. We finished up p-day, getting groceries and cleaning. Pretty low-key day but a good one! We got to talk to 14 people so that was a win.

Thursday was good, we had dinner with mama Brig. We also got to see Ro (with Nes), an amie we were teaching a little while back. She has been sick so we have not seen her lately. We addressed some of her concerns, and we talked about baptism. She knows everything, she just needs to act. I hope she gets over her problems, she's incredible!

Friday was pretty sweet. We got to do service with the Hubs, engaged them to do a family mission plan, ate delicious food there too. I ate green beans and liked them! WHAT. They had a lot of vinaigrette to be fair, but still. On the way back from the mountains, my window was the only foggy one. Some things never change. Then we ported a street Frère Hub suggested. Nothing so far but we'll see. Then nobody came to English class (no surprise there) so I ordered about 35 train tickets for my 6 exchanges with the district, plus district meetings. I had to pick the cities for district meetings and exchanges, complicated. It took more than an hour to plan it all out and fill out the form. Having a car would be nice haha. Then we came home and Elder Storti made me an apple crumble for my birthday! It was great. And I opened my presents from parents! They gave me socks, a sweet tie, and a photo album with pictures of my family! That made me really happy.

Saturday was super solid. We took a bus to Objat, where J-L picked us up and took us to his house in Voutezac. We had a delicious lunch, and a great lesson! He even gave us flowers. I've never received flowers from anyone, I think. From another man, too. It's kind of weird but hey whatever it takes! We made good progress together today. He feels like he can't be forgiven for his sins, he feels like he's not worthy to be baptized. He totally is, but he still doesn't see it. I think with time he'll start to feel capable of being forgiven. We have about 10 lessons left with him before baptism, and we're getting pretty dang excited! His baptism will probably be on March 12 or 19. Please pray for him that he'll develop the faith to believe in forgiveness. After that, he dropped us off chez nous and we went to the church for our "Meet the Mormons" activity! Out of the hundred-ish people we invited, nobody came. But it was still fun, we got to check up on members and fix some things. We also got to teach Nes about tithing right before, it went really well. He's super solid.

Sunday was great! We had church, then the ward meal, and then we drove 5 hours round trip to visit Frère Chal, who lives in a beautiful town called Peyrelevade. We brought him the sacrament and read scriptures with him. He's alone in a care facility so he loved seeing us. That was about it for the day!

Lessons I learned:
Mosiah 8:18 is one of my new favorite scriptures. We learn that "...God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings." How wonderful is that! If we think about it, we're all just here together, trying to help each other back home to Heaven.

Many people have different ideas of what a "successful" mission is. Preach My Gospel gives a definition on pages 10 and 11 (in French, at least). It says: "Feel the Spirit testify to people through you. Love people and desire their salvation. Obey with exactness. Live so that you can receive and know how to follow the Spirit, who will show you where to go, what to do, and what to say. Develop Christlike attributes. Work effectively every day, do your very best to bring souls to Christ, and seek earnestly to learn and improve. Help build up the Church (the ward) wherever you are assigned to work. Warn people of the consequences of sin. Invite them to make and keep commitments. Teach and serve other missionaries. Go about doing good and serving people at every opportunity, whether or not they accept your message. When you have done your very best, you may still experience disappointments, but you will not be disappointed in yourself." Exactly. It also says that "Your success as a missionary is measured primarily by your commitment to find, teach, baptize, and confirm people and to help them become faithful members of the Church who enjoy the presence of the Holy Ghost." These are the true indicators of success. These are things we control.  This is possible for every missionary, regardless of where they are. It all comes down to our desires and our actions on said desires.

(free) Advice I have:
"Endure it Well" by Elder Maxwell, April 1990 GenConf. Elder Maxwell talks about enduring to the end, and I love his logic here. He instructs: "In any case, brothers and sisters, how could there be refining fires without enduring some heat? Or greater patience without enduring some instructive waiting? Or more empathy without bearing one another’s burdens--not only that others’ burdens may be lightened, but that we may be enlightened through greater empathy? How can there be later magnification without enduring some present deprivation?" He continues: "The enlarging of the soul requires not only some remodeling, but some excavating. Hypocrisy, guile, and other embedded traits do not go gladly or easily, but if we “endure it well” (D&C 121:8), we will not grow testy while being tested." Patience is something I'm improving at. This week has been a heavy one, and I've really felt the Lord's help in becoming more patient. The heat we feel now will certainly help us endure future fires with more faith in our hearts and bigger smiles on our faces.

Thanks so much for your support! I love the mission, and I hope you all know that.
Love, Elder MacArthur

Elder Storti and Ben

Brive area including where Ben and Elder Storti traveled this week

Ben and Elder Storti in their beautiful apartment

2-15-16!!

Bonjour everyone! I'll get right to it, I wrote a lot so either quit now or get reading :)

Events I experienced:
Monday was great! No p-day, we had too many rendezvous haha. One in particular: we saw our new amie Tr again! We found (ok elder Brill found her 2 transfers ago) her by bus contacting which is super cool. She talked about how she got scared to come to church, and I totally realized how President Brown warned us to expect opposition. As our mission makes a push to find, teach and baptize families (Tr with her kids) Satan will up the opposition against us, because he knows what's at stake. What happened right after the first rendezvous? BAM. OPPOSITION. But luckily we were prepared and we saw her a second time. We explained the retab a little more and engaged her to read the BoM. Then we emailed and had FHE at Frère Vil's house.

Tuesday was amazing as well! We had a double lesson with Mil and Élo, we taught them (mostly Elo) some commandments from lesson 4. As we said the closing prayer, a guy from the mediatheque told us that it's illegal to pray in public in France. So we just said a Roney prayer haha, nothing he can do about it! We felt like the people in the Book of Mormon who prayed in their hearts because they were told they couldn't pray out loud. (Roney prayer: our old mission president found out a way to avoid the stupid no-praying rule: just pray with your eyes open, and it looks like you're just talking. Simple yet effective.) We checked with our district leader and we can't teach there anymore, because it's on public property, so that stinks. It was a really convenient, open area but I guess we need to follow the law.

After that, we met with Soeur Con and her daughter Tan. They treated us to a Chinese buffet. Awesome. Soeur Con is an interesting less-active member who does not like Brive. She tells lots of humorous stories and is very cynical and pretty funny. She thinks she's funnier than she really is but whatever. I get free Chinese food and we got to give her two Books of Mormon and invite her to church and teach her daughter a little and invite her to a ward activity. So that's a win. The only weird thing was, it kinda felt like a group date because there were two males, two females, Tan is 18, we walked together from the restaurant to the gare, etc. But none of them were flirty thank goodness.

Then after that, we went to Tulle! One of our lessons fell through but the other didn't. It was with R, a Unitarian preacher. We found him in the area book. Guess what he likes to do? Study religions. Guess what he has? A Book of Mormon. Guess how many? Two. Guess why? He got one from us, and another from...guess where? The RLDS church!!!! I was dumbfounded. I looked through it and there are a few subtle differences. I could not believe he got a copy-cat copy of the Book of Mormon. Incredible. Anyways, nice guy, but in the end, unwilling to read the BoM and pray about it. He loves the book, loves the scriptures in it, agrees that it might be true, that it is fascinating, called it an "American Classic of literature" so he's a fan. Just not searching for the truth I guess. He even asked if one could "hypothetically" (how all great questions commence) believe the BoM to be true but not join the Church. I almost laughed a little, but I explained the flow chart: BoM is true---->Joseph Smith is a true prophet---->Thomas S. Monson is also a true prophet---->Our church is the only true and living church on Earth. But alas, to no avail. Maybe the seeds we planted will come to fruition eventually.

Wednesday was great too! We helped Frère Hub get wood from the mountains to heat his house. We walked along this stone pathway/trail that was blazed by the Romans! It was pretty cool. Soeur Hub made us tartiflette, always delicious. Then we taught Mil with Frère Hub. We helped explain the temple a little more and she finally agreed to prepare to do baptisms for the dead! After that, we had a lesson with our engagé J-L. He's so awesome I love him. We taught the plan of salvation, it went pretty well. He's still got a lot of doctrinal flotsam and jetsam in his noggin but he's getting there. His desire is impeccable so it's not a problem. We explained the Godhead again, the three degrees of glory, the spirit world (that was hard) and other stuff. He's reading in the Book of Mormon so that's key.

Thursday was awesome!! Seriously one of the best days ever. We got to Limoges pretty late for district meeting, our train was 2,5 hours late. As my former comp Elder Hansen said, TER (the train acronym) means turd "en retard" (meaning late). So we got there, had lunch, and district meeting. Then we had a big finding day in Limoges, I went on a mini exchange w/ Elder Tew. We found a cool couple who had a wayward daughter, and we were invited inside and had a great plan of salvation lesson with them and gave them a Book of Mormon. We got their contact info so hopefully the Limoges Elders can suivi them soon! Elder Brill made us pizza and an apple pie to celebrate Elder Rellaford's birthday. We all slept over which was super fun.

Friday morning: TRANSFER CALLS! The Elder I replaced in Carcassonne, Elder Richmond, is our new zone leader along with Elder Rellaford!! I love Elder Richmond so much, I'm stoked. Some other cool things going on too. Elder Huntsman (John Huntsman's nephew) is the new assistant with Elder Haws (Tyler Haws' little brother) so that surprised nobody. Elder Brill is leaving for Besancon, replacing Elder Richmond. I will receive Elder Storti, a European going into his 4th transfer I think. I'll also be the Pangouliviers district leader which came out of nowhere. I'm a little freaked out and magnificently under-qualified but it'll be fine. Additional awesome news we got: Elder Christofferson is coming to Lyon on the Ides of March, actually. So we'll have another mission-wide conference to see him! That'll be awesome. And now, Switzerland is open to Americans! So I could end up serving in Switzerland eventually. That's pretty cool. Swiss zones (Geneva and Lausanne, maybe they'll re-open Yverdonne) are much cleaner and people are friendlier, not as much crime, etc. We got home and packed, did planning, saw Frère Vil and said goodbye. Elder Brill is still sick so we are still taking it a little easy, c'est à dire, I called a million people as he slept.

Saturday was pretty fun. We saw Nes and afterwards, we saw Tr. We helped Tr put together some shelves, invited her to church again. We also went and got some caulk for our bathtub that might have water damage now. But we fixed the problem so it's Hakunamatata. Then Elder Brill packed, I did a plan for the next week with Elder Storti, called many people, re-fixed rendezvous, got us a ride to church. We still had p-day time from Monday when we got no p-day so I wrote a few letters and we finished caulking the bathtub and we washed dishes.

Sunday, we went to church, then saw Tr, then went on a train and got into Bordeaux. We chilled with the zone leaders in their apartment, that's about it.

Lessons I learned:
Recently I've been thinking about opposition, how necessary and aggravating it is, all at the same time. But isn't that what we came down here for? Si! This life is full of opposition, but God gives us everything we need to be happy. Patience too. What happened when I started earnestly learning patience? Opposition. Mosiah 2 is great for people who wish to humble themselves and become more patient. I love how candidly king Benjamin lays it out for his people: we are all unprofitable servants, we are nothing. But as we accept that, and join forces with God, through our weakness as Paul puts it, "then [are we] strong." Moisah 4:11,12 contains one of the best promises found in the scriptures. King Benjamin promises the people that if they "retain in remembrance" their Heavenly Father, and stay humble, they will "always rejoice," and be "filled with the love of God." He also promises them remission of sins and increasing knowledge of Him who created us. How important it is, then, for us to be humble. If Christ never complained and always submitted to his father, being perfect, how much more do we need to humble ourselves and follow His every commandment!

(free) Advice I have:
"Mormon Should Mean 'More Good,'" by President Hinckley, October 1990 Gen Conf. President Hinckley's theme is that our nickname of "Mormon" should mean, for us and for others, "more good." Being Latter-day Saints, we should always strive to do more good, to be a little better, to be an example of the Savior in all we do.

"Days Never to be Forgotten," by President Monson, October 1990 Gen Conf. Basically, a bunch of really cool stories from the life of President Monson. I love his stories! If we have the faith to find opportunities for missionary work, faith to keep covenants, faith to follow God's commandments, we will be helped along the way. Our lives will cease to be our own, and this we will find our true self. It will be easier, because there will be so much more of us to find!

I love you all! Thanks for your love.
Love, Elder MacArthur

Elder Tew and me on mini-exchange :)

Pangouliviers District meeting!

Woodworkers