One of the best things in the whole world

hey there family!

So this has been quite a week! An awesome last week for Hermana Curtis! Its been pretty busy trying to get her all packed and ready to go and at the same time seeing everyone that she wants to say bye too but it was good. I got to know a bit more of the members in our ward which was really nice.

This past week we had a lesson with Marcelino. And he came to church but still not super progressing. Like the thing he needed to be progressing would be a date for baptism. Marcelino has been being taught since august and has been dropped 2 times due to lack of keeping commitments. So me and Hna Curtis went in for our cita con el y estabamos tratando a entender sus necesitdades y porque no quiere una fecha de bautismal.... entonces we asked him what was impeding him from being baptized and he said that he just wants to learn more. we asked him if he knew this church was true and he said that he teaches good things. we asked him if he knew the BOM is true and he said its a good book. we asked him if he had asked specifically to know if the book was true and he said no. we asked what he would do if he knew the BOM was true. he said i would be baptized. So we said OK. Lets get an answer right now. we all kneeled down in a circle and I prayed first and then hna curtis and then Marcelino. all asking to know if the book of mormon was true and to receive an answer. the spirit was so strong and Marcelino was literally overcome by the spirit that we set him with a baptism date for May 28th. He came to church again this Sunday and stayed for both la santa cena and Sunday school. and this next week hes gonna come for the whole thing...porque poco a poco. :)

Other HUGE thing this week is that IRMA GOT BAPTIZED!!! :) :) :) :) one of the most spiritual and awesome baptisms I have ever been too. I cannot even put into words. Like was just one of the best things in the whole world. Her uncle is a member and he didn't believe us when we told him that she was getting baptized cause of how much shes changed. he came and baptized her and then on Sunday her cousin who just got off a mission is going to come and confirm her a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints! :) YAAAAAYYYY!

Then biggest thing this week is that it was transfers....... I am now a trainer. Which is so crazy to me...I definately feel like I could stay junior comp for longer but this is gonna be really good. It will be an adventure thats for sure. Her name is Hermana Hoer (pronounced Her) so isnt that cool? Shes a her and im a man. and together were a herman haha.... and Im really excited to serve with her these next weeks. we are gonna learn this area together and learn together. and it really is amazing how much I already feel the lord helping me with my spanish and with my remembering where to go and stuff. Like even though this is so much responsibility and work and not to mention that I have HUGE shoes to fill I am calm and have this peace that is unexplainable but I know where its coming from and Im really being made to grow. 

I love you all so much! Till next week!

Paz y Amor, Hermana Maughan

 

I JUST LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!

Wow this week has been crazy! So much stuff and it all started with elder penny leaving in the middle of the transfer and I needed to find a ride down to the temple to pick up my new comp Elder Butts. His is a great missionary and only 6 weeks younger then me on the mission, but we are already really good friends and just laughing all the time it has been just wonderful. And ever since he has gotten her we have done a LOT of service so we are going to make our own company and so far the name is “Butts and Maughan Mormon Mulching Moving Window Washing Landscaping Game Corporation” and our slogan is “we’ll do everything except the way you want it” haha so let me explain:

Saturday: we mulched at the church then right after we went and helped a member wash widow for about 4 hours (that was long but he really trust us now)

Monday: he helped another member move 4 engine blocks and a lot of other stuff

Tuesday: we helped another member dig up his front yard

And then we also have done a lot of little things for everyone we meet o and the game part comes form the fact that in elder butts and my free time (which isn’t a lot) have made a Book of Mormon Risk game! Haha its really cool but that is our company and it is great! And I'm so glad Elder Butts is here the spirit is so much stronger and our lessons have so much more power! But so we where in a lesson last night and we are teaching about forgiveness and I start talking about praying and the power of it, when all the sudden I say something really random on the lines of “you need to pray about everything even those days you wake up and really feel like you don’t want to go to work, you need to pray” and after saying that I was like that was really random…. But then Bro Key (the investigator) is like well two weeks ago that happened to me that I really didn’t want to go to church….lalala…. and it really helped the lesson and for them to feel the spirit. It was wonderful and I'm so glad that the spirit can do such amazing things through me and all I have to do it open my mouth… I JUST LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!

So to day I just got back from the temple and that’s why I'm sending the e-mail now because its our p-day and it was so wonderful! The spirit was so strong and I cant wait to be home where I can go to the temple all the time! And another great thing that is going to be going on is this Saturday Elder Scott of the quorum of the twelve apostles is coming to our mission! I will be able to talk to a prophet seers and revelator! Its going to be amazing! I'm so glad I'm in the true church and I have the chance to meet some one with the same priesthood authority of the twelve apostles that Christ called when he was on the earth!  

I love you all so much and thank you all for all you do!

ELDER MAUGHAN

HAPPY EASTER!!! :) what a wonderful week it has been :)

hola hola hola!

HAPPY EASTER!!! :) what a wonderful week it has been :)

 

OK so I don't think there is anything more horrible and yet more hilarious at the same time than riding a bike in a skirt in the city in the pouring I mean POURING rain. we seriously look like homeless girls that stole bikes riding everywhere. every ounce of decency is gone when the weather is like that. so much for looking pretty :p but its been interesting and yet so funny. just seriously like so drenched. Ive started singing in the rain at the top of my lungs on the bike and it makes hna curtis laugh and then me laugh and were just a bunch of homely, soaking, laughing, sister missionaries on bikes. every day this week its been raining. like awful weather. cold and rainy and very windy and cold and cold and cold. :) love the weather in Chicago!....not.

so I think I'm just gonna cut right to core of everything I want to talk about and tell about all the miracles that I have seen this week. cause they have been AWESOME!!!

so Sunday first of all we have this investigator his name is Marcelino and his wife was shot at in front of his house about a year ago and he was on his way back from visiting family in Mexico. He got on the plane to come back to Chicago and when he was on the plane his seat happened to be in between two missionaries who were on their way home from their missions--which were spanish speaking missions as well btw. and so they started talking and the missionaries told him about the plan of salvation and got his contact information and here we are teaching him. like so awesome. he just wants to be a good father for his son and wants the best for his newly married daughter. and we've been teaching him for a while and he just has not kept the commitment to come to church. week after week no marcelino at church. SO we had an awesome lesson on friday with him and it was just interesting how their conversation just led right to the importance of going to church. we talked about it and asked why was he waiting. why was he waiting to have those blessing in his life and he didn't know. so you know what he did on sunday? CAME TO CHURCH! so awesome. and its just so cool to see how the lord works that whenever I have had an investigator come to church the talks have been something exactly to the needs of our investigator. just seriously like god is speaking directly to them. and with no exception for marcelino. all about family. such an awesome awesome day. :)

Then there is this man by the name of Marcos. his family has been super inactive for years years years. and just recently parts of their family have been coming to church. one sat we went over to the house like 2 weeks ago and visited with han diaz (the mother/grandmother/great grandmother) and she fed us dinner and I got to meet Marcos. well we got along great and just were having a great time at dinner and shared stuff about the gospel and he said that in 2 sundays he was gonna come to church cause he didn't work and that if we would go he would go. well psh. we go every week so of course well go. but he speaks better english than spanish so we get home from spanish church and get a phone call from him telling us that hes headin to church :) so we hopped on our bics and off we went to church again with awesome marcos. he hasnt been to church in over 15 years. and he came! It was sOOO cool. his life is gonna change. hes gone through some stuff and now hes ready for this :) love this gospel.

then Sunday night we had intercambios...i cant think of the word in english....its where you trade companions in another area for like 24hrs...exchanges??? idk sorry! but um so we had those with the hermans that are in skoki. so traded that night. i went up to skoki with hna reyes and holy cow! SUPER DAY! we woke up and I had a really good personal study. right now I have the goal to finsih the book of alma before hermana curtis goes home and not to mention that I'm reading the libro de mormon...not the book of mormon...aka the Spanish one.so its been really amazing to see how the lord has helped me understand more and more of this language. and I'm in Alma 30ish right now and its just about some awesome missionaries and missionary work and ya. just pumping cool chapters. anyways so our first lesson we had that day was with a very handicapped lady named ana and we went over and sang some church songs with her and shared with her a message of Christ and Easter and then as we were leaving su vecino her neighbor from the basement apt came up and was in the kitchen as we were leaving and started talking to us. said that he had a BOM and was asking us questions. we told him if he wanted to learn more than we would be more than happy to explain and help him come closer to Christ. he said yes so we sat down with him and had a first lesson-got him to commit to reading and ya he loved it. then we had our next apt that called and cancelled so we had 3 hours to tract instead of 2...and i failed to mention that we woke up that morning with snow on the ground. weeeeeeee. so tracting in cold for 3 hours weeeeeeeee. but we were walking down this street and hna reyes said that there was someone that she wrote the address down in her planner that was an old investigator who the missionaries had seen only 3 times and she had no idea who it was. so we stopped by the apt cause we happened to be on the exact same street anyways as that address. so we rang the bell. someone answered and she came to the door. we asked if we could come in for a bit and she said yes. we walk in and there on her coffee table is a libro de mormon. sitting there open and the pages looking very very worn. like the book has been read and reread and read again. we look at each other and ask her have you been reading this book? and she said "yes. every day. depending on how i feel one or two verses or sometimes chapters. I love this book." she went on for a bit saying how much she loved this book and all the reasons why. shes apparently been going through some crazy times of trying to find a new apt losing her job and being very very sick and has been suffering from pretty serious stress. and she bore the most beautiful testimony on the book of Mormon. told us that every time she picks it up and reads it she feels this peace rush over her that even though all these crazy things are happening in her life she feels like for some reason she can do all them. she told us she doesn't have a bible and that she found that book in her stuff and just started reading it.it was seriously so amazing. we taught her about authority and Joseph smith and committed her to be baptized right then and there and she said yes without a second thought. like of course i want to be baptized by someone holding that authority. shes coming to church on Sunday and ahhh! it was such an awesome lesson! Seriously like an ensign moment we had right there :)

then we continued on tracting, hna reyes had written some other addresses in her planner that she just found in the area book that morning so we went to them and ended up not being the same people that were there before but we had some very cool discussions with people in those apts who were looking for a church to go to and then as we were leaving to our last apt before I headed back to the city we started talking to this taxi man turns out he speaks Spanish (no surpise right) and that his sobrina is a member of the church and that he wants to learn more. idk its just so amazing how every person has some connection with the gospel and with members. and we wouldn't find any of that out if we didn't open our mouths! :) so ya then we headed back here to the city.

and Irma didn't come to church on Sunday which means we had to push her baptism date back so its been moved to next Tuesday. the last day before hna curtis leaves. but it needed to happen. god has such a great plan and we just gotta trust in it. so her bap date has been moved and its just given her so much more drive to do the things she needs to be baptized. it was her 19th birthday on the 19th and we had a good celebration with her and also taught her the plan of salvation which was one of the best POS lessons Ive ever had. she just got it and started asking some very very good questions:) I love her so much! 

but that's the just of what happened this week! :) its been a very good week. I love you all and today hittin up the city for some wardrobe changing of lil miss hermana curtis as this is her last pday here in the city! :) so excited!

I love you all and hope you have great week and a happy Easter!

paz y amor, Hermana Maughan

 

He didn’t just die for us but He lives for us!

Well I am safe but the weather was crazy for a while. It was like a huge monsoon and a tornado did touchdown in our county and hit a school but no one was hurt here which is really good. We didn’t know it  was coming so we were out walking to someone's home and it was raining but we didn’t think it was that bad and then all the sudden it just started coming down really hard and we where laughing really hard as we were walking and just as it started to get really bad our branch president drove up this little road that we were just about to walk up and he just smiled and waved us to get in. He started to tell us about how there was a tornado watch in effect and so he just drove us home and then in about one hour it was all gone and just a great day.  Someone said that the storm was moving at 60 miles per hour but we are safe and the Lord is still looking out for me.

            A really cool thing is that we were walking around one day and we saw a guy mowing his lawn and as we started to walk up to him he turned it off and my comp said “do you like mowing your lawn” and then we was like “ummmmm” so elder penny just grabbed the lawn mower and started to go to work and then I started to talk to him.  His name is Tom and he was in the army and now is trying to start his life again. As we talked he knew a little about the BOM and the church and he had some LDS friends back in high school. And then we asked when we could come back and he was like tomorrow, but he couldn’t so we had it the day after.  As we had our lesson he asked a lot of good questions and he wants to give up coffee and smoking already and he wants to get back into a church. It was really great and he said he would get baptized if he likes church and he was really excited to be able to go even to the point that he got himself a new white shirt and tie! But then his grandfather died and the funeral was on Sunday…L 

            So it was a good week even if we didn’t teach as much as we would have liked. But we are finding every way to do service for people because that truly does open doors to all that we do.

            I love you all so much and I hope you all have a great Easter week! May we all remember what Jesus Christ truly did for us; that he didn’t just die for us but he lives for us and thru his great atonement we all can become happy. 

We use the doctrine of Christ in our lives which is: faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism by the proper authority, the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands and enduring to the end.

            I know this church is true and that because of it I am able to find peace in my life and am able to help others find that same peace. Take care and be safe!

-ELDER MAUGHAN          

Irma...a stealth example of coming to Christ

Hey there yall!! :) ok not in Texas...hola mis amigos! Que tal?

So yet another week has come and gone.... news about the bike is that its getting easier?? idk i know that as soon as i say that something crazy is gonna happen to me porque es mi vida. but its actually been kind of fun to ride around on the bici...I'm already getting a foot tan from my shoes and riding so pretty sure by summer time its gonna be ridiculous and I've already lost 7 lbs in this last week of being on the bike and yet my legs are becoming rocks...biker legs man. no... man biker legs. yes that describes it accurately i think..

um so as for this week: Irma is still progressing and is one of my very best friends. she is seriously a stealth example of coming to Christ. she came to church on Sunday and on Saturday we taught her about fasting and fast offerings and she was so excited that she came to church and payed her fast offerings because she wanted to receive those blessings. We are also now teaching one of her sisters and her niece. and her birthday is on the 19th. this Tuesday. Her golden birthday and we've gotta figure something out to do for her since she doesn't really have anyone to celebrate it with except us.

Then we are teaching the galarza family and there is seriously so much potential with this family. There are so many ways that the gospel can bless and change their lives, the spirit in the home and just everything. they are in serious need of some church of Jesus Christ in their lives. and its really crazy how other peoples problems become your problems and how much you just so want to help them. The Lord is gonna perform some huge miracles here in this home i know it.

My companion is getting ready to go home and that puts an interesting twist on things as she is trying to say bye to everyone and I'm still trying to get to know everyone. There is a lot to do here and i really do have some big shoes to fill. but there is a reason if not multiple of them as why I'm here in the city. I feel it and I really do want to do the best I can the way that the lord wants me to do and I'm a bit nervous for when she leaves and I'm left to be big girl and know my way around. But the lord knows my imperfections and my weaknesses--part of which being directions and through him they can be made strengths! :)

Mom it sounds like the Easter pageant has been going really well. i wish i could be there to see you! :) and sounds like you are becoming quite the missionary yourself! :) missionary work is awesome isn't it?

and thank you for the package of skirts! that came at the perfect time that i needed new ones. These are seriously perfect for riding a bike and the red skirt...aka my Easter outfit is super cute I love it! :) 

oh how I love you all so much! hope this week goes well for you and if you can squeeze time in there for me write me a letter

paz y amor her-mayn-a maughan

Sort of like a family reunion

Man this week has been so….different. It has been crazy! Elder penny has been sick and we had to stay inside for 4 days… I had a lot of time to study and just think about the goodness of my Heavenly Father. He is all better now and this week will have to work twice as hard to find people to teach. Tuesday we have a zone activity conference which is when half the day is a normal zone conference and then the afternoon we have a picnic and play games (it only happens once a year) and I’m really looking forward to it and what is even better is that elder Koplin (the elder I trained for only 6 weeks) and elder Weicher’s (my trainer) are both going to be there, I think it will be a lot of fun to catch up and just talk about Smithfield. Sort of like a family reunion since in missionary terms elder Weicher’s is my dad and elder Koplin in my son. And what makes it even better is that later this month we are going to the temple and they will be there with me. so it’s going to be a great month I still find it funny that the temple here is the smallest in the world and its really small compared to the mesa temple.

            but summer is coming here… right now spring has hit and that means allergies… there is so much pollen, I’m holding my own and doing good but it’s so crazy how everything gets so yellow. And then you see some people that are just dying and you feel so bad for them and then you see others with no problems. And it’s starting to get humid again and that means my skin will look so good ha-ha. I’m glad I’m up north and to the west more so then most of the mission because it’s not as bad and it just has been raining a lot this last week. Man it’s GREAT and so much fun to see 4 seasons.

            Well I got to go I hope your all doing great and having lots of fun!

Your friend ELDER MAUGHAN

AH The City Life!

hey hey alls yall out there!

so yet another week! time is seriously just flying and yet feels so long at the same time you know? but things here in the city are ahhh-mazing. i dont even know where to begin with everything this would be so much easier if 1. i could just talk on the phone, and 2. didnt have atime limit on the computer :/ but oh well well see what i can do here...

biggest thing this week we are now on bikes! AHHHHHH!!!! its sooo scary! and really there is alot to pay attention to which is hard for me to focus sometimes. but you first off have all the parked cars that are on your right and you dont know if someone is just gonna boom! open their door and basically your a gonner. then there are all the crazy fast and rather reckless drivers that are on your left who are usually going like 15 miles over the speed limit at least and one small move and boom biker out! then you have to worry about hand signals and im so nervous i can barley balance on the bike with two hands let alone take one hand off the handle bars to signal. then there is the skirt. and boy oh boy do i wish that there would be dress code exception to those sisters on bikes to be able to wear professional dress pants..skirts get caught in the brakes fly everywhere or just plain ride up your legs.. and add grochery bags full of freshly bought food on the handlebars and boy oh boy are you in for a treat! ;) but its all good fun. my legs are sore as heck and wobbly now as the scarecrow from wizard of oz..we seriously in one hour biked 8 miles. so im just hoping i get adjusted to this sooner!

next biggest thing- we have an ivestigator who is awesome! her name is Irma and shes 18 with 2 little girls and she is just an awesome example of repentance and really putting her life in the lords hands and trusting him. she has a bap date of april 23 and miracles happen with her everyday we see her. we taught about Alma the younger and how he repented and was able to come closer to God and the power of repentance and change. well she called us the other day and told us that "if Im going to change my life then I also need to change my friends." she stopped going to the parties with her friends, told them she needed better ones and deleted them all from facebook. and then when we left our appt yesterday she told us that she was going to take out all of her (newly put in) body piercings in her tongue and chin because she just felt like they were unneccesary! we didnt even have to talk to her about them! God is just amazing how he prepares people. I LOVE MISSIONARY WORK!!

third biggest thing conference=everything i needed. i love how that works dont you? conference is seriously one of my favorite things in the whole world. the words of the prophets and other counslers of the church. what great blessings we receive when we follow this work.

and im sorry I cant really write everything i want to do to time. but went to franks house last week and that was SO FUN! oh so cool! like I cant even describe it! DAD WE ARE GOING BACK THERE because seriously so awesome. ill be sending my memory card back home pretty shortly so that you can see the pictures..plus it made it kind of basically full. today we went to the john hancock building and had lunch there and then went shopping a bit around downtown. and there is just so much to do here in the city i just wanna soak all of it up i can!

so i love you hope you have a great week!

paz y amor

Hermana Maughan

...that is going to be a great day!

General Conference was great! We didn’t get as many investigators as we would have liked but I felt the spirit and there was some amazing talks, and dad I think it’s a good idea to wait a few months before I get married haha but when I get back I better do it fast because we all know that the world is coming to an end in 2012 and that’s the year I get back….(lots of sarcasm) haha.

            So we got our transfer call Saturday and….. (drum role)…. Im staying in Roxboro. And that means... I would be very great full for your prayers for me haha The weather is having its ups and downs here and allergy season is coming along with summer. I hope its not as bad as last summer. I think its going to be weird to go back to Arizona after my mission I might just live in the swimming pool haha.

            So we had a really good lesson with the woods family and we went thru the baptismal questions and they are both ready to be baptized we just need to get them interviewed and they are getting baptized on April 30^th and that is going to be a great day! The older sister woods is really funny and as we talked about Joseph Smith she surprised me on how much she knows. One reason for that is that she has the book of Mormon on tape and she losses her spot all the time because she can’t see…. So she has heard to the testimony of Joseph Smith over and over again. The thing they both love is that the gospel is true, and that it is the only true church and they can feel it as they pray. They have great spirits. I got the grandson to love me so whenever he sees me he asks me two things 1.when are we going to church and 2. When are we going to play basketball? (he is 7 years old.) It's really funny how much i'm able to use basketball to start talking with people because everyone and I mean everyone loves the game here and they all want me to play for their team haha The other day we were talking to a bunch of gangsters (like the ones I use to play with back home at parks) and I heard some words that I have not heard in a looooonnnnggg time. And yes they wanted to play ball too haha.

            But still moving along and just pushing forward I hope you all had and will have a great week! Be safe and strong and happy!

    ELDER MAUGHAN!     

I really do love this work so much

hey hey hey familia!

so this whole time limit thing on the computer really does stink. i feel like i cant type as fast or have all the things i want to say in the emails so if they start getting shorter I'm sorry...its only due to lack of time.

this week has been awesome. more work and our zone conference. we had it yesterday and it was pretty sweet. I did happen to find a flute to borrow at last minute. thank you for looking and I'm sorry that it took so long but it would be nice if i could have it cause i have a feeling that it will be needed for future events...more than i thought i would ever need it. and also some air freshener stuff or candles would be nice. i found the source of the poopy dog smell in our apt...i opened the back door and low and behold what do you think i found? yep dog poop. and lots of it... i know that i am gonna have to tackle that soon...there basically needs to be a super deep clean done in our apt and changing of everything....

other crazy things this week. well we meet people from alllll over the world and the hispanics are from more than Mexico. so this past week we had dinner at hna milagros casa and it was her birthday so she fixed us this delicacy dish from her country Puerto Rico...and you know what it was?............pata de pollo....english translation:chicken feet. yep i had to eat chicken feet. along with the kidneys and gizzards all on top of white rice with this pan de peurto.. which is like two types of bananas made into this like tamale with pork along with the rines. can you say yummmmmmmmy? all I kept thinking about was first of all how fast i could chew my food to swallow it and second I'm glad that dad wasn't my scout leader and that it wasn't a scout activity cause he probably would have given me like 10 chicken feet to eat. so yummy experience for the week. 

I got my bike yesterday from zone conference one of the hermanas that was serving here before left her bike and so its tall enough for me so I now have one and didn't have to pay a thing. so well see how this works. our bus passes expire on April 4th so after this weekend its adventuras en la bici... 

the work is awesome we had this one family come to church and I can really see the huge change that is gonna take place with them. we just gotta get this alcohol addiction kicked. but we do have some great families progressing.

I really do love this work so much and cant believe this is where i am at. I feel like jacob and that my mission is just passing me as a dream. there is so much to learn here that at times i feel overwhelmed and scared for when hermana curtis leaves cause it will be up to me to have the reins of this place as ill probably be training....:/ but tengo no idea. just gotta put all my faith in God and have no room for fear. I know this to be true. I love you all so much

and happy anniversario mom and dad! :)

today we are going to check out the frank lloyd wright district and im super excited to see whats all there. so ill have some good pictures for you! :) which ill be sending home in the memory card :)

love you all so much! have a good week

paz y amor!

Hermana Maughan