Kansas? I Thought This Was Virginia!

So last monday there was a total of like 8 tornadoes that touched down in the Richmond area, the closest one to me was approximatley a mile from where we were, good thing it wasn't any closer cause we could've ended up in OZ. We had no idea what was going on cause we were at the library and I was writing essays for college applications and then they just told us to all get into this safe room. It wasn't until a few days later we saw some videos of the destruction that was happening just a few miles from us. Pretty good start to the week. 

This week we did a ton of finding and really not much happened. It was a pretty boring week. We knocked a lot of doors. One cool thing that happened, we had a lesson with that girl that I met on facebook last week over Skype and it went really well. We taught the restoration and it was really powerful even over Skype. After the lesson she messaged us and told us she teared up a few times and felt the spirit tell her it was true. Crazy she's just a junior in high school and got a Book of Mormon from a Marriott to start reading. Were going to have to refer her this week to the missionaries in her area but still super cool. 

On Friday-Saturday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders down in Appomattox and it went well. Always fun to be with those guys, plus Elder Kane (one of the ZL's) goes home this Wednesday so we just kept making fun of him and tried to trunk him out. 

Transfer calls were this Saturday and Elder Jones and I are staying together for another transfer in Meadowbrook. Which we were both pumped about, were going to work super hard next transfer and have another baptism. 

Pics:

Views from the 804

My fearless district at our last district meeting

Exchanges, Elder Kane in red tie

Hurricane Who??

Hey everyone, not too much to report on this week. Hurricane Florence decided to stay south and destroy North Carolina, so we only had rain, no winds or any crazy storms here in Richmond, but the Chesepeake mission had to evacuate and some of their cars and apartments were destroyed in the storm. But we were fine. This week we spent almost 100% of our time finding, which means..........Tracting! But we found 6 new investigators and set up a bunch of appointments for next week, so next week should be pretty solid. Really not too much else to talk about, we spent a lot of time out among the people and met a lot of cool and crazy ones as can be expected. Thursday we had interviews with President Smith which are always awesome, so that was cool. Thats really all I can think of so I guess I'll leave you all with a thought, recently I've been reading through the new Testament again, and it just struck me how many people the Savior healed. Multiple times in each gospel it says something like this, "Then Jesus went out to such and such city and they brought ALL their sick and he healed them ALL" it just stood out to me how many people that actually is, turns out A LOT. something cool to think about....  

Elder McArthur

This table at McDonalds is the future..... the little dots change color when you touch them, it was enough to entertain two missionaries thats for sure. 

also a huge leaf

Finally!!

So on Saturday we baptized Michelle, Ryan, and Mia!!!! Its been a year and some change in the making but I finally had a baptism. But its not about me, its been so cool to see how they have grown and progressed. They are converts for sure. Immediately after the baptism Mia went to a stake dance with the other youth from the ward and then on monday went to early morning seminary! Elder Jones and I are Stoked. I was able to baptize Michelle, Elder Jones baptized Mia and Ryan. Super awesome weekend.  

The rest of the week was relatively uneventful, we went on exchanges with the zone leaders last week and I went with Elder Kane, we stayed down in their area which is Colonial Heights/Petersburg area, We ended up doing a lot of planning for their baptism that weekend so we didn't have too much time to do finding, But the 20 minutes that we did have we found 2 kids who were so prepared. It was pretty awesome. 

Yesterday we had an all mission conference, Elder Haynie from the first quorum of the seventy came and spoke to us about finding. He pretty much told us we were doing it all wrong and told us how to do it right. He spent the last 3 years on assignment in the Phillipines, he told us our numbers were too low and we just needed to go out and baptize people hahah. After the conference all of us missionaries were like, "you can tell he spent the last 3 years  in the Phillipines" Welcome to stateside work Elder Haynie!!! But he did have some awesome ideas for finding so were going to implement that for sure. 

All is well in Virginia, (for now) apparently there is a huge hurricane headed directly to us, so we will see what actually happens, cause as of right now its the calm before the storm, sunny and 95 not a cloud in sight. But nevertheless we went to walmart last night to buy some things to prepare and the place looked like the apocalypse had happened, the shelves were gutted, there was no water, people running around frantically throwing stuff in carts, we ended up going to Kroger to get water and some food items, and we have evacuation plans in case things get real fun. 

thanks everyone, Love you all

Stick With What Works!

Hey howdy hey family and friends, this week was a good one. 

This week we just about finished teaching Michelle, Ryan and Mia all the lessons, their baptism is this Saturday and Elder Jones and I are super excited, it will be both of our first baptisms. We had good fellowshippers to the lessons this week and Ryan and Mia started going to young mens and young womens. They're awesome and so ready and excited to be baptized. 

We taught Tameka again this week and once again blew her away with true doctrine. We had a member with us and once again, as she bore her testimony of the 3 degrees of glory, Tameka said she felt the spirit and that it just keep making sense to her. One of her biggest fears she said was to go to hell, because to her (and everyone else) all there is is heaven and Hell. Unfortunatly she wasn't able to make it to church cause she was out of town but she'll be baptized soon enough. 

Chris Pew is a guy who just showed up at another wards sacrament for the last 2 weeks, turns out he lives in our area so we got his info from the Belmont sisters and taught him the restoration. It was a really powerful lesson, he had been taught a long time ago in the past but didn't progress cause he worked on Sundays, but now he works for FedEx so the problem took care of itself, we invited him to be baptized on September 22nd and he accpeted. He, as well as Ryan and Mia, came to a baptism for the Belmont ward on Saturday and loved it, and he also came to church. We taught gospel principles, and it was...... eventful........ to say the least. But another week down. 

Stick with what works and work with what sticks, the gospel of Jesus Christ always works if we let it. Love, Elder McArthur