Blitz in Belmont!

Hello everyone, this week was a week, haha not too much to report on.... So all the lessons we had lined up for last Monday night that I was talking about all fell through, so we knocked some doors. On Tuesday we had about 30 minutes after dinner till our appointment so we went to see if a member lived at this one address, turns out a lady named Amberly lives there and she was super nice, she said she was just praying for God to send her a sign and then we knocked on her door. We haven't been able to go back yet, but we are going to keep trying. Then we went to a lesson with this crazy guy named Douglas, he just roasted Elder Jones the whole time hahah. The rest of the week was a lot of appointments that fell through and tracting. On Saturday we had exchanges with the Spanish Elders, we also did a blitz in the Belmont sisters area that day because they have only found one new person to teach all transfer, so we went tracting in their area as a district to find them some people to teach. We ended up finding a few promising people for them. But later Saturday night we had a lesson in Spanish and we read out of the Plan of Salvation pamphlet, I didn't understand anything haha and I read every third paragraph in Spanish and I'm pretty sure the investigator couldn't understand me, but Elder Duffin said my pronunciation was pretty good, he gave me a B+ at reading Spanish. Love you all!

Elder McArthur


District shenanigans

Simba
 

Knock, Knock, Knockin, On a Million Doors!

You may have guessed from the subject line, but yes this week was quite long. Spent large amounts of time knocking on doors, my knuckles are sore..... No one was really too interested. 

Tony, the man we previously had on date, has not been to church the last 2 weeks in a row and hasn't read, so we are going to drop him. 

Monday night to Tuesday night we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders, I was with my good buddy Elder Chapman, it was a good time. We gave out a few BOMs, and set some return appointments which will happen tonight, so I will let y'all know how it goes next week. Wednesday we had all district council and talked about planning for the people we have on date, 10|10. 

Last night was super eventful, we had gotten a referral for a man named Gregory, he lives in a motel, so we showed up to this super sketchy motel in southside Richmond, (this is the recipe for a good time) and guess what?! Gregory was extremely intoxicated, it was quite funny actually, but not at the same time..... He let us in and we tried to read with him and it just wasn't working so we left him our card and left. But it was quite the time haha. After that we went to the hospital to visit a member, one of our recent converts, we had a good time with him and I was loving it cause all the nurses were just explaining all this medical stuff and I was learning so much about Arrhythmia, anyway it was fun. And we were able to cheer up Tom a bit. Not too much else to report on. Love you all.

-Elder McArthur

District Council

Me holding 2 kittens and petting a husky AT THE SAME TIME aka heaven

Me holding an actual real live hedgehog, (quite prickly, wouldn't recommend)

Some shenanigans on the railroad tracks

Large copperhead

This Week Was a Week!

So this week was pretty standard of most weeks as a missionary, I tracted, I got bashed, I tracted some more, talked to a few crazies here and there, and that about sums it up.

Monday and Tuesday were a lot of tracting and finding with limited success. Wednesday we had district meeting which is always a good time. Sister Thomas gave a really awesome training on how we can become better disciples of Christ. She went through what we need to do, socially, mentally, spiritually and personally, and how we can apply things from each of those aspects into our missionary work. 10\10 training. After that from Wednesday to Thursday we had exchanges with the spanish elders in the district, not too much happened, did some more tracting, but it was a good time.

Tony, the man we put on date last week, didn't come to church this Sunday so we are going to have to push back his date again, but we'll see what happens, evidently we didn't get him sufficiently pumped to come to church.

The remainder of the week was a lot of tracting, but it was really nice because on Thursday we got the after effects of hurricane Michael, it was the most intense rainstorm I have ever seen. Literally buckets of water being dumped from the sky, it was raining like crazy, the wind knocked over a ton of trees and we even lost power for a little bit, but after the storm the next day was totally calm and sunny, but it brought in fall finally, so tracting has been nice. I got to bust out my sweaters for the first time since last year,
Overall it was a good week.

Elder McArthur


Zone conference last week (I'm front and center)
Elder Jones doing surgery on his shirt.

Consider What It Means to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ

Hey y'all, I don't even know where to begin, I forgot most of what happened this week mostly cause it wasn't as exciting as general conference so bear with me on this one.


Tuesday was zone conference and it was super awesome, we had a skills workshop and just did a TON of role plays on setting expectations, door approaches, and inviting to baptism, it was great. I could be an A list actor when I get back because of all the role plays you do on a mission. Anyway, President Smith spit fire as usual, he read Ezekiel 34:1-15. I recommend you all read it so you know just how much fire he spit, but the gist of it is that we are the shepherds of Israel, and there are real consequences when we do not do our job to gather the flock (scattered Israel) and protect the sheep. Seriously go read it. But it was really good,

ALSO I have now won cleanest car for the last 3 transfers in a row!!!! LETS GO! PS I drive a maroon Toyota Sienna, but we pulled off the hat trick for the 3rd time and everyone was so mad that I won AGAIN! hahaha so that was awesome.

This week we put Tony on date for October 27th, he is the husband of a member and we've been working with him for the last 2 transfers, so quite some time but we sat down with him and were super bold with our expectations and he accepted, so we shall see.

Now to Conference! I don't need to go into detail about it all cause I'm sure you all watched it but here are my favorite highlights:

1. TEMPLE in Washington County!!! I was sooo hyped I yelled "thats were I'm from!" in the chapel but everyone was just like, "smh this missionary is from Utah there are to many temples in utah" but oh well
2. I felt one of the major themes was the name "Jesus Christ" our baptismal covenant to take his name upon us, what that means, and why its important. 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 is my favorite scripture I've discovered on the subject, I invite you all to read it and consider what it means to be an "apostle" of Christ and have His name written "in the fleshy tables of the heart"


Love you all,
Elder McArthur


This is the OG crew from Charlottesville (minus Elder Replogle)

Weekly

Hey y'all, I cannot remember anything that happened this week so bear with me. The days all just blend together out here. lets see.... Earlier in the week we had a great discussion with a recent convert in the ward, we talked for a long time and it was really good for him. He also came to a lesson with us the next day to a lady named Denise, she is super prepared! She is the friend of a less active member in the ward so its kinda like a 2 for one here. But she soaks everything in and we hope to set her on date this week. Cool story from the week, we stopped by this less active member just randomly one night, neither of us had met him before, but he opened the door and just looked at us, I thought we were gonna get yelled at, but before he could say anything, I complemented him on his car, any guesses as to what car it was??? drumroll........ a Yellow Mach 1!!!! (except his is screamin yellow not zinc yellow) But after that he softened up and let us in and we ended up talking for like an hour. He is super not interested in coming back to church unfortunatly. But I told him I drove a mach 1 and he didn't believe me so he quizzed me on cars and mach 1 engine specifications and I aced it, then I showed him a picture and he said, "i respect it" so that was awesome. Other than that we've been finding like none other and having less than optimal success. But were trying, so hopefully someone will show interest soon. But thats it for this week!

Elder McArthur 

a few pics from Bell Isle last week

a few pics from our run this morning 

lots of pics this week