Hey everyone!
Before I begin I need to apologize, this one might be short because I'm running low on time and I forgot to bring my notebook to remind me what's happened this week.. oops! So to start off I'd like to teach you something about Australia that Americans have all wrong. "Throw some shrimp on the barbie" is not said by Australians. First of all, they call shrimp "prawns." Prawns are actually super good too! They are prepared in some fancy way and long story short, they are great! So there's some knowledge for you in case you ever decide to come to Australia. I almost got smacked when I said it as a joke so I thought I'd save you from a potentially beating :)
I would personally like to thank everyone who has been emailing me because it's really a great time of my week to be able to connect with everyone back home and to hear from family and friends. Also, pictures are FANTASTIC so send pictures because I miss seeing all of you beautiful people! If you don't know my email, talk to mi madre and ask her for it. Also it's probably on facebook somewhere... I think (: Anyways, I really love hearing from people and finding out what's going on in the real world! So yeah, you're all great and I love ya!
So what's been going on the last week. I got my first haircut as a missionary! That was pretty exciting! I got it cut by Momma K, a member in Narooma, and I must say, it's lookin good! We have dinner there a lot and I love it there! It's my little home away from home! :)
Another memorable moment that has happened this week is I officially weigh over 160 pounds! I have pictures and a video on my camera to prove it because it really is a big deal. The only problem is I'm not sure if that is muscle or fat... I'm thinking it's a little more fat, but that's okay! I'm making a goal right now that I will be 175lbs by the time I get back from my mission two years, and not only that, but that weight will be muscle weight, not just fat! My companion and I started doing P90X in the mornings. WOW I am out of shape. We did the ab work out and I thought I was going to die! Let's just say I have lost my 6pack! But it WILL be back, and soon! We play basketball on Wednesdays and I can still dunk so I'm not a complete failure (:
Right now Elder Coats and I are in Nowra with 4 other elders for district conference. District conference, for those of you who don't know, is a time where all of the branches in the area get together and have one big meeting together and we get to hear from church leaders in the area and a few assigned members. The talks and lessons were fantastic and I learned so much! I'm gonna write more detail on some of the incredible lessons that I've learned and mind-blowing thoughts that came to my head. So be prepared for next week's email, it's gonna be good ;)
"His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox is an incredible message. It's only about 30 minutes long and can have an everlasting effect. Go look it up and check it out! Please do it, I know it will bless your life. I love you all heaps!
Elder Macfarlane

HUNTSMAN SPIDER

Oh! I saw my first huntsman spider yesterday too! Look it up, they're pretty creepy! :p It was outside the Kamer's house.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Hello my favorite Americans! (: I would like to start off this post with a random thought that I had this week. This week I decided to strive to notice the small things that happen in life. So, I was in the bathroom in this nice resort called Islandview. I noticed that one of those soap.. cleaner.. things were in the urinal. You know, the "mints" that Melman the giraffe finds in the bathroom on Madagascar! Anyways, I would just like you all to know that I appreciate those people who put those things in there. It makes the bathroom smell good, keeps it decently clean, and is very entertaining for me. (: For those of you who think I'm joking... I'm not! Learn to appreciate the small things in life and you'll be amazed at the many ways you are blessed!

Now to the good stuff! So this week has been an interesting one. To start off the week, we taught a Samoan kid named Sam. We met him while playing basketball at the gym in Narooma, which by the way, has been a fantastic teaching experience! I've heard from some people that playing basketball on your mission is a waste of the Lord's precious time. To you people I say HA! I have taught more lessons to those kids we play basketball with than all other areas combined. Work Hard, Play Hard. When on the court, I play hard. When I'm out and sitting on the sideline, I'm teaching them about the church and answering any questions they may have. I look forward to Wednesday nights every week because of this. Anyways, back to Sam (: So we taught him about the Plan of Salvation and a little of the Restoration of the Gospel. He recently had a cousin die so he was looking for answers about where he is and if he would ever be able to see him again. When we told him about the Plan of Salvation, his eyes lit up. We could tell he liked the sound of being able to see his cousin again and be with his family forever, even after we die. Being able to be with our families forever is an amazing gift that our loving Father in Heaven has given us. Unfortunately not everyone knows that we can. That's one of the many things I'm so grateful to know as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Later in the week, we encountered some Jehovah's Witnesses who came knocking on our door. I thought that was pretty ironic since that was exactly what we would be doing later. It was interesting to talk to them and listen to what they had to say. Although they don't believe what I believe in, I was impressed with their diligence and faith that they had. I respect anyone who believes in something that strongly and then acts on that faith. That's pretty cool. It was a good experience because I was able to talk about the Bible in super deep conversations and as a result I actually learned a little about the Bible that I didn't know and it caused me to spend time afterwards, studying and looking at the things we discussed. The great thing about talking with missionaries/preachers of other faiths is that it only makes my testimony build so much stronger in the wonderful church that I am a part of! They might throw some scripture at me and I will have no idea what to say because it may seem to contradict what I believe, but as I further study it and find out more about what we talk about, I find that it not only doesn't contradict us, but it actually strengthens what I believe in! Gosh I just love this church! (:

Last night was a somewhat scary incident. My companion Elder Coats was jumping on the trampoline and was doing consecutive back flips. But, as he came down to land he smashed his leg against the pole on the tramp. As a result he dislocated his knee! It was sticking out the side of his leg at about a 45 degree angle from where it should have been! We called the ambulance and it took about 45 minutes for them to arrive (they were sooooo slow!). They finally arrived and popped it into place within 10 minutes of the time they arrived. But while we were waiting for the ambulance to arrive we had time to talk and to think about what could happen in the next few hours. At first we thought it was broken, and I thought about what would happen if that was true. We would have to go to the hospital and have surgery, then he would be sent home. It made me realize how much I love him, as if he were my own brother! I am so lucky to have him and it wouldn't be the same without him! We learn from each other so much and have gotten really close. That's when I thought about my family back home and how much I love and care about them. I've known Elder Coats for almost three weeks and we have become brothers! With that, just imagine how much I love and care about my family! They are the one's who are always there (whether I like it or not ;) ) and can always help me feel better. Do we fight at home? OF COURSE! But when it comes down to it, I would give my life for any one of them. Siblings can pick on each other all they want, but the second you give one of them a dirty look... You're dead! I love my family so very much and am so thankful for the great love and support that they have always given me! They have helped mold me into the man I have become today and are continuing to mold me. I am thankful to have the family that I do and to know that I can be with them for all of eternity, thanks to Jesus Christ, my Savior, my Redeemer, my God.

I love you all very much! I pray that you will be safe in your various endeavors this week! I challenge you all this week to notice the small, tender mercies that God has given us in our lives. When you do, I promise you that it will brighten your day and bring a smile to your face. Be thankful for what you have, you never know when you might lose it.

Elder Macfarlane

Highlights from his letters....

October 14-November 4, 2013:

At MTC in Provo, Utah

*The MTC is amazing! We learn so much and it's absolutely incredible!

*I'm starting to realize how important things are to me (like my lovely family)!

*My companion and roommates are super cool! My companion's name is Elder Salter and he's from Alabama! He has a super awesome southern accent! My other two roommates are Elder Van Hordan and Elder Feron, they are both great elders too. Elder Salter and I bonded right away! He is a big time football player (since he's from Alabama) and played strong safety (just an FYI). He's a short, shy kind of guy but once you get to know him he really gets comfortable, kinda like Austin!

*Today I was called to be a zone leader (it's day 2). They said they really liked my smile, so I figured I should accept the calling.

*I think I've grown more in the last week than in the last 10 years of my life! (referring to the MTC) It's amazing how much Heavenly Father loves us and how much he did/does for us! I've been highlighting and starting to memorize various scriptures to try to best prepare myself and it's going well so far! The MTC is a very emotional place...I seriously have been surprised at how hard it is here. I've been kinda the therapist while out here and it's been incredible at how hard it is for some people to handle the little sleep, intense classes, and being away from home. I haven't been dying, but I'm not gonna lie, it is hard. I've been working hard to make sure everyone is okay and I think it's been working well so far. It's been one week and it's gone by super fast, yet I feel like I've been here for 3 months! I know that doesn't make sense but that's exactly how it is!

In Australia now....

*I have really started to realize how incredible of a man dad is. He does so much for us that we don't even realize or give him credit for. I hope one day I can become half the man that he is! Maybe not the bishop part though, that doesn't look like fun to me. I'll let him just take that.

*I will always stay strong in the church. I couldn't imagine life without it.

*I have a super cool companion right now! His name is Elder Coats and he is always happy! He is from Utah and doesn't have an Australian accent yet, he's only been out 3 months and yet he's training me! He's a pretty great guy!

*Something really funny happened two days ago, Elder Coats and I were jogging and as we were jogging we said hi to this guy walking on the side of the road. He stopped us and we talked about 5 seconds then out of nowhere he asked us if we wanted some ecstasy imported from Europe! We obviously said no, but that was the first time I've ever been offered an illegal drug by someone who was actually serious!

*Something spiritually significant that happened as a first for me this week was going tracting! Wow, that is no fun! Getting rejected again and again is a lot tougher than I expected. But anyways, so we decided to be done tracting and we started walking back to the car. As we were walking I got this feeling that we should stop by one more house before we leave. So I convinced my companion to stop at this one last house and I promised we could be done after that. We walked to the door and a nice aboriginal woman answered the door, I'd guess she was in her 50's. She tried telling us no, but right before she closed the door, Elder Coats asked why she didn't want to talk about religion. She told us she had her own beliefs that she believed very strongly in. Well we got her to talk to us for about 45 minutes and we even set up another appointment with her. It was so cool to have that experience where I followed the spirit and went to that last door and then my companion followed the spirit and didn't let her tell us no. It was really cool.

*Something that I noticed which is really funny to me is how little we, as Americans, know about Australians, yet Australians know a decent amount about Americans! The only thing that I find funny is that they all think we love fish and chicken for some odd reason. Luckily I love chicken, but I'm not a huge fan of their fish. It's not terrible, but I'd rather eat something else.

Monday, November 4, 2013

Halloween week in Narooma, Australia!! This week has been full of great fun and learning experiences! First lets start with the fun! So last Thursday was Halloween, but Australians don't usually celebrate Halloween. There is this one family in our branch (a branch is a small ward) that invited us over that night so we could join them in their first Halloween celebration ever! For dinner they made pizza's with ghosts on them made of cheese, blood to drink which I think was cordial, and heaps of lollies! Just to clarify, Australians call candy, lollies; and their version of kool-aid is cordial. And then they decorated their kitchen

 with dark lights, cob webs, and spiders! I was really impressed for it being their first Halloween. Also, Elder Coats and I carved a pumpkin! Nothing special, I just thought it was pretty neat to carve a pumpkin still! After the party we went outside and I jumped on their trampoline with Jacob and Elias (their two sons) while everyone else through water balloons at us! I was absolutely soaked. AND I was still dressed up in my white shirt and tie! But oh well, it was worth it! ;)

So that was a pretty exciting night, but do wanna know something REALLY cool? I saw my first live kangaroo and her little joey Halloween morning!! We were driving on a dirt road around a corner and there they were, about 25 yards ahead of us! I wasn't able to get a picture though so I've still gotta work on that! I WILL get a picture with a kangaroo though!

On Friday we had something called a Zone Training Meeting where a group of about 25 missionaries get together and we learn how to better teach and practice various skills to be better at what we do. What I thought was really cool though was seeing Elder Salter, my MTC companion, again for the first time in a few weeks! He basically became my brother while at the MTC and it was great seeing him again! After the training meeting we all played games like basketball, ping pong, and relay races together. It was fun being able to interact with so many missionaries at the same time and being in a non-formal situation.

In the area that I'm serving in, Narooma, there are very few members of the church and it is quite near impossible to find people interested in learning about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Well this last weekend Elder Coats and I decided to fast and to pray to find people who we can help come closer to Christ and teach. In our area, we can typically get 2-3 investigators per month and in the last few days we were able to get 2 investigators! :o One of them is a boy named Jimmy that we met from playing basketball with him. We had a great lesson on the Restoration of Christ's church and we asked if he would be baptized if, and when, he found these things to be true. He said he would and our goal is to have him be baptized at the end of the month! Jimmy had no religion before visiting with us so I think it is absolutely amazing how much of an impact we could have on this boy's life and how we can help him come closer to our loving Savior, Jesus Christ!

One thing that I've really grown a testimony of this past week is the power of the Book of Mormon. It truly can help you get through any struggles that comes your way! Reading the Book of Mormon is a beautiful way to learn more about Jesus Christ and what he wants from us. Once we align our will with the will of our Heavenly Father, and have faith in Him, we will have the power to move mountains. I love my Father in Heaven with all of my heart and I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon that he gave to us through His prophets. If you have not read the Book of Mormon yet in your life time, DO IT! The one thing that I've never understood are people who say they believe in Jesus Christ and love Him, but don't want to read the Book of Mormon. On the cover it says "Another Testament of Jesus Christ." If you truly love Jesus Christ, wouldn't the logical thing to do is read and find out all that you can about Him and his teachings? Even if the book is totally false (which it's not), it wouldn't hurt to read it and learn for yourself if the things which it says are true. That's one of the many things that I love about this wonderful church, we aren't going to try to convince you that this is the right church or that we are the perfect church, we just want to teach you what we believe. Then we simply tell you to pray and ask God if what we say is true and if this is what you need in your life. I can promise you that when you do this, you will receive an answer from God and you will know the truth of this glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God" (James 1:5). I want everyone to feel the love of our Savior Jesus Christ and to come closer to Him. To do that, all you need to do is pray to Him, with faith, and he will bless your life.

I love each and every one of you and wish you all the best this week in life's many challenges! Life wasn't meant to be easy, but with God on your side, it becomes possible!

Elder Macfarlane

Thank you to the Kamer's for sending these pictures of their Halloween fun. So cool to have connected with Elder Coats' mom and Momma K through Facebook. 

Hello everyone!

Week 1 in Australia has been great! So much has happened I don't even know where to begin! I guess first of all I should let you know that their accents are AWESOME!!!! I love listening to people talk! The first day or two I couldn't stop smiling whenever I talked to anyone just because I was so focused on their great accents. Also they have some different words that they say a lot. I'm starting to pick up on some of them and it's funny to hear myself say things like "thanks mate", "g'day", "heaps", and "no worries."

The MTC was a hard, yet great, experience where I learned a ton and worked my tail off. I made friends with people from all over the world! There were two Sisters (girl missionaries) that I got pretty close to that were from Colombia and the United Kingdom! It was incredible to hear all about various people's stories and hear where they came from and why they decided to go on a mission. It really made me think hard about why I was out here and what I expected out of this experience. I had some incredible spiritual experiences where I was able to help people out in miraculous ways. It's amazing how much you can do when you are reading your scriptures everyday, praying to God multiple times a day, and doing what you're supposed to be doing when you're supposed to be doing it!

The flight to Australia was crazy! I took a flight from Salt Lake City, Utah to LA where we stayed for about 3 hours and then a flight from LA to Sydney, Australia! On my plane ride to LA, I sat next to this woman from Peru. We talked about her life and why she was in Utah. She is a truly remarkable individual! She had a record deal with some company that I don't remember the name of for two years and then started her own business selling her spanish, religious music. We connected right away and talked the entire plane ride. We talked a lot about religion her background with the Catholic church. I talked about a lot of simple church topics and answered a few of her questions and then I gave her a mormon.org card! That was my first mormon.org card so I was pretty proud of myself (: By the way, for those of you who are not Mormon and are reading this, if you ever have any questions about the Mormon church and want to know about what we believe in, go to www.mormon.org and you can learn all about it! There is a tab in the upper right side marked FAQ (frequently asked questions) and you can learn heaps about it! Anyways, back to my story. So she took the card with my email address and church website/information and she gave me her information too so I could contact her to check up and see what she learned and if she has any questions. That was a super cool experience for me and I can't wait to have more of those kinds of experiences!

The flight from LA to Australia was nuts. It was 16 hours (I think) and I slept for about 12 of those hours! I flew with about 25-30 other missionaries on Qantas and they were great! That plane was the biggest plane I've ever seen in my life! They served dinner and breakfast on the plane! It wasn't the best food but it was still pretty good! I didn't get the chance to talk to the woman sitting next to me as much on this  plane since we were both sleeping for most of it. But for the short period of time that we were both awake (usually while eating) we talked a little bit about religion. Australians do not like religion, I found out. She was very polite about it but she was clearly not interested in religion or God in any way, but she was very impressed with our dedication to something we believe in.

Today is day 6 in Australia and I'm loving it! I'm all settled into our flat (one story apartment) and I'm feeling good! My companion is Elder Coats and he's great! He's from Utah. We're getting along really well. I've met all of the branch members and it's great. For those of you who want to know I'm in Narooma right now, which is about 4 hours south of Sydney. It is BEAUTIFUL!! We are one of the few missions aloud to be near a beach and it's great! We live really close to the ocean, we can open our windows and hear the water! I am amazed at the beauty of this country. The people hear are all super nice, but very set in their ways. Elder Coats has been in this area for 3 months and he's had two baptisms. Australia is a hard area to teach, but it's still great! Our area is more of a service-type mission than anything else. We are doing service like yard work and cleaning at least 5 hours a day! We spend a lot of time with church members and strengthening their relationship with each other and to God.

I hope all is well in the United States! I love and miss each and every one of you very much! Hopefully I'll have great stories to tell you soon! I love the Lord so much and I know that he cares about us all. Jesus Christ atoned for my sins, as well as all of yours, so we could live with our loving Heavenly Father again someday. We were sent here on this Earth to be tested and tried so we could prove to our Father in Heaven that we are his true followers. I will show my love for Him and His gospel by giving Him the next two years of my life and focusing on the Lord. I am thankful for the wonderful opportunity I have to be here in Australia to bless the lives of others. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true church of Jesus Christ. I know that the Bible and Book of Mormon are true scriptures and have the power to bless many lives. I have a strong testimony in the power of prayer. Prayer is our connection with God. It is through prayer that we can communicate with Him and he can communicate back to us.l love this church very much and I am so thankful to have it be a part of my life.

I love you all!
Elder Macfarlane