I'm Starting To Smell

Hola Hola!

So yes I’m writing today. Sorry I didn’t really give you a heads up. It’s kind of hard in the offices. I think from now on though we’ll really will try to do emailing on Saturdays unless something comes up. Don’t worry about responding. I’ll still be in the offices for at least a little bit for lunch and after tomorrow so I’ll just get on real quick tomorrow to read your responses and maybe answer any little questions you guys might have but I’ll plan on doing my weekly letter right now.

So time continues to fly by and it’s kind of scaring me. It’s slowly setting in that I’m one of the oldest missionaries in the mission now - which I don’t like. Other missionaries have begun making comments about how little time I have left and how I’m starting to smell (a reference to missionary slang about missionaries dying). I’m like DUDES calm down. I still have lots of time left, ha-ha.

Writing this, I was just reminded of a message from President Uchtdorf in the July 2012 Liahona ¨always in the middle” he said speaking of missionaries ¨Whether they just arrived the day before or are to depart for home the day after, I ask them to think of themselves as always being in the middle....Thinking of themselves as always being in the middle of their missions will embolden and energize these faithful representatives of the Lord. As it is with full-time missionaries, so it is with all of us.¨ So perhaps one goal of mine is to keep the mentality that I’m in the middle of my mission.

I do not know what will happen this next transfer. President Thurgood sounds like he would like to get me back in the field for my last two transfers but the Medinas will not be ready to take over, which means I would have to start training someone very soon or the idea was thrown out of briefly training one of the registadores so they could continue training the Medinas. We´ll see what happens. I’m just trying to keep the mindset that whatever happens is what the Lord wants and I’ll make the best of it.

The other night we got out for about an hour. Before leaving we made a quick plan to stop by the contact’s house and then pass by three members we picked out of the ward list. When we got to Martin´s (the contact) house, he wasn’t there so we continued with our plan heading to the first member’s home. After not walking more than just a few houses, we saw a lady sitting on the sidewalk in front of her home and had the impression to talk to her. We introduced ourselves and began talking to her. The conversation pretty much ended up being a 40 minute lesson. Her name is Rosa, and she’s an older woman, probably in her high 60’s or low 70’s. She told us about herself and we taught some gospel principles, mostly about the plan of salvation. She’s has had difficulty with her family and seems like her living situation isn’t the best with her daughter and son I believe. It was pretty amazing though. We started the conversation standing up but then as we continued to talk my companion and I sat down on the grass besides her. I was just filled with so much love for her. I try to love all the people here and in the end I come to love everyone I come in contact with, but I remember only a few other times when such a powerful and genuine love came over me so rapidly for someone I didn’t even know. She felt the Spirit, no doubt and enjoyed our discussion and the things we testified of. Even though she has been praying for exactly what the Gospel of Jesus Christ offers, she told us that right now she isn’t ready to talk to us. She just doesn’t feel the sincere desire. I told her we wouldn’t give up and would continue passing by every now and then and we could continue to share some things even if it was outside her house again, until she had the desire. So for now there was no immediate commitment but I really do have hope and faith that us or missionaries later on will teach her and she´ll accept the restored Gospel in her life. It just made me grateful for some of the gifts of the Spirit; for the ability to feel even just a small portion of the love that our Heavenly Father has for His children.

So February 24th Elder Bednar is coming to speak to us!!! Like I said, all four of the Buenos Aires missions will be getting together in a church in Capital for it. We found out this week that the meeting with Elder Bednar will also be broadcast to all the missions in the South America South Area, so we feel really blessed to be the missionaries that´ll be able to listen and watch him live.

This last week was our zone conference and it was great. We went over the world wide missionary training from January and focused on the same theme of teaching repentance and baptizing converts. The baptisms in the mission are starting to increase again and we are trying to build off that by not only baptizing more but retaining more as well.

Monday, we are going to have another dinner with all the office staff, which would be us, the registradores, the assistants, the Mitchells, and President and Sister Thurgood. Whether it was done before or not I don’t know but when Elder Spitale came a few months ago he said it might be a good thing to do every once in a while. So Monday at 6:00 p.m. we´re going to do a potatoes bar in the offices, ha-ha’ Sounds pretty awesome. It is really one of the biggest blessings of working in the office - being able to have close interactions with President and Sister Thurgood as well as the Mitchells. We see President Thurgood fairly regularly. Elder Ginatto and I talked to him for about an hour last Monday about the ongoing transition with the Medinas. It seems to slowly be getting better, I think. Honestly, one of the best parts of being in the offices is the Mitchells. They are seriously the best. Elder Mitchell is great and really intelligent and helps us a lot. He also balls pretty hard, ha-ha. We´ve played basketball with him out back a few times and man despite his age he can still keep up. Hermana Mitchell is just kind of like the grandma of the office elders. She’s really funny and goofy and adds a nice balance to the work environment, ha-ha. She always jokes that if President Thurgood (who is her brother-in-law) worked in the mission offices more that she´d have to straighten up, ha-ha. But she keeps us from getting too comfortable with her around because every now and then she´ll call us out and drop the cane a little bit about the kitchen. She and Hermana Thurgood are known for being super clean, so whenever the kitchen isn’t spotless and if the trash isn’t taken out, she has no mercy, ha-ha. They´re great though and it’s been just awesome getting to know them and spending time with them. They help us a lot, both with the work and balancing everything. I think I’ll definitely be visiting them once in a while when I’m out at BYU since they live like 45 minutes away from Provo, I think.

So this week I’m going to be taking Elder Nixon to the US consulate in Capital to correct his FBI criminal record! The downside, only Elder Nixon will be able to enter so I’m not going to the States after all... ;( Two of the area workers that we communicate with just went on vacation for the rest of the month. There’s two people working in their place but hopefully things go smoothly and I can get those cartas de culto fast. Well, I guess that’s it for now. I feel like I was going to include something else. I´ll check my email tomorrow so don’t worry. I love you guys!

Love
Elder McFarland

P.S. Yesterday, Elder Ginatto completed 1 year in the mission so we celebrated last night by eating ice cream, ha-ha. Here are some pictures.

Is The Visero Going To Get Deported?

Hola, Hola!

I’m glad to hear stake conference has been really good so far. Yesterday there was an area training for the ward leaders that was broadcast to the stake centers and all the missionaries went as well. It was really good.

Not on a spiritual note, ha-ha, I remembered I didn’t respond to last week’s question about talking when I get home. It would be nice to be home for Father’s Day and speak on it but to be honest, since school would be starting the very next day, I think I’d prefer to be in Utah that Sunday tranquilo. I’d kind of prefer to get out there beforehand and kind of get myself comfortable before starting school instead of feeling rushed or stressed, so I’d probably prefer speaking the 2nd Sunday in June and then head out to Utah. Yes, I sent Hermana Mitchell the information. I don’t really have a preference for the airport but I guess San Jose makes the most sense.

As for vacation, I’m not sure when you guys were planning to finalize it and buy tickets and what not, because well, there was a minor complication in my tramites, ha-ha. I didn’t want to tell you to worry you but then I decided it was best to let you know so maybe we could hold off on buying tickets and stuff. So what happened essentially, I was given a document in 2014, shortly after getting to Argentina, that lasts 3 months, and that document lets foreigners leave and enter the country. During those three months normally the DNI (the Argentine ID card) should arrive to the address. Sometimes there are problems or complications and we have to return to migraciones to resolve it. For example, presenting the passport again because maybe they scanned it poorly. It can be a variety of things. Well I’ve had complication after complication with this document (precaria) mainly related to this document called a carta de culto, stating I am here in Argentina as a missionary. At first, two signatures didn’t line up. Then I got a new one, but turns out all the cartas de culto that the culto (which is from the Argentine government) has been giving the area have had an error in the name of the church. They all say ¨la iglesia de jesuscristo de los ultimos dias¨ so it’s missing ¨de los santos¨. Before it wasn’t a problem, but for whatever reason, whether it’s with the change of the Argentine president or something else, migrations is a lot stricter and is now rejecting the document for that error, whereas before they accepted it. So that’s my problem now. Well a week and a half ago I went to migraciones to consult about the status of my tramite and they told me migrations has given me a disposition saying that because I haven’t met  the requirements to become legal, they have rejected my tramites and declared my residence as irregular, (even though I’ve done my part and taken the steps in becoming legal, the fact that I’m still not legal is a problem) so the lady told me migrations has given me until March 14th to start the process over again from the beginning and legalize myself. So I asked what´d happen if didn’t legalize myself by then and she told me they´d deport me. Well in reality they wouldn’t deport me (I don’t think, ha-ha) but she said it would just cause a lot of problems to leave and come back to Argentina. So yeah, ha-ha. The problem is I have to wait until I get a new carta de culto and culto (the place where they do them) was closed all of January and just reopened last week. It’s a process that takes a few weeks so I just have to wait and see when the area gets it. I told the lady this, “here look, this isn’t my fault and now I’ll have to wait on you guys”. She said if I don’t get it in time I will have to go back and explain it. Well I’m not sure if any of this makes sense, but yeah that’s my status. Super ironic right, ha-ha, that the visero, the Elder in charge of making sure the missionaries are legal is in fact illegal himself and now faces the possibility of being deported, ha-ha-ha. Sounds like I’m not doing my job very well, ha-ha. I don’t know, I just kind of find this funny. It does sounds like it could be a problem though because now that I have this disposition giving me practically one more chance at becoming legal, it would be worse than if I had just left illegally. In the end I should be able to get this document and legalize myself. If not,  I don’t think in the end, coming back would be a problem but on the off chance that it might be a problem, I’d just hold off a little bit on finalizing any plans until I know more. We´ve been joking around in the office that the visero is going to get deported, ha-ha. So if I come home in March, don’t be surprised. Nah, just joking, but yeah not really good, ha-ha. Pretty sure this is pretty rare. I’ve never heard of it happening before with missionaries from our mission. Missionaries have left illegally but I’ve never heard of someone getting this disposition, although I’m sure every once and a while it happens. I’m not too worried though, more I just think its super ironic and pretty funny.

I went with Elder Pribyl. He’s in the process of renewing his ID card but he also is waiting on the same document I am, but in the meantime, they gave him a precaria so he’s legal at least, ha-ha. So I saw him the other day and called him last night to wish him a happy birthday.

We did get money and we bought lots of closets and drawers and whatnot. We didn’t get to proselyte at all last week. Well two nights, we got back at 8:50 pm, so we knocked on some doors for 10 minutes but didn’t have any immediate success. I’m hopeful this week we´ll have some more time.

We are having some difficulties with the transition of having the Medinas in the office. Not so much for me with the visas, but Elder Ginatto has been kind of having a hard time with Elder Medina. There’s just been poor communication and misunderstandings, I think. They really are great, Elder and Sister Medina, but I think it´ll take some time to work it all out. It’s different with the tramites because the process of what I do is very structured, in a sense, but with pensionero, what they do is a lot broader and more complicated and with that the liberty to do things your own way. In the end, the jobs will be getting done, but the way it gets done, how things get prioritized and a lot of the small things depends on each person.  I think Elder Ginatto has had a hard time with Elder Medina in that sense because do things differently. It’s hard for Elder Ginatto because I think he was already really stressed having to take over all the pensionero stuff when Elder Valis left but now Elder Medina is kind of making it more difficult for him. He’s talked with Elder Mitchell and the other day me, him and the Medinas spent almost an hour with President Thurgood talking. We´ll see how it continues to play out. I’m confident in the future they will help out a lot in the office but right now it’s proved to be somewhat difficult. Also, I’m not sure what´ll happen with me. I will almost for sure end up training an Elder to replace me the following week for the rest of the transfer or I will have to stay another transfer in the office. Either way I’m just trying to go with the flow and take it as it comes.

Well this email is already kind of long and I don’t have a lot more time. Sorry if I didn’t really say much, ha-ha. I’ll try to share things a little more spiritual next week though. Love you!!

Love
Elder McFarland

Surprise Transfer

Sunday, November 22, 2015

Hola Hola!

So I bet you weren’t expecting this, were you? So, I’ve got some news! I got emergency transferred... and I’m now working in the mission offices in charge of the visas for all of the missionaries! Crazy right?! So Wednesday morning, around 8:00 a.m. just when we were starting our studies, President Thurgood called us.  Whenever he calls, you know it’s something important, obviously, but when he calls at that time of the morning, and interrupts your studies, you know something is up.  So my companion answered it and put in on speaker phone and President Thurgood told us that he had a change for us and asked if I was listening. He then continued to tell me that the Lord wanted me to leave 9 de Abril and go to work in the offices in Adrogue being in charge of the visas for the missionaries. I was kind of just in a daze, not really knowing what to think but I said “great President” and I asked when I’d be leaving and he said tomorrow. He told me that it’s an assignment that requires a lot of organization but he really feels that’s what the Lord wants. So he told me that I’ll be in a trio with Elder Valis and Elder Bavelas for three weeks while Elder Bavelas trains me the rest of the transfer and then I’ll be with Elder Valis. Elder Valis is the pensionero (or the Elder in charge of all the pensions (apartments) - the contracts, finding new ones, delivering things, etc) and Elder Bavelas is the Elder currently in charge of the visas.

So the call ended with President Thurgood and I was just kind of in a daze not knowing what to think and a lot of emotions. I was excited to go to a different area and have a different assignment, but then the realization set in that after this transfer, I have just 4 transfers left and almost all the office Elders are there for 4 transfers. So it means that it’s very likely that my proselyting mission is pretty much over. When I realized that, it bummed me out pretty bad and I got a little upset and a little teary eyed. It was hard to take in and it’s still an adjustment. I had had in my mind that I would almost for sure be in 9 de Abril until at least late January or maybe even the beginning of March. Then to get that call, that I’d be leaving, just threw me off. Then even more so when I realized that for the rest of my mission I probably wouldn’t be proselyting and teaching the gospel like I was before.

So Wednesday, the day I got the call, we actually went to Colon to do an intercambio. I was going to work with Elder Hall in his area and my companion stayed with Elder Catalan, who’s having back problems, so my last day I wasn’t even in my area and didn’t get to say goodbye to any members or investigators and that was also really hard. Then Thursday morning, a taxi picked us up at 7:00 a.m. to take us to the offices. From there, I dropped my suitcases off at my new pension and then I left with Elder Bavelas to get right to work because that morning some missionaries had tramites to do. Elder Almeida went with Elder Valis to do pensionero stuff until Elder Almeidas companion got there. Thursday morning, we went in a mini bus with like 12 Elders to go to tramites. The last couple days have been kind of nuts because it’s a completely different mission being in the offices.The offices are on the 2nd floor in the Adrogue chapel and there’s 4 Elders (5 right now including me) and 2 senior missionaries. 2 Elders are the registradores, they do the baptismal records, the information that they give to President Thurgood and the Stake Presidents and all that stuff. Then the senior couple is Elder and Hermana Mitchell and Hermana Mitchell is Hermana Thurgood´s sister and she is the secretary and Elder Mitchell is the financiero. Then Elder Valis is the pensionero and Elder Bavelas (and now me) are the viseros. Well it sounds like we aren’t in the office that much. Sundays we are normally in the office after church because we have to do some reports and then sometimes during the week but usually it sounds like I’ll be out with missionaries doing their tramites or in the truck with Elder Valis traveling the mission doing pensionero stuff. We have a lot of work, the pensionero and visero, because right now the mission is growing and President Thurgood doesn’t want 4 Elders in a pension so he has been asking Elder Valis to find a bunch of new pensions. Elder Bavelas had a lot of work before because, as a visero, our job is to make sure the missionaries are legal. The missionaries arrive on a tourist visa and we have to do tramites to make them legal. The area wants the mission to be at least 95% legal but before it was only 40%.  He had a ton of work and right now we are back around 95% but transfers are coming up in 3 weeks and like 30 missionaries are coming so I’ll have lots of work to do. I’ll tell you more about it when I know more about it because I still know nothing ha-ha.

It gets even more complicated because about 3 months ago there were some big problems in the offices. It was a stressful time in the offices and for President Thurgood. On top of that, the offices got robbed. Then again, about a month ago they got robbed again. A lot of things have happened in the last few months, so that’s what I’m coming into, a situation that is a little complicated, although it’s settled down a lot. A big portion, if not the majority of the money in the mission is in mine and my companion’s possession, mostly Elder Valis because he spends a ton buying things for the pensiones and what not. Elder Bavelas and I spend some on the tramites fees and other things but in the end it’s not that much. There’s a lot of responsibility and organization needed, obviously, when dealing with money and then with documents, like visas and passports. It’ll be interesting.

Like I was saying, the rest of my mission will be completely different. My mission from now on will consist of doing tramites, being in the office, or being in the truck and it’s taking some getting used to. I was very, very worried when I got the call because, like I said, in the beginning of the email it meant I wouldn’t be teaching anymore, really. Right now the registadores usually have some time to leave the office and teach in the evenings, but in the past, Elder Valis and Elder Bavelas were so busy they literally never had time to proselyte. Our schedule is all over the place. Sometimes we get back on time, like last night we got back at 10:00 p.m., but the other night we got back like 11:00 p.m. and sometimes it is past midnight, traveling from different parts of the mission. The food, well that’s also different. Since Elder Valis, Elder Bavelas and I are always on the road in the truck traveling, we have to eat out a lot, almost every day. It sounds like we spend the money we get from the mission and then after that we get reimbursed by the mission for our lunches and dinners. The other day we ate at Subway and then got empanadas another day. It’s weird.

So my worry when I got the call was that the spirituality part of the mission would stop. As missionaries we are here, living on a completely different spiritual level than the members because we are set apart to preach the gospel. We wake up at 6:30, have our studies and go out and teach people. Well now we have to find time, usually at night, to be able to study the scriptures and sometimes there’s not enough time and there’s no time to teach. So the spiritual part of the mission kind of dies. That was something I was really worried about and still kind of am. We are traveling a lot, eating out and it takes away a little bit from the mission. So I was super bummed after the call. Not so much of the fact of working in the offices in itself, just that it meant that my proselyting mission would be pretty much over. So, I prayed and am praying a lot. Then a couple of things happened that helped. Tuesday, we went to the temple for the zone conference. When I was in the celestial room, I prayed, asking Heavenly Father what I needed, to be the missionary he wanted me to be. What did I need to change or improve to be better? I sat there praying and pondering and got nothing. So I prayed asking that if it was His will, could I get an answer later than day in the zone conference or soon. Then the following day, in the morning, is when I got the call from President Thurgood that I’d be going to offices. So when I remembered that, the impression came to my mind that that was God’s answer to my prayers. That this is where he wants me to be, in the offices doing the visas. Also, another thing that happened is now my patriarchal blessing and the blessing President Carmack gave me makes a lot of sense. In my patriarchal blessing it talks about feeling success but not so much in the number of baptisms but in helping others to come unto the Lord and leading and planning fellow missionaries. In President Carmack’s blessing, he talked about how I would lead, which I’ve already done and I suppose I still will and that I’ll be blessed to know the areas, the culture. That part never made sense, but now I’ll be traveling the mission and I’ll get to know the area, haha. The blessing also talked about how under my leadership new areas will be opened. To be honest, I always took that as maybe since I was zone leader, that new areas in my zone would be opened. While new areas were opened this last transfer, none of them were in Monte Grande. Now I’m a visero/pensionero and there’s a ton of areas that will be opened with more missionaries coming and my companion and I will play a large role in organizing that. So although it’s still a big change and I’m still trying to get used to it, I have been able to become a little more okay with it, knowing that it’s really what the Lord wants. It’s been humbling also. I am still somewhat worried about the spirituality part and not being able to teach, but I decided I’m going to use the time in the truck to read talks or read the scriptures. I’ve also decided that I’m going to use every opportunity I have to share the gospel. Perhaps I won’t be teaching the lessons entirely anymore, but I can still make contacts while doing tramites or traveling doing pensionero stuff and teach gospel principles.

The other day, one of the registadores told me when he came from the West Mission, his Mission President told him that in the mission, the assignments change but the calling doesn’t, and that really penetrated him and when he told me, it had the same effect. It really stuck with me. I was called by a prophet of God and have been set apart to represent the Lord Jesus Christ and His church. I have been called to invite others to come unto Christ and that hasn’t changed. That is still my calling, even though my assignment has changed. I realized today, in sacrament meeting, that this will help me a lot and prepare me for after the mission. I realized that I can’t invite and challenge the members to share the gospel with their friends if I’m not doing it with my new assignment. Yes, it appears I’ll be extremely busy, busier than I have been in my mission, and that I’m not proselyting. but if I can’t find time or the way to share the gospel when I’m doing tramites or when I doing pensionero stuff with my companion, how can I expect to challenge the members to share the gospel when I’m set apart to do it but I’m not. I would be a hypocrite to all the members I’ve talked to in my mission if I don’t continue sharing the gospel even with my new assignment. The assignments change, but the calling doesn’t. So I’m excited in that aspect. I think or hope it´ll prepare me to keep the spirit of mission work even after I finish the mission. Because I’m not able to proselyte like I was before, I hope and feel that if I really start opening my mouth everywhere I go to share the gospel then I can continue that after the mission. That it will become a part of who I am and not just something I did for 2 years. I feel that we can say the same about being a member of the church. The callings or assignments in the church change but the fact that we are members never does. As members, we have the duty and responsibility to share the gospel, to invite others to come unto Christ.

I ask that you continue to pray for me. That I will be able to continue to adjust to the change. That I will be able to do the best I can in my new assignment. That I will be able to continue to share the gospel and help others come unto Christ and have those spiritual experiences.

For now I have to go and I didn’t have time to write literally anyone else. I promise I’ll do my best to write Ryan, Scott and Kiersten and everyone else next week. It sounds like I’ll always be writing on Sundays around this time. So let everyone know perhaps by Facebook that I’ll be emailing on Sundays so that they can write me before that. My pdays are actually on Saturdays but we almost don’t have pdays and use that time to buy things because we can’t buy things on Sundays. I’ll try to include some more stuff next week. I can’t remember what else I wanted to say if you have any questions let me know and I’ll try to answer them.

I got to go so I’ll talk to you next week and I’ll have some photos too next week! I love and miss you guys lots!

Love
Elder McFarland

First Week In Nueve de Abril

Monday, September 28, 2015

Hola!!
So this week was one of the busiest and most tiring of my mission, but it’s been great. Tuesday we had the meeting with President Thurgood and the Stake Presidency. The High Counselor from the stake wasn’t there but he gave a talk yesterday in our ward so I met him and he said he’d call us, but the meeting went well. We talked a little bit about the ¨Puerto Blancas¨ they do here. In this stake, instead of having baptisms in the wards like normal, the Stake President thought it would be good if once a month there was a stake baptismal day where all the investigators got baptized. So every third Saturday of the month is the ¨Puertas Blancas¨ as they call it here. Sounded different when I heard about it and I see some pluses and minuses doing it that way, but it seems like it’s been a success in the stake. The last one in September had an attendance of 106 and there was 8 baptisms from the stake. So it`ll be interesting to see how the next one is in October.

After the meeting President Thurgood took us back to our pension and we almost had a problem. So in some parts here, especially where there’s dirt roads, there’s not gutters like in the United States but instead like a small ditch and President Thurgood was turning when he was getting close to the small ditch and Elder Almeida warned him. Not sure if he thought he had enough space but he kept turning and then boom! The right front wheel slipped into the ditch. At first we were all pretty nervous and worried but Elder Almeida got out and luckily it wasn’t that bad and the car had 4 wheel drive and we were able to get out and afterwards we were able to laugh about it ha-ha-ha. I just felt kind of bad for President Thurgood ha-ha-ha but I wrote that in my journal.

So the pension still lacks a lot of things. We have all the necessary things like beds and desks and stove and all that but we´re in the process of waiting for the rest of the stuff to arrive.

Yes there are three brand new Elders in the Zone. Elder Davis is with Elder Pacheco, Elder Pontelli is with Elder Lozada, and Elder Edwards is with Elder Portaro. Elder Edwards and Elder Portaro are in Nueve de Abril with us so we`ve seen them the majority of the days. Elder Edwards is from Utah, from Pleasant Grove, if I remember right but I might be wrong. He seems to be adjusting well and doing well in his first week. He’ll be a great missionary. Yesterday we didn’t have water so we had to walk to their pension to shower before church.

This week we also had correlation with the Ward Mission Leader, Hermano Luna. One of his daughters just got back 3 months ago from her mission and the other just left two months ago or so for her mission and in between that time his wife passed away unexpectedly, but he is just an amazing guy and hasn’t faltered at all in the gospel. He has so much faith. I’m really excited to have him as the Ward Mission Leader. Thursday we had correlation.  Hermano Luna is the oldest of all the Ward Mission Leaders I’ve had and has the most experience as a member and he just directed the meeting and it was great. Tonight we have a FHE (Family Home Evening) in his home with his family and some members and some investigators. There should be a good group of people there. Saturday the ward had a service project that we went to and helped out at.

So I’m running out of time but the work is strong here. We have 4 investigators that have a baptismal date and there’s lots of other investigators that we have to work with. I’ll have to tell you more about them next week! This week should be pretty busy again. Tomorrow is interviews with President Thurgood and Elder Almeida and I have to be there all day because we have an assignment to review the area book and agendas of the missionaries. Wednesday we have leadership meeting with all the Zone Leaders and the Sister Trainers.  It should be good. I’ll see Elder Pribyl there.

Anyways, I’m super pumped for General Conference this weekend. It’s going to be awesome! I’m glad to hear the trip to Utah went well and you guys got to do a lot of things and spend time together. I hope all is well I love and miss you guys!

Love
Elder McFarland

Transferred - Elders McFarland & Almeida are Zone Leaders

Monday, September 21, 2015

Hola!
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. 

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.

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.

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)

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

The War With A Rat!

Monday, September 14, 2015

Hola!
So we had a rat in our pension this week! Early in the week, we found a rat in the pension but then it escaped. We ended up finding some poison for rats in the pension and put that out and the next day it looked like it had eaten it. For three days we didn’t see it or anything and assumed it had died. Then one day, we cooked chicken nuggets for lunch and left the extras in the oven and when we returned at night my companion discovered that there were two chicken nuggets missing and asked if I had eaten them and I said no. Then while talking, my companion saw the rat behind the oven and screamed ha-ha. That began what ended up being an hour and half long war against the rat. We couldn’t move the oven because it was connected to the gas and didn’t have a wrench to disconnect it so we`d bang the stove super hard to get it to come out and it`d peak its head out but then go back in. We did this for about half an hour thinking of how we could get it out. Finally we turned off the lights and lit the stove and watched from outside. After a few minutes, the flipping rat jumped out from the top of the stove to the ground and tried to escape so I opened the door and went to kill it. Then it went under the fridge. We had been using my companion’s hairspray and a lighter as a makeshift flame thrower so then we used it again to get it out from under the fridge. Finally it got out and made a run for under the sink, where it had been coming and going, but we closed off the hole it`d been using with a lid and it ran right into it. Then I tried smashing it with a broom. You know the arcade game where there’s like gophers or an animal and one by one they come up and you have to smash them? Well it was like that ha-ha. Finally it got trapped in the corner and I was able to kill it. So maybe you`ll get a laugh out of all that. In the end though, when I had to kill it, I didn’t want to and felt terrible doing it. I realized I’m not sure if I could ever go hunting because it made me so sad to have to kill it.

So the genealogy activity that the Stake planned with the municipio ended up being a failure. We went Saturday morning and it lasted from 10-4 and I’m not sure in the end how many came but it wasn’t very many. We were outside in front of the office building, inviting people all day. Hopefully for the people that came it was a good experience and might even be the start of investigating the Church.

Yesterday Cynthia came to church! We went to her house and accompanied her to church. The hermanas did a great job in welcoming her and sitting with her. We had a lesson with Fabian last week but he wasn’t there. Yesterday Jesus received a calling as the Assistant to the Ward Mission Leader. It’ll probably be hard the next week for him to do much with us because of the work on his house but after that hopefully we`ll be able to start working with him a lot too.

So in his weekly letter, President Thurgood told us that there’s going to be a mission tour November 4-6 with Elder Spitale, an Area Seventy, and his wife. We had to fill out a survey that will help them know what to teach us. Last year, at least after I arrived, we didn’t have a Seventy come for a mission tour, so I don’t know if this will replace the Apostol coming since last November President Nelson came. It should be great though.

So yeah transfers are next week like you know. It’ll be interesting to see what happens. I think I’ll probably stay and I’m definitely fine staying again although 4 transfers is a lot. It would be nice to kind of have a change of area but I like my area. The mission is in the process of getting another pension, because the one they had lined up fell through, so it looks like at least in the beginning 4 Elders will be living together again in the pension.

Got to go for now but I love and miss you guys!

Love

Elder McFarland

Dog Bite & Rabies Shots

September 7, 2015

Hola Hola!

Ha-ha yeah I guess I always do start my emails like that Mom. Reading about travels plans in Dad’s email, I agree that August looks like the best option for the expenses, crowds and because yeah I’m not sure how much I could do set apart still. I’m not sure what you guys have planned to do but just keep in mind that August in Argentina will be during the winter. So not that I’m against it, I still agree August is best but just make sure everyone’s aware it`ll be winter and so it won’t really be shorts and t shirts climate ha ha. Although I’m sure you guys are already aware of all this knowing how well you guys plan trips.

So Fabian, well our hope for him progressing at this moment is slowly beginning to fade. Since we've  met with him he’s never read or prayed. He postponed his trip and yesterday he didn’t work and didn’t come to church either. In the afternoon we passed by his house and he was watching TV with his girlfriend. This week we are going to be sincere and frank with him, that if he doesn’t start keeping his commitments, we won’t be able to keep stopping by as much.

We had a lesson with Cynthia when I was on an inter-cambio with Elder Lyman and we taught her the law of chastity. She pretty much already knew it. Her and her boyfriend, who’s a member in the Capital, were living 'together for 8 years and then split up for a year or two and then got back together and are going to get married in November and now are living separately so the law of chastity wasn’t a problem. The problem with her is she told us she wants to keep meeting with us because she likes it and wants to learn more to see if it’s true but at this moment she doesn’t feel the need or have a strong desire to be baptized. I think she’s also afraid of just doing it for her boyfriend. So we are going to teach her and see if she keeps the commitments and progresses and hope with time and experiences the desire will come. She didn’t come to church yesterday because she was in the Capital.

Norma and Esther both came to church again yesterday. Esther seems to be pretty strong and doing well. We walked with Norma to church but after Relief Society she supposedly had a bad experience with a hermana. Not really sure what happened but when she came into the gospel principles class she was offended and said she wasn’t going to come back. I think the class and sacrament meeting helped her but right after the meeting she had an interview with one of the bishopric members so we didn’t get a chance to talk to her. We`re going to have to visit her this week and see what happened.

Jesus and Maria are going strong for the most part. Last week Jesus got the Melchizedek priesthood and an assignment as a home teacher and they got assigned home teachers. Not sure if I told you, but two weeks ago they went to the temple for baptisms for the dead. They are also going to be moving into a room in the house of Maria’s mom. Jesus is living in the house of his grandma that passed away but his parents have to leave the house they are renting and are going to live in the grandma’s house so now Jesus and Maria are going to live in Maria’s mom’s house. This week there are two planned service projects planned by the Elders’ Quorum in the new house, or better said, room of Jesus and Maria, to help finish it because they have to move before the 20th and it’s not done either.
The family of Rosio, Angels and Daniel dropped us. We passed by Friday and the mom came out and said that the dad doesn’t want us to pass by anymore. So that was super disappointing. So right now we practically don’t have any investigators so we are going to focus this week a lot of finding some.

Ha-ha-ha sorry Mom, but honestly the dog bite really wasn’t that bad. We were walking down a street when a man opened his gate and the dog got out. It walked up to me from behind and I saw it but thought nothing of it because there’s a ton of dogs here and I haven’t had a problem before. I thought it was going to smell me and then out of nowhere it just decided to bite me, ha-ha I don’t know.

Hermana Thurgood still wanted me to get vaccinated for rabies just in case. The vaccination is a series of 5 shots. I got the first one Tuesday, the second Friday, the third I’m getting tomorrow, then the fourth on the 15th and the last on the 29th. It’s going to be interesting because if I end up leaving the area, I’ll have to return on the 29th for the last shot but we`ll see. But it’s fine. I have a tiny scab but it looks like just a scratch.I two have two small holes in one of my pants though now, ha-ha.












Today we have our district activity. We are going to cook hamburgers and watch a Disney movie so that should be pretty fun.

The church is true. God is our Heavenly Father and He is aware of us. His tender mercies surround us. If we will just look for them we will begin to feel the love He has for us and will see His hand in our lives. I love you and miss you guys.

Elder McFarland