Week 2

Hola! It was good to hear from everyone. Sorry I didn't mean to make you guys feel bad. haha I knew you had no idea my P-day would be Saturday, but I greatly appreciate the letters from you and Dad and Erika. 

 

My Branch President told us that we aren't allowed to listen to music in the CCM so unfortunately I can't use the Ipod while I'm here, but it will be great to have once I'm in the field. Dad I saw you put some Janice Kapp Perry on my Ipod.  Did you know she was speaking at last Sunday's devotional?! Her and her husband spoke, although she spoke for the majority of the time. It was pretty funny and spiritually uplifting. So during her talk she was telling the story of how she met her husband for the first time. They were in some music class and she was sucking on her clarinet reed to soften it up before she was about to play and he walks over and says "you know I've been thinking those lips were made for greater things than just sucking on that reed". HAHAHAH  Everyone went nuts when she said that and right after her husband stood up and we all thought he was going to come correct the story or something but instead he just comes up and kisses her and then raised his fist in the air! lolz I laughed so hard and everyone in the stands was going crazy.  It was super funny. Anyways, the devotional was really great. We sung Come Thou Fount and a medley of some of her songs and finished with We'll Bring the World His Truth and the Spirit was so strong when we sang those.

 

Tuesday night we had another devotional and because of the new Mission President seminar Elder D. Todd Christofferson spoke!!! And believe it or not I sang in the choir! haha Our service time (which is just cleaning toilets) is the same time as choir practice so our Branch President gave us the option of choir or service so I chose choir. We sang Praise to the Man at the devotional Tuesday night. It was actually a lot of fun and really cool to be able to sing in front of some of the Apostles. I think Elder Bednar, Elder Oaks, Elder Anderson, Elder Ballard, and of course Elder Christofferson were there. I loved Elder Christofferson's talk! He talked a lot about the worth of souls. Some of the things he mentioned was how as missionaries we must appreciate the divine potential in everyone. Here are some of quotes from his talk I really loved. - "Motives must be pure and out of love" - "Charity comes from God through prayer, its a gift from God, we don't create it." He said "you need to help these investigators have a new vision of who they are and a feeling that they can obtain it." - "Sins have no effect on individual worth" - "Worth of a soul is the capacity to become like God" - "True conversion starts when we really know who we are and our worth".  He also talked about that on our mission while we serve others and realize their divine potential we will have a heightened awareness of our own potential, and that realization will be exciting and humbling. We will see the expectations God has of us and our potential and that truth will bring some discouragement but in it you will learn you are never alone and through Christ we can obtain that potential and fulfill those expectations.

Anyways life in the MTC or CCM is getting better. Days are going by faster as I get into the rhythm of things. Dad, we do not have culture class or at least haven't had any yet. Our schedule is pretty much wake up at 6:30, eat breakfast at 7:00, personal study/comp. study/language study from 7:30-10:30, gym from 10:30-11:30, lunch, class from 1-4:30, dinner, class from 5:45-8:45, planning, back at apartment by 9:30, lights out by 10:30. haha Sorry I didn't write that very well. Anyways so it's pretty much same thing everyday.

Lessons with Luz continued.  We taught her for the fourth time on Thursday and we committed her to baptism! It was super cool. But then we got a video from her saying how she (or her character) was moving back to Argentina but she was thankful for what we taught her and she knew it was true. Hermano Vargas said that in the field sometimes those things would happen. So we were kinda bummed we wouldn't be teaching her anymore. Then Friday morning we got another teacher, and guess who it was?! Luz!! Well actually her name is Hermana Johnson but she's going to be our second teacher. It makes sense now because the other District teaches their teacher but at the moment it was a curve ball and everyone in my district was so suprised and confused haha. It's actually pretty funny because as an investigator she always seemed kinda bored and tired but as our teacher she's full of energy and we were like whoa where did this come from haha. But I'm excited to have her as a teacher as well.   I think she's going to be awesome. Hermano Vargas continues to be a great teacher and friend. The love he has for us is obvious and he always bears his testimony at the end and it's really strong. He's also ridiculously smart. So everything's going well here.

I went to the temple again this morning and we did initiatories. And then we're about to go to Brigham's Landing to get lunch and then do some laundry and play some volleyball. I'm kinda sad because a District in our Zone leaves Monday and everyone in that District is super cool. The Zone Leaders are in that District and they're super cool guys I'm sad to see them go but I know they'll be great missionaries. They're all going to Argentina but a different Mission although I can't remember which. Everyone in our Zone is going to Argentina but only my District is going to Buenos Aires South. Oh Mom I also met Elder Hair last week. He's not in my Zone but it was nice to meet him and I'm sure I'll get to know him in the field. I've been busier than I've ever been and its exhausting but it feels great. So there's four of us in an apartment: me and Elder Bradham and then the other two Elders from my District Elder Sandberg and Elder Johnstun.

So I leave for Argentina July 28 but I'll get my travel plans in a couple weeks. Also I know its a long time away haha but just so you know I will be coming home May 30, 2016.

 

Please thank everyone for their emails.  I got some from a lot of people but I only have an hour to email so unfortunately I can't respond to all of them, but I really do appreciate the emails and I read them all. Thank you again for the letters. I think that's it for now. Sorry the email is unorganized and not written well I'm just trying to type fast. Haha anyways I love you guys and I'll talk to you next week.

 

-Elder McFarland

Hey! so I have some more time and I forgot some things I wanted to say. So today at the temple as I was leaving I ran into the Dellonas! They were out front taking pictures and Brother Dellona was like hey that's Kevin and I turned and saw it was them! So crazy. I guess Keanu was at BYU during SOAR I think so they were here to pick him up.

 

Reading the entire Book of Mormon is one of my goals  before I leave the MTC. One of the members of the Branch Presidency said if you read 5 chapters a day you should finish before I leave, so I´m on 2 Nephi 30 right now I think. So that´s what I´ve been focusing on in my study time. My companion and I started going through PMG (Preach My Gospel) reading it together from the very beginning a couple days ago. The language is still coming along, it seems like it might have slowed down a little bit, but I know its still improving and I don´t think the improvement from now on will be quite as noticeable as it first was. Umm I think thats it. Hopefuly I didn't forget anything else haha. Love you! 

-Elder McFarland