Morning exercise with Mafi

Elder Anderson

Elder Phillips, Roberts, Weiss, andWhite

Sleeping outside

Pukana (palagi style)

Elder Weiss modeling his new clothes

FlipOut with Elder White

Testing out the games for the Halloween ward activity

'Ia talofa lava!
I've been released from Zone Leader and got transferred to Liverpool 2nd............ why do I have all those periods after that? I'll tell you why. IT'S A SAMOAN WARD! :D I'm now officially called as a Samoan speaking missionary! My companion is Elder Vaele who is from Samoan and speaks almost zero English! So I've got to learn Samoan and fast! So far so good.

Talofa lava. O lo'u igoa o Elder Macfarlane. Ou te fiafia ile o lo'u soa.
Hello there. My name is Elder Macfarlane. I like my companion. :)

I also know random words here and there but that's about it thus far. I am really going to have to turn to the Lord for some heavy divine help with this. I know with the Lord anything is impossible and this is a great chance for me to get closer to Him as I go through this trial. But hey, it's a pretty great trial to get to face! By the time I get home I'm going to be able to speak fluent Samoan! Or at least that's the plan.... 10 months to go? I got this! :)
Have a great week! Love you all!
Elder Macfarlane

G-Day Mates!
It's December!!!!What?! My goodness, the time is starting to fly by. December is my absolute favorite month of the year! My birthday, my dad's birthday, my mom's birthday, Christmas, New Years Eve, Christmas Eve! There are so many reasons to celebrate! With this wonderful season, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is starting a new program called "He Is The Gift" and it's great! :D Go to christmas.mormon.org to find out more and listen to the great videos and read some great stories in the spirit of Christmas! That's my commitment for all of you reading this right now, GO CHECK IT OUT!! It'll be worth your time and besides it's a lot better than wasting time on Facebook ;) Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and I love Him with all my heart! He truly is "the Gift" of Christmas. Go out in Christ-like love for others and serve those people you come in contact with. It will take a small moment of time, but could have a lasting impression on those you touch.
Love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Macfarlane

Hello hello!
This week was another great week in the life of a missionary! But before I get into that... HAPPY (early) THANKSGIVING!!! Today is our Pday, and we're having the Turkey Bowl later today (american football) to celebrate! Gonna be fun :)
Back to missionary work! :) We've been working super hard to find more and more people to visit and teach about the church and it's been a very successful week in that sense. Then to top it off, Christian and Lemily came to church! AND it was the primary presentation so it was an extra special sunday! Lemily is one of our investigators and Christian is her boyfriend who we found out is actually a less-active member of the church. They were only able to stay the first hour, but they loved it and said they will definitely come back next week! The ward was really loving and kind to them too, I was glad that they were able to make friends to quickly in the ward!

Also another cool miracle happend this week. Last week, or maybe the week before, we were out contacting names on our "potential investigators" list. In other words, we were out visiting people who other missionaries have met before but never formally taught any lessons to. We went to visit a girl named Emily, but she said she wasn't interested. So we decided to knock some doors on that street, and we said we would keep knocking until we found at least one person who was interested. After about a half hour of knocking doors we met this man, Rob, who didn't seem interested but then said that he would love to have us back to teach his family... uh What!? We were so excited to teach this family about Jesus Christ. But then, we go back during our next appointment with them and his wife answered and said they aren't interested, stop coming by. We were pretty discouraged after that, but once again, we wouldn't let it stop us! We saw this man across the street sitting outside with his kids so naturally, we walked over and started talking to him. He's the man! His name is Cory and we invited him to learn more about what we teach and he accepted. We've taught him again once since then and invited him to church this upcoming Sunday and he said he'd love to and he might bring his kids along too! I can't wait to see his family progress!
The reason I share that story is because it taught me a really important lesson about Faith. We were met with discouragement a couple times and didn't give up. We showed our faith and kept pushing forward, striving to do whats right and share what we know to be true. As we continue to show our faith, we are able to see miracles come into our life. Show your faith in Jesus Christ by striving to become more like Him. Having faith in Christ will lead to repentence, which will ultimately lead you to our Heavenly Father and His eternal love for each and every one of us. Be strong and of good courage, the Lord is watching :)
Love you all!
Elder Macfarlane   

I'm assuming this is Nick's zone...I see Elder Hubbard, Elder Coats and Elder Anderson (previous companions)! Pretty sweet to all be in the same zone together.

This week has been hectic! I've got a new companion, Elder Weiss, who is an incredible missionary. He is not afraid to speak to anyone on the streets and share the gospel of Jesus Christ. He has such immense faith, I hope to one day be as faithful as he is.
This past week was filled with miracles, especially these last few days! I'll just share a couple experiences we had. So the first is with a man named Steve. Steve knocked on our door about a month ago on accident and we started talking about what we do as missionaries. He said that he could really use some religion in his life right now and so we exchanged contact information and that was it. We were unable to set an appointment with him since that day. He was always busy or we already had an appointment. But finally, last Saturday, one of our appointments fell through and so we decided to call up Steve. He said for us to come over right that instant. So we accepted and drove over to his place and found out he was going through an extremely hard time and feeling very depressed. We shared the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he is already more optimistic about life. By no means is he back to his regular self yet, but it amazes me how much someone can change and improve by simply learning of God's love and plan for His children. Steve also accepted becoming baptized when he receives an answer to his prayers to know if this is truely the church of Jesus Christ. So happy for him :)
Another miracle from this past week was also on Saturday, later in the day. We went to go visit some potential  investigators that past missionaries had met and said we should go visit. We went to visit a woman named Maria, but when we got there she wasn't home. But the daughter's boyfriend came out and said "hey Elders!" When someone calls us Elders we get excited because that means they know who we are. Turns out this man is a less-active member from Queensland (another state in Australia) and just moved in with his girlfriend's family a few weeks ago. We talked with him for about 20 minutes then went inside briefly and visited with his girlfriend, Lemily. They are half Samoan, half Cook Island and I know a little Samoan so I was able to briefly bond by speaking their language with them. We taught about prophets and how we have a prophet on the earth today, who's name is Thomas S. Monson. We invited Lemily to continue meeting with us so she can learn more and she accepted. Also Christian (the less-active boyfriend) said he'd come to church next week and bring some of his girlfriend's family. I'm super excited to see the progression of this family in coming closer to their Savior, Jesus Christ.
I love being a missionary :)
Elder Macfarlane

I got a new companion! I'm in Mortdale still and I'm now with Elder Weiss. He's from Utah and he's spanish speaking! I'm super excited to start learning spanish now! Elder Weiss is seriously the best missionary I've ever met before so I'm just really excited to work with him! He is a hard worker. It should be a very successful transfer, I hope! ;)

 Look what Nick found?

Elder Coats and Elder Hubbard Box Tagging

This week was a great week working with less-active members! One of the things I get to do as a missionary is not only teach people who are not members of the church about Jesus Christ and His Gospel, but I also get to work with people who are already members of the church who may be struggling with various aspects of their faith and/or testimony. I LOVE working with these members of the church because they all have at least a small testimony of God and it's my job to help them find that faith again and help them strengthen their relationship with God. We visit with one man, Eddie, from Iraq, who has been through a lot of really hard trials recently in his life. My companion and I have been visiting with him for about one month and he has gotten so much better in this short time! He went from being extremely depressed to where he is now; smiling, laughing, sharing more about his life with us, and he came to church this past week!! Not only that, but he was having a great time and cracked a few jokes with people in Sunday school! After church he expressed that he really wants to quit smoking and clean himself up in the Lord's eyes! It's incredible how much one man can change by simply realizing how much God loves you and cares about you. I am so proud of this man for the changes he has been making and the blessings he's received from our loving Father in Heaven as a result are simply incredible.

Being a missionary for the Lord is one of the greatest blessings I've been lucky enough to be apart of. Miracles are a daily occurrance and I'm learning so much about every aspect of life. We are all litterally children of our Heavenly Father and God loves each and every one of his children. Even when times get tough, don't give up! God is there to help, all you have to do is ask. My invitation for you this week is exactly that, pray to God during the week and find out for yourself if he is there. I promise you that if you ask with a sincere heart, truly wanting to know if God is there, he will answer you. God answers all prayers in his own time, but he does answer. Never doubt your faith in Jesus Christ and our Father in Heaven!

Love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Macfarlane

The sweetest letter from Nick's Bishop in Bankstown

Thank you so much Sis Macfarlane for providing us with his blog details as he has become an integral part of our family; in fact we consider him one of our own.

We miss him but were grateful to have had the opportunity to see him again during the weekend while attending the General Conference broadcast at our stake center. My mother adores him and always asks for him. She isn't a member (yet) of this gospel we love and she has always avoided the missionaries since I was baptized in 2003, but a miracle entered into our lives and my mother established a great love for Elder Macfarlane.

Although Elder Macfarlane left despite my mother not being baptized, he will always be the miracle that helped my mother open her heart to the gospel of Jesus Christ. For that I will always be grateful to him and have a great love for my brother Elder Macfarlane.

We love you and the family.

Love the Tufuga family

This week has been good. We're really working hard to try and find new people to teach. We ride the trains for a couple hours most days for the purpose of talking to people and trying to find people to share the gospel with. We've had a few cool experiences where we meet someone who is super nice to talk to about religion, but no one has accepted to meet with us to really learn more yet. But we will keep searching! I know the Lord is preparing people all over the world to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and it's my job to go and find them! We try to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost on where to go and who to talk to as much as possible. Even on days when we don't get anyone interested in talking about Christ, we still meet heaps of great people everyday and are hopefully planting a seed for them that one day can grow into a true love for our Savior, Jesus Christ.
I'm continuing to learn about the new area I'm in, Mortdale, with my new companion Elder Anderson. It's been tough since there wasn't a whole lot going for the area before we came in, but it is definitely improving. Elder Anderson is the man and doing a great job training me as a zone leader, or at least I think he's doing well... I don't really have anyone to compare him to. But regardless, he's the man! :) He has a great attitude for doing missionary work and I'm learning so much from him. Hopefully we'll be companions for a while so he can keep teaching me how to be a better missionary!
Actually, being a zone leader is a pretty cool calling. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's one of the "highest" callings as a missionary. I want to be careful saying "highest" because I'm no better than any of the other missionaries serving right now, I'm just put in charge, along with my companion, of about 20 missionaries in our Zone and are given a few more responsibilities. There are about 16 Zone Leaders in the Australia Sydney South Mission, which has 210 missionaries or something close to that. It's really just a great opportunity for me to serve the missionaries that I get the priviledge to serve around.
This upcoming week is General Conference! Well actually it was last weekend, but Australia is about a day off so we watch it the following week. General Conference is a super cool opportunity where the prophet, Thomas S. Monson, as well as the other leaders of the church speak to the entire world about various topics. I love general conference because it's a great opportunity for us to find out if there really is a prophet of God on the earth today. You can just feel the truth of the words that these men speak about Jesus Christ and his gospel. If you are able, you should absolutely watch it! Most of you reading this are in America so it's already been broadcasted, however you can go online and watch it on lds.org anytime you want! :) There will be talks given about topics like Faith, Repentence, Baptism, the Holy Ghost, Enduring to the End, Family History work, Families can be together for ever, and much more!
This is my invitation for everyone this week! Go and watch AT LEAST one talk from general conference this week. There are about 10 hours of talks you can choose from. I promise you that it can help you improve you life if you listen and apply what you learn. I haven't gotten the chance to watch one yet, but I'll let you know how it was next week in my letter and maybe talk about some highlights :)
I love you all, have a great week!
Elder Macfarlane  

Nick and the senior missionaries that headed home, The McAra's

 His roommates, Elder Roberts and Elder White

Nick's new companion, Elder Anderson, from Canada

Nick was born in Florida and grew up in Minnesota-love the signs!

I'm in a new area, Mortdale, with my new companion Elder Anderson (who is the man!) and I'm loving life :) We've got a few pretty good investigators that we're working with and found some really great potentials. Oh, that's what I should tell you about. So we had a crazy miracle this week. Earlier during the week, Elder Anderson and I weren't feeling too well so we decided to stay home and take a quick nap and hope the pain goes away. Elder Anderson was downstairs laying on the couch and heard a knock at the door. He answered it and met a man named Steve. Steve thought our flat was for rent so he was asking about it, we informed him that unfortunately it's not for rent. He turned away to leave and then turns back around and asks "so what exactly do you do anyway?" We told him that we're missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and teach about Jesus Christ and the gospel. He says, "Man, I could really use some of that in my life..." then told us about some problems he's going through. What?! I didn't know what to say, I was genuinely in shock. Now just to clarify, I wasn't in shock because he understood the need for Christ in his life, I was in shock because he came to US! He knocked on OUR door. HE asked to know more. We did literally nothing except answer the door. He was prepared by God to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ and I'm super excited to teach him and help turn his life around. Also, shortly after that exerience, both Elder Anderson and I didn't feel sick anymore... Christ led us to make sure we were at the right place at the right time. And that just so happened to mean staying in the flat a little while longer! I love being a missionary :)

Elder Macfarlane

Elder Vaelua and Nick going to a service project

Last Day in Bankstown (Sina)

Dual-District Pday

Getting President Back's kite out of a tree

Hello hello hello!
Things are just going great in the wonderful country of Australia! I still have a stomach ulcer, which is annoying because I have to continually have some sort of food with me at all times, but that's about it. I decided I'm not going to go to the doctors office anymore because all they do is tell me something I already know, take a test to make sure what I already know is actually true, and then tell me I need to come back again so they can do it again. All of this for $50 per day... NO THANKS! I know how to deal with it so I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and hope I don't die :)
I have some sad news... I got transferred from Bankstown 1st! :( I've been in that area for 6 months now and got really close to that ward. It was really hard to say goodbye to everyone on Sunday after church! I will especially miss our bishop's family, the Tufuga's! We have been teaching Jack, Jane, Paleso'o, and Peter about the church and they were all doing so well! I love them all so much, I hope the next missionaries will love them as much as I do and keep helping them progress in coming closer to their Savior, Jesus Christ! Also Mereana, our recent convert! I'm gonna miss her a lot too! It's so cool getting to watch her life continually change as she becomes more involved with church and now she's got a calling as being the primary's secretary! :) cool stuff! :)
I've got some exciting news as well! I just got called as a Zone Leader in Mortdale! My companion is Elder Anderson. I'm super sad about having to get transferred from Bankstown, but I'm excited to try out being a Zone Leader near the mission home. Plus I live with the Assistants to the Mission President. That's quite a new experience. It's only been one day so far, but I think I'm gonna like this area :)
Alofa 'atu!

Elder Macfarlane

 Nick's Samaon momma, her daughter and two other missionaries

The Bishop's family, the Tufuga's

Mereana (new convert) and Nick

So this week instead of updating you on my life, I wanted to update you on the life of one of my friends and fellow missionaries, Sister Lavine. Many of you may have already heard the story or part of the story, but I'll tell the story for those of you who are unaware. A few days ago there was a rainstorm. Nothing special, just a typical rainy day. As the storm goes away, you could see two rainbows among the distance clouds (that's right, a double rainbow!). A missionary, Sister Lavine, pulls the car over to the side of the road to take a picture of this beautiful scene. Unfortunately, as she's taking the picture, she doesn't see the car drifting towards her from behind. The car hits the side of the missionaries car, hits Sister Lavine, takes her with the car a short distance, and somehow Sister Lavine gets pinned under the car... Sister Lavine was quickly taken to the hospital to be taken care of. With an accident like this, she should not be living much longer, or if she does make it through she will definitely have many extreme injuries and probably a few long lasting injuries. Upon arrival at the hospital, she in unconscious and has bruises all over. Word spread quickly about Sister Lavine and the terrible condition she was in. Prayers and fasts were being offered on her behalf all across the country, and soon across the world. Yesterday at church, we were informed in more detail of how Sister Lavine is doing. She has a little bruising in the brain and a little bleeding in her lungs. She is still unconscious but, she has no broken bones, all her vitals are good, and she is already breathing on her own!
This experience is far from over, but I thought I would share this story as a testament of the love our Heavenly Father has for his children and for the power of fasting and praying. From what I'm told, over a half million people across the world fasted and prayed for this daughter of God. And by some incredible miracle, she is doing amazing! Thank you so much for all of you who have taken part in fasting and praying for Sister Lavine. She is a great missionary and a great person. I am so thankful to our Heavenly Father for keeping her safe. Anything is possible with God on your side!
I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Elder Macfarlane

These pictures I "borrowed" from Elder Larsen's blog! Thanks!

This has been a busy week that's flown by! I've noticed time is starting to go by much faster now, I kind of have mixed feelings about that. It's great because that means I get to see my family sooner and that problems/struggles that I have will go by quicker. But that also means my time being a full-time servant of the Lord is going to go by fast too! I love and miss all of you back home but this is where I need to be and I love being here serving the people in Australia!
So this week we had zone conference. Zone Conference is a 6 hour meeting with the important people of the mission (Mission President, his wife, and the Assistants)... I did not have a great attitude going into this meeting for obvious reasons. But WOW! That was so great! I will never look down on conferences like that ever again. I had the wonderful opportunity to listen to the leaders of the mission talk to us about how to be better missionaries and how to help others come closer to Christ! I left that meeting feeling great and quite motivated to help the world feel God's love!
So what did we do with this motivation? Well we did heaps of service, we actually took two full days helping people move from one flat to another and cleaning the old flat! It was a lot of work, but I love doing service so it was great! On top of helping others out physically, we also did heaps of spiritual helping! We got to visit with one of our recent converts, Adel, who had a referral for us to visit, and talk with him for a while. After visiting with Adel, we went over to his neighbor's house, Paul, and had a fantastic chat with him. Paul is a theology professor so he is very educated in religions and was curious about our religion, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Adel had given him a Book of Mormon last week and a few pamphlets about the church. By the time we visited him, Paul had read all of those things cover to cover! He was prepared with questions, thoughts, and comments which he had written nicely on post-it notes for us to help him with. We had a great talk and he invited us over again next week to continue teaching him about the church. We invited him to say the closing prayer and he happily accepted since he'd prayed many times before. But when he said amen, he looked at us with a funny look on his face and said, "hmm... that prayer felt different, it felt, good." Paul has just experienced the feeling of the spirit! I was happy for him and am excited to continue teaching him and seeing him progress!
Yesterday (Sunday) we put on a Fireside for our ward about missionary work and how the members can help. It was a great experience and the members are excited to help and continue sharing their testimony of the gospel to their friends and family. I'm excited to see how this work continues to grow! :)
Don't forget about my challenge from last week! If you weren't able to read it, go check it out! Serve those around you! Your simple act of kindness could start a chain reaction!

Love you all and hope you all have a great week! God loves you! Never forget that! :)
Elder Macfarlane

Hello hello hello! This week was a lot of non-missionary work.. With medical problems occurring and heaps of other meetings going on this week, this was certainly unusual. To start off, let me tell you a bit about my stomach ulcer since that is everyone's favorite topic to email me about :) So I had to go in to the doctors a few times this week to set up the appointment, get checked up, and finally I had the procedure... but this wasn't just any procedure. I got an Ultrasound!! Uh... isn't that for pregnant women or something? Not for 19 year old men who have a stomach ache... I couldn't be serious while it was happening, the lady doing the ultrasound asked me what I was smiling about and I just told her straight up "isn't this for women who are pregnant?" She informed me that ultrasounds have a lot of uses, one of them being when a mother is pregnant, but that is not the only use, men get ultrasounds all the time. I still wasn't convinced... I think she was just trying to make me feel less weird about the whole situation. So anyways, I went through the whole procedure and they may have found the problem or another problem. They say I might have a stone inside me! It's not a kidney stone and I sure hope it's nothing like that because that is not fun to deal with! I've got another appointment tomorrow to find out more about the stomach ulcer itself and taking a urea test... whatever that is? So yeah, that's the update on the medical life of Elder Macfarlane. Moving on! This week we got to participate in a great service! We helped a member in our ward, Sister Egan, move out of her old house and into the new house. We were able to get heaps of work done in a relatively short amount of time. They were thinking it would take a few days to finish but we did it in about 7 hours! We also got food afterwards so that's always a benefit ;) I must say, I love giving service! Not for the food, not for opportunity to work out during the day, not even for getting to wear normal clothes instead of having to dress up every day. But because when I give service I know I'm doing what's right. I know I'm helping someone's life become a little bit easier, a little bit better. I came across this scripture this week when studying the Book of Mormon and it's one that I really like. Mosiah 2:17 "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." As we can see here, when we serve others, we are actually serving God. When we show love and compassion to others, we make Heavenly Father happy because we are loving His children, our brothers and sisters. Another way we can show service is through singing. I loved having the opportunity to be in my high school choir back home. Now I don't get that opportunity to sing in the choir, but I still sing. I get to sing hymns in church, I get to sing in church choir, I get to sing before and after meetings as a missionary, I get to sing in the car as we drive around to various appointments, I get to sing when walking around my home. There's actually another scripture in the Doctrine & Covenants that talks about music. D&C 25:12 "For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yeah, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads." God loves music. Music is a great way to worship and show love for Jesus Christ, and also (as stated before) a great way to serve others. Music can uplift and motivate people to become better and improve. One thing that I get to do this upcoming week is sing with a group of youth at a fireside. We're singing one of my favorite church songs, the EFY Medley. For those of you who know this medley, it is beautiful and makes you feel the Spirit with so much power! Music is a wonderful gift from God. Now, to conclude I want to leave everyone with an invitation/challenge. It's simple, go out and serve! But I want you to take it a step further. I want you to go out of your way to serve someone AT LEAST once this week. That means you are physically doing something that makes you have to stop for a moment or change plans slightly. That could mean helping an elderly person cross the street, or offering to help mow someone's lawn. Something you can do to make someone's day just a little bit brighter. An additional step of this challenge is to go about your day with a smile. A simple smile could make all the difference in someone else's life. It will also bless you. You will be happier and see the good things in life better as the appear. I love you all very much and hope you do this challenge that I've set for you. It's simple, it's easy, and it WORKS! Go out and do good in the world, be the answer to someone's prayer this week. Elder Macfarlane  Nick's medicine  Nick loved his package! Christmas in August for this sweet missionary!! Nick's new companion

These past two weeks have been.. exciting. Lots of changes and new things happening! The first big news change is I have a stomach ulcer... what!? Yes, you read that correctly. I had to go to the hospital this past week (which is why I didn't get to write last week) and I found out I have the beginning stages of a stomach ulcer. Yeah, NO FUN! It has made it pretty difficult to visit people and give service when I need to eat pretty much all day or else I get crazy cramps in my stomach. I'll be getting a procedure this week to see what's going on. But no need to be worried, I know the Lord will keep me safe. Something good will come from this in the end.
Now for some more uplifting, happier news! Transfers came and went this past weekend and I'm staying in Bankstown for 6 more weeks! But my companion has moved. My new companion is Elder Vaelua, he is from Samoa and he is the man! I'll try to send some pictures soon so you can see what he actually looks like. The other two Elders in our flat, Elder Willis and Elder Semu, also stayed so we get to all keep working hard together! I'm excited for this transfer with Elder Vaelua. We're going to experience heaps of miracles, I know it! :)
Speaking of miracles, we were asked by our beloved zone leaders to record 17 miracles (referencing the movie "17 Miracles") that we get to experience and/or be apart of during the month of July. WOW! That was such a cool thing for me. I never realized how many miracles actually occur in my life every day, all you've gotta do is look for them! I would highly recommend trying this! Maybe do it for a shorter period of time or something but trust me, it's a miracle in itself!

One thing that was interesting about this week was actually at church sunday. I was asked to teach the last hour of church in "Elders Quorum." That is the class for basically all the men 19 years old and up. I have no worries teaching lessons or public speaking so I said, "yeah, no problem. I'd love to!" Then the man told me the topic I was to teach about... Eternal Marriage. What? Out of all the men in the class, they chose the missionary who is the least experienced in this subject? Plus I'm not even supposed to be thinking about marriage right now, I'm a missionary for goodness sake. But I accepted the invitation regardless and taught the class. It went really well and surprisingly smoothly. We talked a lot about how families can be together forever and how life doesn't end at death. I am so grateful for the knowledge that our church has on this subject. Knowing that I will see my family again after I die. I love this gospel :)

Last night we had a lesson at our bishop's home. Just so everyone is aware. A bishop is the man who is "in charge" of the members in a certain area. For those of you reading this that know me decently well, my dad was the bishop in Andover for the last few years and was recently released from that calling. If you have further questions about what a bishop is or what they do, email me and ask :) Anyways, back to the story! Our bishop, Bishop Tufuga, is the man! We had dinner at his house last Sunday and he invited his two brothers and one sister to visit with us so we can get to know them and possibly teach them about our church. Then last night he invited us over again and one of his brothers, his sister, and his mother was there, all interested in learning about the church. I'm so excited to teach them more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and be able to witness the change that will take place in their life as they come to the knowledge of the truth! I love seeing the gospel bless families and bring them closer together! I love being a missionary! :)
I hope everyone has a fantastic week with heaps of miracles! Love you heaps!
Elder Macfarlane

This week has been slow, but is starting to pick up again. I've been sick with the flu, which is no fun, so we had to take a couple sick days to sleep and recover, but now I'm back and ready to go! Feeling much better :) This week my companion and I went on trade-offs with the zone leaders, Elder Larson and Elder Tai. I went with Elder Tai and worked in our area teaching people and contacting referrals. It was a great day and a great experience to learn and work with someone new.
This weekend was definitely the highlight of my week. Adel got baptized! Adel is one of the most humble men I've ever met in my life and I'm so proud of the decision he's made to come closer to his Saviour and be baptised. It was also a really special day because although none of his family are members of the church, they were all there to support and love him. That's one great family! The next day, Sunday, Adel was asked to speak in a Recent Convert Fireside (kind of like a devotional) and he did wonderfully! He bore an extremely powerful testimony and I was so proud of him! Also at the Fireside, I was asked to sing in it with four other young men. It was me, Elder Willis, the Aguso brothers and Sam, who were all from the Samoan ward, except for me. I was the only white guy up there and I got a lot of comments on it afterwards because they are all big samoan men, and I'm this little white American.. It was pretty funny :) I'll send a picture next week of the group!

One last comment before I let you go. While at the Fireside there were many great and inspiring talks and testimonies given. I would like to share one thing that I really like that was said there. The man was talking about the importance of following the Savior and doing what's right. He said, "Two people can do anything when God is one of them." I just love that! When we turn to the Lord and have Him on our side, anything is possible!
I love you all! Talk to ya next week!
Elder Macfarlane

 This is what "refreshments" mean after a baptism..islander style!

This is Nick's lunch...horse!

This week is a very short update for you all! But here's some quick highlights of the week!
I'm officially learning Samoan! President says he might change my call and assign me Samoan speaking, which would be AWESOME! What that means is that I would be called to a Samoan speaking ward and have to learn Samoan.. and fast! I started really working on that this week and the three Samoans that I live with are helping me with that!

The next picture is one of my companion and I, along with the Sister missionaries and the Manakafua family. Those little foil wrappings that look like little Hershey Kisses is horse! Yes, like the animal! We ate it for dinner yesterday and it was really good! It was actually my second time having it but it was the other three missionary's first time! Great fun :)
And the final, and most exciting, picture is that Brother Rio got baptized! :D Brother Rio is in the Samoan ward that my companion and I work closely with. Brother Rio's family are all members and he finally, after 25 years, decided to join his family and get baptized! He's an incredible man and someone who has really strengthened my testimony! The gospel, once again, has brought yet another family together! :) I love this church!
Elder Macfarlane 

Dinner at the Manakafua's

Baptism of Brother Rio with Elder Bourne

4th of July cake

Elder Bourne, Willis, and Semu

Our mini missionary, Elder Siteine

Service Project with Sugar Cane

Mini Mission pictures!