Week 19

Hey,

 

So things are great here in Kirtland. We have one investigator and he will be baptized. We're shooting for 7Apr butttttttttttt I just don't know if he'll pass his interview. Which isn't a bad thing! We've needed a lot of help with him and it will be so good to know where he needs help better understanding everything. And if he does pass than that's even better!!! Plan on the 7th :]

 

Since we only have one investigator we're searching for more. We tracted 8 hours this week and it was glorious. I'm not getting skinnier though! It's becoming a problem. But on Saturday we were in correlation and our ward mission leader felt there was a family praying for truth. We don't know where they are but we cancelled all of our plans that day (I'm pretty sure it was just tracting and maybe one stopby) and we went to this one neighborhood by our boundary and knocked on every door in the neighborhood for 4 hours. Tracting has never been so awesome this whole time. I don't think I've ever felt so driven for anything in my whole life. I just want to find this family who's prepared! By the end of the night we had given away 9 Books of Mormon and a few numbers. We're hopefully meeting with one man on Tues. And we're trying to get in contact with a family we met. We don't think it's the family we were looking for but still! We were led to this neighborhood and we were on a search and we found people willing to hear the gospel. It was one of the most successful days I've had on my mission so far and we didn't have one lesson.

 

We have this vision of what Kirtland is going to become. I didn't have it at first but I'm coming to see it the more I'm here. Since I've been in the Kirtland ward we've had 2 baptisms and a couple families move in and for some reason the ward just seems so much bigger! Bro B sees the Kirtland ward splitting because of all the growth that's about to happen. Which it will! I can see it happening. We're going to find so many people and they're going to know it's true and the ward is going to grow so much that it will be forced to split because there'll be too many people to fit in there!

 

Not a lot happened this week though lessonwise. I think we only had like 7 lessons this week :/ We're supposed to be getting 20.. But it's okay! We need new people to teach. Oh, I guess we have 2 investigators. One is just a little more of a difficult situation. We're working with her a lot though and I just love her so much. She'll be baptized someday. Sister S really thinks it will be in April. I hope it is. She needs baptism in her life and we know she's knows the church is true. She just won't see it for herself yet.

 

Next on the email tour of the Kirtland Historic Sites we have the trading and bartering room. Now, the storefront was really fancy. The t&b room on the other hand was a lot more down to earth and people were able to afford it more. They could trade and barter for the things they were in need of. Newel K Whitney was really good at taking records in his day book of people who came in and bought things so we have a 3 month span of records of what people bought. It's really neat but I haven't been able to really look at it yet. When Newel K Whitney was called to be a bishop he had only been a memeber for about 10 months I believe and he told Joseph Smith that he didn't see a bishop in himself. Joseph told him to go pray about it and see for himself what the Lord needed him to do. It was confirmed to Newel that he needed to accept his calling and he became the bishop of Kirtland. Have you guys ever felt inadequate in something the Lord has asked you to do?? I know I have! Shoot, a mission was NOT in my plans and I did not feel I could do this. But, like Newel, if we ask and rely on the Lord we're able to do anything He needs us to do. We're constantly being prepared for things in the future and Heavenly Father knows how we can best use our experiences to help build His kingdom on the earth. I love this gospel and I know it's true. I know Heavenly Father is helping me every step of the way out here because it is not easy. But I know with His help I can do it.

 

I love you guys so much and I'm grateful for your support in me doing this. I hope all is well back home and wherever.

 

Sister Maynard.

Week 18

Hey!

Stop rubbing it in that I don't have game night every week anymore :[ I miss it. We hardly bake cookies too and it's never from scratch :[ It's so horrible but people love them anyways. This past week was so fun! I guess you saw on fb already but LeeAnn came to sites! It was so crazy! Because at first the Sister at the front desk called up and said I had a package but I was on chat so I couldn't go down. Then a few minutes later she called up again and told me I needed to go down so we finished up our chat and went down and LeeAnn was there!!! I was so excited I might have thrown the phone and almost fell over but it was so great :] 

 

**Here's the Facebook Version**
LeeAnn

just got back from Kirtland where a miracle happened and I got to see my good friend Sister Mackenzie Maynard while she is serving her mission there!!! she is doing great and it was soooooo good to see her, love that girl!! such a great day!!!!!!!!!

 .

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  Austin hahahahahahahha i forgot that you know Mackenzie, i love that girl.
  

  Thursday at 3:14pm ·
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• Allie  She is the sister who serves in my ward. That is cool you came to Kirtland and saw her!
  

  Thursday at 3:26pm ·
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  Austin  and i served in her home ward in California
  

  Thursday at 3:26pm ·
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• LeeAnn Yep, she's great. and it was just totally crazy that she happened to be where I was, sooo cool!
  

  Friday at 11:12am ·

Things are going pretty well here. We haven't had any promising chats lately. Most of them come on to just mess with us. We had a man come on who was atheist and he said he's spent the last 10 years debating with people about how there can't be a God because there's no proof... Uh duh. Then we wouldn't need to have faith. It didn't go anywhere and it was dumb but maybe something we said will help him someday. Who knows? Phone calls have been good though. I've been committing the members I call to make a mormon.org profile. I went to follow up with one guy and he said that his records are lost so they're trying to find them but we just got talking and he told me about how he's just kind of in a waiting period in his life right now where nothing is really happening and we talked about conference and I invited him to fast and pray to receive revelation and to have the desire to watch it. He said he would and he also committed to doing a few other things to strengthen his faith. I'm going to call back in a few weeks and see how everything went :] I love calling members. A lot of them don't like me calling them but it's just so fun to see what they liked about Kirtland and the missionary work they're doing back home! I can usually tell when people don't want to talk to me so I kind of force them to and they end up opening up more. It's fun.

Inviting people to pray and fast for inspiration is something Sister S and I have been committing families to do here and it's been really neat to see them get excited about it. I've never been excited about conference before now :/ I hate to admit it but it's true. Now I can't even wait! It's going to be so much fun and we'll hopefully be able to watch it at sites in the theater. It's going to be amazing. So I would like to invite everybody who reads this to do the same. Will you all pray and fast to receive inspiration (as a family if you have one) during general conference?? I definitely will and looking forward to it.

So not a lot is going on in our area. Our one investigator is having a hard time getting to church because it's just a huge miscommunication every week so we need to start doing things for everybody but it will work. He will be baptized on April 7.. Our other investigator who just showed up at church last week decided on Saturday he didn't actually want to be baptized and he thinks Joseph Smith couldn't see Heavenly Father and Christ.. Well, he did. And he won't even pray about it! He went from totally wanting to be baptized to not wanting to at all! But he will. We're working with him to resolve his concerns. If he would just read the Book of Mormon and pray about it he would know but people just refuse to do that sometimes. We just need new investigators. It's hard and we're doing a lot of tracting. It's starting to grow on me.

We've also been meeting with this one lady and she's been having a really hard time with ptsd from the vietnam war and both Sister S and I felt impressed to have her receive a blessing so we had our ward mission leader give her a blessing and it was so cool! He said things in there that she's only told us and the spirit was so strong and powerful. Wow. She woke up the next morning and called us and said she hasn't felt that good since before all of this happened and we're really trying to help her see that the priesthood is of God and that we're the only church that has that power and authority from God.. She's been meeting with sisters for a while so maybe something we say will help that click :] We just love her so much and want her to be happy and having the gift of the Holy Ghost is exactly what she needs.

So I got the packages :] Thank you so much! The shoes are perfect. I love them. And I wasn't even expecting a St Patty's day package! It was so fun. Thank you for thinking of me.

So you want to know more about Kirtland, huh? Well, last time I told you about the store front and how Newel K Whitney was an amazing businessman.. He was also really faithful. Him and Ann knew there was more to Christ's church than what they had. They read from the Bible and prayed as a family for more. When the missionaries came through Ohio they stopped in Kirtland and Ann knew right away that they had what she was looking for. Newel on the other hand didn't. She was baptized and not too long after he knew it was true too so he was baptized too. After this they didn't have a lot of direction because Joseph Smith was still in NY.. So they were praying for the prophet to come to Ohio. In the early winter of some early 1830 year Joseph and Emma traveled to Kirtland in a sleigh. She was pregnant with twins and as soon as they got there they pulled up to the store and Joseph walked through the doors and found Newel K Whitney behind the counter. He said, "Newel K Whitney, thou art the man.." Newel knew most the people in Kirtland and was shocked that this random man knew who he was. Joseph told him that he was the prophet and that Newel had prayed him there and so what did he want.. I'm pretty sure I've never gotten the prophet walking through my door as an answer to my prayers but I do know that Heavenly Father hears my prayers and answers them and it's still just as powerful as this experiance. And something really neat is the door that Joseph Smith originally walked through is the same door we walk through everytime we go into the store :] No big.. But I would just invite you all to pray. Then humble yourselves so you're able to recognize your answer. Most of our answers seem to go unnoticed because we're looking for something specific. Sometimes that happens but I've found that most the time it doesn't. Humility is huge. We need to humble ourselves and know that the Lord hears and answers all of our prayers.

I love you all and hope all is well. And everybody should write me.

Sister Mackenzie Leigh Maynard

7800 Kirtland Chardon Rd

Kirtland, OH 44094

Thanks for the support. I need it :]

Love,

Sister Maynard.

Happy St Patrick's Day

Hey!

 

I'm glad you got my package. You'll have to wait til next April to know what everything is :/ I don't know what I sent you! Sounds like things are well back home which I'm glad to hear. Things are really well here too. So much is always happening it's hard to keep up most the time! But it's so much fun and oh my gosh the gospel is just so true. It's crazy how much I've seen it bring people happiness. Training is hard. I'm not going to lie.. It's so hard. But I think it's more the taking over the area part that's so hard. I keep messing everything up but thank goodness the Lord won't let me ruin Kirtland. It's been prophesied to be built up and if I were to get in the way He'd get me out so it's still good. We had a trainer/new missionary meeting in Cleveland (the same one I went to when I first got here) and we went contacting in Cleveland again!! (Where we talk to randoms on the street in downtown Cleveland) It was so much fun! Last time was fun but this time I didn't want to leave and stop talking to people. We met a lot of neat people and most of them wanted to learn more and took Books of Mormon. We got their info so missionaries could come meet with them :] I love it. At that meeting Sister M and I sang our song and we forgot the music so we had to do it a capella and it was not good at all! And someone tried making it better and they just made it even worse :P Haha it was funny it was so horrible so we just laughed it off but I'm never forgetting music again! And one of the senior sisters, Sister F, is a piano player and she is just the sweetest thing ever. I played for her one night during dinner and the next day she went and bought me a binder and sheet protectors for my music!!! I need to write her a thank you card.

 

This week Sister S and I were thinking about what we should fast for because we were going to fast yesterday and we both felt we needed to fast for opportunities to test our faith. It's kind of scary to ask for opportunities to grow but for some reason asking for opportunities to have more faith just seemed really hard. But it was a test of faith to do it so I guess we got an answer before we even started. It was really good though. Now we're just going along waiting for something to happen.

 

We've been doing a lot more tracting lately because we have zone goals to tract at least 30 minutes everyday we're in our area. I never liked tracting but it's growing on me. I just like giving everybody the opportunity to accept the gospel and learn more. If they don't then the Lord is just going to watch over them and prepare them even more so they'll accept it someday. We were tracting last week and as we were walking away from a door I looked down at my planner and a bird had pooped on it!!! Thank goodness it was only week 1 of the transfer so I didn't have to transfer a lot to a new one :/ oh my!!!! It's because I told Heavenly Father that morning that I was going to have a good attitude but I didn't want opportunities for it :P Dang it!!! Ah I am so embarrassed.. But it was pretty funny. (<--See, positive attitude!)

 

So, after we walk over the Stoney Brook we take a tours past the tannery and into the Whitney Store! The store front is really cool. It has a lot of stuff in it and it's pretty fancy. Newel K Whitney was  a really good businessman so he knew how to get people in his store even if they didn't have the money to buy anything (Most the stuff was imported from the east coast or Europe). He had a checkers table in the corner of his store where people could come and hang out, he had an oven in the front of the store instead of behind the counter so people would stay longer to get warm. Most store owners put it behind the counter to keep the workers warm but he really liked people and wanted to help them out anyway he could. And he was also the postmaster so people had to come in once a week to get their mail! Did you know that they didn't have stamps back in the 1830s so people had to pay to pick up their mail?? Speaking of which, if you feel like sending me some stamps that would be awesome :] And did you also know that the shoes they wore were square toed?? That way they could wear them on either foot! They don't look very comfy though. I'll tell you the more spiritual side of the store front next week :] 

 

OH MY! I forgot to tell you about E! He's this random guy that came to church on Sunday and he just wants to be baptized out of nowhere so we're going to start teaching him this week :] He should be good to go next month :]!!!!

 

Just a few things.. Next time you go to the LA temple you should go to the VC (I might have already told you to do this..) But you should go in and watch God's Plan for Happiness. It's so good. And think about how you can strengthen your family relationships. I guess this is for everybody who reads this and is next to a Visitor's Center. It's amazing.

 

And I'm just thinking that it's getting warmer here.. Like 60 degrees yesterday.. and I don't know where the nearest crocs is to get some shoesies... Maybe before you buy anything can you look online for maryjane crocs? Because I think they have 2 different kinds and I don't like the other ones. So send me a picture of them over email and I can tell you yes or no next time I get on? :] My old navy flats have been perfect but for some reason lately they've really been hurting me. Thanks so much!!

 

Have an amazing week everybody. I love you all and I can't wait to hear back from you:]

 

Love,

Sister Maynard.

Trainer

Hey,

Everything is going well.. A little stressful with training but I love my new comp. Her name is Sister S from Grace, ID and she's been amazing. We're going to have a lot of success together. I'm really excited for these next 2 transfers. I do have driving privileges and drove in the snow for the first time. Does that scare you at all? We haven't heard too much about the shootings in Kirtland but we live with the Chardon sisters and they said it's really had a huge effect on people there (I don't know why it wouldn't..) but yeah. It's really sad. We had tornado warnings up here but nothing came this far, thank goodness! I've never even seen a tornado! I wouldn't know what to do!  That's great you got to see the girls but for a sad reason :[ Tell Pam I'm sorry to hear that her mother passed away, but it's great to know we can be with our families forever. I'm learning that a lot here.

So something really fun is Bro R (Our recent convert) got the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday!!!! He was GLOWING after. Oh my gosh he loves the gospel so much. It was so neat to see. I didn't think I'd see anybody change like that on my mission and it's already happening!

Also on Sunday we had to take over a CTR 6 class... Oh boy. I don't know how you do it with all the kids! We only had 3 :P They were so great though and they could answer all of our questions so I think it was a successful class.

Anddddddddd April 9 is my 6th month mark?! That's a little crazy. Only have to do that 2 more times before I'm done :/ It really does go by so fast! Does it feel like that back home?

I had a lot more to say but forgot it all. This past week has been a blur but I hope all is well back home and with everybody else. Make mormon.org profiles! I commit people to do it on the phones all the time. I don't know why it's taking you guys months :P Just do it!!! I love you all. Tell everybody that I love them and the church is true. You guys should get a Preach My Gospel and start studying it along with the Book of Mormon. It's great.

Oh and something about Kirtland...? When the church was growing in NY there were 4 missionaries who came through OH and they stopped in Kirtland. They found the town was SO prepared so in a matter of weeks they baptized over 100 people (I'm still learning the specifics) And they were all baptized in the Stony Brook which runs right through sites. After that the church was bigger in OH than in NY. One man wanted to start off his new year right so on Jan 1st at midnight they cut a hole in the ice so he could be baptized.. A little crazy but the gospel is true.. Why wait?? I'll tell you more about Kirtland next time.

Love you all,
Sister Maynard.