Good Week!

This week was good, not a ton happened, but the things that did happen were great. 

We started the week off with exchanges with the Spanish Elders. It was in our area, we tracted and did some service helping out a lady we are trying to teach. We also had wrestlemania, which happens basically every exchange haha.  I'm pretty sure our downstairs neighbors don't like us. 

Wednesday we ate some authentic Korean food, Elder Hill (my comp) is half Korean, and one of our ward members travels the world learning how to cook. She made some kind of soup, the soup had mini squids in it, like whole squids, they were delicious. not a fan of kim-chi tho...... 

Friday night I ate more food than I've ever eaten in my life...... on Tuesday during exchanges Elder Ridenour and I stopped by a hispanic family, because she was going to make us dinner. Well she thought she had signed up for wednesday. Anyway she ended up feeling super bad and fed us anyway, but she told us to come back on friday and she would make us a legit meal. Problem is that we already had a dinner for friday from a member in our ward. But if there is one thing I've learned, it's that you never turn down authentic hispanic food #whitepeoplefoodsucks. So we went to our dinner and my fat self couldn't help but stuffing my face full. So I went to Hermana Graciella's on a full stomach, but her tacos were so dang good, before I knew it I had consumed 10 of them..... Plus like a gallon of Tampico and a piece of the most delicious flan I've ever had. My body hurt so bad after that......... I didn't eat any food the all day Saturday becuase I didn't need to haha, I wasn't hungry, and then I didn't eat breakfast on Sunday either. lol. Im all good now though. #noregerts

Sunday- a couple that we've been on the fence about dropping for a few weeks now finally came to church! Mostly because we moved a 600lb gun safe into their basement for them. but they still came and it turns out they know a few members from the ward. That was a miracle. Hopefully they keep coming. 

I realize that most of this email has been about food #sorrynotsorry

so i will include this spiritual thought. This week I finally finished the New Testament. The entirety of my studies this week were composed of studying the book of Revelations. It took me a whole week because I read the institute manual verse for verse alongside it. and I'm glad I did, because it made so much more sense. Joseph Smith once said that Revelations was the plainest book ever written, if you could understand it..... well I mean, duh. But some of the insights that I took away from it were these. 

One day the end will come, and when it does come, God will wipe away all tears from the eyes of the righteous. If we do whats right we have no need to fear. No matter how real satan seems in our lives. God has all power to bind him, and we can tap into that power through prayer. it was a good week for studies. Love you all if you're still reading this email and just didnt skip to the pictures, (metro-man voice) "i love you, random citizen!"

Elder McArthur

YSA Work

Hola everyone, this week was pretty good, We started off with exchanges in Fredericksburg with the YSA elders. It was a hectic exchange, mostly because I'm an idiot lol. We were supposed to be there the night before but as we were leaving the house to take our stuff to the car I locked the keys in the apartment, I didn't realize until we had come back up to the apartment to grab some other things, so we had to sleep over with the Spanish elders and drive an hour to Fredericksburg that morning. The exchange was great, YSA work would be awesome, it was awesome. They cover Mary Washington University, so we spent all afternoon just contacting on campus, it made me hate college students lol, then I realized I will be a college student in a little bit..... Seriously though, my personal favorite is when people just straight up ignore you, when people have headphones in you can let it slide, maybe they didn't hear me cause the headphones? But when people dont have headphones, and you KNOW they heard you, that's just cold....... It made for some serioulsly awkward moments, but all in all its a good time. We also had interviews with President while we were down there so he didn't have to drive up to siberia (culpeper), those are always good, he always makes you feel awesome and gives you things to work on at the same time.

As far as our area this week, things were pretty slow, mostly tracting, mostly people who aren't interested, but nevertheless the work rolls on. We did get Marvin, a really old African American man we are teaching, to church, he slept through most of sacrament haha, but he said he loved it haha. I'll keep everyone posted on him.

That is about it for this week, love you all
Elder McArthur


District fam

Snow, lots of Snow!

Hey Y'all, this week was pretty normal/slow. The new year and the holidays have thrown everything off it seems like..... Finding has been super tough lately, as well as just trying to meet with the people were working with. But thats how it goes.

This week not too many things happened that are noteworthy or mentionable..... But, we did have a super awesome\ crazy discussion with a kid we are teaching, his name is Joseph Smith Jr. and he is 14 yrs old. no joke. This was the most intellectual conversation I think I've ever had with anybody on my mission, I was blown away by how deep this kids questions and intellect was. Probably the smartest 14 year old I've ever met. He had some DEEP questions about the nature of God and his characteristics and our purpose here on earth. It was a crazy discussion. I think I was eating paint chips when I was 14 compared to this kid.

This week we also had exchanges with the spanish Elders, Lemmon and Ridenour. We were able to help a part member couple in the ward move who really needed the help, we also had dinner with a family who has 7 dogs, 4 german shephards and 3 labs, (yellow, brown, and black) so basically heaven haha it was so awesome I left covered in fur and a smile. Also that night the ward had a trivia night, one of the categories was Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, so Elder Lemmon and I basically carried the team, it was funny. We invited pretty much everyone we're working with and no one came lol. 

We got a solid 7 inches of snow Sunday, church was cancelled and we went out to shovel driveways, we ended up helping a couple single old ladies who were really appreciative and needed the help, so that was super cool. That is all for this week folks!


Elder McArthur


district pics, exchange pics, , downtown Culpeper

Seek!

Hey everyone!

Happy New Year! we rang it in at sometime around 10:30 ish and then fell asleep causeI was too tired to do anything. I also learned how to solve a rubiks cube, so my new years resolutions are off to a good start.....

This week was pretty good, nothing too out of the norm.
Wednesday we had all-district council down in Fredericksburg, it was super good. I gave a training about connecting with people, and teaching people and not lessons.
Saturday we had exchanges with the Espanol elders, and I went with my man Elder Kuhn, it was a good exchange. We contacted a few people we were hoping to talk to and set up return appointments with. We spent a large portion of the day working at the very tippy top of our area, which is coincidentally also the boundary for the mission. I really wanted to go to the other side of the road and take a picture, but when Nemo touched the "butt" he became a pet in a fish tank, so I thought twice. Really pretty up there though, lots of wineries and farm lands.

NEWS! hoping to catch the attention of anyone who just skips to the pictures.....

so we found out who are new mission president is going to be, effective July 1. His name is Greg Droubay. He is currently the managing director of media for the missionary department, so he is the head honcho in charge of the light the world initiative, all the Mormon.org things you see in times square and other large cities, all the other missionary videos the church puts out there, TV adds, ect........ Pretty neat guy.

Things are going well right now, we're working with a few people, no one really solid enough to mention but the work is steady.

My word for the year is "Seek". In Acts 17:27 Paul tell us to "seek the lord if haply [you] might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us."

And the the JST of the verse says we must be WILLING to find him for he IS NOT far from every one of us......

I love that verse. This year I want to "seek" after the Lord, and find him, more-so than I already have. I want to seek for knowledge, to "seek" out the "best books" and learn wisdon by study and faith. I want to "seek" to increase my knowledge of the gospel and of things spiritual, and in a few months of things temporal as well. (D&C 109:7)

I wanna seek for better things to come. I want to "seek" for the lost sheep of scattered Israel, and find them.

I love this word because it implies action, anyone can turn their ears or move their eyes to "look" for any of these things. But "seeking" requires action. And we know that God is a rewarder of those that "diligently seek him" (hebrews 11:6)

So that's my word.
Love yall!
Elder McArthur


new favorite hobby is looking through the childrens picture Book of Mormon and making memes out of the pictures