The Hermana Brown Driving in the Snow Academy

HELLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOO out there!!!!!!!

Well another week is already gone! and january is basically over. cant cant cant believe it. we are already halfway through this transfer.

Time is an unfair thing ive realized.
oh well. part of life. right?
Weve seen some pretty cool things happen this week. 

Actually a not so cool thing that happened this week first. It snowed. Again. 2wice this week. bleh. I hate hate hate hate snow. The goodnews is that this year I have Hermana Brown who lived in Utah, and she knows how to drive in the snow! so I dont have to start saying the Lords prayer everytime I get in the car this year. just kidding -but it was snowing so bad on Friday that ok this is what happened.......ready?

So Friday we had an appt at 3:30, one at 4:00, one at 5, one at 6 and then one at 7:30. good day right? yes. until it started snowing. So we left for our 3:30 at 2:30 so we could make it without any problems. usually it only takes about 20 minutes to get to them if that--depending on traffic. wellllllllll traffic is soooo bad and the snow is just coming down that it was 4:00 and we hadn't even made it half way there. the snow kept freezing on our windshield wipers and that was so bad that the driver side wiper actually broke. so we had to call and cancel those 2 appts and then the 5oclock called and cancelled on us due to the amount of snow. and so then we pulled into the nearest parking lot -Target. due to the fact that Hermana Brown can't see while she is driving....called the car guy and he told us we needed to go to jiffy lube and buy our windshield wipers there. Jiffy lube was 3.7 miles away from where we were....So on we went to make it to jiffy lube before it closed. thinking it would only take us about 10-15 minutes to get there....wrong. to drive 3.7 miles it took 45 minutes! finally make it there and we had to cancel our 6 o clock cause there was no way we would make it back in time. one of those appts was supposed to be our dinner appt so we were starving! thank goodness to our delight I realized how much God really does love us, because across the street from the jiffy lube was a restaurant. and you know what one?!! CARRABAS! so we pull into the very empty but open Carrabas and oh man. it was delish. soooo yummy :) and I thought of my mom and dad going there for their Friday night date :) so thanks for that! but then we did end up making it for our 7:30.

and that lesson was awesome!

It was with Irma and Monico. and we taught the 10 commandments and the Sabbath day. and Irma is still trying super hard to get her Sundays off and she is even at the point of thinking of finding a new job. so we are hoping and praying :)

 After that Hermana Brown decided to become the teacher while I became the student as we boogied it over to the church parking lot--I mean The Hermana Brown Driving in the Snow Academy. and I learned how to drive in the snow. wooooopie. hopefully I won't have to do it now :) cause its scarrrry.

On Saturday we had this super cool miracle happen. All of our appts cancelled. and I was seriously at a complete loss of what to do. I was praying and praying and praying to receive revelation or on where we needed to go and I was coming up blank. And then I thought- well maybe we need to ask someone else for inspiration. So we called up the Bishop and his wife answered. She asked us if we had eaten yet. told her no. she invited us to come over. so we did. we went over and had a good little discussion with bishop and his wife about the work and all the miracles we've seen and stuff and then we asked them if they knew of anyone that could use a visit from the missionaries :) less actives, part members. friends, whoever. Bishop sits and thinks about it for a bit and then he says--"well there are my neighbors over here! they were actually being taught by the missionaries like a year ago. Maybe their hearts will be open to it now". So we leave their home with a kneeling prayer where bishop pleads for us to be able to find those families ready for the gospel and that this family we are about to see will let us in and want to hear more. So we go over there and sure enough--they let us in. Family of 5 all over the age of 20. and we had an awesome discussion/lesson about church and who and what we do as missionaries. and they invited us over this Friday. so we shall see!

Yeppers, so we are ready for more miracles to happen this week! :) expect them and they happen! :) :)

hope you all have a great week! and if you find yourself with nothing to do--write me a letter!! I would love one! :p

Love you all so much!

paz y amor,
Hermana Maughan

Elizabeth's Baptism

 Well it has been another great week! But today I don’t have much time to e-mail so I will be fast!

                First thing is that Elizabeth was baptized this Saturday and then confirmed on Sunday, she asked me to baptize her and then a member that was teaching with us confirm her. The funny thing was that after the baptism to my surprise I didn’t get wet past the knees…. So I was able to dry off really fast…. She was just a little smaller than me, and as I was looking at the pics they make me look really big haha I don’t think I should gain anymore weight haha but that’s a little hard being in Pembroke. Which brings me to my next point, I'm staying here for at least another 6 weeks but Elder Yankton is leaving and tomorrow I will have a new comp! I have no idea who it will be but I think the Lumbees will miss there big Native American missionary. I'm really loving it in this ward and I think they love me too haha I am so glad I can stay for another 6 weeks.

                Along with the baptism a really great thing was the fact that we had a lesson with a less active member and didn’t even have to ask if she knew anyone that we could teach, but just told us that her sister just moved with her and is the only member in her family that isn’t a member, so we got out there Saturday morning and knocked on their door and instantly they let us in and broke the ice, they talked about how they wanted to start coming to church and it was a really good visit but they had to be going so we set a return appointment and invited them to church.

              After that we drove to the less active member’s home and told her all about it and she said that the husband had read the entire book of Mormon and kept it on his ipad! Then the next day at church they all came! There are a lot of good thing that will be coming soon!

                Well I got to go and I love you all! Be safe and strong!

ELDER MAUGHAN

Hello Family!

How is everyone doing this week? Big news here is that Chicago FINALLY got snow.  yeah....it was a pretty sad day. thank goodness I have Hermana Brown here from Utah who knows how to drive in the snow.....remember last year? praying for my life everyday....well now Ive got the pro who is hopefully going to be teaching me how to drive in it so that i can be a pro too. But Illinois did pretty good holding out till the middle of January before it dumped with snow. so yeah.....they had predicted at the end of fall that it was going to be the worst winter that Illinois had ever seen in like 29 something years and now? welllllllllllll I guess it still could come to pass and just last till like June or something....maybe I wont be coming home in march due to the extreme snow storms headed this way?? :) jk

As for this week, not gonna lie, its been a hard one. WE had 15 appts cancel this week--with investigators. And Hermana Brown is still sick and it snowed. soooo its not been the easiest or most "successful" week. Our investigators didn't come to church this Sunday :( and as such they cannot be baptized in the month of January...so they are all reset for February!

Pues aun ha estado un semana un poquito dificil--we still got to see some cool miracles :)

One was that we found a new family! there are so many kids in that house I have no idea how many there are! but they all don't have any type of relationship with God or know really who he is. The mom is single and lives with her daughter and her daughters kids as well. We have an appt with them this week and we are pretty excited to go there!

Sunday we had a lesson with Medalith--her husband is less active and he only speaks English. they have an 8 month old daughter and they live with his parents. she is from Peru and learning English. But we have been going over like once a weekish. And its been a bit different going over there---one is that we were actually fed American food. we had casserole on Sunday--that was so delicious. I had almost forgotten what those were:) and second because of the language barrier. we are teaching in Spanglish and interpreting in Spanglish as well. Alex her husband wasn't there on Sunday so we got to just talk to Medalith and it was a really awesome lesson. We were going to go over the 10 commandments and check on her reading and we only had 15 minutes untill we had to leave and I kept getting this pressing feeling we needed to talk about the restoration. about Jose Smith...so we did. and then I realized that we hadn't invited anyone to be baptized yet...and as soon as I had that thought this overwhelming rush of the spirit came over me and we invited her to specifically pray and ask god if Jose Smith was a prophet and if she knew that he was if she would prepare to be baptized. and you know what she said??? YES! we found out that she has some pretty strong desires to find out if its true and know that she is willing to take the steps once she knows it is.

On Sunday we had an I'm A Mormon Fireside which was soooooo cool. Medalith came to it and basically what it was is; showing the community who we are, what we believe, why we believe it, and how the gospel shapes our lives even though there isn't a cookie cutter type of Mormon, that we are normal people just like everyone else..... we watched some videos from mormon.org and had recent converts get up and share music talents and their testimonies. It was just really really awesome. I hope they start doing these in AZ cause they are pretty sweet!

We had Zone Meeting yesterday where we were given the new standards and practices of excellence and man so many things are changing in the mission for the better. its crazy cool. I can only imagine where its gonna be in 2020 and so on and so on. What was weird about that whole thing was that it was my 2nd to last one....I have one more Zone meeting, and one more interview with President, and one more Zone Conference and then that's it.

 But the work is good. I'm hoping we get to have all those 15 appts this week and that they wont cancel. :) and be able to invite even more people to be baptized! :)

 hope you all have a great week and that you all stay nice and warm!

paz y amor,

Hermana Maughan

Lumbee Bowls

        It is yet again another great week! the Lord is really blessing us here. This week Elizabeth is being Baptized and it has really been great teaching her. Her Mother is from Nigeria and speaks with a very heavy accent, she has as been less active for a long time but has become very strong through the teaching of her daughter. Elizabeth is really excited for it and she really understands the importance of what she is doing. I must say I'm really excited too!

 Another really cool thing this week was that we were at a members house where we were suppose to teach an investigator that never showed up... so we asked this member if there was any one that he knew that needed to be taught in his home and he gets up and walks into another room and comes out with one of his mother's home nurses. He invites her right there in front of us if she would like to be taught. We set up another time to go teacher her but she got really sick so we couldn't meet with her until Sunday. Her name is Tina. When we first got there she really didn't know why we were there other then she wanted to understand more about Jesus Christ. It was really great to see the change that had come over her, from the opening prayer to the closing. She hasn't been involved with any church for a long time but she does have a testimony of prayer, besides that she really didn't know to much so we started from the beginning. The best part about the lesson was when we started teaching about the Book of Mormon she came out with a really deep question about her own life as pertaining to if she should marry a man she was dating or not, and then that is where the spirit really came in strong as we testified about how if she were to read and pray about the Book of Mormon that her question would be answered. She is really excited and wants her Boyfriend to learn now too! This was all a big miracle. 

A really fun thing we did yesterday was to make clay bowls with the Lumbees! yep so I'm almost full Lumbee now haha... but to tell the truth my bowls were not that good. It was the first time that I have ever done pottery on a wheel. It was a really good bowl to start with, but in the end after just a "few" mistakes i don't think it will hold more than salad dressing or something haha. This project was for a thing called empty bowls where we make the bowls and then they sell them to others and give all the money to the poor in the area. Very cool,  I had a lot of fun. It's so much fun being with the Lumbees!

Oh ya so today the weather is in the high 60s....... its one of the craziest winters I have ever been in..... I really have no idea what its going to be like in the summer......... all is well and it has just been a lot of fun! I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!

LOVE ELDER MAUGHAN