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:
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.
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