Week 50 - Happy Halloween!

Well it isn't quite Halloween but this is as close as you will get from me! Hopefully you all will be able to have all sorts of fun on that day, we are going to be throwing a party for the missionaries in our zone, don't get too jealous. We really are blessed you could see with some great elders and sister who like to have a good time, so the future is looking bright. 

Okay I am going to save the really cool story for later, but I can start with another just real cool story.. We were up working in Coronation Park.. basically it's West Ed.. (so much lingo you all need to learn) and we had decided to just do some street contacting around this busy intersection to try and find some more of those Filipinos.. they are all over in the area so we went for it. Well okay they were supposed to be all over. We didn't see a soul. I don't know where they went! So we looped back up into this neighborhood and just started walking, kinda doing what we call a "walk & feel" I'm sure you can figure out what that is. And so we go and we run into this lady..She is white but we talked to her anyways.. (really I am not trying to sound racist here!!) well we get talking to her and one thing leads to another, we keep probing her and getting info, she ends up telling us that she is actually a member of the church.. baptized back in '07 and went less-active immediately. The church has her number, but no idea where she lives because she doesn't list it and when they call she just tells them no.. Anyway, we talked to this lady for like an hour figuring out why on earth she went less-active. To sum it up, bunch of anti stuff.. nothing really doctrinal, all just standpoints on issues. what rubbish.. anyways, by the end of the conversation, she was once again open to the missionaries going to her home and at least doing service. To sum everything up of why this was a very cool experience for me, because for one, we have almost no reason to be up in that area.. except it were guided and directed by the spirit. And really a lesson that it helped me learn, is how aware our Father in Heaven is of his Children, and as we are out doing what is according to his will, doing His work, we will surely be put in paths of those lives he has prepared to receive the missionaries, even if it is just once more. Honestly, it just helped me to see that as we go about our lives, if we are on the path that He would have us walk, we surely will be the answer to prayers that are prayed on the individuals behalf. We will be put into walks of life that allow us to be an influence for good. 

Other really cool story.. okay are you ready? Elder Holland came to Edmonton! Okay so this was for the Riverbend Stake conference, he and his traveling companion from the 70 made the trip. It was so sweet! So really it is out of our zone and stake when it comes to English, but then comes the perk of being a language missionary for the city. We even had a nonmember there that was Filipino. Okay so I thought maybe I would share a few lessons that were both shared and learned from that.. 

1. Peter in the New Testament in the Book of Acts is going to the temple with John. On the steps there is a man who is lame from birth, has been for over 40 years. When he is on the temple steps he is asking for alms from temple goers.. (Good place to ask for money since it is usually going to be some good people at the temple!) anyways, when Peter sees the man, instead of giving him money,  he says, "silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give thee, In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Rise up and Walk." That is from memory so hopefully that is super close.. anyways the man that is lame of birth for 40 years rises and then jumps and shouts for joy. Exclaims his gratitude for what miracle hath been done. Following this he goes into the temple in and out just shouting for joy.. Okay just go read the rest of the story in Acts 3 and 4.. but really the lesson is one that made me think. Peter talks to the Sadducees about how it was by the same power that Christ was performing miracles for 3 years, where were you then? They are all marveling now at this great power that was shown by Peter, but they couldn't have cared less beforehand. Do we realize we hold that same power as holders of the Melchizedek Priesthood? It wasn't just because Peter was the chief apostle, it wasn't because Peter had walked, worked, and testified with Christ (however, that may have helped) that he was able to perform this miracle.. it was because of the Priesthood. Later on in the script it talks about how the opposers of Peter tell the people, "A notable miracle hath been done, and we cannot deny it" or something in that regard.. And that leads me into the second portion of what Elder Holland talked about, or really I guess what I was able to learn. 

2. The Evidence of the Restoration is surely "a notable miracle", but do we look at it as just that? When we are in the courts of law we are looking for evidence, something that can withstand the jury, if you will. The Book of Mormon is surely a notable miracle, and we cannot deny that. We can hold it in our hands, feel of its divine authenticity as we read the pages and surely feel of its truthfulness as we prayer about the truth. For what man trying to prove a book is true, would try to trick everyone into believing something by asking them to pray to God about it? Simply that does not make sense. We also have the evidence of millions of Latter Day Saints who have taken that same promise and are living evidence of what miracle hath been done. 

3. We have not seen anything yet. Simply the things we have experienced thus far within the gospel are forever going to be trumped by the promises to those who live righteously and obtain "all that the father hath". He later went on to say, and reiterate the point that we just have not seen anything that we have no idea what we truly have in store for being members of this restored church. 
4. We will never see a complete apostasy again on the earth. We will forever have the Authority of God held within the prophet and apostles on the earth. That authority will remain until the Lord is made Lord of Lords and King of Kings.. For this is God's truth. He will forever protect what he sees fit. We will never have to worry about that authority taken. No power or influence of man can trump that of our Father in Heaven. 

Okay I will be honest.. I got a little lazy on the recap.. There is more in my head.. but you probably are sick of reading it anyways! Just know this, it was definitely a powerful experience for me! Just imagine an apostle of the Lord speaking in a General Conference giving one of his most spirited talks that I have ever heard.. And trust me I have listened to just about every one of them from the last 8 years... haha 

The last thing that he mentioned was how he loves the previous Prophets.. Pres. Hunter.. Pres. Hinckley.. and currently Pres. Monson. They truly have influenced his life and he has such a deep love for them. However, he said the greatest, most influential person in his life has been his wife of 50 years. For that, I want to thank whoever is reading this that is either a wife, mother, or grandmother. I would even extend that to sisters and aunts. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for what you have done for your families, for me, and ultimately for the Lord and our Father in Heaven. I am so grateful for the each and every one of you who has been around me and helped me become who I am at this point in my life. I love you all dearly, but more than that I hope and pray you can feel of our Heavenly Father's love. 

Okay, gotta jet. I love you all! I hope you have an amazing week! We had some snow this week.. pretty sure this is the beginning of the end one could say! The Tagalog is still a work in progress, I am working on it though!  Maybe it'll just click one of these days you know? I said my first Tagalog prayer with a family the other day.. that was honestly terrifying ha it wasn't in complete Tagalog.. which is okay. We are still using that taglish stuff, but my comp said I used all the right words and my grammar was all correct just threw in the English words instead Tagalog on everything. Pretty cool though if I will be able to come home and pray and everything for you in a native tongue. I'll talk to you all very soon!

Love, Elder McFall

Week 49 - Kamusta Kaibigans?!

Life is real good right now up here in Edmonton! It has been soo busy lately with all of the different things we have had to do. This last week was mostly just proselyting though, so we really got to hit the streets hard to find those who are prepared. Probably one of the more difficult things though, is the only real way we can find those who are going to listen to us is through the members or what other missionaries do to find. There is no purpose in tracting for us.. we might get lucky! Just whenever we drive around, we look for signs of the Filipinos.. we are getting pretty good. Good news though everyone, this week we found two new investigators.. so life is peachy! I can tell you how this all happened...

Okay so the first is named Nikko, we found him through some of our old former investigators in an area pretty close to ours. We went over there and we actually found him home. He is in his 20's for sure, and we just talked about the B of M and how it will be able to answer our questions. It is pretty funny to teach because right now I will throw in some Tagalog words that I know, but it is like Elder Laceste will go off for a little, I do my best to understand what is said, and then add my own words in mostly English.  It has been working so far though. He really seems to be interested; his family are all hardcore catholic, no surprise there, so that may get in the way. We will see how it develops though.

The other one was a member referral up in Coronation Park, when I say areas I realize you have NO idea what I mean by that, but this just helps me explain the story. It is probably a 15 minute drive or so for us to the NW if that helps. Okay so we stopped in at this guy’s place, pretty sure he is house sitting or something because it was just him and another Filipino guy who are like contract workers living in a multimillion dollar house... Maybe I am wrong, they might be rich! Anywho, we go and he invites us in and we spent like 15 minutes with him. One thing led to another, and he just started talking about how there is one God, one Jesus Christ, but why are there so many different churches who teach in such different ways--why is it this way? Now can you say he is prepared?! We love that question. We explained a little bit, but really we just invited him to learn for himself. Gave him a resto (restoration) pamphlet, told him to read it and pray and we will come back and talk about it. I think that is the biggest thing I have learned recently.. however easy it may be for me to just give someone the answer they are seeking immediately, I need to help them develop the skills to know how to obtain truths from our Father in Heaven. Truths that will be revealed to them through the Holy Ghost. So that is what we do. Giving someone the answer may be what they need, but just give them a portion, and continually let that desire work within them and they will truly see the need to seek and receive their own personal revelation. It is such a rich experience to be able to watch someone who yearns for the truth not just get an answer to their questions, but also be able to know how to obtain more truths in the future. 

The Filipino work we do is hugely revolving around the work we can accomplish through the members. So we have this member family up in the Riverbend Stake.. (That means nothing to you once again!) Okay so they are the Serafica family. So what happened is we went over there and had supper, and then after they just started calling these less-active part member families and would just say okay we are coming over!! ha so we would grab some food and just head over there.. That is the secret to missionary work, bring food. It is like a peace offering or something to Filipinos.. Anyways we met two families who we will probably go back to this week! it was awesome! Just put things into action immediately, people just need to be more like that! Only sad part, he is going to be in the Philippines for the next month with his wife!! But there are a lot of other members who are very willing to introduce us to their friends and get us in homes. It is a huge thing for the Filipino culture to stay close and at least listen. That is the opportunity we need though, that is when they will be able to feel of the spirit and be able to have that desire to learn more. Just leave it to the Lord and miracles will be accomplished!

Elder Laceste and I will be together for another transfer at least as transfer calls were today, but no worries we are still together. There are not too many changes in our zone this transfer, just a few different companionship, one area opening..So hopefully we can continue on with our work. It has been pretty wild driving all over the city of Edmonton. Not often does a missionary get an opportunity like that! We are definitely starting some sort of new legacy here in the Canada Edmonton Mission! The language is coming! I hope this week I can spend more time studying it. It really just keeps coming back to the amount of exposure to the language. The members all love it though. The big white guy who speaks, or tries to speak, Tagalog! We have a good time with it! We even decided I should just say I am from Ilongapo.. A US military base in the Philippines, so nobody has any idea what is happening anymore. Life is good. I hope life is great for each of you! Until next week!

Love, Elder McFall

Week 48 - Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Now I can officially say I am a Canadian! Okay not really. Canadian Thanksgiving is not like what we do down there in the US of A. They have been trying to tell me that their Thanksgiving was the first, therefore more valid, but I am not so sure about that. Let's put it this way, I didn't even get any turkey.. ha I think that is mostly due to people just deciding to have chicken and we didn't luck out, but still! It was still a blast! My Thanksgiving was actually spent with other missionaries for the most part as we just played basketball, some Turkey bowl (football) and volleyball. We had the whole day "off" so we just got together in our zone and went for it. It was pretty fun, but definitely not the same. I also had my birthday this last week and that was pretty fun! Different having a birthday in the mission, as you would imagine, but with that it brought its own of set of fun and games.. minus the fun and games. Me and the comp went out for a nice lunch and then I had a bunch of birthday texts and calls from the zone so that was pretty nice! All in all it was a fun day! Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. Iif I missed ya, I am getting old now so the memory is starting to go on me!

This week in Bearspaw, we had our investigator lesson with Taylor and that came with a pretty cool story. So we went over and basically talked about our Heavenly Father's love and his plan for each of us (plan of salvation type stuff). We had a real nice chat and visit, he seems to be liking everything. It has been hard teaching him exactly what we want because his dad is there and he is a talker! He is a sorta active member, real cool fella. Well we left that lesson thinking it was okay, didn't get exactly the message we had hoped. But probably 45 minutes later, around 9:45 or so, we get this text from Taylor talking about how much he appreciated what we talked about and what he felt while we were there. This led to him talking to a friend that he had a "feeling' he should talk. He just said how much he was able to help his friend because we allowed him to see his Father in Heaven's love for him. So that was pretty neat!

This week we held our Zone training meeting, it was pretty good. It was my first one where I had to give trainings to the whole zone, but it went well! I like talking, a lot. haha so that kinda helps! It really is the most rewarding position to be in where you can just help all of these other missionaries out in the way that you feel inspired to. You really begin to understand the role you are in as a leader, where really everything is not about you at all.

The Tagalog is coming along! We got this book from the library which has been helping! Hopefully we can keep that up and get things going even more. I love the Filipino community though, and every time you go to their house they make you food. So I have eaten so much food in the last two weeks.. unreal. But it is so delicious! Hopefully this week we will be able to find a couple new investigators. We have a few who are close and some members who are thinking they have someone this week we can try, so we will see how things come together!

Other than that, we are actually getting a nice fall! Kinda cold, but you just take every day without snow to be a victory. Gotta love that fall fashion you know! Things are going well though. I am really enjoying where I am. Time has been flying though, it seems weird to think I am already this far into the mission.. So many things yet to be accomplished. Hopefully this week we can really find those people who are gonna want to hear the gospel, it has been to long since we have really been teaching and helping people really come closer to Christ.

Love you all! I will talk to you soon!

Love, Elder McFall

Week 47 - Magadang Hapon!

I can tell you this much, life has been busy! Not as busy with teaching appointments like I would imagine, but nonetheless, busy! Which is good! I can't believe it is already Monday, maybe you can? This last week was pretty nice though. We had all sorts of different things going on. Did some more exchanges, had meetings with the rest of the leaders in the mission (mission leadership conference MLC), and of course General Conference. The mini missionary Superbowl, it was phenomenal. Really though, there were so many talks and highlights I could go on for days. I loved how each talk was so direct and addressed a problem that is more than just "have more faith" it was more along the lines of an anecdote. It was more of how we can improve and allow things to move forward at a higher pace. All of which done so directly. There were a lot of things that were calling us to action in a way, as members of this restored church. To look forward with greater faith. I think a huge thing too was for us to have more excitement in regards sharing the restored gospel that brings us such happiness. I know it did that for me! Some of my favorites were Elder Uchtdorf (Come, Join with Us)  and Elder Nielsen (Hastening the Lords Game Plan) on Saturday Afternoon. It was the coolest thing. So much excitement from the brethren towards this gospel it seems like from this conference, hopefully everyone will catch on. And really how we are just needing to be more firm and steadfast in our testimonies and don't let the world take that away from us. Don't let the "man mingled with scripture" prevail over the pure doctrine of Christ we have within the Church.

I am so happy to be a missionary right now. Yes, things are hard. Yes, there are a lot of trials. But the Lord is just as aware of His children in this portion of the Vineyard as anywhere else. Just because the work has been slow, does not mean he has stopped "Preparing the hearts of the children of men" this does not mean that he doesn't love them just as much as he always have. Moroni taught that miracles cease only with our unbelief. And it is by faith that angels and miracles do occur. How true it is!! I know I have a deeper more burning desire to put my faith in Him as I serve, now hopefully everyone else will catch this and we will see miracles more abundantly in our mission. We are looking for a "paradigm shift" within our mission. To change the whole culture within our mission. It will happen.

The work for us is still not necessarily moving the fastest. There are a lot of potentials we still have to get going on. They are all over in the mission, so we are starting to pick up that. We just made it from the meeting we had last week, so now everyone is aware of what we are doing, so hopefully it will get things going. It has been hard just trying to get scheduling down, Filipinos are busy people! So are the rest of us, but it is all about priorities. Satan uses that tool over and over for us to just fill our lives with good things, rather than the best things. The language is coming along slowly but surely! I feel like I am gettin' it faster than I thought I would at this point. When we are in homes of people, I am able to follow a little bit because of the words that I do know. I am hoping to just keep getting involved with it more. To immerse myself more fully in the language. It is hard, since I am in Canada after all! But it can still be done! There are that many Filipinos!

Things for me have been really good this last week. Things have just been coming together in the work. We found a new investigator, English speaking, in our area. Might have to pass him off to the YSA but we will see. Hopefully we can just begin to teach more. All this finding is not as fun as teaching! Feel like I might be gettin' a little rusty on the teaching skills! Hopefully not though! We really are having a blast just going about the work. Just talking to everyone. Hopefully we can hold onto this weather without snow for as long as possible... It has been gettin' colder and colder. Had to scrape the windows of the car the other day! The work will still move on! This week is my birthday week too! I can't believe I will be 20… too weird.

I hope to have awe inspiring stories to tell you all next week! Things are sort of slow, but that doesn't mean they have to be that way! I love you all! Have a great week!

Love, Elder McFall

Drake.mcfall@myldsmail.net

Eldermcfall.blogspot.com

Mission Leadership Conference – Group photos