All we do is laugh.

Hey Hey family!!!!

how are things?
things here have beeeeeeeen SUPPPPPPPPPPERRRRRRRRRRRRR Great! oh man am i excited to tell you all about this week!

what a week of miracles it has been. I am so super excited to tell you all that has happened i think im gonna just jump right on in!

Wellllllll basically my whole mission i have been praying and praying to be able to teach families. to find those families that are ready for the gospel and that want to be baptized. and so has hna alvarez. and so we have been praying for it together as well and just set goals to work as hard as we can--i really want to be able to see at least one more baptismal service before i head home. and there is seriously so much potential here that there is not reason why we shouldnt have one.

And this is what happened:

1.) Luis-who got baptized this past december-well his mom (who is less active) and her 2 sons (the younger brothers of Luis) have been coming to church for the past 3 weeks or so. finally got to set up an appt with them-we went over monday and turns out the two boys-Raul (13) and Tino(9) both want to be baptized! the lesson was awesome and their mom really opened up and told us about how she wants to be able to return to church and just what joy it has been to see luis making the right choices and being baptized and having the priesthood and prepping for a mission that it has really made her want to do the same. So we set the two boys on tenative date for the 17th of march :) Just gotta work with the step dad a bit-he is part of the reason she has become inactive. {Teaching 1 new family :) }

2.) We got a call from a family in our ward that wanted us to come with them to go see their sister who had just had surgery and start teaching her and her family because they arnt members. So we went over with them had a sweet little lesson with them-mom, dad, and 3 kids.  Going over again on tuesday---{teaching second new family}

3.) Wednesday night we get a call from Jolver (member who just moved from Arkansas) and he asked us if we could come over tuesday night at 6. told him we could. That night we pull up to the apartment and I just get this overwhelming feeling that something big was about to happen. I told Hermana Alvarez---i dont know what to expect here, but its gonna be something cool.

We knock on the door............We go inside............There sits a family of at least 12 sitting on the couch waiting for us to get there. Turns out---They had moved with Jolver here from Arkansas and they arnt members....they were prepping to be baptized and were about to get married when they had to move over here. There are 8 in that family that are over the age of being baptized. Taught a lesson on faith and got to know them a bit--told us that they would be at church on sunday! Left that appt with 8 new investigators and one BIG family!!!!! There was a child baptism on saturday and On thursday I had totally forgot to invite this family (Los Chavez) and had totally forgottten until the day of and it just kept coming to my mind that i needed to call and invite them and one thing came after another that i kept forgetting to do it---it was 3:30 when i finally listened to the prompting and called em up and invited them....baptism was at 5 and i really felt like i missed my moment of actually having them there due to the short notice i gave. So hna Alvarez and I got to the baptism and its about to start when guess who walks in?? YEP! that very family!!!!!! oh man I just can't even tell you--we seriously about had a heart attack right there me we were so excited.
             And they LOVED it. They met the bishop and his family and actually were asking the bishop about how long they had to wait before they could be baptized and that they were trying to do that in Arkansas....Hermana Alvarez went up and talked to Hermana Chavez and asked her how she liked it and she told her that she loved it and really hoped that it would be their turn soon. :) They also then showed up to church on sunday like they told us they would!!!!!!!! GOD is SO AWESOME! {teaching third new family}

4.) Friday, Luis and Analis (his cousin) came out with us to do missionary work for the day. Had 2 appts cancel on us so I looked through the area book and found a couple people that we could go and try to see if they were interested. So we went and did some knocking-Luis and Analis both did some as well. All the names i had writted down were either not living there anymore, not home, or completely not interested. I had one name left-Margarita. I had her building number but not her apt number, nor her last name. we go to the building and decide to knock the whole thing. nothing nothing nothing......until we come to the last door. we answer it and you know who it was? yep Margarita! she lets us in and we get to tknow her a bit have a quick lesson and ask her if shed be interested in having us over again and she told that she totally would! She wants her kids to be able to learn these things as well and well-she has 6 of them. 5 of which are over the age of 8. :) {Teaching fourth new family}

 We prayed for families and God led us to 4 of them! Oh man I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited. 15 new investigators this week! How amazing is that?! Just to kind of give you a view of just how amazing that is. we set monthy and weekly goals on how many new people we want to be teaching and our week goal is 4. our monthly goal for feb is 16. and we just found 15 of them in one week! :) oh man Hermana Alvarez and I are wqorking hard. And the even sweeter part of it all is that it does not feel like it. I mean dont get me wrong--my body is completely tired. we hit our pillows hard at night but like we are having so much fun along the way that it doesnt even feel like work. Ive been laughing so hard my chest and abdomen are sore.

Other cool miracle is that we put Irma back on date for the 17th of March! I think its really gonna happen. :)

Dont worry my shoes have been on the correct feet this week :) ive been doing better with my left and right. biggest problem this week has been my spanglish......Im sorry in advance for my poor language. you might not be able to make sense of what im saying :/ sorry.

Lesson learned this week: Polish Planning Sessions are the best.

I dont remember if i put this on our bucket list. But every week we have to do weekly planning and for most missionaries they hate it. Mostly because of how boring and tedious it can get. Well the ONLY reason that they hate it is cause they havent had a weekly planning session with Hermana Maughan. I love weekly planning :)

With hermana Brown we always had to do something that started with a p -like where pink, pajama party, eat pepporni pizza, or make pancakes etc etc.... well new companion, have ta change it up a bit. So how did we do that? Well every planning session we have to do something or eat something Polish. Hence we have Polish Planning Sessions.

This week we sung the Polish National Anthem and ate their favorite fast food--Popeyes Chickenskies. Oh man. Best planning session ever? Id say so.

Whats on the agenda for next week? Doing the Polka and eating Perogies, while Planning :)

Like I said-all we do is laugh.

Think thats the update for this week! I sure love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

Se Cuiden!

Paz y Amor,
Hermana Maughan

February 27, 2012

Ugh, I just lost my contact in my eye (what a wonderful way to start of a letter haha) so that’s what is going on in my life right at this second, it reminds me of those basketball games that I lost one and then I air-balled a free throw sad game.

Yesterday was a very spiritual draining day, it was stake conference but this time it was a broadcast to all of North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and D.C. Elder Scott was the main speaker and he talked about the divine role of woman, and it was good. Then after we didn’t have any lessons set up and we had planned to go contact a few referrals and go see a few potential investigators. What was interesting as I was praying for the area and the people here we got a text from a member asking if we were going to go on exchanges that day, so I felt that the Lord had something planned and I started making calls and in about 8 minutes, I had set up 3 lessons for the evening. Then when our Exchange came to picked us up within 20mins, all the lessons we had arranged called and told us they could not meet…. Easy come, easy go I guess. We went to all of our old plans and there was nothing there either. I felt like I was on the spiritual roller-coaster because something wouldn’t work then I would ponder and pray for were next we needed to go and the sprit would prompt me to go and then there would be nothing and the same thing would happen again. The very last place we went to was a less active member and we hope that a lot of good things come out of it. I tell you what missionary work is draining haha.

          Um what happened this week?.... lots of biking (no tornadoes here just lots of wind and rain) Emma (the lady we are teaching:) is doing really good and is really loving it all. She came to church yesterday and would have gone to the adult sessions on Saturday evening but, she just had her 76^th birthday and had a peace of her birthday cake and her blood sugar shot up to 400…. But she got better and came to church the next day which was a great blessing! We have another investigator that is just quitting smoking and then she will be ready for baptism. We are really working to find new investigators.

One thing we are doing is we are hosting a Family History work shop. I will be the opening speaker and share the reasons why the church does family history. I will be using a lot of scriptures like 1 Peter 4:6 and 1 Corinthians 15:29. We are praying that a lot of good will come out of it.  I’m really excited about it!

So that was most of my week in just a few paragraphs and you know what? I still haven’t found my contact in my eye haha.

          Well I hope you all have a great week and remember be gentle to Sister Maughan J

Take care and be safe! I love you all!

ELDER MAUGHAN                     

The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree :)

Helllllo family!!!!!!!
Oh man! what a week. I first off have to say sorry for not letting you know in advance that this week preparation day was changed to Tuesday due to it being presidents day and the libraries being closed. So here I am on Tuesday! weeeee! :)

On the plans for today-transfer tradition bowling. I’m excited. I mean I’m awful at it but it’s fun and my last one...soooo it’ll be good.

This week things have been really good. Hermana Alvarez and I taught 26 lessons this week and we were exhausted. man working hard is the best.thing.ever. It’s kind of been a weird feeling this past week cause ultimately what I’m doing right now is training Hermana Alvarez to train and also getting her to know the area. and I’ve only got 5 weeks to do it. so we are constantly on the go. :)

Being my last transfer we have created our 6 week bucket list--mind you things can be changed, added or removed as we feel. these are not written in stone but they are as follows:

1. teach 10 lessons in one day
2. teach 50 lessons in one week
3. Pday evening is ice cream date at a different place every week
4. Different exploring adventures every pday
5. Pictures taken daily
6. 5 baptisms

like I said that’s it for now but it’s looking to be a great last transfer. i have so much energy and just like BAM let’s go!!! :) it’s time to work!!!!!!! We have been laughing a ton. mostly due to the crazy things that happen and seem to follow me. Yesterday Hna Alvarez had to introduce herself to the zone as she is new and she had to tell one thing she liked about her companion (being me) and she said..."there is never a dull moment with Hermana Maughan." and its super true. hahahaha ohhhh man. mom and dad idk if you’re ready for all this crazy to come home. :) just a warning.

Lesson I learned this week:

It’s about time I learn the difference between left and right. We were sitting in the car and Hermana Alvey was driving. I took off my shoes as we were driving for a long time to get to our appt. well we finally get there and I put my shoes back on and we start walking. I think to myself, "man my feet feel funny." and i keep walking. trying to ignore this weird sensation in my feet. but the feeling like won’t go away. I say to myself, "now really why do my feet feel funny," as I look down at my feet...."oh.no. Hermana Alvarez Look at my feet." yes. I am literally losing my mind. I was wearing my shoes on the wrong feet. A picture was automatically taken and the laughter became unbreathable due to how hard we were laughing. So mom I think back to the day that you had on two different shoes for the whole day-----The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree :) like mother like daughter eh? 

Miracles seen this week:

Hermana Alvey and I had an awesome lesson with Medalith this week--we brought a member with us Giovana and she is the cutest 18 year old i have ever met and she worked it in that lesson. we talked about receiving answers to our prayers as Medalith has some doubts with Joseph Smith as to whether he was a prophet or not. but we had an awesome lesson and addressed a lot of her fears and doubts. At the end of the lesson we all kneeled together and each took turns saying a prayer out loud asking for medalith to recieve and answer on Jose Smith. the spirit was super strong :) and Medalith will receive her answer and she will be baptized. I know it. I feel it. 

Ana--the most golden investigator EVER has headed back to Texas on Sunday to pick up her son. She will be there for anywhere from a week to a month :/ but I totally know she is going to be baptized. she knows it’s true and has felt and recognized the difference like instantly. She has to go back to Texas so her son and her mom can be baptized with her. Just like the things she says...."what do I need to do now to prepare for my baptism" how the Book of Mormon has changed her life already and that she wants more people to hear about it. this woman will be like a relief society president. I just wish i could see her get baptized. but God really does have a plan and its more divine than mine:)

Our recent convert Luis is solid and prepping to go on his mission. he and his cousin Analis came out with us on Sunday to do some fbi missionary finding ;p and we talked to Luis about his family...his mom has been inactive for years and he has two younger brothers ages 12 and 14 and they haven’t been baptized yet. but for the past 3 weeks they have been coming to church and i have been trying to set up appts with them but something always comes up and I really felt like I needed to wait until after transfers to go see them. well on our first day together Alvey asked me if there was anyone in our area who is already ready to be baptized and immediately this family popped into my head. and they have been there for days and days now. so Sunday we talked to Luis about them and he texted us later that night saying "hey I think I got awesome news. my bros want to get baptized but I can’t tell if they’re being serious about it though" he continued talking to them and they really do want to be baptized...we have an appt with them tonight and i feel a HUGE miracle coming on :) I’ll keep you posted. :)

Yesterday was zone meeting--my last one. that was weird. AND it was also my LAST interview with president--minus being in the mission home night. but it was one of the best interviews I’ve had with president. he gave me some really good consejo on the after of my mission and it like reconfirmed some of the other feelings and impressions I’ve received. everything is going to be awesome.

Be excited for these next few emails coming your way this month cause theys gonna be FILLLED with cool things :)

This work is awesome! I love it! and I hope you all have a fantastic week!!!!! :) se cuiden!
paz y amor,
Hermana Maughan

Gaining a Testimony of the Book of Mormon

Good morning world!

           How is it out there? It is going good here in the wonderful land of Pembroke! We had a good week and a lot of things happened, good things at that! Like yesterday our mission President and his wife came and gave talks during sacrament meeting. Sister Cotterell spoke first and it was on how we take upon ourselves the name of Christ and then President Cotterell spoke on the restoration and taught the entire first lesson to the ward and focused it on how gaining a testimony about the Book of Mormon is so important to our conversions. It was really good and at the beginning of his talk he was talking about my comp and me, and can you guess what he said about me? Yep he told them that they had a giant and then he started talking about how it was a miracle that I was there because I had lived through a bad car crash…… it was funny because I hadn’t told anyone about that so after the meeting I had almost everyone come up to me and say ”I didn’t know you were in a car crash” and as I talked to a few people they just told me I was protected so that I could be here, it was very interesting. And it was a really good day at church!

          Another great thing was we taught our first lesson in the UNCP dorms, it was really interesting but really good, and it is starting to open a lot more doors here J I’ll keep you up dated on that.

            So the interesting lesson of the week is that we were went to teach someone that has a lot going on in their lives and on the day we went it was a very difficult day for the Mother as she was not doing to very well and it was hard to feel the spirit but as she spoke the spirit came in and we talked about the Atonement and Jesus Christ and her attitude change completely and by the end of the lesson she wanted to feed us. It was interesting.

          The work is going well and it’s just a lot of fun! I hope you have a great week! And stay safe.

ELDER MAUGHAN              

             

My Last Transfer

Familia!

Week 6. can you believe it?!! man. in 6 weeks imma be by the pool in shorts and t shirt----so different then what im wearing now. :) but seriously time time time time time time time.........

This week we were able to see some really awesome miracles....as always :) cause when you look for them and act like you have them-they come. its pretty sweet. not to mention so is this area=full of miracles.

Miracle 1.)

Went on exchanges with Hermana Alvarez who is currently serving in Westchester and we had an awesome day. filled with appts. Had our appt with Ana(worlds best investigator) cancel on us and at the same time Roberto (who is on date) call us up and tell us he wanted to talk to us. So we went over and saw him. Had a chat with him about his girlfriend and then talked about coming to church..........i may or may not have made a deal with him that i would give him gf advice if he came to church. and we may or may not have pinky promised it that night. and then HE TOTES CAME TO CHURCH ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) yeahh buddy. it was a pretty sweet miracle to see him at church on sunday. now i know that if Roberto can come to church--anyone can.

Miracle 2.)

After the appt with Roberto, hna Alvarez and I headed over to our last appt for the night--Medalith and Alex. Had planned to teach them this one thing and then the spirit ended up taking the lesson to a whole different level and hna alvarez was asking super inspired questions and I felt like i was really being used as an instrument that night to say some things that god wanted them to hear. we actually got down to the heart of their concerns and found the real needs of them. I'm really looking forward to seeing where things go from here. Medalith is so solid and wants to know that its true. and i know that she secretly already does, she just hasn't admitted it to herself yet, and that's gonna be the key.

Miracle 3.)

Hermana Brown and I went over and had an appt with Ana on Saturday and finished teaching the plan of salvation. it was so AWESOME!! invited her to be baptized and she said HECK YES! asked what she needed to do to prepare for her baptism and what she could start doing now. Told us that she is going to Texas to bring her son over here and that she wants him to learn this stuff too. Ana has read the BofM and noticed the difference, has already noticed the difference its made in her life--after only 2 visits with her. and she is pretty pumped to come to church as well. oh man. she seriously fell from missionary heaven. words cannot describe how strong the spirit is- EVERYTIME we go over there. her spirit is hungry for the truth and she is loving every bit of it. We have kneeling prayers with her every time we are getting ready to leave and i swear that there is a huge difference in the intensity of the spirit when we have kneeling prayers in lessons. I am so excited for her and her family :)

Mom---being a missionary at the temple thing. oh man. i cannot even tell you how happy i was when i read that letter. best letter. ever. I think that that is exactly what i need to help me "transition" to real life. I cannot even express how much i want to help out for those 2 weeks. seriously. I'm all in. 120%....thank you for thinking of me and asking. and I LOVE the picture! its so me! hahaha :)

 Last week was most defiantly the best pday ever. I got to go down to the city of Chicago one last time. and it was the best ever. there was so much more i wanted to do. but we got a ton done:) went down the magnificent mile (which is just a mile pure of shopping) and then went to navy pier, rode the Ferris wheel and i got the worlds sweetest ctr ring there :) Headed over to the John Hancock tower and the Hershey factory. We were going to go the Sears Tower and stand on the ledge thing but the weather was pretty foggy and hence it wouldn't have been worth it cause i wouldn't have been able to see anything. so that is something we are most DEF doing when we come here. Sears tower. we got Garrett's popcorn and went to millennium park. Got to ride the L, buses, and the metra train. it was an awesome day. met up with some of my best friends and just had a blast. I love Chicago.  Ill be adding some pictures so you can see how fun the day was for yourself :)

 And the moment I'm sure you've all been waiting for..........what happened in Hermana Maughan's last transfer????????? Will she stay? Will she go? Is Hermana Brown still her companion for the 4th transfer? what happened!!!!!!!!

Friday night I call the Assistant and start drilling him with questions about transfers, whats going to happen, should i start packing my stuff?, should hna brown?, or are we gonna be good? trying to get it out of him what the hay is going on...cause my poor nerves just cant take it anymore. he ends up giving me super hints that hermana brown will be leaving. that we've been together for a really long time and then telling me that hell just call and tell me everything Saturday.

So Saturday night is Black Saturday....we get transfer calls. Well the assistants first send out text messages telling us whether we should be expecting a phone call or not....its 8:45 and we receive a text message. it reads : you will not be getting a phone call tonight about transfers. Have a good night!! Hermana Brown and I are are shocked. we are staying together?! really?! super good to be true-esp from all the things that the assistant was telling us the night before.....did they make a change? So i text him-asking him if that was right. get the following text back: "you will not be getting a transfer call." Hermana Brown and I are too shocked for words that this really cant be happening. cool. my last companion is hermana brown.....5 minutes later we get a phone call from the assistants. Her asks "what did your text message say?" That we will not be changing. he goes "really? man this weird. cause you are changing."

idk if you realize this but transfers is probably hands down one of the most stressful and emotionally draining events ever. let alone having the answer change like every 5 minutes if we are staying together or not......but yes. there is a change.

Hermana Brown will be going to westchester and my new and last companion of my mission????

HERMANA ALVAREZ!--the same one i went on exchanges with:)  I don't think i could have asked for a better last companion.

and yeah. that's pretty much the large update on everything this week. I hermana Maughan am now entering into my last transfer. SCARRRRY!!!!!

I love you all. send me mail. please :) cause I love mail. I miss you all like crazy. hope you have a happy val day!

till next week!

paz y amor,

Hermana Maughan

In the Community

            So its another week. Yesterday was a really good day at church, it was Ward Conference and we had 3 investigators come that have had a hard time coming church. They came to all 3 hours and then Corinne and Glenn (the couple we are teaching) stayed for the linger-longer (a ward lunch after church) and they loved it! The meetings were good and the spirit was really strong. Glenn is slowly changing and Corinne already knows it is true. It is so much fun to see people growing in the gospel and growing so much I love it!

            Something that’s interesting is that we are losing our ward mission leader, he is moving to Arizona and we were helping him get things in order. Next week our mission President is coming to speak at church and we are hoping to get as many people as we can come to that.  The work is moving forward and I'm excited.

            Oh and remember the bowl fundraiser that we were helping with a few weeks ago? Well we had the dinner for it and we were not planning to stay for the whole thing but in the end we stayed because when they were giving talks they talked a lot about the church in a really positive way, so we are getting well known in the community and hoping that a lot of good will come through that.

            I'm trying to think what more happened this week. We are working hard and just doing everything we can to find the people that are ready.

I hope that your week has gone good and that this week will be even better!

           
ELDER MAUGHAN        

"Feed My Starving Children"

Hey Hey Hey!

Hope this week has been a grrrrrrrrrreat one for yall :)
This week we have seen some really awesome things happen~as usual :)

Monday-pday we went as a zone and did a zone service project where we helped pack food for a company called "Feed My Starving Children" where they basically get children out of starvation and actually living healthy....so it was neat. Got to wear hair nets and look like cafeteria ladies so that was funny.

Also that day I lost my brains and did what you might ask..........well. i did indeed do the blazing challenge yet again. why? I do not know. but I was the only one out of the 4 who actually finished it. so now I should just be the blazing challenge model cause I got the shirt and the headband. imma be a walking advertisment. hahaha jk.

Thursday we originally had a day packed full with 8 or 9 appointments and all but 2 cancelled. :/ So we went from full day to empty day. So we went to try and find Rosa -who was going to be baptized the First of January and then everytime we go over to the house, no one answers or Rosa "isnt home." well this time we went over and they answered the door and let us in without any questions. We got to meet the whole family and their kids. There are a lot of people living in that home. Rosa came down and we talked with her and she told us that as of right now she is content in her religion :( her boyfriend doesn't want her to be baptized) and as sad as this is---i didn't feel sad. Everything about that appt just felt different. like that i didnt feel like it was the end. but that us running into Rosa back at christmas time was like the start of a very very slow chain reaction. and that its going to lead to that family accepting Christ. I might not be able to be the missionary that actually gets to see the full effect of it but I just have this feeling that I'll be able to see some part of it. idk. it just felt different. like that a miracle is on the verge of happening and exploding....so aver i guess :) I'll keep you posted but, we are definately not letting that family fall by the wayside :)

After that we went and tried to find this other old investigator and she wasn't home but we talked to the kids and her roommate for a bit and again, i got that smae feeling that something was going to happen with that person that we were trying to find as well. like the start of something. and then later that night we had an appt with a family and Roberto the older brother we just put on date to be baptized for March 22 and he actually kept his commitments and read the BoM! We were just really able to talk to him about the church and his concerns and the importance of going to church and it was a really good appointment. Roberto is at a point where he is open to listening about the gospel and actually wants to learn and take things a bit more seriously and that is awesome to see that change taking place in him.

After Roberto we had a lesson with Ana. who seriously fell from missionary heaven. We met with them last sunday and I think I told you about that story-being completely led by thte spirit to her and alejandro that night--well! we went over and alejandro was working but, ana was there :) and she read the BoM chapter we left her to read (Ether 12). We were just kind of small talking at first, answering her questions she had about what missionaries are, what we do, and getting to know her and then she grabs the libro de mormon off the table and tells us "well i read what you left me to read. and I loved it." she then proceeds to tell us all these things that she learned from it and how she felt that difference reading the book from reading a magazine. She said it was like the world around her stopped and she could just focus on what she was reading. She dissected the chapter and was super into it. we then began to teach her the beginning of the plan of salvation and it was like everything was just clicking for her. she told us how when she was girl she would ask herself these questions; where she came from, and where she was going, all the time and that she hadnt ever found an answer. We talked about baptism and the Holy Ghost and then invited her to be baptized to which we totally responded-----YES! :) We could have been in her house for hours and it wouldnt have felt like it all. She is so open and hungry to hear and learn. And we hear all the time how the people will recognize the sacred truths of the gospel and it is super interesting and so exciting to me to be able to see that in Ana. I haven't seen someone recognize it as much as with Ana. That shes seriously just been waiting and waiting for it and now that it is here she can barely contain her excitment :) We have an appointment with her on Wednesday and I'm really looking forward to seeing her. Not to mention she was wearing eeyore footie pjs which obiviously means shes like my best friend now. :p

On Friday we had the opportunity to be able to go Leadership training and that was pretty sweet. we got to learn a whole bunch of things. More learning on how to ask good inspired questions and teaching to needs and how to find those needs. It pretty much took up the whole day and it was SUPER nice to be able to see a lot of my mission friends for at least one last time before I go home. I got to see Hermana Hoer and I haven't seen her in over 6 months....which was crazy how fast time has flown by. and of course everyone was teasing me at how old I am and that I'll be home next month. oh man that hit me like a sack of bricks. next month. AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!.......speaking of which our "black saturday" where we get transfer calls, both hermana brown feel like we are going to be changed.

I hope you all have a fantastic week!! look forward to hearing from you:) if you dont have anything to do-my mail box could use some letters and pictures in it addressed to me.....I know I'm coming home soon but I still like getting mail ;p hint hint.......write me a letter--you'll get cool blessings....=D

Paz y Amor,

Hermana Maughan

A medieval weapon

               Good morning! well the first update is that the weather yesterday in the great place of Pembroke was in the high 60s and now right now its 40 degrees…. The weather is so crazy it doesn’t even feel like winter but more like a really long Fall. Right now we are in coat season in the mission which we have to have a coat on no matter what the weather is like (sort of like dad in Canada but his was all year around) and I tell you what there has been some days that I just can’t stand having my coat on because it’s too hot and then I always think about last year and how it snowed so much, and that there were about 4 ice storms. Here it is not like Arizona that is always hot or Canada where it is always cold. It is up and down so much…… but you know what? the people here love it... so in turn I'm starting to love it too haha.

            This week was a good week, we didn’t teach to much but the spirit was with us and we were able to get out and work. One day we did service for our ward missionary leader and we were clearing some bush so I got to use a bush axe for the first times. I don’t know if you know what that is but to me it looks like a medieval weapon….. and it works crazy good and at the same time it’s a lot of fun. I should have taken pics of me using it haha. I really enjoyed getting out and doing some yard work.

            All of our investigators were sick this Sunday so they didn’t come to church…. which was not fun. We have taked about baptism with all of them. There are some that just need to stop smoking, and then others who are trying to overcome the fact that their families that don’t want them to.

            I also had one of the most interesting lessons on my mission, but before I get into that I must say that one of the biggest beliefs out here is that once you are saved your all ways saved. This was our second lesson with this couple ( the husband that has read the entire book of Mormon and the wife is the only person in her family that isn’t a member) and the lesson starts of with the husband asking, if we believe that once we are saved we are all ways saved? so we read 3 Nephi 27 and talked about the doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, Baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end) focusing on the enduring part and he talked about what he believes and as we talked about it what made it strange was the fact that he wanted to learn, but at the same time he was set in his believes. We testified of the way to know if our message is true is by reading about the book of Mormon and praying to God to know the truth. They want us over again and he gave the closing pray in which he prayed that we would be able to find people to teach (I have never had a non- member pray for that before). There really good people and I'm so excited to see them progress in the gospel.

            So that’s the highlights of my week!

I hope your all doing good. I love you all so much and thanks for all the prayers!

 Until next week

ELDER MAUGHAN!!                

Week 8

Missionary work and Family History

                                                                                                                                                            1/30/2012

               Well its been another week and Elder Yankton is gone and Elder Hayes is now my comp, he is from Idaho and has been out for a sometime. But we were able to go to work right away, this week we taught 5 out of the 7 days and the lord really blessed us. We didn’t teach a lot last week but, we have been getting a lot of referrals from everywhere. This Sunday we had 2 of our investigators come to church and then there were also two potential investigators that came to church with members. They were members that we had invited to join us in this great work of the Lord. As they came along with us, we are starting to see even more blessings come. Even the two investigators that came this week were brought by their member friends last week! The members are truly the most effective way to bring our brothers and sisters into Christ Church, I'm just so grateful for the Lord and this ward I am now serving in!

                Something else that we are starting to get into is Family History! Im so Excited for it. It started when we were at a members home and they have both been stake missionaries before and even if they were really strong members here they both felt like they had done there missionary work and were not feeling too into it. Then one day when we were having lunch with them we were talking and the conversation came to family history, and as we talked it hit me that I really don’t know much about my family history…. Like when she asked me who my people were and where did they come from I told her I think Scottish…. And she got excited because that is where her people are from and then then it just hit…. that family history work can be used for missionary work too. As I start talking about this the thoughts were coming to my mind, and she got really excited because she had been waiting for another person to get excited about it, and she had been wanting to put the two together for a long time…..so we are going to be having a family history presentation soon.  Since then we have instantly started talking about it with everyone we could and we found out that there is a lot of our investigators that are interested in family history and I'm very excited!

                And it has been a really good week! The Lord has been really good to me. I am so happy to be a part of this great work!

Thank you all for all that you do and I hope you have a great week!

ELDER MAUGHAN!!!!!