Dear Old Dereham

Hey beloved family and friends!
First of all, I would like to formally apologise for the decline in
the quality of my emails recently. I'll make sure more exciting things
happen this week to write about next week.

Yesterday was great, because Simon, a recent convert who was baptised
2 weeks ago was finally confirmed! He went to hospital shortly after
his baptism, so his confirmation had to be delayed until he came home.
I was also spontaneously asked to share my testimony during sacrament
meeting. Afterwards, Simon thanked me for my testimony and
congratulated me on my good English. He said it had improved a lot! I
was a bit confused, as I wasn't aware that I struggled with English in
the first place. I did remind him that I was American and that English
was my first language. He still didn't quite understand. I don't know
if he thought that we spoke a different language across the pond or
what.
Also, I had a random kid come out of the bathroom and dry his hands on
my tights. A bit random, but hey, we are good friends now.

I am so excited for General Conference this week. I love to hear the
inspired words of the prophets and apostles. We are so blessed to have
a living prophet on the earth today, and that we can hear from them
every six months at general conference. So have your questions ready
to be answered this weekend!

Love you all!
Sister McFarland

Joys of Mission Life

This week has been incredibly refreshing. The teaching pool has been dry for a long time, and the past four months have been full of street contacting, tracting, and seeing little success in the work. This week we were blessed with a flood of miracles as we finally began to see some progress, and our teaching pool has begun to fill back up!

On Saturday night, we were sitting at the bus stop as we cheekily stole some WIFI from the bank across the road to do some online proselyting. Right before we were about to leave, a woman came and sat down next to us. Sister Maughan started talking to her. Her name is Gabi and she is from California and has just moved here to go to uni. (as they call universtiy here). We talked for a long time, and she was very receptive to the gospel and wanted to learn more! We invited her to church, and agreed to meet her there the following morning so we could walk to church together. The next morning, right before Gabi came, another woman came up to us and said: "Sisters! where is the church? We are looking for the chapel." It turns out that she is from another ward, and she and her family were visiting Dereham for the day. Right then, Gabi came, and so we all piled in the car together to go to church. Gabi loved church, and the spirit was so strong. The members who gave us all a lift helped her so much at church.  We are excited to work with her and help her prepare for her baptism next month. 

We had another exchange this week with our sister training leaders, Sister Phillips and Sister Matthews. I got to go with Sister Matthews, who was my companion in Southend over 6 months ago. It was so much fun to be with her again and to relive our time in Southend! 

 This church is true, and I am so thankful to be a missionary and to get to be a part of this great work. Shall we not go on in so great a cause?

I love you all. Have a great week! 

Love,

Sister McFarland  

The Spontaneous P-Day

Hello to everyone from Dereham! It has definitely been weird to be
back in Norfolk. Us getting here was quite an adventure!
So because both sister Topp and sister Maughan are waiting for a visa
to go to America, they had to have an appointment at the U.S embassy
in London early Thursday morning. The assistants to the president told
us that we would be staying Wednesday night in London so that we could
be on time to their appointment the next day, but they didn't tell us
much else. So after getting our new companions, Sister Topp, Sister
Maughan, Sister Syddall, and I went to the mission home to figure out
what was happening. The assistants to the presidents were a bit busy
as they were trying to sort out 26 new missionaries coming in, and
because they wanted us out of the way they told us to take another
Pday in London! It was by far the weirdest day of my mission, as we
didn't have any plans at all, and I felt like a waster, but what could
we do? We saw some fun London things, and got lost in the great and
spacious building. (Harrods).
The next day was successful however because both Sister Topp and
Sister Maughan got their visas approved! They will probably be off to
America in 5 weeks. It will be so hard to send them both off at the
same time!

We finally made it home to Dereham on Thursday and it was such a
relief to be back to regular missionary life. Dereham is such a cute
little village! It is very English. I am so excited to serve here! It
is weird to be back in the Norwich district. We had a district meeting
last week in the Norwich chapel, and it brought back so many memories
of my time there with Sister Chou!

We had a cool experience this week when we were finding. We met a
woman on the street who has really been going through a rough time. We
told her that God loves her, and she just hugged me and started crying
in my shoulder! The gospel truly can heal our souls if we let it, and
I hope as we teach this woman more she can come to feel that in her
life.

I love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Sister McFarland

Third Times the Charm

So... Interesting transfer news!Sister Topp's best friend from home is also serving in this mission as
she waits for a visa to go to America, and I will be going to Denham
to follow up train her! So she will be my third English companion and
my third companion waiting for a visa. I'm not sure I can emotionally
handle sending off two more companions to America!
Derham is a village outside of Norwich. So I'm going back up to the
top of the mission! I will miss being in Canterbury zone, as I have
spent over half of my mission here.
Thank you all for your support. You mean the world to me!
Toodle pip!

Sister McFarland