White Christmas

hey family! :)

Happy new year!! :)

It was so awesome to get to talk to you on Sunday :) weee everyone sounds so much different on the phone then I remember. Mike you sound all grown up. its gonna be weird to you when I get home seeings how your way taller than me now.

Thank you so much to all and everyone that sent me Christmas cards and gifts! they were awesome. p.s. mom I'm wearing the sweater I love it.

 This Christmas was a good one especially because instead of having a white Christmas outside looks wise. We got to have one inside and soul salvation wise:) Luis got baptized and it was seriously an amazing baptism. The smoothest I have ever had. The font was filled with warm water. the copy machine worked. the programs were all done correctly, the people participating in the program showed up on time and even Luis did too! We even started the baptism pretty much on time. 10 minutes late which is saying something. the only thing that went wrong---Luis and Elder Allen (who was baptizing him) both forgot their towels and change of undies. But nonetheless the spirit was there and it was pretty sweet. Sunday he was confirmed and that was an amazing blessing he received. its so cool to be able to see the change in people take place. Luis is now preparing to serve a mission and is really excited about it :) his blessing even talked about that and yeah Luis is one special kid.

 For Christmas eve we got to spend the night with the Mather's a family in the English ward. it was nice to have an English Christmas :) we read the Christmas story and opened up presents. and then on Sunday we went to church and it ended up being an hour and a half with a meeting after. but then we went to the bishops house and had a cool little family home evening. we played taboo and talked about all of our conversion stories. after that we went and visited with Kiki and her husband Shane and then headed over to the Sarmientos and had Christmas dinner and a lesson about the B of M with their brother Roberto.

This week was a busy one. we were able to teach 28 lessons this week. pretty crazy-the highest amount Ive ever been able to do in a week maybe one day i can make it to 30! :)

WE had an awesome miracle happen on Monday :) God led us to 4 new investigators. Our first appt after district meeting was with this family that we felt the impression to knock their door the week earlier and they opened the door and told us they were busy and asked us if we could come by next week. so we did. they let us in and its this cute little family of 3 who have been searching for the truth and didn't even really recognize it. They had a lot of questions and told us a ton about all of their religious views which line up with a lot of our beliefs. They really do believe in the importance of hard work and families, and have already invited us over for next week and told us they want to feed us! but it was a really cool lesson and I look forward to teaching them some more. :)

Then later that day we had lesson with Miguel who is a recent convert and we were planning to talk about the Christlike attributes with him and we went in and all of his roommates were there which is kind of unusual unless they are just about to leave so we invited them to come and listen and they said sure. One of them was a woman named Alejandra and she is large with child and we taught the plan of salvation and oh man. I have never had the spirit so strong in a lesson before. it was tangible with how strong it was. we talked about the importance of being baptized and having the gift of the Holy Ghost and how they right now can feel the spirit in moments but that if they want that feeling with them always then they need to be baptized and receive the companionship of the Holy Ghost and towards the end of the lesson, Alejandra told us--I don't know much about the bible or anything but I love this plan. I felt really peaceful and relaxed--its like what you were explaining how I felt it but now its not there. So we invited her to be baptized so she could have that companionship and she said yes! we have a return appt with her next Monday and she's pretty excited to come to church!

Oh and we find out about transfers on Saturday if there are any. I don't know whats gonna happen but I could see president leaving us together for another transfer but no one ever knows! So next time I email it could be in a different place!

But yeah that's whats up here! Sure miss you guys! love you tons and wanna know something bien loco? 13 weeks and I'm home. crazy right?

I hope you all have a good week!

paz y amor, Hermana Maughan

Feliz Navidad!

AHHHH!!!! Christmas time already!!! I cant believe it!! :)

Feliz Navidad! I really really can't believe that it is here already. that I get to talk to my family and that its gonna be the last time till I go home. Idk it all feels super surreal to me. But nonetheless I am super excited to talk to my precious family.

And oh boy do I have some cool miracles to share this week. How these keep happening to me mind boggles me. But I have been able to be the witness of so many miracles during my mission and especially now here in Aurora.

Well the following miracle I am going to share is a very special.... But a couple of weeks ago I was praying and asking God where we needed to go that day to find someone who was prepared and waiting for us to talk to them. As I prayed I had the feeling that we needed to go to these certain apartments and we didn't need to knock any doors just walk around the parking lot. So I obeyed. we went and just started walking around the parking lot of these apt buildings when this lady walks out and she is SUPER prego. Like Ready to pop she is so big with child. So she starts talking to us telling us that this will be her first child and that she left her abusive boyfriend and is now living with her brother. she invited us to come over and talk to her more. so we had one appointment with her and it was a really awesome appt. and we set up a return day for us to come back and we went back and she wasn't there and didn't answer the phone and we were pretty sad. but nonetheless something felt different about her..her name is Maria and so we kept trying and trying to go back and see if she was home. well two weeks later Hermana Brown was on exchanges with Hermana Alvarez and they found her! Turns out the reason she wasn't home was because she was in the hospital having her sweet little girl. They set up an appt to come back and see her on Sunday and SOOOOOO on Sunday Hermana Brown and I went over to her house and taught her the plan of salvation. the spirit was there bearing testimony that the things we were teaching were true and we invited Maria to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized and she accepted! She is now on date to be baptized for the 21st of January! :) So ultimately it comes down to one cool thing....We received a member referral-from GOD! the best member ever! :) We are teaching her again tomorrow!

So this week our bishop and his family are out of town-in Utah seeing the lights at the temple etc... and Bishops Mom is staying at the house watching the house while they are gone. and Bishops Mom is about 80 plus years old and so the bishop just asked if we wouldn't mind stopping by their house in the morning and in the night to make sure that his mom is doing OK and if she needs anything. so we had been going over there and just talking with her and sharing all the cool miracles that we have been seeing in our days and Sunday night we went over and were telling her about what happened with Maria and how we received this cool referral from God and after we finished the story she asks us "well would like another referral?" and we are like "of course Hermana!" She proceeds to tell us of how her granddaughter Rosa just came to the house this week to spend time with her and how they were talking and that Rosa had had all the charlas before and been to church a couple of times but that she said that now she wants to be baptized and talk to us...So we went back Monday morning before district meeting and got to meet Rosa. Talked about the Book of Mormon and invited her to be baptized and she accepted! and told us that she wants to be baptized as soon as she possibly can and so we have her on date to be baptized December 31st :) All that happened Monday morning before 10am :) really was quite awesome!

Earlier in the week I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Hermana Hawes in Cicero and we had a really great day. We were going to an appt that ended up not being home and there was a lady across the street on her porch trying to hang up Christmas lights and so we ran over across the street and helped her put up her lights. Her name is Lily and she just started talking to us and telling us all her stories. how she is happily married to a man who doesn't smoke, drink or do drugs and that they have been married for 10 years, about how she wants to be closer to God and has been looking for a church and just through talking to her on the porch we ended up giving her a soft baptismal invitation and she accepted it and said that she would love to be baptized. then the next appt we had was with a family that Hermana Hawes and Alvarez had found the day before and we went back and had one of the most powerful lessons on the restoration invited Esmerelda and her two sons to be baptized on the 14th of January and they all accepted it and then with a little bit of a encouragement Esmerelda said the closing prayer and the spirit was soooo strong in the room. Its so interesting to me how I feel like the best prayers are given by people who have never prayed before So innocent and pure with real desire to know if God is really listening. So leaving Cicero there was 7 people with a date to be baptized! :)

My eye is back to normal and doing great! my companion doesn't have bronchitis anymore and we are hittin the pavement. :)  and biggest miracles of all: NO SNOW! :) wee!!! it can stay away as loooooooooooooooooong as it wants. I'm not missing it one stinkin bit. It snowed on Monday but it was only a little and its already gone. :) although the wind does make it feel like there should be snow with how windy and rainy its been. but still no snow! and that makes me happy! :)

Yeah  so its been a pretty miracle filled week!

Nana I got your package :) thank you so much. Ive been eating the stolen every morning with hot chocolate and it sure makes me miss you :) hope you all got my stuff or will be getting it soon! :) Sure love you all and hope you have a super merry Christmas :)

Con mucha paz y amor,

Hermana Maughan! :)

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! It is coming!!! Really fast! I'm so happy! The only thing that makes it feel not like Christmas is the fact that its only 61 degrees outside to day and we have not had rain for some time….. maybe its because I'm way south but it doesn’t look like its going to be a white Christmas for me this year but that’s OK because I'm still biking more than driving.

            This last week was good, we had our Christmas program on Saturday and it was really good but that was not because I was in it haha, we had 4 investigators there and it was a really good time this ward knows how to cook haha I may just have a heart attack jk. So it was a great night but then at church yesterday none of our investigators came L and we have to call them to find out why today. Besides that it was really good the last two young men gave there farewell talks so there was a lot of people that came and the Christmas spirit was there.

            Then last night we went Christmas Caroling which was different from back home for two reasons:

1)      There was almost no one there 6 sisters, Elder Yankton our ride (a brother) and me

2)      Because the ward is so spread out we went out for two hours and sung to 5 people for about 3 mins each, as the rest of the time was driving…..   

But it really helped it feel like Christmas!
We had a few lessons this week but the one that is progressing the most is Elizabeth the 10 year old, we were able to teach about the restoration and she was right in there learning and growing. This upcoming week are going to teach her about Christ birth and Christmas, we still have to think of a fun way to do it.

            O ya we had our Christmas zone conference and it was really good, I bet in that video I look like a big goof haha. It was really good and you know who is in my district now? Elder Moore….. do you remember him…. He was in the desert wells ward when we moved in, anyways its funny because he came out with Elder Town so I could have trained him haha, he was at the conference and we talked a lot. And Elder Koplen (the first elder I trained) and he is training now so I now have a “grandson”….. man I'm old haha that was what went through my head haha

            Well I got to go I’ll talk to you soon!!! I love you!!!!!!!!

YOUR ALL DA BEST!!!!!

ELDER MAUGHAN MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!            

Christmas is coming up so soon

Happy Christmas and a Merry New Years! :)

How’s this week going? can you believe Christmas is coming up so soon?! I sure cant! definitely not ready for it yet! Even Chicago isn’t ready for it since we have to have snow that sticks. it snowed for the first time this year on Thursday and then it all melted away and now its just wet and rainy... don’t even know if we will being having snow for Christmas this year.

 But this week has been a good one yet again! god just keeps pouring in these blessings and i have loved every minute of it....:)

So on Friday Sotero finally got baptized! Which you know what’s really cool about the date that he was baptized? is that a year before on the same day is when my first baptism took place. :) Jose Gonzales. So yeah that was pretty sweet! but what could go wrong for this baptism you might ask? Seeing as how at every baptism I have ever had something ALWAYS happens.....this time...wellllllllll They needed a ride to get from where they live to the church seeing how they didn’t have any other way of getting to the church and they live about a good 30 40 minutes away from the church. we had the ride and everything all set up and our baptism was supposed to take place at 7....its 6.45 and still no sotero. try calling the ride and no one is answering and called Sotero and he’s still at his apt and its 6.45 just waiting for the ride to pick him up......and we cant get a hold of anyone. 7.30 and still no one. font filled people waiting. even the bishop isn’t there. well finally we find out that the ride we had set up couldn’t take him last minute cause they got stuck in traffic so then the bishop went to go get him but got lost and didn’t know his address and ladlalalalsdklsdfjklsdhgjlsg so good news is that he finally made it to the baptism! at 8 is when we got started. :) and sotero is now the newest member of the Aurora Ward. :)

 Next cool thing is that Luis is just the most amazing person ever! He is seriously so excited to be baptized and we taught him the restoration on Sunday and the spirit was there so strong and we asked him how he felt and he told us...."well. its like this big feeling that i don’t know how to explain. but its really good. just this good big feeling. and I think that Joseph Smith was a prophet."  We gave him a chapter to read on Saturday that was about 10 pages long and he had it done by Sunday and had read the chapter 2 times so he could understand it better. AND he told us on Sunday that he really wants to go on a mission when he can :)

Lessons learned this week:

1.)If your eyes get big and swollen it’s a good idea to go to the doctor.

So for the past couple of weeks my eyes have been acting super weird. and actually it’s not even my eyes...just the eyelids. and every morning i wake up and my eyelids are just so swollen and puffy and red and itchy and burning hot and SUPER dry...like my eyelids were cracking and flaking....thought it might be just allergies so I was taking allergy medicine and Benadryl at night and using allergy eye drops and nope nothing. So then Saturday morning I woke up and couldn’t open my eyes because they were so swollen and told Hermana brown that that was it. we were going to the doctor. went over to Walgreen’s and the doctor...oh man you should have seen her face when she saw mine. if you have ever seen the movie Hitch-when he has that allergic reaction to the fish and his face blows up--yeah that’s what mine looked like. like I had two black swollen eyes without the black part. and she pulled out her little medical book and had to look it up cause it was so weird for her. turns out you know how lucky i am? Well eczema runs in our family and apparently I’m lucky enough to get it on my eyelids. add that along with a staph infection and you get the look of hitch minus the makeup artists. So attached is a photo of one of the days with my eyelid but it is nothing in comparison to how they were the day i went to doctor. super bad. so i got some nasty antibiotics and am now putting a steroid cream on my eyelids twice a day and not permitted to wear makeup for the next two weeks...get to show of the natural beauty from within. :)

2.) Never let me know it’s your birthday and you have confetti:)

well it was Hermana Browns birthday on Monday and her mom sent her a package filled with balloons and happy birthday confetti....while Hermana brown was sleeping :) I quietly took those balloons and blew them all up. took some ribbon and hung them from the ceiling, made a happy birthday sign and then took all the confetti and put it everywhere. she was finding it in her pockets, her boots, her toothpaste, her scriptures, her preach my gospel, her planner, her camera case....everywhere she went HAPPY BIRTHDAY was slammed in her face:) Then Hermana Brown gets all grossy josey on anything to do with eyeballs...so what does she get as a present from me? 4 plastic blue eyeballs is right! oh  man it was funny. So I sure hope that it was a good day for her :)

3.) Letting people know you play a musical instrument is a badddddd idea. especially when you have zone conference and the people that were supposed to do the special musical number get sick with the flu. So Zone conference was on Thursday. i get a call Wednesday night at about 9:40pm from the assistant. Asking me what my favorite color is and why. and then what my favorite musical instrument to play is. well I only play one. oh yeah. you play the flute. would you be willing to play a special musical number for our zone conference tomorrow. I found you a flute :) so seeing as I was cleverly tricked into that conversation I ended up playing some primary Christmas songs with assistant rogers on the piano. it didn’t turn out so bad considering that I only had 1 hour to practice. :)

And yeah. that’s pretty much what happened this week! :) Well I’m really looking forward to talking to my family on Christmas :) yayy!

love you a ton!

paz y amor,

Hermana Maughan

Fast email

Well I have to do a fast letter home today because the place we e-mail is closed so we had to scramble to find a public place that we could e-mail and we found one at the College and I have to be fast.

So this week has been good we had a lot of lessons fall through but we had 2 investigators at church yesterday and a lot of appointments set up for this week, a really big thing that is coming up this week is the Christmas program which we were drafted into haha but that is this Saturday and the ward is excited to be a part of it, they say that there is going to be a lot of non-members there. And then yesterday we had a young men give his fare well talk and then is leaving today and then the next two weeks both have someone leaving for their missions so its an exciting time for this ward.

I'm doing good, but just ready for Christmas, I got the package from mom and dad, so now there is something under our tree!  Yay haha, and this week we have our Christmas Zone conference which is all ways really spiritual. It’s a great time of the year but just a little weird being in a small town and now that school is done it got a lot smaller haha. The weather got all the sudden really cooled… which is funny because a few days ago it felt like an Arizona winter haha.

Well I'm sorry for the way short letter but that is really all the time I have today….. sorry but I'm doing good and loving it here!!!! Take care and be safe!!!!!!

LOVE

Elder Maughan

Already the 7th of December

Familia!

Man can you believe that is already the 7th of December?! Man I can’t. This is crazy!

I got the Christmas package and the nifty cute advent calendar that the Orr’s sent. :) thanks! Our tree this year is a little guy. goes to about my mid-calf and we have him sitting on the coffee table in our living room with all the presents we’ve gathered sitting around it :)

The weather here is getting colder and colder. We woke up this morning and it was below freezing: / man I tell you what. I do not miss the cold. But here it comes anyways :)

I cannot believe that you got the paper telling what airport I’m coming into already! that’s crazy man! I feel like I just got out here!

Things here this week have been really good. We’ve been working and working and working. Last week we were blessed to find 7 new investigators and they are awesome!

One of which is a man named Luis.....I don’t remember if I told you about him already or not but he’s 19 and his family is really inactive. The mom is the only one that was officially baptized in the church and idk I figured he was already a member and a brother to this other member that he is always with. but basically he came up to us and asked us what he needed to do to be baptized. So we had a lesson with him and at the very beginning of the lesson what did we do? Well we invited him to be baptized! Set him on date for the 24th of December :) and when we asked him what he thought about that date and he was silent for a bit almost to the point that we thought he didn’t like it and he looks up at and says "That would be.....so awesome!" He is seriously the most excited person i have ever seen for baptism. What a special Christmas this is going to be :) I feel so so so so blessed.

Another 3 of the new investigators that we found this week are this little family of 3. Reyna, Gustavo, and Isaac. And man oh man. They are amazing people. We actually found them on our lunch break and decided to go see if we could see one of our other investigators who works there (Cruz) at KFC and Reyna and them where in line and needed help ordering their food since they couldn’t speak English. and Reyna was so impressed with the fact that white girls are speaking Spanish that she started asking us questions and one thing led to next she invited us over to her place and as she was giving us her contact information Cruz came out and saw that we were talking to her and she comes over and starts talking to Reyna and Gustavo telling them how much we have helped her and her family how her family prays every night and all this stuff that when we finally got to go over there last week it was so comfortable in their home. They already felt like members to me. And we felt really impressed to talk about the Book of Mormon and Reyna got so excited about it that she invited herself to read it! So we get to see her and her family this Saturday :) I can’t wait! 

This Friday Sotero is gonna get baptized! yeah man!! :) I cannot wait for that! :) and the best part is that neither can he! He told us how excited he was. Sotero is an amazing man who reminds me a lot of a quiet shy child wrapped up in a big guy body. His baptism is gonna be so great! I love baptisms! 

We put Victor on date again for the 21 of January and I really am hoping that he will be able to get his butt to church. We have taught him everything and he knows it’s true and wants to be baptized so bad but due to his work schedule it prevents him from being able to come to church but he told us that in January work will be slowing down and hell have more time to come to church. the problem is that him and another recent convert (Carlos) have the same job. So whenever Carlos isn’t working victor is and visa versa. So in order for Carlos to be able to come to church Victor has to work...dilemma...but it will all work out. We talked about temples yesterday and he really wants to be able to enter there and one day be sealed with someone forever. Victor has not had an easy life and he is trying his best. I know that it’s gonna work out and I just hope that I get to see that brother get baptized! 

So this past week was a really good one. And this week well actually tomorrow we have zone conference :) 6 and a half hours of getting to learn how to be better people and teachers and missionaries and listeners and remotivated all over again! Super excited!  

Hope you all are staying happy and warm and I look forward to hearing from you!

Miss you tons! Have a great week!

paz y amor,

Hermana Maughan

As a Child

Well I’m in week 6 of this transfer and it doesn’t feel like I have been in Pembroke that long….. but here we are, and I have been able to feel like this area has really grown already. I’m finally getting everyone’s first name down, it has taken time to get use to calling people by their first name, instead of their last name. I really love these people and it’s so great to be with them!

            This week has been a really good week. We had a few powerful lessons this week one was with a man Earnest and his son Tray. We went to the appointment thinking that we were going to talk about the plan of salvation but as we started talking we felt the need to talk more about the Book of Mormon and its role in our conversion. The Spirit was really strong as we talked about how we must feel that it is true and strive to know if it’s true or not by reading it, and then taking it to God in prayer to ask if it is true. After the lesson we first invited Ernest to be baptized on the 14^th of next month and he was all for it! So then we invited his 14 year old son Tray and he told us that he will pray about it, but yes he would and then Ernest was like “Oh well I better pray about it too”

            Then we had a lesson with Elizabeth the 9 year old and for the lesson I made a puzzle to teach her of the Doctrine of Christ (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end) Then she surprised us by teaching it back to us in only about 5 minutes when we had taken about 30 mins! It was great to hear how simple the gospel really is, and think of if we were all like a child in the way of learning and living the gospel that the world would be a lot better place. We then invited her to be baptized on the 7^th of next month and she really wants to. Yesterday she was able to go to primary for the first time and I’m excited because we have a lesson with her tonight and we are going to ask her what she thought of church.

            So in a nut shell the work is moving along here, and life is good. I’m excited about the Christmas season that is upon us (the weather has been really nice this week) and people are getting nicer haha! We even have had two people invite us over for Christmas this year! Yay for CHRISTmas (not CHIStmas haha) but I hope you all have a great season and a wonderful week!

LOVE ELDER MAUGHAN!!       

Mi Familia Preciosa! :)

Como han estado? Este semana fue una semana un poquito loco...15 de nuestras citas con investigadores cancelaron....15 out of our 16 citas we had set up for this week cancelled:( peoples agency is a bit frustrating sometimes. but alls well that ends well. we still ended up having a week of miracles:) and now its the week of thanksgiving so its gonna be even better!

We had a really awesome lesson with Miguel Ramierez on Monday-his wife is a less active member who has been working on Sundays and thus hasn't come to church. And we go over and visit with them every Monday and we went and saw them and had the thought that we needed to invite Miguel to come to church and what is so interesting about all of this is that earlier that week he told his wife "hey I think we need to be putting more focus into going to your church." and Mariana she has talked to her boss and he has finally decided to give her every 15 days that's Sunday off. so every other week. and Miguel is planning on coming to church even without his wife there this Sunday :) He told us that through the book of Mormon and reading it he understands the gospel better like when people talk to him about the gospel he understands it better. :)

We also got to see some awesome priesthood power in action this week. There was a less active in our area that went to the hospital and had never received a blessing other than when he received the holy ghost and the priesthood. so our zone leaders got to come and give that :) and then the next day we had another investigator her name is Nury. and man has she had some problems in her life. She has an abscess in her mouth, a blind eye that needs some surgery,she has really bad circulation that makes her fingers and toes turn blue and she has now torn ligaments in her foot preventing her from doing any walking. she lives alone with a big french poodle and doesn't have a Job or any family near by. Which is why we invited the elders to come over and give her a blessing. The elders then asked Nury if there was anything in specific that she felt they should know before giving her a blessing that she would like some help with...and she proceeded to tell us that there is someone that comes and videotapes her every night outside her window, shes gotten creepy pictures sent to her on her phone. there are drug dealers that live above her are making her sick and turning her sink pink, and the druggies beneath her are making her toilet bubble with chemicals and the cops are lying to her and telling her that they have checked it out when they haven't and now shes talking to the FBI about it, she was in the hospital for 21 days and a psych doctor came in and told her that she was delusional and that her brain had swollen but he hadn't even done any tests on her and then it turns out that he wasn't really a doctor but a crook and a felon who's now ruined her nursing career. After the hour passing of hearing those stories The elders then ask again well nury is there anything else? and she then tells us well actually yes there is....she then tells us that her car is broken and how every time she gets in the car she gets pulled over by the police and that if anyone tries to take her dog away then they are gonna be in big trouble. The elders finally got to give her an blessing and we left that appointment learning that we are teaching someone who we are pretty sure is a paranoid schizophrenic. I wonder what stories we shall hear today :) 

Last Wednesday we helped Carlos Gomez paint his house--thanks mom for giving me lots of practice:) because of that he was super impressed by my "[painting skills" along with my bow hunting skills and my computer hacking skills. 

We also learned how to make konchas (mexican pan) that it absolutely divine! yum yum yum. 

  Yesterday Hermana Layton my first companion and Elder Whatcott came up to visit the mission and took us out to lunch! :) it was so cool to be able to see them again. and we had a jolly time:)

  As for Sotero.....still no news. its been hard to talk to the whole family all at the same time. we had an appt with them last week and Sotero was supposed to be there and when Noberto came down to let us in Sotero escaped! and left. and you know why? because he was too embarrassed to see us. He enjoys it so much when we come over that He didn't want us to be mad at him for being mad at his kids! so he came to church on Sunday and we talked with him for a bit and told him we were gonna talk to him more and then i turn around and hes gone! he went home! man its been like strangely humorous...maybe cause i know that hell be baptized and that hes just acting like hes 5 years old right now and throwing a silly little tantrum.. but we have an appt with him on Friday and we will set everything up for him to be baptized. :) its gonna be great!

I hope you all have an awesome thanksgiving! love you mucho!

paz y amor,

Hermana Maughan

Happy Thanksgiving again!!!

          Man time is flying I have already been in Pembroke for 3 weeks now and thanksgiving is this week! I might be having some deep fried turkey haha that’s southern for ya, and most likely some collards, sweat potato, red drink, BBQ, corn bread and all those other great southern foods that make the world go round. I'm going to try to learn to cook all this stuff so you all can enjoy the greatness of North Carolina yum yum yum and maybe if you’re lucky I'll make chitlins :0 o boy that's going to be fun. HAPPY THANKSGIVING you Yankees from the West!!!!!!

            This week was good, yesterday we had stake conference and Anna’s family came all of them and it was crazy as they were in and out with all their little kids. And Elizabeth was also there, she is a 9 year old girl who we are teaching and she is a lot like Tia who I taught before. Elizabeth is 9 years old and she is a great little girl that has never been to church in her life but wants to get baptized and start coming. Her mother is from Nigeria and has been a little less active but is coming back! And it has been a lot of fun to start teaching a youngan  again. It makes you teach simply and to their understanding, that is how great this gospel is. Something so big as the gospel can be understood by a child… It must be because it is true!

A little more about the trailer, since I think that’s a area of interest back home. It’s a single wide but it does have two bathrooms. The fan is so low that every time I walk under it have to bend down or it will hit me square in the head. The Neighbors behind us have 4 horses…. Then to the right is an elderly man with about 6 dogs Mr.Collon. To the left is UNCP’s football field then in front of us is the church. Our washer and dryer are not in the trailer but are out back in a shed.

So the work is still going good and life is a lot of fun!  I love you all and hope your having a great day! Happy Thanksgiving again!!!

ELDER MAUGHAN!!

Time is flying, flying, flying by.

Hey Hey Hey Buen Dia familia! :)

       Can you believe we are already in our second week in november? I seriously cannot! soooo loco! time is flying flying flying by. I read Chris's letter and holy cow gave me a haert attack almost....him talking about how long he's been out....do you know that after this transfer on the 22nd of november I will only have 3 more left? One year ago today I entered the mission field.....so weird. They say that the last 6 months are some of the most imporant months on a mission because those are the months that you will remember the most. and starting tomorrow I begin reading one chapter of the doctrine and covenants because I only have 140 days left. 140! so disgusting. man just not fair that time is going by so fast

       As for things I want for christmas mom and dad i really dont need any packages due to the fact that ill just be sending them home like 2 months later anyways...so i was thinking what i want for christmas is to be able to come back here to chicago so i can show you what my life has been for the past 18 months....show you where my mexican spanish heart is :) 

       And as for miracles that happened this week! well do i have some!

first of all Karla and Carlos got BAPTIZED!!!!! :) weeeee!!!! it was awesome. there dad (Carlos) was nervous but he did a great job baptizing his children. it was a really awesome baptism.

       On sunday Soltero finally came to church again! and he was so happy to be there. it was really awesome. So as of now he is still on date to be baptized next saturday :) We have started to teach his other son, and the missionaries in Mexico are teaching Solteros wife :) and she has been going to church so God is really working with this family! and it has been really neat to be a part of it all.

       Another awesome miracle that happeend this week is that 2 weeks ago it was a Sunday and all of our plans had fallen through and we both did not know what to do. So we prayed and both felt like we needed to go try and find this less active that we hadn't seen in forever. It was a weird impression because logically it did not make sense. It would take a bit to drive there since it was not the area we were working in but we went and tryed to find him. He wasnt home, so we pulled out our area book and decided to see if we could find some former investigators and nothing. it was getting late and it was really cold so we were debating on whether we should head home or not and we decided that we were gonna try one more, so we did. Her name: edalith. she actually answered the door but told us that she was really busy (of course) and it would be better if we came by another day. so we set up and appointment to come back. the day of the appt she called us and cancelled...rescheduled for the next week. Next week came by and she cancelled and rescheduled again. so the third time we were expecting her to cancel but we stopped by and she  and her cute family were home! She has a daughter that is 9, a son who is 6, and a daughter who is 2. The missionaries hadn't been to their house in over eighteen months and so we just asked what they remembered from the missionaries.... and the 9 year old proceeds to tell us alllllll of the plan of salvation in detail. The mom tells us about Joseph Smith, and it was seriously so awesome. They are excited and want to learn more.

       This week we had set the goal that we were going to have 4 new investigators for the week and we still needed two. so we were going through our area book and checking out some of the former investigators. I wrote 17 in the agenda to go see. They had moved, definatley had no interest in learning more or they just weren't home. It was 8:30. had to be home in 30 minutes...we were walking in the parking lot of the apt complex where we had been contacting and we saw in one of the windows the lights were on at a members house. I had the strong feeling that we needed to go see them so we stopped by and they let us we read a bit from the scriptures and were talking to them about what we were trying to do that night. Hermana Solana then told us--oh the missionaries were seeing Rigo y Ana and they live around here (the bishop Monarrez married them and everything in the church and idk what happened but maybe you should stop by and see if they're home. Well Rigo and Ana were the first names that I had put in my planner of who we wanted to go see. I even had a * next to them because I felt really good about them. We had gone by and the people who lived there told us that they had moved. Well she gave us their phone numbers and knew their new direction. so we said a prayer and left and went and stopped by their apt. and sure enough they were home! and they let us in and we had a short little lesson with them and will be seeing them next sunday! :)

      Yesterday we went and had a family home evening with a family in the english ward who have a son that just married a girl named Medalith from Peru. They have the most beautiful baby named Isabela and the family invited us over so that we could get to know Medalith since spanish is her first language and she is still learning english. She has been to the english ward 2 times but doesn't really understand what is going on. She lived in Utah for a bit and her best friend had the missionaries visiting her and she actually got baptized. We had an awesome discussion on the importance of families, we watched the movie families can be together forever, and we have a return appt for next monday :) yaaaay!

         Monday we went on exchanges with some other Hermanas and It was me and Hermana Alvarez who has only been out in the mission for 2 weeks now and we taught 7 lessons on Monday together. 4 of them fed us; one at 3, one at 4, and one at 7. oh man! one thing the mission has taught my body is how to strech a stomach so you can fit everything. bleh.....man was it hard. food, food and more food, in fact I'm still full from 2 days ago! Hermana Alvarez and I were laughing so hard at just how much food we had to eat and how much of a struggle was to put one more bite of food in our mouths...pero asi es la vida de la mision! :)

       Yesterday we also had zone meeting and it was a really spiritually uplifting meeting...i made ties and flowers for everyone in the zone along with the scripture mosiah 18:21 :) and we also learned that our prep day will be changing on Jan 9th to a monday just like elder maughans :)

       So we are seeing awesome things happen here in Aurora. I love this area, I love the people, I love the work. It truly is amazing and I wish I had another year left to keep going in the Lords work because there really is nothing like it.

I sure love you guys a lot and hope you have a great week! Cruz is taking us to the city today and I AM SO EXCITED! oh how i love the city! :) abrazos!

paz y amor
Hermana Maughan

I have never been called white man so much in my life haha it’s so crazy!

            So I have been transferred all the way down to the South Carolina line, in a little place called Pembroke….. it’s the smallest place I have ever been. The one the big thing is the University but other than that we don’t have anything besides a Wal-Mart. I mean we even have a PO box  which reminds me if anyone wants to send me Christmas mail (wink wink haha) you’ll need to send it to my address which is:

985 Old Mail Road

PO Box 3125
Pembroke, NC 28372

            Now there is a small chance that I will be transferred  and I will find out on December the 9^th so if I do then my address will change…. But I don’t think that will happen… or at least I hope not.

            So a little more about Pembroke; about 95% of the people here are Native American from the Lumbe Tribe. It’s not a reservation but I tell you it's really close. There are stray dogs everywhere. At church I was the one white person…. That was really different as even my companion is a Native American from Nevada (his name is Elder Yankton) and I tell you what I have never been called white man so much in my life haha it’s so crazy! But its great here, there is about 3 young men that are about to go on missions and another one who just got back and we have some great investigators. One lady named Ann is progressing great! She hasn’t smoked for about a week and is reading and praying every day! Also her husband just got into town yesterday and he wants to learn, and then her 5 kids are coming Thursday, she just found a job and she has a lot of friends at church! So the work is going forth!

            O another funny thing is that we live in a trailer right behind the church (like in order to get there you have to drive through the church parking lot) and then our Neighbors are some Horses and the college football field,  where they practice all the time. On Saturday they had a game and where they just blare the music so it was way funny when I first heard the game going on. The members have been really nice. The funny thing here is that they have the same last name out of about 4 names, one big one is Locklear so that makes its easy to remember people’s names but then everyone goes by their first names here so that makes it a little harder... haha but its been a lot of fun.

            So it kind of hit me last week that in less than a month I will have been out on my mission a year and a half….. because Elder Yankton came out with me and then with this member Elder coming home from his mission everyone here is telling me that the last 6 months fly by. Then I thought of Timothie and then it hit me if I was a sister missionary I would be going home. Then we were at a members home who just moved from Arizona about a year ago so half way through dinner as we were talking it came out that I had been out of Arizona longer then had….. but it really doesn’t feel like it and it’s not bothering me. I just was just thinking it was way funny so I thought I would share it.   

            Well I love you all so much and I'm so grateful to be out here in the South and thank you all for then many things that you do!

LOVE, ELDER MAUGHAN!      [~_~]  _|,,|         

Baptism with Maria and Hugo

!Familia!

que tal? como han estado?

        Well what a great week for us! Man :) Missionary work is seriously the best thing ever!!!!!!!!

So first let me tell you about the baptism with Maria and Hugo.............if you don't know already with baptisms something always always always always goes wrong. or tries to. Satan tires his very very best to keep it from happening...and this time i thought that it was going to be a pretty calm baptism with no major problems seeing how the biggest one they actually overcame and that was setting a date to be baptized....
       Well it was planned for saturday night right? Church was all scheduled because there was nothing reserved on the calendar for the church. no problem right? wrong.
Then on Thursday night at 8:30 we received a call from our bishop informing us that he just found out that there was going to be a stake youth activity at our church building and it started at the exact time that the baptism was scheduled. meh....that was a fun 2 hours trying to call and figure out what we could do instead. because hugo works until 5 and he would already be coming straight from work to get to the baptism on time at 6  they told us they couldnt do it friday, so we were pretty much stumped and at the point of tears not knowing what to do, and then our bishop because he is just so awesome called our investigators and idk what he said to them but they then called us and said that they would get baptized on Friday. 5 days from when they set their date they were baptized! and let me tell you what a baptism! man it was pretty amazing. the spirit was strong there and they will definately be life time members. Bishop was supposed to give the last talk on the Holy Ghost and he was stuck in traffic and president doll ended up giving the talk :) thanks to him I didn't have to do it. I have never seen them that happy before.
       We have Karla and Carlos Jr. getting baptized by their father Carlos this saturday! :) they have their entrevistas tonight and it will also be an awesome baptism.
As for sad news: Jorge who was going to be baptized on the 12th of this month~texted us the other day and told us that he didn't want to listen to us anymore because, he didn't like having his wife mad at him all the time for becoming mormon. We immediatly went over to his house and talked to him and tried to see if we could set up a time to talk to him and his wife, but he wouldn't do it, so I'm really wondering if he's using it as a pretexto (idk what that is in english sorry) but like its kind of like a cover for whats really going on. I prayed and prayed about it and really felt this peace which was a but weird for me to be at peace with the fact that he doesn't want us to teach him anymore. but I trust those feelings and somehow know that its all going to be ok.

       Halloween was cool. my costume was fun :) and we played a rouling game of monopoly electronic banking. it was fun. then today for pday we are going to go fly kites with president doll and our zone.  It's pretty cold and windy outside...winter is coming and we were told that we should be getting snow today or tomorrow :( meh. no thank you.

       I've been doing this new cool thing where I'm really trying to focus on how sincere my prayers are and how strong my converations with my Heavenly Father are, and so I've been having a pen and paper by me when I pray. I'm giving God time to talk to me and listen for the answers to my questions and then writing it down. and it's been pretty amazing at the miracles I have seen from it. So you should definately try it and then write me a letter telling me all about it! :)

 I love you all and hope you had a great halloween and that youll have a great week!

paz y amor,
Hermana Maughan

That’s the best way to leave an area

                 Happy Halloween! Well this week has been great! Yesterday William was baptized! and he had asked me to baptize him and that’s the best way to leave an area…. Yep that’s right im getting transferred…… sad day, Sunday was really hard because everyone was there and I had to say good bye. I have really loved it here, and I know that the next place will be even better!  but the Lord has just been so good to me here! Rocky Mount is a wonderful place and the people are even better, but now I'm off to meet new people.  Something that stinks is that next week rocky mount will be having another baptism…. Well that part doesn’t stink but the part that does is that I will not be here……

                 Yesterday was a great. The spirit was so strong.  William's girlfriend flew in from Utah for the baptism and the spirit was so strong! Then later that night we went over to Shirley’s and Charity’s house with Nate and another member... so I had dinner with 3 people that I was really able to help and I tell you what I all most cried a few times that day haha but a lot of other people did….. sad, sad so we will have to come back to this little place after the mission!

                 The Lord has been such a help to me and you know what after this weekend I cannot remember what happened the rest of the week….. o ya we had our Halloween party and it was fun, there wasn’t any games, just food and then trunk or treating.  This year we handed out candy and it was a lot of fun….. Because I was giving to my family…. For a little there were 3 Elder Maughans but because there were so many non-members there the other two gave me back my name tags but I stayed as Elder Maughan from the Calgary Canada mission. It that was fun.

                Well I have got to go there is a lot of packing to do……
 I hope your all doing good. Have a great Halloween tonight I love you all! Be safe and take care

Love,

ELDER MAUGHAN 

Miracle Week

Hey there my loving family!!!
        So man oh man what an awesome week it has been! :) ok Im going to sound like a cheesy missionary right now but I dont care cause its all true! Because seriously the Lord is blessing me with being able to be the witness of so many miracles and to be able to see the change in people take place from the inside out. We are teaching so many very prepared people and I just can not explain how blessed I really do feel. I can testify that I do know there is a God and that he is extremely loving. That he does care and loves every single one of us tremendously and wants us to learn and be blessed and come to know him. How do I know this?...I not only know it because I have seen the change and the Lords hand in not only preparing but helping people hearts be softend to come unto the fold of christ but also because the Lord has had his hands in my life, prepping, guiding, and placing people in my path to help me be the person and reach the potential that God knew I could. Without him and his hand I would not be here on my mission, I would not have been able to witness the miracles that I have and I would not have this burning in my heart to share it with everyone. God loves us! He loves me. isnt that so awesome? he literally is our Father and just like my earthly father he wants the best for me and he wants me to be able to grow and feel his love. and I have! oh man have I ever. Every fiber in my being knows this and i cannot deny it.

With that being said let me tell you all the AMAZING miracles that have happened here in North Aurora this week! :)

       Well first one being we were blessed to have 7 member present lessons! We have been working alot with the part member/less active/recent converts in our ward and it really is working. All of the investigators we have on date except 1 is from part member families. and as such the recent convert lessons are now turning into member present lessons :) isnt that so awesome?! we are so excited.
       This Sunday was also invitation Sunday where the services are basically focused for the nonmembers and the investigators. Every topic in every class focuses the basic beliefs of our church. The members invite their friends and family to come check us out. It's like an open house and we have it twice a year. So what we also take them on a tour of the church building to the different classes-primary, releif society, sacrament, young men /young women etc and explain what happens in the classes and show how the family is central to our iglesia.
       We had very good potential investigators come out of it.... There is this woman named Nury and she has served many missions for her church and has quite the stories to tell she has heard of mormons before and would like to learn more. so we will be setting up an appointment to see her this week.

       Well I dont remember if I have told you about Maria and Hugo? But they are what are known as eternigators....they have been investigating the church for an eternity and will not take the step to be baptized. They are more active than the active members. They have all the church books including preach my gospel and have been helping teach the new member lessons and participating in every activity that they can. They even went out and bought their 5 year old son a suit so he could wear it to church. and yet they will not take the step to be baptized. When I first got to the area Hermana Noyes told me about them and how they had to stop teaching them because they just were not progressing anymore and the last week that we had together I had the feeling that we needed to go see them. So we set up and appt and I had in my mind ok, this is going to happen, they will have a baptism date and they are going to know they are ready. If you know Hermana Noyes and Hermana Romney they are really nice and sweet girls and so I had just figured that they just hadn't been bold enough with this family and I have not one problem with being bold...so thats how I was in the appt and still nothing. Tried to set them for the next saturday and they said that was too soon and that they wanted the decision to be their own and that they needed to study more and find out if that was what they really needed to do. So we commited them to fasting and praying about taking the decision for a specific date and that we would be fasting and praying with them. Well we went and saw them and they still said that they had yet to recieve an answer, so we focused our lesson on the Book of Mormon due to the fact that they hadn't really been reading it. and that all of their silly dudas all come down to knowing if the book of mormon is the word of God. so we have been visiting them like about every other week since they arnt really progressing. so we went back to their house this monday with the lesson of teaching enduring to the end because we both really felt like the reason they hadn't gotten baptized yet is because they are scared of whats gonna happen after they get baptized, that they will fall away and that bad things will happen. When we went and found out that they had both started the BoM over from the beginning and were already in the book of Mosiah. (in 2 weeks) and had a really good lesson with some awesome spirit guided questions but still being the stubborn eternigators that they were would not say that they would be baptized. We ended the lesson with telling them how much we loved them and that the reason why they may feel we are being so bold about all of this is because we love them and we want them to have the blessings that God is waiting to give them...and then Hermana Brown asked to say the closing prayer and I asked if we could kneel and so we did and oh man I have never prayed so hard and fervently that their hearts would be softened in the prayer that Hermana Brown was giving. We got up and were saying our goodbyes when Maria says "I want to be baptized." I turned to her and I think my mouth must have hit the floor because it took me a while to pick it back up again as I asked "seriously?" and she began to cry and said " I need to be baptized. I know I need to. I can feel it." We then said well Maria we could have the baptism this Saturday if you would like and she said. "yes. I want to be baptized." so we sat back down and began to plan her program in all of this. Meanwhile Hugo is not saying anything and is sitting with his arms folded. and we got all of her prgram figured out except for the closing prayer and she asked her husband if he would give it and he turns to her and us and says "well I want to be baptized too eh!" so they have their interviews tonight. and isnt God interesting? Something came up with Carlos and Karla that they couldnt be baptized this week to make it available for Maria and Hugo to be baptized! man I dont even have words to express how happy and excited and blessed I feel to be able to  be able to be a witness to all of this!

Lesson learned this week:

White is a color not welcome color....when dealing with hair. Yes. yesterday I found my first white hair. but it was not a head hair...but a white EYEBROW hair. what the?! So that hair has made it into my journal now...i still cannot believe it. Who gets a white eyebrow hair when their only 22 years old?

       Some of my favorite missionaries are now home this week :( The Becks have finished their mission and are now back in Utah. They were such great examples to me and helped me really feel like I had family here in Chicago. but they are going to just jump back into the swing of things there in Utah and I wish them the best!

Thanks so much for all your love and support. Sure miss you guys! Have a great week!

much paz y amor,
Hermana Maughan

This work is so great and the lord is really helping out!

Hi!

       Sorry I'm a day late with my letter, Elder Brockbank got sick yesterday and we were not able to go anywhere. This is going to be a buzz kill letter today.... there are only 3 computers in the Family History Center and I waited for everyone else to go first so I don't really have any time since as we have a lesson with a part member soon.

       It was a great week! On Sunday we had 6 non-members at church and Nat was confirmed, and with all the non-members we where able to talk to a lot of them and things are looking really good; William is getting baptized this Sunday and he has asked me to baptize him! yay i love missionary work!!

      We have been doing a lot of work with the less active memebers. I feel like I almost know everyone in Rocky Mount now, like we found a less active member that cuts hair and so last night we went and got our hair cut. We were able to invited him and all his family to the Halloween party this week..... (yes I let some one else cut my hair... haha )

      This work is so great and I can feel the Lord is really helping us out. We taught this young man named Vance and he is getting baptized in two weeks. He went to BYU Virginia for two years, then came here and wants to join the church :) Another thing this week was one of the other non-members that came to church was Williams friend, (this is the second friend that William has invited him to Church and take the lessons!) When I first got here there was this core group of members that were doing all the missionary work but now the fire of missionary work is spreading and it feels like the Lord is blessing the ward so much. O how the Lord loves his children.

     I hope you all have a great Halloween and enjoy all that candy! haha I love all so much and thanks for all that you do!

ELDER MAUGHAN

It is always good to be prepared!

Hey family!

Man I feel like I have so many cool things to tell you this week and I don't even know where to begin! I think I'm gonna start off with...........

Miracles of the week:

1. We now have 5 people on date to be baptized! man it is just so cool! We had to move victors baptism because he has been working on Sundays so hes finally going to be coming to church this Sunday but Karla and Carlos Jr are still on track for the 29th. then we have Jorge on date for the 5th of November, Soltero and Victor for the 19th

2. We had a lesson with Jorge on Friday and we had two fairly recent converts come with us Silvia and Miguel. And we felt like we needed to address the word of wisdom because well Jorge loves his tequila and his coffee. and let me tell you it was one of the most awesome word of wisdom lessons that I have ever been a part of. Jorge was kind of debating with us that he wouldn't be able to give up his coffee and he didn't understand why we couldn't and Miguel then bore a really powerful testimony and shared his experience with living the word of wisdom because turns out that was something that was really hard for him but that completely changed his life around and then Silvia she then asked Jorge...."Jorge I don't know much about this kind of stuff but don't you have diabetes?" and I had totally forgotten that he did. so he said yes....and she goes "and a lot of sugar is bad for you isn't it?" and he says yes....and then she said "well I would imagine that coffee cant be good for you either than because it has so much sugar in it." and let me tell you I have never seen Jorge speechless before but he knew she was right. So then I felt the spirit so strong and promised him the blessing that if he obeyed the word of wisdom gave up his coffee and his tequila that he wouldn't have a much problems with his diabetes. so then i called him Monday to see how he was doing and you know what he told me? that since our lesson he hasn't drank one cup of coffee or tequila since! and that he hasn't even had any desire to or like withdrawals or nothin. so sweet!

3. We are teaching this AWESOME Hermana named Cruz and she is a single mom with 3 kids ages 11, 9 and 7 (turning 8 on the 29th of Nov) and her mom is recent convert and she has really seen the change in her mom since she became a member but she has been so busy with work and just really hasn't had quite the desire to listen until now. I can honestly say that i feel like I am here on a mission for Cruz. I mean from the first day I met her we just clicked and since she has been having such a desire to get her priorities straight and I cannot even tell you how strong the spirit is when we are there. And we are actually getting to the point that we are having awesome lessons with her. which is a miracle if you were to read her teaching record. So on Thursday we had a lesson with her on repentance and boy oh boy was it awesome. she just really opened up and gave her the commitment to repent and left her with a BOM and the story in Mosiah about Alma the younger and the sons of mosiah and we left but then (she has a younger brother who's 20 and his name is junior and hes a partier...drinker, smoker, living the life as the world would say) on Friday the next day she was reading the chapter and then later that night her brother who usually isn't over and usually doesn't stay the night came over and Cruz got him to spend the night so they were sleeping and Cruz woke up at 4am cause she heard junior grunting and stuff. well turns out hes having seizure. and he was biting on his tongue like crazy hard and Cruz didn't know what to do--she called 911 and then to keep junior from biting off his tongue she grabbed the first thing she saw (the book of Mormon) and shoved it in his mouth. and well everything worked out really really well. hes totally fine but they are just trying to figure out whats going on with him since this is the second one he's had. but we saw him on Friday after he got back from the hospital and he told us that hes done with the smoking and the drinking and that hes trying to get Sundays off of work so that he can come to church with Cruz and her kids.

And then! we had a lesson with her 3 kids and her 3 kids were talking about baptism and faith and they all want to get baptized on the same day and they want their mom to too...so we told Cruz this and she sad "oh really? hmm. OK." not one no popped out her mouth. so Cruz will be getting baptized. we don't have a date and we haven't invited her yet but she will be getting baptized i can just feel it.

4. So Idk if you remember the ice cream truck story? about the man we saw like 3 times in one day and finally contacted him and got his information? this was back in September when i first got the area with Hermana Noyes...well so we have been trying to get a hold of him and he told us that he was just trying to work and work till the summer ended cause his job was kind of a temporary one...so we left him alone and then the second day with Hermana Brown all our plans had cancelled for the night and i was at a loss for what to do...so looked in the back of my planner and saw his name and i thought hey! ill try giving him a call. So I called him and he answered and asked if we could meet that night! so we did and had a really awesome little lesson with him and then Hermana Brown gave him a soft invitation and asked him if when he knew these things where true if he would be baptized and he said yes! so we have another lesson with him tomorrow! :) I'm really excited to see where it goes!

5. We went over to the Bishops house last night to talk about invitation Sunday coming up and all the things we need to do to prepare for it and then I just had this feeling that I needed to share with him and his family all the things I had learned from our Zone Conference and all the miracles of the things that were happening in our area and then when we were about to leave I told them that we were going to another appt. with Karla and Carlos Jr and they were so excited and pumped that I invited them to come with us and they were so excited to come they hopped in their car and we were off! had a really awesome family home evening member present type of lesson with the Carlos and all his kids and Victor on the plan of salvation.

Seriously this ward, this area are the best i have ever been in. they are so excited to help and love love love missionary work!

Basicamente it twas a pretty sweet week filled with miracles! :)

As for lesson learned this week:

Biggest one: it is always good to be prepared. So this week was the mission tour where we had the member of the 70 and his wife come and tour our mission. Elder and Sister Ellis. and So the divided our mission in half and had half on Tuesday for a conference and half on Wednesday for the conference and our half ended up having more missionaries in it..but usually for zone conferences that we have once every other month~ President Doll gives us a topic to study and usually its like a scripture or something like that and then we have to prepare to share our thoughts on it for 3-5 minutes but none of us know who is speaking until that day at that very minute. they just call you up to the front and ask you to share your thoughts on it....and usually we have a week to prepare but this time we had 2 days...the topic: the Definition of Faith in the Bible Dictionary and then an example from the BOM to go along with it. Ive been lucky enough to slide by all the zone conferences thus far in my mission without having to speak....and as we were driving to the stake center for our meeting i was rewriting my prepared thoughts into my notes journal so that it would be all together instead of all over the place like it was...and as i was copying it over about half way through i had the overwhelming feeling come over me and i said out loud in the car "oh boy i just got really nervous." but i shook off the feeling and we got to the stake center...we were all sitting in our seats and usually we have the 5 minute talks at the end of the zone conference but this time BIG surprise it was first! and so Elder Littledike the assistant who was conducting the meeting gets up and says "welcome everyone to zone conference today wed like to recognize elder and sister Ellis here from the 70 and we will be singing hymn number sdfkjdfksd and the opening prayer with be given by sister dfksdfhdsfh then we will be having our 5 minute talks and we will be pleased to hear from Hermana Maughan and Elder dfkhsdgkhds. dfklfisdrhklsdfjklsdfkjsd sdfsdfhksdfyhsdapsdfkhsdf.....i don't really remember what was said after that i was sitting there in nervous shock and ultimate gratitude that I had prepared something. So I gave up and shared my thoughts on faith...how faith is a principle of action and power. that it is when we make faith a verb instead of a noun that we will have a stronger relationship with God and he will endow us with power to do his will. and shared how we need to EXERCISE and use our faith and that in turn we are given more faith and more power from God which is the best kind of power to be given. So I can now say that a member of the 70 has heard me speak and over half of the mission....lesson in all of this:

BE PREPARED! hahaha

oh and mom to answer your questions:

my favorite thing about serving a mission? That would definitely be being able to see the change take place in peoples lives as they come to know who Christ is and what they need to do repent and come unto him.

Did I get my package? Yes. and it was right in time. I had actually pretty sure I had strep throat.. I was losing my voice and had white bumps on the back of my throat. couldn't really eat or swallow very well and got the package with the oils in and i know that the combination of the oils and the priesthood I'm back to 100 percent! :) So thank you so much and the costume stuff is perfect! :) thanks so much!

Did I get the letter? sure did and you should be getting one back to you! :)

So what is the greatest lesson you feel you have been taught as you serve? Well I think that one of them has been how the spirit speaks to me. That i have come to recognize --don't get me wrong I'm still learning--but it is getting easier for me to discern if it is my thoughts or the spirit telling me what to do. another thing is the importance of temple marriage and family and the things i know i need to find and the things i definitely don't need in my relationship with my companion...along with that learning when to pick your battles. as silly as it may seem it is something that has really changed my relationships with my companions and has made it so much for the better...learning not to sweat the small stuff. to breathe and let it go and life is so much the smoother and happier and another thing is to not let moments pass you by. The importance of living with future goals but living in the moment and enjoying life while your in it.

Well that's all for this week! I sure love you all! have a great week!!!!

paz y amor Hermana Maughan

The greatest lesson

It has been a very spiritual week first we got to go to the temple on Friday then this Sunday was stake conference with a member of the 70 (and I’m in the same stake that I was in when I first got here so I was able to see a lot of people from my old ward family) then yesterday we had a mission tour where a different member of the 70 came. Elder Jenson of the 70 was great, he talked about faith and things our mission can do better. The sprit has been so strong and I have been able to gain a lot of spiritual insights for myself and those I serve. I’m just so grateful to be on a mission it has really blessed my life so much! And one of the things that hit me really hard is the fact that I truly love these people! North Carolina is truly one of the greatest places in the world, I’m so grateful that I have only served in 3 areas so that I have been able to really get to know the members and they have become a part of my family. I love them….. I think it’s so great that the Lord has sent me here, out of anywhere in the world he sent me here because he knew it was what I needed. The thought that I could get transferred in two weeks is so heart wrenching, I don’t want to leave my family here even with the thought that I will make more family some other place. I would have never thought I would feel this way with strangers in a very, very strange place but here I am enjoying it all!  Heavenly Father truly knows his children…… isn’t it wonderful?!?!

            The Lord has just been great to us and I’m looking forward to Nate being confirmed next week and then the week after that is Williams’s baptism! So it has been wonderful! Thank you all so much for all you do! I love you all! And I hope you have a great week!

ELDER MAUGHAN!!             
(Answers to question)

My favorite thing about serving is the spirit that comes seeing others repent and making new family members

I am still eating a good amount this Sunday we had chicken, ham, roll, corn and green beans and lots of good southern food like that.
Next training well we have interviews the 3rd of next month. The other missionaries are going home in two weeks and I don’t know about any more I think that there is enough work here for 4 Elders
My suits are good and my shirts are good and to be honest I have had to do a lot of mending on my mission but I’m doing fine I bought my self some new socks the other week with my home card so things are going good. The purple runners are great! They are the best shoes I have ever had in my life

I have not gotten my package yet :(   

The greatest lesson..... How to love people and act on what the spirit tells me to do