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