Tons of service, teaching, and stake conference

What is up!!!!!!! all my poeples of whoom I lovest!
Hey yalll!
First off thank you so much for the emails!!!!!!!!! This has probably been the best email session I've had so far! I love em! its so good to hear all abouts whats goings on in yours lives!

My week was crazy full haha! We did 16 hours of service this week! That was freakin awesome!@! we ask like everyone if they need help with anything and offer service but almost everyone  says "no we are doing pretty good right now..." so it felt super nice to actually get out and do some helping! We mowed a couple lawns, We tore down a wall in this Less active guys house and helped him cut a hole for his door! haha I'm gunna be pretty handy with repairing stuff by the time I'm done here! I've already learned how to plaster walls, put up tile, put in carpet, and a bunch of other fun stuff! Anyways we also got to help 2 people move which was cool because we found acouple of potential Investigators from that! And we got to do some serious yard work for some older members in our area and an Investigator! It was fun! It was nice and sunny this week so I have a serious farmers tan going on lol!

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!

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!

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

After the storm & new member temple trip

Hey family Macfarlane! how are yall?? 

I'm glad you guys were safe from the storm. I was prayin pretty hard for all yall! haha I got a bunch of pity from members who forgot which state I'm from but remembered it was the east coast so yeah.. I think I was asked like 5 times if my house was destroyed. Thankfully not the case! 

Sooo it was a pretty up and down week. On Tuesday we took my little old German investigator Anna through the Temple! on the way out she said it felt like a warm blanket and the reverence inside made her feel like she was really in Gods house. After she asked us questions and we talked about Jesus Christ and we were able to bear a short testimony with her and hear her testimony of the savior and yeah... what an amazing experience. I also had an interview with President Cannon and he told me to prepare myself for more work and responsibility... I don't know what that means but I'm not sure I like it haha.

We found a few investigators this week and that is always cool! I hope I get to see these people progress! Probably my favorite experience of the week happened on Thursday. We were riding around and attempting to contact some people that we've talked to on the side of the road and in their yards and stuff, anyways there is the one woman named Sarah who we talked to awhile back and wasn't to interested so we decided to give her one more shot. We started talking to her on her door step and we are just laughing and talking about her week and suddenly she just starts crying and tells us about some of the major trials she's facing right now. She needed someone to talk to and it felt good to be able to help her by just listening, anyways afterward we taught her a little bit about the plan of salvation and how it can bring greater meaning in or lives. We just told her about how the gospel has helped us and let her know that it could bring her comfort as well. We left a plan of salvation pamphlet and left. Its cool to be able to see someone light up from the message we share. We are going to visit her this week and hopefully she's feeling better and will be prepared to accept the gospel. 

That was the highlights rest of the week was sorta the same ole haha. We got to play football today which was awesome! Hope yall are doing well and stay healthy! 

Love you all!! Kera holy happy late birthday!!!!! I meant to send a letter but i forgot. ugh glad you all got to spend that together! 

Love Elder Macfarlane!