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