One last thought

2 John 1:12.

 

Love you.

Sister Maynard.

Hey Everybody!

  

This week has been strange. But I guess in a way they all are. The last year and a half of my life has just been strange. But a totally good strange.

 

Sites has been awesome. Ohhhh I love sites! We had an awesome training meeting in the Kirtland Temple. Our sites theme for the transfer is "Stand in Holy Places" and so Elder Jones talked about all of the miraculous things that happened in the Kirtland Temple surrounding the dedication which happened in April 1836. Then Elder Sorensen got up and talked to us about how we serve in all of these sacred places but it's us as sisters that bring the spirit to places and how we get to serve in such sacred spots.. It was great. I love the temple.

 

We took a lot of tours this past weekend and I had a connection with almost everybody we took. It was so cool! Some of them knew Mads' family. Some were from Simi. 2 of them had served in the Ventura Mission and knew a lot of our elders.. It was really neat. I can't wait for everybody to come to Kirtland! I love it so much.

 

Conference was amazing!!!!!! I can't even explain how much I loved it. I have been thinking a lot about my potential as a daughter of God and what that really means. Of course in my mind they ALL talked about that. It was really cool. I'm really starting to understand that I am a daughter of God and that I have a divine role and plan here on earth and I have unlimited potential. I guess the next step is to figure out how to tap into that.. But we have all been given gifts and talents to help us build the kingdom of God on earth. It's an amazing plan God has for us.

 

I don't know what else! So I guess have a great week full of missionary opportunities!

Sister Maynard.

Easter Miracles

Over a month ago a snow plow truck ran into our car.. Awesome, right?? Well, we are FINALLY getting that fixed. Which is great but the downside is that our car is now in Cleveland and we're forever away, in the country, without a car. So this week we have to have people dropping us off and picking us up everywhere. It's going to be difficult but the ward is very supportive and we're grateful for that. It totally doesn't help that we don't live in our area either.. But it will be awesome and we're going to see so many miracles because we'll just be stuck in the middle of nowhere and have to come up with things to do!

 

Like yesterday for instance. It's Easter and people are with their families having a good time and pretty much the only thing we could do was have the other sisters drop us off in a neighborhood after church and tract until dinner. I felt really uncomfortable about this because I would just rather not bother people when they're having family time.. The first two doors we knocked on were so rude. Oh, it was awful. It just confirmed to me how bad of an idea that was. Hahah as I was about to start crying and asking Sister Joseph if we could give up I said one of the most sincere prayers I've ever said in my life in my heart. I simply asked Heavenly Father to bless us with the elect. That prayer changed everything for me.. I was excited to share our message. I knew that we would be led to people who were searching for the gospel and we totes were! We now have 2 new gators and like a gazillion potentials! Everybody after saying that prayer was very kind and my heart had changed. Which goes right into my next story..

 

It's been everybody's spring break this past week so we've gotten a TON of tours. Like 3 and 4 a day for each companionship with like 15 people in each tour. So fun. We took a tour with these 2 young families and it was a great tour. I really enjoyed the families and they loved seeing everything. In the Johnson Inn we get to kind of take a break and let everybody look at our kiosks and look around and I got talking with one of the moms. She was so sweet and she asked how long I've been out.. It's a valid question and people don't realize that I go home so soon but it's just a reminder of that and I don't like it. So I told her I was going home in 3 weeks and that it's been pretty hard to come to terms with that. She explained that she had served a mission and she remembers being in my position and how hard it was for her (She also served in Greece so that must have been even harder!). She gave me advice on what I should do. But the one that stuck with me the most was when she said that I have learned to trust God throughout my mission. I've learned how to rely on Him.. All I have to do is keep that going. I just have to trust that Heavenly Father knows what's best and He will guide me to whatever I need to be doing. Which is what I'm learning daily out here. How to rely on Heavenly Father through things like praying and reading my scriptures everyday.. Life will still be hard and I still don't want to go home but I'm coming to terms with. I will also be very weird and I'm okay with that as well. She said it will eventually die down and I'll be normal again. Everything will work out.

 

Yesterday morning we were able to attend the Easter sunrise service the Comm of Christ puts on in the Kirtland Temple every year. Ohhhh I love the Kirtland Temple! It's so beautiful and so amazing to know that Christ has been there and stood on those puplits. Everybody needs to experience the Kirtland Temple :]

 

 

I love you all so much! I hope you had a happy Easter!

Sister Maynard.

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.

The first of Lasts

Hiii!!!!!

 

This last week.. Man. I just don't know where to start. Partially because we are just in finding mode right now haha. We have been trying to find less actives, new gators, actually just ANYBODY who will listen to us. Which some of them do. We have been meeting with a lot of the members and getting to know them better which is so fun! I love the ward so much! So I'm not leaving. Hahaha I might be a little hick now but it's great :D

 

We have been meeting with this one family for the last few weeks and they're amazing!!! The girl was baptized when she was a teenager and remembers the first time that she knew the Book of Mormon was true and her husband is very open about learning and he's praying to know if these things are true. We love them so much! And they have the cutest little girl in the world. Oh my gosh.

 

Oh. So the worst thing in the world happened. We had zone conf which was great. I love mission conferences. BUT it was my last one :/ So the WHOLE TIME I was just panicked and my heart was beating so fast because I had to bear my testimony in front of our zone and President and like the whole world pretty much. After lunch we had to switch our phone and it took a little longer than we thought so we were late to the next half of the meeting and we walked in during the departing missionaries testimonies so I just sat in the back and I thought I was going to blackout I was so nervous and I had missed my cue to go up there with everybody else. So I sat there and all of the sisters around me were telling me to go up there but it was so awkward and in the middle of everybody else's so I just sat there. Hahaha it was ughhh. After everybody was through I wasn't going to say anything so as President got up to move on everybody had to let him know that I was leaving. Grrrrrr!!!!!! So I was really awkward and you'd think I know how to bear my testimony by now because I've been doing it for over a year/my whole life but I'm still so awkward. I don't know what I said and I'm pretty sure I just rambled on about something and how weird I felt. Hahaha I needed so rescuing at that point. But it's done! Now, I just have to do it 100 more times before I leave and that's like forever away so I don't know why everybody is making me do it now. I'm just so afraid of going home! I don't know how to be normal!!!!

 

Heavenly Father will help.

Sister Maynard.

I Love my mission

I Love my mission.

We had the best weekend ever. Ohhhhh man. R got baptized/confirmed and it was so cool. So many people were there and the spirit was strong and it was so great to just know that Heavenly Father loves us! Especially R and his family :]

We have been seeing so many miracles. It's amazing! We have been trying to clean up our ward list because it's super outdated and nobody knows who like half of the people are so we're just trying to help the ward out with that. We stopped by a man with a sign on his door that said "DO NOT DISTURB IF THE LIGHT IS ON!" Of course, the light was on ahaha so we stood there for a few minutes rummaging through our stuff to find a pen and card to write on and he opened the door to see what we wanted. We barely got out "We're missionaries" before he said "I'm a pagen!" And slammed the door in our faces. I have never met a pagen before so that was a first.

Then we knocked on the door of girl who we had never heard about before. She was in the middle of dinner so we set up an appt for that night. We went back and she was so cool! Her husband and little girl came in and talked with us as well and we asked if we could practice our new way of teaching on them. They were nice and said yes :] So hopefully we can start teaching them soon!!

This library is so whatever and we have to get off now. But, I love you guys and hope you have an awesome week!!!

Love,

Sister Maynard

 

This past week has been great. We have been working really hard and searching and searching for the elect.

 

R is getting baptized! We were at sites this weekend and got a random text saying he wanted to get baptized on Sat so we're doing it :] I have been studying about the faith to see miracles and it's really neat that when we work hard and do what Heavenly Father asks us to do, He blesses us with amazing miracles. That's something we have been seeing a lot of this week :] Miracles upon miracles.

 

So there is this really cool Mormon Message that I watch over and over again because it's that cool.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=1789679612001

It's about sharing the gospel through technology. The cool part is that I have been called by a prophet of God to do that on my mission! We get to chat with people and call people everywhere and it doesn't seem like we do a lot because we get a lot of trolls and pranks. But this past week when we were there we chatted with this man from Africa who knew a lot about the church. He asked about the priesthood and why we need it if people who don't have it can perform miracles anyways. It was a pretty rough chat. He wasn't super open.. So at the end he asked if we had anything else to say because he was going to leave. I just bore my testimony of the priesthood and it didn't change his mind but he did say we were powerful. Isn't that crazy that people can feel the spirit over chat?! Technology can be used for soooooo much good! We can share the gospel so easily with people and we don't even really have to do anything.. SOOOO will everybody who reads this find their favorite Mormon Message and post it on facebook or some other social network or just some other way to share the gospel through technology?? That video is very inspiring (I think..) and I know if you do your best to share the gospel with others Heavenly Father will bless you :]

 

He loves us.

 

Sister Maynard.

Happy Birthday Morgan

Do you know how cold it is here?? Like it hasn't stopped snowing in 3 days.. My toes have yet to thaw out since Nov.. Except one day last week it was in the 60's. Ohio is so strange!!!!!

So I don't know if I told you about my chat experience with D.. She is a convert and her son never wanted anything to do with the gospel for years. I guess one day in Dec he decided to see what it was all about and met with the missionaries a few times. After the holidays he moved to WA so D came online to see how to get in contact with the missionaries in his son's area. She gave us all of his info and we called the bishop and he didn't answer. So I left a message and called D to update her. I guess he wanted to meet with them that night and if they didn't show up then he was going to give up.. I tried to explain that there wasn't a lot I could do from Ohio so I ended up giving her the bishop's number and then remembered I could get her the mission office's number. So after that she was super friendly and we talked about my mission and how awesome it is and how she wants to go on a senior sister mission.... I told her that I would call her in a week to see how things were progressing and we hung up. I called her a week later and she said that she called the mission office and the elders were able to meet with her son. In that week he had met with them a few times and something the elder said really struck him and he knew it was true! The next morning he read the Book of Mormon and new it was true! Then he called his mom and he said he didn't want to meet with missionaries anymore... Grrrr. So I told her  I would pray for him and call her back in a week to see what happened. When I called her she seemed really frazzled but she was so excited because HE WAS GETTING BAPTIZEDDD!!!! Hahaha It was so cool! And I am so excited for them because his poor mom had prayed for years that he would accpet the gospel and finally his heart was fully prepared. Now, I had very little to do in all of this. But D was so sweet and just kept telling me how much she appreciated me and I tried to explain that I just called and left a message for the Bishop, but she told me that she was led to chat and she was desparate and I was able to help her and it's so cool. I love working on chat. I actually very rarely see amazing things come from it but I know that they do. And phone calls as well.. They're harder but we are able to share the gospel with everybody around the world!! It's SO COOL!!!!!!

Transfers were AW-FUL. I was fine until we pulled into the church parking lot and I lost it. For the rest of the day. Hahaha. Pathetic. But I am now with Sister J who is amazing! She is such a good missionary and I have a lot to learn from her. Seriously.. She's amazing. We have already seen a lot of miracles this week and we will continue to see a gazillion more this transfer. I am looking forward to it :] I feel like my faith has grown a lot just in the last week. Pshhhhhh. She's exactly who I and the area need right now. Heavenly Father totally knows what He's doing. 

It is so cold here. I can't get over it. I'm really trying to. Hand/toe warmers are the biggest blessing here. If we didn't have those then tracting would be a nightmare. And it's been snowing like crazy. And I'm driving this transfer. We left at 630 Friday morning to get to Kirtland. It usually takes about an hour but I had to drive in a white out on hilly roads and it definitely took us 2 hours hahahaha. I was following this truck for most of it and felt very comfortable behind him. He seemed to know what he was doing. But then we had to split up and as he came to this stop light he started to swerve a little and of course, I have no idea what to do when I swerve so I started yelling at everybody to pray really hard that we didn't die and the car wasn't stopping like I wanted it to and it was so scary. It probably wasn't as scary as I made it out to be in the moment but what else was I supposed to do?! Hahahahah the car eventually stopped and we were fine. The car was fine... We definitely went 19 mph the rest of the way and were totally safe :] AREN'T YOU SO PROUD OF ME?! 

So Sister J doesn't like cheese.. At all. And I love cheese but I'm lactose intolerant so I can't have it anymore. So she has been praying that I will stop liking cheese. hahaa I have absolutely NO real intent to follow through with that. We'll see what Heavenly Father does about it. I have been cutting dairy out of my diet a lot though. It's so sad :[ 

The greatest suprise came to Kirtland!!!!!! H. P.!!!! She was in the Solon ward and I love her so much and it was the best. I almost cried I was so happy. Jeezzzzz. I'm so emotional. But it really was amazing to see her. I miss the Solon ward so much. Especially H. 

I'm glad Morgan had a great birthday! Crazy she's 20.. Pretty sure she's actually 15. 

It has been an awesome week. Looking forward to this one too. As long as the snow stops :]

Love you,

Sister Maynard.

Heyyy

Sorry I didn't do a weekly email last week. I'm slacking. But it's been a great few weeks!!

We have been working a lot with our gators and they are progressing and working towards baptism so it's been awesome.

I have been getting lax in my prayers lately so I decided that I needed to step it up and I have really seen the power of prayer this week. Ohhhhh my. It's so cool!!! I love prayer. So, I was praying Saturday night/Sunday morning that somebody who is prepared and has never been to church before will come to church. It totes happened. I ALMOST died. It was so awesome. So we're going to hopefully start teaching her for reals :] We feel like she is the elect of the elect!!! We love her.

SOOOOOOOO transfers.. I'm not very happy about this but P is leaving. I don't want to talk about it.

I love youuuuu!
Sister Maynard.

Hey!

 

This week has been awesome. Lots of miracles.

 

Every Tues we do a Book of Mormon class with the Kent Sisters and this past week we taught about Enos. It was amazing! Enos is such a stud. He just prayed and prayed and prayed and he was so blessed because of it. I love in vs 11 when he says that his "faith began to be unshaken in the Lord." We are commanded over and over again to pray always and that's how we're able to develop our faith. But more than that, it's going out and working and being diligent. It's being an instrument in the Lord's hands so that we can be apart of those miracles that we're praying for. I've seen that a lot in missionary work. As soon as my prayers start lacking, everything else starts lacking. It just all works together. It was a good class.

 

We have a new ward mission leader and he's awesome. We're going to see a lot of changes in the ward :]

 

I spoke in chuch yesterday. It was on my commission to preach the gospel and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I worked on it all week and yesterday morning I read through it and I just did not like it. But I wasn't about to redo it so I decided to wing it. Hahah. That's something I teach people daily so I figured it would be okay. And it was. I read my call and totally cried which was annoying. But I think the spirit was there. A lot of people in our ward could relate to the feelings that come with receiving a mission call. I don't really know what else I said. I think I repeated myself a lot but people said I did a good job.

 

This week we didn't have a lot of appts but I really feel like Heavenly Father guided us to where we needed to be. It's always a really good feeling to know that you're where you need to be. It isn't always the case but I think I'm learning how to follow the spirit a little bit.

 

Kirtland was so fun this past week. We only got one tour which was a bummer. I wish more people would come to sites but that one tour was so cool. It was two girls from Columbus. They both are waiting to enter the mtc and they are both 19. Ohhhh. Missionary work is going to explode once we start getting the younger missionaries out. They were so solid! I felt the spirit in EVERY room we took them in! That rarely happens which is probably more my fault then anything. But in the little random rooms they bore their testimonies to us and we could all feel Heavenly Father's love for us. It was amazing. They are so prepared. I don't know what I did growing up to prepare myself for this but I was not that prepared.

 

Heavenly Father knows what He's doing. The gospel will continue to fill the world. Just as Joseph Smith prophesied at the Morley Farm. So keep praying/searching for missionary opportunities.

 

Love you,

Sister Maynard.

Christmas Celebrations

December 18th

Transfers are tomorrow and we don't have to go!!! We get to stay together another transfer :] We didn't think it would happen but it seems like President is keeping people together for a lot longer. Thank goodness too. We have a lot of work to do here.

We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday and it was so much fun!!! There were so many people there and it was a good night. This one couple in the ward hasn't been to church in over 10 years for whatever reason and we meet with them every now and then. We went over to visit M a few days ago and invited her to the party and her and P came!!! It was so cool! They got to meet a lot of new people so hopefully they'll want to start coming back to church as well. I would imagine it would be pretty scary to start going back to church after you hadn't gone in a long time but they seem ready and excited.

Yesterday after district meeting we got together with the other sisters in the ward and K and we went caroling. It was awesome! We went to a few members homes and then we went to a rest home and sang to a bunch of the people there. Man, we sounded so good.. I'm trying to talk them into doing a musical number in sacrament. This Sunday is our Christmas program at church and we're all in choir so I guess that's like the same. I'm really excited for that! I just love singing and I love choir and I'm so glad that it's working out that I can be in choir.

Last week we were invited along with other missionaries to a Christmas party at the Lorenzo Snow home. The couple who owns it are not members but they love history and they restored the home. So they gave us a tour and we ate and got to mingle. It was really fun :] All of these things are adding to the Christmas spirit and making the holidays perfect :]

 And of course being in Kirtland for the holidays is amazing.. I had been praying for a miracle to happen at sites and when we were there last week we met a woman named D. She was so sweet and as we took her on tour she said, "I knew right when I walked inside that I was standing on holy ground!" Before she knew anything that had happened there!! We gave her a full tour and she just loved it! She had so much faith and just knew that the sacred events that happened there really did occur. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she gave us her number and said we could call whenever :]

I hope you had a great week! Love you,

Sister Maynard.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

December 3rd letter~
We have spent a lot of time in Kirtland this past week.. But I just love being at sites so much!!!! Not only in Kirtland but the Johnson Farm as well. We went there a few days ago because one of the senior couples is moving to Kirtland this week. We stopped by and had them bear their testimonies in the revelation room. It's so incredible to sit in those sacred rooms and just think about all of the things that took place there. I can't wait for the WHOLE WORLD to visit the historic sites in Ohio. On Friday we were in Kirtland and they had a local HS Choir come in and do a little concert. I miss choir so much :[ I'm never in the audience and it was wierd!!! But it was the Kirtland ward's night at sites so I got to see all of the people I love in that ward. It was awesome :] So many cool things have happened since I've been there. Lot's of people going on missions :D

We have been tracting a lot and doing a lot of follow ups with people we meet. Hopefully something amazing will come of that :] And it's been awesome because the weather has been perfect!!!!!! Oh my gosh I love Ohio weather because it's just gray and foggy and mid 50's.. Perfect!!!! We met this really cute couple yesterday tracting. The old man was sitting outside while his wife was loading up the car. We talked about Supernatural because their dog's name was Castiel. We talked to them about the Book of Mormon and they were way open to reading it. They said they didn't claim a religion but believe that Christ is our Savior. They also said they had been meeting with JW for a few years. They go over every week and read from the Bible. Sooooo.. haha we'll see. There are a lot of JW here and EVERYBODY thinks that's who we are. But we aren't.

Didn't you LOVE the Christmas Devotional?! We watched it with the S's and it was so good!!!! I have been thinking a lot about gifts recently and thinking about the gifts that Heavenly Father has given me. When Pres. Uctdorf was talking about not only being a good giver but a good receiver it kind of just tied together all of the thoughts I've been having lately. I mean, we give gifts because we love people. Heavenly Father loves us so He gives us gifts. We need to use those/bless others and not take them for granted. But I do sometimes. But there's this one gift that I have been given that I just can't seem to figure out how to develop it.. It's so strange! I really just have no idea. But I am really grateful for the gifts I have been given. Now on a more temporal level, people give us gifts all the time through like physical gifts and like compliments.. Just the two I've been focused on. And recently I have developed this habit of being all weird about it. But that's really ungrateful to be all wierd! I don't know. Just something that's been on my mind. Gifts are awesome and they are definitely a way of showing love--See The 5 Love Languages ;]

Sorry my thoughts are a little jumbled. I hope all is well. Ohio is great. I love it.

Sister Maynard. 

December 10th letter~

Hello Everybody.

This has been kind of a strange week. We have been meeting a lot of people and teaching lessons but then nothing happens and they don't progress. We met this one guy who was way solid. He let us teach him all about the Book of Mormon and asked if he could have a copy and said we could come back the next day. So we did and he wasn't home :[ But we're going to try again because he really seemed interested.

We have been praying/fasting a lot to find the elect. Are any of these people we're meeting the elect? I don't know.. I don't really know how to know without teaching them until the end. I really hope that they are. I'm ready to start seeing success. It's frustrating to not have any idea the impact I'm having here. But I know that Heavenly Father is going to do what He wants with my efforts here. We're working hard to find people and we will. Maybe we already have.. Again, I don't know. I just feel kind of lost as to what to do next.

We had a zone meeting a few days ago and it was a little over my head but amazing some of the things they were teaching us. Somebody from Salt Lake came out and trained all of our leaders on a new technique or something. Okay, it was a lot over my head and I don't really understand it. BUT I know it will work when I finally figure it out. They also introduced something that H has been doing in her mission where you ask to leave a blessing on people's homes. They didn't go over it too much but I'm excited to learn. We are going to see some really big results when we start using these things in our missionary work.

Christmas is coming :] Still no snow here so it's been awesome. It feels like Christmas at home but people here actually want a white Christmas and I don't get it. But it's supposed to be snowing here soon. Here is a link to a video that you may or may not have seen before. It's from last year but still amazing!

Love you,

Sister Maynard.

Alright.. This week. I'm not even really sure what happened. It been a crazy week. Probably more downs then ups BUT the ups always make up for the downs.. R is so over meeting with us which has been rough. We watched him change so much and the gospel was really helping him but I guess he's not totally ready and committed yet. So we are just focusing on J and finding new gators. We met this one girl tracting and it was awesome. Of course we have to tract the neighborhood with the street "Yorkshire" in it, right?! Well the first lady we knocked on was really not happy that we knocked on her door. Ohhhhh boy. Sometimes people are just not very nice. And it's always annoying when it's the first door. But a few houses later we met C!!! She talked to us for 15 minutes and seemed to have a lot of faith in Jesus Christ and she was interested in the Book of Mormon. We introduced it a little bit and prayed with her and went on our way. We have an appt with her in a few hours so hopefully that works out. She seems really solid. Then we tracted this little side road and met F! We'll see what the Book of Mormon can do for him. He also seemed really interested in reading it :]

It was snowing for a bit a few days ago and we definitely tracted in it. It was so cold and we just laughed the whole time at how ridiculous it was that we were outside walking in the snow for hours. But it was fun. I think that I will definitely be over snow by the time I get home.. And I'm currently the driver so pray for us that I can learn how to drive in the snow super fast. I have a few times so far but it hasn't been bad.

Thanksgiving was awesome. We loved every minute of it! We spent time with the S's and then went to the P's and had a great time there and then we headed off to Kirtland to spend time with the missionaries. We watched Emma and I just love that movie! It was so good! Emma was such an incredible woman. I love being able to learn about her so much at the sites. She went through a lot but she knew that Joseph was called of God to be the prophet and she fully supported him.

Our Nativity display at sites also started. It's so beautiful. I have never appreciated Nativies more in my life then I do now. So many people come in from around the area to see them and they just love it. It's the perfect opportunity to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Man, He really is the center of everything. NONE of this would be possible without Him. We wouldn't be able to change and become better people, we wouldn't be able to be with our families forever, or return to Heavenly Father.. It wouldn't be possible! But Heavenly Father loves us so He sent His Son for us.. Isn't that incredible?! It makes me think of when King Benjamin is talking to the people about how we aren't even as much as the dust of the earth (Mosiah2:25) and yet, Heavenly Father has a perfect love for us. The holiday season is amazing. I know that it's not even December yet but Christmas begins early in Kirtland haha. And we get to dress up in nativity costumes with the little kids that come in :] I'll see if I can get some pictures because it's AWESOME! 

 Oh, another cool story.. We have been going through our former gator pile to find people to teach and we called this lady a few weeks ago but didn't get in touch with her or something.. But we're tracting a few days ago and this man opened the door and says, "My wife isn't home right now.. She should be home in 20, but do you want to come in wait until she gets back?" We were like uhhh... We'll just stay out here :] so we talked to him for a bit and he told us his name and we realized this was the house of the woman we called a few weeks ago!!!! They were taught a few years ago and we're going to try to pick them back up.  

Kay, one last thing. Yesterday was just aboslutely amazing. We had zone conference with a few other zones. We started off in the Kirtland Temple and sang Christmas songs and some people in the mission leadership bore their testimonies. Then we sang more Christmas songs. Then we split up into zones and we all had the opportunity to bear witness of our Savoir in a place where he has shown His face more than 4 times that we know of. Probably a lot more.. So many incredible things happened in the Kirtlnad Temple and of course we got to sing The Spirit of God. But bearing my testimony is something I don't like doing when it's not teaching. I just get all nervous and stuff and don't know what to say so I just avoid it. But I had to yesterday. So I just prayed that my words would be guided by the spirit and I just went for it. It's not very often that I feel my words are guided by the spirit but I really felt that yesterday as I was sharing with others that I know that Christ is my Savoir and that He loves us so much. This is all true.. What an amazing work that we're doing. Not just full time missionaries but everybody who shares their testimonies of the Savoir with others. When it truly comes from the heart the spirit will always be there to bear witness of the truthfulness of your words. I. Love. It.  I love this gospel. I love Heavenly Father's perfect plan for us. HE LOVES US!!!!!!

Sister Maynard.

Ps. Check out Ness. mormon.org/vanessa I love her as well. And check out mormon.org/christmas. There's lots of fun things going on with church media!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Hey!!!

Soooo this week.. Hm. Not the best but still okay. Our gators dropped us which is always hard so now we're just tracting which is even harder. But I'm doing my best to stay positive. P and I talked about it this morning and I just really feel like Heavenly Father has something in store for us. We have to go through the bad to get to the good, right? So if we just stay positive and keep working then something will come out of this, right?? I am really hoping Heavenly Father leads us to someone who is prepared. I don't know how long I can stay positive for :P But tracting is a lot better/easier when you're positive about it. I know that we'll find someone. Just have to be diligent..

And this week is Thanksgiving so that's like the best!!! We will be spending Thanksgiving with the S's :] K's mom is coming in from Utah so it will be a party. Then we have plans to make an appearance at some more members homes :] Then off to Kirtland! It will be an awesome day/week. Our sites schedule was changed so we're there Thurs & Fri. It's different but I love it. We get maybe 2 tours a day total so it's really slowing down. This past week Sister M asked if we wanted to go on a spanish tour with her. It was so cool!!!! I could only understand a few things but I loved it. I love hearing people's testimonies in other languages. I feel like it's more powerful because you can't get caught up in the words. You really have to rely on the spirit and you can feel it even when you don't understand what they're saying! It's so cool!!! And we have a lot of calls to make in the call center. We have been going through our online system and cleaning it out. We talk to a lot of voicemails so hopefully something comes from it!! Lots of tedious work but miracles will come. I just know it!

Have a great week and Thanksgiving! We really do have a lot to be grateful for :]

Love you!

Sister Maynard

One Year!

Hello!!!!!

The District

Oh! We have seen so many miracles these last few weeks. Especially with our gators.

Z and F had their little baby yesterday!!!! He's so cute! She called us an hour after she gave birth and asked us to come over haha. We had to wait until after church but he was such a cute little guy!!!! We're so happy for them :] 

In one of their lessons they had their friend, J, come too and we have been meeting with him ever since. He's 20 and way cool. He's very open to learning and finding out if the church is true for himself. Which he's doing. He came to church yesterday and loved it!!! He's going through a rough time right now and he said that he was so glad to go to church because he felt so much better afterwards. It's so neat because everything we teach him he just gets so excited!! The gospel is amazing! 

R came to church as well! He has made so much progress from when I first met him. My first lesson with him he was asking random questions about whether or not Mormon's can have guns.. Haha but now his questions are very focused on the lessons and his desire to find truth has grown a ton. Seriously. The gospel just makes people happier. You can see it in the people we meet with. They look lighter and want more and more. It really is a miracle. 

We also had an amazing lesson with the R and A. They're a part member family and I just love them so much!!!!! R has so much desire to find truth and in our lessons they have questions about whatever and we're able to answer them through the scriptures and every time they get so excited about reading! I have never loved the Book of Mormon so much in my life. Before my mission I knew absolutely nothing about the Book of Mormon and I'm learning everyday that it really does contain all the answers we're searching for. 

Every week we have a Book of Mormon club and we're focusing on chapters that testify of Christ. Last week I was having a really hard time because I felt like I needed to be perfect and know everything. Which I know isn't even possible but I was feeling really down because of it. In BoM Club we were reading 1 Nephi 11 about Nephi seeing the tree of life and one verse in there stuck out to me so much. Like a verse might not have stuck out to me so much ever... but it was verse 17 which says, "And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." It just hit me that I don't need to know everything or be perfect! Which is such a relief. But all that matters is that Heavenly Father loves me and that I know that. He's the one who helps us through everything and gives us everything. All I have to do is just try my hardest and He'll make up the rest because He loves me :] I love the Book of Mormon and the wonderful things it teaches. I learn something new everyday from it!

Love you,

Sister Maynard.

Ps. I was trying to do this yoga pose that Palmer taught me and I might have fallen on my chin and my jaw seems a little messed up :/

Pps. I have been on my mission for a year now!!!! Can you even believe it?! Because I can't. Mind. Blown. 

Lock Down

Sooo because of Hurricane Sandy we were on lock down for a few days. It was just a constant light drizzle for ever. But we were stuck inside. So what do you do?? Build a fort :] Our fort was AWESOME! 

The Fort

Guess what's happening this week for transfers.. P and I are staying together!!!!!!!! Nobody thought it would happen. For some reason people think you can't have fun on top of that or something so they want to split us up. Look out Ravenna! P and M are here for 6 more weeks!!!!

Z and F brought their friend J to one of our lessons and he is so solid. He was so into the lesson and wants so much what the gospel has to offer. It was such a neat lesson. He accepted baptism and is excited to read the Book of Mormon :]

R is getting baptized on 14 Dec :] :] :] 

This week has been different because of the hurricane. We didn't go to sites which was extra strange. But we had a really good week nonetheless :]

I hope you have a great week! Love you!!
Sister Maynard.

Isn't it pretty

View From Apartment

Church Parking Lot

What do you mean Halloween isn't on Halloween???

Seriously, Ohio is so weird. We had Halloween on Sat and yesterday.. Now that there's a huge storm coming idk if we'll actually have Halloween on Halloween this year. Sooooo weird. Especially tracting  with all of the trick or treaters.. Everybody is all cheerful until they know why we're there. Gahhhh. and we don't even get candy out of it!!!!! Probably a good thing. 

We had a gator, R, at church on sun! It was sweet. He had a good time :]  we're meeting with Z and F and they are doing awesome!! They even had a friend come to one of our lessons and he said he would be baptized!!!!! We're looking forward to meeting with him.  We are in major finding mode so hopefully we get some new potentials/gators here soon :] 

The Johnson Farm has been amazing. Ahhhhh I love serving there so much. We took this family on tour and they had grandchildren from NP! The Cameron's. I don't know them but I think I've heard of them. It was a sweet tour. They were so prepared to feel the spirit and we all had tears in our eyes at the end as we were bearing our testimonies of the plan of salvation. I LOVE HISTORIC SITES!!!!!!!! 

And I totes love all of you.. 

Sister Maynard.