Week 1: Elder McFarland in MTC

​Hello family and friends, 

My P day will be every Friday. We have an hour to email. I am super excited to be serving a mission and I am so glad I have so much support through this whole thing. The mtc is so great! I already feel close to a lot of people. It was really eye opening when I got here because they put us to work right away. But my district is so awesome. My companion is the district leader and I am a Sacrament Coordinator. I am the youngest missionary in my whole zone. All the other elders are 19-21 and sisters are 20-22. 

We were meeting with our branch president last night and introducing ourselves and everyone was so surprised that I was right out of high school. I would have thought that there would be more younger elders and sisters due to the age change but I guess not.

So far I know of 6 elders that are going to Ghana the same day I do so its really comforting. I have noticed that you really get close to people really fast here and you are always really busy. My MTC companion is named Elder Bawden and he is from West Valley, Utah. 

He is so great we love to push each other and we have grown really close.  I am glad he is going to same mission as me because we might be companions later down the road as well. 

I am so grateful for my mom and dad because I am so well prepared.  I literally am not missing any thing at all.... except that I kind of left all my deodorant at Texas (We found 4 deodorant in the bathroom...HA!) so all I have is the small travel size one so that will be interesting. 

I haven't been drinking any chocolate milk (Mom asked if he was enjoying the unlimited chocolate milk). I have just have had Coke because you have to enjoy soda while you have it right? 

But I am going to take quite a bit out of my backpack next time so i don't have to spend 20 minutes in security. I don't find it hard not to have a phone because when you stay busy you don't worry about that kind if stuff. We have already started doing role plays with non-members and today we just taught about God's love for us and how He always has His hand in our life and other things. 

I really enjoyed going to temple square. I think that was very appropriate before going to the MTC. 

People are calling me crazy because I am wearing short sleeves outside and it it kind of chilly here and they like to make Texas jokes and stuff so its really fun. 

Sorry this email is all over the place but I forgot my journal back at the residence hall so I'm just writing about things as I think of them. 

It's going to take a while to get used to the schedule of the MTC but we are waking up just fine and are ready to go in 30 minutes so it's not that bad. 

One of the experiences I thought I needed to share was a really awesome experience to me. So me and Elder Bawden were preparing to teach somebody and of course first we had our individual study. So we looked at the background of the investigator and thought of things we needed to share. I just think it was something else when it was time to do companion study and we had similar ideas and things we wanted to share.  I just think that's so cool how The Spirit works in many different ways. 


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