Christmas Hype

Hello everyone! I hope you are all well!

Things are going really good here in the blessed land of Dereham. We

are getting so excited for Christmas. I loved getting to be a

missionary on Christmas last year, and am excited that I get to have

another one before I go home.



This week I had the opportunity to be reunited with Sister Hernes! She

is touring the mission and we were able to meet up in Norwich briefly.

It was so good to see my step mum again! I sure love that girl.



We were extremely busy this week as we had exchanges with our sister

training leaders in Colchester (my last exchange!)  and the annual

Christmas conference (also in Colchester.)

The Christmas conference was really fun. Sister Cabral and I decided

to show our companionship unity by getting matching Christmas jumpers.

At the conference we had a spiritual devotional and then a lot of

games. President and Sister Stevens were also there.

It really got me in the Christmas spirit!



Yesterday We were invited by a part member couple in our ward to

attend a Church of England carol service. It's a very English

tradition for churches to hold a Christmas carol service, where

congregations gather and we read the Christmas story from the Bible

and sing carols together. It was an interesting experience, as I have

never attended another church before. But the carols were still the

same and everyone was really lovely! We came straight from that carol

service to our carol service here- so there was a lot of singing

yesterday. I really love the hymns and the spirit they bring!



The work is going well. We have been teaching Margarida again. She is

a lovely woman from Portugal. She speaks no English, and I speak no

Portuguese. So there is a bit of a language barrier there. Thankfully

there are some really great members here that can help sister Cabral

with teaching her! Sometimes during the lessons I can understand a

little bit when I reach back in my memory and try to remember my 9th

grade Spanish class, as Portuguese is similar to Spanish.

She is so lovely, and I am trying to learn some Portuguese so I can

speak to her a little more. So far I can ask her how her Book of

Mormon reading is going and how she liked church.



I hope you are all getting ready and excited for Christmas! I love

this time of year, and I am so excited for Christmas!

I love you all! Have a happy Christmas!



Love,

Sister Adriana McFarland

Christmas is Coming!

Hello! Sorry for such a short email. We have a Christmas conference this Thursday
when President and Sister Stevens will come deliver our packages to us.
We don't get to go to London this time. We will be with the Norwich and Ipswich zones,
and since they are far away from London President and Sister Stevens will be coming up
to us. It will be in Colchester. I'm kinda sad, cause I love going to London. Ashford is much
closer to London, so that's why we were there last year. I am excited to talk family on
Christmas.We  have  already been invited to 3 dinners, so that will be fun! 
Love,
Sister Adriana McFarland

Awkward Moments

Hello everyone! I hope you have all had a good week.

This week has been good for us here in Dereham. Full of blessings, tender mercies, and awkward moments. As always. Mission life was full of strange happenings this week. Including (but not limited to) a woman coming to the door with no clothes on, being preached to by born agains on the street for an hour, and almost getting lost in remote villages. I think the most embarrassing one happened when we went to visit an older member who is in a care home. He is a lovely man who loves to get visitors, and loves the gospel. When we went, he was sitting in the lounge area with a few other elderly people. As chairs where limited, I let the member we were with and my companion sit on the chairs while I sat on the floor. As we were talking, I slowly became aware that my tights were wet. I thought through what had happened that day, and realising that it hadn't been raining, and I didn't spill anything, so the carpet must have already been wet. The bad smell suddenly helped me put two and two together as I realised with horror that someone must have had an accident on the floor, right where I was sitting. So gross. Luckily it was the end of the day so we could rush home to shower and get a change of clothes. 

But, on a more spiritual note, things have been going very well here. God is blessing us so much! Chris is really progressing. He came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it. I always get nervous when new friends come to fast and testimony meeting because I'm worried that the members might say something blasphemous. But no one did and he really appreciated it!

Sister Cabral and I have been really trying to work more with the members here, and have been seeing good things come from it. The members here are fantastic.

I love you all! Have a great week.

Love,

Sister Adriana McFarland

#LighttheWorld