February 8, 2016

 

Hey Momma! 

Wow I forgot that tomorrow was that mark (19 months out) actually. Going too quick! Yours and Dad's birthday is coming up again also! This time last year I was now in Hazleton which is super weird. 

Yeah that's awesome! I can't wait to see them again. It has been so much fun to be out here with Elder Weisler(Jake). I bet it (visiting the Weislers) was fun especially for Lizzy and Brooklyn to see each other. That is so crazy that Ashlyn is that old! Yeah Brittany is always all over the place and busy it sounds like. Elder Weisler is excited to hang out. You'll have to send him that picture.

So we had a great week! We taught a lot of lessons and got some new investigators. I try to only write about the ones that we are focusing on. J is doing great and his wife is coming around. She all of a sudden starting changing and wants to quit smoking and drinking coffee which is a miracle! She just told us she feels sick now and so we are helping her with the addition recovery program. So they are coming along. We ended up setting R with a baptismal date, but he still needs to be a little more committal to church. We had a ride for him and everything but instead he went to wash his clothes at 8 in the morning. We were pretty frustrated but things are still looking up! We also had Zone training and Elder Weisler and Beirman gave some great training. I will send a couple pictures from it. We will be going on an exchange with them on Thursday but I'll be with Elder Beirman. He is awesome too. So it'll be fun. We are about to start working out with Bro. Rothey on Mondays. He is a pretty big dude, and he said he'd help me get a little bigger before I get home lol. He is making me a workout plan for me. N is doing well! They just got very very sick this past week. Their daughter was running a fever of 104 and in the hospital. Poor girl. So we actually gave her a blessing. We saw them just yesterday, and we hope that everything will start going well with them. She is a little more into it than her husband so we shall see! They are a great family. I think this will definitely be my last area actually. We are mixed in with an English ward but there are lots of Spanish members. I translate sacrament sometimes. So we also had a wonderful dinner with the Miller family. They are from Louisiana and she is an excellent cook. She made this Mardi Gras cake  or something with different color icing and it was soooo good. She definitely has the accent. Interviews were great. President told me I was looking good cause I dropped some weight lol. I too him I could tell he has because he is trying to. But just such a great interview with him and Sister Anderson. They are so wonderful. He was just very pleased about what I have done and in this area which made me feel good. Just feeling great this week so I appreciate the fast. 

Holidays and Birthdays are so different on the mission. Sometimes it just feels like another day. Elder Weisler's birthday is coming up too! We will definitely have to do something for it. 

I appreciate those quotes. Sister Weisler sends quotes to Elder Weisler also. So they do help. 

Well I love ya momma and I hope everything goes well this week! Send me pictures of the house as it comes along and love ya! Tell everyone there I say hello and love them! I'll send some pictures. 

Love, 

Elder McArthur 

                                  Zone training with Elder Weisler!

                                        His zone with he and Elder Weisler smack dab in the middle together.

                                        I think they all go home at the same time.

           He decided to get a souvenir Philly's hat.  I hope it is only a souvenir since we are Braves fans.

February 1, 2016

 

Hey Momma! 

It's February already! So crazy. No there is still a ton (snow) around. I did get boots. We got a little more the other day but I do not know when we will get more. I bet the mountains are beautiful. We have never lived near any so it will be weird going back to mountains. I am excited to be so close to that temple for sure! I've missed the temple. 

They (Daniel and Jordan) still better be there when I'm home! Yeah they will have to help me shop for stuff. I do not even know what is in style and not now. I'm just used to wearing a white shirt, slacks and tie all the time. I forgot that that's (almost 2 years ago now) when I got the call haha. I'm really excited for interviews. We have them tomorrow and I love being able to talk to President. He is such a great man. 

Wow so they are very close. Gotta see the Weisler's! Let me know or send me a picture of when you see them. Yeah we talked about how it totally was when we were on our exchange. It's so crazy and to see how far we have come. He is a really great missionary. 

So I do not have them right now. I think those were the main ones that we took. So this week was a little bit more of service rather than teaching. But we still had a wonderful week. I think also I found Eve Stephersons' Hispanic twin. I gotta get a picture of her and compare it to this little girl. She is the daughter of this lady N that we are teaching. We are really trying to help them progress along because she has lots of potential. Nothing too exciting but I do love doing service. It just makes you feel good inside. This weekend was just a little rough on me cause I really felt like we tried so hard but nothing really came from it. We were talking to people on the street right and left, knocking doors. I even felt really prompted to knock a door but the guy just said not interested, shook our hands and closed the door. I'm trying to pray and think of new ways of attacking the work. You can not do the same thing over and over and that is some things I have learned in the mission. I just think of D&C 11:21 and that promise. It's just hard and sad to think I'm on the end here and I just want to do my best and really help Elder Beebe. So just keep praying for me and that we will be able to get a baptism while I'm here with him. I think it'd help him stay focused and be such a boost.

It was wonderful. I think just with Elder Bednar as well and his explanation of how the spirit works. It really touched me. I've been really trying to pay close attention to every little feeling. The other day I felt I should knock a door, but passed it. But then I thought, wait, I need to go back. So we did and nothing came but I followed the spirit. So I enjoyed that a lot. 

We are honestly finding new people and weeding out the ones who just won't progress. We are not trying to waste any time.

I definitely need that first one (quote) from Elder Holland. Thank ya momma. I love you!  Send any pictures my way too if you have any! 

Love, 

Elder McArthur

January 25, 2016

 

Hey Momma! 

Wow! Well let it snow! So I'll tell you all about it for sure. Church was definitely cancelled. 

So basically we shoveled for about 7 hours yesterday in the cold, and I need to get boots actually (which he did) because Nike shoes do not do it. But basically all we have done is walk around a little and help people get out. We also planned and rested a bit because we were told to basically stay inside and be smart. I will send a couple more pictures that I have of the snow. We spent an hour and a half digging our car out. This is by far the most snow that I have seen. Last year there was a lot in Hazleton for sure, but I did not watch it all come down like with this one. We are supposed to have a storm even worse than this one next month. So it has been a crazy week! We did not get a lot done because we also did an exchange with the Zone leaders. We both went to their area. I was with Elder Weisler (Jake), and Elder Beebe was with Elder Bierman. It was a really good exchange. We were just catching up with each other and so excited to be living so close again. He (Elder Weisler aka Jake) is an awesome missionary that is for sure. So we had a great time together. We did not do too much this week just because of those exchanges and the snow. We did have that missionary conference I think I told you about with all the missionaries in the world. It was some really great training. There were about 5 or 6 of the apostles there. I learned a lot and wrote a lot down. One of my favorite quotes was by Elder Andersen. I'm not quoting it exact, but he says that if we speak of Christ to everyone that Christ will speak of us to the Father. It was very powerful, and I really felt the spirit strong. Now on to some investigators. J! He is doing great. No one new this week. We are also working closely with a guy named R, and he should be out at church next week. Hopefully we can get another baptism here soon! I think one of the best things from this week too was the Rothey's house for dinner. They are some awesome members. He was the ward mission leader for like 8 years and they gave us both a whole box of Girl Scout cookies! Really great guy and family.  We just haven't been able to get out and see anyone cause of this weekend so I don't have updates on everyone right now. But hopefully everything will get cleared up! We are supposed to get more snow this coming Thursday though! Goodness! So that is all that has been going on. 

Yeah just continuing to keep it (the mission) interesting and to focus always with the end in mind of what I want to have accomplished. This last week went well. Just preparing now for this week.

Thank ya momma! I love ya and will send a couple more pictures! Talk to ya soon! 

Love, 

Elder McArthur

                                     The Georgia boys together.  Jake (Oops Elder Weisler)sent this one.

                                                   Adam sent this one!

                              My southern boy has never seen this much snow before!!

January 18, 2016

 

Hey Momma! 

It's very different here than there that's for sure. I saw we are going to be getting lots of snow this weekend. It's about time cause this has not been any! Well we did get a little bit yesterday actually so there is so on the ground. It is just freezing cold! 

Wow! That is a huge ward. This ward has on average about 200-230. So it is a decent sized ward for sure. Lots of great members. It'll be different going home to a ward so huge. We have a ton of missionaries out from out stake. I have Lds tools so I looked on there. 

Yeah he (Elder Beebe) is awesome. We get along real well. Just refining him and helping him out with little things here and there. I got to put myself back in his shoes because I just forget how it was sometimes. But we are working really well together. I think we taught 17 lessons this past week? So we are teaching a lot again. He has adjusted just fine. Still little things here and there but he is fine and loving it. This is only his 3rd transfer so he just got done being trained.

We (him and Jake aka Elder Weisler) will be going on an exchange this coming Wednesday. So he will be with me for part of my birthday so that'll be cool. He was super happy to have me back in his zone. Elder Morgan is also in our zone who I served with in Bayview.

So I'll tell you about my week! It was solid. We taught a lot. I'm starting to get to know more of the members now. It's a great ward. It has just been really cold on us. I have been trying to just continue to work as hard as I can. It just makes you feel good when you know you are working hard. So we had a zone training this past week. President and Sister Anderson came to it. Elder Weisler and his comp did an excellent job. It was really great and we also had a meeting in Broomall for all of the District leaders. It was some great training by the assistants, President and Sister Anderson. I have so many things I want to continue to really improve on. We also took out a recently returned missionary this past week. He served in Brazil so he speaks Portuguese. It was nice to really have someone who knew what they were doing, and he loved just coming out again. He has only been back a month but he said it has been so weird for him. J came to church this Sunday! He is so ready to be baptized. We went over the baptismal questions with him this week, and there iare no issues. The Gospel is so true. Last night we were teaching a guy who really just kept trying to argue and bring up the same subject over and over. We taught him the restoration, but I am pretty sure it went in one ear and straight out the other. It finally hit him at the end when Elder Beebe was like, "look, I was Catholic and I know that this is the true church and not them." Then the guy asked us, " well what is the different between you and Catholics?" So we told him, and basically he just got quiet, and we could tell it hit him and his wife. He had nothing left to say and so we bore testimony and invited them to pray and read the Book of Mormon and to come to church. So lots of good things going on. I love being in just a Spanish speaking place again because it has helped me out so much with my Spanish again because I am speaking it all the time. So that was some of our week! 

Sounds like it was a super good game (national championship game). Oh! If you could get me a shirt of the national champs or something that would be nice actually! I would love to have one. 

So the scripture was actually D&C 6:36. We did find a couple new people. I did not have any experience per say like that this week but we definitely try to spend time in a certain area till we find someone. Sometimes nothing happens but you always have those little miracles. More success comes from referrals and street contacts but we definitely still knock some doors although the other night I felt like we should knock a door so we did and basically they kind of just turned us down hard core. But like I said before, I feel the Lord is just seeing if He can trust you. 

I bet Ryan is doing such an awesome job. I know everyone that has gone out from our ward in Plano is doing great things in their missions. They are all so great. 

I enjoy hearing things from them for sure. Be sure to send pictures! Well I love ya momma and thanks for the money again and the package I'll be getting! 

Love, 

Elder McArthur 

 

                                                       His birthday present!

 

                                                        20 candles!!