Elder Maughan Transfer update

            Well its another P-day…and the end of another transfer…. And to no surprise I'm getting a new comp because elder Weaver is going home, and I'm going tomorrow with him to the transfer meeting because I'm picking up my boy… that’s missionary language for I'm TRAINING. Yep I get to help a new missionary get use to North Carolina and I don’t know anything about him yet so I'll have to let you know next Monday. This is really exiting and it looks like I'll be in Smithfield for a long time haha.

            Another thing that is exiting is that Bruce the man I baptized last is moving back to Arizona! His address is ...I also gave him your number Dad ...I know mom and dad you can really help him and keep the missionary work going J haha now you can get a little of the joy I have felt.

            My thanksgiving was good I did get a lot of food and this week has been full of fun. It’s great to see how much Smithfield has grown in just the time I've been here! Haha and what is this about Brett being engaged already that’s crazy and good for him. haha something else that happened was the 4 elders in Smithfield (2 Spanish and 2 English) sung in church Sunday it was a lot of fun. Elder weaver and I sing and the end of most of our lessons so I hope my new comp can sing because it really helps the spirit come in and helps us end on a good note. Ummmmmmmmm well life is GREAT and I'm really interested to hear about your new job dad, and mom did Heritage win in Football and how dose the b ball team look?

 All my love ELDER MAUGHAN           

Happy Thanksgiving from IL 11-23-10

Welp hola there mi familia and others reading this letter!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!! so this week since thanksgivng is on thursday we get like a pday and a half... today we only have till 12 to get all our shopping and emails done and then tomorrow is like our pday minus the shopping and emails. and speaking of shopping yes i have done some. I honestly dont know how chris has only spent 7 dollars and whatever cents... but then again he had completely everything he needed for north carolina. it is seriously SOOOOOOOO COLD HERE!!! yesterday we hit 20 degrees and wearing a skirt with the wind and everything is sooo not fun. I am sorry that I spent so much I was trying to be really good but winter clothes are not cheap. We even went on a sale day where stuff was an extra 50% off the already marked down items. My winter coat...if I could use two words to describe it it would be...sleeping bag. That is exactly what it looks like.A gray poofy sleeping bag.  awfulness. but it should keep me warm and thats what matters. I will send pictures when I wear it :/..  and now I definately dont need to do anymore clothing shopping. Im good and set to go. I also had to get some ear muffs and more leggings and thicker tights because this wind is NOT my friend. I seriously have no idea how Im gonna survive contacting in this FU-REEEEzing cold. I am missing Az heat sooooo bad.

Oh and on Monday I had my first encounter with yes a TORNADO!  they have these sirens that go off when there is tornado and well they went off, the branch president called and told us to get to our apt and hide in the bathroom. the district leader elder trujillo told us to get our mattresses and put them over us--which I dont know how much of this actually helps if the tornado actually does hit the house... anyways me and hermana layton quickly went and cleaned the toilet just in case we had to grab onto the toilet we knew it would be clean...the weather was the weirdest thing. It was soo windy and by the looks of it it should have been reaallllllly cold. but instead it was like 66 degrees and the wind was hot. then it was raining all of the sudden out of no where like huge rain drops and the tornado hit like 20 minutes away from our apt. good thing I got my protection shield in action...

What was really funny about it all was that just that morning after our district meeting all us missionaries went to lunch and while we were at lunch one of the missionaries just happened to say--a Jewish man prophesied that in the year 2010 all of Illinois would be destroyed by tornado and we were all laughing and thought that was super bizarre and funny ha ha ya and then 2 hours later boom! REAL tornado!

Other than that we have taught some awesome lessons this week and I feel like I am understanding little by little more and more spanish. My dreams are now being in spanish every now and then--for the past 3 days they have been and I am finding it hard to remember the english words for some of these words like pero, entonces, y, sí, pues, gracias etc etc... so hopefully this means good things..

We have one investigator jose gonzales-- who is 80% sure he wants to get baptized and hes already asked one of the elders to do it so we just got to get him to that 100% surety....ahhhh! Its so crazy when they are so close and you know that this gospel really does bring so much peace and helps life in so many ways that sometimes its hard to say.

Congrats on the engagement Brett! thats pretty exciting! what a way to come home eh?! :) :)

 Oh and mom with the rhyming thing..its been pretty funny cause we have texting here with the older elders and people in our zone and in all my texts for some reason Ive been on a rhyming rhythm thing and so now some of them have become jokes within our zone...like this one have a good night, sleep tight known you did aight by choosing the right and bringing people to da light...

I hope your thanksgivings are wonderful and enjoy the crazy! and I cant wait to hear from you again! I love love love you all!

xoxoxo Hermana Maughan

Elder Christopher Maughan 11-23-10

          Well today is Tuesday and it’s my p-day because yesterday was the mission tour which I’ll talk about latter. But Debbie will not be getting baptized this week because we still have to teach her some stuff and she will be out of town a lot because her son is getting new casts for his feet. But it’s looking great she has still stopped smoking and I think really she wants to get baptized so I’ll keep you informed about her. Bruce and Jason are doing great! The ward really helps and they just love coming. And they are able to help us a lot with missionary work as well. Haha its great!

            Another cool story is that this week I got sick for a day (I'm all better now) but we had district meeting in the morning and I wasn’t doing so good but then we went to a lesson with a new convert. The lesson wasn’t going so good and I just didn’t want to be there but then I prayed for strength and felt great! I was able to ask some really good questions that brought out a really big concern and testify and bear testimony on it but as soon as I was done I felt terrible a gen, but my comp was able to take it from there. When I got home I feel asleep and the next day was great a gen. it was really cool and I know that through the spirit anything can happen! It was also really weird because I felt perfect until I had said everything that I needed to say. =D  it was fun.

            Then yesterday we had Elder Packer come and talk to us (president Packers oldest son) and he is going to Queen Creek in a few weeks for stake conference so thats cool. But it was really neat and I learned a lot about how the spirit works/ what I need to do to have it with me. He gave some really good talks and I was able to really see some was to become better at my calling. I love how in this gospel there is never an end to how much we can learn and get better. The lord will always give us something new to learn so we can get better but we have to choose to do it, there are no fence sitters in Christ church and as such we have the chance to choose to become better and he is there to help. 

            But I'm really excited for Christmas! And ill be in Smithfield for it because my comp is leaving , this is his last week and transfers are on the 30^th so yep… ill be in Smithfield. for at least 6 months of my mission… that’s ¼ of my two years… wow that’s weird…. But get to work haha well I love you all and I really hope everything is going great! You da’ best!  Haha that’s southern I'm getting good at it.

ELDER MAUGHAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!           

Chicago, Chicago, I just want to say...

They do not lie when they tell you that missionary work is work. The spanish is sooo hard. I have such a burning desire to help our investigators and I want them to come to Christ soooo bad but its really hard to know what to say when you don't even know what has been said in the conversation....but its good.

• Wednesday night we teach an Enlgish class
• Thursday is planning for the week day
• Friday we had a lot of appointments.
• Saturday we did some major contacting
• Sunday went to my little little spanish branch and whew this spanish is a doooosey...after church it was choir practice and then we went and did 21 contacts that day!!
• Monday I bore testimony about reading the Book of Mormon
• Tuesday was also a good day full of contacting and walking and working with recent converts

My love for this work and these people have truely grown and I just want to have these people know what I know and come unto chirst sooooo bad.

But today me and Hermana Layton are doing some shopping for winter clothes as we should be getting some snow this week--AHHH!!!! IT IS SERIOUSLY SOOOOOO COLD HERE!!!!!

I lLOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU ALL and I cant wait to hear from you!

Paz y Amor,

Hermana Maughan

P.s. to all my friends--my mail has been very slow this week...alls I got was my letter from my bro...have you all dissapeared?? I really like mail and I really like all of you so write me letters!

Elder Maughan - With God Anything is Possible

Well let’s think... this week but I bet it wasn’t as interesting as Tim’s haha. But the best thing right now is Debby! She has stopped smoking after a really powerful lesson where we gave her a blessing, another great thing about that lesson was that we had Bruce come and his mind has opened up so much! He was able to tell how he was able to overcome smoking and that he knew that if we gave her a blessing she wouldn’t smoke again. It was amazing so she still hasn’t smoked and came to church yesterday and you could see the light in her growing. She also had some concerns about how baptism was done so we had her come to one and she said it made her feel a lot better, it was crazy the kind of things she thought had to happen for a baptism that I won’t really go into but she is getting baptized the 27^th of this month!! So now it’s just teaching her everything in that short time but I know she can make it!

                That was really the biggest things that happened this week, the rest was going and seeing less active, new coverts and lots of tracking. Haha it’s a lot of fun and my comp isn’t getting to trunky but I bet he will some time, but we are working really hard and just loving it. It’s really cool to see how the spirit is able to work when you’re doing what’s right, like it happens almost every day that we will have plans but then I felt like we should go somewhere else and there is someone that needs us. Its hard to explain but know that the Holy Ghost Is real and if you feel like you should do something then do it! You can’t go wrong if you follow the spirit haha look at me a missionary even on e-mail haha well I love you all and I pray and fast for everyone as much as I can, and I can feel your love everyday!

LOVE ELDER MAUGHAN

Hello from Chicago

Hola mi familia!!!

Im here! I made it! with only one huge tear in my suitcase....the airport people yes did ruin my blue duffal duffel..no se but they runied it. ripped it all down the seam and tore off the handle..so guess who will need to get a new suitcase here?! ME! Yaaaay!

ok so this is the low down of what happened.......oh and im gonna just start from some stuff I forgot to say at the MTC cause that monday my brain was just fuddled up with all the things I had to do... SO total weight gain at the mtc=4lbs. I did suck up my fear and get a hair cut at the mtc...only cause it was free but you know I should have followed dads advice is that you get what you pay for. I told the lady that I only wanted a trim of like half an inch because I KNEW she would cut more off...just like how sister Putnam went in and told them she wanted 2 inches off and came out with 8 off...so the lady ended up cutting off a good 2 21/2 inches off and yes its crooked. the left side is shorter than the right. and it was the fastest hair cut I have ever had en mi vida...15minutes. in out boom done.

ok and then departure of mtc started at 2:30 in the am on tuesday morning checked in at the travel office and rode on the bus to the salt lake airport with 17 other missionaries headed here to the good ol chicago. once we got off the plane the president and his wife greeted us, we loaded our bags up and he gave us all a pass along card and a BOM and said he would see us at lunch. The AP's Elder French and Elder Gates took us from there to the above ground train that everyone here in Chicago calls the "L" and told us to seperate and we have to give away our BOM...oh and did I mention that mine was in Spanish? GAAAAAA sooo scary...but so the adventure begins right?! So I started talking to this man on the train and asking him about chicago and the things in it, his life a bit, where he worked...found out he was very catholic and ot interested at all but I got to talk to him about what we as missionaries do and stuff so that was cool. Then the stop right before we were supposed to get off this black couple hops on the L and they start talking about school and other things. I said hi and they looked at me and the wife said "You a mormon aintcha?" "Yes I suuure am" "I heard ah you and your little bible" "oh really? well its called the Book of Mormon. Have you read it before?" She said she used to have one and I told her it was an awsome book. My favorite. Her husband then started asking his wife what the book was exactly and she turned to me and said "well she knows!" so then I got to explain what the bom is, and that its another testament of Jesus Christ and yada yada. The woman than says "ya they used to just give those books out for free" I told her that we actually still do...but my book was in SPANISH remember?! so I gave my pass along card to them told them to call the number and then I looked at an Elder and asked if I could have his book and he gave it to me so I gave it to them. Told them if they had any questions they could call the number on the card and someone would be soo happy to answer it. Told them to read 3 Nephi chap 11 and then bore my testimony about how any question you have about life, any problems you have the answers can be found in the book of mormon. This seriously happened in like 2 minutes because the next stop I had to get off. but IT WAS AWESOMEEEEEE!!! I couldnt believe that I actually did it! I just gave away my first BOM and it really it is soo true that people know who we are simply by the was we dress.

After the "L" we got off and went and I had my first taste of Chicago deep dish pizza with the president and his wife. We then took pictures and the APs again took us..and we went on our walking tour of Chi-town...so basically. AAaaaamazing. LOVE the city. My heart belongs in the city...love love love it. our tour was awesome! we went and saw a whole bunch of places like the sears tower and michigan st. But I guess the city is really pretty dangerous so they dont have sisters actually serve in the city...:( que triste but esta bien porque I will be where I am needed. But oh man...Seriously I am so going back. OH! and there is a blog that the president has that there will be pictures and videos of our tour up on the website...Idk what that is now but I will have it soon and be sure to give it to ya.

After the awesome tour..oh and btw the weather was sooo awesome. it was like 67 degrees which apparently has been the best they have had lateley and its only supposed to get cold.er. weeeee

We went to the mission office which you will NEVER guess where it is by....no guesses?....ok Ill tell you...Hooters. yep. hooters. what an awesome place for missionaries to be seen going in and out of right? hahaha but we had some little orientatation thing where we got our new missonary debit cards and stuff and then we went to the mission home and had dinner, a health orientation with sister doll and then our mission pres interviews....seriously when my head the pillow that night I was out..proly out cold while my head was heading to the pillow.

Then today. woke up had breakfast and headed to the naperville stake center where all the new missionaries had ANOTHER orientation and then all the trainers came into the room and boom. I knew who mine was the moment she walked in. She sat directly behind me and I just knew it was her. Surrre enough..President called my name I stood up and he said your trainer is "Hermana Layton" yep the one behind me. you know how I knew it was her? She had on a green headband with yep a flower, and she just popped out like shes the one. We are serving in Rockford IL and then also there is one city in Wisconsin that is part of the Chicago Mission and yep I got that one city. can you say welcome to the sticks? Im in farm land. so like the video that we watched said...be. prepared. to. drive. and they were not lying. we drove all day to get here. which is why my email is gettin to you all soo late. but I am sooo excited. Sister Layton seems awesome and I really feel that great things are going to happen and hopefully my spanish will be one of them. because seriously the spanish here is not the same that I learned or was speaking in the MTC. HELLLLP ME! haha nah it will all be good it will definately be an adventure. Its just so crazy that Im out here in the actual field doing actual work and talking to actual true natives...

Oh and our apt is called the mansion. because it literally is for the missionaries. It is a two bedroom two floor condo, with a garage, kitchen, washer dryer, and 2 1/2 baths. its soooo huge. it used to be for the 4 elders here but they moved to a new apt and we got this one. so its pretty awesome. this is gonna be kinda weird only being the two of us. Ive never lived in an apt with only one other person before. and we drive a malibu...her name is barbie. We have a cell phone and we do get to text. Our mission president is a pretty technological loving guy..him and his wife have a droid, and some sweet video cameras...so we benefit from that.

Tonight we teach english to some people of the spanish branch and so this should be interesting. Im so nervous but I know it will be good. This spanish thing I want to come to me soo bad....

I loved talking to you all yesterday. I sure miss you guys. Dad Im seriously so happy about your job. That is awesome and it sounds like a pretty big deal. thats seriously soo awesome. so I cant wait to get the update from you!

Hope you have a great week I need to go do some shopping.

LOVE YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH!!!!

Hermana Maughan

Baptism for Bruce - ELDER CHRISTOPHER MAUGHAN

Hi Everyone,                                                                                        November 8, 2010

Well sounds like things are going great there! It’s really cool to hear all these little things that happen in your lives. 

            So this week we had a baptism for Bruce, it was really amazing. The spirit was strong. I’m so great full that I have been able to be here in little old Smithfield to see these two sons of God grow. You can truly see the changes the gospel has made in their lives in such a short time, they were happy before but now they are even happier.  I know it doesn’t matter how happy we are now, we can always become happier by becoming closer to Christ. They are doing great and I love being able to keep teaching them. There lights are so much brighter nowJ!!

Another cool thing was that Debbie came to church yesterday! It’s been about …2 month since she has come or I have even talked to her. She has given up coffee and she said she drinks hot coco like water haha. It was so amazing when she came, a big smile came to my face and I just couldn’t believe it, the lord truly works it a great way!!

Well another thing that happened was we had our zone conference and we talked about the new Mormon.org, it’s really cool and I think everyone should go on and check it out, you can also put your own testimony on their along with your life story so investigators can see that this gospel is here to make us happy and change our live for the better!!  

 Austin it’s so great that you put in your papers!!! Maybe you’ll come to the great place of North Carolina with me and don’t worry it’s like only 54 here now and the humidity is for the most part over with!! I know that you will never regret this and at times it might be hard but when you see the gospel change one person’s life it’s all worth it. It is also a time you will change into who god wants you to be.

Well I love you all so much!!!

I’m so happy for you dad! I hope you love your new job! So does this mean we have to support the raptors more than the suns now? I guess it doesn’t matter because they both stink. And mom I get feed really good because the members feed me almost every night and I’m staying the same weight!! Haha  

I’m doing really good right now as you can tell form my long letter today.

All my love!!! ELDER CHRISTOPHER MAUGHAN!!!!                

Last Week at MTC for Hermana Timothie Jessica Maughan

Buenas días!!!

Well, well, well two months ago this day I arrived here at the mtc and now tomorrow I leave here for Chicago!! This is seriously insane! I have alre4ady been out on my mission for the past forever.....As for this week here is the down low of what happened...

Tuesday: well for the third week in a row for our Tuesday devotional I had the opportunity to hear the words and the presence of another great apostle....this week it was Elder Ballard. I just can’t believe that I have been so lucky to have been able to hear and see one apostle let alone 3! Elder Ballard talked about how important it is for us as missionaries to become master communicators, and to be able to talk about the gospel anywhere. He also talked about first impressions and the importance of the fact that we can only make one first impression so we need to make a good one and the key to that is smile. How is the spirit supposed to be able to show through a grumpy face?? It’s not.

Wednesday: Me and Hna West went and did that orientation thing where we were the "model" missionaries and met some investigators and got to know them. It was pretty cool since we got to wear mics and were in front of a lot of missionaries.

Thursday: it was our last TRC and it went really well...our Spanish has gotten so much from when we both first arrived. I can’t even believe the amount of growth that I have had with the Spanish. We taught the plan of salvation and the law of tithing...  

Saturday: well this would be our last gym day and we went out to the field and played softball while we listened to the byu football game going on around us...other than that not much else happened.

Sunday: This day was weird, our last fast Sunday here and it just hit me that this time next week I will be in a new ward with a different companion and not all of the people I’m around will be missionaries. it was the weirdest thing...we had the departure devotional where you learn about all the things you needs to know in your field like flying and basically one last stress on the missionaries to be obedient...and then for the Sunday night Devo Sheri Dew came and spoke to us, and boy is she a great public speaker...she was awesome! She talked about things that we needed to know so that we could fulfill our missions here on earth, and that our time here on earth is like 3minutes and 27 seconds compared to whole scheme of things so how are we going to live these 3min 27 sec?

Today: equals packing, packing, packing....so I’m so sorry if you don’t all get a letter from me as soon as you would have wanted but I have so much to do!! and its a good thing that my pdays are on Wednesdays especially this week because now I get 2 pdays in a week!! :) and tomorrow we are getting a tour of Chicago!

So thank you all for your letters!!! they have been awesome!!

hugs kisses! love you!!

Hermana Maughan

Hermana Timothie Jessica Maughan

Hola hola mi familia and amigos!!

Como estas?

Well this week has been quite a week...it has felt very long and yet so crazy!!! I think people are starting to get used to the fact that I’m gone on a mission now since the mail has definitely slowed down for me...but esta bien. I am grateful for every letter that I received and am just glad that I have gotten mail!

But this is the update with what happened this week:

Tuesday! it was the Tuesday night devotional and as such me and hna west went to choir so we could have saved seats for the devotional. but because elder nelson had come and spoke to us the week before we were all thinking that it wasn’t going to be anyone big and then we noticed that they were amping up security and just little things...as such you know who came? Elder SCOTT!! It was soooooo awesome! 2 apostles in a row pretty fan-cussing-tastic! The spirit that was with Elder Scott was so powerful and just sooo amazing. I was overfull with the love that god has for me and for others. He gave us a paper with his life learning’s on how to receive and know your receiving personal revelation and he used his apostolic power and envoked some very cool blessings on us as missionaries and then us specifically as family. Words cannot descirbe how just amazing it was. this church is true and in every instance here I am knowing and feeling that more and more that Christ’s church really is on the earth today and that we do have living prophet today and we can receive personal revelation. ITS JUST SOOOO COOOL!!!!!!!

Wednesday: Our district was asked to be hosts...this is where you help the new missionaries that are coming in and you take them to their class room their room, get them their books from the bookstore and kind give them a low down on where things are and what its gonna be like here in the mtc. I love being a host...mostly because I remember how much I hated the first day and am glad that I don’t have to have, have that feeling or that day over again. hahaha that day seriously felt like the longest 4 days crammed in one...it was like going through puberty and that awkward phase...blah. glad I experienced but I’m glad I’m done with it...and then its cool to be the first one to help the sisters and answer any questions that they might have.

Thursday: this was our TRC where its like a investigator simulation thing, where volunteers come and act like investigators and your teach them... this week our task was to give directions to church and then teach the second lesson and the word of wisdom and it had to all be in Spanish.... so we go in to give the directions for the "investigator" to go to church and turns out that she is a total native. she doesnt speak or understand any English and she is straight from Honduras! It was soo awesome. fue muy duro but fue muy bueno at the mismo tiempo. it honestly made me that much more excited to get to Chicago!  and start speaking this espanol mucho mucho mas....

Friday: mail time came around and me and hna west had this envelope addressed to the both of us from the mtc..we were like what the heck is this? we open it up and there is this little pink piece of paper and on it says that we are doing this thing for the newbie missionaries when they come in...ok so let me explain. just like how we have the trc every week on the first day that the missionaries are there they split up into like 3 groups and go around to three different rooms where there are "investigators" and these missionaries come in and they start the lesson off and getting to know the investigator kind of thing...like a demonstration to the newbie’s how to teach and stuff... and ya then the group teaches the investigator..so me and hna west have been asked to be the missionaries’ that come in and show the newbie’s how to teach and get to know the investigator and see them as a person kind of thing!!! so basically I will be teaching in front of anywhere between 300 and 600 new missionaries’!!! sooo scary. so we have a training meeting today and then we go and do this thing on Wednesday... crazy huh?

Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I GOT MY TRAVEL PLANSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAYYYYYY!!!!!

Ok so I am leaving the mtc Tuesday November 9th. I have to check in at the travel office here at the mtc at 4:00am and then we drive to airport and our flight leaves from salt lake at 7:10am and then its a straight shot to Chicago! the plane should land at 11:15am... so crazyyy!! So I get to call you familia from the airport and I think it will probably be around 5-6am ish here to call you! :) How do you want to do this? dear elder me and let me know whose phone you want me to call, if I need to call both of you since you’ll be at work or whatever...but yayaya I get to hear your voice and I’m sooo excited!!

Then on Sunday it was Halloween!! So since we don’t really celebrate it here at the mtc us girls in our district decided to do something about that. so we all went as each other yesterday....I went as Hna Wilson, she went at Hna West and hna west went as hna putnam who then went as me....so funny. Our branch presidency and district sure got a kick out of it...Ill be sure to send you a picture when I get it developed... :)

As for the "new way" training.. I’m not really sure if mine is the new way or the old way but basically we are constantly taught to follow the spirit in our lessons and not just stick to the lesson plans. you teach whatever is gonna help the investigator come closer to Christ. we teach people. not lessons. so basically you could teach about the spirit world and then about the book of Mormon in one lesson or you could teach about the law of chastity first...idk but basically its just all about filling the needs of the investigator and helping them come closer to Christ through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

I will send one more email on Monday and then I’m outtie on Tuesday!

I love you all so much and look forward to mail!!

Love you!! Hermana Maughan.

Elder Christopher Maughan

Hi Everyone,

So my weeks/ days are all kind of feeling like one long week so I have a little hard of a time telling everything that is going on in my life/ mission but it’s going really good I’m enjoying it so much. Yesterday was Halloween and the day be for that was our ward party… me and my comp switched clothing and the ward really liked it, but my outfit was a little small to say the lest and my comp has heavy duty glasses so I had to where them and by the end of the night my head was hurting really bad. But it was a lot of fun the ward and I are really getting a long, they all know who elder Maughan is and we are getting a lot more help from them now, and that because of the love that is there. I love it here in Smithfield and I’m so glad that I’ll be here for Christmas, and I get to share the gospel with all the people here.

            We have another baptism coming up this Saturday, with Bruce. I’m really excited for it. And I love to the work is moving a long here and that I’m able to be a part of it. Bruce has a really hard time with his comprehension and this last week I remembered a promise the president Monson gave and it was that if we memorized a scripture a day at the end of two years we would have a photographic memory, so I invited Bruce to do this and I committed that I would do it with him as well, and it was been a miracle so see how much it has helped him and me. He has been doing it and is really excited because he has never been able to do this before! The spirit can truly make anything happen. My mind is also growing as I知 doing this and everyday it gets easier and easier.

 So my mission is going great! And I’m thankful for all that you all do for me. It’s so good to know that your lives are going great, and I pray for all of you.

 ELDER MAUGHAN