Luau anyone

We were invited to a Luau in one of the wards we were working at! It was a lot of fun... And A lot of people

I have video's too but it wont let me load :)

An Epistle to the Gentiles

1. I, Sister McFarlane, a missionary of the Lord Jesus Christ, write unto you my dear friends that the grace of God be upon you for the unrighteous deeds that thou hast done.


2. For behold it has been many months since the good Lord hast called me away on his errand. For many months have I labored crying repentance unto the inhabitants of Provo, Utah.


3. And it came to pass that as I have been diligently working amongst my people, I became wearied from not hearing from my brethren and friends.


4. Many epistles have I written unto thee my brethren. Awaiting your response. I plead unto the Lord at night that thou hast not forgotten me, thy sister. And as I have prayed the spirit of the Lord came unto me saying:


5. Peace be unto thy soul, a few of thy friends do love thee and stand by thee. And thy mother and thy father. But this I say unto you by way of commandment, go unto thy friends and cry repentance unto those that doth forget thee.


6.Thus being filled with the spirit, keeping the commandments of the Lord, I doth now write unto you, my beloved friends, To call you to repentance, and exhort you to turn yourselves from this evil deed and say unto you write your friend who has gone away.


7. For behold, if ye do not this thing which I have commanded you. I will return home and remember thee no more. And it supposeth me that I speak of these things in vain, but I say unto you that ye are the support of thy missionary friend.


8. Many have said a Letter! A letter! We've already sent a letter! Know ye not that two letters are better than one? That there are more weeks in a mission than one?


9.Behold, I know not more than thou art unsuccessful and hast drawn away thy support. I do not desire to murmur but behold it grieveth my soul.


10. Behold doth a nursing mother forget her sucking child? Nay neither have I forgotten thee, i have ye taped to the bedroom wall.


11. And now my beloved friends, may the Lord our God who has redeemed us and made us free, keep you continually in his presence, yea and may he favor thee, that ye may be blessed.


12. O remember, remember what the Lord hast spoken, I am His servant and plead with him for your cause. I do away your epistle. Adieu.

People from the mission

Alright, so I've decided that it was about time to share some pictures of some of the people that I've been working with on my mission. First off they're not your typical people you'd think that they'd be interested in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To be honest, I didn't think so either until I really got to know them, and their concerns and helped them come unto the Savior.  They have a smile on their faces now every time that we come over, there is a gleam in their eye that show that they have accepted Jesus Christ into their lives.

First is Jerome Black. He come from the deep bayous of southern Louisiana. And I must confess that his Crawdad Gumbo is to DIE for. When he was a child, he and his older brother were Crawdad fishin' for dinner one night, when he was bit by some type of bug on his hand, it was really gross, he showed pictures. And by the time they got to the hospital, it was too late, his hand had to be amputated.  So he's my first amputee that I've taught.  His family is a God Fearin' Family, they attended the Baptist Church that was started by his great great grandfather, but as he got older to start making his own decisions, he stopped going to church and moved to Switzerland to be a goat farmer. Go figure. He was there for about five years before the owner of the Goat farm went bankrupt and lost his farm. So with no job, Jerome moved to Springville in search of a better job.  But his search hasn't gone so well, and is now working at a fast food restaurant. We met him  while he was working and we were there for lunch, he started asking us questions about the church, and now he's on date for the end of August.

Next is Elizabeth Newbury. She is a native to Privet Drive in Surrey England. Her grandparents were coverts to the church, and her parents were born and raised in the church, essentially Elizabeth was baptized when she was 8. But when she got old enough to make her own decisions she stopped going to church. Then last June she and her active family moved to Springville to be closer to Zion per se. Her parents invited us over for dinner one sunday and we started talking to Elizabeth to see if she'd be interested in meeting with us so we could help her coming back and help her get to the temple. She does have a smoking problem but I think it will be easy for her to give it up since she picked it up 3 years ago. So as of right now, she comes once a month, but once she gains a testimony of these things she'll be more stable in church.

 



 

This is Billy The Goat, he was referred to us by Jerome. He too came to Springville from Switzerland, to find a better goat life. We have only met with him once, because he is really hard to get a hold of. Because he's at so many different farms partying it up with other goats, so he's usually pretty wasted when we stop by.

 

 

Then Nothing is worse than waking up in the morning to this person in your room everyday!

7-11 Day

So this week happened to be the greatest week for two special reasons.

First: 7-11 Day had finally come again! What is 7-11 Day you ask? Well sit right there and read a bit further. So this day only comes once a year and it always falls on July 11th. On this fantastic day the Gas Station/Corner Store so proudly named 7 Eleven gives away a FREE SMALL SLURPEE! With those who are not familiar with 7 Eleven and their slurpees, they're also known as slushies at other corner stores. So me and my companion go to the only 7 Eleven store in our area and grabbed us a slurpee! Brain Freeze anyone?! The day of free slurpees started at 11:00 am and ended at 7:00 pm on July 11th. Good thing we grabbed one because it was a hot day here in Springville Utah.  And then it rained all night. Amazing. Then i was on exchanges with the spanish sisters and we tried to hit up another 7 Eleven in their area, but the line was super long so we left and went to Sonic instead and got Happy Hour Drinks only for $1.29. Who can beat that? Well besides 7 Eleven on 7-11 day! But sonic has happy hour everyday! :)

Second: At 1:00 pm July 11, 2012 I Whitney McFarlane, said good bye to my Aunt Julie as two Elders at the MTC took my luggage out of the car and walked down the hall with them. This was the day I began my journey to be a Servant of the Lord! And now its July 11, 2013, I've gone a whole year already, a year of happiness, a year of refinement, a year of stress, a year of working my tail off, being a servant of the Lord.  I have seen peoples lives change as the grasped the Gospel, feasted upon the words of Christ, Repented of their sins and were baptized for the remission of their sins. In the  year I have been out i have served in five areas.

1. Orem Sunpark: I covered two stakes here. Sunset Heights and Park Stake. With 10 baptisms. Since I've left the southern half of the sunset heights stake broke off and became a new stake. The sisters there now cover 3 stakes adding the Vineyard Stake. But still covers the same amount of area. I was there for 18 weeks.

2. American Fork East: I covered three stakes here. American Fork, American Fork Central and American Fork East. With 3 baptisms. I enjoyed Christmas here with my two companions. Woke up to my stuffed dog hanging from the celing fan. Great Snow ball fights with the Land Lords kids. Even took one to the head. I was here for 6 Weeks.

3. Vernal- I only covered one stake here. The Vernal Stake. With 3 Baptisms. There are a total of Five stakes in Vernal and each of the stakes had their own set of missionaries. The weather during the winter is horrid and the snow is deep. But once the Snow melted it was a lot of fun hiking McConkie Ranch. I was here for 18 weeks

4. Heber City East- I covered two stakes here. The Heber North and Heber East Stakes. With 3 baptisms. Beautiful Place, a lot of farms with horses. Hiked the wasatch mountain stake park, twice. Loved Dairy Keen Shakes. Heber is the home of my True name... Sister Mac-n-Cheese. I was here for 6 weeks.

5. Springville Kolob: I cover 3 stakes here. Kolob, Hobble Creek, and Hobble Creek West. Have had 2 baptisms thus far. With 3 lined up for this weekend. Making a total of 5 this transfer. Then we have one lined up for Next transfer. 6 Baptisms ya'll. Thats exciting. We opened this area for sisters, the elders were here before us. And our theme song is "If you could hie to Kolob"!

So in 6 months i'll be stepping off the plane in Orlando Florida. can't wait to see all ya'll and hope ya'll are doing great!

Love Sister McFarlane

4th of July

I do hope all ya'll had a great 4th of July celebrating the birth of our nation. I am grateful that the Lord has Prepared and preserved this lad so he can bring forth his righteous purposes. It has been prophesied in the book of mormon that this land has been consecrated by God, that whosoever comes to this country shall serve God.  That this nation will be a free nation with no Kings or rulers . I know that it was through God's will that the founding fathers and the patriots were able to win the revolutionary war so that this nation could be free. And because of the freedom we have it opened the gate for the Restoration of Christ Church back on the earth. Everything is done according to gods will.

For the beautiful 4th of July, all 217 full time missionaries were in the Provo 4th of july parade. In which we walked  from the Provo high School down to 900 e about a two mile walk. The missionaries in the UPM were the stars of the parade! For those who are my friends and were in Provo that day. I apologize I did not see you!  But it was good to see previous companions, and Sisters and Elders from areas i've served.

Elders Poulsen, Bilodeau, Galke, Stephens, and ME!

One Year Mark!

Me and Sister Lolofie

Me and Sister Cadiente from the same stake WHOO

Our Mission Banner

Scotsman

Me and Sister Wood

President and Sister McCune

I lived across from this High School

MISSIONARIES!

Later that evening we had a district Activity also know as District Confinement. As as district we had to stay inside a chapel from 5-9 pm and we watched how to train a dragon, approved by the mission president.  After the movie we played games, which i won 3 out of the 4 rounds In my District there is me, and my companion sister Lyle. The spanish sisters Hermanas Hernandez and Montanares, and the Elders Bradford and Anderson. It was fun. :)

after eating Norwegian Pancakes with Norwegian Nutella

Our District playing in the dark!

I believe I can Fly...POP

So Friday Night Me and my companion were driving around to go visit some families. And as we were driving there was this little bird that flew onto the road, and it just stood there. Most normal birds just fly away right. Yeah not this one. We had our windows down and then we heard a POP! My companion starts freaking out and pulls over. I get out of the car to look for evidence of this bird on the road, in which there were none. So we go and visit people, and i decided to check the back tires of the car, and sure enough on the back drivers side tire, there was evidence of the bird... Fresh Meat. HAHA. So I texted teh Elders in my district and said "Sister Christiansen killed her first bird with the car, this calls for a celebration at Dairy Keen." So Saturday we went to Dairy Keen and only 2 out of the 4 elders came to lunch. And those two Elders, Tetterton and Galovin, made a card for my companion. It was epic.

Guess who I ran into on Sunday? Elder Kohler who served in our ward in roughly 2002! He knows you and your family, the barkers, the rhames, and possibly my family. We were speaking in a ward here and he was also one of the speaksers and he asked where we were from before church started, and I told him from Florida and he asked where, and I said Crystal River, and he's like I served there in my mission. I saw my first manatee there at a park and I was like Homossassa Springs>? and he's like yeah, I haven't heard that word in such a long time! And So its really cool! Ask your dad or look in your dads missionary book thing and see around what time Elder Kohler was there. He said he replaced Elder Han from Australia.

So much History

 So my companion and I went and helped a family put flowers on graves of their family members. And while at the cemetery the wife showed us a grave of an indian prince, and stones of pioneers who have come to utah, especially to Heber City.  Broadheads, Murdocks and Sweats are a few of the names that founded Heber City. There is SO much history in a cemetery, I kind of want to know who these people were and what they did and what their role was in the foundation of the church.  There were a lot of children buried here.  as well. Here are pictures

This is the Indian Prince Tom Tabby

Tom Tabby- Son of Chief Tabby

One day of 1867, Chief Tabby came into Provo River Valley after the Indian peace Treaty

with his dead son in his arms. As he rode up on his horse, Joseph Stacy Murdock, the Mormon

presiding Bishop, recognized Chief Tabby. After a brief greeting, Chief Tabby said that he was holding

his own dead son, who was killed in an accident while hunting. The Chief knew that Joseph was the religious leader among his people, so he asked that Joseph bury his son in the custom of the Mormons. With a feeling of great sorrow for his friend, Joseph conducted a christian funeral service and buried Tom Tabby under a beautiful pine tree which had been planted several years before by John H. Murdock in the Heber Cemetery. 

   When the final prayer was said Chief Tabby said "my son has been buried in the White Man's Custom, now he will be honors in the indian fashion." A rick of ceder logs was then laid upon the new grave and the boys favorite pony was led up to it, where is throat was cut and the animal was laid upon the pier and the logs were set a fire. As the embers slowly died, chief Tabby got on his horse and rode into the Mountains east of Heber with his braves.

How cool is this?