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!!!

Enterprise Oregon!

Sooo all yall hey!!!

I am super stoked about today!! we got up at 5 this morning so we could drive up early to Enterprise and have personal study lake side at Wollawa lake! Holy cow!! I hope you can kinda tell from the pictures how pretty it is up here!! the lake is gorgeous! its fed by a mountain stream that runs from the year round glaciers at the top of the mountains up here! I've never see water so clear in my life! It looks like a natural swimming pool its so clear!(which makes it pretty dang tempting...) hahaha but ya its great! we studied lake side on some tables and it was seriously so peaceful and serine! the bird were out and its like seriously the perfect temperature today 68!! haha sorry but be jelous!! Its actually a pretty big tourest area so it has some really cool buildings and shops and stuff that we might check out! There's this lift thing that we are goin to go up that take you to the top of the mountains and apparently you can see all the way over to Idaho from the top! siked!! haha thought Id let ya know! Its kinda out last hooraa P-day because I'm probably getting transferred this next week and everyone told me I had to see this place!

      The work this week was surprisingly good! Haha we had a bunch of canceled appointments and stuff but we were able to make the most of it and turn out a pretty solid week! we broke our record!! 34 lessons this week! and what was cool is that alot of them were with new investigators that we found! We were seriously blessed this week! I've have had a hard time getting over being scared to talk to people on the street and stuff.. not that I haven't done it but I've always gotten really nervous. But this week I decided what the heck and I worked hard to get over it! On Saturday we had an appointment fall through and we prayed that the Lord would put people in our path and then walked around this apartment complex and holy cow!! we found 8 new investigators in 1hr!! including a couple awesome young families!! we just opened our mouths and we were definitely blessed because of it! We have some follow up appointments this week and I'm really hoping that we can really start teaching before I leave! He also had 3 lessons with James this week! It was his last week of school and he's going home on tuesday after finals. He kind of pulled me aside after our lesson last night and he told me that he would email me and let me know when he decides to get baptised so I can come up if I can! That made me freakin happy!! haha we tried to set a date with him a few times but he's a true bio major and wants to finish reading the BOM and some gospel library things so he could be a more educated member when he s baptised! He told us how he has come to a knowledge the past few months of Gods love for him and he says its one of the best feelings ever!! we are super excited for him!

The Shoemakers read and prayed and we didn't have time for a full lesson with them on friday because it was Lynn's 17th B-day and she was having a party we did get to visit for a little and they want to talk about there experiences reading this week! We had a awesome lesson with Suzanne On Thursday and she is looking very solid to be baptized on her date! She came to church by herself yesterday!! haha we had quite a few people show up for church which is always awesome! we had a amazing lesson with Roddy Blessem and his family and we talked about the priesthood and how he will be able to bless his family as a worthy priesthood holder! Anne and Mallory went to the Temple to do Baptisms for the dead saturday!!! they both had really awesome experiences!! Anne had the work done for her husband, parents and some other relatives! Anne also got her Patriarchal blessing yesterday and because she said that we are her closest thing to family she wanted us to be there! That was a really cool experience! I've never her a more spcific blessing that was so full of personal revelation that Anne needed! She's crazy but she is so awesome to haha!

   That was about it for the week! I'm excited for this week! we have some really exciting meetings planned! I'll let you all know about transfers and I'll be sure to take tones of pictures with people! I love you all so much and I do truly love this work! It hit me how much love heavenly Father has blessed me with for these people and I am so grateful for it!

I love ya! I love my Heavenly Father! and I love my Savior!

Thanks for the love and support! couldn't do it without yalls!!!

Another week bites the dust!

Well hey there familia!

Its been an interesting week out here in beautiful Oregon! its kinda seems like a blur and we were pretty busy but we had a ton of stuff that got canceled on us this week. Thats OK though we made due! First off I'm not sure you all can tell from the pictures I've been sending but it is seriously naturally gorgeous out here! The mountains are pretty incredible! Its been raining a bunch lately so everything super green and it just looks awesome! Its a bunch different the back home beauty. I mean I don't think anything compares to the ocean and all of our trees and rivers but its pretty dang nice up here! Its also been super temperate recently! like it was low 70's ish all week long! haha sorry since its been super hot in VA and Florida and other places.. We've been enjoying it though! On Wednesday night after we did our planning for the next day we took a drive up this smaller mountain that has an awesome view of the valley and just sat there and looked at all the lights and ate Otter pops lol! Its was so cool! you could see everything! It looked way bigger then it is though lol. We take time to have little mini adventures like that to de-stress and enjoy the area while we have it! Next Monday as a last hooraa before transfers we are all going up to a town called Joesph were they have this incredible glacier lake! I'm super pumped! Its a bit away so I thought it would be worth it for potentially my last p-day in the area! I'll take tons of pictures of that! It apparently looks identical to the Swiss alps up there! Its that pretty! haha This area is so cool! The Elders in my Apartment are awesome to! I'll miss Elder Epperson a bunch. I hope we don't end up in separate missions! haha no dad wants to leave his son behind! but Elder Hatifi and Christanson are way cool to and we are super close! thats one of the best things about Lagrande is getting to live with 3 other missionaries! its just fun! haha it can be a little distracting at time though lol. Anyways we have 2 weeks left in the transfer and I do think I'll be moved this one...

Anyways the work this week was up and down. We had a lot of appointments cancel but we also had a bunch of unplanned opportunities! We finally found a whole family to teach!!!!!!! I'm flippin out lol! haha I haven't got to teach a whole nonmember family yet!(well the wife is a member but she got baptized when she was 10 and never went to church since!) They are super cool though and they have been sooo prepared! The dad is just full of questions and he feels that he's been moving towards this path for awhile! The 2 kids are both teens and are super excited to learn! We taught them the restoration of the Gospel and gave them each a Book of Mormon! The spirit was crazy strong! We invited them to be baptized and they said yes!! haha they also said that they have a bunch of preparing to do and they want to make this change as a family or not at all! soooo tight!! It stinks that I'm not going to be here to finish with them but I've just been praying for the opportunity to help bring the message of the gospel to a whole family! So ya that was way cool!  The daughter is a beast XC runner so I told her about you my sista's lol!

Happy Birthday Elder! plus Leadership Training & lessons by candlelight

Well hey errryone!

First off thank you so much for all the Birthday packages and wishes and all that jazz! That was pretty dang awesome! It made me feel pretty special and the week went alot better because of it! Haha my birthday was good! It was just another day at work and really didn't feel much like a birthday but thats ok! haha I think that's how they are suppose to feel on the mission! I think because of that I didn't get home sick or anything like that! Haha on my birthday I was in Caldwell Idaho for leadership training and President Cannon made me stand up in front of everyone and have them sing happy birthday.. I did not want that AT ALL but it was ok :) haha I guess it was kinda like a missionary bday party because I got to see a bunch of my friends from around the Nampa Idaho area. Being 20,now I feel a complete increase of knowledge and maturity... :) or something like that ;0 haha actually I feel pretty much nothing like most bdays!

Anyways this week we didn't get as much teaching done because we were gone all day on Thursday and most of Friday too... But the Training was super fun! We learned a lot of pretty basic things! It was cool though because it was only the leadership so there was a bunch of really experienced missionaries there! haha I know we aren't suppose to compare but I got called on to do a role play in front of everyone with my comp for the day Elder Cellua and we pretty much killed it! haha ofcourse everyone sounds like a really good teacher in a role play. Teaching a real person with the guidance of the spirit is a whole other ball park! anyways so the meeting was fun and  I learned a bunch! I got to see Elder Bloomfield!! holy cow I've missed that guy!  After the training we went on mass exchanges to kinda get a feel of what other missionaries do in their areas. I went to Marsing and Homdale Idaho! haha those are 2 extremely redneck little towns lol! I went out with Elder Cellua and Nelson. E Cellua is freakin awesome! he's from Figi and he plays for the Figi national rugby team! Holy cow he's a spiritual giant and is seriously one of the funniest guys I've met! haha when he first came out he called deer American sheep lol! anyways it was fun and I learned alot from him! Elder Nelson is also a super nice guy and a very hard worker. So ya we worked in that area all day on Thursday and Friday morning we met back up and talked about all of the things we learned and our experiences. Haha and then we drove for 3 1/2 hours to get back to Lagrande... The Zone leaders picked us up half way so it was fun to get to spend some time with them! I met Elder Urmsten the first day in the field and he's going home in 2 weeks! time fly's!

Well as far as other things this week we had some good lessons for sure! haha we had a really good lesson with Tulley on Tuesday and we taught him the restoration and how to pray. He said that he always goes over his day at night before sleep and asks for things about tomorrow anyways, he says he's just been kinda throwing it out there hoping that someone is listening and cares!!!! so ya we taught him about prayer and he was super excited to try it out!! He came to church on Sunday to!! Haha after the lesson we ate a birthday cake Anne made for me lol she's so funny! it was pretty awesome to have someone actually remember and care about ya, sometimes people just see missionary and don't take the time to get to know you as a person.

Anyways we had a really good talk with James about baptism and what he needs to do to get ready. Right now he's just scared about what his family will think. We challenged him to pray every morning and night for strength and to fast on Sunday for answers.

Record setting week!

Welllllll hey there all of yous guys!

    Holy cow this week has been great! I think skypeing was a boost that just slingshoted us forward for the rest of the week! I love and miss you guys a bunch though! We taught 32 lessons this week!!! thats my mission record so far! It was so awesome we had a ton of just amazing and powerful experiences! We also found a few people who are just so incredible and ready to accept the Gospel in their lives!! on top of all of that good stuff we were also able to do a bunch of awesome service!!! I talk more in detail  in just a second! It was just a crazy busy week and I loved every second! We got to help and talk to soooo many people! Its really pretty incredible when you take a step back at the end of a hard day's work and you try and think about all of the people that you were able to talk to and help! It like one of the best feelings ever!!

"Meditating on the Mountain"

   Ok so awesome lesson experiences for the week! For starters Suzanne!! such an amazing lesson! We were going to finish teaching her the Plan of Salvation but as we stared talking and awensering some of her questions we moved in a different direction. We taught about the Holy Ghost and how we feel it, I had the Idea to describe the feeling of warmth and tell her how the Holy Ghost can calm our minds when we are troubled and Sister Royer (a member who was at the lesson) said the exact same thing right before I said it and read the same scripture I was going to read!! Suzanne started crying and said that the past week she was having some mental issues where she got really down on herself and was wondering if all of the heartache is worth it.. She said as soon as she started thinking like that she prayed and her mind was calmed and the most incredible feeling of peace came over her. She said that her issues cause her to think down on herself alot and she had never experienced a sudden peace and calm before ever! we talked about the gift of the holy ghost and she got super happy! Its incredible when things like that happen and you just think holy cow all of the things we teach are so real and they really help so many people! Suzanne came to church on Sunday and really liked it!! We pushed her Bap date back a few weeks to June 15th so we can help her feel more comfortable with the ward first!! We are super happy for her! 

We taught a woman named Eden in Union on Friday  She has been best friends with a member in the ward there for her whole life. We started out just talking about what missionaries done but eventually she stared asking all kinds of questions!!! Her mom had passed away a few weeks ago so we talked to her about the Plan of Salvation and it was super powerful! She was so excited to read from the Book of Mormon and pray about it! She also came to church on Sunday!!! haha she cried through all of the songs because they were all about Heavenly Fathers love and there was a primary musical number "Families can be together forever" wow!! so perfect for her and she said she felt all warm but with goose bumps!! We are going to invite her to be baptized this week!! 

We had an awesome lesson with Doug. We prayed a ton before and we definitely had some help during the lesson. He has read so much from the Book of Mormon and he is so interested and trying to find out fo himself all of this stuff! his hang up is he doesn't like organized religion because so many terrible thing have been done in the name of religion.. But He's coming along! We were able to go up to his goat herding farm thing and it was so awesome!!! he has a log cabin up there with literally no electricity!! it looks like some thing off little house on the Prairie !! haha we halped him put up a bunch of fence to make a little pasture for his goats. Poor guy get so tired because of his ALS.. but he is seriously the most humble and thankful person in the world. I love that guy so much, He's someone I couldn't picture Heaven without! haha he told us all kinds of stories of his adventures up there just hearing his flock! its really one of the coolest things ever! haha he also has a fire heated hot tub up there and a stream cooled fridge! We are going to go up to his cabin and have a candle lit lesson in the mountains here pretty soon! I still need to get a picture with him!!! 

Doug's cabin

Ok so that about what I have time for.. We had really good lessons with James, and Brian, and Tulley!! Ok real quick Tulley is Anne's grandson who is liveing with her for the summer and he's a super nice guy but just did not want to meet with us.. But we talked to him for awhile last week and he finally started asking questions. We asked if we could come back and have a lesson with him and he accepted!!! so sick! the lesson went really well and he said that he's be baptised as he came to know our message is true!! we gave him a BOM and asked him to start at the beginning! We came back the next day to help Anne prepare for a visitiing teaching lesson and he apologized to us because he had only read 15 pages!!!! holy cow!!! he prayed about it too and he said he felt really good afterward! he has so many awesome questions and he's been takeing notes as he reads!!! so sick!! we have a lesson with him this week and we are so pumped about it! So ya we had a bunch of miracles this week and a ton of answered prayers! I'm actually going to be in Boise for 2 days this week (Thursday & Friday) for this leadership training thing with President Cannon! I'm pretty excited I'll get to spend some more time with him before he goes! soo that will be crazy but the week looks good! I'll be on exchanges those days! 

Hahaha I can't believe its my Birthday already! thats nuts!!!! thanks in advance for all of the Birthday wishes and prayers!! I love you all so much! Holy cow I love being a missionary! its pretty dang awesome!!!! have a great week! try not to cry from missing me to much on the 23rd ;) hahaha jk! I'm doing what I need to on ma B-day! 

Love E macdawesome! Lol or just Aaron!!! Holy cow no more teenage for me!!!!!!!!!!

6 months out!! and Happy Birthday Dad!

My Family!

Hey Everyone!! Holy cow this was a hectic week! Yet awesome! 

Well I'm not sure if yall know this but I hit my 6 month mark this week! Pretty crazy right?? time flies but I've heard as long as you can keep your focus it will only speed up from hear! Soo first off, Miranda, Micalea, and Kera(so sisters) you should send me emails so I have your individual email addresses! I obviously suck to the highest at getting you individual letters so I would love to beable to shoot you at least a quick email each week! Miranda!!! I'm so sorry to hear about your collar bone... Get feeling better ok?? I know how tough injuries can be.. I am flippin proud of you though! I can't believe that you had your senior night already! your awesome and I know that you are going to be freakin awesome in college!! Just try not to beat yourself up and stay positive! Your definitely an all-star in my book!!!(sooner then you think everyone else as well !!

My week as I said be fore was craycray lol! Having to cover both areas in Lagrande is a challenge but awesome! We got to go to Elgine Oregon which is about 40min out of Lagrande and teach some super cool hill billy people up there lol! hahaha they called Lagrande the city and Lagrande has maybe 10,000 people in it and yeah... is pretty small but these people were so funny about it! They have a 100 year old opera house in Elgine that the community runs so we got to do some awesome service for awhile helping build sets and dropping backgrounds!! Learned a ton about theater and stuff lol! Those big canvas drops weigh a flip ton! haha The other elders have a guy who is getting baptized up there named Jeff 2 Horse lol! he legally changed his name after having a vision about him riding 2 horses at the same time... haha its apart of his native american heritage.  

We taught Jon Jian 2 times this past week!! He is seriously awesome! we tought him the restoration and Joesph Smith and he on his own time researched all about early church history! He calls it "our" churches history! He told us how touched he was that they sacrificed so much to bring us the truth! Sooo yeah he's getting baptized on March 2nd!!!!! I am so happy for him! He is seriously a spiritual giant and I know that he is going to have a big part in bringing the gospel to the people of China! We met with Mallory twice this week as well and after allot of praying we decided on the 2nd of march for her baptism as well!! She told her family and they said they would support her and still love her even if she is a member of a cult lol! She really is awesome and way strong! She has an awesome knowledge of the scriptures and a real desire to learn the truth! She texts us gospel questions all the time throughout the week! She is awesome! 

We had a bunch of cool experiences with less active members this week as well and It is so amazing to see someone who knows they need to make a change and then go out and do it! It is even better when they tell you how much happier they are because of it! It just feels rewarding! haha so that was my week in a nut shell! Lots of driving around and a ton of miracles! 

I love you all and hope your doing well! I am doing awesome! Love Elder Macfarlane!!

P.S hey so cool experience, Saturday I got super sick with a head cold flu thing that has been going around.. Everyone told me that it took them 4 days to get it out of there system and that I had the worst ahead of me.. I received a blessing Saturday night and by the morning I was feeling alot better! Today almost all my symptoms are completely gone and I'm just a tiny bit tired from it! I'm being looked after for sure and I know it because I have work I need to do and I need to be healthy to do it! Love you all! I'm looking forward to an awesome week! hope you all are to!

P.S.S DAD! Happy birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope all yall Mac's do something awesome to celebrate!

Temple baptisms, Go Ravens!, and a new truck :)

Hey Everyone!!!!!!!!

Hahaha it was seriously another crazy week!!! so first off!!! Go Ravens!!! I'm stoked to hear they won! second stuff around here is going good but its been insane! 

last Monday's lesson with Jon Jian was awesome! He is the most humble and the most ready and willing person I've ever met. He walked to our lesson on monday and said the opening prayer and wow it was awesome! He was so sincere and the spirit was super strong we talked about what he had learned form meeting with missionaries in the past and then tought him a little about Christ and the Plan of Salvation and gave him a Chinese book of Mormon and invited him to read and pray this past week. We saw him again at church yesterday and he stayed for all 3 hours!!(HE ALSO WALKED UP TO CHURCH!) he said that he had been praying alot and he felt the spirt when he did! holy awesome!! we are meeting with him tonight and inviting him to be baptized! He is so ready! I'm super stoked to meet with him and work with him! 

We also had an amazeing lesson with Maollry last night!!! She's a college student that goes to EOU and has been meeting with the missionaries for about 3 years.. She had been concerned about not feeling the spirit and recieveing answers to her prayes. We started by teaching her about recognizeiong the spirit and all of the ways we feel it work in our lives. After we talked about that and shared some experiences she broke down crying. She has been trying super hard the past few weeks to keep the commandments and pray and study her scriptures and come closer to heavenly father and she talked about the feelings that she has been haveing for doing all of that! It was so amazeing! she all of the sudden realized how much the Holy Ghost has been testifying to her and the Spirit just flooded the room all at once. We invited her to asked on the awnseres she been getting and follow our Saviors example by being baptised by the proper athoutity. The warmth in the room was incredible and inbetween tears she said that she knew that it was what heavenly father wanted her to do at this time. She shared how her family was very apposed to her being baptized and that they wouldn't be happy with it but she knew that event then she needed to do it. It was the most amazeing feeling in the world! The spirit was so strong! I was able to say things that I wouldn't have said and share scriptures that I haven't read before and it was one of the most powerful spiritual experiemnces I've ever had! she is going to tell her parents about it and we are all going to pray for a date! How awesome is that!!! I love being able to help people see recognize the spirit in their lives! and being able to recieve impressions and feel the holy ghost testify of what is said is extremely amazeing and also humbleing. It really is a testimony to me how badly we need the holy ghost with us and how we couldn't share this message without him! So yeah that was flippin the best ever!!! I am so excited for mallory and all of the decisions sh'e makeing!!

So also the past week we were able to Travel to Boise on Friday and do baptisims for the dead friday night! I found a few names on dad's side that needed their work done and I was able to be baptised for them! That was also an amazeing experience. I could deffinitely feel the difference when I was able to be baptised for one of our family members!!!! I also found some girl names that need work done and I thought it would be super cool If mic and manda could have the chance to be baptised for them! It an awesome experience!!! 

On saterday in Boise we had the opportunity to be taught by Elders Ballard and Christopherson of the 12!!! That was so cool! we met as missionaries with them in a normal chapel and the spirit in that room was amazeing. They talked mainly about being the best we could be and how we could get better each day and that is really what I need to hear right now! We also got to shake their hands and ask them questions which was flippin cool! So yeah I had a bunch of neet expereinces this week but its been a little crazy to. Elder Razo of the other Lagrande area was sent home for medical reasons and me and Lehmullar are now in a tri-panionship with his comp Elder Bennett.. haha we are covering both areas and have the flippin biggest area in the mission to cover right now!!!!! haha we are going to be insainly busy! haha but thats ok! we are excited! Elder Bennett is awesome!! and we are just praying that Elder Razo can get better and get back out here soon! 

So thats about it! this coming week will be nuts but we're excited! I love you all! thank you so much for the love and support! have an awesome week!!!!!!! 

Love Elder Aaron Macattackmacfarlane!  P.S we also traded in our subaru for a 2013 Toyota Tacoma! haha its awesome! I'm not really a truck guy but this thing might have me converted!