Well, this is it. My final letter home as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It has been great getting to serve these people of Australia. I have a mixture of feelings; joy, sadness, pride and excitement. But overall, I have a nice feeling of contentment. I am sad I won't be able to be here to see the progress of those I have worked with and gained friendships with over the past two weeks, but I am happy with what I did while here. I am grateful for the trust and love that our Lord Jesus Christ places in us to go out and teach our brothers and sisters the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The impact of serving a mission has been incredible on my life. I have gained a foundation of a testimony on the doctrines of the church and of Jesus Christ. I understand that a testimony is not a place to reach, but it is a lifelong process of faith and repentance. I feel as though, because of my mission, I will be able to return home and face old challenges/weaknesses with new power and strength. I hope that one day, my three little brothers will be able to follow my footsteps and choose to serve our Lord also.

I love you all heaps!! Have a great week and I'll see you all soon! :)
Elder Macfarlane

 Golfing on P-day (second to last p-day)

 Saying goodbye to the Faleta's

A bit too intense for dunking competitions with Elder Harvey! Ha ha!

This week was another great one! It's starting to kick in that I'm actually finishing....and I don't know how I feel about it. I'm excited to see my family (especially my mum), but other than that I feel like I'd rather keep being a missionary. Living in a foreign country, devoting your life to serving others, and meeting new people everyday is such a great way to live! Missionary work is wonderful and being a missionary is the best! I'll try to hold off on stories these last two weeks so I'll have things to talk about when I get home!! But here's some pictures! :)

 Two weeks! 

Elder Bourne, Elder Macfarlane, Elder Carter and Elder Boswell

 Green Valley missionaries

Elder Macfarlane, Sister Atkinson, Sister Salts, Elder Harvey

 The four missionaries dying in Liverpool Zone

(Missionary lingo for "Going home")

 Our Tongan speaking sisters, Sister Rollins and Sister Sofaele

 Elder Togia and Elder Macfarlane

 Liverpool Zone elders

 Elder Carter, Elder Macfarlane,

Elder Faimasasa and Elder Togia

Finding people to teach on the train, with Elder Harvey

I've made a decision that I will never by "trunky" until transfer day. However, I am also extremely excited to go home. I've been thinking about this a lot recently, for obvious reasons, and I've decided that that is a good thing. It's good to be excited to go home, I have a family who loves me, friends awaiting my return, work lined up, school is in the process of getting lined up, and ultimately I will be returning from serving a full time mission with heaps of new friends and stories to tell. How can I not be excited? The difference between being excited to go home and "trunky" is that I will not allow that excitement to take my mind off of what's truly important at this time. I am absolutely excited to go home, but I've also got much to do these last 3 weeks before I can throw in the towel and say I'm done. There are people I'm sure I'm still meant to find. There are lessons I still need to teach, but most importantly, there are still souls to save (including my own). The Lord's work will never be done, and I am blessed to be able to be a part of it.

Love you all!
Elder Macfarlane

I am really, really enjoying this last transfer. This past week we taught more lessons than I've ever taught in a week! That shows how determined we are to seeing success my last few weeks! We have sooooo sooooo soooo soooo many people incredibly close to being baptized and I just want to be able to see at least one more make that commitment and take a step of faith before I go home. I really care about these people and LOVE seeing them progress. I think that's the one thing I've learned throughout my mission more than anything else, is to love those around you. When you devote your life to helping others, your life becomes 10X more meaningful and it is a much happier way to live!

Although I only have 4 weeks until I lose m privilege to be a full-time missionary, I hope I can always devote my life to serving others.

Mosiah 2:17 "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God."

Love you all!
Elder Macfarlane

Elder Macfarlane and Elder Harvey

G-day everyone! This week I received my final companion for my final transfer, Elder Harvey. Elder Harvey is the man! He's 22 years old and from Aukland, New Zealand! He has a mad accent. I'm hoping to be able to acquire a bit of it before I go home because I feel like I have my boring old American accent still!! We'll let you be the judge of that when I get home in 5 weeks! :) Elder Harvey is fresh from the New Zealand MTC (Missionary training center) and is ready to work! I love being able to have a fired up missionary my final transfer! We work hard and get along great! Our personalities match perfectly and both pretty chill. AND he played basketball for the national New Zealand boys squad a few years back. Lucky for us, we live right next to a basktball court and play every morning at 6:30 for morning exercise! He's helping me get back into shape and I love it!

Update on investigators this week is pretty good news. We currently have two that we focus on more than anything, Alvin and Jeremiah, and they are doing great! They have both committed to baptism and love the gospel of Jesus Christ! The only thing we're still working on, is marriage. Alvin is living with his partner Rangi and Jeremiah is living with his partner Layla and neither are married. But both have an incredibly strong testimony and it's great to see their continual progress!

That's about it for the week, can't wait to see you all soon! I'm super excited and extremely sad at the same time....I love being a servant of the Lord and living life where all I do is help others all day, every day. But I'm excited to see my family and friends as well.

Love you all! Don't forget to pray! Everyday, everyday, everyday!
Elder Macfarlane

 Awesome and Naughty socks

 Nick and his new companion

(With his extended family that came to visit him ONE last time)

Liverpool Zone