Elder Tyler McFarland's Mission Blog: Banner Week

This week was a banner week for us.

It had stressful moments but most of it was fun.

We started out by going on some splits with our members. I took a
priest with me named Leo. My companion went with another member named
Roy Zuniga. Leo and I went to roberto's to teach him about the plan of
salvation. There we had a fun surprise. The member that referred
Roberto was there and he helped us teach. Roberto wanted to get
baptized a long time ago. Problems with the family came up and he
ended up procrastinating it. But now he wants to be baptized because
he knew that this church was true when he first listened to the
missionaries. He is a good listener, but he also likes to talk. He has
crazy stories. He has life threatening moments spread throughout his
life. He is super funny and expressive as he tells his stories. He
came to church yesterday, and he is so pumped for his baptism next
week. We still have some lessons to teach him, but I think we will
make it. Your prayers would be much appreciated.
Monday we killed it. Tuesday was just as good. We do service at a soup
kitchen for dinner and I got to represent our church and do an
interview! It was just for a school assignment, but small and simple
things will help us become more known. It is a fun place to serve. We
got to visit with Yari and Abi. They cool. So nice. They should be
getting baptized soon as well. I want to stay here til the end of my
mission. There is so much work to do here, and I love it here.

Elder Packer and I got to be on an exchange. He is the great grandson of THE Elder Packer. We enjoyed our time together. He finishes his mission this month. He is a Korean missionary so I was trying to learn Korean. I am so glad I was called spanish speaking. Korean is hard. We gave a blessing to a less-active who may have to get deported... but I realized how much God has let me use the priesthood to bless the lives of others. That is so cool that he has given man the authority and the power to bless others as long as it is for the good of others. God loves his children.

We also do some service at a food pantry on Wednesday mornings. It is fun to work there with the other missionaries and our member Juan Cobos. He runs the place. He is a good example to me of serving others freely. He does so much for others, and he loves them so much as well.

We worked hard throughout the rest of the week. We saw a lot of miracles as well. Our investigators seems to understand better what we are teaching them, and they are becoming more receptive to the invitations we offer them.

We had a random trip to the NY Temple this week. It is important to know that we cannot use our mission cars to go to the temple, so we had to get a ride. Stefani and Elder Welch and another Elder were all suppose to go while I went to a meeting in Morristown that we were suppose to be at. We had it all figured out, until the member who was going to take us got called into work the night before. We woke up at 4:30 on Saturday to meet at the chapel and leave at 6. We got there not knowing if Elder Welch and the other Elder would get to go due to shortage on seats, but they made arrangements so Elder Welch and I could ride up with them. We thought that we would still be able to meet up with the other elders and do the exchange but as we were driving to the temple, we realized that we couldn't meet the other Elder where we had thought we could because we took a different way. They didn't know how to get to the temple, so I ended up going with Elder Welch. I am sad that the other Elder didn't get to go, but it was absolutely amazing! One of the funnest times I had in the temple. One of our members baptized me. He struggled to do the baptisms because it was his first time and he has terrible eye sight because of his age. Also, hispanics can never say "McFarland." In the NY temple they don't do name tags or anything. You just have to remember their name. So as he baptized me in the most interesting ways, my name got progressively worse. It eventually ended up being "Hermano Fanny." He baptized me about 5 times with that name. Now everyone in the branch calls me Elder Fanny. But I don't mind. It was hard for me and the members who heard it to not ruin the sacredness of the temple with our outbursts of laughter.

Although it was one of the most enjoyable trips to the temple... it was also one of the most stressful. We had to be at a meeting at Morristown at 10 a.m. Because the other elder and I couldn't exchange places, we had to figure out how to get to Morristown. By the time we left the temple it was 9:30. We got dropped off at a rest stop on the NJ Turnpike at about 9:50. We manage to get to a neighborhood where someone could come pick us up. After a couple of phone calls we had a ride coming for us by 10:15. Our goal was to make it there by 11... haha. pathetic I know. They told us they would be there in 15 minutes. 35 minutes later we were picked up and started to drive to Morristown. Our goal by then was to just get to morristown so we could get a ride home to Trenton. Those missionaries saved our behinds. So grateful for understanding missionaries.

By the time we got to the meeting, it was 11:35. We walked in and the office elders said," wow. You are late. But that is ok. President just got here 5 minutes ago." I had been so stressed out that I felt I was going to get ulcers. When I heard that President was late and that it wasn't just a meeting for zone leaders, I felt so much better. We got to listen about serving others for about 45 minutes. Then the meeting ended. We got lunch and headed back towards home. When we got to the chapel, the elders left and I started reaching for the car key. I only found a hole in my pocket. I started to panic. We decided that the hole wasn't big enough for the key to fall out, so I must have misplaced it. After searching my pockets and my bag for 5 minutes, i found it in a pocket I had checked 3 times. I am so grateful it was there though.

I think this trip taught me something about life. First, never overbook yourself. Second, make sure you know how to hitchhike (that is a joke). Third, to not stress too much. Everything always works out. Sometimes I am a drama queen. I just need to realize how small the problems really are.

After that crazy day, we had a good day of proselyting. I love serving others. These have been the happiest years of my life.

We all know numbers don't really matter, but it does show the people we got to serve. This week we had the highest numbers this area has seen in a long time. Numbers don't always show how much we work, but it seemed backwards. Miracles came without us deserving them. We had 4 investigators come to church and we taught 8 member presents. If you asked me if it were possible to get those numbers in this area I would have said "yes," but not because I truly believed it. I know that if we do our best, God makes up the rest. And sometimes the miracles are shown in the numbers, and sometimes they are not.

Keep praying for Roberto and Yari and Leo and Zulay.

Waz good

Jersey Strong

Life is good in the Gospel

Love you

Elder McFarland