conditioning class. It was hard work, but I really felt myself
becoming a lot stronger and more physically fit. One day, coach
Buhrley announced that we would be lifting with only pvc pipes that
day, just a hollow piece of plastic that weighed absolutely nothing.
He told us that it was for us to focus again on the basic form of
lifting, so that when we would lift with real weights, we would have
the correct form that would ensure our safety and optimum results.
So, I know your thinking: what does this have to do with missionary work?
My analogy is this: that often in life, and especially the gospel, we
can get too caught up in the technicalities and complications of life,
making things harder and more complicated than they need to be. So
it's always good to bring things again to the basics and focus on
what's most important.
I had a really great opportunity to experience that this week. On
Tuesday we had a special training in Canterbury with President and
Sister Stevens, the assistants to the president, and the sister
training leaders. All the trainings were on the restoration of the
gospel and the Book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong, as it always
is with President and Sister Stevens, and I loved it so much.
After this week, I have become almost obsessed with studying the Book
of Mormon. I got myself a new hard copy of the Book of Mormon to
study, mark, and use in lessons. I feel like every spare minute I
have, either on the train, during lunch, or before bed, I just want to
read it! For those of you who know me well, you know that studying is
often difficult for me, but I am thankful for the blessings of the
Book of Mormon and how much its spirit has affected my life.
We had exchanges this week with our sister training leaders: Sister
Rank and Sister Epicoco. I have served around sister Rank for my
entire mission, except for that transfer I was in Norwich. And sister
Epicoco was my sister training leader when I was in Ashford at the
very beginning of my mission. We had a lot of fun, and as always,
learned a lot.
Now, I know this email is very spiritual, so before I finish I would
like to share our weirdest experience from this week.
We went to go teach a referral named Luke, who has just moved to our
area from Canterbury. When we met him at the train station, he brought
his friend: Finbar, to the lesson as well. Perfect. During the lesson
however, Luke seemed very distracted, and would constantly interrupt
us or start talking to someone else passing by, which was super
annoying. Suddenly though, he jumped up, told us he would be right
back, and just left for ten minutes. We continued to teach Finbar, who
was actually very interested, when Luke comes back, snarfing down a
sandwich like he has never eaten before. (Don't forget, we were
teaching him in the middle of the library, where sandwich snarfing is
not really acceptable.) We continued to teach Finbar, and just did our
best to ignore Luke as much as possible. He suddenly jumped up, again,
and announced (very loudly) that he had to go help his friend,and ran
out of the library dramatically. Despite all these distractions, we
were able to finish our lesson with Finbar, where he accepted a
baptismal date! So even amidst the crazy distractions of life, we can
still have spiritual experiences. Okay, I know that wasn't a super
crazy story, but here in Sittingbourne, it's the craziest we are going
to get.
Love you all, and I hope that you have a great week full of sunshine
and happiness.
Love,
Sister McFarland
Pictures:
1. Learning CPR at a relief society activity,
2. Exchanges with Sister Rank and Sister Epicoco.
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