Christmas Time

 December 29, 2020

Hey guys!! I love Christmas time!!

This past week was Christmas, as I'm sure you were aware haha. I thought it would be really weird and hard being a missionary during the holidays but it actually was awesome. Missions are the best 

On Christmas Eve, we made a BUNCH of cookies for members and nonmembers. We made like 70 something. It took all morning and afternoon. We accidentally forgot to put baking soda in the first batch so that awkward. They still tasted decent though haha. We ended up only delivering some to like 3 families before we ran out of time. Our mission present and his wife came to our stake center and delivered all our Christmas gifts. That was really cool. We has got chocolate with them and he gave a quick spiritual thought.

Christmas day was the best! We opened all our presents right in the morning. I live with 5 other guys so we all opened them together next to the Christmas tree! We also got to call our families for an hour. We went to the Key center building with the whole zone too. We played a bunch of games like Spikeball, ball, and some card games. They fed us an amazing dinner and it was just the best. We had a white elephant gift exchange and it was sooo funny. I put some missionaries keys into my present last minute and everyone was dying laughing. It made me feel good 

Love yall, 

Elder Macfarlane 

Pic 1: Christmas eve cookies 

Pic 2: Getting our gift delivered 

Pic 3-4: Gifts under the tree

Brian's baptism!

December 21, 2020

 Hey friends!

This week we baptized our friend Brian!! It was such an amazing experience and my testimony of the work has really strengthened. The progress I've seen in him is amazing. Miracles are real. He has really changed and is continuing to change in favor of our Savior. It has been inspiring to relate Brian to myself. I have plenty to work on and it's cool to try and see people the way Christ sees them. And in no way is this an easy task. We are ALL children of God. I think many people forget that and in this world, it's easy to forget. I have things I need to improve on and so does everyone else. Give yourself some slack and go to work! Haha! Work on yourself, work on the ones around you. As long as you never quit trying, God will bless you and help you get where you wanna be.

Christmas is just around the corner! I absolutely love this time of year. It's definitely a little different being a missionary during the holidays but I still love it. There is a much higher focus on Christ (more than like gifts and stuff) on the mission which I am grateful for. All the missionaries are gonna meet up Christmas day and it's basically gonna be a PDay. We have a white elephant gift exchange planned too which should be fun. Me and Elder Stanger are also going to a couple members homes which I am so happy for! The best way to feel the Christmas spirit is to be with family (whether or not it's your own haha). I'll keep you updated how it goes but Merry Christmas!

Elder Macfarlane 

Pic 1-2: BRIAN'S BAPTISM!

Pic 3: A little reward after the baptism ;)

Light the World

December 14, 2020

 Hey guys,

Everything's going well in Gig Harbor. Not much to report on. We've been teaching Brian a bunch this week and it's going pretty good. He's been to church the past four weeks and he's on date for this Saturday!! That's super exciting and we will se what happens. We had zone conference this week and it was the BEST. It was the most I've felt the spirit in a long time. We went into the chapel and talked about the difficulties of missionary work. I can't put it into words.

We also had a Christmas devotional yesterday that was way good. If you haven't seen it it's on the North Tacoma Facebook page. We made a super cool poster with a bunch of service prompts on it (the whole zone helped out). That's all for now but it's great being a missionary 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Elder Macfarlane 

Pic 1-2: Light The World

Pic 3: 12 week with treats!!!

Pic 4: Zone conference w/ 4 zones 

Pic 5: Ward Christmas lights event

Zoom call with Elder Christofferson!

December 7, 2020

 Hey guys!

This week was the BOMB. First off we had Elder Christofferson talk with the whole mission! That was so cool. He did like a Q&A and it was really good. It was all over zoom but you could still feel his presence and the spirit he carries. He talked about the virus and missionary work. I loved when he said that God specifically called us to serve a mission at THIS time during THESE circumstances. I guess I never thought about it like that. God knew the virus would come. God new which missionaries he need at this time. He chose me. It was so cool to think about and my relationship with my Father in Heaven has only strengthened.

We had to say goodbye to Elder Stringham this week  He was one of my comps and he's so nice. He was originally called to the Japan mission and had to be reassigned to Washington because of corona. He got the okay to go back! His flight was this past Wednesday so hopefully he's doing well. We got to go over to President Metts house and have dinner with him and his wife (and the APs). It was sad to see him go but I'm grateful that we crossed paths and that he has the opportunity to go back to his original assignment.

We got a random text from Elder Colby who is the vehicle coordinator and he said we needed to drive to the mission office and trade in our car. We had a 2020 Nissan Rogue and now we got 2021 Chevy Equinox! It's way niceeeee. I'm blessed haha.

Me and Elder Stanger have been teaching alot recently. We've been teaching Brian for several weeks now and he's planning on getting baptized on the 19th! We are super excited for him. I was a little nervous going into one of our last lessons cause we had to talk about the law of chastity and the word of wisdom. Elder Stanger has only been out 8 weeks and neither of us had ever taught the lesson to an actual person. It went SOOO well. I gotta give props to the Holy Ghost though cause it was so strong. Me and Elder Stanger were stoked walking out of that lesson.

Being a missionary is the best 

Elder Macfarlane 

Pic 1: The Gig House

Pic 2-3: Elder Stringhams goodbye 

Pic 4: Elder Christofferson

Pic 5: Brand new car

Pic 6: Zone activity at a members