The end of the "trio-ship"

My Family!

Hey all! how is it going?? i've been hearing crazy stuff about tons of snow and all of that stuff! whats been happening?

This past week was pretty good! we got transfer calls on Saturday and I'm staying in LaGrande for 1 more transfer! which is awesome because I'll get to see Mallory and Jon get Baptized! We are also getting super close with this guy named Brian Davis! I really hope I can see him Baptized to but we'll see how it goes! We were still all over the place this week lol. 

We teach this super woman named Ann who's only friends are us and her dog right now.. We've been helping her out around her house to try and keep it manageable I really hope she realizes that it is just to much for her right now and will move close to family but until that happens we are going to keep doing all we can. She's had a tough life and has some very deep trust issues about religion and people but we are just trying to show her how much happier she could be and yeah I'll let you know how that goes. 

Mallory has been super nervous about her baptism and she been saying that the whole water dunking part seems super awkward .. lol so we took her to a baptism yesterday and It did alot to calm her down about the whole thing! She and Jon will have their interviews next Wensday and be baptized next Saturday so we are gunna keep plugin along. We knocked on the door of this woman named Jonna who we've been trying to meet with for awhile and she was finally home and she let us in and she totally opened up to us and told us how much she needed church in her life! haha unfortunately she was major drunk.. but she promised to come with us to church and she remembered and came and we are going to start teaching her here pretty soon! 

We also started teaching this EOU student named James who is a little shy and akward but he is way cool and honestly wants to learn more! that's always cool! we left him a BOM and challenged him to read and pray about it! Mallory is the one that introduced us to him and she is helping out in his lessons which is so cool because she totally bore her testimony to him about the Book of Mormon and how it would change his life and it was a awesome experience! 

We taught a Youth Fireside last night on how the youth can do missionary work. I'm not gunna lie it was pretty much the best thing ever! We tought them how to awnser questions and did some roleplays and we showed them how to use Mormon.org and talked about how powerful it is and all of that good stuff! We watched a couple mormon messages with them and showed them how to link all of that stuff to Facebook(which was hard without actually being able to get on FB lol).. We ended by giveing them all the 21 day member missionary Challenge and promising them if they would do it all the way through they would be able to have a missionary experience! Anyways it was fun and all the kids seemed to have had a good time! Haha we also are gunna be playing bball with our young men today so that will be awesome to get to know them better and be their friends and help them realize that a mission is an awesome idea!

Thats about it for me! things are gunna be back to normal this week Elder Bennett is getting a new comp today sooo the trio is over! haha it was fun but I'm glad lol! anyways Miranda! how is your collarbone?? Miranda and Micalea and Joesph how is school going? what has been going on?? do yall want Oregon shirts now that I'm going to be here for awhile longer??  lol! let me know how you all are doing! I love and miss you guys a ton(haha all of you guys!!!) Love Your brother/son/friend/missionary- Elder Macfarlane!

Nampa... A day in the life

Boise Temple Dedication & Larissa's mission call

Hey everyone!

It was an awesome week! we didn't get as much teaching in as we would like but we had some fun and did some work. Haha sounds like all of you had a pretty good week as well! 

We went on 2 day exchanges last week which was pretty interesting! I got to go out of my area for a bit and meet some new people which was cool! I am grateful for the area I'm in though cuz that area only teaches like 8 lessons a week which is pretty tough. We got a few solid days in our area which was good though! The Boise Temple was dedicated yesterday and we got to go to all 3 sessions of the dedication! President Monson was there and so was Elder Bednar along with 2 members of the seventy. It was awesome! They talked a lot about family history and how it is apart of temple work and how the Temple is set apart to literally be the house of the Lord and yeah a bunch of really cool stuff. The Hosanna shout was really cool and the dedicatory prayer was amazing. I studied in 2Chr and 1Kings when Solomon dedicated the temple in Jarusalem in between sessions and it was really neat to be able to compare the 2 events. In the last session President Monson shut his binder and just talked by impression for about 20mins which was amazing! It will be so nice to beable to use the Temple now! we get to go once a month now!! Isn't that awesome! 

ahaha we found a new Mexican gangsta investigator last night which will be pretty interesting to teach lol! we tried to teach him about Joesph Smith but it when over his head haha. He did say he felt something which is good. This is the last week of my 2nd transfer! That's pretty crazy how time has flown! I got to hang out with Brayton for awhile the other day!!!! its pretty crazy that he's going home soon. 

Sooo as you probably know Larissa got her mission call!!!!! Argentina Bahia Blanca!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that is so crazy!!!!!! I am so happy you guys all get to spend Thanksgiving together! that is way cool and makes me really happy! well I'm glad you all had a good week! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! I love you all a ton and am gunna miss you on Thursday! haha make a leamon marangue( I have no idea how to spell that word...) and eat it up for me!! I'm going to be spending it with some members so don't worry I'll be taken care of! Love your Elder Macfarlane!

Sharing the gospel of Christ and serving the people of Idaho

Hey Everyone!

One more week down in the great Boise Idaho mission. Its actually pretty crazy.. I've been out for 3 months now. It doesn't seem like it at all... Anyways I have 2 weeks left in this transfer and I'll stay in Nampa for at least one more transfer. 

This past week was actually kid of slow. I mean it was still busy, we just didn't teach as many lessons and normally. Its kind of hard now that it gets darker an hour earlier, we've had to move most of our set appointments to the evening so we aren't riding around in the dark and cold. On Wednesday we had a pretty full night. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a woman who hasn't been to church since she was 9. It was pretty cool. She even all this time later still remembers some stuff and is just absorbing everything we've been teaching her. Its pretty awesome! she's been coming to church the past few weeks and yeah Its cool to watch her faith rekindle! We read a lot out of 2 Nephi 31 which is a pretty awesome chapter.

 We did a ton of service this week as well. We moved some people, and tore up a floor, and raked some leaves and it was pretty fun! It is nice to be able to help some people out when we can! We also had a sweet lesson with one of the investigators where we went over the Atonement in detail and then talked about how we can use the atonement when we make covenants. I got to ask him to be Baptized and he will work toward and prepare to be! That was pretty awesome! haha also scary. 

Well that's about it from here. I heard about Kera!!!!!! That's so awesome!!! Freakin good job K!!!! also I'm flippin happy that Micky made varsity! that's flippin awesome! You and Mandy better work on some trick plays'n stuff! Thanks for all your love and support! I miss all of you! Love you guys a ton! Love Elder Aaron Macfarlane

End of first transfer period in the field!

Hello Family!

Well! i'm done with my first transfer period in the field! only 15 more to go haha! but seriously this past 6 weeks have flown by.. I can totally understand these older missionaries that say it seems like yesterday that they were in the MTC. Once you get working and focused its crazy what happens! 

This week was pretty awesome! we were still riding a high from conference so it sorta showed in our work ethic! it seems like we didn't teach to much this week but we ended up beating our goal by a few lessons! It was pretty dang cool! We have this older investigator named Anna who we've just been visiting and teaching gospel principles one point at a time, but this last time we watched the restoration Video with her and taught her about the Priesthood and the Prophet Joesph Smith and she told us that she was going to go ask her buddy up stairs  because he is the only one that could answer if Joesph was actually a prophet! it was so cool! she definitely felt something during the video and her faith is so strong that I know she'll get an answer! it'll be pretty cool to see what she says this week! 

Tomorrow we are going to the Temple open house with one of our investigators named Marie who didn't want to learn at first but now seems like she can't get enough about what we have to teach her!!! we are going to teach the plan of salvation to her on the way to the Temple and then eat lunch with her afterwords in Boise!! I'm pretty stoked and am super happy for her! 

The rest of the week was the same'ole lol! a ton of our investigators got to watch conference and learned at least something from it lol! Its pretty neat! we found a few people this past week that told us that they've just been looking for something more in their lives! its crazy how the Lord can prepare people! we are going to visit 1 of them this week and the other we are going to take through the temple open house in 2 weeks! I'm stoked about it! soooo yeah I'm doing good! 

we started suit coat season on Saturday.. which I'm not to happy about. That just means we have to wear full suits always until April Gen conference... its ok though. I know obeying even seemingly silly rules will help us out in some way! Thanks for all of your love and support! its been an awesome start for me out here! Hopefully you are starting to get the letters I'm sending! I got a few more to get off. I love and miss yall!! Love Elder Aaron Macfarlane!

Breaking records

To MI Familia

Well hey guys! I can't believe its been a whole week already! time fly's when your insane busy i guess.. haha its good to be busy though! We broke our record so far this past week by teaching 24 lessons! it was pretty intense! it was really nice to see some of our hard work paying off. 

We started teaching this new family the Fransins and their really cool and very ready to hear the gospel. Bro Fransin is a excommunicated past missionary soo it was a little scary at first cuz he knows all the lessons but it wasn't like that at all, he was super nice and he has some real determination to change his and his families lives around and come back to church. His wife and 10 year old don't know much about the gospel so we started off by teaching them about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. It was really neat they were super receptive and want to keep learning. Bro Fransin at the end bore his testimony of Jesus Christ and his Atonement, it was really powerful. Im so happy I get to try and help these people as they want to change!!! 

haha the rest of the week was packed! We had our first Baptism Friday!! Leanne Brown got baptized and then confirmed on Sunday! it was really a humbling experience. Her mom who isn't a member was there and even she started crying because the feeling that was there! It was pretty awesome!! I got to be a Witness! which was cool and then I got to help confirm her! the best part was seeing her smile after she was dunked lol! She just seemed so happy! so those were probably my week highlights! 

yesterday we taught a lesson to the combined youth of one of our wards about using PMG as a study tool! It was super fun and it was surprisingly easy to teach for 45mins haha we did a pretty sweet role play where I got to be the bad guy with my shades and popped collar haha they got a kick out of that! 

any ways I'm feeling pretty good and time is starting to fly holy cow! lol I hope everything is going well back home! I'm freakin excited for Conference!!!!!!!!!! for yall to! that will be awesome to have everyone in the family home for that! Thank you so much for the Package and letters!!!! It really made my day! I wore my grey suit to church and I looked pretty sharp  haha but thanks and thanks again! I hope this weekend is awesome! Love you all a ton! Love Elder Aaron Steele Macfarlane haha