Roanoke Rapids is the place to be!

          Well im in Roanoke Rapids! Yep its my new area, and the funny thing is that I have already been here at lot before! It is in the same district as Rocky Mount so I came on exchanges here in the past. It was funny because I know most of the members here. I also was able to see some people that I had interviewed for baptism. 

          I sort of already have found out a few reasons why i'm here and it is that the young mens program is growing really well and the way they are getting boys interested is basketball! At transfers when President Cottrell was telling me where I was going he looked at the member from RR (who is the young men’s president and also the coach of the young men who I already knew pretty well) and says “well i'm sending you a 6 foot 10 center.”

         At church all these boys were hovering all around me and I must have been asked how tall I am, and if I play basketball 1000000000000 times, it was really funny. So i'm excited to be here.

          I also had my last interview with president Cottrell since he is leaving the mission about 10 days before I am and it was really good. We reviewed a little of my mission and talked about the area and he said that he felt very strongly that this was where I needed to finish my mission, and he is excited for me to be here.

         My new companion's name is Elder Caldwell and he is from Utah and we are getting along great. We have had a good week and i'm looking forward to serving with him!

        Do you remember Elder Koplin? He is the first elder I trained those many months ago in Smithfield, it is really neat to see  that he is now district leader.

         I am sad that i'm not with the lubees anymore, but they did send me off good! Do you know what I had my last meal there? CHICKEN BRYANT!!!! (its not as good as yours dad but it was still really good!!) it was a lot of fun serving there J

          Well i'm just really excited to be here and be a part of all this. It really doesn’t feel like I only have 3 month left….. Tht is really strange to me.

          I hope you all have a great week! I'm so grateful for all of you!! Take care and be safe!!

ELDER MAUGHAN     

Leaving Pembroke

           Well…..im leaving Pembroke tomorrow L im leaving my Lumbee family but now I’ll be able to go and meet another family for my last 3 months…. Haha but yesterday was my last Sunday here.  So I have some mixed feelings about moving.

            Well this last week we had our zone activity conference and I made shirts for all the district and I will send some pictures if the computer will let me. haha It was really good I was able to see a bunch of my old companions like; E. Moore, E. Butts, E. Conners, and E. Yankton and it was a little strange to find out that they were all quoting me to each other…… it was funny, as I talked about all the things I did with them.

          We played Volleyball, Capture the flag, a relay race, and soccer (mike you would be proud of me haha). It was a lot of fun, but it only lasted for 3 hours.

            We had a few good lessons and I hope that within the next month someone will write me to tell me that some people here decided to get baptized.  I have really enjoyed my time here and almost everyone wants me to come back, so if you come with me you will be able to have a great dinner (lunch) or supper waiting! Maybe even a good pig picking haha

            Yesterday we had a adult fireside and it was a good way to say goodbye to this area, plus I got a pic with everyone J

            I don’t know about my next area yet ….. (because I don’t know how to talk to anyone that isn’t a Lumbee anymore haha) But i am sure it will be fun.

            I have to do a lot of packing today plus i'm sending some things home. yay

            I hope you have a wonderful week and talk care!

ELDER MAUGHAN!!       

Lumbee in Me

       Easter was really good! I had a really good time and the spirit was really strong yesterday. It started out at church with a few really good talks and then really good lessons about the atonement. We then went to have lunch with a really good family where we had a good southern breakfast for lunch and it was fun. Then there was an Easter Program that our ward put together (I was not in this one) and it was really good! So all of my Easter was very spiritual.

       Oh and on Saturday the primary had a Easter egg hunt and we offered our yard for them to do it on, since it is so close to the church. Tt was really funny to see this mop of children attacking our yard and there was a little girl that saw the horses next to our house and ran over to them and the horse came right over because it saw me. ( I have made a friendship with this horse by feeding it..... so now the horse will come over when I walk up to the fence) so anyways this girl walks up and when another little boy sees the horse coming he runs over and spookes the horse, the lumbee in me kick's in and I run over to calm the horse down. So the boy got scared and ran away but this little girl stayed right there because she wanted to pet the horse. The funny thing about it was as the girl was petting the horse, it bent down and grabbed her Easter bag thinking it was food and for the next 3 seconds.....it was this epic struggle between animal and girl! The surprising thing was the girl won! So never underestimate the strength of a girl and her candy!

        We had a really good lesson with the girl from UNCP, she is doing really well and she has started to open a lot and its been great to see the growth in her.

We also had another good lesson with another investigator and she has been really quiet about what has been holding her back from baptism and this last lesson she shared to us what was going on and it is is that she is having a hard time with the Sabbath being on Sunday (she is a former 7^th day Adventist) so tomorrow we will talking more about that.

       Oh also on UNCP there was this man that came and claimed to be perfect . He started telling everyone that they were going to hell for very random things; like any girl that plays sports is going to hell, and bla bla bla and bla. It turns out that this has made a big impact on the school and a lot of students now have questions . We have talked to a few people already and it looks like its opening a lot of doors for us to share what Heavenly Father really thinks of his children. But that's the south for ya... haha.

        I hope everything is going great back home. I am so grateful for all of you. I hope you all had a great week with Tim! This week we will be having a Zone Activity day and I'm going to see a few of my old comps and I'm way excited! Then next Tuesday will be transfers and this Saturday I'll be finding out if I will be saying with my Lumbee family or going to make another family! So its going to be fun!!

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!

ELDER MAUGHAN

Hoe Hoe Hoe

           Good morning! How are things out there? That is so crazy that Tim is home! Conference here was really good (as I know it was good everywhere) I learned a lot and it was just good to feel of the spirit and I felt close to everyone knowing your watching it too.  it was just strange to think that Timothie was watching it there and all that stuff. It was hard not to think of home when every talk was about families and I must say I'm very grateful for the family that I have, so thank you so much!

            So last week I was able to go to the temple and that was really nice. It was just a wonderful experience for the spirit to be felt so much.

We also did so more planting this week and that was fun.

           Yesterday after conference we had 30 mins before our next appointment and we could have stayed home and found something to do at the trailer but we felt like we needed to go to the college. So we went over to the college and there was no one there, so we started to head for home and as we were almost home we came across 3 college girls that were walking and we started talking and wouldn’t you know it? They wanted to learn more!

          So this is truly the lords work and he knows which of his children are ready. And I'm so grateful that I'm able to be apart of it J

            This last week has been a large blur, and I cant recall much of what happened haha!

I love you all! And I hope you have a great week!!!

ELDER MAUGHAN!     

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