The Hardest Thing I've Ever Loved to Do

Well, would you all ever believe that this is my last email? I cannot
believe that the time has gone so quickly, and that my mission has
gone so fast. I have just one more week! Next Tuesday I leave Dereham
and start the long journey back to Utah. I am determined to finish
this week strong and leave Dereham in the best condition I can!

This past week has been good, although it was weird in that "in
between" zone between Christmas and New Years. Many people were busy,
so I am thankful that the holiday season is over so that mission life
can be back to normal. We should be a lot more busy this week, as so
many people told us they would like to meet after the New Years.

The best part about my week was when I got  to go to the London
temple. Sister Cabral was with Sister Phillip's companion in Colchester
while Sister Phillips and I traveled to London. Sister Phillips was
the first missionary I met on my mission, and it was great to get to
spend the day with her again and catch up. It was crazy trying to get
there, as there was a lot of construction on the trains so we had to
take rail replacement bus services. Once we got to the temple though,
it was calm and peaceful.  It was so amazing! I really love the
temple, and have missed having one so close.  The spirit there was so
strong, and I felt so much peace in the house of the Lord. I love the
temple!

I have had lots of time to reflect on my mission, and I really just
feel so grateful. My mission has been the hardest thing I have ever
loved to do. I will never be able to thank my Heavenly Father enough
for the privilege I have had to serve a mission. I cannot imagine my
life without it! My mission has been full of challenges that has
shaped me into the person God has always wanted me to be. I am so
grateful for all of the amazing people I have met, each and every one
has taught me and been an influence in my life. I am thankful for this
opportunity to strengthen my testimony and to become converted to the
gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that this is the work of the Lord. This
is the true church of Jesus Christ! He is our Saviour, whose atonement
was done for each one of us. I know that God lives and loves us. I
love Him. I love this gospel. I know it is true.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement to me throughout my
mission. I love you all!

Love,
Sister Adriana McFarland

Pictures:
1-3) at the temple
4) my "funeral"

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 

#LIGHTtheWORLD

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and ate lots of really good food! It's a great time of year to really reflect on what we are grateful for. I am thankful for so many things, but especially for the gospel in my life and the opportunity I have to serve a mission.

So, transfer news came last night, and thankfully sister Cabral and I will be staying in Dereham for my last transfer! It was such a relief to hear that I will get to finish my mission in the blessed land of Dereham, especially as things have been going so well here!

These past two weeks have been full of miracles, and amazing people have started to come out of nowhere, who have been really prepared for the gospel.

One is a man named Chris.  Two weeks ago he invited us to a bell ringing practice at the church of England opposite our flat. He and his son ring the bells for church every week!  We went and had a really fun time. It was interesting to see how they ring the bells every Sunday. They even let Sister Cabral and I have a turn ringing the bells. We have only taught him once, but because he is so busy with work we don't get to see him as regularly as we would like.  He told us on the phone though how much he is enjoying reading the book of Mormon. He told us that when he starts to read, he just doesn't want to put it down! He told us he will take the Book of Mormon with him on his work trip, where he will have more time to read.

We also met a really wonderful woman named Cilla. Her son is investigating the church in Norwich, and she has really started to see a change in him, and wanted to know what the church is all about. She went to church with her son last Sunday and had a good experience. These are just a few of miracles that have been happening here. I am really excited to start to teach these amazing people and help them come unto Christ. I will keep you updated on their progression!

I hope you all have had a chance to watch the new Christmas video Light the World. If you haven't seen it, it is found on Mormon.org. It encourages us to put Christ back into Christmas by finding ways to do daily acts of service throughout December. Please look at Mormon.org to get ideas, and then lets all light the world through service this next month.

Mosiah 2:17 " I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God."

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week.

Love,

Sister Adriana McFarland 

   

News From Dereham

Hey Everyone,

Transfers are next week, so I will find out then if I will die (finish my mission) in Dereham or not. So next week I will be emailing on Tuesday to let you know.

Yesterday a member invited us over for dinner on Thursday, and she was asking me about what kind of foods we have at Thanksgiving because she wanted to make me a Thanksgiving dinner. So that was really nice! I'll send pictures.
Love you all! Hope you have a good week and a Happy Thanksgiving.

Xxx Adriana 

1) We cooked chestnuts! Sister Cabral does this a lot at home, but I have never tried them. They were nice! 

2) Sister Cabral and I 

3) Evidence that I will become a crazy cat lady. 

In Memory of My Bag

This week was full of learning experiences for me. The past two weeks have been a real challenge for Sister Cabral and I and the work in Dereham. Last week all of our investigators dropped us, and this past week we struggled to find new friends. Now I'm not one to count numbers, but i'ts really stressful when you get to Saturday afternoon and every single key indicator is at zero. We had planned to have a full day of finding, and despite the heavy rain we were determined to not come home until we found a new friend. The day didn't start out too great as our appointment didn't show up. As a backup plan we did some tracting. Unfortunately, while we were tracting, my beloved, faithful, bright blue "Mary Poppins" bag decided to give up the ghost. The zipper completely broke, and in a country where it rains all the time, a bag that doesn't close is useless. For 16 months that bag has been by my side in the rain or sunshine, cold and humid heat. It's carried so many things for me and all my companions, and been loved by every cat who ever tried to sit on it. It's a silly thing to be upset about, but I sure loved that bag and will miss it immensely.

After such an emotional morning, God blessed us so much that evening. We got a call from our zone leaders telling us that they wanted to come finding with us in the evening to help us out. Lads. They were super late though, and while we were waiting for them we were able to find two new friends who are interested in learning more! They were both such miracles and so prepared. When the zone leaders finally came, it was nearly time to go home for dinner, which we were so looking forward to after a long day. But because they had come out so far to help us, we decided to tract one more street. And on that street we found a really wonderful father who wanted us to come and teach his family. His nine year old son hears the church bells go off every Sunday from the old church in town, and has really wanted to go to church. His father doesn't want to limit him to one church though, and has really wanted to meet with the missionaries again so he and his son can learn about our church.

I was so grateful that God blessed us so much!

I really have learned that God sometimes leaves things to the very last minute to test our faith. He could have led us to those people at the beginning of the week, but he didn't. He waited so that we could also benefit and learn from the experience of stretching ourselves to find them.

In Ether 12:6 it says: "dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." God tests us with a trail of our faith, and at that last possible minute before we want to give up He blesses us.  He waited until the very end of the day to give us those people to teach.

The church is true! I am so thankful for the gospel in my life.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love you all!

Sister Adriana McFarland