Temple and Training!

February 22, 2022 

Our friend we baptized a couple weeks ago got confirmed on Sunday! That was a great experience. He had something come up last week so that's why it was pushed back to this Sunday. I got to do the confirmation. It's always so cool watching people change for the better and see them change through Christ.

We went on two exchanges this week and they were both a lot of fun! 

We had interviews with our mission president this week and it was nuts! President Metts had me and my comp train the rest of the zone for 4 hours!! It was so long but I think they all liked it. Interviews was split by district do we gave a 2 hour training... twice... for a total of 4 hours. I was in charge of the timer which was actually kinda fun. Every 9 minutes I had to knock on the door and then again at 10 minutes. It was easy. I had to get up like every 9 minutes so it was hard to train the zone and also for that at the same time. My comp, Elder Stanger, was a champ though and basically did the whole training. It was hectic. The interview itself was good. It was very short but that's not a bad thing. I was just tired. President and Sister Metts took us to a Thai place for lunch! Thats was very nice of them. 

Today we went to the temple and it was amazing! 

Have a great week,

Elder Macfarlane 

Pic 1: Temple Trip

Pic 2: Random Fire

Pic 3: Mini MLC

Dogs are the enemy

February 8, 2022 

Soooo... I got bit by a dog on Saturday. It kinda hurt. I'm doing good though. I would send yall a pic but I don't wanna gross you out haha. Besides that this week was great 

We had zone conference and it was so good!! My favorite training for by our mission president. He talked about Baptism and I thought it was really good. He had us all close our eyes and remember what our own baptisms felt like. He then said something like: "Why would we talk about a generic baptism, when we could we talking about our own??" I had never thought about that. He basically said that we should be telling people about our own personal experiences with the ordinance more. It was really good. We also split into break out rooms by mission age. I was in the oldest group!! Thats kinda nuts. I'm at 19 months now. It was fun seeing a lot of old companions and friends. There was only 7 people in my group and some of the others were HUGE.

Last thing I'll share is our friend Brandon's baptism! It was a day ill never forget. His whole story is amazing. We had our stake president and mission president there at the baptism!! We had the A team haha!! The spirit was so strong and it was a special experience. Two nonmembers were there too. I was glad that Elder Stanger did the baptism cause I couldn't stand very well (cause of the dog bite). I couldn't stop smiling for the rest of the day. 

Love ya,

Elder Macfarlane 

Pic 1-2: Zone Conference 

Pic 3: Brandon's Baptism 

Pic 4: District hike by the water

Pic 5: District Bowling 

The Battle with Comparisons

 Feb 1, 2022

This week was a good one!

We had some crazy news about our stake and the ward boundaries. They held stake conference on Saturday and they asked us to attend virtually. It really effected neighboring stake more. Basically they combined two of the stakes together! They dissolved Tac South which is a little sad but probably for the better. I've been way curious about if the zone is gonna double in size or not, but our mission president said it's not. They are gonna keep it two separate zones for now. 

Last night was insane!! We had dinner at the mission home with all the zone leaders. It was one of the greatest days ever. I have met so many awesome missionaries that I truly consider my friends.We had a huge steak dinner and I had so much food!! It was from 5:30-8pm. The time went by sooooo fast. It was a party at times and serious when it needed to be. We had a good discussion about a mission survey that the whole zone took. President shared with us the results and some of of were kinda crazy. Here were some of the results:

-20% of missionaries said the had good mental health

-36% of missionaries said they were close to the spirit

-80% of missionaries had a firm testimony in Jesus Christ

...I don't remember the others but isn't that crazy!? The survey was a scale from 1 to 6. These percentages are the amount of people that put 6/6 in our mission. Hopefully that clarifies it, but it was still surprising when I first heard it.

It was really eye opening to me because I realized how "human" we all are. I think missionaries are sometimes perceived as perfect or on some type of pedestal but that's just not the case. Everyone has there trials and we're all trying our best. I think that's why it's important to love everyone. We never know what people have gone through or are going through in there personal lives. This is true for missionaries but also for everyone!! We all can be better. Remember that perfection is process. We are all on different paths spirituality. Comparison never leads to happiness. The only person we should be comparing ourselves to is our past self. As we try our best to be 1% better everyday, we will grow and become the person God needs us to be. Love you all so much,

Elder Macfarlane 

Pic 1: Running with the district on the bridge 

Pic 2: New stake boundaries

Pic 3-4: ZL din din