Adventure is With Us

As Hermana Maughan returns home to our hugging range we are so grateful for all those who helped support and encourage her on her journey in Chicago Illinois these last 19 months.

Thanks to President  and Sister Doll who have served to be a guiding force during this time.

Thanks to all those who sent packages and letters. 

Thanks to those who read our letter-day blog and found joy in the journey along with us.

We are so Blessed.

The Great part of this is that all those lessons, and memories are all coming home

with our daughter and will be a blessing to her and others for Eternity.

Hermana Maughan had a difficult time taking off her missionary badge today,

which I told her I'm sure is branded into her soul for ever.

She has felt pure Joy and once you have there is no turning back.

We are all Children of God and he wants EVERYONE of US to feel this JOY and to SHARE IT! 

Hermana Maughan Homebound

When words are not enough I'm so glad that there are pictures.

Our Hermana Maughan is home!

Powerful

Hey there familia!

Man so this is literally my.last.email. as a missionary to you guys at home! WEIRD!!!! and let me tell you today is BUSSSSSSSYYYYYYY

We were up late last night as i was packing (what a mess that is) and cleaning the apartment to get it ready for Hermana Alvarez's BABYYYYY! somebody is gonna be a momma :) shes gonna do great!  And then today we've got to do some super running around--post office, office max, cvs, grocery store, pottery place, having lunch with the bishop and his wife, then we got to go see the famila chavez and the familia guzman hoy....and the zone leaders and the english elders in our area are kidnapping us for the afternoon-don't know what we are doing? but with them its pretty much guaranteed to be fun. And then we are getting some deep dish pizza (one last time out here) and yeah. Good way to go home :)

This week has been AMAZING! we taught 37 lessons, found 2 new investigators, had a wedding and 4 baptisms! :) It was pretty sweet. Let me tell you though i am so exhausted. its like ill be fine and then ill sit down for a bit and the exhaustion will just hit me like a sack of bricks. its like my body knows that mission is up and so its slowing down. idk its weird....RMs should understand what I'm saying. this is a pretty common thing I hear. so I am looking forward to catching u on some z's :)

the wedding on Friday was absolutely amazing! this ward has seriously been one of the driving forces for the amount of success that is in this area. They are so pumped about missionary work it is exciting to work here. The wedding was so beautiful that the ward put together. we literally had to do nothing. and i can pretty much guarantee you that any other missionaries in any other area would have had to plan out the whole wedding. but here. man that was such a cool blessing. and really helped la familia chavez feel super welcome. They were so happy and the kids are even super excited that their parents got married finally.

and the baptisms on Saturday--OH MY GOSH!!!!!! so cool. Like my favorite and I am so happy that that is how i got to end my mission. I was talking to Carina and Carlos after (ages 12 and 10) about how they felt and this is what they said "Its like the water was tight around my waist but then I like got in the water and i just felt like this happy inside. Like a little kid and i just wanted to jump and scream I'm so happy." "yeah its like a feeling i cant describe. I loved it." The chavez family was one huge miracle that i feel so blessed to have been able to see. :) we wern't teaching them 5 weeks ago. didn't even know they were there. and boom--lord performs miracles. :)

So Ive been thinking  about how i could end my last email to you all and i thought---you need to know some of the things Ive learned on mission

so 10 things Ive learned being in the Spanish Program:

1.) Sin tortillas, no hay vida

2.) You can eat chile with ANYTHING. Literally ANYTHING...fruits, candy, water, pizza, ice cream--whatever. chile goes right along with it

3.) If you ask for Agua, you re gonna get anything BUT water.

4.) You spend more money on your car than your house

5.) When you run out of storage in your kitchen--your dishwasher and oven make great cupboards.

6.) If you don't have curtains-bedsheets do just fine.

7.) If you don't have utensils, don't worry. you can use your tortilla

8.) If you don't have a napkin, don't worry. you can use your tortilla

9.) If you don't feel well, Vicks cures EVERYTHING.

10.) There's Mexican standard time. There's Mormon standard time. When you put the two together--Mexican Mormon Time---ohhhh boy.  

10 things Ive learned being on a mission

1.) Miracles happen EVERYDAY when you expect them.

2.) If you let him, God will always guide you

3.) Eternal Marriage is essential

4.) My parents are my biggest support and they know a ton

5.) I thirst for the scriptures.

6.) Prayer should be a literal conversation with God.

7.) The Spirit is Real and it is POWERFUL

8.) Its when we give our all to God that he makes of us a masterpiece

9.) Communication with your companion is necessary. When you re in unity-anything is possible

10.) My testimony is secure in this gospel. I will not move for I am a Disciple of Christ.

Thanks to everyone that has been there for me-supporting and praying for me. it has been a huge help. I have felt them. They have kept me going in the hard times and helped me enjoy the good ones even more. This mission has meant everything to me and I know it has changed me and my life for the better. Missions are the best thing out there. Seriously. bombskies. If your questioning whether to go or not--GO! do it. High chances you ll regret not going on a mission--but you ll NEVER regret going. its the best. Ive loved it!

pues hasta pronto entonces! :) les quiero mucho!

se cuidan!

paz y amor,
hermana maughan

Community Garden

    
well its another week and i just know that your all way excited for Tim to come home and I'm excited for all of you too. You'll have to tell me about it and i hope everything will go good, plus with the Easter pageant. I know life is going to be an exciting week full of spirit!
     I'm so grateful for the e-mails and letters i get from all of you they all ways seem to come at just the right time.
     This last week has been some great North Carolina weather haha like it will rain really hard for about 5 mins then sun and then..... for example we were out talking to people on UNCP all the sudden there was no one out side and then blam!!! down pore on us all and by the time we made it back to the trailer it was sunny again haha ...it was funny
   Then we also had a chance to help make a garden. In the pic I'm sending It is of the bed that I sowed and planted. It is so funny because you can just put some seeds in the ground and it grows, not like Arizona. There are some crazy bugs around. Not any of them are fire flies in fact there are no fires flies in Pembroke :( sad day haha
    This last week we also had a Zone Training day and it was about the role of the Book of Mormon in conversion.  It was a really good  Zone Training and as i looked around and saw all these new missionaries the thought then came that I was one of the oldest missionaries there..... I felt a little sad and a little scary and then I thought of Tim going home and how I only have like 4 months left and bla bla bla mission goes way to fast. the meeting was a really good meeting as the next day we had a chance to use what we had just learned as we ended up talking to this one guy for about 2 hours and the entire time we were testifying about the Book of Mormon and how it testifies of Jesus Christ.
      It is just crazy to think about what a blessing the gospel is!! I love you all so much and I hope you have a wonder full time with Timothie just tell me how it goes!!!

ELDER MAUGHAN 

HOLY COW One More Pday

HOLY COW only 1 More Pday

Hello hello there! :)

Well, this is it. My.last.week. in the mission. and it feels super funny. but fyi--i do have ONE more pday after this one. So emails from family are still appreciated for next week :) hint hint. thank you :)

Being my last week is a buttload of emotions...and it honestly doesn't feel like that's all i have left. its just like im in this super surreal bubble and yet it does. idk how to explain it but heres the best way i can put it..........

So you know when you have a relative dying in the hospital? Like they are super old and you know they are about to die. You know that that honestly is gonna be the best thing for them to move on but, at the same time you don't want them to go and you re like sad......well that's kind of how i feel. I don't have any fears about coming home. Like I'm not afraid of it anymore. I know that Ive served a great mission, that I have worked hard and that in order for me to progress even more I have to move on and go home-otherwise I'm just running away and that's not what the Lord intended missions to be. My mission has meant everything to me. I have put all of me into it-i have had some of the best times and also some of the worst times. My mission has pushed me to the extremes physically, emotionally and spiritually. My heart is here. So much of me is here that it hurts a bit feeling like I'm being torn from it. And yet I know that God is going to take care of me. One of my mission friends put it into awesome words yesterday: "You wont be left with nothing. Sometimes the Lord challenges us and asks us to lay on the line more than we think we can take. to put so much out there to be sacrificed that it looks like the only possible outcome is disaster. But time would prove that when we have faith enough to follow through that God wont leave us hanging, he not only fills that gap in us but, expands us beyond our original preconceived capacity and abilities. As much as it seems like you re leaving so much of you behind, you re really just storing it up for the future." And that is so true. Things are going to be great and I know it. God is just now giving me the opportunity to use all of what I've learned here  in the mission for my real life. and my vida normal is gonna be great. :) Mom and DAD suuuuuure hope you re ready for this! :) I am really looking forward to some family time hope you know that! :)

This week has been awesome and this one to come is going to be EVEN better.

Biggest Miracle of the week: The Chavez family got their Marriage License! :)  We went over on Monday and talked to the Dad-Ernesto about asking to leave work early one day so that we could go pick up the license and pretexto after pretexto and finally he went and did. we went with them to the office on Friday and guess who got to be the translator? yep. me. oh. boy. that story will be in the lessons learned section of the letter :) But good news is that I must have done somewhat of a decent job at it-cause we got their license! :) So the plans for this week are wedding on Friday and Family Baptism  on Saturday! :)

The coolest thing happened with that yesterday--we had correlation with the ward yesterday to go over the missionary work and stuff and we told them how the familia chavez were gonna get married this week and I am not gonna lie-I've been kind of stressing out about how to plan for a wedding, 4 baptisms, pack my things, and say bye to everyone all within 8 days...not to mention that the familia chavez isn't really super expecting anything great and wonderful for their wedding either. but we go in and immediately all of the people in the meeting get super excited. the relief society pres and the elders quorum pres immediately start talking about how they'll be in charge of food and decorations and that the young men pres will take care of the music and basically have the whole wedding planned out right there within 5 minutes. President Vivas (EQP) turns to us and says--don't worry about anything for the wedding. we've got it taken care of. Our ward is seriously the best ward ever. and they have really just welcomed this family in with open arms and been a HUGE stress reliever for us that I know that this family is being taken care of waaaaaaay good. I am super excited!

Second biggest miracle of the week: I made it through my departing testimony alive on thursday.

It was zone conference this week in Joliet and boy was it great. it was my last one and it was everything i needed. I didn't eat too much at lunch due to the amount of nerves that were in my body. its tradition in our mission and I'm pretty sure everywhere else that when it is your last zone conference meeting those who are leaving get up and bear their departing testimonies. basically their last testimony in front of all their fellow missionaries. and well guess who's turn it was? yep mine. there are six of us in our zone that are leaving at the end of this next week with me. and i was asked to bear my testimony last.....just to draaaaaag out the nausea for that much longer. right? well i not only gave that. but i feel really good about what i said. i followed the spirit and didn't even cry :) (i was the only sister not to hahaha) Then I was also part of my last special musical number in the mission and it was an awesome song and really fun to play. ill have to show it to you when i get home. :)

As for lessons learned this week:

I do not have the Spanish vocabulary for legal talk.

So we get to the civil offices to pick up the marriage license with the chavez familia. and we get there and their translator is on a break and wont be back for a while. welllllllll we had Matilde (mom) Ernesto(dad) Chu chin(the 2 yr old) and Pilar(the 4yr old) with us...let me paint this picture of how odd we look here in this office.......this mexican family, with Pilar jumping off the walls shes so hyper due to amount of candy that Hna Alvey gave her, and 2 white girls in skirts trying to speak spanish....needless to say it was a bit crazy. so the lady (who is super intimidating) asks me if ill be the translator and then tells me that i have the hardest job and gives me this whole huge legal spill about how i need to say EXACTLY what she says in spanish to them and then repeat to her EXACTLY what they say to her but shes talking so fast i cant remember all the instructions shes giving me except of all the legal responsibilities i have and that if i don't complete it the way she says then you can say---no marriage license. First words to then come out of her mouth for what i need to translate: " do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." uhhhhhhhhhhhhh. first off. I don't know what the word for solemnly is. second off the word swear? really? "well maybe we should just wait for the translator." the lady then laughs and gets rid other intimidating manner and says it'll be all good. so i do the best i can. but i seriously don't have the vocab to do legal work. give me a gospel term and BAM i got it covered. but law things....count me out.

 If you see something on the ground that looks long and skinny and that it shouldn't be there. don't wipe it away.

Here's what happened: Last week after emails we went to a park and played basketball for a bit and then did some sidewalk chalking. well I'm watching Alvey draw on the sidewalk and shes drawing this really cool picture but then she stops...cause these long skinny things that shouldn't be on the sidewalk are in her way. so what does she do? Yep starts brushing them away. I'm so flabbergasted at what she is doing it takes me a while to get out my words. I finally am able to muster out "ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm thats.goose.poop." She stops. looks at her hand-as it then has goose feces smeared allllllllllll over it. and all that comes out of her mouth: "oh."  I DIED laughing. ummmmmmmm thats goose poop. Come to find out that she thought it was weird grass. but no. instead shes got crap smeared all over her hand and it stinks. baaaaad.

When leaving your apartment its a good idea to make sure that one of you have the keys.

This past Wednesday was seriously the most epic day ever. From beginning to end. My email could be filled from lessons learned on this day. Started at 8 am that morning..... Alvey and I are quietly doing our studies for the day and then Alvey asks---wait-don't we have an appt for our car this morning? I had totally forgotten that the day before i had scheduled an appt with our car for wed morning (there was some safely recall on the car that needed to be fixed) and immediately -oh shoot. yes. we do. Hna Alvey starts busting out laughing and asks what time its at....me I'm not laughing at all. i look at the clock-its 8am our appt is at 8:15. I look at her--we gotta go. boom lets go. we are gonna make it. From PJ's to pros in a total of 5 minutes we are out the door. at the dealership for our appt on time. We are in the waiting room for a good 2 hours while they fix it. studying and stuff. well they come out and as good dealerships and mechanics do they then proceed to tell me all the other things that are wrong with the car that we need to get done....I call Elder Lines and he says just to get it all done. So we go BACK to the dealer and are there for another 2 more hours......well because we have zone conference on Thursday we made Wednesday our weekly planning day and did I mention that the weather here has been insanely awesome?!! like in the 70s and 80s...record warm weather for Illinois in march. if its like this now boy oh boy do i feel bad for those missionaries here in July.....they are going to be swimming and it wont be in a pool of water...but in the pool of their sweat. ill be in the pool of water :p anyways so we get going on our weekly planning and finally get our car--there is still so much more left we need to plan so we get home and decide that its been so nice outside---why don't we do weekly planning outside?! cool. so out we go. well couple things happen in that moment. 1. i still have yet to shower. 2. i have no shoes. 3. i have no money 4. alvey is in her PJ's 5. our keys are inside. locked safely in our apartment. and 6. our landlord cant come unlock our door for at least another 1.5 hours. so we are officially locked out of our apartment. completely stuck. and looking rather homeless. but does that slow us down or make us stress out.oh heck no! :) we finished our weekly planning, watched the clouds, completely decked out our front porch in sidewalk chalk and played a game of basketball. Our landlord showed up laughing at us and let us in and through all of that we were indeed still able to teach five lessons that day! :) pretty sweet huh? hahaha don't sweat the small stuff. :) Just enjoy it.

Other epic thing that happened this week-that actually happened on our epic Wednesday was we got a phone call. from the stake president. President Peterson. And he has a a quarterly meeting with all the bishops and their counselors every quarter and asked us to go and speak for a bit on what makes us successful missionaries and getting the bishops excited to do missionary work. It was such a neat opportunity and the spirit was there super strong. they then had a q and a with us after and it was pretty cool. We have some awesome bishops and stake presidency here in Naperville. kind of really surprised me-president Peterson knew when i was going home and where i was from and it completely caught me off guard.

Then on Sunday the bishop asked me completely on the spot to share what i had shared the other day at the meeting--but this time in spanish. and oh man. this week i have had to do more on the spot public speaking in front of leaders of the church than i have my whole mission. and its been really neat to feel the spirit right there with me the whole time.

Well this email is getting super long and i feel like i have sooooo much more i could share. but I love you tons and hope you have a great week! make it a good one :) its your last one before the trouble maker timbo maughan gets home and rocks your world! hahahaha

I love you all! take care

paz y amor,

Hermana Maughan

Who's Right?

Man its ­­another week and its crazy that Hermana is almost done…

      Yesterday we were planning when it hit me that tim is going home way soon…. It was a crazy thought and then it was hitting me that I have about 4 months left….. weird, but since transfers are in about 4 weeks and I will have been in Pembroke for 6 months I think i will have one more area for the last two transfers (3 months) and i will have to leave my Lumbee brothers and sisters L but then il will got to another place and find more brothers and sisters!

       The next few weeks we have a lot going on; this week we have Zone Training, the next we get to go to the Temple (the 5^th time) and then I think the week after that we are having a zone Activity day and that’s more than two hours away haha so that will be fun day. So lots of things on the go.

            Last week was a good week. Yesterday we had our investigator  that goes to UNCP come to church, and she really liked it. Speaking of UNCP we had a really interesting lesson the other day…. We were walking around on UNCP campass and talking to people. There were these three girls and as we start talking they started asking us about the funny things like “Mormons have like a hundred wives right?” and the one of: “that guy jo like put his head in a hole and god put knowledge into it right?” And a few new ones for me, haha but we ended up talking for about 30 minutes right there outside and taught  about the restoration and the book of Mormon. When we were in the middle of talking about the book of Mormon this other student walks up and just starts sitting in and so we have to re-tell everything we had been teaching for the last while in a few seconds and then we ended up making another appointment. It was just funny…. Funny people haha

             We also talked with a way anti-Mormon guy and my comp like blow up on him, as I just watched and then at then at the end of the all that there was not so nice feelings between the two and neither were really making any sense. I bore testimony about Jesus Christ, the restoration and the need for a prophet today and then we left with the... well I guess we will have to see who's right at judgment…. (he was another super white Lumbee )  

    So those are the interesting things of this week. It is going good, the weather is being crazy like always, and its still the greatest time ever!

            Thanks for all you do. I hope you have a wonderful week!!

Love you all and say hi to tim for me =)

 ELDER MAUGHAN!!        

You know your Mexican when

Hello hello hello familia!!!!!! :)

can you believe it? 2 more full weeks left and then imma be home in warm az weather? oh man its kind of crazy. And whats even weirder is that there is sooooo much that is gonna happen in these last 2 weeks that it really doesn't feel like its only gonna be two weeks.

This week is my last Zone Conference. this Wednesday. I will be giving my departing testimony--my last one in front of the mission. really strange. and I will also be doing a special musical number on the flute with some other missionaries. :/ Lots happening this week.

There are so many families I have to say bye to and finding time to pack all my stuff...man there really is a lot to do!

But its all good. :) Hna Alvey and I have been seeing SUPER miracles. its been a great way to have the last 6 weeks of my mission go.

This week, we took the Bishop and his wife with us to visit the C family and man it was AWESOME. Talked a lot about getting married and doing it now so that they could be baptized and basically moved the baptism date from the 24th to the 17th. wedding the 16th and baptism the 17th. But then they didnt go get their marriage license this week :( Soooooo baptism and wedding are both back on for my last weekend in the mission. but they are literally solid. Like its what they are going to do. I think the hardest part for them is actually getting to the office to get their marriage license. but its gonna happen. i know it i know it i know it!!

Had a lesson with Irma and she told us that she can't get baptized yet--her kids are super against her becoming a member. But she still wants to learn and said that she is going to be coming to church. Her kids just really want to see the change in her before she just jumps into something. Irma has been prepared and her family is everything to her. The last thing she wants to do right now is separate them even more and so now things have just gotten a bit slower. She needs the right missionaries at the right time. But she knows she's felt different in a good way with the things shes been learning from us that she has from anything else. so poco a poco.

Lessons taught this week: 28. got like 30 more to go and that's gonna happen our last week together. we are gonna be busssssssssy bees:) We taught 6 lessons yesterday and had 3 hours of church and studies. I love being busy doing the lords work :)

I do have a feeling though that I am going to be eating more these next 2 weeks than I have my entire mission. everyone is inviting us over to eat and stuff before I go home. :) and everything important has food involved :) Love My Hispanics :)

Lessons learned this week:

You know your Mexican when you think the limones on the table are for your meat and not your water. We were invited to have dinner at a family in the english wards house this past week and so we went. Well I cannot even begin to describe how uncomfortable I felt. not because they did anything bad or rude. I just did not feel like I was at home. Like I had walked into a cocktail party dressed in holy jeans and a t-shirt. I was too scared to touch anything for fear of breaking it and I really realized that I dont know how to small talk in english anymore. I'm just. awkward. yes. super awkward. So I'm looking around for anything to make me feel somewhat at home. Well what do they decide to feed us that day? Tacos. OK well. that's all I'm gonna say about that. 

anyways so like I'm subconsciously looking around for something, anything that is gonna make me feel comfortable. And I find it. Right there on the table is a bowl of Limones. I get so excited I can barely handle it. I grab like two and start sqeezing the juice on my meat, when I notice that the limones are cut so thin that the juice is really just making a mess all over my hands. but oh well. just gotta get limon on my tacos........I look up and realize that everyone else has put the limones in their water.

who was the mexican sitting at the table? yep. it was me.

Well that's all i got for this week! Sure Love you! HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEK!

paz y amor!

Se Cuiden!

Hermana Maughan

Follow the Spirit

“Son!” “Cuz!” “Daddy!” (lumbee talk) it has been a little of a slow week this week we didn’t teach a lot but it left a lot of time for us to go out and find like on Saturday we went out trying to find people that missionaries had talked to in the past, because I really believe that there is a much better way than to just pick a street and knock those doors, In fact I wish that I didn’t have to knock doors haha but what we do is we go to a house that we have some idea who they are and then follow the spirit to know where to go and what house we should go to. we know that we are lead to an area for a reason. So we were doing this and none of the people that we had planned to talk to were home but we felt inspired to go to a few house and we were able to teach a couple! There Locklear’s (the most common last name in Pembroke) and they were really nice and it is the first time I have ever had the couple argue about Doctrine and at the same time they were both right……it was strange but we are going to go teach them next Saturday! Its exciting

            But once again the weather is strange….. some trees are already blooming so which means a lot of sneezing on by behalf haha and then its like that but yesterday morning there was frost on the ground and today its going to be in like the 70s.

            Well im really trying to think of things to write. It was a lot of biking, talking to people and work. Im really praying that i'll be able to see Pembroke grow in missionary work….. we just got a new ward missionary leader and he is actually the first missionary to go serve a mission from the Pembroke ward and know where he served? Yep Arizona…… sort of …. he served a native American mission and spent a little time in Arizona but still. He is way funny and we are all excited for the work!

            Well i'm sorry about all the yard work dad haha but to tell the truth (I most likely am going to regret this but) I miss it a little, and now i'm on mission asking everyone if a can do some sort of service for them. most of the time I ask If I can change their light bulbs for them haha

(I have only done that twice so far)

We will be raking a member’s non-member  yard and im looking forward to it but I tell you what I don’t want to use that push lawn mower that you had in Mesa. I think we should get a nice Jon Deer riding lawn mower! Those are nice or at least a self-purpled lawn mower.

everyone thinks it really funny here when I tell them that some people back home just spray paint there rocks  green back home haha.

            But I really love you all and i'm so gratefull for all that you do and I truly feel your love. I'm also excited for you all to be able to see Tim in two weeks!  I would just say one thing about that, when she gets home don’t think you’re getting the same Tim back. I'm really grateful for all your examples to me! Thanks!!!

ELDER MAUGHAN!!! 

  

He blessed me EVEN more

Helllllllllo Family!!!!! :)

Oh man how have you all been? I seriously cannot believe that another week has already gone by.  they just keep getting shorter and shorter and yet the amount of things to do is never ending :)

First off I think I should say that I.LOVE.this.work. missionary work is the bomb. Like nothing else one will ever do. BEST.THING.EVER.

I really don't feel like I only have 3 weeks left. its just like I'm going to continue doing this and its never gonna end. and I'm good with that feeling, it keeps me working :) and man oh man have we been working! My body is seriously so sore and exhausted from all this work!

This week we went on exchanges which meant I got to work with Hermana Brown for the day!!! :) And we were able to find three more new investigators! :) God is seriously just leading us to these families and I love love love love it!

And the biggest miracle that happened this week--

We had an appt with the Familia C this week and talked about baptism. We talked about the baptismal service they went to last week and they absolutely loved it. asked them how they felt and they described the spirit so perfectly. This familia is seriously super prepped! We then invited them to be baptized and they said........YES!!!! they are getting baptized the 24th of this month! the last Saturday I have in the mission! :) So we are still working out the logistics but, we will be having a wedding and a baptism all within the next 3 weeks :) if everything goes the right way! They are super excited and came to church yesterday.

The ward was seriously so awesome with that. I was feeling pretty nervous about taking them all to their classes and everything I got up and someone asked me a question I turn around to take care of the familia  and there is the primary president with the baby in her arms, the young men's president talking to the father and mother while leading them to Sunday school while some of the young woman are talking to the 13 year old Corina and taking her to young woman's. It was SUCH a cool thing to see the ward just be aware that this family was new and take care of them completely. HUGE stress was immediately taken off my shoulders. This ward is seriously the best ward ever. They love missionary work and are SUPER aware of the people around them-to make them feel comfortable and welcome in the ward family. SO AMAZING to see the gospel principles put into action in the very ward I'm working in :)

This week was also fast Sunday and not just any fast Sunday but my last one in the mission field. Boy was THAT a bunch of mixed emotions. It hit me. and hit me hard. I was the first one to get up and bear my testimony-i don't remember what I said but I do remember how I felt. There was so much that I wanted to say and didn't know how only because it was more of a feeling that I couldn't describe. I have been in this ward for 7 months now and looking around me- its my family. I've come accustomed to seeing those faces and talking to those people. they are some of my best friends. that I have to say bye to. I made it through my testimony without crying and then when I sat back down-that's when all these feelings of peace, sadness, love just all surrounded me and tears started flowing. I don't know how to describe it but the feelings I had that day were something I've never really experienced before.

My mission has been quite the journey and I've learned and become someone I never thought I would. The Hermana Maughan that will be getting off the plane in Arizona is not the same Hermana Maughan that got off the plane in Chicago. And for that I am super grateful. My mission has changed my life. for the better. WAAAAY better. I thought coming out here I was coming to repay God for all the things he had done for me, and in the end Hes blessed me EVEN more and I am even more indebted to all my Heavenly Father has given me. :)

I hope you have a great week! Love you all so much!

paz y amor,

Hermana Maughan

Family History

              Hey out there! It has been great in the land of lumbee! And you know what!? I might be a full Lumbee soon because we just had transfers calls and….. im staying in Pembroke for at least another 6 weeks! So maybe (but unlikely) ill just stay out here for the rest of my mission.

            Saturday we had our Family history work shop and it was really good. there wasn’t a lot of people but it was a start. My part turned from a 15min discussion into about 30mins….. I talked about the why and mostly the Doctrine of chirst:

Faith          
Repentance          
Baptism     
The Gift of the HolyGhost                                                 
Enduring to  The End    

the Atonement Of Jesus Christ                                                                    

 what we need to do to get back to father in heaven

            So my talk went a little like this: because of Jesus Christ and his atonement we are able to get back to the presence of father in heaven and it is only through Jesus Christ we can do this. he has commanded us to do follow the Doctrine of Christ (2 Nephi 31)
             So what about the people that have never heard the name of Christ and about his doctrine? 
then using some of the scriptures I told you last week,
everyone will have a chance in this life or the life to come but we need to find them and the way we do that is through Family History.
            That is a really, really brief version of it, but it was really good and we will be doing it again. We were even invited to go teach the young woman’s about it. The work of the lord is so great!

            We also found a few new investigators and had some really good lessons the work is picking up and i'm glad that get to see the work moving forward. I really hope that i will be here to see a few of the people I have been working with become members of the church, i'm praying J

            So as for the tornadoes we didn’t see much of them. There has been lots of rain and some high winds but no tornadoes in our area. the weather has been nice now that we got some rain, the weather dropped back to the 60s so I don’t know north Carolina weather is very strange…….

            So mom you asked about what we do on Mondays well……. Nothing really we e-mail, shop (when we have a car so every other week) then go to the church and I play ball and elder hayes writes letters.
            I have also been teaching my self to play the piano and can play songs like praise to the man, I am a child of god, elders of Israel, called to serve and to bring the world his truth. Mind you I can only do it with my right hand but I hope next week ill be able to play for priesthood meeting because we need a piano. Haha that’s what we do.

            So thank you so much for all you do and remember be nice to tim and don’t be too trunkey with her haha! 

            I love you all      [-_-] |,,|_

Have a great week!

ELDER MAUGAHAN