All of the missionaries with the Bishop's family

(Bishop is taking the picture)

 Nick's newest companion, Elder Bourne

This is how Samoan's do companionship inventory! :)

"Da boyz" playing rugby touch at 6am! 

What up, what up, what up!
Transfers week has come and gone! This was the first transfer with the new mission president, President Palmer, and wow he changed a lot! In my zone, 8 of the 17 missionaries left! That's crazy! I lost both of my companions, Elder To'angutu and Elder Hubbard, and I got a new companion, Elder Bourne (like Jason Bourne.... :D ). He's from Samoa and he is actually teaching me Samoan. I wanted to learn Tongan from Elder To'angutu, but that was a bit of a fail. So now I'm learning Samoan from Elder Bourne and it will be good! :) Also we got a new Zone Leader, Elder Tai, from Hong Kong. He's a pretty cool guy as well. I'm excited to see what happens with all the changes! Oh, and I'm still District Leader. Fun fact for ya :)
We had Zone Conference this week with our new mission president and it was very good! It was all day long and I learned heaps from the lessons, but there was one thing that stood out to me:

"Be worthy to have the Holy Ghost with you ALWAYS, EVERY DAY" -President Palmer
The reason this quote stuck with me is because a lot of the time we don't realize how important it is to be exactly obediant to the commandments of God. To be worthy of the Holy Ghost means we are doing the things we should be doing and thinking the things we should be thinking. That's one thing that the LDS church focusses on, even if you think of doing the sin, it's as if you have already comitted it. If you have those evil thoughts, get rid of them asap! Don't let yourself become chained and overrun by sin. Even if it's only baby steps, do whatever it takes to overcome the sin in your life and strive to come closer to God. Helaman 5:12 from the Book of Mormon is a great scripture about this. Look it up and read it! It talks about setting a foundation on Christ, and when we do that, we will be able to fight any sin that comes our way! Be strong my friends!
Love you all!
Elder Macfarlane

All of his roomates with the Manakafua family!

This is from our skype session on Mother's Day! I sure love and miss this kid!

G'day from Down Under!
This week was an extremely uneventful week. I've been sick for just over a week now and I can't seem to get over it. I think if I'm not better in the next day or two, I'm going to force myself to go to the doctor. At first I thought it was strep throat, but now I think it's more like the flu. Well anyways, that's the reason we haven't been able to do much, I've been stuck in bed! BUT, I am improving! I can now talk and eat most things :) So that's good!
I have two great highlights from this past week! First I'll tell you about the less-exciting-but-still-super-awesome highlight, then the more-exciting-and-super-awesome highlight! So the first highlight of my week happened while at FlipOut, a trampoline place. I re-learned how to do a backflip! I learned how to do a backflip when I was about 12 with my friend Ethan, but then lost all confidence in it about a month later. But this week I did it again! AND I can land it! But wait, there's more! I can do two consecutive backflips now! Which means, I can do a backflip, land it, and instantly do another one! I was pretty proud of myself! Next time I'm going to try three backflips and also running up a wall into a backflip! Pretty cool stuff :)
Now for the more-exciting-and-super-awesome highlight! I got to Skype my family!! :D It was great to see them again and hear their voices! It's been just over 7 months since I left Minnesota and 4.5 months since I last got to Skype them! It's always pretty funny because we're so excited to see eachother, then we seem to run out of things to say after about 20 minutes... But it's still a great thing! I got to wish my mom a happy Mother's Day, see my dad through my brother's Ipad who was also skyping, and catch up on the lives of my siblings! I loved it!
Transfer week is next week which means there will be some changes happening! I don't think I'll move from Bankstown, but I do think a lot of the Elder's and Sister's around me will be leaving. I'll let you know next week!
I love you all very much! Strive to be the best you can be! Be an example to your family! Let your light shine! (3 Nephi 12)
Elder Macfarlane

Sister Perez, Sister Bushnell, and Elder Pearson

Elder Pearson's last day before he's off to PNG

Bankstown Flat photo

BBQ with Elder Toangutu, Makihele, Hubbard, and Samuela

Mom sent AppleJacks!

This week was good. I'll have to keep this one short and sweet. This week we did a lot of service again. But there are two things that were really out of the ordinary this week. The first thing is good, the second.. not good. First, the good thing. I got Apple Jacks from America! I can't even begin to tell you how much I've missed American food! I'm sorry, but there are few things that satisfy like a bowl of Apple Jacks ;) The second is that we got a new mission president this week. Our previous mission president, President Lew, got hospitalized with a severe head injury and was released and sent home. We now have President Palmer, who served as a mission president in Washington two years ago. It will be great to see what new things he brings. Here's some picture's to make up for the lack of writing :)
Elder Macfarlane