The Atonement

Hey fam, this week was pretty uneventful but a good one. We spent a good portion of the week going through the area book and following up with former investigators with uncontacted follow up dates, as well as a fair bit of tracting. Also Elder Windmiller was sick all day Sunday with a fever of 103. Thursday was definitely the highlight of the week. We had another lesson with Brittany about the role of the Holy Ghost, and the ability he has to comfort us, we also talked about just feeling the spirit v. having the gift of the Holy Ghost, which led us right into the topic of baptism and I invited her to be baptized and she accepted  So tonight were going back over to teach the Plan of Salvation and set a date for her, hopefully in the last week of this transfer. She's the only really promising investigator for right now but were working on  it. 
We have the opportunity this Friday to go to the temple before it closes, ( normally we would get to go at the end of our missions, but since its closing for 2-3 years ish...) 100 days ago President Smith challenged us to set some goals for ourselves as well as we had some mission goals, with the main goal of each to strenghten our conversion to Christ. Some of our mission goals were to memorize the Living Christ, which I have done, and read the book, "The Infinite Atonement" by Tad R. Callister, which I am going to finish this week. This book has deepened my understanding of the atonement more than anything else which I've read or done in my life, this book is AWESOME, it has strengthened my conversion to not just the Gospel but to Jesus Christ and has made me so much more appreciative of my Savior and so much more humble in reverence to this great act. None of us can fully comprehend the scope and magnitude of what Jesus has truly done for us, its incredible, I challenge everyone to read it, especially if you haven't already. 
As well as our study of the Atonement, via "The Infinite Atonement", I set a personal goal to read the four gospels before the temple, which I have also done and am now almost done with Acts. The New Testament is incredible, I have gained a much deeper appreciation for the scriptures on my mission, something that I never thought I would be excited about but I LOVE the New Testament. Along with The Infinite Atonement, the Living Christ and the four gospels I have absolutely become more converted and strengthened my faith in Jesus Christ. 

John 6: Jesus declares that he is the Bread of Life, and certain of the disciples and pharisees think it to be "an hard saying"  and walk away, then comes this bit of dialogue that I love

 67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.

Truly Jesus does have the words of eternal life, so I also challenge everyone to begin a study of the New Testament and seek these "words of eternal life" 

Love, Elder McArthur

Jackson my buddy from a member family 

District meeting

Elder Windmiller sick

First Transfer

Well my first transfer, it's bitter sweet, I'm going to miss Charlottesville a ton but who knows? Maybe I'll end up there for med school one day? C-Ville is the best I'm gonna miss the ward but its nice to have a change and some fresh scenery. I was transferred to White Oak ward, in the Stafford Zone, I currently live in Fredericksburg VA. Its about as close to D.C. that I can get in my mission. Theres only one ward thats higher, in terms of northness\ closeness to D.C. and they are cut off by Quantico marine base.  

Everyone here either works in D.C. or works on Quantico and they all commute, so tracting during the day is a bust haha..... But the area is suburbia, houses upon houses upon houses as far as you can see, my nightmare, growing up with the wild desert and mountains in my backyard. But its a nice place, very middle class. 

My companion is Elder Windmiller, he's from Idaho Falls, and he loves cars and trucks and ford and everything I do so we get along just fine haha. 

But I no longer have roomates anymore which is lonely, I miss that for sure. And I'm no longer on Bike! We have a car now and its glorious not chasing down busses and peddling up hills. 

On thursday we had a really awesome experience, a member, texted us and told us their downstairs renter (a nonmember) really needed a blessing, so we went over and had the opportunity to explain all about the priesthood and faith, and after the blessing we taught the restoration and it was really powerfull she was in tears the whole time, and she now wants to meet with us, so were going to see her again next week, her name is Brittany. 

Thats about it for this week.  my new address is 

801 Excaliber Circle apt. 202

Fredericksburg, VA 22406

My new comp Elder Windmiller 

My desk

Some Success

Hello everyone, well tomorrow is transfers, it was supposed to be Wednesday but now it's tomorrow because there is apparently a storm, suprise. But yeah I'm getting transfered out of Charlottesville, it's bitter sweet because for the first 4 months nothing was happening as far as missionary work goes, but just in the last month we put 2 people on date and have a bunch of new investigators, but I guess my time is up.  

This last week was pretty good, we had an apointment every day so that was pretty sweet, less tracting than usual. It wasn't quite as cold this week, until yesterday when it was freezing again, and of course the bus system doesn't run on Sunday and my bike broke :) things are just great. Lots of walking yesterday....... my scarf froze to my face haha. But both of our investigators on date are named Gregory which is kinda funny. One is scheduled for Jan. 27th and the other for Feb. 3, so hopefully they both pull through, and hopefully I will be able to come back and see them get baptized. We taught a really nice young family this week, the husband is interested and we taught the restoration.  He had a ton of questions which is always welcomed. Another family we taught is  a guy named Matt and his wife Molly. Matt is a less active and his wife is a non member but he wants us to teach her and hopefully in the process he'll become re activated and she gets baptized, but he's really cool he just graduated class of 2017 from West Point, shoutout to Hunter. Awesome guy. 

Other than that not much else happend this week, just doing missionary stuff like usual.

Thanks for all the love,  I'll let everyone know my new address as soon as possible if you feel so inclined to send mail. 

Love you all, Elder McArthur 

District Meeting ft. the zone leaders

Me catching some sick air, lol, (unrelated to my bike breaking)

Tis Cold!

Well another week has come and gone in the FREEZING cold. It has been sooo cold. I do not recomend biking in it, however, seeing as we have no other options.....  

This week was pretty standard, not a lot to report on. No new investigators, we did have a few lessons with Gregory, the man we have on date, and he actually came to church! the first time I had an investigator at church! He is set to be baptized on the 20th, but transfers are the 17th and im pretty sure im gone :( 

We met some guy named Dagoberto, who works for some christian non-profit organization for the university and we bashed with him for a while, that was entertaining.... 

You know what im really tired of hearing? "Oh its sooo cold out you guys are so brave! We're good though, have a nice night stay warm!" 

Yeah maybe if people would let us in once in a while we wouldnt be so dang cold all the time. 

One funny thing, the other Elders in our ward had an investigator at church and he introduced himself in priesthood meeting by standing up with peace signs in both hands and said, "Richard Nixon, world peace!" then sat down. 

twas quite the laugh. 

Since we've been having an abundance of exceedingly low teperatures, all bodies of water have frozen like 3 inches thick, so we've been having some fun. 

Not much else I can think of at the moment but thanks for the love and prayers, "Richard Nixon, world peace!"

Elder McArthur

                           The rest is just frozen water shenanigans and a giant pizza

 This random street is the street where that dodge challenger ran all of those people over and killed that girl Heather.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Woo woo hoo, I hope you all kicked off the new year right, I know we sure did, we had to be in by 6pm so we made a huge dinner and played cards untill midnight, exciting right?!  

Yeah thats about the extent of the festivities when you're on a mission. 

So not a ton of new developments this week, Gregory, the guy we have on date didn't come to church this weekend, after spending about an hour and a half trying to find a ride for him Saturday night he called us Sunday morning and said he had to go into work because someone else called in sick..........Sounds fishy to me. We were also supposed to have another lady, Doris, come to church as well, we called her Saturday night and made sure she knew what time and everything and then she never showed either. I'm pretty sure our ward thinks were piles because I haven't had a single investigator to church whole time I've been here. In other news its FREEZING cold every day, the average temperature is in the mid 20's and if were lucky will be around 31-32 during mid-day. I Look like the kid from Christmas Story every time I leave the apartment. Oh also this week I went out to the boonies (Rivannah) again for exchanges. Also someone threatened to "pistol whip" us if we didn't leave the area of the public road thats in front of his house. And we met a legitimate insane person in the ghetto, he was absolutely out his mind. Twas quite entertaining.

Thanks for the love and prayers I love all of you! 

-Elder McArthur

Service:)

FOXBODY! (my comp is getting sick of me pointing out cars)

 Impressively large awesome graffiti art

Our 5 star dinner

The progression of Elder Replogle