Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Sharing the Savior's Love. PLUS, Christmas, sleepovers, and puppies!

Found in the Christmas Decorations box!
Our cute Christmas apartment.


Last District Meeting with Elder Allred.
Tuesday:
We had a great last district meeting with elder Allred. We talked about having faith in the Lord. That evening we had a really fun FHE! We are trying to have more of them to help model FHE in the homes and to get to know the members a little better. This one was at the Brooksby's with Sister Kassaw and Sister Bovine! We shared the Christmas video and asked them to write their testimonies in a Book of Mormon and share it with someone! The mission also gave us these fun little advent calendars that have a thought, a scripture, an action, and a song. The first one was about gathering together and celebrating so the song was O Come All Ye Faithful, Matthew 18:20, and to invite a member or investigator to do the advent with us! So we text them the scripture and song and thought every day. It's so fun!
Hermana Moore looking like a mummy.
Wednesday:
Along with trying to do more FHE's with families, we are also trying to go visiting teaching with the sisters! It can really help us get to know all the sisters, active and less-active, and help us to get referrals, and help them do their visiting teaching! So, we started out with Sister Ferrell. She is so kind! She came all the way out to Danville to get us and drove us around to do her visiting teaching. Only one lady was home and she was a sweet older lady that we chatted with and shared the message with. Sister Ferrell is so kind and she made home made peanut butter cookies for all of her visiting teachees! I am thankful for her example. :) After VT with Sister Ferrell, we did some teaching in Danville. 

As we left one of the apartment complexes, there was this very energetic little girl playing basketball. We asked if we could play with her and talked to her about church, sports, school, music, etc. She was such a sweet heart! We had a really awesome Book of Mormon class! We have been trying to figure out how to make the class more worth people's time so they will come more frequently. So, Elder Brooksby put together a little lesson and guided the class as we read through 1 Nephi 11-13. It was cool  to read through it all and study out the meanings but also why we have those things now. Like, why does it matter?!?! We talked about having a firm testimony and choosing to be on God's side.

Thursday:
We finally got to go to the Taylor's for the first time this transfer!! They are the SWEETEST!! I love them! They made some really delicious spaghetti. We talked their friend about Christmas and we all sang a bunch of Christmas songs together. I really love when I have the opportunity to introduce "Far Far Away on Judea's Plains" to people! She is not LDS and she loved the song! We played and sang and the Spirit was so strong as we sang about our Savior's birth together. :) We had an incredible dinner with Genevieve! (She's the best. Seriously.) She made this amazing tortilla soup that is to die for and I had so many servings and left overs! The Torgerson's are fantastic cooks. We talked with her about motherhood and the sacred role that it is. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful mother and to have learned from her and also to meet all of the faithful women out here and to see their good examples too!
Please oh please don't let them get bed bugs!

I stole this pic from her comp's blog! Thanks H. Moore!!

Friday:
Yayayay HERMANA FIESTA!!!! Our sweet sweet Sister Training Leaders got bed bugs................. ew. They have been dealing with this all transfer long! They are troopers. But, after sleeping on their tile floor for the last 2 weeks, they finally got their beds sprayed and they get to stay with us for a little while!!! We love it. Minus the constant fear that bed bugs will be in our beds now. But, whatever. We have loved having them here because 1. They have a car and 2. They are good at Spanish and 3. They are funny. Haha it is so fun. 

Our new found friend, Heather.
Now. Heather. She is the best: As we were walking down the street, we saw this cute little baby puppy sprinting toward us bouncing and being so stinkin' cute. At first we were a little bit afraid just because we have had bad luck with dogs lately. But she was so so so sweet and started loving on us. We just kept walking down the street and she followed us! SERIOUSLY EVERY TIME WE ARE ON THAT STREET WE MAKE A NEW DOG FRIEND. I LOVE IT. She came and knocked on all the doors with us, and no one would claim her! She walked all the way down and all the way back and we were trying to go get our mail but it's across the worst busy street and we care about her life so we tried to go the long way. She still followed us. Then we got to almost the end of the street and she just stopped. (I think it's because we were praying that she would return home so she would be safe and we could cross the busy road.) She just started running home! So we started booking it down the street, and we never heard from her again ... until .......



Saturday:
HEATHER ROUND 2: Seriously this dog is so so so cute. We were walking down that same street again trying to get a hold of someone and out comes Heather! Again, followed us all over, and not even kidding when we got exactly to that same spot, Heather stopped and started running home! We don't know if it's like where a different dog lives or what but she will not go past that spot. So funny. OH also I don't know how we named her Heather. We were thinking of different names, and nothing was working and I just said Heather and now she totally responds to it. She is the best. But, she did bite me. She is a tiny puppy with razor claws and teeth and she kept trying to play with my boots and she got me!! Pretty good actually, considering. :) But that's okay. :)


We also had a baptism for a little boy in the ward who just turned 8! It was so cool to see his whole family there supporting him. There were great talks given about baptism and the Holy Ghost. Testimonies were born!

H Moore's mom sent matching PJs!!
Sunday: 
We talked about the Sabbath Day again with President Hall. It is just so important! Also, I was supposed to translate because Sister Moore got asked to teach a last minute lesson on the Millennium (don't you love that??) but sadly/probably a good thing I didn't have to translate! (Turns out the Spanish people I have to translate for were sitting in the foyer. Oops on my part...) But I did bear my testimony in Spanish! There are a few Spanish members that speak really great English but it was cool to know that I can bear a testimony in Spanish. I am so grateful for temples and that I can be with my wonderful family forever!! It is something I think I took for granted
a little bit, but I have sort of internalized it more while being here. It is such a cool thing. Also, the sacrament is amazing. I have had my testimony of Jesus Christ grow so much this week because of the focus on Christ and my wanting to learn more about His birth, ministry, and Atonement. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father
who sent His Son for us! :) 
Watching the devotional with people we love!
After church we went to visit a few people in the area. While we were at church, we were talking to Genevieve again and we mentioned that we weren't sure where to go to watch the devotional in the evening and she mentioned that she made a bunch of dinner hoping to find someone to come eat it with her and her cute son, so it was perfect!! She came to get us and we had delicious chicken tacos and ice cream (and I enjoyed guacamole for the first time because she put loads of lime in :) :) :) :)) and we watched the devotional and played with her cute toddler! It was a really awesome spiritual night. I love when things work out like that! :) (Notice Genevieve fed us twice this week. She rocks.) 
P-Day at the church before heading to the Hermana Missionaries Christmas Festivities

Thank you for all of your love and support to me and all the missionaries, and for continuing to love the Lord. Have a good week!

Hermana Macfarlane

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