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!