Sooo I.... got transferred! I’m now in Nueve de Abril Ward in the Monte Grande Zone (and Stake) and I’m now also Zone Leader. My companion is Elder Almeida! He´s the Elder that I replaced as District Leader when he got emergency transferred because someone went home and I was made District Leader again. So anyways, I already knew him a little bit being in the same zone in Banfield, so when I found out about the change I was pretty pumped because I knew he’s a great missionary. He´s 25, from Paraguay, and he’s also the only member in his family. He has a girlfriend that’s also 25 and is waiting for her mission call. He’s got about 10 months or so and it’s his second transfer as Zone Leader.
Elders Almeida & McFarland at lunch today.
Oh also Elder Pribyl got transferred and he is also a Zone Leader!! He’s in the Burzaco Ward which is in the Adrogue Zone (Stake). I saw him today at the transfer meeting and will see him again in a week and a half at the meeting with the zone leaders.
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| Esther's Mom, Esther & Elder McFarland |
So I’ll finish telling you about Parque Baron first. So last week we had a lesson with Fabian but he still didn’t come to church. Cynthia left for the Capital Wednesday or Thursday and was gone until today so I didn’t get to say goodbye. I’ll have to ask Elder Gonzalez what ends up happening with her. I was able to say goodbye to a few of the families that I had a better relationship with including Esther, the hermana that had the doubt about the temple that’s been active lately.
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| Maria, Elder McFarland & Jesus |
I gave Jesus and Maria a Bible and Book of Mormon, hard back cover, as a gift and wrote a little paragraph in it. They gave me their Facebook names so you`ll have to search for them and add them for me mom.
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| Elder McFarland's District in Parque Baron Elders Gonzalez, McFarland, Lymon, & Benavides (Spain) Elders Cortez (born in Peru, lives in Chile) & Tolentino (from Peru - trained by Elder Almeida) Hermanas Rodriguez (Spain) & Wilson (New Zealand) |
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| Yesterday's Gospel Principle Class Elders Gonzales & McFarland with Mauro - the Ward Mission Leader and Cristian - a less active member |
So Elder Gonzalez is now with Elder Teixeira, who’s from Brazil, and came from the West Mission. Elder Pribyl seems to be pretty good friends with him. Also 2 more came to Parque Baron as expected. The other is Elder Rule, also from the West Mission and is also a friend of Elder Pribyl’s, and he’s going to be training. For the time being, they are going to live together until they find another pension.
So yeah, I’m now Zone Leader with Elder Almeida! I’m kind of nervous but pretty excited. I remember looking up to my zone leaders when I was a newer missionary and it feels like not that much time has passed so it’s kind of weird. I’m excited though because I know I’m going to learn a lot with Elder Almeida and being a Zone Leader. One thing he told me is that it´ll help me mature and become more decisive, ha-ha, something you guys know perhaps I wasn’t always good at, because as zone leaders you have to make decisions and can’t be just sitting there indecisive or unsure when questions or problems arise and other Elders or Hermanas are looking to you. So I’m excited in that sense, that I feel like it`ll help me progress and learn a lot as a missionary and as a person. Also I’m excited to serve the Elders and Hermanas in my zone. There is 26 of us in the zone. I’ll list the areas and missionaries in case you`re curious:
Elders Nichol & Blasco - El Jagüel Ward
Hermanas Munoz & Czappa - Ezeiza Ward (A)
Hermanas Walters & Conceicao – Ezeiza Ward (B)
Hermanas Laub & Latoja - Luis Guillón Ward
Hermanas Dunlop & Witsken - Monte Grande Ward
Elders McFarland & Almeida – Nueve de Abril Ward (A)
Elder Portaro will be training a new Elder - Nueve de Abril Ward (B)
Elders Pacheco will be training a new Elder – Spegazzini Ward (A)
Elders Bautista & Colicheo - Spegazzini Ward (B)
Elders Ponce & Batson - Cañuelas Branch
Elders Miller & Catalan - Colón Branch
Hermanas Silva & Villavicencio - Las Flores Branch
Elders Lozada will be training a new Elder (I think he was one of Elder Pribyl’s companions) - Monte Branch
President Thurgood told me that in terms of the distance, Monte Grande is the biggest zone in the mission. It should be good. Our area is super big but like Parque Baron, this transfer, two more Elders are coming so we`ll share the area, which should help the ward a lot having 4 missionaries again. So the new missionaries, Elder Portaro and his hijo (son- nickname for a new Elder) will live in the current pension and we just received a brand new pension close to the current one. We just moved in today and unpacked a little but have to finish tonight and also they have to finish setting up the pension. The stove has to be put together and we don’t have like anything - like mattresses, table, everything, ha-ha, but today or this week we should have everything. It’s a pretty small pension but it’s new and nice so I’m happy. I don’t have the address today but I’ll have it for you next week. Elder Almeida told me there’s a lot of work in our area and the ward is awesome and accompanies us a lot. So I’m super pumped. Also, this transfer is going to fly by. We have 8 inter-cambios (exchanges) we are going to have to do. 7 with the trainers and district leaders in our zone, and then with the Assistants too. Tomorrow we have a meeting with the Stake Presidency and President Thurgood. So needless to say, this transfer is going to fly by with lots of things going on. This week we have a zone meeting. Here, at least, they have zone meetings the first and last week of the transfer and the other 4 weeks are district meetings. Elder Almeida is really focused on helping the missionaries in our zone. He’s very obedient and a hard worker so it’s going to be a good transfer.
I’m excited! I love and miss you guys!
Love
Elder McFarland
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