Elder Ira Conner McArthur: HELLO FAMILY

MARCH 12, 2018

Hello family!!! Hope you are all doing well. Sounds like everyone's having fun with no school this week. Sometimes I wish I got a vacation, but it's all good, haha. This past week was definitely a roller coaster of a week. Definitely one of the tougher weeks, but here's what I did.

Monday night was really awesome. We found like 3 new Hmong people in Marysville, which was awesome because we never go to Marysville. We decided to go back and see them all on Saturday and hopefully teach them.

Tuesday, we pretty much just tried to contact people and find, not too much success. We had a lesson with a Hmong guy, Npliag Neeb Vaj. He's way cool. At the start, we asked him if he would be willing to hais kws txhiaj for us (basically like sing some real funny sounding Hmong music. I'm gonna learn how to sing it, haha) and usually people say no but he like spent 30 minutes and sang and taught us, which was cool. Then he fed us lunch which was cool. Also, we helped Tim again. I can't even really remember what we did though. All the weeks are blending together.

Wednesday was zone conference. It was pretty awesome!! It was just in Yuba City, so that was really nice. I learned a lot. The theme of the conference was basically being a representative of Jesus Christ, which was really cool. I prepared a talk (in Hmong) but didn't have to give it. I learned a lot though cuz like as a representative of Jesus Christ I have to do what He did, love everyone like He did. Good stuff like that. The other 2 Hmong elders were there too, so that was a good time. We did a practice teach with them and it was rough. Me and the new elder both aren't very good at Hmong, haha.

Thursday, we had district meeting, knocked a lot of doors and met a cool Cambodian guy named Sock. He was almost baptized way back when but didn't. He looked pretty scary but was actually a way nice guy, so we're gonna go back and see him. Probably one of the most spirit-filled lessons I've had yet was on Thursday. We went back and saw the lady who came to church last week, Maribell. She's had a lot of problems in her life, and we brought a member who has had similar problems, and it went really well. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, and at the end of the lesson committed her to be baptized!!! So hopefully that will be happening in April. But the Spirit was really strong in that lesson. I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and can help everyone.

Friday, we had weekly planning, and it took like 5 hours. It was crazy. Felt like the spirit really guided it though, so that was good. After that, we tried to contact some more people... who weren't home, haha. But we did have a really good dinner out in Camp Far West. That was fun. Tried some more contacts after dinner, and had a good lesson with Pedro, who we met like 4 months ago who has been trying to come back to church.

Saturday was set up to be the best day ever. I was so excited for it all week, to go and get like a ton of new investigators, and we had 3 set lessons with all our progressing investigators, and it was gonna be great! Unfortunately, plans don't always turn out... we tried to contact 15 people (3 of them were the people we met Monday) and only like 3 people were home, but none of them were available. So it was a really slow day. Pretty discouraging, but I've been studying hope lately so trying to have a good attitude!

Sunday, we had 2 people who weren't members come to church!! Maribell didn't come though... and she doesn't have a phone, so it is like impossible to communicate with her... hopefully she can still progress. But Sunday was still a good day. Didn't meet anyone new, but had a good dinner with a Hmong member, and had a cool lesson with a Hmong lady. Apparently she had read a lot of the Book of Mormon (which was awesome!!!!) but when we read it with her she really struggled to understand... but she read!!! So no complaints!

All in all, not gonna lie, this was one of the tougher weeks, but that's ago, it's bound to happen every now and again! I'm kinda getting tired of having everything the same though... like I've been in the same area with the same companion for over 5 months now.. but on the bright side, transfers are a week from Tuesday and something is going to change with the Hmong elders. There are so many options. This is like the most exciting Hmong transfer ever. Not that I don't like Elder Gunsay, he is great, but things have been the same for so long!

Recently I've been studying a lot about hope, and I really like the way Elder Uchtdorf puts it in this talk. Really profound.

"Faith, hope, and charity complement each other, and as one increases, the others grow as well. Hope comes of faith, for without faith, there is no hope. In like manner faith comes of hope, for faith is “the substance of things hoped for.”

Hope is critical to both faith and charity. When disobedience, disappointment, and procrastination erode faith, hope is there to uphold our faith. When frustration and impatience challenge charity, hope braces our resolve and urges us to care for our fellowmen even without expectation of reward. The brighter our hope, the greater our faith. The stronger our hope, the purer our charity.

The things we hope for lead us to faith, while the things we hope in lead us to charity. The three qualities—faith, hope, and charity—working together, grounded on the truth and light of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, lead us to abound in good works."

I love this quote because we always read in the scriptures, like faith, hope and charity, but I never thought about how they are all related. Also, before this he talks about how faith and hope and charity are all like a leg of a three-legged stool that is the foundation upon which we can have a lot of good works. So I thought that was really cool. My invitation for you guys is to look at ways you can have more hope in Christ! That's what I'm trying to do through this past tough week at least. Love you guys!!

Love, Elder Muaj Koob