Christmas came early this year....

It´s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!!

All Except the Snow...

There´s a tree in Metro Center

 Salvador del Mundo too.

The metal kind that lights up and it glows!!!!

Most people forgot about Thanksgiving

But we still ate lots of Turkey

And the best thing that I see

Is the Spirit that it Brings!

Just to Be...A.... Missionary!

(please sing aloud and forgive the bad word to rhythm matching...)

So this week I've started to experience my very first end of month stress overload

But on the bright side we got new computers in the office this week. So for every time that I ever wrote on some crappy Cyber computer in an internet cafe, now I am writing on a new, touch screen DELL, so I guess that´s fun. I don´t really know if I´ll end up using the touch screen a lot, but at least it´s there...

So know I´ll get back to the stressful part. Pretty much It´s my job to make sure that the missionaries all get their assignment money next week, and it´s a pretty big process. On top of that we had a super helpful meeting at the temple office this week that is going to make things a lot easier in the future, but requires that I do a LOT of work to get things ready! 

Also like everyone and their dog needed money for their office jobs yesterday... 

So pretty much my thanksgiving was a lot of work and stress.

BUT

Last night the 2nd counselor in the Stake Presidency invited us over for thanksgiving. He invited all of the Office Elders and a few more. It was really great to eat turkey and pumpkin pie and gravy!!!!

today round two in like an hour with President Adams.

I´m eating really well I´d say, Mom :)

And on top of all that?

We still have our normal missionary area. It´s really been a great experience as I have learned to manage the different parts of my life. I think I will continue to get better at it as time goes on. Once again, The mission proves to be great life training!

We have a super huge ward activity tomorrow about The Plan of Salvation! I´ll tell you more about how it goes next week!

also the Christmas initiative and Changes are coming up, which means a lot of work and fun!

I love you all SO much! have the greatest of weeks!

Elder McFarland

11/25/17 Photos

Thanksgiving Dinner with the Diaz family!

you wouldn´t believe it´s not butter

ok I´ll be honest I´m completely en blanco for a weekly email title and things right now.

But here we go. 

Claudia Maldonado got a little spooked this week when we invited her to baptism. When I was inviting her i literally felt like I was walking through a mine field because we already knew she doesn´t like to be pressured. So right now we are in the process of trying to regain her trust again so that we can keep helping her progress.

But in another more positive news. Last Sunday we had a special experience. 

We finished church and our meetings and lunch with a member family and it was about 4 o clock. At 5 o clock we had our missionary correlation. The Chapel is about 30 minutes away from our area walking. So pretty much if we went to our area we were going to have like 10 minutes(well, not even that, but we were planning on that.) to work. We decided it was worth it and we started walking to our area as fast as we could. We had one appointment with a lady named Paula Grandados. She is an older lady who is the sister of a member and apparently had been an investigator for a long time. We showed up to the house, and things were really hectic. I was fighting back sleep as my head was starting to nod, and things were loud and crazy, but we started the lesson, and I was praying that I wouldn´t fall asleep. after about 3 or so minutes of my companions talking I decided I NEEDED to do something to stay awake, so i sat up and kept trying to shake off the sleep. It was my turn to speak and the Spirit gave me energy and woke up my soul.

As I invited her to baptism and listened to our investigator, we got the sweetest suprise. Turns out, she has been reading quite a bit from the Book of Mormon, and she has been ´´talking to God´´ trying to find out if she should be baptized. Right there in that 10 minute lesson she confided in us that she had received a strong spiritual prompting that she should be baptized the week before, but that she felt embarrassed because she didn´t have a white dress. 

almost screaming with delight we told her that we would get all the arrangements done for her baptism and we helped her to choose December 3 as the day of her Baptism. 

Just goes to show that 10 minutes really can make a difference. 

God is the one who does the miracles, not us. We just have to be worthy and willing to do what he asks. Please pray for Paula that she will be supported in her preparation for entering the Lord´s kingdom!

I love being a missionary. I love serving God. and others.

Also, a shoutout to my sister Jeh in her engagement to her sweetheart Josh!!!!

I love you all!!!

Elder McFarland

The Cement Jungle.

The city is so much different than anything I know. 

Lot´s of people, lot´s of places, lot´s of things.

it´s great. 

I actually have found that I relate a lot with lots of the people here. Sometimes in more rural areas it was hard for people to listen to me because that´s not the way I grew up. I actually have a more similar background to the people here in the city. People are more educated, which means they understand more, and they seem to have the same type of fears and likes and dislikes as I do. 

The ward here is super solid. We have so many solid members that just do the right thing without any recognition. They aren´t rich, they aren´t famous, but they just help other people and try to do what God wants them to do. It´s really inspiring. 

As for the office, I am getting more and more used to the fact that I will spend most of the rest of my mission here. I´m trying really hard to get the trust of the members so that we can work so hard together and so that the ward here can grow and progress. I am super happy to serve here and I know  that God is already blessing me. 

I´ve noticed that most people already know what they need to do. if they need to read the scriptures, or go to church, or get married. They KNOW what´s right. But what they really need is for someone to listen to them, to understand that it´s hard, and to encourage them to do what they know. 

So if you find that you are living below where you would like to be:

23 Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves—to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal life.

Animos! as we say in spanish. You can do it! remember always that we have our own free choice to make our lives better. To be better people, and to enjoy the blessings of heaven! cheer up your hearts and remember that because of the Atonement of Christ we can have whichever path we choose! If we TRULY want to return with our Heavenly Father, we will!!!

This week the most positive person we are teaching is Claudia Maldonado. She is a recent convert´s mom, and she has a really solid desire to learn and to grow. This week we taught her lesson 2, and she had lots of questions because it was very different than her Catholic background.

I love the Gospel. Watching the Plan of Salvation work in people´s lives. It´s amazing.

I love you all. I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ fixes lives. I know that God loves me, that he knows me, and that He lives!

Have the greatest of weeks!!!!

Ps. Little miracles: the Spirit told me to take my camera card out of my camera while I wasn´t using it, and to put it in my mission manual. Then all of a sudden I lose my camera, BUT NOT MY PHOTOS. Tender mercies.

11/11/16 Photos

I´m just here to have fun coach.

Hey so this weekly letter is going to be a little bit shorter, because I am pretty much out of time already. 

But just so you know.

I´m liking the office. It´s a good place here, and my companions are super great! Every day we go to the office until about 2 or 3, and afterwards we head out to work. 

I´ll just skip to the good part and tell you about our most positive people.

Right now our most positive investigator is Claudia Maldonado. She has a daughter who is a recent convert, and she has been to church twice now. Recently she is getting more excited about the church, and yesterday we had a super solid lesson on the Book of Mormon that she really enjoyed. Her husband is positive to, according to my companions, but he is ALWAYS working, so I haven´t been able to meet him yet. The best part is that they already have some friends with the ward members and their daughter is REALLY solid in the church right now(she´s like 21ish and her name is Stefany) so that´s cool!

Other than that, It´s too soon to tell with a lot of other people.

The ward members are super solid. We had a good lesson with the Bishop and his wife this week that was super fun, and another with a family called the Juaquin family, and another with the Tica family, and I´m very happy about the members here in Miramonte.

Well, just like I promised, this was a short letter, but next week will be longer as I get to know things better!

Love you all to death!!!

Elder McFarland