Heyyy,

This week has not been very easy.. Oh my gosh. I'm glad it's over :P Did I tell you that I've been working on humility this transfer? Well I am definitely having some humbling experiences. I've had to rely on Heavenly Father a ton. I think that submitting your will to His should be way easier than it is. And for some reason it's the most unimportant things too. For instance, we were planning one night and I thought of a scripture and I knew it was in d&c but I had no idea where. I asked Sister L and she started searching for it too. It was a good 15 minutes before she said we should pray and I was so determined to find this scripture that I just kept looking. After about 5 minutes of looking page by page I decided that was a really good idea so we prayed and I opened my scriptures to d&c 112:10. Not what I was looking for but it was about humbling yourself and God will lead you by the hand and answer your prayers.. Awesome. Hahaha I get it now. And then Sister L found the scripture. Why am I so prideful about the littlest things??

This past week we had our mission tour for president to say bye. It was weird. I've never had to say bye to a mission president before. The new president comes on the 28. I'm pretty excited to see what happens. It was a really good meeting though. We watched a video of Elder Holland speaking in the mtc last Jan and he talks about missions and how they should change you and a bunch of other good stuff :] It was really good. Then we went out to lunch with the Mayfield sisters and some of the elders in the Cleveland Zone and one of them said it was my birthday so I had to wear a sombrero and I got sung to in Spanish and it was so embarrassing. I miss Mexican food so much.

And that night we got to volunteer at Strawberry Festival (same thing as Conejo Valley Days) and we got to make strawberry shortcakes and sundaes for people at one of the booths.

It was so fun. Sister L and I were at a station with the one and only Kirtland elder and we were singing and laughing the whole night. (Music is totally not allowed on a mission but you can't turn it down at a fair!!!! So I definitely got my fill of country music that night ;]) It was amazing. I think I could do service like that every day. And the funny thing is that north eastern Ohio is perfect for growing strawberries but guess where these ones were from... CALIFORNIA!!!!! :D hahahahah

As for investigators. One of them is out of town until next week and the other is leaving town this weekend. We're meeting with him tonight and hopefully setting a date with him. He's been meeting with sisters for a long time so it's time he sets a date. He will be baptized. It's just a matter of when. We're thinking July 21. We're still searching for more people to teach. Our numbers are way low and it's been hard. Keeping numbers sucks. It sometimes makes you feel like you aren't a good missionary. But we're working hard so something awesome will happen soon. Oh, and I'm speaking this weekend on the Book of Mormon :] I think I'm just going to use my notes from my last talk in the Kirtland ward because it's all about the Book of Mormon and missionary work :]

Sites was fun this week. We've been getting tours coming through and it's been so crazy! As soon as we come in from one tour they already have one in the movie waiting for us to go out so we're doing 3-4 tours a day. I love Kirtland!!! I can't wait for you guys to see it. It's seriously the best. So many amazing things happened here and everytime we take a tour it's just reconfirmed to me that this is so true. There's no way it isn't. Joseph Smith really is a prophet and restored Christ's church to the earth.. I'm in the place where it was reestablished. I can see where it all happened and it's amazing. Love, love, love.

I hope all is well :] You guys are the best and I love you.
Sister Mackenzie Maynard.

Hey,

This week has been a little crazy. I don't really remember a lot of what happened. But I guess some big news (maybe not so much for you guys but it was for me..) The training sisters were teaching this amazing girl, A... She was like 16 or 17 and her baptism was last Saturday. We got a text late Friday saying it was cancelled. I was shocked. She was so ready and excited to be baptized I had no idea why it would be cancelled! So a little background on A... The sisters found her card in the potential investigator pile in our call center. There was no name for who referred her but they called her and they found out that she was in the Shaker Heights East area (training sisters) so the sisters could actually teach her in person. Except she has cancer so she was in another state getting treatments. The sisters got permission to teach her over skype and I got to meet her over skype while she was in the hospital. She is the cutest thing! She's from Canada and has a french accent and she's the most positive and happy person I've ever met. Then a few weeks later we had a fireside at the vc and she was there! I gave her a huge hug and the training sisters asked if she could hang out with Sis S and I because they had to conduct the meeting. So she was sitting with us and oh my gosh she is the best. After that I didn't see her again so fast forward to yesterday. We're at sites and I get handed a journal to sign for A... I asked what happened because she didn't get baptized and the other sister looked at me kind of funny and she told me she passed away the day before her baptism!!!!!! WHAT?! Yesterday was a little horrible. I was doing fine but then somebody said something that had nothing to do with A... and it kind of set me off and I started bawling and then I had to be fine because we had to take a tour so I pushed it to the back of my mind and then we're in the school of the prophets. We have about 18 people in our group and the spirit was so strong and this old man from Idaho raises his hand and starts talking about the after life and how Heavenly Father loves everybody and the people who have already passed on can still receive a witness that this is true and some other stuff. It had NOTHING to do with what we were talking about. So of course, I started crying IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR TOUR! Ahhhh. It wasn't a bad cry though. Because of what that man was saying I know that A... is doing amazing things right now and helping people come to know the truth on the other side of the veil. Why she had to go a day before her baptism, I have no idea. I just know that Heavenly Father knows and he has amazing things planned for her and the people who knew her. I am just amazed at how aware Heavenly Father is of all of us. I hardly knew A... but He had this random man make a random comment on tour just for me. It's incredible. The gospel is absolutely incredible and I love it. Sorry that's kind of a depressing story but it does have a happy ending and will continue to have a happy ending. People will come to know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ through this. Not only here but others who A... is helping right now.

Not a lot else is going on. Sites is getting so busy. Lots of tours. I somehow have to learn how to shorten my tours.. I like to talk and my tours are around 2 hours long if not longer and they need to be down to like 130 including the movie. There's no way.. I love it though. I love being here. Twinsburg is awesome and we're making progress in the ward. Our investigators are still progressing slowly. We're still looking for new people to teach. And we're getting a new president at the end of this month! Crazy. I'll be sad to say bye to Pres and Sis Sorensen but I'm excited for the new ones. It will be great.

Hope all is well,
Sister Maynard.

Hey!!!


It is really weird emailing on Wed. It makes me feel like it's Mon and my week is all messed up. I got the package with the skirt (So cute btw) and the letters. Thank you so much :] Except. I'm fat so I don't fit in it. But I'm sure it will look really cute on Sis S :] And it's good to know you miss me! WHO KNEW?! :P Just kidding. I know you do. Sister L said it was cool if you put pictures on the blog. And as for tours.. I'm just trying to remember everything I've ever studied! Our Kirtland guides are about as big as a Preach My Gospel and it's SO MUCH information. I can't even remember anything but that's why we have companions and I love mine. She's the best.


So updates. A. didn't get baptized. I'm not sure why but I'm so sad :[ She was so excited and then it never happened. I just keep praying for her because I don't know how else to help her since I'm not in Kirtland anymore but I know Heavenly Father can and I trust Him. Our two investigators are progressing. Slowly but still progressing. They're both making connections and it's so cool to see them learning through the Holy Ghost. It's the most amazing thing to see the Holy Ghost working with these people. I love it.


Ever since I got to Twinsburg I've wanted to tract this street--Waldo Way. It's pretty long and we track it a lot because we've never finished. I just really felt like there's somebody on that street who needs the gospel and is ready to hear it. So on Sunday I had been praying to know who we needed to find and I felt like there was a man we were going to meet who we needed to talk to. Sister L felt like he was probably going through some humbling times right now and we decided to call him Joe. So we had one of the YW come tracting with us and we picked this street a member lived on and we got to the end and there was a street that went off of this one and I looked at the sign and guess what street it was!!!! WALDO WAY! So I decided we should just go down that when we got to it. We knocked on quite a few doors and nobody answered so we were going to knock on one last door on that side and turn around on the other side. I looked across the street and saw this house and I don't know if it was the wind thing on top of the house that I liked so much or what but I pointed to it and said "That's it!" We did our last door on that side and headed over to that house. There we met, not Joe, but C.. We don't know a lot about him because he was on his way out but he said that he grew up with religion but he just was unsure now. Well perfect. We have exactly what he needs! So we gave him a Book of Mormon and told him we'd call him in a few days.. Not a lot has happened since then. We're still trying to get in touch with him but it was so cool! We knew we were going to meet "Joe" That day and we felt really strongly that C. was Joe. Even if he doesn't accept it now I know that we needed to see him that day.


Then later that night we were finishing up for the day and at our last house of the night it started POURING. The sweet Hindu lady asked if we wanted to come inside and we probably should have said yes but we needed to get K. home so we thanked her and went on our way in the rain. As soon as we turned around it started hailing so bad so we ran for the car. In the middle of our run it got even harder. I thought I was going to be all scratched up! Oh my gosh it was the worst hail storm I've ever been in. Which isn't saying a lot but I promise it was really bad. And of course, as soon as we got in the car it stopped. But we were soaked. It looked like we just got out of the pool in our clothes. Ew. So uncomfortable. But it was really fun :] We took pictures so don't worry. You'll see them soon enough.

One last thing. I told you about how the church bought the Joseph Smith home?? Well every Tuesday we have a sites training meeting and yesterday we had ours in the JOSEPH SMITH HOME! It was so cool. We talked about all of the special things that happened in there and the Smith family and it was so neat. The spirit was so strong. And to end the meeting I got to sing the musical number with 5 other sisters and we sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer. It was so cool. I can't even explain it. The spirit was amazing. Just talking about the restoration and everything this family went through to make it happen and to be in their home. Ahhh. I can't wait to come back years from now to see what they do with it. I don't know how I got so lucky to be here when all of this is happening. I just feel so blessed. Just being here makes me think how could this not be true? It's incredible and the gospel truly does bless lives. I love it.




Joseph Smith Home

Love you guys,

Sister Maynard.

Visitors from back home

Dave & Kristen Stewart visiting from Sister Maynard's home town

Scott Stohlton from back home