Wake Me Up When September Ends. In which Elder McFarland wishes Belize a very happy birthday

haha, I hope you can read that whole title.

but first,

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

September is almost over?!?!

what the heck? where is the year going? where is the time?

ok panic attack over. 

This week was a very good week for me. 

I started out slow because of a huge party starting Tuesday night and going until Wednesday evening. Our leaders told us we had to stay inside the whole time. We played soccer tennis(a fun game we play with this little cement wall outside our house using only our feet!) and watched church movies, and slept. And then Wednesday night we got permission to leave our house to go to the church for a branch activity(Our group is always part of the branch activities in Belmopan because it is technically just an appendage of the branch in a different place!) and we played soccer with the branch and had a lot of fun!

after that it was get to work time. This week we did a lot of follow up on people we found the first week and tried to find out who to see. We now have 8 progressing investigators, where at the beginning of the week we didn't have any! we also have a baptismal date with a young man named Sergio who is 20 years old and understands the lessons SO well!

But the biggest miracle this week was the Rash family. Literally the last investigators I met this week(Saturday night at 7:30) and an old investigator of Elder Rojas and Elder Freeman. Before they weren't quite ready, my comp says, but when we went with them they were GOLDEN.

Brother Francisco Rash is the father of 3 teenage boys, and his wife is Carolina. They are very smart, faithful people, and very smart. Their first language is Quechi, a mayan dialect from Guatemala, but they all speak good English, and brother Rash even knows another Dialect called Mopan Maya.(which is cool because another recent convert we have, his name is Valentine, speaks Mopan maya as his first language!) and Bro Rash speaks a little spanish as well!

During the lesson we had with them, about how the Book of Mormon and the Bible work together to teach us the gospel, Brother Rash opened up to us and told us that in the church he is going right now, he is having some problems, and he just feels like something is missing, and he told us he has a whole that he has been begging God to fill.

After we talked about that for a while, sister rash said " so are there really Prophets on the earth today? We told her gladly that YES! and this next week with General Conference coming up, it is the perfect opportunity for them to gain a testimony of prophets and revelation!

I am super excited for conference and to see how the Rash family progresses this week!

i am out of time though, so I will tell you how everything goes next week!

I know that Christ lives, and that He loves me, and that God has a perfect plan for me and for everybody.

Have the greatest of weeks!

Elder McFarland

More Pictures

first line of photos, hurricane cleanup at brother Don Franklin's!

second line of photos, cuevas, me, and my two zone leaders, Elders Mejia and Palacios!

third line, president moody and the Williams family!

fourth line, birthday party at williams family and Marvin and Ashley!

fifth line, bito, thug, and bubbles( David, David, and Albert), our district with a member named Sandra, and more of me, my comp, and Mejia!

sixth line, some selfies of bito and Edwin at their baptism!

Santa Elena Pictures

Pics

Mayans and Salvadoranians

Welcome to Mayamopan and Salvapan.

So now I am working in a village. so that's cool. on the outskirts of Belmopan there are two villages named Mayamopan and Salvapan. I have't QUITE confirmed this, but from what I've seen so far, the two are named the way they are because there are a lot of MAYAns who live in MAYAmopan, and there are a lot of SALVAdoranians who live in SALVApan.

this is the promised land.

My new companion is Elder Rojas. he is a super cool Mexican Elder from Guadalajara, and he has 19 months in the mission. He has the same amount of time that Torres(the other Mexican comp I had) did when I was with him! He likes to laugh a lot, and we are getting a long super well!

so when I showed up, the investigators that they had had had all either gotten baptized or stopped progressing, so we decided to just start over! in the first week we found 19 new investigators! this week we are going to go and do follow up with all of them to see who progresses and we will keep looking for more and more new people. 

The best thing is this, finding a new investigator is SO easy in my new area. All we have to do is knock on a house, and people let us in. We found 3 families this week, super easy! I hope and pray that we can help them to progress!

The members here are super cool. Remember, I am in a group. For all of you who, like me before the mission, don't know what a group is, it goes like this. Ward>branch>group. So pretty much right now we are working towards making this thing a branch! In a group, all leadership positions are from a nearby branch(Belmopan in this case). so for example the Elder's Quorom president in the Belmopan branch is also the Elder's Quorum President in the group.

The "bishop" in the group is actually just a "group leader" and his name is Brother Martinez. He and his family are SUPER solid, and so that's super cool!

So on Saturday we had to go in early because of a super big party that was supposedly going to happen(But actually ended up just being in Belize City so... whatever)

Well, to be honest, I don't know a TON about the area after just 5 days, but here are some cool highlights.

Buying THE BEST lemon pie from a Rasta man

playing Soccer Tennis outside our house on Saturday after entering early.

Trying to cross a creek in my area without getting wet

sports night with the branch, my team was winning!

I know that God lives, and that his plan is perfect. I am here in Mayamopan, so that means there are people here I can help! Jesus Christ's Atonement is real, and It helps us to overcome trials and to become better people. When we keep the commandments, we are blessed. 

I love you all so much!

have the greatest of weeks!

elder McFarland

Beetoh and Eggy

Yes, they call him Eggy.

who?

the newest member of the church in the Santa Elena Branch!

and no, Beetoh isn't his real name,

his name is David and he is also a new member of the church!

Edwin Guevara and David Young got baptized on Saturday!( and Confirmed on Sunday!)

God is a God of Miracles.

But the devil tries his best(and always fails!)

So Edwin is the little brother of a guy who was baptized in July in the sisters area, but him and Beetoh always hang out at beetoh's house in our area. Beetoh has been coming to the church for years, and Edwin for a couple months, but they hadn't decided to be baptized yet. Elder Smith and I started teaching the two of them together(because they are almost always together) and they were coming to church when Elder Smith left.

and this last week they decided to get baptized! I'm super happy for them and now comes the best part:retention. They will enroll in Semenary this week(it's also the first week of school here in Belize, and we will try to get them the Priesthood as soon as possible! they are both 13 about to turn 14(haha, a little young for you Hannah, or no?;)[just kidding mom Hannah is too young]

As for the rest of the week, it was pretty slow. We were super excited for Edwin and Beetoh, but they were also our only investigators that were still progressing. Back to looking for news this week I guess...We are still working with Shawn and Reyna and hoping they will progress as a family!

The day of the baptism was kinda crazy. Friday I was on interchanges with Elder Palacios(zone leader from Colombia) in San Ignacio, and when I got back Saturday morning before the baptism. we didn't have the keys. to our house. I called the Zone Leaders and they couldn't find them, and now we were running late to the baptism... so we had to find a way to break into our house and get all the baptismal clothes that were inside.

but everything ended up ok!

The baptism went through!

The church is true!

The Book of Mormon is Blue!

I love You.

Have the greatest of weeks! ooh

Elder McFarland

4! 3! 2!

Juan! 

*Earth below us. Drifting. Falling. Floating weightless. Calling. Calling. 

home.*

haha I'm sorry that title and little musical spaz moment were brought to you by changes!

4 changes in Las Delicias

3 changes in Zaragoza

2 changes in Santa Elena

and now to Belmopan!

I'm super sad to be leaving Santa Elena. I love the members and the people here so SO sOOOOOOOOOO much!

I also wasn't expecting it at all.

on Tuesday they told Elder Cuevas he is going back to El Salvador tomorrow, so we just assumed he would leave the area and I would have a new companion and be there one more change to teach the new guy the area.

and then president pulled a fast one!

They are closing Santa Elena 2! what?

they are giving my area to the sisters in Santa Elena, and I have kinda mixed feelings about it. 

But I know the Lord is at the wheel, so,

It's gunna be perfect!

anyways I am thankful to the Lord because I felt prompted to take pictures with lots of people at church yesterday! 

anyways this week was kinda slow, but I'm sure next week will be a LOT of new stories and (yes mom) pictures!!!!

I'm gunna try to tell you stories about all the pictures I send, so that should make up for the short weekly email!!!

love you all to death!

have the greatest of weeks!

Elder McFarland