Gods Ways Are Not Our Ways

Hey all, this week was a hot one for shore. 

3 exchanges this week, kept us pretty busy, although we still don't have a lot going on. Summer classed started on Monday, so there are a few people back in town, which is good. 

Started our the week with Elder Hansen, he's been out for almost 2 transfers, super stud missionary. We hit up the campus and went hard. He was super bold approaching people who were sitting down and stopping and talking to everyone, great day.

Next exchange was with Elder Burrows, he's the other set here in Chippenham, he has served his whole mission Spanish up to this point, so you know we found some Hispanics to talk to Haha. We found a super cool girl named Elizabeth on that exchange. 

Last but not least, Elder Brinkerhoff down in Midlothian. Elder Brinkerhoff is 6'7 and a major star wars buff, so we had a good time, talked to a couple old ladies about family history, but mostly just grinded it out in the 100 heat and 89% humidity 👍🏼 twas quite the hot day.....

Interesting story from this week ; last Thursday Elder Page and I went to the hospital to give a blessing to a lady. Her Mom, Dad, and sister were there to be with her. She was in a medically induced coma. Anyways 2 days later on Sunday both Mom and Dad had been admitted to the hospital for CHF and hypertension and a few other things, so went to take the sacrament to the whole family, the sister had been woken up from the coma at this point but was and is still in the hospital. We also gave a blessing to Mom, Dad was in the ER. 2 more days later, Tuesday on exchanges with Elder Hansen we went to go give a blessing to Dad, the only one who hadn't gotten a blessing yet, his health was going downhill, but we sat and talked to him for a good 15 minutes and he was in good spirits, Elder Hansen then gave him a very inspired blessing. We also gave a blessing of comfort to the sister who was originally the first one in the hospital, she was worried about her Dad and her relationship with him if he were to die soon, she wasnt very specific but I gave her a blessing of comfort and counsel. Also we didn't think that Dad would die cause he seemed good and the doctors were positive about his condition. 

Okay halftime break, Hang in there with me Haha

Alright so now its Wednesday morning, we got a text from the other sister, not the one who was in the coma, informing us that Dad had died that night at 3am..... She had gone back up to northern VA with Mom (she was discharged) the day before on monday, and asked us if we would go visit her sister (the one who was originally in the hospital) and lift her spirits and just be with her. Her whole family left for home and her Dad died that night. So Elder Burrows and I went and visited her. Long story long, because of the blessing I had given her she requested to talk to her Dad that night and felt at peace with their relationship right before he died. She was unusually at peace with the whole ordeal. 

Takeaways:

-Gods ways are not our ways, his timing is not our timing. 

-Family is truly the most important thing in this life, and holding grudges is never worth it.

-Plans can change in an instant, this life is precious and its important to focus on what really matters most. 

Alma 34:32

32 For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.

District council and a Snapchat filters that makes me look like aunt Jill lol

Cheerfully Do All Things

Hey everybody, this week was a loooong one for sure, with summer break in full swing, and summer semester not starting until today, last week Richmond was a ghost town. 

We walked a ton this week, to and fro all over the city looking for YSA's, we tried to hit up different parks, cultural hot spots, and downtown Richmond. YSA work during the summer is.......exciting....... to say the least. Made for some pretty long and hot afternoons.

We had 2 exchanges this week, one with the Midlothian Elders and one with Manchester, I went with Elder Hardy and Elder Palmer, both great Elders. Unfortunately we forgot to take pictures of both exchanges Haha. But we still had a good time. 

We had Zone council this week, like a district council, except with the whole zone, but not a zone conference, because President doesnt come. It was a great meeting Elder Page and I gave a training on faith and goals, trying to get everyone pumped. We also did a fun activity with marshmallows and spaghetti, good times. 

We had a sweet ward picnic this Saturday in the park, we had a few investigators come as well, we played ultimate frisbee, football, badminton and other games like that. Both of the people that came really enjoyed themselves. 

D&C 123:17

17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed

I love this scripture, Elder Page and I have been thinking about it for a the last week or so, we've had pretty low key indicator numbers (including our own) for the last little while and dont know really what's going on. We used this scripture to get everyone hyped at zone council. But it's very true, if we do all we can we can be assured the Lord will do his part. 

Elder McArthur

Weekly

Hey everyone, another great week here in the VRM. Yet once again I am sitting down to type this and my mind is 100% blank, thats just how it goes I guess.

Tuesday- Exchanges with the AP's, super fun exchange, previously they were companions together in Chippenham so we visited a lot of the people they were teaching when they were here. We also had one last hurrah on campus tabling, talked to A LOT of crazy college students, pretty entertaining to be honest lol. 

We had interviews with President Smith on Wednesday, Interviews are always the best. I feel like to be a mission president you have gotta just have infinite wisdom ready to drop on someone at a moments notice. We also taught a few member lessons about the North America North East area plan. Which for those who aren't familiar, the main area presidency came up with a plan for everyone to implement to strengthen conversion to Christ and his gospel, so we're trying to get the members started on that. 

Thursday we had a great district council and a day full of contact attempts. 

Friday was the very last return and report for the new missionaries, it always takes place the second or 3rd week into the transfer and the next time it would roll around President and Sister Smith will be gone, so thats a real bummer. But it was super fun, I went with Elder Caras, who is training a new missionary, we just went out and street contacted for an hour or so, but its fun to be with missionaries who haven't had experience in the city, or street contacting haha, gets them out of their comfort zone. For example, we met a guy with the gnarliest case of pirate teeth (use your imagination) I have ever met, but he asked us to pray for his knee and told us about how he is a member of the church, (he's not lol) one example of the many weird things that happen on the daily here in downtown. 

Saturday and Sunday were filled with awesome lessons, we taught the restoration, plan of salvation and gospel of Jesus Christ multiple times each. Love being a missionary. I love the true doctrine we teach, I love how anyone, at any point in their life, can "experiment upon the word" and learn to start having experiences with God. 

Elder McArthur

Peep the photo of me getting Katrina with the hand circle lololol 

Exchanges, Zone Conference, Tabling Downtown

Hey everyone this week was pretty sweet, exchanges zone conference and tabling downtown

I guess I'll start off by saying that I won cleanest car yet again....... which makes 5 or 6 zone conferences in a row that I've won 🤷‍♂️ if you aint first your last 🇺🇸

Anyways...... we started off the week with exchanges with Elder Jones and his new comp Elder Burrows, they are the other set of elders in Chippenham so we were still in our area but all the people we found went to them, it was a good exchange we taught a girl named Katrina, she was taught for a long time by other missionaries, she's moving back to Northern VA for the summer but she's so solid she just needs to get baptized. Itll happen eventually

Zone conference was super good, we gave a training to the zone about church attendance, the missionary department sent out a PowerPoint about the "Silver Bullet" of missionary work, and how church attendance is that "Silver Bullet".

We also talked about family history and obedience. 

Friday was pretty sweet, Richmond does a first Friday festival, similar to George fest in STG, anyway we set up a table to stop all the foot traffic. It was super fun, we ended up giving out a lot of BoM's. Saturday we also went to another festival, a member told us to meet here there and she would buy us lunch, not knowing what the festival was we went, Haha turns out it was a huge Hispanic thing and they had live bands playing bachata music and it was crazy, so we got some tacos and left. 

All in all a good week

Moses 7:24-34

Too many verses to paste in, but we worship a God who loves us so much that he weeps for us, think about that.