November 10, 2021 

Man I LOVE washington! It is so beautiful. The weather here has been crazy the past week. It'd makes for some great stories and experiences that I'll never forget!

If you don't know, I am currently serving in the south hill ward and I'm on BIKE. It was hard at first. I love it now and have gotten used to it. One thing I've learned is to plan for the weather. It is not fun biking in the pouring rain. It has rained so much these past couple weeks. Almost every day me and my companion have to go back to our apartment to change clothes. Even with all the rain... THE WORK GOES ON! We are still teaching and serving the members in the ward. It's actually been a blessing in a lot of ways because the members sympathize for us. We get rides a lot :)

We had a tornado warning yesterday during zone conference. That's crazy

We went blitz knocking as a zone which was way fun! We all swapped companions and knock doors for an hours or two. While we were all knocking, it starting HAILING. There were literal small chunks of ice falling from the sky haha. Me and my comp both didn't have hoods so we were getting absolutely pelted. We had a good laugh.  I will never forget me and him running back to  a bunch of trees to take cover. Our ears were red from getting hit so many times. The weather has been crazy but it makes for some great memories!

I mentioned zone conference which was yesterday (that's why they moved pday to today). It was awesome! We had a general authority visit the mission and give us lots of advice. He is in the Quorum of the 70. His name is Elder Bowen and he was really cool. He talked to us for like 4 hours about how to be better missionaries. His main focus was on obedience and the importance of doing the small things. I think the mission really benefited from it. I know I did. It good to have those reminders. He said he had 6 things for us that would change our missions if we did them. They were:

1. Get up and out of bed at 6:30

2. Daily plan for the full 30 minutes 

3. 30 Testimony contacts per day

4. 30 Lessons per week

5. Urgency 

6. Quiet Diligence 

It really helped motivate me to be a better missionary. One thing he said that I loved was "if you aren't the best missionary you've ever been the last day of your mission, then your doing it wrong". It's so true! That applies to everything. It doesn't matter how we compare to the people around us, all that matters is we are a better person than we were the day before! Miss you all!!

Elder Macfarlane 

Pic 1-2: Planting trees with the zone

Pic 3: R a i n b o w