Feliz in Belize

you don't know how long I've been planning that subject line...

so first I would like to apologize if I do not respond to everyone that has written me these 2 weeks. The hour that we have to write goes WAY to fast sometimes.

John 3:16:

God bin laigim ebribodi detmatj, en imbin jandim im ronwan san blanga dai blanga olabat wulijim ebribodi hu bilib langa im garra abum det olagijawan laif en nomo dai; En mi na det san blanga im.

(for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life)

Belizean Kriol

I invite you to play Mad Gab with the Belizean verse from John, and you will see that you can actually understand it more or less.

Belize is a whole different world.

It's kinda like I've been transfered to a new mission. for example: new language(English and Kriol), New area( me and my comp are whitewashing the area) new people(black people are SO cool) new missionaries(some of them I knew from El Salvador, but some of them no...) and a new mission president( President Hintze finished this week:(I am excited to meet President Adams too:)

It's kinda like starting over but I already know how to be a missionary.

My Area is Santa Elena 2. It is the only area in the zone that is flat(no hills!!) It's a pretty big area, but not bigger than my other areas. It is an 100 percent English Branch(Kriol pretty much counts as English and everyone speaks English in church and Kriol in their homes.) The district comprises of the two of us and two sister missionaries(Sister Zackrinson, a sister I met in Sonsonate and Sister Dayley, a sister that came in the same group as my two sons)

I have such a strong testimony that I am MEANT to be in this area. I know by experience that whenever the Lord puts me in a place, it's because 1. there are people I can bless. 2 there are people that can bless me. and most importantly 3. I need to be here to grow in my personal development. I can tell from just this first week that Elder Smith and I are going to work, WORK, WORK!! We get along super well and have the same goals. It is a party!

The greatest blessing so far in this branch is President Moody, the branch president. He has only been a member a year and a half, but he works SO hard and is SO good at spreading the gospel. We have been focusing on helping him this first week so that he can know he trusts us and put us to work!

I know my Father lives(and loves me too:)

Church is true.

i'll have more to talk about as I meet my area more and get to know the country. but here is a brief list of my investigators

Eustace Jones( YSA super fun and wants to be baptized but has some challenges to overcome)

Janelly Baldera(granddaughter of a recent convert that came to church yesterday!)

Calib (Esutace's cousin)

and a WHOLE ton of new people (we have talked to EVERYONE this week:)

Love you all so much!

6/27/16 Photo

Three is better than two: In which I promise that isn`t Sweat, it is rain.

That may be one of my more complicated title lines, but I was battling in between so many that I had to make a decision. 

I`ll Explain the rain first. Although a couple weeks ago it started to rain and we were supposed to get into the ``rainy`` season. It has been very hot and sunny these last couple of weeks. But finally this week the rain came agian! we get drenched head to toe almost every day! Reminds me of good times in Las Delicias. It`s crazy though, because when it rains is when all the bugs come out, and we have to deal with a lot more crawling things

Also I`m in a trio. Elder Sweat`s companion Elder Riasco(If you remember the 4 of us have been living in the same house for just over 4 months now.) has been really sick, he suffers from harsh migranes. This week It got to be just too much. Poor guys had to go home for a while to recover. Let`s just say tears were shed in the house that night. 

And so for the meantime we are left the three of us with 2. HUGE. areas. It is a little bit of an adjustment going everywhere in a group of three and teaching in 3 and pretty much doing everything as 3. You get so used to being 2 that you don`t know how to handle 3. but 3 has more potential than 2, and our investigators are responding well to 3. I know without a doubt that God needed our 3 for at least a little while.

But things are going well.

Victor now has 2 WEEKS without tasting a drop of alcohol!

Àngel Escobar(Hermana Loli`s son(Hermana Loli is a less active who came to church for the first time in 15 years yesterday!)) accepted a baptismal date for this 25th of June!

We put another date with a new investigator named Kevin Presa

and we now have 3 other dates from Sweats area! I haven`t met them yet.

Also a family of 5 showed up to church on Sunday! they were a reference from a sister that was visiting from Mexico! but there was a confusion in the time of the church meeting here and in Mexico and they showed up 10 minutes before we finished! They are in Sweat`s area and he has only visited them with Riasco and Yesterday with a young man that went on Splits with him!

But the work is going super super well!

I Love you all so much, and I have a testimony that God lives and loves us and directs his church Today and Always!

Have the greatest of weeks

Elder McFarland