Blog of Elder Hamish Macpherson

These last two weeks have been busy, yet again! With the near certainty of me leaving the office on the 25th, I feel obliged to get everything in order and leave the office better than I found it. Fortunately it’s already in pretty good shape. There are just a few loose ends I need to tie up. Overall I feel good about leaving. I’ve done my work here, and it’s time to move on.

All is well here in Fair Oaks, Orangevale, Citrus Heights, and Carmichael. (Those are all the various cities in our area, all of them suburbs of Sacramento) The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and life is good.

The Bishop of our ward has taken a job in Utah and will be getting a replacement soon. He will be missed. He’s a wonderful leader. He was also the head architect in charge of designing the beautiful Sacramento Temple. So, he’s now taking a job with the Church’s temple design department. Exciting!

The work is slow here, but we’re not losing faith. I know the Lord is preparing people for us to teach. And I know that the people we are trying to work with will progress towards baptism. It’s just a longer path for some, and we can’t drag them along. It’s a humbling thing to realize that the Lord’s time-line is not the same as yours. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Last night we were in my birth area again; the Hurley Ward in East Sacramento. We had to setup for a Spanish Cottage Meeting. On the way home I felt prompted to stop by a family I had taught over a year ago. The husband was a member, though not active, and we were teaching his wife, Flora. When I was still there she set a baptismal date, but then I got transferred! I heard that she got baptized a little over a month after that, but no one called me back for the service. Well, last night we stopped by! Flora was really happy to see us. Even Elder Feusner knew her from having done some yard service for her last year (while on an exchange in that ward). We visited with each other, and I learned that they are going to the Temple in a few weeks! And they’ll be sealed about a month after! They’re a wonderful family, with two beautiful little girls. One is almost seven, the other is a little over two. I’m so happy for them.

Despite my trials and difficulties, I’m ever grateful for these blessings of the Lord. To see these people plant themselves more deeply in the rich soil of the gospel is truly a gift “more precious than gold.”

Love,
Elder Macpherson

“You almost got ET’d”, Elder Buhler said quietly while I passed him some food during dinner. I looked at him and raised my eyebrows. I could tell he was being serious. He just nodded, “You were this close” he gestured with his fingers.”

That, my friends, is a riveting excerpt from my journal — so now you’re probably wondering what ET’d means right? Well let’s look at what the Dictionary of Missionary Lingo says… *ahem*

“ET (verb) — Emergency Transfer. To transfer a missionary to a new area unexpectedly, not on a regular transfer date, occasionally necessary due to disobedience, personal problems, or sometimes simply to accommodate other missionaries departing and arriving without advance notice.”

So why did I almost get ET’d you ask? Well, let me assure you it wasn’t due to disobedience or personal problems, at least not on my side. But like dominoes, when one ET takes place, another often happens, to balance things out. And I was almost that balancing piece. Fortunately it was between me and another missionary, and he was chosen instead — Bullet dodged! Haha, actually I’ll admit I wouldn’t have been too angry, sad to leave the office of course, but if that was what needed to happen, I would “go and do” — that’s just what you do, and I know everything works out alright in the end. But for now I’m staying, and I’m happy about that.

So yeah, this week has had me up, down, and all around. We taught a lesson on Tuesday to a girl that came to Church with her best friend. We taught her at a house she’s house-sitting for some friends, and I have to say that it was the biggest house I have ever been inside… ever. It was huge, and just a work of art. It was in a super upper-class neighborhood — man, some of the wealth around here is crazy. The lesson went pretty well. She’s had a lot of exposure to the Church, she’s been with her friend to activities and such for years. She’s a really sweet person, so I hope we can continue to teach, she came to Church again yesterday and I know she enjoyed it.

I’ve been working on a revised and redesigned Welcome Packet for new missionaries coming to our mission lately. We send it to them before they enter the MTC and offer some instructions as they prepare. The one we’ve been using for years is utterly terrible, to be frank. Poorly organized, and poorly designed. It’s the same one I received, and It’s almost 5 years old; long overdue for an upgrade. It’s been a lot of fun so far, and it’s almost ready to send out.

Whoah, but let’s rewind a little, shall we? I turned 21 almost two weeks ago, on July 22nd. Happy Birthday to me! I want to thank everyone for all the kind letters, emails, and packages. That week was fun. Actually, that week was crazy too, because as leaders we were being trained by the Mission President on a new curriculum from the MTC, it was a long four days of training, but it’s a lot of great stuff. Now it’s our job to teach and train the younger missionaries so they can know it too.

I think that’s it folks. It’s definitely summer here now. We’ve been getting triple digits pretty often for a couple weeks. I send my love and good wishes. I hope y’all enjoy your summer. Best wishes to Allison Bill who’s getting married pretty soon from what I hear. Keep me in your prayers! We need to find more people to teach here!

Lots of love,
Elder Macpherson

All is well in Sacramento.

Transfer calls have come and gone; I’m staying with Elder Feusner for my third transfer in the mission office. It’s hard to believe it’s already been that long. I certainly don’t have the posts to show it, I’ve been slacking! It’s just been so busy here, and sometimes pretty stressful too. They have me as an office elder and a district leader, and really… I think I need to learn some relaxation techniques before it all gets the best of me. *Elder Macpherson takes several deep breaths* — Okay that’s better. *phew*

But don’t you all worry about me now. I know everything will work out. That’s the beautiful thing about the gospel.

Well, have you heard? The Church is changing the way every mission in the world will work… starting right now. They did a study in San Diego for several months, following and filming a real district of missionaries, and they learned a lot of valuable things from it. Part of the changes will be fewer Zone Conferences and Interviews with the Mission President, and more smaller-group and specifically focused training instead. They’ve also released a revised curriculum for training/teaching, focusing on the key doctrines and principles from Preach My Gospel. This is going to help us to be better teachers. But like any big change, it’s going to take some getting used to. In the end I know it’s inspired, and It’s going to be fun! To get all the leaders in the mission up to speed President Jardine starts a four-day intensive training tomorrow, for every District Leader, Zone Leader, and Trainer in the mission — for about 7 hours each day, that’s equal to more than four Zone Conferences in a row! I’m going to be so tired at the end of this week. Oh boy…

On other news, I love the College Oak Ward. I’ve gotten to know a lot more of the people there, and they’re fantastic. My only desire now is to find more people to teach! The only ones we know now are just… not progressing, for various reasons. It’s been cool, because we’ve had several non-members attend these last few weeks, who are good friends of members in our ward, but sadly none of them live in our ward boundaries, so we can’t teach them, they call that “poaching” in missionary work, and it’s seriously frowned upon. They would have to get baptized in their home ward anyway.

One of the sisters who was in my district last transfer was Sister Georges, from Leon France. She was great, and it was fun to be able to practice my french here and there, although I’m really not that good. While she was here she was teaching a man named Tony, whose story is long and complicated, but in a nutshell; she had to teach him because he can speak only French and Arabic, he’s very faithful, but certain government and legal issues are preventing him from being baptized (he’s from a Muslim country), it’s really pretty crazy. Anyway, guess who is supposed to teach him now that Sister George has (just recently) been transferred? Yup, that’s me. And I’ll be honest, I’ve got no idea how I’m going to do this. There are a few French-speaking RMs in the area, the Mission President’s wife can speak it a little, and well… the gift of tongues anyone? I’ll let you all know where this goes beintot.

The last group of missionaries that came in was awesome! That’s one perk of being in the office, seeing them all arrive, newborns in the mission. But it was a very energetic group, the future leaders of this mission without a doubt. Two were from Canada, which was a big plus for our mission, woohoo!

Well, I couldn’t end this without mentioning how HOT it’s been here lately. It’s definitely July folks, and I can’t help but reminisce of last year, when I was burning up in the scalding heat of Laguna Creek. Boy am I glad we have a car for the summer! It’s been upper 90s to 100s this last week, not a cloud in the sky. To think I’ll leave this coming year, and come to the arctic tundra of February in Montreal, brrr! If that’s not a chilling thought…

Haha, till next time!

Love,

Elder Macpherson