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

When the Weeks feel like hours

When the Weeks feel like hours

... and the hours feel like seconds. But changes are like months and days still kinda feel like days, is that weird?

Really after so long in this area with the same companion and same Elder in the same house, every week kind of starts to blend together. The days go really fast and time just starts to slip through your fingers!

this week was a really great week! Once again we put some really high goals for ourselves to start it out and I am super glad because we were able to meet them! As a result we found many new investigators and some of our old new ones are starting to progress rapidly! this week we have even more new goals and so I hope that this helps us to find the people that are waiting to hear us! 

Lets talk about people.

Victor continues to progress rapidly! he has gone a week and a half (10 days!) without trying a drop of alcohol! He didn't come to church on sunday though...but we found out why! he told us that he felt embarrassed to come because he didn't have any clothes that he felt were fit to come to church in. We explained to him that the Lord doesn't care what`s on the outside, but what`s on the inside.(but we're definitely going to find him a shirt and tie to go in next week)

We went with Jander yesterday after about a week and a half of not seeing her. She told us that she and William broke up:( it makes me super sad to here that. We are hoping to be able to get ahold of him this week(because he is now living in Lourdes, a city about 30 minutes away) and see how we can help them to keep on progressing! maybe they`ll just have to get baptized separately... 

we had a lot of less actives come to church yesterday and even more that should come the week after! I`m super happy about that!

But like I said, the hours feel like seconds and I`m already out of time to write... :(

But I hope you know that I love you all and that I know that this is the work of the Lord. It is absolutely inspiring to see the change that God is making both in my life and in the lives of the people with which I am working.(you see that, spanish helps me not dangle my participles...) 

I am grateful for trials. We get acquainted with God in our extremities(see Our Heritage)

I am grateful for happy times.

I am grateful for life!

Have the greatest of weeks

I love you all

Elder McFarland

With Faith In Every Footstep

I haven't used that title before, have I?

Oh well.

It's kinda an ugly thing when you fall into a routine. so this week we tried to up the anty and get work done! we saw a lot of little miracles as we worked hard with our less active members and looked for a lot of news!

One miracle came as we went out to work with the Chavez family in our ward. We went with them to visit another family, a less active one, named the Zalazar family. Doors were opened where they had never been opened for us before and we finally met the wife and one of the sons, Angel. Angel is not a member, yet, although he absolutely loves going to church and being with the members. We are currently working with him and hope his example and faith will help his whole family come back! Several Baptisms are possible.

The next is an inactive member named sister Loli! She yelled to us in the street ``Elders`` and we stopped to talk to her. She hasn`t been to church in 20 years but she told us she wants to come back! She has a 20 year old son who isn`t a member. he has a broken leg but says as soon as the cast is off he'll come to church!

Sometimes I wish I was better, wish I was more talented, wish I had more visible success, but then we talk with just the right family at just the right moment, and I know that God is here, and that he is guiding me in every aspect of the work!

I kinda burned my time writing my siblings today, so I`m all out, but know that I love you all and that I am praying for you!

I know that God lives!

and loves me too!

Have the greatest of weeks!

Elder McFarland

You can take the guitar away from the man, but you can't take the music!

Let me just say that this title hurts just about as much as it sounds!

I trust President Hintze and I love the Lord more than anything else!

But when President told us there was a new rule that we can't have musical instruments it still hurt a little. on saturday I turned in my little guitar to the zone leaders.

Like I said, I trust President Hintze and I love the Lord more than anything else.

but it hurts a little still

But in every other aspect this week was an amazing one!

First off, we didn't have transfers! Elder Mayèn and I will be together a good while still! also, Elder Sweat and Elder Riasco (the two other elders in the house) didn't have transfers either. This makes 3 that we have been together the 4 of us(for those unacquainted with our mission that is super super rare!

Second off we found a lot of new investigators! this week we walked super SUPER far in our area and found a little pueblo called Asuchillo! there is a ton of potential there and we have started to work there! We found one really positive man named Jerson and another named Edwin, both of which have families of 7! Jerson was meeting with the missionaries before and already has a testimony of the Book of Mormon! Edwin doesn't have much of a religious background, but he has a lot of faith and is super friendly! I`ll let you know as things progress...

Jander and William came to church today! They are both still super motivated to get baptized, but now neither one wants to get married because they have been passing through some super tough times as a couple and need to fix things between themselves. Honestly I don't know what will happen. We are just going to do our absolute best and see what miracles the Lord Provides!

Still super happy to have talked to my family like a week ago. 

fifth off I know that God is behind this wonderful work! I know that despite my weaknesses and shortcomings God is good. In Fact, God is great! He is helping me to improve day by day and He loves me and knows who I am! It`s great to know that he doesn't expect us to be perfect yet! he gives us opportunities to learn!

Hope you all have the greatest of weeks!

I love you all so SO much

Elder Mcfarlandavid

Dear mother the flowers remind me of you!

I love my mother so so SOOOOOOOOO much.

So I got really caught up in talking to everyone today that I kinda forgot to type out a big long group email, but If you have any questions ask my mom, I tlaked to her YESTERDAY!

This week we have been looking for new investigators. While we haven`t given up on all of our dear friends, we need more people to teach. That was where we found a real miracle this week!

His name is Victor. he is a struggling father with a heavy alchol problem. He want`s to change his life to help his poor little family, and he has a lot of faith in Christ that he can move forward and repent. He accepted a baptismal date! We are going to have to help him SO much though, its a hard task he has set out to do! I know that the Lord will help him!

Transfers are this week. I don`t know If I will stay or go, but I trust that whatever happens, I will be where the Lord needs me to be!

I know that God lives, and that he loves me. I have seen his hand so much in my life, and I KNOW that he watches and guides and protects me. I know that he is in charge and that he will make everything turn out right, if we trust in Him!

Did I mention I love my mother?

Have the greatest of weeks everybody!

Elder McFardavid

Pila and Papusas