Week 41 - Baptism Number One

August 26, 2013

I can honestly say that this whole week can be summed up as successful! I finally had the opportunity to have the baptism of someone I was teaching. Now that sounds selfish, as it was the Lord, Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost who really deserve all the credit, but I was sure glad to be there! What an incredible day it was. It was a little stressful come Friday as we were double checking with individuals in the ward about the plans, we come to find nobody had done anything to prepare...Nobody had done the program, which we were told would happen, nobody organized the luncheon, which we were told would happen. I mean we didn't even have someone who would be there to fill the font, also something we were told would happen! So that was quite the Friday night we then had! We went ahead made phone calls, I went over to the church and made up the whole program after getting in touch with Alannah again. She was like "nope nobody came and got it!" So we did it, but that is totally alright! Because things went really well on her baptismal day! It was one of the most spiritual experiences I could say I have had in my life. What a blessing it truly was. I'll be honest, before the service my heart was nearly pounding out of my chest. I was nervous because I didn't want to say the words wrong and have to do it again, but in the actual ordinance, I was calm, and everything went well. Afterwards I was just brimming with joy and I was shakin' a little bit from what I felt. Not sure why, but I was! It was just one incredible experience. It just is satisfying on the end of the missionary; to finally see someone make the promise and make that commitment that I teach about and study each and every day. As a missionary that is what you look forward to, from the day you enter the MTC you just want that first baptism. "How great shall be your joy if you bring one soul unto Christ" And how great my joy truly is!

Earlier in the week we had our Mission Tour with Elder W. Craig Zwick of the 70. What an opportunity that was. A few things I learned there--

1. Spiritual projection. 

As we are on our missions we begin this projection spiritually that can be hindered or progressed by our determination and our attitude. Often times as a missionary we can get lazy and lose that fire to learn more and deepen our spirituality. Or, we can decide to utilize the very time we are given to prepare ourselves for the eternity. We have this upward progression in our missions from the MTC to the day we go home, then what? For me I realized that after my mission my spirituality is in my hands. I don't have time scheduled each and every day to get all of that study in. But from this I learned how important that will be, and that the spirituality I gain will never be something that I regret. 

2. True meaning of repentance.

We often look at repentance as something that is full of sorrow and pain; but simply it does not have to be that way. Repentance is truly us becoming more Christ like. We are admonished to "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect". Repentance is the ONLY thing that allows us to "Deny Ourselves of All Ungodliness". How grateful I am that I can repent, that I have a Heavenly Father who wants me to repent, and a savior who has made that all possible through his sacrifice. 

Okay there were many, many other things but I thought I would share a couple!

This week will be spent trying to fill our investigator pool back up now; what a work that will be! Hopefully we can heed the promptings of the spirit and get that all figured out!

Gotta jet, I love you all! You are in my prayers daily! 

Oh, and check out this new church video

http://wellbehavedmormonwoman.blogspot.com/2012/09/new-video-taking-mystery-out-of-mormon.html?m=1

 Love, Elder McFall   (see my entire bog and photos at eldermcfall.blogspot.com)

Alannah at her baptism 8/24/2013

You like sweet grey suit?  I got the hookups.

Week 40 - Hi family & friends!

Okay, first I hope all is well back in the U.S.A.! It is exciting to hear that Arcenio (Elder Garcia) is doing well and adjusting to the missionary life! It sure is an adjustment, but neat to see how he has responded to the call! I know that everyone back at home will be blessed by his service also! Missionary work truly is a family affair, and for those in the ward who read this, you're my ward family, so hopefully you feel of my love also!

Things up here are going well but they are a bit slow when it comes to new people teach. We have had some great conversations and interactions lately, but not too much has turned into us getting into a home to teach someone the glorious message of the restored gospel. Which honestly is a shame. It is frustrating knockin on doors for hours in the day. I would so much rather be out there teaching than just talking to people. Not because I don't like talkin to people, because I love that, but because I am then talking to those who are actively seeking to change their lives. I have noticed recently, how we are in the position to change lives. There have been individuals in the area or ward who when all seems to be going wrong, they need advice, they have called us. They seek to know how to best conquer their problems. It is humbling. I am just a 19 year old lad, trying to share the gospel. The advice they seek is for things that I have never encountered or even come close to encountering, yet they truly feel that we can help them. It has been powerful to look at someone and say that even though everything in the world may seem to disagree, that even though your world itself is crashing in around you, the Gospel of Jesus Christ can and will help you. Lay your burdens at Christ's feet and see what a difference that can and will make. It is truly an experiment they must do for themselves. You have to decide whether or not you want Christ's Atonement to change your life. I really have gained a testimony lately of how personal his Atonement was, how personal His love is along with our Heavenly Father's. They are so interested in our lives, I don't think we often think about it that way, but they both want to help us so dearly; we must first ask them to.

One thing that has been wonderful has been teaching Alannah lately. We have been meeting with her about twice a week now in preparation for her baptism. It is slated for this Saturday! I am stoked for sure. It will be so sweet to see someone finally make that commitment that I talk about every single day with people. It has been powerful to me to see someone with such young faith, have that desire and that motivation to conquer all these problems with her faith. We have been teaching her and really answering the questions she may have about baptism and leading up to it. She has never even seen a baptism, it is pretty strange when you say okay this man is going to hold your arm in the water (oh by the way you are in a white jumpsuit this whole time) and then dunk you in the water. Okay now I know there is so much more to it, but to someone who has never seen a baptism, never grew up in the church, it is different! So we have done a lot to calm her anxieties about all of that! haha It is good to be in the know! I am really looking forward to this weekend though!

We have also been teaching Michael, the 9 year old. It is pretty neat, it is like we have become his older brothers/uncles or something. I was talking to his grandma about all of it and she said how much we have helped him come out of his shell. When we teach him we just make it fun, we use tons of pictures, and just help him understand everything at his level. It was pretty neat; he even memorized the first article of faith in a week after we talked with him! It is just fun to be a part of such a young fellow’s life. It is sort of setting the thoughts that he has towards missionaries in the future.

One way we have been trying to find more people to teach lately is through service. We do service every week at this National Historic Site. It has been cool because 1-I learn all about the history of the area, but 2- The conversations we have been able to turn into more and more gospel themed conversations. Every time it seems like a wall is knocked down and we learn more about their lives and how the gospel could potentially help them. We are going to stay consistent there and hopefully things will continue to improve!

This week we will have our mission tour with Elder W. Craig Zwick of the 70, I am lookin forward to it! It will be a crazy busy week as we have exchanges tomorrow to Wednesday, baptismal interview on Wednesday, mission tour Thursday, baptism Saturday, and confirmation Sunday. It should be a great week though. I am looking forward to it! I hope all is well for everyone back at home! I'll talk to you all very soon!

Love, Elder McFall

Week 39 - Hello!

We have been so busy just trying to find new people to teach, and also get this ward in action with missionary work. We had a miracle happen last Sunday though, well a miracle to us anyways. We asked the zone to actually pray for us last Thursday to help us find people to teach. Then Saturday a couple things happened, but we didn't really see the effect 'til Sunday. So we were driving to our next appt, we see this guy in his backyard, moving a big ol tiller, Elder T says let's go help him. I swing the car around, we walk over there and ask him if we can help. (Now keep in mind, still in white shirts and ties). He is like no no I got it, I just have to drive it up these little ramps to get it into the back of my truck. We let him try, but to no avail. So we just pick the thing up, put it in the back of the truck, and get on our merry way. The next day at church, we learn that that fellow actually posted on Facebook about that! We had members of the ward council come up to us and thank us for doing that, and they actually told the whole story over the pulpit! Wild stuff I tell ya! But also Saturday night, we met with our Ward mission leader, shared this video about the Work of Salvation, and the role of the ward mission leader. It is all from that broadcast back in June. The next day in Priesthood opening exercises he got up and said that they need to help fill our schedule, they need to find us people to teach--something he hasn't done since I have been here and I don't think really ever. So things look to be improving!!

There are some good things happening up here. The work is slow, but there is a scripture in D&C 123:16-17... "You know, brethren, that a very large ship is ^abenefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves.

“Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us ^acheerfully ^bdo all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the ^csalvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed... forgive the rubbish of hyperlinks and whatnot. But it explains it better than I could just by paraphrasing it. We have to do everything we can, as it says in verse 17 in the beginning, and then, and only then, can we stand still at wait for the Lord to step in and do his part. He is not going to do the work for us. We are here to do what he would have us do. If he was going to do everything he wanted to anyways; why would we be here? It just wouldn't make sense. I think it is one of those things that it is hard to find the balance. But we must do just that. Read the rest of that section too, it is pretty neat what it tells us.”

Alannah's baptism is coming right up! We don't have any others, things just keep getting in the way. I guess it comes down to some patience for sure. I have always been sure, if with people that kinda like to  bash on doorsteps or anything, so bear that testimony to them. It is such an amazing feeling to look someone in the eye and tell them that "I know this is true." And I do. I have had my prayers answered, I didn't take any ones word for it, but I went to  my Heavenly Father, I did just as James directed, I did it for myself. And invite them to do the same. We know that all will have an opportunity to hear the gospel in this life or in the next, when it is, who knows! I just hope that I never do something where I withhold that opportunity for anyone.

 I really do hope we get to go back soon to the temple. I was hoping to maybe go when we have our mission tour, I know we have mission dates to go to the temple, but we are 2 1/2 hours from the temple, it isn't just one of those things where we can just go. I am not sure when the next chance will be. I really do look forward to seeing the new film though. When you go, please remember to pray for people for us to teach, because like I said, things are slow. Once we have Alana’s baptism that will be even one less investigator we will have. We are trying so hard, and will continue to do so.

I hope you all really have been studying more. The prophet and apostles are constantly urging us to do so. I think that council might stop if we were actually doing it. In Alma 32:3 I believe, it talks about "feasting upon the words of Christ" I hope you are really looking at it that way. I love reading talks, it is like modern revelation. I think gratitude is something we all need a tune up in, right? We can think of songs like, "Because I have been Given Much" Or things like that, but do we really internalize it?  We really are so blessed, so many good things, but do we show that appreciation we should? And I think that we don't actually show our gratitude. I was posed this question, "what if the only things you had the next day, were the things you thanked your Heavenly Father for the night before?" Now obviously this would make our prayers quite lengthy and repetitive, thus being contrary to the example that Christ taught, but it is an interesting idea! I like that also though, looking for something in each day that is the hand of the Lord at work. There are so many things that I believe go unnoticed. If you think to the scripture, Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. We may do the asking, but do we go seeking?

You are always in my prayers!! I'll talk to you soon!

Love, Elder McFall

A little black bear we saw on the way back from the ice fields.

Abraham Lake - This is a really sweet glacier fed lake that is probably like an hour and fifteen minutes from where we live. We were out there yesterday and we hiked on down to the water. The color of it was pretty sweet!

Parker’s Ridge in Banff National Park- This is from the top of a hike. Probably took an hour or so to get to the top. In the back is the backside of the glacier that wraps all around the range of mountains.

Week 38 - Hello one and all!

Alright, I will start by talking a little bit about the new companion, or as we call each other now, soa. Which is companion is Samoan. His name is Elder Talauega, but we just call him Elder T. He is from Western Samoa, been out about 7 months. This week was a good one that we got to spend with each other. It seems like we are both adapting well to the new companionship. It is always a little scary when you get a new comp, but things are good. I could say I have been blessed with companions that I can get along really well with, and get to work. We stayed super busy this week, just really trying to get in with members in the ward. The ward isn't super excited about missionary work, but we are trying to get them into the Preach My Gospel, and we are looking to teach them a lot more of how to be missionaries. I think so many people look at missionary work and they aren't sure what to teach, well why not teach the same thing that we teach to every single person? It just makes sense the way I look at it. Hopefully this will get them to be a bit more excited about sharing the gospel.

From what we have heard, missionary work has been slow here for just about forever, which is no excuse. We have been trying to get that picked up. It makes it a little difficult when the only people we teach are really ones who have been found by us, or other missionaries, with the odd exception. Hopefully that can change. Missionary work isn't easy, it isn't something that happens overnight, but it sure doesn't happen any faster if you aren't trying to do anything.

We did have a lesson with Alannah this week, which went so great! She is still just loving everything. The ward has been good to her once she is at church. At the lesson we just went over the first baptismal interview question, then talked about things like the Holy Ghost. It was interesting; the fellowshipppers we had for her at that lesson are two of the young women, so same age as her, from the ward. We got talking about the Gift and Power of the Holy Ghost. I was the only one who knew the difference, how grateful am I for that! It was neat to be able to explain all of that to them and see how she is grasping that. Really the Holy Ghost is one of the most amazing gifts we could ever be given in our lives. It is one of those things that we should always strive for. I don't think I realized how important that is until I have been on my mission and I have had to rely on it for so many things.

Other than that, there is not too much that is new happening in our area. We are trying to get in and do a lot more service this week. Our idea, is people in the community see us out actually doing something instead of them just seeing us knocking on doors and that is it. We aren't fans of tracting, our new mission president isn't either, and neither is our bishop, so hopefully this will yield some results. I hope all is well. I love you all! Talk to you soon!

Love, Elder McFall

Elder T and I. So this is me and the new comp. I don't think anyone will want to fight with us on the streets. Ha He smiled in the other picture, but we were lookin at the other camera! Really, he isn't a mean guy! Ha

The old/new Red Deer Zone

Service - This day, yesterday, consisted of catching, plucking, guttin chickens. In all we did about 70 chickens. good times.