BIKES...in yes a skirt. weeeeeeee...

FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

holy cow do I have a ton to tell you.

So you remember how today was transfers? well I do. Would you like to know what happened? Cause I think I'm just gonna cut to the chase and tell you. hope that's OK. Plus I'm now on a computer with a time limit...due to the fact that yes! I HAVE BEEN Transferred!!! Crazy!!!! Wanna know where I am now? Bet you cant guess........

Well I've left the sticks, and am now that's right in la centro de la ciudad. the center of the city. aka the middle of downtown Chicago!  And so I live in a ghetto apt, no longer have a car, we walk and RIDE BIKES. I am now in a place where yes. I will be riding a bike, in yes a skirt. weeeeeeee. I for see no bruises or injuries coming out of clunky me, in a skirt, on a bike. but also maybe some weight loss as well??? or maybe just some really manly legs. hahaha. But I am SERIOUSLY SOOOO EXCITED! get this:

There are only 2 sets of missionaries in the downtown city city of Chicago (like what the video was that we toured the first day we were here) One set is English elders, and the other set is us Spanish Sisters. And there is only one area in this whole mission where Sisters ride bikes and yep I'm in it. So crazy!

We went grocery shopping today and that was a different experience. all this walking and bus and train hopping I can't even believe where I'm at right now. I don't have a bike yet. Still have to get one of those so I'm gonna be using one of these old ones that are super small for a bit. Sister Doll--Presidents Wife said that there is bike she has in her garage she'll give me. so hoping that to take that so that I don't have to spend the money buying a bike.  I already have a blister on my toe from today's walking adventures. this is seriously more exercise than I have had since I left on my mission.  I'm in for some body pain as I get used to this whole thing.

And already I am learning how much different the mission is in the city. Everything is super more fast paced and we really do have the opportunity to open our mouths and talk to EVERYone we pass by. we set up 2 different citas con 2 different people to go visit them within the last 4 hours that I've been here in Chicago and its totally just from talking and having a conversation that leads to one thing and has us coming over to tell them about the gospel. SO SUPER AMAZING!!! AHHHH I'M SOOOOO EXCITED TO BE HERE!!! there are so many things to do and I'm living here! I mean there is like a 1 in like idk 3% chance that sister's get to actually serve near the city of Chicago and I'm in it. crazy eh?!

Oh I totally forgot to tell you about my companion!! She is wonder woman. Super missionary who totally knows why she's here and she's not afraid to talk about it. Her name is Hermana Curtis. and guess where shes from? Yuma, Arizona. so crazy right?! finding all these weird connections thing....ahhh crazy! She is seriously awesome. I think this transfer with here will be great. I'm gonna learn a ton. plus she only speaks to me in Spanish so I'm kind of having a feeling that my Spanish speaking skills are gonna be improved mucho mucho in this time with her. she has been here in the city for like 9 months and are you ready for this? she only has 6 weeks left of her mission. so this one transfer more and then she goes home.

Do you realize what this means for me? I have to learn everything about this downtown chi town from her in 6 weeks. I'M so happy. I have wanted to serve in the city on my mission and I get to do that.

well that's all that I've got :)

Love ya!

paz y amor,

Hermana Maughan

Tia got baptized!

            Well a lot of things happened this week but something really cool is that Tia got baptized! And even though she is 8 I’m still counting her. It was really special I was able to confirm her and I just loved how strong the spirit was. Also most of her family came who are less active and non members and in the blessing I felt very strong that as Tia stays strong in the gospel and lives in a way worthy to have the Holy Ghost with her, then she will be able to help her entire family to become able to feel of the joy she has been able to feel by becoming part of Jesus Christ’s true church! I just love the change you can see in people and Tia’s smile was worth the world with how big and happy it was. I’m so gratefull to have been able to teach her and have those tender mercies in my life.

            Then after the baptism we had a lesson with a 16 year olde girl that has been coming to church for the past 4 years, her name is Kadijha (I don’t know how to spell her name and people just call her Dee). We came in and mostly talked about baptism and we sort of set a date for April 2^nd she wants to pray about it. Something interesting about her is that when we talked about baptism we asked what was holding her back and she just kept on saying “I don’t know, I really don’t know” she knows that everything is true, she loves church and she has gone to seminary for the past two years, so its up to her but I have prayed and I know if she wants it she can be baptized. She is really great and I know she feels the spirit and now she just needs to feel it all the time by having the GIFT of the Holy Ghost.

            Im loving my mission it is great and the new home makes things a little better. And we just got a lesson coordinator so I hope that will help us get into more members homes. Members are key.

            Well I got to type my L.T.P. now so i'll talk to you latter! Take care, be safe, be strong and be Happy!!!!

ELDER MAUGHAN       

PJ's

?qué tal mis amigos mejores?

hi again!!! Another week has come and gone and here i am again with pday. crazy huh? time is seriously just flying on by. This week nothing to much exciting has taken place but it has been a good week none the less :)

so it has snowed again :/ again on us. the weather likes to play games and right when you think its getting warmer and nice and springy...boom nope. think again. but what happened was that it rained alllllllll day on Sunday and they were also like freezing rain. so it comes down as rain and freezes on the way down...and then in the night alllll the water froze so it was soooooooo icy and then on top of it all was a nice dump of snow to just add to the enjoyment of everything.

but thanks to the lovely package i got from Lil this week. we've been able to survive our little "fishing trip." She sent a fishing care package, with all the things needed when you go on a fishing trip. the essentials you know... hot chocolate, marshmallows, Hershey's bars, graham crackers (all to make smores with. smore a what? how can i have smore if i haven't even had anything? Your killin me smalls!) and then of course, a FISH! :) and she gave instructions how to make em in the microwave BUT we were able to have a fire and actually roast them...you know why? cause we have a fireplace! so after our daily planning sessions we have been sitting and talking and roasting mallows to put on the graham. quite fun. so thank you Lil! :) loved it. very delicious!

other cool things that have happened this week, we went over to Laura's house and she and her 14 yr old boy both were baptized like a year ago and her husband Lucio was going to get baptized and then the day of he bailed out and since then its been really hard to teach him. he got heavy into drinking again and was just super hard hearted towards the gospel. well he ended up being court ordered to go to a like an AA program. so since the new year hes been coming to church with his esposa like off and on but still whenever we go to see her hes never home or hasn't wanted to talk about the gospel. but last Thursday we went over and were visiting with Laura and her husband comes downstairs and is like really happy. small talking to us a bit about the weather and stuff and then i just kept having this thought to ask him this question. so i finally did...i said so Lucio are you preparing for your baptism? then he started asking questions about all the things he needed to do to get baptized and that he had all these questions so we set up an appt and have now met with him a couple times. he already knows its true just needs some pushing and hes had some pretty soft missionaries before and Ive had to be super blunt with a couple of times about living prophets and reading the bom and some other things but i know that this is exactly what he needs. someone who is a bit harder on him about keeping his commitments and not to procrastinate the day of his repentance any longer. and he even that. he came to church last week and we get to meet with him again this week so it should be good! :)  god sure has a plan for things he sure knows what hes doing.

Another thing that was kind of funny happened this week. its about 8:30 and so not quite time to head home yet but yet in order to get anywhere its like not enough time to have a lesson and its super cold so contacting equals no fun. I had the impression that we should go and see this couple that we have also been trying to see forever...Wendy and Jose. Wendy is a really inactive member and Jose her husband isn't one. and so we went over there and Jose answered the door. he speaks Spanish and English like so fluently combined together that its hilarious.  so he answers the door and tells us that his wife isn't home cause shes at school. so he invites us in (and we can't come in cause there is not another female in the house) so we go oh Jose you know the rules. and he goes ya ya...picks up his dog and says well shes a girl. we laugh and then he goes actually shes a he so that doesn't really work. and so were like trying to figure out a day we can come by this week and he knows its cold outside and so he invites us in again in Spanish and then in English he goes "its OK I'm gay anyways" and oh gee I was laughing so hard. cause here hes just told us about his wife...anyways I'm sure its one of those you had to be there kind of things but it was pretty funny all the same. so we will be meeting with them this week :)

last Friday we went over to zayras house and shes a single mom with six kids. all girls and one boy who is 1 year old. so we went over there and helped her and her oldest daughter April clean out there garage and basement which flooded and it was pretty fun getting to know them a little more and just having some good laughs. we then went to some other appts and then had a lot of other appts cancel that night and even our backup plans fell through so the only person i thought about going and seeing it was zayra again and all her little girls cause they were all home from school then. but when we had been working with zayra in the morning we were talking about footie PJ's and having sleepovers. so me and Hna Layton rushed home, grabbed the essentials: hot chocolate, popcorn and our PJ's! we headed over there and had a really fun time teaching and talking and eating our popcorn at our "stay up late pretend sleepover" it was pretty fun and we had an awesome dance concert from little 4 year old daisy which definitely gave some fun entertainment. it was pretty much a lot of fun. :)

so that's just a bit of whats been going on here in my neck of the woods. what about with you guys? Nana your package did come, its in the mission office so i actually don't have it in my possession but it is in the mission office. I guess the mission office forwarded it to me and it got sent back to them so they don't know why and don't want to risk sending it again in the event that it gets lost. but its here! :) and I'm hoping ill get it soon! thanks so much Nana! you re awesome!

sure love you all so much! and I hope that everything goes great this week!

Stay good! Paz y amor!

Hermana Maughan

p.s. I got a letter from the prophet today saying that those who write me get extra blessings so send me some letters! my mail box is lonely!

New Companion

Well I have a new companion again. He has been out for 4.5 months so I'm still senior comp which I'm ok with that. His name is Elder Penny and he is from Seattle and seems to be a good Elder, just a little different like all of them have been haha. This Saturday we move into an apartment that is right in town, which will be really nice since we still don’t have a car. No driving yet and just another 6 weeks to get stronger ya. It is going to be weird to be living on our own again... the Bows family has been really nice to be with since being here and they help making fun of all the bad stuff that has happened in this transfer to Roxboro.

The work is moving forward. Tia isn’t 9 she is 8 sooooo and she isn’t a covert though we are still going to be teaching her because her mom is less active and we are trying to get her more involved. We are also still working to help some investigators to get married. We are getting close with some, and some just keep putting it off.

Our phone also broke this week which made things very interesting but we made it and now have a new phone so that is a big help.

 I know that Christ lives and that this is his church and he wants me to be happy so even with all the bad that happens his goodness seem o so much more. Im so glad to be out here and thank you everyone for helping me with your prayers and letters they truly help me and give me joy. I hope you are all doing good and are staying happy as well! Well got to go so stay safe, stay strong and stay happy!

Elder Maughan!!        

You know the Spanish is coming along when...

¡buenos días mi familia y mis amigos! :)

¿Qué está pasando? por mi, pues no mucho este semana...... pero aqui es mi carta este semana :)

HAPPY V_DAY!! hope all is well and that your handling the heat. its been hard here to handle it. i mean im like sweating buckets.. haha. yeah right. but good news is that its been getting warmer!! Dee you were right! you get to Valentines Day and it hasnt seemed so cold! spring seems around the corner. I just really dont want another huge dump of snow. so sick of it. but wanna hear something funny. oh dad you are gonna be so jealous. :) :p well weve been in the 40s this past week! the snow is melting and the sun is acutally out! the wind isnt really that bad and I actually dont need to wear my sleeping bag with arms outside! its so lovely. but me and hna layton are lookin back to November and that was where we were FUHREEZING cause of the cold. like wearing sweaters and lots of leggings even sweat pant under our skirts and you know what the temp was then? in the 40s. like exactly what it is now and we think that its SO perfect outside. so i really dont know how im gonna handle coming back to arizona temps. im gonna be like the wicked witch and just melt away. but ill still love it :) dont worry.

so you know how I kind of do this sleep talking thing? you know where im sleeping but i still have conversations with my comp? well ya. its still happening. had another episode happen like 2 days ago. wanna hear it? ok... well we got home and we were having our nightly planning session, where we go over what work we did that day and what are plan is for the next day. so we finish planning and im seriously sooo tired. and its my turn to pray. so because im so tired i decide that im gonna say a quick prayer cause i just really wanna go to bed and sleep. so i start praying...and mind you we only pray in spanish. its so weird to do it any other way now. but i start out my prayer... Nuestro Padre Celestial. (Our dear heavenly father) Gracias por este día (thank you for this day) Gracias por nuestros muchos bendiciones (thank you for our many blessings) and boom. thats all I remember. but its not all i said. according to hna layton I kept praying. and yes it was still in spanish. I went off and prayed for our investigators and asked for them to have help  in the things that they needed and like it was pretty specific to each of our investigators needs (still in spanish btw) and then i said por favor bendice a elder antola y elder whatcott que....(please bless elder anotla and elder whatcott that...) and then i stopped speaking. so hna layton thought that i was just trying to think of words to say in spanish so she sat there wating for a bit. and then she thought.."no. she fell asleep." so she opened her eyes and saw me completely passed out. she started laughing and made the sound PSSSSTTT. and i woke up. looked around and my brain when right back to what i had been doing before i was asleep and i remembered i had been praying but i had no idea how long han layton had been waiting for me to talk so i just said digo estas cosas en el nombre de JesuCristo amen. and she was laughing so hard. like I really just did that. fell asleep in the middle of a sentance.. but then she kept talking and was like telling me the story and somehow we got back to how I was praying for our investigators and found out that all of that i had not remembered at all. I passed out waaaaay earlier. like the 3rd sentance in. but kept talking. so it just would have been even more funny if I had just talked and talked and talked like said a 15min prayer sleeping and hna layton would have just been waiting and waiting for me to finish and i would have been already asleep. man.

so another funny thing. I may sleep talk. but at least i dont sleep write. which we found out yesterday that thats what herman layton does. she was writing a card to her grandpa and she was falling asleep. but she finished it and went to bed. so the next day we were talking and she pulls out the card and says "oh ya I think I was falling asleep when writing this so I dont know if I finished it." well she finished it alright.  everything was fine. till you got to the end of the card where she said. love your favorite granddaughter, and in the most legible and pretty handwriting signed it , Hermana Mormon (Meredith). what does that mean?! haha hermana Mormon. so i no longer am with hna layton but I am serving with Hna Mormon. :)

we had zone meeting this week and it was pretty good. it was about being better teachers and teaching with the spirit. how we need to prepare before hand but then how when we go into teach lessons to our investigators then we need to listen to the spirit and what he wants us to talk about. and we will be given in the very hour what we need to say.

oh and so since we have the cool thing where we get to go on the computer for an hour any other time of the week and check out mormon.org and lds.org i found a couple videos I want to share:

http://old.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/videos?channelId=ad1fcf6cdfeac110VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD&sourceId=044227d6ade2d210VgnVCM100000176f620a____

start a new year. dont be like lots wife. dont look back. learn and then forgive and forget. thats all there is to it.

http://old.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/videos?channelId=ad1fcf6cdfeac110VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD&sourceId=b54655c9566ec210VgnVCM100000176f620a____

turn unto christ. he will comfort and bless you. repent and you will be forgiven. he is waiting for you to come unto him. step by step. :)

and then these two: man oh man.. missionary work! <3 it

http://lds.org/study/prophets-speak-today/unto-all-the-world/prophets-and-apostles-stress-importance-of-missionary-preparation?lang=eng

http://newsroom.lds.org/article/the-power-of-positive-peer-influence

26 boys coming to priesthood. the power of one acting and not being afraid to open his mouth. you can be a missionary. just open you mouth and invite! :) youll be amazed at how it opens the doors to a lot of things.

hope you enjoy those. i love em. super mucho.

ummm... and i think that sums it up for me here this week. hope things are well there.

dad hope you enjoyng the bc weather. whats it like? hows work there? hope your presentation went well. :) Mom sounds like you have a busy week even with dad gone. cool hike you both went on. haha and great way to end it. love it. mike: did you get a new car? what kind is it? does it have ac? hows school and stuff? still workin at safeway?

Lillian! man you are the best. thanks for you package I got it yesterday and died laughing. the fishing care package. its perfect. in our apt we even have a little fireplace so me and my hermana are gonna feel like weve really be fishing and are camping with all these delicious stuff. thank you so much. there should be a letter heading your way soon so keep your eyes peeled :)

Nana I still havent gotten your package yet. hopefully today. my fingers are crossed! :) I love you and thanks for thinking of me and sending me something! :)

Dee: I was wondering if I could get Austins address at the mtc. like his p.o box and stuff...and idk if my mom already told you about dearelder.com. but if not its a pretty awesome thing. you can type him a letter for free and then he gets that letter like either that day or the next from you. it gets there faster to him then it does by sending an actual letter or by waiting a week to hear from you on emails once a week.

Happy Valentine’s Day!!! Or Happy Arizonans Birthday!!

Well this week has been good and very interesting all at the same time. Happy Valentine’s Day!!! Or Happy Arizonans birthday!! Either way happy day! Man holidays feel so different on a mission and with all that has happened in the last 5 weeks in Roxboro… this transfer is almost over already and Elder Moore likes to point out that I've been out for 8 months now and I have to use two hands to show it, so I started to count in ASL so it can all be done on one hand and I don’t feel so old….. it really has been going by fast.

 Its getting hotter here in the 50’s and 60’s so that means summer is on its wayL then its my birthdayJ yay, but I hope by then I'm back in an area with a car…. No more------------------ (that’s the bike trail that dad made up) but then I can be like Tim and be ==================== with a car haha those where the days.

So this week a lot of investigators lost their baptism dates because they didn’t come to church or they will not get married. Then we haven’t been able to teach many of them because of the flu which has hit really hard here. It makes it a little hard. But then work is going great we are getting more referrals from members every week, and next Sunday the branch is going to call 12 new branch missionaries! So the branch is getting ready to do some great things and Satan is working really hard. It is just so funny to see all the things going on, the good and bad and how much we are protected. But we had an "R"eferral to see some people that had just moved in and when we went over there they were very nice and we set a time to teach. There were three of them there two were boy (20) and girl friend (18) (they had just moved in together) and there friend who was 18 and had her new born. The lesson was very…. Different than anyone I had ever had before. We talked about everything: the restoration, plan of salvation, gospel of Jesus Christ, church, word of wisdom, and law of chastity (we talked about that a lot) it was way fun and they were asking us a lot of questions. I found some of the questions weird but it was a very good lesson. They want to learn more about what God wants them to do. We have another lesson with them tonight. 

 Haha missionary work is so fun because you can never really know what’s going to happen in a day that you’ll be able to write home about haha.

Well I got to go I hope you all take care and stay safe wherever you are and remember I love you!

Elder Chris Maughan         

Bad dance moves?

hey there y'all!

well another week has gone by and here i am again on the computer writing you an email! :) congrats on hasta la bye bye to the man van. that was quick.

as for this week. things have been slow. Hermana Layton has still been sick and that has really put a damper on our work. I feel so unsuccessful and i want to be working harder but i also want my companion better. but since we haven't really taught any lessons this week and cause of all the snow we have had to fill our day with trying to set up appts with people. I just want to be working so hard and i want to get the Spanish down which feels like its taking forever. I mean you know me if i cant get it perfect the first time i get frustrated, but I know that it is getting better and better little by little. I'm understanding pretty much everything that is going on its just the whole talking back thing. one day one day. :)

one cool story that happened though is that one of our investigators the one we found tracting in the parking lot before Christmas, where her husband was a member and was inactive for years and years and years...well after new years they kinds of dropped off. they stopped returning our calls, we would stop by there house and no one would be home, we would leave notes telling em to call us and just like poof disappeared. so on Monday, with our goal to lose ourselves in the work this week we decided that in the night we were gonna stop by her house and see if we could catch em. well that morning we went to the shelter and then after we had a voicemail. lo and behold you know who from?--yep Norma. who we haven't heard from in months! she actually called us! and I guess they've been going through some hard hard times but she wants to see us and meet with us. so we have an appt with her on Friday and I'm just really looking forward to that appt.

we taught a lesson to veronica yesterday and retaught her the plan of salvation which she didn't remember anything. so it was an awesome lesson. you could just see in her face the way things clicked and made sense and that we could live with our families forever. she just needs the courage to act and do the things she knows she needs to like go to church. once she goes there i know shes gonna be hooked. its just getting there that's been hard.

Jaime and Ethelvina. just love them. we stopped by their house yesterday and Jaime actually read and wants to read. and wants to learn. he was like I'm gonna read and he was writing down all his questions that he had thinking that oh man I'm gonna have so many questions for the hermanas their not gonna know what to do. this is gonna be great. and man it was just awesome! thinking soon their gonna have a bap date. praying for that! 

and this week one of our ward missionaries and now the young men's president--hes 21 and a professional boxer trying to get out there on a mission himself--anyways hes been training us...aka we've been doing his boxing workouts in the morning all of us in the Rockford district.  man oh man. i cannot move. i am so sore. my hamstrings and my back and just everywhere. but the things we do are pretty funny. they look like the one kid who always goes to the dance parties and thinks he can dance but in reality he cant and everyone secretly makes fun of him...well that's what the exercises look like. bad dance moves. so it makes for some good laughs as well. 

and that's pretty much it that's happened this week. another game of extreme bowling is gonna take place here today for our zone activity. and then it ll probably be to the gym for some usual basketball if i can even move my body enough to shoot the ball! :)

i love you all! hope things are great!

cant wait to hear from you!

paz y amor hermana maughan