Oh Tracting......

I don't know where to begin. Just like every other week.. So much goes on in just a week! But this week was good. A lot of the people in the ward are very aware of how they eat and they grow everything and make things from scratch and it's so awesome! And delicious. I have been thinking about the word of wisdom a lot this week and it's important to not do things that are harmful to your bodies... Obvi. But there's so much more to the word of wisdom than that. We need to be eating things that are healthy and exercising and being more aware of the things that aren't super dangerous but that still aren't good for you! It's something I'm still working on.. Haha just a thought.

 

Having a newish area has been so much fun! It's sad to not see a lot of the people we were but it's given us a new opportunity to experience different parts of the ward that we didn't before. We are meeting really neat people and we can go out and tract in new areas and really search for the elect. We are still searching haha. It's a neverending thing. But it's fun. You never know who's on the other side of the door! And most the time they could really careless about us but we're just out here to invite. If people don't want that then that's okay. We were given agency for a reason.

 

Funny story of the week:

We were tracting this little neighborhood. We got to this one house and the woman answers the door hugging her Bible. I was prepared for the worst. She invited us to come in, which NEVER happens here. We talked for a minute and she said she was a new Christian. We told her how great that was and she started crying.. We just stood there while she gathered herself together and through her sobs she says, "I just don't understand why you don't believe that Christ is the Messiah!!!!" We were so confused. We explained, or tried to at least, that we do in fact believe that Christ is the Messiah. She didn't believe us. She cried and cried and cried and invited us to go sit on the couch with her. We sat by her and she told us that her church had taught her that we were JW's and we were like ohhhh no!!!! We aren't at all. Have you heard of Mormons?? And she was confused even more. She asked if she could invite her Christian neighbor over and she called him. "Hey B, This is H. Can you come over?? .... There are people in my house." She totally made it seem like we were complete strangers who had broken into her house or something right in front of us! And he asked her what she meant and she just said "there are people in my house..." Haha. We sat there in total shock. And because we were sitting right next to her we could hear the whole conversation. He asked her if he should call the cops and she said no. I said that we were missionaries pretty loud so he could hear. He asked what church we were from and Sister J said the name of our church loud and he said "oh, they're no good.. Just tell them to get out." Haha it was the most awkward experience. At one point we got up to leave but when she got off the phone she started crying again! So I sat by here and again tried to explain that we believe in Christ and that we aren't JW and all of these random things that her church had told her that was wrong. Pretty much she was confused and we weren't able to help her at all. So we just left. I'm not sure if that does the experience justice but maybe I can reinact that for you someday. It was great.

 

On Friday we were at sites and we were praying really hard to talk to the elect over phone calls and chat. So of course that's who we were blessed with! This woman named T came on chat and asked about the Book of Mormon. She explained that she had a friend who was a member and he had talked to her a little about the church. She didn't want to inconvience him with questions so she came on chat. She was asking the most amazing questions about what differed from the Bible and Book of Mormon. She said that our response made more sense than what she grew up learning and she asked us some pretty deep questions that we were unsure if we should expound on or not. So we did. And she totally agreed with everything we said! She's amazing and our new chat gator :] I love technology!!!!! We have been meeting so many prepared people on chat lately. I just wish that I could go meet them! I want to be there for them but I guess what they need from us is just someone they can talk to about the church and not worry about who's on the other side. Someday I'll be able to meet all of these amazing people :]

 

It has been a good, successful week here. I love it and I love this work. Have an awesome week!

Sister Maynard.

Ohio can NOT make up it's mind

Ohio can NOT make up it's mind for what it wants the weather to be.. I don't know why I'm still surprised because it's been that way the whole time I've been here. We have a few bright sunny warm days and then we have days like today-- cold freezing rain and gray skies. I love gray skies though so I'm not complaining about that.

 

We had a pretty good week. We are tracting like crazy fools.. I have no idea how else to find the elect then to just knock on their door! It isn't working yet so we're trying to come up with new ideas for finding. Tracting is so hard too because we serve in farm land so we have to walk FOREVER to get to the next house. It's just not the best way to spend our time. This morning we had a really good companionship study and talked all about finding the elect and what we're going to do to find them. I'm excited to start putting it into play! It will be a process though.

 

 We had an amazing lesson with this family in the ward about miracles. They told us about some of the amazing miracles they have seen in their lives and the 2 daughters started telling us about people they have been sharing the gospel with! We were so excited! They asked what to say when giving someone a Book of Mormon so we roleplayed it with them and it was so fun. They were so excited to share the gospel with people they know! And the best part was to hear their testimonies of how the gospel has made them so happy which is why they want to share it with people they know who need more happiness in their lives. We could all have more happiness in our lives! The gospel is the key to that. Jesus Christ is the center of everything and He's the one who makes real happiness possible.

 

At sites we have been trying to go through all of our contacts that we've met online or on phone calls and organizing. So the last few weeks I have been emailing everybody to just see how they're doing and to see if they'd be interested in learning more or whatever. This past week at sites I had 3 return emails from people all saying they want to learn more and meet with missionaries. It was a huge miracle! I didn't think anybody would return our emails and that we would just end up dropping them. So I can't wait to go back this week and see if they ended up getting in touch with missionaries. Sooooo many miracles happen through the Visitor's Center. It's so cool! And a lot of the time we don't even know what's going on. So I'm glad to know that people are still genuinely interested.

 

Our ward had an awesome chili cook off this weekend. It was a lot of fun and sooooo delicious! And somehow the missionaries became the judges. So we definitely ate wayyy too much. It was cool because out of the 8 missionaries in the ward (3 sets of sisters and 1 senior couple) we all had the same vote along with a random vote. So of course, the winner from last year won again and everybody will be hearing about it for the next year haha. It was sooooo good though!

 

As a stake we have set a goal to do 4 hours of service a week. All of the members and the missionaries. We ask everybody for service opportunities. And one of the members in our ward told us we could do service for her for 4 hours on Sat and help her start her spring cleaning. Hahaha we agreed to help and it was so fun! I love her so much and her house looks awesome. It feels so good to clean and have the place you live be a place where the spirit can dwell. I've seen that in the places I've lived here. The spirit is so much stronger when our apt is clean and organzied and I love that feeling. I am a cleaning fiend now. So great.

 

This girl in my ward is totes going on her mission to Riverside. I'm so excited! Her farewell was yesterday and she did awesome and it's so weird to see her in that place and to think back on when that was me.. I don't like thinking about it because that means I'm almost done but oh my gosh! The things you can learn in 18 months blows my mind!!! I'm excited for all of the people about to start their missions. They have no idea what they're getting themselves into but it's so great :] Missions are the most amazing things in the world and I look forward to being a missionary for the rest of my life.

 

I love youuuuu!

Sister Maynard.

Hey.

 

So here's the deal. Because of all the new missionaries going on missions we have had to change some major things in the mission. It's nuts! This past week we had 29 new missionaries come and we had to make room for them somewhere.. so of course we had to make room in our apt and our area. Which is fine! But it was soooo stressful and we had to hand over people that we love. So we now have 4 sisters living in our little apt instead of 2 and 3 sets of missionaries in our ward instead of 2. It's been a crazy change for us. But so fun! The new sisters are N and E. Sis E just started her first week in the field and she's awesome and Sis N is an amazing missionary so we'll be seeing a lot of miracles in the ward. We went from having 3 elect gators to just 1 so we have been trying to find our little hearts out! Oh my gosh. Tracting. I'm trying to love it. Sometimes it's easy and most the time it's hard. People could really careless about us and don't actually see us as humans and don't treat us the nicest so it's hard! But then you meet that one person who helps you remember what you're doing is important. And if tracting is what it takes to find the elect, then so be it.  

 

Our one friend is doing awesome! He went to church on Sun and I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it.. Just trying to soak it all in. Then we taught him about the Plan of Salvation and he said he would be baptized if he knew it was true :] We're really excited for him! The more I come to understand God's plan for us the more I want people to have it! It really does bring us so much happiness and peace to know that God loves us enough to provide a way to return to him and to make it possible! God did not send us here to fail! His whole purpose is for us to return to Him (See Moses 1:39). It's the most amazing thing to help people come to know that :]

 

Heavenly Father loves us because the sun has been out for the past few days and it's above 40! I never ever EVER thought I'd see the day when Ohio got warm again. My poor little body has been frozen for wayyyyy too long.

 

So yesterday Sis R was at church with her family. They came to pick her up to go home. And I don't know what's wrong with me but I couldn't even look at them without crying. I can't do it. I can't go home.. It's the scariest thing I've probably had to do in my life. Actually, it IS the scariest thing I've ever done. I'm not sure how to do it. So I'm hoping this last transfer just doesn't end. I'm sick just thinking about it so I'm going to stop.

 

We had dinner with some members this weekend and they let their wolves in to come snuggle with us!!!! Ohhhh I just love them! I need a wolf :D They are the most beautiful things on the earth and so loving! And they fed us stuffed clams.. It wasn't bad but the fact that it was stuffed clams freaked me out haha. It was good though! It's been an interesting week though. Lots of exciting new things are happening!! We're going to be having a lot of success in this area :] Slash we already are!

 

I loveeeeee you! Thank you for supporting me out here. It's been an amazing experience so far :]

Sister Maynard.

So you're sayin there's a chance

 

Okay. This week we saw the COOLEST miracle ever..

 

It all started at 12:30 last Wed. We get a call from a very upset member who's bird had just flown out the door into their woods. Now, you have to understand how much I love this bird. I LOVE MAEBY. And I love K and she loves Maeby even more than I do and I was so sad! But we were in Alliance for a meeting and couldn't do anything so we just prayed every opportunity we got that she would be found. We had plans when we got home from Alliance but our dinner had cancelled so we told K we'd be over at 5. In the meantime we followed through with our appts. I didn't want to but I knew I had to because there's a reason we set plans the night before: so we can be where Heavenly Father needs us to be to bless us with the elect. We stopped by a former named, C. He was actually home and invited us right in and we were able to teach him the restoration! It was an amazing lesson and he was so open and willing to accept our message! It was so cool! Then we went tracting and the first door we knocked on was a woman named D who just told us to come in without looking at us. She was a little down so we were able to tell her how much Heavenly Father loves her and knows her. I don't know if it helped her any because she was still very sad when we left but I could feel the spirit so strong in that lesson. I really do know that we are children of a loving Heavenly Father and that He wants us to be happy!

 

Eventually it was 5 and time to go over to K & J's. J came around the side of the house and had this look on his face.. He had been out for a long time in the woods looking for Maeby with no luck. I asked him what that look was for and he said "There's like a 99% chance we will never find her.." I said, "Well, that means there's 1% that we do!" And I marched on back to the woods with Sis J and J following. Keep in mind, this is 5 HOURS after she had initially flown out the door. I didn't make it very far because there's a huge swamp back there! I had no idea. And my shoes are so beaten up and full of holes I would not have made it out dry so J showed us another route that wasn't swampy. It was definitely raining all day though so the ground was still sopping wet and my shoes were filling up with water fast. J went one way and we went the other. It was a little patch of opening with the woods surrounding and I tried to go through the branches and bushes full of thorns but we weren't having luck. We said another prayer to be guided to where Maeby was and after I marched off in the other direction. We tried to look through all of the trees and branches but couldn't see any birds so I just crouched down and started making my way through the woods. (Think Pocahontas ;]) Sister J was the smart one and stayed back. My clothes and hair kept getting caught in the thorns and they were scratching me everywhere but I eventually made it to a little tiny clearning in the woods when Sis J couldn't see me and came in after me. We were standing there trying to find her and we just couldn't see anything!!!! We got a phone call in the middle of nowhere which was comforting.. you know, just in case the crazy woodsy axe murderer decided to come get us we knew we could call for help. Haha. I was about to give up on that area and as I turned around I SAW MAEBY FLYING AT ME!!!!!!!!!! Ohhhhhhh my gosh. I caught her and held her tight to my chest. You cannot even imagine the joy Sis J and I had. We were giddy little girls running through the woods haha. We ran back as fast as we could to K. I ran into her room to find her and H crying on the bed and I showed her the bird and they were both stunned. hahahah they couldn't believe it!! And honestly, I couldn't either. I was so exhausted so we all just sat there together trying to process what had just happened when we realized J was still out there.. We texted him saying we found her and he came back a few minutes later. I guess he had left his phone in the house and when he walked in didn't realize we had her until a few moments had passed. He didn't believe it but we were all pretty shocked. But it was the coolest experience ever.

 

Seriously. Heavenly Father answers ALL prayers!!!! And yes, sometimes it's not how we want or expect but I know that He answers all prayers. He just loves us so much and wants us to be happy!!! Finding Maeby was an incredible learning/ faith strengthening experience for all of us. Even if there's just  a 1%  chance... there's still a chance.

 

I love youuuuu! Keep praying :] Heavenly Father wants to hear from you.

Sister Maynard.