Happy Halloween!

Hello Everyone!

Today for Halloween we are carving pumpkins as a district! 

Halloween isn't a very big holiday here. Not too many people celebrate
it. But the 5th of November is a really big English Holiday- Guy
Fawkes night! I don't know if I told you about that last year. It's to
celebrate the death of a man named Guy Fawkes. He tried to blow up the
Houses of Parliament but was caught and burned at the stake. So to
celebrate, everyone makes big bonfires and has fireworks. They used to
make straw men to put in the fire, but they don't really do that
anymore. It's kind of morbid, but hey- it's tradition. Do you remember
the 1st episode of Sherlock in season 3? That's about Guy Fawkes
night. And that episode makes so much more sense now after being in
England. I didn't get to go to a bonfire last year, but this year the
ward is doing one as an activity, so I am excited to go. I'll take
some pictures to send to you!

Have a Happy Halloween!

Love,

Sister McFarland

Tread Carefully

This week has been good here in Dereham. We have continued to see miracles and meet amazing people. recently we have been trying to work more with the members. 

Member missionary work is so key. Sister Cabral and I are both pretty new to the area, so we have been really working on gaining the trust of the ward. The ward here is fantastic! This past week we had the opportunity to have dinner at a members home who I didn't know very well. It was their first time having us over, so we wanted to make a good impression. When we walked into the dining room, I quickly moved around the table to shake everyone's hands because I was so excited to meet everyone. But in my excitement, I failed to notice the large hutch next to the table full of willow tree figurines that I think every Mormon family has somewhere in their home. I happened to hit this hutch with my shoulder quite hard, and to my horror, the whole hutch shook precariously and I watched as all these beautiful figurines all fell off and hit the floor, with quite an impressive loud noise. So much for good first impressions! Thank heavens, none of them broke. So I quickly tried to pick them back up, although the member encouraged me to just sit down so I didn't make it worse. After the shelf was back in order, we finally sat down, (my face was more red than a tomato), and everyone at the table erupted in laughter. It actually turned out to be a great ice breaker. (although I wouldn't recommend doing it to gain members trust.) 

Autumn is here, the air is getting colder, the leaves are changing colour, and tight season is back. 

I am so grateful for this gospel. It has blessed my life in so many ways. I know that this church is true! 

I love you all! 

- Sister Adriana McFarland

The Trio's Down to Two

Hello everyone!

Apologies about last week. It was a super crazy day! It took up most of the day to get Sister Maughan to London and then to come back again. There were a lot of delays on the trains so we didn't get back until after 10pm. late nights make for long weeks. 

The week was good, but it has been sad to not have Sister Maughan with us. I always seem to go through companion withdrawals when a companion leaves.  

This week we had a cool miracle. We were street contacting and found a woman from Portugal who speaks no English. She had met missionaries before, but because of the language barrier, she turned them away. But now that Sister Cabral can teach her in her own language, she is so excited about the gospel! We have a few members here who are also Portuguese who can help translate during the lessons and at church. As with many other different cultures in the past, I have been learning a lot about Portugal recently and I love it so much!  I am also trying to learn some phrases in Portuguese so I can speak to our new friend. We will start to teach her English this week as well. 

 

I have found that English people are very helpful. Asking someone to help you is a much easier way to start a conversation here than a lot of other approaches.  Yesterday, I asked a woman if she could give us directions to town. She happily told us a series of complicated directions, that didn't make much sense. I also knew that the directions she was giving us were incorrect. Haha, so after following her directions for a little while, we decided to go back to the path we were on and follow the trusty map. It's kind of like a metaphor for life.  People will point us in the wrong direction, and if you don't know where you are going, or get direction from the wrong people you can end up being lost. That's why I am so thankful to be a part of this church where I know that we can receive the right directions that lead us back to our Father in Heaven. The church is true, the Book is blue, and we go out two by two! 

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Adriana McFarland 

The Three Musketeers

Hi Everyone! 

This will be a short email because right now I am on a train to London! We are going there to drop off Sister Maughan. She leaves tomorrow morning for Atlanta! So now our trio is down to two. 

Things are going well here. The work has picked up a bit and the ward is really great. 

Here is a picture of us at a service project this week.

Love

Sister Adriana McFarland 

An Unexpected Journey

Hello everyone!
Well, as promised, I have had the most CRAZY week of my mission, and
will hopefully have a more interesting email this week.

It started last Monday, as sister Maughan and I were joining a family
for a lovely family home evening. Then, the assistant to the president
called us with some interesting news: he told us that because Sister
Maughan will be leaving to go to America on the 11, we will be in a
trio until she leaves! When we asked him when we would be getting our
new sister, he told us that our new companion will be coming from the
MTC (missionary training centre) tomorrow and that we needed to drop
all of our plans to get there to meet her at 10 the next day.

So, after arranging and re arranging the flat to fit 3 people, and
cancelling all our plans, we headed off to London bright an early the
next morning to meet our new companion: Sister Cabral. She is from
Madeira Island, Portugal. She came late because she stayed longer in
the MTC to learn English. She is lovely and I am excited to work with
her!

We had to travel to London again  on Thursday for the new missionary
meeting. Usually this meeting happens after three weeks, but because
Sister Cabral came in the third week of the transfer, it was more like
a 3 day meeting for us.  It's nearly a 3 1/2 hour journey to London
from Dereham, so we have spent a lot of time traveling this week.
Because we had to be in London so early on Thursday, we spent the
night in the Norwich sisters, Sister Smiddy and Sister Benson's flat.
It was so fun to be back in Norwich, even if it was just for a day!

Being in a trio is fun, and really different to anything I am used to.
It is also interesting to be training two new missionaries at the same
time. Sister Maughan is on the last few weeks of her training
anyway,but our companionship has been running purely on greenie faith
and the Spirit.

I loved watching General Conference, and I hope you all had the chance
to watch it too! It is so amazing that we have living prophets and
apostles on the earth today who lead and guide this church. I really
felt the spirit strongly durning the conference, and I know these men
are called of God. If you didn't get to watch it, find time to watch
it this week. If you did watch it, make sure you review the talks and
your notes and set a plan of action of what you will change from now
on.

I love this work, and I love the gospel with all my heart.
Shall we not go on in so great a cause?
Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Adriana McFarland