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!

Hello. VIA TFS!!

Well whats up eustedes??

haha so this week was pretty dang cool actually! Like It was tough leaving Jerome but I prayed that I would be filled with love for my new area and holy cow that worked! I freakin Love it! Its just sweet! We had a baptism of a ex member named D! That was super cool! D has been out of the church for 32 years and forgot like literally everything and hearing his story is really humbling. He prayed about 6 months ago about what God truly wanted him to do and he got an answer that he needed to give the mormons another chance and he said that he was like NOOO!! hahaha but he is a huge example to me of how the Atonement can heal a broken heart and how the Holy Ghost can comfort a troubled soul!  I just got to teach him once before his baptism but I was glad I got to be apart of it!! Chase in Jerome got Baptized this week too! I got to talk to him on the phone on Sat and he was super excited! man that guy is so humble! I'm so glad I had the opportunity to teach him from the beginning! going to the baptism would have been cool but the important thing is it happened and Chase is so happy that he can start a new life living the gospel of Jesus Christ!! Because of my surgery I might get to go with him to the temple and see him and Taylor get sealed!!

So the work out here is going ok! Hhaha there is tons of potential! We have a Burmese branch inside one of our English wards!!! its flippin sweet! haha when we teach them we have to have a translator which is a different experience but It has really strengthend my testimony of how the Holy Ghost can testify of truth even in a different languag! We taught a whole family of 6!! and they all committed to get baptized and come to all of church every week! We have another lesson with a family of 7 tonight!! its freakin awesome!! they are such a loveing and humble people! they like hunger for the gospel! They have had like 60 Burmease get baptised in the past 2 years or so! Its actually pretty crazy all the people that we teach! We teach 2 Iraqi families that are originally Muslim but they want to believe in Christanity! We also teach this brothers form boutsuana in Africa! they speak pretty good english but they are so freakin knowlegeable about the bible! but they also love learning and like reading out of the Book of Mormon!! We have a 12 year old named Anthony that is so freakin awesome!! We set a baptisimal date with him for September 7th! He love reading and praying and is a spiritual giant! his mom is LA and he drags her to church and all that! its cool :) We teach a couple other families and we have a ton of potential! The family we live with is so awesome! they take such good care opf us and they love us because we are trying to work hard and be obedient! which is a bit differetn then what they have experienced... Hahah there 14 yr old son Rockard loves board games and we play 15mins of monopoly with him as we write in our jurnels every night! Its fun! The work is good and we have a bunch of good stuff comeing! I love doing this work! It definitely can get hard sometimes but its so rewarding! I know that this is Gods work and I want to do it as best as I can! Today will be pretty cool!

 

LOVE YOU ALL!!! Thank you for the love and support!!

P.s my companion Elder Durney is way cool and so hard working! I love him! 

Hello from Twin Falls!

Hahaha hey errrr body! This week has been so crazy!

well I left Lagrande on Monday and I got to Jerome/Twin on Wednesday!

My comp's name is elder Perdue and he's from Dallas Texas! he's a pretty cool lil guy :) haha he sang in the BYU Men's Choir for a year before he came out so thats pretty fly. Haha I'm gunna get him to sing to some of our investigators ;) but ya he's super spiritual and very prepared for the work! Haha he is still really quit and very nervous but the awesome thing is even if he's terrified to talk to someone he'll do it if I ask him to so that's awesome! It'll be a good transfer! So we have a 3 week transfer right now! which is pretty crazy! aha me and Perdue wont get transfered at the end of it but there will be 35 new missionaries comeing into the Twin falls mission! thats crazy! So ya everything is changing pretty quick! President Cannon goes home in a week and President Curtis is coming to be the New Twin Falls mission president! It'll be neat to see all of the changes but its pretty sad to see P-cannon and sis Cannon leave! They've done their time though lol! 

 

So Jerome!!!

Its a town about the same size of Lagrande just outside of Twin Falls! Me and Elder Perdue cover 3 wards who all meet in the same building which is super cool! it makes sunday's so much easier because we don't have to drive around all day going to meetings in different buildings! The area is half rural half town. The farming area's are super cool! The people are just so humble and love the Lord! our wards are pretty fired up about missionary work but theres not a whole lot of work going on.. The last missionaries in the 2 area's that had our wards were ether super lazy or spread way too thin so there wasn't to much happening in any of our wards but thats ok! Me and Elder Perdue are going to work like crazy and get this place on Fire! Our Bishops Thompson, King, and Radford are way cool! and they are so ready for more missionary attention! So we are ready to get it done!

Our ward Mission leaders are freakin sweet too! Bro Perry, Wight, and Walker! They all said they will come out with us whenever we need! Probably the best thing going in our area is a ward missionary Bro Black!! he is so awesome!!! He went out with us on Saturday in the middle of his family reunion! He pretty much talks the gospel to everyone he meets and he is the fellowshiper for like 7 of our investigators in his ward! I'm excited to work with him and get some stuff done! There’s definitely alot of potential! We teach alot of teenage kids of inactive parents and we are excited to get them coming back to church and get some baptisims! We had a good lesson with a family the Mcmillians Tessa and Eric are 16 and 12 and they want to come to church and now all we have to do is get them a little more knowledge and get the family to church and get them baptized! super awesome!

Me and elder Perdue also found this super awesome guy named Rual just talking to people in a trailer park and he is so prepared! We taught him the Restoration and he accepted everything! When we talked about Joesph Smith he just said that it made so much sense and it sounded right! We had to leave pretty soon after that because his girlfriend who he hadn't seen in 6 months pulled up which he was so funny and happy to see her that it was ok that we had to end early! But ya! we are going back and he is so getting baptized!! but ya! the work is good! we definitely have to re-build abunch of stuff but it feels good to work hard and to see an area pick up! hopefully we'll be having a few baptisms here pretty soon! so ya! anything else you all want to know??

I lost my camera on the way over here so I can't send any pictures... pray that I'll be able to find it cuz that has all my picture of my whole mission on it so far.. but hopefully it'll turn up soon and I'll get you all plenty of pictures! Ilove you all and I'm super excited to get to work in this new area! Me and Elder Perdue have been really trying to be obedient so we can be a blessing in the lives of these people! So ya I know when we are obedient to the commandments and we try to be like our Savior we have the ability to have greater companionship of the Holy Ghost!

Love you all!!!!! WHat up frm TWIN MISH!!

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!!!