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