My heart goes out to the Guerra Family

Never in my life, would i have thought that I would be writing a blog with such serious matter. One that will probably be closest to my heart than any other blog. Right now my heart is swollen with sorrow, with joy, and with love. Never would I have thought that I would be attending a funeral/memorial service for a fellow servant of the Lord in the Utah- Provo Mission. Never would I have thought I would be saying "see you later" to a friend of mine. But this passed Thursday, I had to. 

Jeffery R. Guerra, 23, passed away Thursday May 9, 2013. He was out doing his morning exercise as part of the normal missionary routine, and he collapsed. They rushed him to the hospital to find out that he had had a brain aneurysm. He was rushed to surgery and when the doctors were able to do what they were supposed to do, it was too late, his brain was gone.  My dear friend that I only got to know for a transfer (6 weeks) back in October 25-Dec 5, had passed away. His parents and siblings were flown in from Sweden where they had currently reside after leaving Peru nearly 19 years previous. 

On Thursday we were at a Zone Training Meeting and we had received a text message from the mission office that Elder Guerra had experienced a medical emergency and was in the Hospital. Later that day we got a second text saying that he had a brain aneurysm and was going into surgery.  Then we didn't hear anything for the rest of the day. We had gone to Taco Bell after our Zone Training Meeting and I asked my Companion if people died from Aneurysms, and she said she didn't know. For some reason I just knew that something wasn't going to be okay with Elder Guerra, but we went on our way doing what we normally do as missionaries and I had nearly forgotten about Elder Guerra. Then Around 8 pm, we were in an Appointment and I pulled out the cell phone to get a phone number for the people we were with, and I saw that President McCune had called and left a message. My heart was racing, I knew something wasn't right, otherwise why would President call? So after the lesson we called president back and his voice was heavy laden, stressful, mournful. He had told us that we lost Elder Guerra. I just started crying because I was in his very first district when he came out of the MTC, we had become friends. And that hurt me a lot, never in my life did i ever think this would happen while I was on my mission. 

We had the Memorial Service for him, and majority of the Zone's did a special musical number for the program, Eastern Utah Zone did "I know that my redeemer lives" and his parents got up and spoke and told us a little more about Elder Guerra. Ever since he was a child he was trying to be like Christ. They had told us a story of when he was 1 1/2 years old and living in Peru, where it was christmas time and his dad was the bishop. There were children who came from poor families and Elder Guerra's dad knew that they wouldn't be getting presents for Christmas. So all the gifts had been given out and they had noticed a little child with no shoes on and Jeffery only 1 1/2 at the time said "Papi, give him my gift i have plenty of toys." Another story they told about how he had found this baby bird who had fallen out of the tree and he did his best to take care of it so it could live.  They shared a few other stories like this, and I just knew that Elder Guerra was preparing for something GREAT, and that Heavenly Father had a plan for him on earth, granted it was only 23 years, but thats all Heavenly Father needed of him and now he's on the other side doing missionary work.  And how as I can just say that I'm grateful for the plan of salvation, to know that there is life after this life, and that Elder Guerra was definitely called home for a special reason. 

I have deep love for his Family, they were so strong. Going through all this reminds me of when my step-dad passed away. And I know without a doubt that the Plan of Salvation is real. That Heavenly Father has a plan for each one of us so that we can be able to return to him and if we have faithfully finished our mission that Heavenly Father has sent us out to do, He will welcome us back into his fold saying "well, done my good and faithful servant" And I know that is what he is going to say to Elder Guerra. He did all that he could to be more like Christ, to love one another as Christ would, to help others on their way. 

All I can ask of you guys, is to pray for the Guerra Family. Thank you.

LOVE ALWAYS,
SISTER MCFARLANE

Working with the Ward Mission Leader!

I just want to testify that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. My Companion and I on saturday were talking about  going out and working with our ward mission leaders to visit families who they thing could benefit from a visit from the sister missionaries, and the first WML that came into my mind was Brother Bestenlehner of the Maesar 1st ward, so I sent him a text and this is what happened.

Us: Hey, Bro. B. are you available tonight at 8?

Bro B: Sure- who are you teaching?

Us: We were wondering if we could come out with you and go visit some people you think that might need some spiritual upliftment from the sister missionaries? Less-Active, Non-Member or Members who might be going through a hard time. Your choice.

Bro B: Sounda Great!

Us: Awesome, we'll be at your house around 8.

So during the day while Brother Bestenlehner was at work he knelt down in his office and Prayed to know which family we should visit. And a certain family came to his mind. And through out the day, he started thinking about two other families, but again the spirit prompted him to go to the other family. So that night we went to the family, that the Lord Prompted us to go to. To find out that the wife was praying that someone would give her a blessing And she asked how did we know that she needed help. And we told her that we were prompted to come over. So this family is less active and going through a lot of trials. I shared a scripture from the book of mormon with the family about trusting god in our trials. I have know idea where this scripture is, because I tried to find it again to put in a talk that i gave on sunday, and i couldn't find it. So it was a very spiritual night indeed.

 I have a testimony that some of the answers to our prayers are simply through other people, and we just need to recognize that. :)

May 10th is my Ten Month Mark! WOO! Can't wait!

General Conference!

Okay, so how often does a Missionary get so go to general conference? Well in the Utah Provo Mission, The missionaries here get to go twice in their missions. And guess who go to go for the first time ever O_o? Guess. Yup... You got it. It was ME! :D I had the opportunity to attend the Sunday Afternoon Session of General Conferece! *Bounces* I was excited! So me and my temporary companion Sister Alcantar, left our apartment at 9:30 am to be in Heber by 11:45 am and was up in Salt Lake by 12:45 ish. and So we had an hour or so before conference started. So we had lunch, that was packed by our loverly Mission Mom, sister McCune. Then we walked to the Conference Center, President told us that we needed to be carefull of the Protesters, so I was expecting like Tons of them there. And there weren't as many there, there was one that was a Christian Jew, who had taken the missionary discussions from one of our missionaries here in the UPM. And he was saying that Satan and Jesus are not brothers, that Christ created Satan. and The sad thing was that Members were arguing back. I was like Come on, Satan is just tussling up your feathers. And there was another guy who was dressed up like the Devil with a banner sign that said "Hello, I am Satan. And these street preachers are my missionaries." It truely breaks my heart that people do this, that the Advisary has a great hold upon these peoples hearts that they do these things. Because seriously, do they not have anything else better to do than to cause trouble? The worst thing is that they show Temple Clothing. yeah.

So in Conference we were on the left hand side of the building in the front here is a picture so you can see for yourself where we were at

I wish we could have been front and center! But I can't complain because how often do you get to go to conference. 

And this months conference was amazing, on how we need to build a christ centered home. To raise our children to know and follow the ways of the Lord so that we can be built upon a sure foundation, when trials and temptation come our way we will not fall away. We need to be converted. Husbands are to LOVE their wives and wives are to LOVE their husbands. And as husband's and wives they are to LOVE their Children.  We need to be Faithful to our spouses, we need to teach our children right from wrong. It is our responsibility. I cannot wait until the May Ensign comes out so that I can study and mark up the ensign. They are modern day scriputre! 

After conference, we had the opportunity to walk around Temple Square. We went to the Visitor Center, got a picture of the missionaries with the Christus. Then we went to the Tabernacle, really cool place. Then we were going to into the assembly hall but twas locked, i Guess they had some kind of meeting going on there. Then we went into the South Side Visitor's Center and it was amazing! All about Families and how they fit into Heavenly Fathers plan. and There they had the cut out of the Salt Lake City Temple. Pretty Neat. And then we went home.  It felt weird to be out of the mission for that long. But the one thing i was grateful for was that I didn't run into any family members while I was in Salt Lake. Thanks Julie and Family for not being there :P

Then on the Trip. Sister Alcan Tar and I did some sight seeing. Will up date pictures later once I get them from her! :)

Love you all

Dry Fork, Petroglyph and a Dead Deer

So its P-day and what better way to spend it than driving 20+ miles into the middle of nothing trying to find Dry Fork Canyon to end up going the WRONG WAY! We called Sister Leota, and she couldn't remember where it was, then we called Sister Cooley (who is actually a non member)  and she said to keep taking the road we were on, but we were like "yeah, its not this way, so we turned around and called Sister Ercanbrack (Also a Non Member) and we got us in the right direction.
   Now that we're in Dry Fork we see a sign and we pulled over and took pictures, and across the caynon there is an American Flag on top of a mountain, it was HUGE! 15'x25'. here are pictures.



Pretty Amazing right? Well guess what... a girl the day after we went here committed suicide off the cliff!  Anway we got back into the car to drive a little further and here we find an amazing view area, so we pulle dover. We got out and started walking around and we found a trail along the side of the mountain. We followed it a ways and then I climbed on some rocks and i found Petroglyphs.  They're so cool. What are Petroglyphs? They're rock carvings made by native american's many many years ago. And along with these amazing beautiful art work, people added graffiti destroying the beauty of the scene. Enjoy the petroglyphs.

Another really cool thing about this place has to do with sounds! So my companion was on one side of the trail and I was on the other, and when we talked to each other we had no problem hearing heach other. It was way cool. This happens because the sound revirbarates off the wall of the rock we were by, so the sound carries. But if you were in an open field with nothing for the sound to bounce off it "carries away in the wind" wicked cool.
    As I was trying to show Sister Quist something and there I find this container. And I was like What the Heck.?! So I opened it and there i find a GeoCache. Never seen one of these things before in my life. So what is Geocaching? Its a hidden object that is strategiclly placed, you have to have a GPS to do this. I don't know much more but the website you tell you more. Geocaching.net. Apparently there are tons in Vernal. This one we found was left in November 2004! It was really cool. One rule is if you take something out of the container, you  must put something in to replace it. So Sister Quist took a dinosaur finger puppet and we left a "key to our heart". These things are cool must check more into it.

Now its the end of our p-day. We enjoyed Heavenly Fathers Creation, and the art work of the native americans. Its time to head home, shower and get ready for our one appointment for the night. I was heading back to the car and there were some birds on the ground making noise and i went to go check ito ut and then i'm like "OH MY GOSH THATS GROSS!"



A half eaten deer. Yup! :) Here are more pictures of heavenly fathers creation

A Baptism and A proposal

 Saturday was the most spiritual felt day, i've had in a long time. One of my investigators who moved into the Elders area was baptized. His journey with the gospel wasn't an easy one, he accepted everything that was taught, that wasn't the problem. Satan worked really hard with him because he so easily accepted the gospel. Everything that could go wrong with him and his life, did. First started with housing situation, which caused him and his fiancee to move out...out of our area. Second was with being put to jail on false charges for tires on his truck.  I felt so bad that all this was happening, but we continued to encourage him to do what was write.  He easily accepted the word of wisdom, and tithing, as a matter of fact he wanted to start paying tithing before he was baptized. I just love this guy.

So at the baptism, his fiancee sang "When we believe" from the Prince of Egypt movie. Brought tears to my eyes. Then as we were baring testimonies, the spirit was instantly there. He even got up and bore his testimony, and it made his Nonmember Mother and and Brothers all cry. His younger brothers all want to be baptized. :)  So here is Cosme Lopez, our golden star.

This is Nadia and Cosme

Me, Nadia, Cosme, Elders Hatch and Asbury

Cosme Lopez

Jordan Caulderon and Cosme

Me, Cosme and Sister Quist

Comse's family, Sister Annie, Brothers Dallas and Dakota

and his mother Wendy.

After the Baptism, we all wen to the temple. Cosme told us all what he was going to do there and not to tell his fiancee Nadia.  We all arrive, taking pictures and such, Nadia still oblivious to everything. Then her mom is like "Cosme, it's time for me to give you your present.  And she pulls out a build-a-bear wearing a suit, holding flowers and a book of mormong. He gave it to Nadia to hold and check out. Her mom is like then "Nadia, squeeze his paws." She tries it but then it doesn't work, and she's like what is is supposed to say? Then Cosme pulls out  a peice of paper and said "this is what is supposed to say." and he reads a proposal  poem.

 

Needless to say it was adorable. To my future husband, you must be creative too when proposing! The best part is when the fiancee is clueless. :)  Here are some further pcitures

 

T.A.G

So lately me and my companion have been playing tag with our District Leader and his companion. This is done to relieve the tension from the hard long work day. Because if we don't relieve our stress, we can go a little crazy. :) So here are some pictures of our amazing fun!

A little suspicious with the Silly String!

We totally Tagged the Elders Door, with the silly string

Full door! :P

Me and my companion after being ninjas!

Now as we were running home from their appartment (since they only live down the street) we saw someone parked down by our house, and then the car left, and drove by us and i was like "Is that the Elders?" Then i watched the car turn around and was like "SNAP ITS THE ELDERS!" We ran for our lives. And they're like what are you doing? Why are you home early? and So on... Then I was like "What the heck were you doing at our house! Yeah Epic Night

March 13, 2013 Elder's Attack...

So last night i was looking for my special pen that was given to me by my old Landlord, and I searched the house for it, and I had a feeling to go look out in the car, and as soon as I opened the house door, i heard some noise like someone was running, and then I hear a car door, and I looked up and here are the elders, taking off! Bwahaha. I run up to tell my companion and we're like Creepers.  Later maybe 10-15 minutes later, I'm writing in my journal and I was thinking, they're going to come back, they're going to. So i get up and looked out the bedroom window and here i see the elders Saran Wrapping our Car!!!! Those Sneaky elders. Then I ran and told my companion and we run down stairs, and I went out the back door to catch them by surprise but that didn't work because my companion turned on the kitchen light...Then We find a note that they wrote saying that we're getting split up that my companion was going to be sent up to Dutch John and i was going to stay in Vernal! Crazys Well here is the result of their attack!

Announcement

Alrighty to all of my beloved Friends I know some of you prefer to email me, and in the past i was not able to email any of you back. WELL, that has changed. The first presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, have changed that rule, and now i can email all friends and family. Except if they live in the Mission bounderies. Which most of you don't. This makes me extremely happy. But don't think I don't expect letters in the snail mail, I get sad if there is no letter in my mail box, there is a poem/epistle that i need to post on here that I like about Writing Missionaries. ITs amazing. Anyway. This is some exciting news!

Oh one of my investigators that moved out of my stake, into the one next to mine,(being taught now by the elders) is getting baptized this weekend. Its really amazing. I cannot wait for it he's a "Golden" investigator we call them. They just soak up the gospel like a sponge, and not questioning anything. I love those types of people to teach. On Fast Sunday, one of my recent Converts Carolyn Mitchell, got up and bore her testimony in front of the entire congregation for the first time. It was epic, I wish i was there to see it.

The Snow is finally melting away, and i'm super excited for that! :) Because I'm tired of snow, but watch next winter i'd be like Oh my Goodness SNOW! :) haha because I have a feeling that this summer is going to be a killer hot. yeah. Today is my 8th month mark! I'm excited that means I only have 10 months more! Not that i'm counting down, because I'm having the time of my life out here. I would be a missionary all my life if i could. Anyway, that is all from me till somethign cool happens next time.