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