First week in graham....

 February 22, 2021

Hey everyone,

A TON of stuff happened this week. First off, we had transfers on Wednesday. I got transferred to the Sunrise ward in Graham! I was really surprised when we got our transfer calls cause I thought I was staying in Gig for sure. I've always wanted to serve in Graham though! Wednesday was a funny day though. My "old" companion, Elder Stanger, had to go to transfers early because he was training a new elder which turned out to be a huge blessing. We pulled up to the mission office and I completely forgot my bike!! Haha. It turned out perfect though because we had like an hour after our meeting was over before transfers started. We ran back to the Gig house and grabbed my bike. We didn't have a bike rack so we took the front wheel off and shoved it in the back of our equinox. 

At transfers, I got to meet a bunch of my old companions which is always way fun. I am slowly starting to know more and more missionaries. I met my new companion Elder Hanks and hes super cool! We get along really well. The apartment is also super nice in sunrise. Its not quite as good as the Gig house, but a close second ;) 

ALSO... WE HAD TWO BAPTISMS YESTERDAY! That was so awesome. First week in Graham and we're already baptizing people haha! I actually didn't do anything besides help teach lesson 5... but I'm still counting it  They are this super nice Polynesian family and the father and his son were the ones that got baptized! It was a part member family. The grandfather was the one that got to baptized them! All around, such a cool and spiritual experience.

I know that baptism is an essential stepping stone in Gods plan for us. There are so many blessings that come from it. I love the analogy that it's the "gateway" back to our Father in Heaven. That being said, it's just the gateway. We have to chose to continue to walk the path of righteousness and through the gateway. It's really a decision we make everyday. BUT God helps us out because he also gives us the gift of the Holy Ghost which can guide us to continually go down the right path. Gods plan is a perfect plan. I love my Father in Heaven and providing a way back to him and to have eternal life 

Elder Macfarlane 

Pic 1: Gaga ball with the youth

Pic 2-3: Baptism!!!

More snow, more problems

 February 15, 2021

Hello fellow Americans,

Thought I'd start off with a different intro this time :) hows everyone doing? Things have been pretty crazy these past couple days. So much SNOW! It almost never snows here in Washington. Everyone here is going crazy about the snow even though it isn't even that much tbh. They dont have snow plows or anything so that's why. Its definitely different than what I'm used to. 

The past two days we have been snowed in and couldn't leave our apartments! The roads were way bad so our mission president said to stay inside. Well... actually we could still knock doors a little but but we just had to walk everywhere. Saturday was pretty fun cause we have the whole gig house to just us 4. We played bball, foosball, pingpong, etc. Really fun but it got pretty boring pretty quick. Sunday was sooo long. I can't imagine what it must have been like for all the missionaries who were in quarantine for like 3 months during the peak of covid. We can leave our apartments now though so that's good. 

On Saturday we got our transfer calls! It was what we all expected. My companion Elder Stanger is staying in Gig which is suprising cause hes already been here for 3 transfers. Hes also training a new missionary!! That's really cool. AND I am leaving and going to Graham! I was not expecting that but I'm really excited now and I feel good about it. I also get to stay district leader which is good cause I enjoy doing that. I'm excited for the new chapter of the mission and to switch things up a bit. "Disrupt the routine" as President Metts always says. Grateful for the time I spend in Gig Harbor and all the amazing people. 

Love yall,

Elder Macfarlane 

Pic 1-4: SNOW! ☃️

Basketball and Service!

 Hey all,

No email last week, so here's a quick recap of the past 2 weeks.

We went over to the Roberts twice and did service for them. Me and my comp gave him a blessing a couple weeks back cause he had a shoulder surgery. He's doing good though. The service was pretty rough haha. We moved a bunch of boxes and they were HEAVY. They were full with books. He had us take the boxes from his garage and put them on this old rusty cart and bring them down the hill in their backyard. It was a lot of work but that makes the payoff that much greater! He was truly grateful. The first time we went over we forgot our gloves and that was a mistake. The garage and the boxes were super dusty. It all turned out okay and we remembered gloves the second time haha :) they ordered dinner for us too which was so kind.

The covid restrictions in Washington have just been changed which is great to hear! I believe we used to be in phase 1 and now we just got bumped up to phase 2 which means we can eat in restaurants and in members homes!! That's good news for sure. Its definitely weird/hard to be a missionary during this whole pandemic. I hope things continue to improve. I'm gonna be honest... not a huge fan of this covid thing haha. I can't complain too much though cause I wouldn't change anything about my mission experience so far.

We had several dinners this past week in members homes which was awesome. We went over to Sister Goodmans and she fed us lunch. She needed help setting up a printer in her office so we helped with that. Turns out its actually super easy. We had Dinner with Brother Loeshes yesterday too. He lives in the Crescent Valley ward but they invited us to join him and the sister missionaries. He had this whole dinner set up for us and he served us steak, corn, potatoes... it was way fancy and way good. He told many stories of his relationship with God and how he converted to the gospel and they were powerful. He's so cool. 

Me and my companion played quite a bit of basketball this week. We usually play in the mornings and during pday. We started getting together with some guys in the ward and playing on Tuesday nights. It was really fun. It's good to get to know the ward better. There were a handful of priests and their dads there. It's fun to get to know the youth and the priests in the ward who are excited about serving missions (or we motivation them to be excited haha). Looking back, I'm not sure how excited I was to serve a mission as a priest but I knew I should do it... and here I am! So grateful for that decision and all the people around me who directing me down this path. Missions are the best... but not without a little sacrifice ;)

Elder Macfarlane 

Pic 1: Double rainbow!

Pic 2-3: Service at the Roberts 

Mosiah 2:17

 Hey!!

We did quite a bit of service this week. I actually really enjoy doing service for people. For one, it's fun to get out of the house and do something a little more exciting every once in a while... and it's also feels so good to help people just because you care and dont want anything in return. I hope I continue to love serving others and it's not just a missionary thing  I feel like that with a lot of things. I've created so many good habits as I've been out here in Washington and I hope they stick for the rest of my life :) That's the goal!

We went over to Brother Loeshes and helped him move some trees. Yes... whole TREES. He had a couple fall down on his property and he used his chainsaw and went to town. We didn't help with that part haha. We put chains around all the individual logs and he dragged them with his tractor. It's hard to explain but it was fun!

I've been playing a lot of basketball with the elders I live with. It's so much fun and it gets pretty competitive. We go basically every other day at this point (in the mornings). We live right next to the church so we just walk over. All the guys are super cool and we all get along great. 

We had zone conference this past Wednesday which was really good. Its always fun to get together again with other missionaries and past companions. President Metts talked a lot about member missionary work which is sooo important! I never realized that before I came out. The members in Gig Harbor are the best though. They are so helpful with missionary work and treat us so well. 

I had a pretty cool spiritual experience on Wednesday too. We got a call from a member in our ward and he asked if we could give him a blessing. He had a shoulder surgery the next day and was in a lot of pain. Me and my companion hurried over and gave him a blessing. I've given a couple before but the spirit is always so strong! He was so thankful for us and we are going over again next week to do some service. 

God is good. Life is good.

Elder Macfarlane 

Pics 1-2: Service at Brother Loeshes 

Pic 3: Zone activity last week