A part of a letter....no blog post

Incredible things are happening here too, I'll write all about it next week! We have a baptism on Saturday this week!! :) Her name is Lisa, she is 14. We should have another 4 or 5 in the next month too, hopefully! Also, having a pool table back home in MN payed off! We started teaching a new less active family a few weeks ago and they are coming back to church, making changes in their life, and seeing blessings that come from those changes. And guess what was the ticket for all of that? Pool :) Islanders are really good at pool (like insanely good) and they always make fun of palagie's for being useless. But I played a game against my companion, beat him. Then played against the father of the family and I won, then he won, then I won the tie breaker! He was very impressed and said that we could stay and teach the family as long as he can first play a game of pool, best two out of three with the white boy, me. We're pretty close in skill level, but I think the Lord helps me a bit because I've made some pretty impressive shots...and as a result, this less active family of 15 people are starting to come back to church!! :) Great stuff :) Maybe ping pong or fooseball will come in handy too later ;)

This last week was great! I don't have much time, so this will have to be quick! I'll just talk briefly about the highlights! First of all, transfers were this past week and I'm staying in Liverpool with Elder Vaele another 6 weeks! This is Elder Vaele's last transfer then he goes back to Samoa! Next (see we're flying throught the highlights) highlight is that we picked up a new investigator that is doing really well. His name is Alvin and he's the partner of one of our less-active members, Ragi.  They are both trying to make changes in their life and to be good examples for their child, Esau. Alvin likes what the church teaches and wants to learn more. So excited for him. :)
Another investigator, Lisa, is doing well too! We set a baptism goal for the end of the month with her and she's excited! We're just going to wait unitl her parents move to Australia from New Zealand at the end of the month and then she'll get baptized. SUPER excited for her. :)
And finally, the new movie Meet the Mormons is coming to Australia! AND we're allowed to go see it if we bring an investigator with us! We have been inviting EVERYONE we work with! It's gonna be great! I hear that it is a very motivating movie and very good. If you haven't seen it yet, go look it up! Stay strong my brothers and sisters! Keep moving forward with faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!
Love you heaps!
Elder Macfarlane

Malo soifua lou susuga! Ou te fiafia lenei pa'ia fa'aSamoa! Hello there everyone! Life is going well and I'm loving the Samoan ward! I apologize, it's been awhile since I've written anything here but there's no need to fear, I will repent and be better at this! :)
These past few weeks have been incredible! About a month ago our Area President, Elder Pearson, came to visit and then last week a member of the Quorum of the 12 apostles came, ELDER BEDNAR! He is my favorite apostle to listen to during General Conference because he is extremely intelligent, but he explains things so simple it's incredible. One thing that we believe in our church that is different from other churches is that there is a living prophet today who speaks the teaching of God and helps guide the people, just like in biblical times. Similarly, we believe that there are also 12 apostles on the earth, again just like Jesus Christ had in the Bible, who help assist the prophet in guiding the world to follow our Savior, Jesus Christ. Elder David A Bednar is one of those 12 apostles! That's like Matthew (from the Bible) coming to visit you and personally guiding you to follow the Savior and help others to do the same.
There was so much I learned from that conference I can't even begin to describe it, nor would I have the time to. I was lucky enough to experience this about a year ago with another member of the 12 apostles, Elder Russel M Nelson. And again almost 17 months ago with Elder Dallin H Oaks. Meeting an apostle and being able to personally visit with him is a once and a life time opportunity and I've had it three times! All were very wise men with very inspirational things to say, which I may share with you in future weeks. But today what I want to share more than anything is the spirit that was felt during each of these experiences. The spirit, also known as the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit, testifies of truth and helps us know good from evil. When Elder Bednar walked into the room, the whole room went silent and this incredible feeling of peace overcame me. I'm not usually one to get all emotional with this kind of stuff, but I was almost brought to tears just seeing him and watching him walk to the front of the room. I know that man is a representative of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He testified about how much our Father in Heaven loves us, such a simple topic. But he said it with so much power and sincerity, you could feel it in your heart that it was true. We truly do have a loving Father in Heaven who knows each and every one of us by name. He knows our strengths and our weaknesses. He knows what we need to experience, so we can become the son or daughter of God that he intends us to become. He is there for us, all we need to do is allow Him to help. Let him come into your life and bless. you. If you feel He already is a part of your life, that's great, strengthen that relationship! You can always improve, you can always grow. Go throughout this week looking for opportunities and ways to strengthen that relationship with our Savior and act on them.
I love you all heap! Stay strong and keep moving forward! :)
Elder Macfarlane

*A short message from a letter-no blog post*


Sorry this week is a very small letter. It was a pretty frustrating week with not much happening, but this upcoming week should be better. We've been doing really well these past few weeks so I think this was God's week to smash us with trials so we humble up a bit, so next week we can smash again ;) haha the Samoan in coming along slowing, I'm comfortable with basic introduction, conversation, and random commands, but that's about it. I think I just need to be more diligent in having focused language study each day and trying to apply the new words/phrases I learn.
Love,
Elder Macfarlane

Nick's companion, Elder Vaele, turned 27 this week!!

Happy Birthday!

I freaking love the samoan ward! It's difficult because I don't speak their language, but that just forces me to rely on the Savior even more and to follow the spirit even more when I'm with the people that we teach! I've already seen heaps of miracles, for example, we were sitting in a lesson with one of our new investigators and the entire lesson was in samoan, so I didn't really know what was being said but I felt a strong impression to testify of the Book of Mormon. We weren't planning on introducing the Book of Mormon that day, but I really felt that I needed to say something about it. So when the conversation seemed to slow day, I waited for a pause and I quickly shot in. I apologized for my poor speaking abilities in their language, but I testified of the truthfullness that we share. And the way that those we teach can know for themselves if our message is true is by reading the Book of Mormon and praying to our Heavenly Father if it is true. Again, my samoan vocab is very limited so I probably had many mistakes, but the message got through. The spirit was incredibly strong. Afterwards, my companion told me about how the lesson had gone and he said our investigators were very impressed with not only my samoan speaking abilities, but more importantly the simple testimony I shared. It's all about the spirit. Allow the spirit to guide you throughout your life and you will never be misguided.
Love you all,
Elder Macfarlane

 Last district meeting before transfers

 Elder Macfarlane and Elder Vaele :)

Both sisters got tranferred and a member is moving