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.