New Companion

 

 

This week has been CRAZY!!!! I have a new comp. Her name is Sister P. and she's AMAZING! She's from Carlsbad, CA so pretty close :] She is such an amazing missionary though. In the last week that we've been companions we have found like 30 potentials and like 7 new gators.. What?! I knew Twinsburg was going to explode but I didn't expect that. We have set a really high baptism goal for this transfer and we've promised Heavenly Father we were going to double our diligence to achieve that. We have already seen so many miracles. It's a little overwhelming though! We only have so much time in our area because of sites and we have to somehow meet with all of these people and find the ones who are really prepared. Since I arrived in Ohio the mission has been stressing talking to everybody.. Well, I don't do that. But Sister P does and oh my gosh. That's the key! Hahahha who knew?!

Sites has been really fun too :] I got to see the Cooley's!!!! It was so fun! I hope they had a good time. It was one of Sister P. and I's first tours so we're still trying to get a feel for how to work together but I think we're catching on real quick :] I loved every minute of that tour! :D They said they had 30 minutes but I don't actually know how to keep tours under an hour so I hope that was okay with them :/ Hahaha I think they liked Kirtland though!

So at sites we get to work in the call center, right...? Well, I pretty much only call members to ask for referrals because I'm too nervous to call less actives or nonmembers. But that hasn't been working out for me too well. The cards are always called really recent and so I don't ever have someone to call. So I decided to call from the "Needs more info" pile. So I called this girl, B to get M's phone number with the intention of just putting it in the referral pile and letting someone else call M. So B answers and I tell her who I am and she was like "Oh, I am so happy you called! I have her number right here. Let me give that to you and then I'll tell you more about her." So she goes on to tell me that M comes from a broken home and that she had been to church with them a few times and she just started college and she wanted to go to BYU because they have good morals there but she got a scholarship to this small college in NE to do track and field so she's there but she eventually wants to go to a college in Utah. She told me that M was really prepared and to tell her how much she loved her. So then I had to call her! I promised B I would and that I would call her back after I talked to M.. So we hung up and I said a quick prayer for help and guidance and dialed the number before I had time to think about it. She answered and when I told her that I was calling for B and who I was she started crying and told me how much it meant to her and that B and her husband had helped her so much through all of her hard times. We talked about faith and how that helps us and about Christ and His Atonement and I asked her if she would be interested in meeting with missionaries. She said she definitely would and gave me her address. I have yet to refer her because I need to talk to her first real quick but AHHHHHHH! I love her! May I PLEASE go to Nebraska someday to meet her?! PLEASEEEEE? I can't wait until Friday so I can call her again. I'm really hoping that I can invite her to be baptized next time I talk to her :D EEEK! HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE?!  Sites is so much fun.

Oh and last week when we were at sites a girl on our tour got really sick so we went back to the VC to get some medicine and have her lay down. We couldn't find the medicine she wanted so we were going to run and look in the E's. On the way over there we saw this man all dressed up on his knee in front of the Whitney Store and as we got closer we realized he was proposing! It looked like she said yes from all the hugs and whatnot and then I realized it was L! She would always come teaching with us when I was in Kirtland and I have been waiting for him to propose for like EVER!!!!! AND I GOT TO SEE IT!!!!! I ran over to her screaming "SHUT UP!!!" And "NO WAY!!!!" hahahah he was probably thinking something like who is this crazy girl?! But oh my gosh. How often to you get to see your friend get proposed to on accident?! It was so cool. :]

 

Oh and the coolest thing ever happened at church on Sunday. We were sitting in sacrament and it was a few minutes into the meeting and L said she was going to be there. We called her a few hours before and she was up and ready to go. But she wasn't there yet! After a few minutes though she walked in with her family and her fiance and his family and they just kept coming! There was probably 10 of them in that group not including L and her 5 kids who weren't members.. It was the coolest thing to see.. Ahhhhhh. I love L! I think they're getting married this week. I want to gooooo!!!

This transfer is going to be amazing. I can't wait to see all of the miracles Heavenly Father has in store for Twinsburg and sites :]

The church is true <3

Love, Love, Love,
Sister Maynard.

Ps.. My birthday is in 2 months from today. Don't forget ;]

Twinsburg!!!!

I'M STAYING IN TWINSBURG!!!!!!! Oh my!!! Every week we set these weekly goals and my goal was to stay in Twinsburg. I thought there was NO WAY possible because Sister L. is training but she's now opening up a new area :/ She's freaking out but oh she is so perfect. They are going to see so many miracles in that area.

As for Twinsburg.. The work is picking up so much. The first day I was in this one area a few weeks ago we were walking down the street and this guy pulls up next to us and asked us if he could have a Book of Mormon. We said yeah! And he told us he had met with missionaries before and lost his copy when he moved. So he gave us his phone number and address and we set up a time to meet him but he ended up flaking us. We tried for a few weeks to get in touch with him through calls and stop bys but he was never home or didn't answer so we kind of just stopped. A few weeks ago we were at the library in Bedford and he came up to us and asked us why we haven't been over yet... Well he never answered but he regave us his number and address and we set up another lesson and HE WAS THERE!!! We met with him this past Sunday. It was so awesome. He's so prepared and already knows about what we believe. He wants to go to church and he's coming to our BoM club on Thurs. I am so excited.

We have been working so hard these past 2 transfers and we are seeing SO many miracles. I love being a missionary so much. Sharing the gospel with everybody is such a blessing and guess what.. You don't even need to be a full time missionary to do missionary work. It's so cool. I will be sharing the gospel for the rest of my life. Understanding the Atonement and gospel of Christ brings so much happiness and to know that your helping others find that same happiness is even better.

This past week has been so hard though, even though there were so many miracles. As soon as Sister L. got the call she was training I thought for sure I was leaving. I was so bummed. I didn't feel like I had done what I was sent here to do and I was being really hard on myself for it.. I kept thinking things like "What could I have done different?" Or "Oh my gosh I'm such a horrible missionary and didn't put in my full effort and now I'm leaving and I can't do anything about it.." I don't even know what I was thinking. And on top of that I wasn't going to be companions with Sister L. anymore. What the heck. So on Sunday I had an interview with my district leader and I told him my goal for this week was to stay in Twinsburg and he was just saying good luck because it's most likely not going to happen. Then he called us that night with transfer info and he said "Sister Maynard... your prayers have been answered and you are staying in Twinsburg." WHAT?! Oh my gosh. I was in shock. Then I felt so horrible because that meant Sister L. was leaving and had to shotgun train. That is so terrifying! But like I said earlier--she's perfect for it. We ended up crying for like 2 hours that night.. Even though I got my way I still felt really crummy. Sometimes I hate getting my way in the end. But this is what needs to happen. I feel like so many incredible things are going to happen next transfer. Whoever ends up coming here is exactly what the ward and our investigators need and she's going to push everything so the work starts rolling. It's going to be amazing. The Solon ward is like the best. I actually never want to leave. I might just get released and then move in with some of the members, kay?? :D

Tomorrow is transfers.

Wish us luck!!!

Love you,

Sister Maynard.

UGHHHHHHH. I'm probably getting transferred in a week and I am really not happy about it. I love this area and I love Sister L. But I have to share her I guess.. She's training. She's going to be so perfect.

Well, I got my amazing new camera so expect lots of pictures coming home. I love it so much. I'm just going to document my mission with that instead of a journal..

We went to Twinsday and it was SO MUCH FUN!!!!!! We just stood out of the gates and everybody who was walking up we talked to them about the gospel and gave them Books of Mormon and pass along cards and we met some really awesome people. One of the families was a mom and dad and their twin 18 year old daughters. The dad knew a little about the church and told one of his daughters that she would really like the Book of Mormon so we gave her a copy and she said she would definitely check it out! They were so nice and we talked to them for like 15 minutes.. After they left we heard this woman like scream and we turn around and we see her running in our direction. We had no idea what was going on so we just kind of stood their frozen. When she got to us she threw her arms around us and was like so happy. Turns out she's a member and we're famous or something..? Hahah I love wearing this name tag. It's the best and I'm absolutely never taking it off. I'll send you a picture of them :] They go by Zing and Zang on twinsday I think.. haha I don't really remember. It was so fun. Hopefully somebody in that group that got a pass along card will do something with it.. Nobody was actually from here so not much we can do now :[

Sites has been so much fun lately. It's starting to slow down a LOT which means more time for phone calls/chat. For some reason people have me call their less active friends here so that's been really stressful. One of them is really cool though. He's Sister S's friend and he goes to church I think but she wanted me to call him one day and just see if he had any referrals for us. So I had him pray about it and we've been keeping in contact ever since. I called him a few days ago and we had an awesome conversation about missions and our plans versus Heavenly Father's plans. He has an awesome 5 year plan going for him (I did too and you know how that turned out..) but a mission isn't in his plan. So we talked about it and I asked him to pray about it. We'll see what comes out of it. I definitely think EVERYBODY should go on a mission. It is the best thing in the world. I wouldn't have it any other way. Then I called one of the other sister's friends and he's way nice but doesn't really want to talk about religion. And B. came into sites too!!!!! It was so great to see her! (She was our investigator in Kirtland) She brought a friend to sites too but they didn't have time for a tour :[ It's okay though. They can feel the spirit just being there and one day B. will recognize that nothing else matters and she'll be baptized :]

R. came to church again on Sunday! He loves it so much. We're trying to help him quit smoking but it's so hard. It's so sad to see people try an overcome an addiction like that. He's so sweet and he wants to be closer to Heavenly Father more than anything. It's just going to take a lot of praying and fasting. Heavenly Father will help him. As of now, he's our only progressing investigator. We're meeting so many new potentials though. Sister L. and her new companion are going to baptize all of them. Twinsburg is so prepared. It just doesn't know it..

Monday the Community of Christ invited us to have a picnic with them and it was so much fun. We played volleyball and beanbag (It's like cornhole.. I don't know the difference but that's what they called it.) I totally won. Who knew I was a beanbag champ?! Then we had transfer breakfast at sites the next morning. We're losing Sister L from Korea and the S's and the B's in the next 6 weeks :[ I hate this so much. Missions are just all goodbyes. Luckily the B's and S's are easy to see.. Sister L... Not so much. Then Sister L. and Sister J. had to go to their Trainer's meeting and I was companions with Sister G again. It was so much fun but I missed my companion. 

Last night we had an AWESOME lesson. We tracted into this lady, C. We met with her and her husband and shared the restoration with them. They agreed with EVERYTHING we said. They didn't have a problem with Joseph Smith or anything and they said they would be baptized if they came to know this was true. That has like never happened. Okay, maybe once. But that's so rare here! The spirit was so strong and we were just bearing our testimonies the whole time and they knew we knew it was true and the only way they'll find out is through reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. So cool.

Miracles are happening ALL THE TIME!!! Look for them. It's amazing how much Heavenly Father loves us. And I love all of you.

Sister Maynard.

Sister Maynard's mom blew it again.  Here's last weeks letter:

I love Ohio. It's such a great state. At least the north east part of it.

So funny story from last week. It was actually not funny at all when it was happening. But I've always wanted a black cat, right? I think they're so cute and you aren't allowed to have pets on a mission at all. But we're walking home last week from the car and it's dark outside and we go to the door to let us into our complex and there is the CUTEST black cat about to follow us in. I stood there and stared at it for like 3 minutes begging Sister L. to let me bring it inside and play with it. She said no of course because it's against the rules. So we walk to our apt which is in the back of the complex. I might need to draw you a picture to illustrate how crazy this was. We aren't in our apt for more than 2 seconds when we hear this meowing out the window. Sister L opened the blinds and we didn't see anything but after I took a few steps back I could see the cat sitting on our window sill.. How in the world that cat got over there so fast and just happened to pick OUR window, I have no idea. But we were freaking out and thank goodness we haven't seen it since. I seriously thought it was about to magically appear in our apt and get us and I still sometimes do but he's gone. And I still want a black cat.. :[

Like usual, our plans that we always plan never work out. Heavenly Father always has to twist them so that we end up where He ACTUALLY needed us.. Someday I'll get the whole master planning thing down. But something cool happened because of that. We stopped by this house where two less active's live and nobody answered. So we decided to tract. Next door lives this sweet old Italian woman who talked to us for like 30 minutes and we just stood there and listened. She told us about her Italian treats she likes to make and got our number so she can call us the next time she makes them and she gave us her number too. I don't know that she will want to hear about our message so much but I'll definitely take some homemade Italian anything.. Then I can speak Italian with her ;] We also met this awesome lady named C. who took a BofM and sounded pretty stoked about it. We set up a return appt with her for next week so I'm pretty excited! Then after a while of tracting we headed back to the car and the less actives we went to see in the first place came out and told us to come in. So we did and we were there for like 2 hours!!! :/ Oops. But she was awesome. Turns out, she's the mom of the other less active in the house and this guy we've been trying to get in contact with. So we can just reactive the whole family! They all want to go to church. For some reason they just don't.. The son is cool though. He has some crazy stories and we didn't even scratch the surface of them. He told us about how he was in Hell's Angels and about some crazy things with that.. He was cool.

That same day we ended up on this street in Maple Heights. Maple Heights is maybe not the best neighborhood.. I don't know why they would send me there but here I am. And we met some interesting but totally awesome people. The first one was B. She just got off work at McDonald's and told us she wanted to quit drinking and asked if we could help her with that. I said yes so I really hope we can.. I know it's through the spirit and everything but I hope we can be instruments in helping her do that. She was awesome though. After that we got in the car to leave and we saw this girl walking who we saw earlier but didn't talk to her so we decided to then. Her name is L. and we told her about how we thought we should have talked to her earlier and when we saw her again we knew we had to and she freaked out and told us we were sent from God. She went off about how she was looking for a new church and how she has dreams and visions and she wants a church to accept her. We told her she was totally invited to our church and she was so excited. She gave us her number and told us to call her asap. She also told us she wanted to stop smoking but she couldn't and asked us if we could help. I told her to put out the one she had in her hand right then and she was all pumped and did but she kept the rest of it so we'll have to work a little harder on that. We haven't gotten a hold of either of them yet..

Sunday we had an awesome 5th Sunday 3rd hour meeting!!! The second counselor in the bishopric gave a lesson on conversion and how that ties into missionary work. We were going to do something as the missionaries to conclude our 40 day fast but for some reason people don't like to hear from us so he said he would do it :] It was incredible. AND WE HAD R. THERE!!!!!!!!!! He loved church so much and can't wait to go this Sunday. He keeps talking about it every time we call :] It just warms my heart! But in that lesson Bro G. ended it by having the 4 of us missionaries bear our testimonies on how embracing the gospel can change people's hearts. He wanted the focus to be on the spirit because when you feel the spirit you want to share that with others. Sister L. went first and nailed it. I went next and I don't know what I even said. I think I just copied her :/ Hahah I didn't prepare anything but hopefully it made sense. Then the elders went. It was so cool.

At sites we took a tour a few days ago of a family and they had a daughter serving at temple square. I asked who her companions were (just on the off chance I knew one of them..) and the mom went through the list and said her trainer was from Armenia.. I asked if it was Sister Manukian who was my temple square trainer for the day we went there in the mtc and she said yes!! It was so cool. She said she was doing her outbound in Tennessee right now! So cool. And yesterday we took this AWESOME tour. It was a mom and dad and their 4 kids and the son had his wife and baby there too. We spent a good 40 minutes in the school of the prophets which I don't think is super allowed but the dad asked if all of his kids would bare their testimonies so they did and the spirit was so strong. We got a few of them crying (including Sister L) But it was interesting because I had been praying for help from Heavenly Father for a while now and I just felt like I was missing where He was helping me.. I don't know how to explain it but anyways. We were in the school of the prophets with this family and we're about to stand up to leave and the daughter-in-law out of nowhere said,"You know when you feel the spirit that the Atonement is working in your life." I just sat there and thought "THAT'S IT!" Phew. I was worried. But now I know the Atonement is working in my life and it's awesome. My prayers always get answered through some random person saying some random thought in the school of the prophets. Heavenly Father's so cool.. He just knows how to inspire people and I love it.

Sorry this letter is everywhere. So many fun things happen and I have to tell you everything. I hope all is well and I love you all.
Sister Maynard.