See you tomorrow!

Well I guess I can just tell you about my week tomorrow.. Its still unreal thinking that I'll be on my way back to VA.. Crazy stuff!!

I'm gunna get some good pictures taken today and hopefully have some fun to! I'm actually not nervous at all which is weird.. mainly because its still not sinking in no matter how much I tell myself I'm leaving its just hard to believe ahah I guess thats a good thing!

We have a couple lessons scheduled tonight which will be awesome! I'm glad that I'll get to teach! Its actually crazy looking back at the past week how the Lord blessed us and allowed me to do some good work!! we taught 26 lessons!!! which was so awesome!! we had 14 lessons taught with members present! that is way good for missionaries! we also found 13 new investigators!! in a normal week you find like 2. We had an awesome time working with the Burmease!! we found a new family! they are going to be setting 4 Baptisimal dates with Burmease next week!! so tight! the only problem is i didn't get pictures with most of them.. but thats ok :) I think i might try and request this area as my last one! get some Burmease language down!

We also found an awesome new English family of 5 to teach! the dad is a la member but the wife and the kids are so ready to learn!! they fed us steak last night for dinner. But ya there was a bunch and I loved every second of it :) The only time reality hit in and I started to really feel going home was last night when we were watching Finding Faith in Christ with Shawna Bowman who is a way cool investigator. Anyways I was just sitting there watching the spirit testify to Shawna that Christ is the way back to our Father in Heaven and it was just dang...I'm doing something eternally important right now. The message that Shawna is learning and receiving will completely change her life and everything. I felt super grateful that I have been able to share that with others for the past year.. I know I haven't even been close to the most successful missionary. And I have so much to work on. But I've worked my hardest.. I can honestly say I've tried my hardest everyday so far even when I didn't want to and that feels good :) haha It feels even better knowing that I'll get to keep doing this stuff and get fixed up at the same time!

I love you all! See some of you tomorrow! 

Well - 1 more week in Paradise! haha

Hey everyone! It was actually a really good week :) haha it was crazy but way fun!

I got my ticket info on Wednesday which was nuts.. I'm leaving next Tuesday morning at 530 in the morning. I'll be getting into Norfolk at like 5 or so... It still hasn't really set in that I'm actually going to be in VA in like a week.. but I'm kinda glad for that! haha I think its an answer to a prayer that I'll be able to treat this week as just a normal week on the mission and get to work! I have had some peace about everything :) its been nice! We had interviews with president this week and that was good we got to talk about during the surgery then what will happen after and that helped alot. I'm hoping to try to keep my schedule as much as I can especially my study schedule! I'm actually excited to get some of the reading that I've wanted to done so that will  be nice! 

Making peach cobbler with Elder Perdue

We have some good stuff going for us in our area - one of our wards is on fire! we have a baptism this Saturday of Anthony! he is so cool! he's like the most spiritual 12 year old ever!! We also have a part-member family where 2 son James(11) and Landon(9) are getting baptized on September 28th and Holly the mom is coming along! We are gunna get her to church! and she's gunna get dunked with her kids! I'm pumped! We also have Pah-ley this Burmese guy and his family who want to get baptized! we asked him why and he said because he feels the holy Spirit when we teach him! man those people are so awesome! we also are teaching the Bo Thien family, Bo was a Buddhist monk in Mayanmar(Burma) but he feels the spirit when we teach him about Jesus Christ! his wife is a strong Christian and wants him to develop faith so bad! We invite him to read out of the New Testament because they don't have the BOM in Burmese yet.. He cried when he read John 3:16 and we were able to tell him that it was the God telling him that Jesus is our savior and that through him we can receive Eternal life! he said that he will try to develop faith! I love it! We found a whole Burmese family of 5 this week! They just lost their youngest son a month ago and teaching them has been awesome so far! We are going to invite the family to be baptized this week! Hahaha

It seems that I always leave and area right before we have like 20 baptisms but that's ok! It really doesn't matter if I see it as long as it happens! I love it! It really has brought me so much peace recently knowing that I have made a difference so far on my mission :) I'm glad that I will get to reevaluate what I've done on my mission and discover how I can improve! Being a missionary is definitely a learning process. You never really feel like you know how to do the work but you do get better as you walk forward. We've really been trying to work on receiving revelation and praying specifically for specific goals for people and it has been awesome! Its the best feeling in the world to get insight for and investigator and then go and use it with faith and see how its exactly what they need! I love it! its amazing to see God in our lifes when we really look :) I know that it will be harder once I'm home but its something I've needed to work on! So be grateful for blessings this week and try and notice how God works in your lives this week!

I love you all! haha see you next week!

Peace ;) E macfarlane!

Well Howdy :)

haha that is a recognized greeting of Twinfalls Idaho!

Its been a crazy week and it was kind of hard for awhile. I had my first ever sick day on the mission on Tuesday.. haha I was up all night with the stomach flu and was just super wiped and weak the next day and couldn't do a whole lot.. We really are blessed to live with such amazing members here though. Sis Waters is like my Idaho mom and she made me peppermint tea and gave me medicine to help me feel better! She is so amazing! It makes me worry for missionaries who don't get to live with families haha they don't have moms away from home to take care of them! We also had as bunch of lessons cancel and fall through this week which was kinda rough but we worked through it and contacted like a million people lol! We try not to just straight tract to find, normally we'll make lists of in-active and Part-member families that live in the same neighborhood and we go visit all of those and invite them to learn and come back and  all that good stuff :) haha which can yield a lot of good results or you can have alot of people that really don't want the church right now come and talk to you haha which can be fun ;) haha we had more of the latter this past week, but we do what we can! In our 2 wards they both have about 580 members listed on the roster and only about 250 each come to church.. Which is still alot but there is a ton of LA work to do! There are people prepared to came back and learn about the gospel so we keep pluggin along!

Rusty!! We were blessed to be able to dedicate his son's grave...

Chase's Baptism with Elder Perdue & his comp

We found a new Burmese investigator this week! haha his name is Day Poe and he is way cool! He speaks pretty good English and with the years of listening to teachers with heavy Chinese accents I can actually understand him pretty well! He's around our age and love sports and he's newly married but his wife is in Oklahoma for the next year.. Which has been rough on him but he has to stay here and work! The Burmese really put us to shame! They work so hard and their families mean everything to them! We have a bunch of our investigators that sacrifice their only day off to come to church and they can't even understand anything being taught! haha we went to there Sunday school class yesterday which was super funny ;D hahaha they teach them English church words and then teach them super briefly! its awesome! We started teaching a new family where the dad Jeremy is a member who wants to come back and his kids want to get baptized and his wife Holly is still questioning lol :) haha she's super funny but she loves us and is coming around! Anthony our 12 year old is doing well still! we taught him the Word of Wisdom and invited him to live it and he was like of course! He drinks coffee and tea everyday and he had like no problem giving it all up! unfortunately we have to push his baptism back a week cuz he didn't come to church yesterday.. But thats ok! Really we need to work with his mom Kelly to get her more converted!  So thats whats going on as far as the work goes.

Looking over the canyon - this spot is pretty sweet!

It was kinda hard working with president this week to getting everything ready for me going home.. It's just been a little stressful. I think the whole uncertainty of how quickly it will go and how long it will take before I get back has been kind of weighing on me.. Me and Elder Durney are just going to try to work hard and have fun though this week! I hope we really can bless this area with the time we have left. It hit me like a brick realizing that I'll be home in like 2 weeks.. that's just nuts.. It seems like I've been here forever and its just crazy to think I have to leave it.. I guess everything happens for a reason. I read Mosiah 3:19 and the end of the verse really hit me this time. I know that I need to develop patience and be submissive to everything that Heavenly Father decided to put on me. I know that we have trials for a reason and we learn from each and every one of them. I've taught that lesson like 500 times on my mission so far but now I need to internalize it and apply it to my life. Keep the prayers up! It'll be a good next couple of weeks!

I love you guys! Have an awesome week!

Hello. VIA TFS!!

Well whats up eustedes??

haha so this week was pretty dang cool actually! Like It was tough leaving Jerome but I prayed that I would be filled with love for my new area and holy cow that worked! I freakin Love it! Its just sweet! We had a baptism of a ex member named D! That was super cool! D has been out of the church for 32 years and forgot like literally everything and hearing his story is really humbling. He prayed about 6 months ago about what God truly wanted him to do and he got an answer that he needed to give the mormons another chance and he said that he was like NOOO!! hahaha but he is a huge example to me of how the Atonement can heal a broken heart and how the Holy Ghost can comfort a troubled soul!  I just got to teach him once before his baptism but I was glad I got to be apart of it!! Chase in Jerome got Baptized this week too! I got to talk to him on the phone on Sat and he was super excited! man that guy is so humble! I'm so glad I had the opportunity to teach him from the beginning! going to the baptism would have been cool but the important thing is it happened and Chase is so happy that he can start a new life living the gospel of Jesus Christ!! Because of my surgery I might get to go with him to the temple and see him and Taylor get sealed!!

So the work out here is going ok! Hhaha there is tons of potential! We have a Burmese branch inside one of our English wards!!! its flippin sweet! haha when we teach them we have to have a translator which is a different experience but It has really strengthend my testimony of how the Holy Ghost can testify of truth even in a different languag! We taught a whole family of 6!! and they all committed to get baptized and come to all of church every week! We have another lesson with a family of 7 tonight!! its freakin awesome!! they are such a loveing and humble people! they like hunger for the gospel! They have had like 60 Burmease get baptised in the past 2 years or so! Its actually pretty crazy all the people that we teach! We teach 2 Iraqi families that are originally Muslim but they want to believe in Christanity! We also teach this brothers form boutsuana in Africa! they speak pretty good english but they are so freakin knowlegeable about the bible! but they also love learning and like reading out of the Book of Mormon!! We have a 12 year old named Anthony that is so freakin awesome!! We set a baptisimal date with him for September 7th! He love reading and praying and is a spiritual giant! his mom is LA and he drags her to church and all that! its cool :) We teach a couple other families and we have a ton of potential! The family we live with is so awesome! they take such good care opf us and they love us because we are trying to work hard and be obedient! which is a bit differetn then what they have experienced... Hahah there 14 yr old son Rockard loves board games and we play 15mins of monopoly with him as we write in our jurnels every night! Its fun! The work is good and we have a bunch of good stuff comeing! I love doing this work! It definitely can get hard sometimes but its so rewarding! I know that this is Gods work and I want to do it as best as I can! Today will be pretty cool!

 

LOVE YOU ALL!!! Thank you for the love and support!!

P.s my companion Elder Durney is way cool and so hard working! I love him! 

HOLA... from Twin Falls!

Well hey everyone!
I'm sorry about not emailing yesterday but it was crazy.. We had transfers and lo and behold just as things were getting awesome in Jerome I got transfered to Twin Falls... It hurt like crazy when I first got the phone call.. like I feel like I really put all of my heart and mind into that area like I haven't done before and because of all that I kinda fell in love with all my people.. But we get transfered for reasons and I know the Lord needs me here in the Twin South stake. I had to help organize and move people yesterday and work out getting cars around so thats why I didn't get to email. Eler Perdue is training in Jerome after only 9 weeks! crazy! My new comp Elder Durney has been out for 6 weeks and he is way cool! His last comp was E Bloomfeild!!!!! unfortunaly for him Bloom was going home and was feeling pretty lazy this past transfer so he didn't get the best example of missionary work.. or obedience.. But thats ok!! He is way cool and he is so willing to work hard and be obiedient so I'm stoked! Ok our area is like in down town(hahaha they have freaking corn and potato fields in the middle of the city out here lolololol) but we live on a farm kinda lol! We live with the Waters family and they are so awesome!! we had FHE with them last night and they gave us like 6 referals! nice! the area hasn't had a lot of work put into it for the past 6 months or so,so we are stoked to get it all jumpin!! Ok! so in Jerome the past week it was kinda tough.. we were in a 3some for awhile because one of our zonleaders got called to be an assistant to the president. So we worked both areas.. haha and on top of that our phone busted on Thursday so setting things up and contacting was tough.. It was good though! Chase is all set to be baptised this Saturday!!!!!! way pumped for that! He is so ready and he deffinitelpy has his eyes pointed on the temple in a year! which I could go to with him! Terrian is still on for September 7th. She took the transfer kinda hard but we are gunna see if I can go up to baptise her and Tory her 13yr old son. O yeah!!! Tory is getting baptised now to!! way cool! I didnt get pictures with them this time aroung though because they were out of town this past weekend. But yup! We had a bunch of fun! Elder Perdue is way nervous about training but he asked if he could have a blessing and we both felt alot better afterward. My testimony contiues to grow on how real the preisthood is and how really the Holy Ghost is. Its amzing to have words come out of your mouth in a lesson or a blessing or something that6 you know are not yours.. I love that :) I'm loveing my mission guys! It seriously the best thing that has ever happened to me! I'm really starting to realize just how much I have to be grateful for. I love you! Thanks for all of the love and support! keep the prayers rolling and i challenge yall for 15mins a day in the scrips! ;) sound like a deal!? Have an awesome week! MIRANDA!!!!!!!!!! Good luck at flippin college!! Love you!

Why Hello!

Hey everybody!!

this was a pretty crazy week as far as my weeks are conserned :) haha ofcourse we were just doing the same ole thing but it was just good! No update for my shoulder.. Dr Linjinquist called to see if I had heard anything from yall which i hadn't and I haven't read any of your emails yet so you know as much as me :)

The work has been going really well! It was the county fair this week which in Idaho is a huge deal... lol like the whole town shuts down to go watch things like pig wrestleing... which is really crazy.. also extremely.. country? haaha they make a massive mud pit then they grease up a big ole pig and you and your team have like 2 mins to catch it and put it in this bucket thing... hahahhahaha they have like all age groups! haha its a bi deal to be the pig wrestleing chapion in these parts!  Haha Everyone wanted us to make a missionary team for it because it would apparently be a great way to find people to recieve the gospel lol... we turned down that offer but it just funny.. People around here are to funny! I've noticed that I've deffinitley become more ascstomed to small country towns and stuff but I don't think I'm a cow-boy rancher quite yet lol.

 

 

We had some awesome teaching experiences this week! we Set a baptisimal date with Terrian Jenkins!!! holy cow that was the craziest thing ever! She has just completely through the Atonement 180 changed her life around am I'm so glad I got to be apart of it! Hahaha she had to set it for September 7th at 7'oclock because its the luckiest time lol. She wanted to do it on the 7th month as well but she didn't want to wait and she said that the 9th month can be just as lucky! It was just a super powerful lesson with her! We read Mosiah 18 8-10 with her and asked her what was holding her back and she said absolutely nothing that the Lord couldn't help her with! She has been super invloved in relief sosiety and wants to be called to be a ward missionary! haha she got a copy of PMG last week so she could learn our tricks so she can start warming her friends up to us! haha she is so funny! She is like the toughest lady ever and she NEVER cries but when she was telling us how grateful she has been for all of the missionaries that wouldn't give up on her and for how the perfect message of the gospel helped her come form the darkest place anyone can be to liveing in to constant light :) she was tearing up a little :) she's so awesome! She says that because of the darkness she saw she can see so easly the dark from the light and she is staying as far in the light as she can!! Its been crazy to see the change in her even since I got here! She used to be kinda sad and still had a darker countenance but now she is the happiest person ever and  her whole countance just seems to glow!!! its super cool!!! Deffinietly one of the miricles of serveing a mission!

I got to go on exchanges in the Spainish area this week! Which was super tight! I can testify now of the gift of toungues. I started the day off not understaning anything but as we sat and taught and talked to those people in Spainish the craziest thing happened! I could totally understand what they were talking about!! ahahaha like not every word at all but I understood what we were talking about. Especially when we got into Gospel topics and our lessons! that was way cool! I learned enough from E Grajalaz to bear my testimony of Christ and Joesph Smith and the Book of Moromon and just stuuf like that! which was so cool. I was super nervous to say anything at first but when It came my turn to testify I felt the spirit super strong and the words just came out smoothly and I know they understood them and felt the spirit to! haha they said my spainish was good but they were just being kind. It deffintiely wasn't eloquint but it just was a testimony builder that you don't have to speak all fancy, If it comes from your heart and its true the spirit will wittness the truth of it!!

We had a bunch of other really cool lessons! Cage the 13 year old we started teaching accepted an invite to be baptized and is just waiting for his brother to get some time to come up and baptise him!! way cool! he reads and prays ever night! Yup! it was a good week! The fair got in the way of a few lessons but we worked aroung it and were deffinitley blessed because of it! Me and E Perdue started asking every single member we talked to at church for referals and we got quite a few of them! that was super cool! haha and everyone we asked at least said they would be thinking about it and working on it! The culture of our wards is slowly becomeing more missionary minded and we are doing everything we can to move that along! I Know that the work is going to explode out here super soon!! We have transfers next monday and I'm really hopeing to stay 1 more with E Perdue but We'll see!

I love what I'm doing and I love you all!! Thank you for the prayers and support!

Love Elder Macfarlane!

Hey-yo people :)

Que onda mi amigos!

This was a really good week! But holy cow there was a bunch of stuff that reminded me of home! Its kinda funny though that even when I get reminded of home I don't get home sick anymore. Which is nice! I've been really blessed in that has never really been a big problem for me! My shoulder is feeling fine! I have no updates on my end really.. I got to go to the temple on Thursday that was awesome! I had the opportunity to just sit and pray and think about a bunch od things and the more I prayed and asked about my shoulder surgery the more at peace I felt about the whole situation which was really awesome! I kinda just got the answer that Heavenly Father wants me to take care of my self, and that I will still be his servant during my surgery and I'll get to go back after! I also got the feeling that if I would use my faith and work with my situation he would lift me up and help me magnify my calling even if I'm not 100%. So that was cool :) haha I've been really worried and hurting at the idea of having to leave and take a break right when I'm getting the hang of all this but now I'm much more at peace with the idea! Thank you for the prayers! I've definitely felt them! Its pretty crazy the difference they have made! haha my testimony of Heavenly Fathers lover for us has definitely been strengthened!

Any ways the week was awesome! Our fireside last night went really well!!! we had the whole stake center packed with people all the way to the back of the gym and up on the stage!! People seemed to really get involved and I thought me and e Perdue pretty much beasted our part ;) haha whats pretty crazy I realized that before my mission I got super nervous top talk just in our sacrament meetings and now I wasn't nervous at all last night and there was over 700 people there last night!!! haha I can definitely tell that even us English missionaries get gifts of the spirit because I was able to just speak clearly the words that came to my mind and joke with everyone and it was a good time! haha I'm sure I'll go back to getting super nervous after my mission! But anyways for the closing hymn of the fireside the missionaries sang the first verse of called to serve and then the congregation joined in the second verse! Holy cow!!!!!!! The spirit was almost over powering! As soon as we started the second verse everyone started to stand up and you could look out over the audience and there was a lot of people with tears in there eyes singing about our mandate to spread the gospel. That was definitely one of the more memorable moments of my mission so far!

 

The Church is so strong here and the members have such a strong desire to serve our Father in Heaven! we are really blessed to be here at this time and to be a part of the work of salvation for the children of God! We also had a bunch of awesome lessons this week! Kara Scott who is an incredible investigator who has had such a hard life called us and said she wants to set a goal to be baptized! she has been reading the assignments we've given her and praying hard about making this change in her life and she said that the most incredible feeling of peace came over her! we are going to set a baptismal goal for September with her this week! Terrian came to all of church yesterday!!!!!!!!! which was freakin cool! she said that August is her new start and for now on she is coming to church every sunday!! the bishop and members of the ward were so warm and welcoming!! holy cow I love that woman! she is so awesome and I am amazed at how the light have Christ as illuminated her life and brought a great change in her! heck ya! It people like her and Kara and a bunch of the others we get to teach that make this so rewarding! I've really found lately when I try my hardest to absolutely forget my self and do what the Lord wants me to by serving with all my heart I have been filled with desire to do this work and love for my peoples :) Chase is still on track to get baptized on the 24th and he commited to live the Word of Wisdom!

That's about it for my week! thanks for all of the love and support! Keep me in the loop about whats been going on ok?? haha I love My savior and his work! Its just freakin cool!

Have an stupendous week!!!!
Love E Aaron mac!

Training, teaching, and baptisms in LaGrande

Hey everybody!! This week was pretty awesome but it felt super long for some reason..

As far as my Shoulder updates I don't know a whole lot more then you all do. I had President and Sister Curtis join me and Elder Perdue for our companion study on Thursday and then we had interviews with President afterward. It felt good to just sit and talk about the whole situation. He's all for helping me get the ball rolling with all the doctors stuff and also in making the right decision. He gave me a blessing afterwards and I felt alot more at peace about the possibility of getting this done now. So we'll see how long it will take to get all of the doctor stuff and appointments taken care of. I'm just trying to not let it bother me. Thank you all for fasting and praying for me!!! I know that its helped a bunch!! thats for sure! I'm still looking at my options but I really have been feeling more at peace with getting it taken care of now! Honestly it doesn't hurt like at all!! Like its just weird.. It just feels really loose and unstable and I can definitely feel it bounce around in there and stuff but its not painful! Haha the reason Id get surgery now is so I wont have sever arthritis pain when I'm 30 lol. But I am definitely willing to just be patient and see how everything pans out!

    The week was really good though! We had a trainers meeting thing on Wednesday and that was awesome! It was actually pretty crazy, I had been praying super hard all morning to be able to feel the Spirit and learn what I needed to learn and all that and I definitely had my prayer answered! haha I guess that I must have had some emotions built up or something because of all this medical stuff cuz like everything made me cry lol like I was kinda a mess haha and that almost never happens to me. But It was just really amazing to feel the Holy Ghost just kinda overpower me when I needed to hear something! It was a cool experience :) haha I realized just how much I still had to work on and everything and how much I still had to grow as a missionary and person but ya can't change something unless you know you need to change!

Anyways we had some incredible lessons this week! We have 2 more weeks left in this transfer and I really hope I get to stay but we'll see whats up.. I Love this area though!! the members are so incredible! one of our wards is so entirely focused on missionary work its freakin legit! haha I never really thought about if we had a missionary minded ward back home.. I feel like we might have had some improving to do ;) but its super cool! we are having a stake wide fast for missionary work this Sunday and a fireside on being an everyday missionary and everyone is super excited about it! they have been announcing it for 2 weeks already and everyone is talking about it! We have a member of the 70 coming Elder and sister Allen and President and Sister Curtis are coming as well! It'll be awesome!! haha Its a little nerve racking because I get to talk and teach quite a bit and it'll be pretty much a stake conference size deal on missionary work! but I'm pumped!!

The work here in Jerome is about to explode and I'm super excited to be here to see it! I just hope I don't get transferred before all of the fruits of our labors come in!! C is still super pumped about his baptism! and we are going to be setting at least 2 more dates this week with a couple of youth that we are going to begin teaching! One of them (CP 13) we found by contacting a part member family before and appointment and while the parents were super not happy to see us C was all excited and accepted and invite to take the lessons and has been coming to church with his grandma ever since! super awesome! he's a good kid! I love being able to teach youth because I know that if they can make changes know and accept the gospel in their lives they can avoid most if not all of the heartache our older investigators have felt! T committed to come to church every week starting in August!! We are going to get her to talk with her parole officer and get her an interview with president Curtis and she can get baptized!!! she strengthens my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ so much because her life was just completely full of darkness and now it is full of light and happiness!!! She'll kill it as a Relief Society president someday!!! Some people I taught in Lagrande got baptized recently!!! S this past Saturday and SF 2 weeks ago!! super awesome!! 

   This week we are going to work hard and kill it! our area is really beginning to come along and we are haveing a blast in doing it! I haven't felt as frustrated or stressed recently and while the work is still hard and a little scary it is just been super enjoayable and I've been feelin pretty good :)

Thanks again for all of the love and support!!! Send some prayers Larissa's way ok?? SHE'S GOING TO ARGENTINA TODAY!!!! Thats sweet! I love you all! thank you so much!!

Love

Elder Aaron Macfarlane!

Well hey peoples of home!

So Hola! haha this week has been kinda crazy! I 'll get the boring part out first.


Me at the Twin Temple! haha its so pretty! haven't been able to go in yet but hopefully soon!!

    So I'm sure you all know by now but I had a doctors appointment on Thursday. I finally felt like I just had to get it checked out and I couldn't wait anymore. Doctor Mckee is a really good doctor and he's a member as well so that was nice. Its apparently just as or more unstable as it was before. He's not sure of what condition my labrum is in but I got X-rays and the bone socket that holds the round arm bone part(I forgot all the medical names for these things haha) in place is broken.. apart of the circleular area has been shoved back down my arm which allows my shoulder to pretty much slide in and out and all around pretty constantly.. He says it feels pretty bad and that I will need open surgery on the bone to re-shape the whole socket area and probably put the labrum back together as well.. So thats all kinda tough. He recomended surgery soon but he told me to make sure I get a blessing and to fast and pray to see if its what the Lord wants me todo right now. I'm all for that! haha it didn't even really hit me that I might have to go home for surgery untill the next day when President Curtis called me and talked about the situation... I probably haven't cried like that for awhile.. I just really don't want to leave.. you here about missionaries that have to take time off for medical issues but you never think it will be you. It just hit me super hard how much I love what I'm here doing and how incredibly grateful I am to have this chance and to be right here in Twin Falls Idaho.. If it was up to me I would wait untill my time is up but I'm definitely going to find out as much as I can and pray and fast really hard before deciding to go back for surgery. I just know I'm here for a reason and I want so bad to beable to serve and do everything I am meant to do. That all :) anyways I guess I'll be finding out more about the whole thing here pretty soon. I'm deffinitely open to all advice for sure :) haha whether   I have to go home for a bit or I get to stay and finish I just want yall to know that I love being here and honestly it is the biggest blessing I've ever recieved and its not a sacrifice at all! haha the thought of being released to be home for surgery soon is super weird.. I'll have no idea what to do with myself lol!

    Anyways heres the good part! We had an awesome week!!! despite distractions we were able to pick ourselves up and get work done!! The most awesomest part was on Saturday we set 2 baptismal dates!!! one with C Who I've talked about a bit but he is so awesome!! we were just teaching about faith and reading out of Alma 32 with him when we felt inspired to ask him how his prays about being ready have been going and him and his wife both got the biggest smiles on their faces and he said 'they've been good and I think he's telling me I'm ready to be dunked"!!! haha so awesome! The next one was a kid we met for the first time!! His name is Z and he is 16 and just moved up form Utah!! The Spanish elders accidentally ran into him and asked him if he would like to learn about Heavenly Father and he said yes!! They set up a time for us and we came by and taught him the Restoration and he said it just felt right! He agreed to read out of the Book of Moromon and pray for confirmation that he is making the right choice! He agreed to be baptized on Aug 24th! We are pumped! he didn't make it to church yesterday because his mom made him drive her to SLC.. She is an athiest so we have been praying really hard for her heart to be softened and all of that! So that was way cool!

 

We also found a few solid new investigators and a bunch of them are really making some great progress!! We are super pumped! We are definitely blessed for staying focused and keeping the work up! The member support is just awesome! we have been getting Home and Visiting teachers assigned to our investigator families and getting all of the auxiliaries involved in helping them progress! Its meant the world to a bunch of people! We had the opportunity to teach a woman named L this week who really needs the gopel right now! She lost her husband 3 months ago and she is losing her house right now.. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation and invited her to read an pray. She says she really wants to have her faith strengthened again and she know that we'll be able to help her do that! We are meeting with her this week so that'll be awesome! Its just been good all around teaching and doing service! 

    Haha don't worry about me I'm fine! It really doesn't hurt to bad and its definitely manageable! Just pray that the whole insurance and getting all of the medical thingts set up and squared away goes smoothly so that all of this can get done! I'm just going to work really hard in the mean time and focus only on the people out here! Thank you for all of the love and support and all of that jazz! It means the world! I love what I'm doing and I want to keep doing it for as long as I can!

 

Have an awesome week! Let me know whats up at home yall slackers!!!! haha

Love

E Aaron Macfarlane!

Buenos Dias!

Hhaha Hola! como estas!?!
I'm a missionario de la espanol now lol! haha it was a fun week! mi districo esta fantastico! its kinda weird having 5 spainish missionaries in my district but its cool! District meeting was super fun! I spoke in all the Spainish I knew and I probably offended sis Maese(who is from a actual mexican family that  speaks only spainish..) haha but I had a good time!

Elder Bennett was in Twin for 3 weeks - we hung out all day on P-day! I love that lil guy!!

It felt weird being a district leader which is just one of those silly missionary things but still... Hahaha I'm going to get to go on exchanges with the Spanish elders in the Spanish area! I'm excited to pick up some more words! We went to a legit Mexican place for lunch and I ate my first Leguo! Which is cow tongue! haha the texture felt super weird.. but it tasted pretty good! this place also serves Tripas which is pig intestines! nice! 

   The week was super good though! we had a few awesome lessons! C is comeing along and I'm really thinking that we'll set a Bap date with him soon! If he gets dunked soon I'll get to go with him to the temple and see his family get sealed! that would be so sick! We helped T move this week. She is this super awesome lady who has been in and out of jail for most of her life. So while we were helping her move I accidentally dropped a picture of Christ on the ground and I kept on taking other things out of the truck. She immediately ran over and picked the picture up and cleaned it off and said "I'm sorry buddy" :) That picture was the first thing to be put up in her house<3 That was the most incredible feeling. Her love for the Savior is so strong because she has had to lean on him so much to lift herself up and change! She is so awesome! If her parole officer gives her permission she will be baptized her very soon!

We started teaching a new family this week! Their names are M and L. They are super cool! M is a member and L was raised Baptist! We talked to them for like an hour on Saturday and holy cow they have had a colorful past! haha matt has been to jail a few times and used to be involved with a pretty rough crowd. They are really trying to turn their lives around though! They are getting married this week! we invited them to hear the lessons and they said they would love to! L will definitely get baptized and it would be so cool if Matt could get worthy to preform the baptisim! We'll see though! We have 3 sets of kids who are getting really close to baptism! they are so awesome! most of these kids have a better knowledge and desire then I did at their age! The Ms V(15) and E13) are really cool! We had a lesson just all about why the gospel of Jesus Christ is so important! That is like the first time I've taught someone who had like no idea about the Atonment before but completely understood what we taught them! It was awesome! the only thing slowing us with them and alot of these kids is that they trade off between divorced parents during the summer. I feel so bad for them because you can tell it hurts a bunch having their families separated.. I think  that it has brought them to search for love from their Father in Heaven though so that is way cool. We teach in alot of homes that our ether broken or just messed up. We teach alot of people that have been to prison and have been involved with some serious stuff. Its incredible :) I love this kind of work! The Lord prepares people to hear the gospel. Just like in the BOM with the Zoramites people in humble circumstances turn to God for help and he is so willing to open his arms to them and forgive them and heal them. Its the most amazing feeling to see the spiritual scars a person caries with them heal! Some of these ex-convicts are such spirtual power houses because they have tangibly felt the physical and spiritual healing powers of the Atonement.

My faith has grown so much and my desire to help these people continue to learn and grow has changed and grown so much. I am really trying to allow love to be my motivator for all of my actions. And its not easy thats for sure! I get tired and I get cranky and sometimes I even feel lazy ;) haha but the more I try to love the people I am called to minister to, the easier it is to fight off all of those negative emotions! its been cool :) I had the opportunity to speak on Sunday and it was so awesome! I had the spirit give me so much of my talk right there on the spot! It is the most amazing feeling to know that the Holy Ghost is with you and can guide and direct you. I really do want to always be worthy enough so that the Lord can use me as a tool when he needs to!

I love you all so much! haha I've been missing home and all of you this week but I've felt alot of peace and comfort to helping me out! I'm 11 months today!!! aint that crazy!!!!! hahaha let me know how yall's weeks be going ok??

Love E Aaron!

Hey all my peoples!!

Whats upp!!!!! this week was freakin awesome!! no kidding it was a ton of fun! haha the 4th made it a little bit harder to do missionary work but we just had some fun! 

Soooo I guess the biggest news this week is we got transfer calls on saturday(we had a 3 week transfer..) and me and elder Perdue are both staying!!! which is way sweet!! we were eating breakfast with the english sisters and the Spanish zoneleaders at our High councilmen over missionary works house when we got our calls and I wasn't nervous at first but the spainish got theirs first and there was a ton of changes!! like everyone was moving and they created like 5 new areas sooo i got pretty nervous for ours.. our district got changed alot! we added a set of spainish elders and sisters and the old district leader got transfered out and they made me the new District leader.. Essentially all that means is that I check up on all the people of my district and lead district meetings once a week. I'm actually pretty excited about it! me and Elder Perdue are gunna have some super fun District meetings! theres 11ppl in my district which is the biggest district in the mission... so that'll be interesting. Haha but thats whats new!

Shoshone Falls (outside of Twin Falls)

Our week was solid! we didn't have as many teaching appointments because of people being out of town but the lessons we did teach were flippin awesome! We have a family of 5 named the Perishs that we finally had a lesson with! they are pretty cool! haha the mom has been a little disinterested lately so we just went there with bro Black and pretty much taught a whole lesson of testimony of how the gospel will bless their family! they definitely felt the spirit and they agreed to put more effort into learning and finding the truth of our message! The whole family came with us to a convert baptisim in one of the other wards on Saturday which was super good for the kids! they are 15, 13, 11, and 10! the youngest son Mikey is so on fire and loves church and the gospel! he reads out of the friend every day! if he had the chance he would be baptised tomorrow! but we want the whole family to expereince the same conversion so they can be there for each other!

We taught this woman named Terriann Jenkins and her son on Saturday night! it was awesome! terrian got out of prision a couple years ago and she is doing all she can to turn her life around! her son(Tory, 13) was with his dad while she was in prison and he wasn't the best example to him so he's had a rough start to life.. but he has such a good heart! and he's super smart! we taught him about the true nature of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and he loved it! we invited them both to be baptised and they both said yes! Terrian needs to work some stuff out with her Parol officer and she'll need to be interviewed by the mission president but she'll do it!! we are going to help them move into a new house out of this ghetto trailor park this week and its just way cool! we are hopeing to set a date with at least Tory this week!

sandy wind storm on the 4th of July!

We found a new Investigator last night with Bro Black! her name is Kara Scott and she is so awesome! she also got out of prison about 2 years ago.. she said that in jail she started to really read out of the bible and she attended LDS services! she was taught about almost all of the core doctirne of the church and was challenged to read and pray about the Book of Mormon! she said she did and knew that it was true! she just got the most excited happy feeling after she asked! Its so cool how the Holy Ghost works with each of us to give us the awnsers and help that wer most need! but anyways she had some friends show up but we set up a time for Thursday and she said she was super excited to learn more! also what was really cool with her is that 2 weeks ago while she was praying she heard a whisper in heart/head that Christ needed her to quit smoking now! so she's been working on it and she's already down to like 1 a day!! isn't that neat! the Lord deffinitely prepares people to be ready and willing to accept the gospel!! I'll keep yall up to date on her!

We had a lesson with this dude named Chase Satterwhite and his wife taylor! he promised his wife that some day they would be sealed in the temple! so we were teaching and asking him abunch of questions and bearing testimony when we asked him if he knew the BOM was true and he said he did. We asked him if knew Joesoph Smith was  Prophet of God and he said he did. We asked him if he believed the LDS church was Christ's church on the earth and he said he absolutely did! Recently he's found a new job with better influences around him that allows him to go to church on Sunday to! we asked him why he hasn't been baptised and he said he felt unprepared. So we bore testimony that he was ready and by takeing this step now he'll be so blessed! He promised to pray every night this week to find out that he was ready!! I love that guy! he made some mistakes early in life but he married his Girlfriend and is working hard to provide for his family which includes a super cute 7 month old boy named Asher! I'm stoked for them!

So thats the teaching highlights!

On the 4th we had a ward breakfast in the morning which was fun! its so nice to actually get to know the members here and spend some time with them! We then had a 4th lunch party at this super awesome old guy named John's tiny little house! haha we had 6 missionaries in there! but he made the works for us as far as food! He is the funniest guy ever! I love that guy so much! We spent the rest of the day with a few different member families, more getting to know and haveing fun then teaching but it was nice to have a relaxing day to :) at night we sat on our porch and watched Fireworks with the Powell family who we live with! that was sweet! we could see like 4 fireworks shows from their back porch! that family is so amazing!

We had the opportunity a couple mornings this week to go with them to put up a barbwire fence at their son's house! That was fun! I now am pretty proficient in the whole barbwire fencing business ;) haha its cool to learn stuff like that! O ya! yesterday we had a powerhouse fast and testimony meeting!!! the spirit was so strong! the Powell boys James(16) and Josh(14) went and bore thier testimonies on missionary work which was so cool! they are like my little brothers away from home! Anyways thats about all I have time for! 

It sounds like yall had a sweet 4th! Mnm and Mic were complaining about yard work lol ;) hahaha yard work becomes fun on the mission! have fun and relax! I hope you all are healthy and can avoid more injury this month!

I love shareing the Gospel of Christ guys :) it can be super hard and tedious at times but I've really been trying to give God all of my heart and mind.. I read a talk about becoming a consecrated disciple of the Lord and I want that so badly! It talked about how when we give our will to the Lord he will bring us happiness and mold us into the person we are capable of becoming. I love you all so much! thanks for the love and support!

Love E Aaron!

Week 2 in Jerome!

Hey all yalls!!

What a crazy week!!! haha we had a ton of great stuff happen and i'm not really sure where to start.. We got our new mission president on Saturday!!!! President and Sister Curtis! that was nuts! We had a big meeting to get to know them and they seem really awesome and just ready to get to work! thats my kind of mission president! they are form utah but have been sereveing a mission in Georgia when they got there call to come here! so thats cool they know what it feels like to be a missionary!

*(note: all the pics in this post are flashbacks from LaGrande - not from Jerome)

The Chadwick fam! haha we taught a lesson in there home every week for 6 months! so awesome I love them!!!  

They told us about some crazy changes and stuff.... drum roll.... we aren't aloud to wear backpacks anymore... haha the church instead asks us to use man purses... or "saddle bags" that stinks... so ya I have 3 months to find one that I like to replace the good old backpack.. but the cool thing is the reason we wont wear backpacks anymore is because we wont be carying that much materieals any more!! because by the end of this year we are going to be a completely digital mission and each companionship will have an ipad for record keeping and teaching!! haha thats pretty crazy! other things changed now to like we can wear kaki pants now!!! haha I know sweet!!!! I'm pretty excited lol! but ya they just really relaxed the dress code and the church is letting more personality through in the way we dress! haha still white shirts and ties though! but ya theres a bunch of new stuff going on! 

And DOUG!!! At his goat cabin in the mountains!! - Holy hard it was to say goodbye to this guy but I love him so much!

In the area we were without a car for a few days cuz the other missionaries put a nice dent in it.. so we walked in the heat and we were blessed for it! we were able to teach so many LA members!!! it was pretty crazy! literally everyone seemed to be home! We also found a guy who invited us in for some water and asked us for a BOM!!! That was legit!! haha too bad he's moveing in a couple weeks but he is just full of questions!

We taught a coulple kids named Chloe and Trevan who are 11 and 13 and holy cow they are so prepared! They are like spiritual giants and have a way better understanding of the gospel then I did at their age! They will get baptized soon! the only problem is they go to church with their grandparents up in Burley Idaho soo it makes the whole baptiseing them in this ward kinda tricky! they are so solid and read and pray everyday though! That seems to be the case with alot of the young people we teach in this area! The kids are thirsty for it and have to drag their parents along! It goes to show that this comeing generation is even more rightous and ready for the world then mine was! ummm The family we live with is super awesome!

Me and Mallory and the Royers!! I love those ppl!!

The Powells have a son on a mission and take super good care of us!! we had a big breakfast with them this morning on their poarch over looking the valley which was super cool! We also tuaght a guy this week named Chase who promised his wife that they WILL have a Temple marriage so you can say he's pretty golden! he's super cool to and will get dunked here pretty quick! Me and Perdue have been getting along super well! I love that kid! he is an awesome teacher and is just a spiritual giant! I think we'll be able to have some good sucsess together!

Me and one of the Royers

Our wards are really good! Bro Black is a ward missionary in one of our wards and he seriously would come out with us every day! he spent probably a solid 6 hours teaching lessons and driveing us around this week! I've never seen such a devoted member missionary! His love for everyone is just incredible to! He tells us literally everywhere he takes us home much he loves the people we are going to see and it show in our lessons! We started teaching a new family this week! Terrian Jenkins and her son Tory and his friend Suga Shane Moses lol haha he's like the only black kid in Jarome! but they are awesome and super solid! They have had a really rough life and Terri says that literally everytime we come over its an awnser to one of her prayers!! wow! its really feels good when someone understands how much you want to help them and how much the message of the gospel will do for them! 

That's about it! We have been super blessed in this area and I know its because how hard we are working to be deligent and obedient! It crazy how much Heavenly Father loves us! We gave a blessing to a woman last night and as soon as we walked in ther door the spirit was there and I felt this unbeleavable love that can only come from a loving heavenly father! Bro Black gave the blessing and it was really powerful! Its incredible that the power to administer to the sick is back on ther earth! It made me really grateful for Dad how he was always willing and worthy to use use the Priesthood to bless our family. I deffinitely want that for my future family! I've seen to many broken homes who don't have access to that and it really does affect everything!

I love you all so much! Share the gospel and all of that jazz!

Love Aaron

Hello from Twin Falls!

Hahaha hey errrr body! This week has been so crazy!

well I left Lagrande on Monday and I got to Jerome/Twin on Wednesday!

My comp's name is elder Perdue and he's from Dallas Texas! he's a pretty cool lil guy :) haha he sang in the BYU Men's Choir for a year before he came out so thats pretty fly. Haha I'm gunna get him to sing to some of our investigators ;) but ya he's super spiritual and very prepared for the work! Haha he is still really quit and very nervous but the awesome thing is even if he's terrified to talk to someone he'll do it if I ask him to so that's awesome! It'll be a good transfer! So we have a 3 week transfer right now! which is pretty crazy! aha me and Perdue wont get transfered at the end of it but there will be 35 new missionaries comeing into the Twin falls mission! thats crazy! So ya everything is changing pretty quick! President Cannon goes home in a week and President Curtis is coming to be the New Twin Falls mission president! It'll be neat to see all of the changes but its pretty sad to see P-cannon and sis Cannon leave! They've done their time though lol! 

 

So Jerome!!!

Its a town about the same size of Lagrande just outside of Twin Falls! Me and Elder Perdue cover 3 wards who all meet in the same building which is super cool! it makes sunday's so much easier because we don't have to drive around all day going to meetings in different buildings! The area is half rural half town. The farming area's are super cool! The people are just so humble and love the Lord! our wards are pretty fired up about missionary work but theres not a whole lot of work going on.. The last missionaries in the 2 area's that had our wards were ether super lazy or spread way too thin so there wasn't to much happening in any of our wards but thats ok! Me and Elder Perdue are going to work like crazy and get this place on Fire! Our Bishops Thompson, King, and Radford are way cool! and they are so ready for more missionary attention! So we are ready to get it done!

Our ward Mission leaders are freakin sweet too! Bro Perry, Wight, and Walker! They all said they will come out with us whenever we need! Probably the best thing going in our area is a ward missionary Bro Black!! he is so awesome!!! He went out with us on Saturday in the middle of his family reunion! He pretty much talks the gospel to everyone he meets and he is the fellowshiper for like 7 of our investigators in his ward! I'm excited to work with him and get some stuff done! There’s definitely alot of potential! We teach alot of teenage kids of inactive parents and we are excited to get them coming back to church and get some baptisims! We had a good lesson with a family the Mcmillians Tessa and Eric are 16 and 12 and they want to come to church and now all we have to do is get them a little more knowledge and get the family to church and get them baptized! super awesome!

Me and elder Perdue also found this super awesome guy named Rual just talking to people in a trailer park and he is so prepared! We taught him the Restoration and he accepted everything! When we talked about Joesph Smith he just said that it made so much sense and it sounded right! We had to leave pretty soon after that because his girlfriend who he hadn't seen in 6 months pulled up which he was so funny and happy to see her that it was ok that we had to end early! But ya! we are going back and he is so getting baptized!! but ya! the work is good! we definitely have to re-build abunch of stuff but it feels good to work hard and to see an area pick up! hopefully we'll be having a few baptisms here pretty soon! so ya! anything else you all want to know??

I lost my camera on the way over here so I can't send any pictures... pray that I'll be able to find it cuz that has all my picture of my whole mission on it so far.. but hopefully it'll turn up soon and I'll get you all plenty of pictures! Ilove you all and I'm super excited to get to work in this new area! Me and Elder Perdue have been really trying to be obedient so we can be a blessing in the lives of these people! So ya I know when we are obedient to the commandments and we try to be like our Savior we have the ability to have greater companionship of the Holy Ghost!

Love you all!!!!! WHat up frm TWIN MISH!!

Going to Twin Falls Idaho Mission!

Hey everyone!!

  Sooo this has been a crazy past few days!! We got the transfer calls Saturday Morning and I'm heading down to Jarome Idaho. Its in the Twin Falls mission! that was pretty carzy! I deffinitely didn't seen that comeing! I'll be training a new missionary down there and I'm pretty excited about it! I'm not going to lie leaveing La Grande was hard though. You deffinitely make some good friends in 6 months and you develop alot of love for alot of people. It hurt but I did get a comforting feeling that I worked my hardest to build up The Kingdom of God in La grande and it feels good. I am deffinitely going back there after the mission!! Its a pretty incredible place with some pretty incredible peeps! haha plus a few people said if I came back they would take me around and show me all the fun unmissionary approved things in Lagrande lol! haha blowing up refrigerators with explosives is apparently a must lol! I'll send pictures of people I've been writeing about next week! I'm in Boise untill Wenesday and these computers are super slow...

So the week was really good! S is on track to get baptized in a few weeks! saying goodbye to her was kinda hard.. she is such a sweet woman and she is just so grateful for the knowlege of the gospel she now has. She says she has just felt alot more peace recently. D is doing well! we had another really good lesson with him up in his mountain cabin by candle light! He is such a spiritual giant! he has been having alot of concerns lately.. but we taught the plan of salvation and it awnsered alot of his questions. His health is going down pretty quickly.. He can't eat alot of solid foods anymore.. and his voice is slurring alot more. I know he has to be hurting so much. He told us some experiences about looking forward to the life to come, his faith is so strong. I hope to beable to see him again but I'm not sure if I'm going to in this life time. I love that guy so much. JT left for home on Wednesday but we had a couple lessons with him before he left. We gave him an Ensign to study so he can gain a testimony of our modern prophet. It's sad I wont get to see him baptized but he has changed so much! He's awesome and we are definitely staying in touch! 

Saying goodbye to A was kinda hard haha. She is so funny. I'm glad that she has missionaries still to help her and be there for her! She's doing awesome! The Members were hard to say goodbye to for sure. There are some awesome families that have been a really amazing example to me of a Christ centered home! Its made me pretty dang grateful for our family and how we were raised and how we made church and the gospel a priority!

Thank you so much for all of the love and support! I love you all so much! it makes a world of difference to know that I have a loving support group back home! It give me some pretty solid motivation!

Idaho Twin Falls Mission Office

421 Maurice Street North

Twin Falls, ID 83301-4932

This is my new mission mailing address! you all should send me some mail ;) haha love you all!!!