Sorry So Long...But Worth It!

This is President Smiths last week :( he leaves this Friday and President Droubay gets here. Sad day, but happy beginnings. 

Hey everyone, this was a sweet week, lots of administrative things and an exchange in the boons.

Tuesdays have become the craziest days of my life now, we meet with the stake president every Tuesday and he expects us to know the ins and outs of every person being taught in every area, not only that but we have to update this massive spread sheet with all that information so he can review it during our meeting. So we spent a large portion of our day preparing for that. And after the meeting, planning with the sisters for our All-district council the next day.

Wednesday was sweet, we had a mini zone conference type thing, its hard to explain, but we met with the Richmond East zone for the beginning hour and President, Sister Smith and the assistants trained about what we discussed in MLC about vision. The next hour we separated into individual zones and discussed how to apply this vision. Specifically i shared verses form the Book of Mormon (Alma 29:10-13, 2 Nephi 4:23-end, and 1 Nephi 4:1-6 for those interested) where BOM prophets had a vision of things they could accomplish and where (in Alma) he relied on his "Pioneer" forebears and the strength they had in accomplishing the things that were before them. It was a great discussion. the rest of the day we had to find things for the companions of the 7 missionaries to do while P-Smith did departing interviews. 

Thursday we had another meeting with the counselor in the stake presidency who is over missionary work, it was kind of funny cause I was in the MTC with his son haha, same zone, different district. But good meeting overall, we had some time at the end of the day to do some finding in our own area finally. 

Friday was the exchange in the Boons! Welcome to Louisa, VA! Ever heard of it? Neither has anyone else lol. But Elder Frey and Brown are killin it out there. We had dinner at the local pizza joint "Joe's Place" where a conversation ensued among the locals as to whether or not a piece of rope out in the parking lot was a snake or a piece of rope............For the life of me I could only understand only about 45% of the conversation. They were speaking the "central Virginia" dialect of English, im a little rusty on that one. 

Saturday was a sweet exchange with the Mandarin speaking Elders. I went with Elder Buehler, hes fresh from the MTC and he promptly ripped the seam of his pants the first time we went to climb on our bikes haha, so after we got that straightened out we had a good day.

Sunday was great, we had an awesome experience with this lady on her doorstep, she was really nice but not too interested, however we got into a discussion about her faith with her and shared 2 Nephi 31:20, she had tears in her eyes by the time she was done reading it. We gave her that copy with Moroni 7 marked to read, she wouldn't set a return appointment, but we are definitely going to try back by. 

"Let us never forget the faith of our fathers and the selfless sacrifice of our mothers, those pioneering Saints who set such an inspiring example of obedience. Let us remember them as we strive to be valiant servants in our work to “invite all to come unto Christ” and “be perfected in him.” .............. We who have been blessed to know the fulness of the restored gospel owe a debt of gratitude to those who have gone before us, who have given so much to build the kingdom into the worldwide miracle that it is today. Our debt of gratitude to our forebears is a “debt that can best be paid in service to this great cause.” 
-Joseph B. Wirthlin 

Innsbrook

Well i just typed up my entire weekly and it deleted itself, so this one is going to be slightly more angry and a lot less detailed..........

What a week it has been 

Monday night we played chair soccer for my last FHE, so naturally I went super hard, but everyone got wrecked by this girl, Mary, she's a baller soccer player haha. I also had to say goodbye to most of the homies from the ward.

Tuesday I had one last exchange in Chippy with Elder Jones, we had a great time, we taught JB one last time and it was the same as it always is haha, but we had a great discussion, we also treated ourselves and ate some good food. Benny Ventano's for lunch and Beauvine for dinner, 10/10 would recommend. 

Wednesday was transfer day, Drumroll please............... Innsbrook with Elder Berger!

We shotgunned into Innsbrook, meaning we are both brand new to the area and have no idea where we are half the time, we also don't know anyone yet haha. So that's been exciting. 

Friday was MLC and definitely one of the most spiritually charged meetings and days of my mission. President Smith talked about vision. And the vision he has that every are can baptize in the month of June. We also watched 17 Miracles, and I definitely did not cry during the movie at all........ It was an awesome experience, we talked about the vision the pioneers had, coupled with their faith, and the results that cam from it. We then talked about how we were going to apply that vision and faith into our zones and areas. 

Sunday night we had a massive fireside with coach Bronco Mendenhall of UVA (formerly BYU) football, almost 1000 people were there, we've spent the last month or so inviting people to come. I was able to sing in the missionary choir for the meeting and ended up sitting right behind Bronco on the stand for the whole meeting. It was awesome he is a great speaker, he talked about his faith, and how he isnt a football coach, rather he builds young men into husbands, fathers, contributing citizens and whatever else, through football, and the role that his religion has played in that. Great night. 

Thanks love you all!

Elder McArthur

2312 Mainmast Ct. Henrico, VA 23294

the homies 

Goodbye Chippy!

Welp, I'm leaving Chippenham, so thats a real bummer. I'll find out wednesday where I'll spend my last full transfer in the mission. 

Bright side, this week was packed, we were only in our area for 2 full days, Saturday and Sunday.

We started off the week with exchanges in Bon Air, I went with Elder Shultz from Mesa, AZ. He's a stud, we did some service in the morning and went hard finding in the afternoon, we didnt find anyone, but we put a good days work in. 

Wednesday we drove clear out to Burkeville for their district council, which was really good, (see pics below). and then we had to drive clear home to Richmond, and packed our bags and drove back down to Midlothian for exchanges there that night. I went with Elder Kind, and it was great, we found taught a lesson to a really sweet girl they're working with. 

Thursday we started exchanges with Manchester, I went with Elder Lee, my previous comp, and Elder Tanner, (they're in a trio) and it was an awesome exchange, everywhere we went it seemed to be perfect timing, we showed up to a man named Albert's house right when he had an hour to spare, and knocked a door just as a person was leaving and talked to them for 30 min, and showed up to an older members house just as he was trying to move new furniture into his house by himself. 

Friday we had comp studies all day with various elders in the zone to get everyone hyped, and really just trying to be positive about everything. 

Saturday we had a bunch of administrative things to take care of and did a little bit of finding in the evening. 

Overall a great week. 

2 Peter 3:9

"The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

I found this scripture to be a tremendous strength to my testimony this week, k hope you all will enjoy it as much as I did. 

Another Snapchat filter that makes me look like I'm 30 lol and elder Jones look like metro-man from megamind hahahahah, he's gonna kill me for putting this in my weekly lol