Long email this week :)

"...It was so good to see you all [over Skype] on Christmas!!!  It was like being home all over again!! :D :D :D...  My favorite part was simply the fact that I felt I had a place that I belonged.  It was interesting.  We are always with members all the time and always have a place to go and we always feel loved but there's something about being in your own family and feeling like you belong in that family.  Like I really do have a place somewhere in the world rather that just put in home to home.  That was my favorite part, just feeling like I had a place somewhere out there, someone that loved me and is looking forward to my return.  It was a very Merry Christmas!!

Christmas day went really well.  We ate with a family and they had brought over some non-members.  We got a chance to teach them after dinner.  They really weren't interested but we taught them anyway :)  After that we had a few hours and didn't really have anywhere to go so we decided to go sing to some of the less-actives in our ward and the older people we've really grown to love.  This ward is full of older people and I've grown to love them kind of a lot.  So we went around and sang Christmas carols to a lot of them.  It was quiet an evening!!  The smiles on their faces just made it so worth the whole thing :)  I was so happy going around to people and getting to know them.  They were very happy we stopped by and let us into their homes.  We ate at just about every place we stopped ..it's time to lose weight again, dang, and I was doing so good!  haha!

The rest of the week went really well.  We did exchanges this week.  Another one of the sisters and I went to her area.  I really liked her area.  It's like a downtown Salt Lake kind of area, but..Portland.  Everyone here is hipster and they all dress the same.  Skinny jeans, bears, some type of leather jacket.  They all think they are original but after looking at everyone, they are all the same. haha! ...this place is bazaar.

Last night we were out trying to find people.  We've had SO many names given to us from the ward and by the church, both members, less actives and non-members to go visit and teach.  Last night we couldn't find ANYONE.  I don't know why but these houses are impossible to find!  Its like we go around and around and around, up and down streets trying to find these people's homes and they aren't to be found!!  It's been a little frustrating, I won't lie.  I'm like 'where the heck are these people?!', but they are out there somewhere. haha!  Last night we had another one of those 'where the heck are these people?!' moments and so we stopped by a less active that we knew where he lived to find out if he knew this other person we were looking for.  This guy was so kind, let us in, put on his coat and shoes and said, 'I don't know who you are looking for but I will come out and help ya find them.'  It was a silly small thing for him to do, but it made me so happy.  It melted my frustration of not being able to find ANYONE.  We found the one we were looking for and made a good contact.  But just that man taking his time to help us made my day.

:)  Oh! so the day after Christmas we had a referral we went to contact.  We knocked on her door and introduced ourselves.  She was VERY interested and we asked when we could come back.  She was like, 'Well, I have time right now.  Why don't you come in?'  What?!  Yes, please!!  So we did :)  We taught her the Restoration then and there and she was very anxious to learn more and wanted us to come back. ...the lesson was funny though because her kids are CRAZY!  The girl was climbing on my head and my shoulders and liked sliding down my face.  It was pretty funny!!!  I was like, 'Little girl, you can't do that!' but she wasn't listening.  It was funny trying to testify to her while this little girl was climbing in the hood of my jacket and sitting on my shoulders. hahaha!  It was the craziest lesson.  But it was funny! :)  Plus, she's letting us come back.  Bingo!!

We went to contact another referral we got from the church this week.  We went back several times and no one was home.  Finally one night we drove by and the lights were on so we jumped out and knocked on the door.  We asked for the guy and the man that answered was like, 'Oh, he's not home right now.  He's out with his family.  He's usually here so come back.  Oh, and just so you know, only gay guys live here.  So we aren't really swinging your direction nor do we play on the same playing field.'  We stood there not sure what to say, mostly because it was so out of the blue.  We offered to teach him too and he declined, but that's okay!  We've tried back a few times but have been never able to find our referral.  You never know what you might find in a place like this!! :D  People are great!!

...It's been a good week.

I hope you have a awesome week.  I love you so much...
Have fun and be safe!!!

Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield

p.s. the church is true!!!"


excerpts from Erin's email 12/30/2013

I love this Christmas season!

"...I love the Mount Scott ward!!!!!!!!!!!  This ward is amazing!!!!  It's small though!!  Very, very, small.  Tis' almost as small as the Amity ward.  There's a lot of members..but only about 30% of the ward is active.  I fell in love with this ward the moment we arrived.  We met with the ward mission leader and he gave us about 30 names of people to go see and visit.  We found 5 new investigators yesterday!!!!!!!   I've never been so happy in my life!!!  There haven't been sisters in this area since..well, ever maybe.  (It's starting to be apparent why, it's kind of a sketchy area.  I mean..we live behind a strip club. haha!)  So the ward is stoked to have sisters!!!  I feel so loved, needed, wanted, there's work to be done, people to see and places to go.  I'll share a few stories with you...

Oh! and we're in a trio!! :D  So it's now Sister Ivans and Sister Blanch!!!  It was completely unexpected.  So on Tuesday I get a call from Sister Blanch saying that her companion was going home (unexpectedly) and she had a few questions.  I was surprised but kept thinking and wondering what they were going to do.   They didn't have an extra sister so I was wondering where in the world she would go.  Later that night I got a call from President and he was like, 'Sister Maxfield, so things happen and we have a little bit of a situation that's going to effect your transfers.'  My heart dropped.  'OH NOO!!'  I thought.  Then he was like, "What do you think of having Sister Blanch as a trio with you and Ivins in Mount Scott?'  I squealed like a little girl!!!!  Are you kidding?!?!!???  HECK YES!!!  I love Sister Blanch as much as I do Sister Ivans!!!  Does President realize how much personality he's putting under one roof!??  We needed her, and so we're in a trio now!! and it's the best trio that's ever existed on the face of the planet!!!! hahaha!!  We already have so many funny quotes and experiences, but I'll tell you those on Wednesday :)

An excerpt from my email to President:
'So many amazing things have happened this week already.  We got 14 referrals from the ward already.  One of the members gave us a referral for his friend.  Sunday evening this family kept coming to my mind.  We had tried a few times before to contact them with no luck.  But I couldn't get them off my mind this night.  So we went to their home and they actually answered!  We asked if we could share a Christmas message with them.  They let us right in and we sat down.  After we got to know them and shared a Christmas message with them we testified about the Book of Mormon and invited them to learn more.  They were very happy to invite us back.  We asked the husband if he would like to give the closing prayer.  He turned to his wife and asked 'Would you like to say it?' and she got really quiet and said 'I don't think I can without crying' and then began to cry.  Sister Ivins then asked her why she was crying and why she felt like that.  She then told us that her close friend had unexpectedly died a few months ago and that today was her birthday.  It was still very tender for her and she was really struggling with the loss.  Out of 365 days of the year, we showed up on her friend's birthday.  God does not do random.
One more amazing thing happened yesterday.  We were out trying to find a less-active part member family.  We were wondering around this apartment complex looking for the apartment.  We thought we had found it and knocked on the door.  Two people answered who obviously weren't who we were looking for.  We asked if we could sing them a Christmas carol and they were delighted to hear from us (even if we sounded a little less then the MoTabs :D)  We then got into a conversation about the Book of Mormon and they are allowing us to come back to share more with them.  Once again, God does not do random.  We may not have found the people we were looking for, but we found the people the Lord needed us to find.'

...ah, I am so excited for Christmas!  I got all your packages and have devoured the cookies already..well, made a good dent in them, haha!  Everything is happily sitting under our little Christmas tree and the apartment is Christmas-fied out.  It's looking really good.  I couldn't think of a better place to be or with better companions in the mission field!! ...
I love you so much and hope you have a very very Merry Christmas!!!

Sister Maxfield


p.s.  What greater tidings of joy could be brought then knowing that our Savior, the one who will redeem us from our sins, forgive us of our short comings and make it possible to enter back into the kingdom of our Father in Heaven, was born this week.  It truly is a time to celebrate!  This Christmas season has truly been completely centered on Jesus Christ.  It means so much more to me now than Christmas ever has in the past.  I'm so much more grateful for the blessings of our Lord Jesus Christ.  I love this Christmas season.  It's now my most favorite holiday.  It's all about the Savior.  The one I love most...the birth of my best friend, my Savior and older brother.  Even the Christmas songs have brought on a whole new meaning.  There's a deep love in my heart for Christmas.  It's touched my heart in a way that Christmas never has before and I'll be forever changed because of it."


excerpts form Erin's email 12/23/2013 

So yeah, I'm getting transferred

"... I really wasn't totally expecting it but it came.  And yeah, I'm heading to the Mount Scott ward in Portland.  I have no idea where that is or what it's like there (I'll let you know next week.)  We're doubling into the area, so they are taking out the elders and putting in the sisters.  I always love doing that because it just feels like the whole world is opened up to you.  You can start working ANYWHERE.  It just gives you a lot to go off of once you get your feet under you.  Plus, I'm heading back to Oregon, I kind of REALLY love the Oregon side, so I'm stoked to be back! and I'M COMPANIONS WITH SISTER IVINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was all I could do to keep from jumping for joy when I found that out!!!  (I didn't want my comp to think I was excited to get a new comp, but I just LOVE Sister Ivans so much!!!)  She's from Alpine, we know a lot of the same people, we get along SO well.  I've had some of my most favorite exchanges with her, we goof off, we can laugh and be ourselves.  I hung out at the Christmas party with her like all night and we just sat there and laughed and laughed and laughed, and I was like, 'Man, it would be so much fun if we were companions!!'  AND NOW WE ARE!!!  If I have to be in the Christmas field doubling into a new area, Sister Ivans would be the one I want to do that with.  I'M SO EXCITED!!!  ah, it's going to be so good!!!  I'm excited about this transfer.  I just feel like there's so much good heading my way....

There's a few families that I'm really going to miss here though.  Like Sister Archer and a few other families we've been working really closely with.  It's extremely bitter sweet.  My excitement seems to over run though.  So it will be really good! and at the same time, I'm really sad to leave Sister Denison.  We've worked SO hard together!!!  We've had to work so hard to get to where we are now and we're finally *friends* so that's hard to have to move on from that.  We still have so much work to do but I know her new comp and they are going to be amazing together.  So there's a lot of peace in my heart about it all.  It makes it a little easier :)...

We had a conference with Elder Corbridge this week which was AMAZING.  I got to go to both sessions of it (Thursday and Friday) and my mind is blown.  It's changed the way I do missionary work and approach lessons.  He talked about teaching the 'why's' of the gospel not just bullet points.  It was amazing.  Like I said it's really changed my teaching because if they don't understand the why, then they have no reason for baptism or joining or anything.  It was amazing.  I loved it!  I came home exhausted from the whole thing but it was great.

Sad side note.  We got dropped this week by our 'golden boy'.  We hadn't seen him for a while.  He had stopped coming to church, we couldn't get a hold of him and he just kind of disappeared.  Finally we were able to sit down and talk to the girl that we live with who's friends with him.  He told her that he didn't want to meet with us anymore.  He said that he didn't believe that any of it was true and that he didn't want this lifestyle.  Talk about heart wrenching.  We haven't heard or seen him in weeks.  ...I think his family and friends talked him out of it, they aren't fond of the church.  When he was doing it 'under cover' he was amazing.  It's hard to deny the feelings you know they felt.  So we're praying that one day he might come back or have an opportunity to listen again.  But until then...we're out of the picture.  Heart breaking.

And at the same time, the Lord always seem to bring the blessings at the very end.  In church yesterday we had two less-activies that we've been working with come to church and one of the members of the investigating family there at church!!!!  We were shocked!! because in sacrament meeting we didn't see them, so we didn't think anyone had come.  But suddenly though, they started popping up and we realized we had just missed them!  They were actually there!! :D  It was the BEST!!!!  It's always funny how badly you want someone to come to church and then when they are finally there how stinken excited you get!!  It was a GOOD Sunday!! and then we had a Christmas concert and we invited one of our less-active families to come and they came!!!  It was SO good.  The Lord really did come fourth in the end and blessed us with more blessing than any Sunday we've had in the past.  It was amazing....

I hope this Christmas season's been a good one for you and that you've enjoyed it!!  So much love to you this holiday season!!!!

The Church it true!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Sister Maxfield"


excerpts from Erin's email 12/16/2013

It snowed here in Vancouver!!!!

"What a week!!!  It's been an amazing week with amazing things happening!!

First of all, IT SNOWED HERE IN VANCOUVER!!!!  It hasn't snowed here in YEARS!!  Isn't that amazing!?!  Our cars got grounded that day (people out here don't know how to drive in the snow) and so we had to walked everywhere in the freezing cold! :)  It reminded me of home, I loved it!  Luckily our ward is awesome and we mostly got rides to where we needed to go.  But snow! :D :D :D ah, it made me so happy!  Everyone keeps telling us how much snow there is at home.  Jealous, seriously jealous.  I just pray that next year will be the same, haha!

The temple was AMAZING!!!  I was so happy to 1- be back in the Portland area (it was weird being back in my previous mission, but it was good to be back) and 2- to be back in the house of the Lord.  It was like coming home,  I've never felt so..safe.  So much peace.  So rejuvenated and like everything was in the Lord's hands.  As I've been coming up on my year mark (like you mentioned, crazy, huh!!)  I've been thinking back over the past year and wondering if I've done enough.  Wondering if the work that has been done was truly all I could do.  Was I holding anything from the Lord?  Did I give it my all?  As I've been thinking these things, being in the temple I felt so much peace.  Just reassured that I was where I was suppose to be, with the companion I was suppose to have, doing the work He needs me to be doing.  I cannot tell you how grateful I was for that moment.  I've reflected back on it again and again, so happy that the Lord confirmed that to me.  I can't wait to go back... so so so good!!  After that we went to a stake center in Portland and we had the whole mission there.  It was SO good to see some of my old companions, sisters I've done exchanges with, elders that I've served around, it was like having a huge family reunion!  I LOVED it!!!  We had a short conference and then a way funny talent show.  Mostly piano, guitar, ukulele songs and what not but they were good!  It was quite an enjoyable evening :) :)  It's been a good, uplifting week.

So last fast Sunday we fasted for a less active family in our ward.  Mom's a member, dad isn't and they have a roommate that's living with them that also isn't a member.  So we fasted that we might be able to teach the family.  We were over there doing service for them this week and I had asked the roommate if she goes to church, which opened a whole can of worms.  She began asking questions about the Book of Mormon and why our church is different.  Sister Denison jumped right in and started talking about the priesthood.  And to my surprise, the less active also joined in and started talking about the church (this less active, come to find out, has a very deep testimony of the gospel.)  Sister Denison then shared with her why she became a Mormon and went into talking about Joseph Smith.  I didn't say a whole lot in the impromptu lesson.  Rather let my companion have at it.  Listening to her teach the restoration warmed my heart.  Proud parent moment, that's for sure! :D

The Christmas decorations look AMAZING in our room  THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!  It's really brought the Christmas spirit into our little room and just makes us super happy every time we come home...(everyone in the mission should be jealous of how good our room looks for Christmas!)...

It's been a good week, can ya tell?! :)

I know that my Savior lives.  I love this Christmas season because it's truly focused on the Savior.  He's my very best friend, He stands by us and He loves us.  Our Father in Heaven provided us a Savior, and this season is truly a time to celebrate His birth.  I love it.  It really is 'the most wonderful time of the year!'

All my love,
Sister Maxfield


...I hope that you're enjoying the snow for me!!"


excerpts from Erin's email 12/9/2013

A Thanksgiving I will never forget! :D

"Can you believe we're already in December??!  It blows my mind!  I've almost been out a whole year.  It's amazing to think back at all that has happened this past year.  So many miracles and tender mercies of the Lord.  He's been so good to me this past year.  It's unbelievable.  I truly will forever be indebted to Him.  I think of all the amazing people that I've come to know.  The missionaries that I've been able to serve with and around, the people from the wards that I've served in, the lessons and the people we've been able to teach, incredible companions and my family and friends back at home who have been of the greatest support.  It's been a year of the greatest blessings of my life.  I've come to know my Savior unlike I ever have before and I will forever be so grateful for that!  What a year!! :D :D :D

Well!! Let me tell you about Thanksgiving!!  So usually missionaries talk about how they eat themselves silly on Thanksgiving because they go to so many different houses.  But honestly, we didn't really have anywhere else to go!  We had a WONDERFUL YUMMY breakfast with the family we are staying with.  It was so good!  Some of their family came over and we ate and had a good hearty laugh about the funniest things and just a grand old time for breakfast.  From there we went over to the Clantons!  They are a home away from home.  We LOVE them.  When we got there we started playing all sorts of games like "What If", this picture game and a game called 'Moose'.  Everyone stands around and you take turns rolling the dice.  If you roll a one you call 'moose!' and grab the pen and start writing on your paper and counting out loud 1-100.  While you start counting the dice keeps going.  If anyone else rolls a one they yell 'moose!' and take the pen from the person and start counting from 1-100.  Whoever gets to 100 first wins.  It was INTENSE!!  So funny though!! :D  That was a good game!! :D  Dinner was incredible!  I ate more that night then I have in a LONG time.  We had turkey and this delicious apple, cranberry relish stuff (yumm!!!), yams, orange rolls, stuffing (it was really good and I usually don't like stuffing!), mashed potatoes, and it was all SO good!  They even made jello on my request!! :D :D  Does it get better than that?!  I say it does not! But seriously, I ate some much. haha!  They made us feel so at home, too.  It felt just like we belonged.  Right where we were suppose to be :D  We then played "Grateful Scatagories" where we all wrote down our blessings from A-Z and then if anyone else wrote down the same thing, they were out.  Oh, it was so funny!! :p  We got some good ones.. "indoor plumbing, open signs, frog and fish".  It was a grand old time!... It was certainly a Thanksgiving I will never forget! :D

Our gators are doing great!  We had a few fall-through lessons this week and the other ones I wasn't there for because I was on exchanges.  But on exchanges, get this, we went to a potential to have a lesson and the lady was putting all the words into our mouths.  It went something like this..let me give you a few lines from her lesson, 'So tell me about this Book of Mormon and where it all came from. ..So if I want to know it's true, I have to pray about it, right?.. How about you give me reading assignments and I'll read them and then if I have questions I'll write them down and when you come back we can talk about what I read.. or..So in order to join your church do I have to be baptized or what do I have to do?'  ARE YOU KIDDING?  Talk about the Lord preparing his people!!!  She is in another area but I heard that the lessons are still going great!  It's amazing to see some of the Lord's children really being prepared! :D  Crazy!!  It was too good!!

...Alright, that's about it for this week!  We've got A LOT of good things coming up.  We're going to the temple on Wednesday!!! (HURRAY!!!  I COULDN'T BE MORE HAPPY!!!!! OR EXCITED!!! IT'S GOING TO BE SO GOOD!!)  It's the mission Christmas thing so it's going to be great!!  And then there's the Festival of the Nativities here we're going to, and we just found out that Elder Corbridge from the Quorum of the Seventy is coming out next week.  So there's a lot of good coming up.  I have a good feeling about these next few weeks!!!

...Be happy and safe this holiday season!!!!! 
The church is true!!!

Sister Maxfield


p.s.  Everyone keeps asking me what I want for Christmas.  I've been thinking a lot about this and what I really want from my friends and family is their testimony of Christ.  How they found it, who Christ is to them.  Just some thoughts and feelings about Christ.  If they do so, write 'testimony' or something on the back of the envelope so I know not to open it until Christmas!  That seriously would be the biggest and best Christmas gift of all, knowing my friends/family's testimony of Christ.  And it doesn't have to be huge or profound just..something :)"


excerpts from Erin's email 12/02/2013

Stand in holy places - my holy place is on my knees

"...There've been many miracles this week.  We'll start with Young Women's.  That went so well!!  (It was so sweet of [Sister Burbank] to invite us to come.  I LOVE Sister Burbank.  She's amazing.  We couldn't go on without her, that's for sure.)  The theme was 'Stand Ye in Holy Places and Be Not Moved' but they did it in a cow theme of 'Mooooed',  haha! cute :)  They had many musical numbers and a few Young Women's awards (like the typical Young Women's in Excellent nights, hahaha!)  Then at the end, they introduced Sister Denison to the Young Women, talked about her pageant life, her schooling out in DC, a little about growing up and showed some super cute pictures!  Then she got up and spoke.  It was funny..neither one of us knew what we were going to say or what we were going to talk on.  We'd been thinking about it for a while, but hadn't come up with anything.  But it all worked out..then they introduced me with the pictures...and the intro... I didn't know what I was going to talk about but things just seemed to come out of my mouth.  I told them how I remember being in their shoes and growing up hearing all this, but then suddenly being put out into the world and it all being put to the test, and I wasn't perfect.  It's not always easy to hold to your standards.  And how we all make mistakes.  I just restated how important it is to stand in holy places.  And how my holy place is on my knees.  Knowing that I can pray to my father in heaven and He will hear and answer me, is something that I hold very near and dear to my heart.  I told them that they will never miss out on a single good thing in life when they choose the right and hold fast to their standards.  It turned out amazing.  Other than that I'm not really sure what I said.  Sometimes while speaking by the spirit, I don't remember what's said after, but the spirit was there.  So it worked out.  It was really cool to be involved :)  I loved it!!

Another miracle ...this week we went with our ward mission leader to a family in our ward who once had the missionaries in their home.  They were on date this time last year, but through a series of events, they went off date and in a sense, went the other direction.  With our ward mission leader we decided to go over and see what we can do.  Brother Clanton followed the spirit and began a discussion about the Savior and his love for us.  The spirit came into the home as the parents and children were all basking in the warmth of it.  Our WML invited them to take the lessons again and the father was quick to invite us back.  We're going over on Tuesday to begin teaching them.

For Thanksgiving we're going to the Clantons :)  They're our ward mission leaders.  They invited us to come over and have dinner with them.  I'm super excited.  They are amazing and we absolutely love them!!  The members here are incredible.  I couldn't be blessed with a more caring, loving ward.  I've felt so loved and taken care of here.  We have another Thanksgiving dinner hopefully on Friday with some other members :) :)  It truly will be a time to feast and enjoy the holidays!  Although it won't be Maxfield Thanksgiving, nothing would ever compare to a Maxfield Thanksgiving, haha!...  But the Lord will bless... I do find  myself a little more homesick here around the holiday time.  That is inevitable in my opinion but we'll keep working hard. ...we put our first Christmas CD in today and I got all excited.  I'm ready for a new season!! :D  Lights are coming up and it's going to make tracting a joy!!

...the whole facebook thing is a work in progress.  We're on for 1 hour every day.  We can have lessons with people inside and outside our mission.  We can find people to teach, talk to those who may be interested, post things that will bring others unto Christ.  Others can comment and share on our walls and visa versa.  A lot of the old missionary ways of 'no contact at home' are coming down.  It's really opening up big time.  We had a meeting with SLC and they said 'If your dad's a nonmember and you want to teach him, you could through facebook.  And if you mom sat in on the lesson, that's even better!'  So it's amazing.  The audience we can reach has no limits now!! :D :D  That being said, not being distracted from everything else on there has been..well, it's a mental battle sometimes.  Although surprisingly it becomes easier and easier as we simply focus on our purpose and why we are there... you just have to learn to pull yourself back into missionary and add it to your daily thing....The work is changing!!


Well, that's it for this week,  I guess I had a lot to say!!!
I hope you all have the happiest of all Happy Thanksgivings!!!
I love you so much!!!!!!

Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield


p.s. Sad news.  I was here at the library uploading some pics for facebook and I left my USB port cable and my camera card here accidentally.  When I came back, it was gone.  No one turned it in.  So any pictures that I had from about July to now, are gone. :(   Trust me, I'm pretty torn up about it.  So hang onto anything that I've sent home.  It's all I have."


excerpts from Erin's email 11/25/2013

Happy are those that keep the commandments of God

"I look past through this week and I keep thinking 'What happened this week?'  I'm not sure if it was just a slow week or if there really wasn't a whole lot going on this week.  I'm not sure.  I'll try to figure out what happened.  haha!!  Let me rack my memory banks...

...We are teaching this lady's niece and the lesson went..well, ok.  It wasn't the best lesson that I've ever taught in my life but the spirit was there (thank goodness) and that took over where we slacked off! :)  She's awesome!!  She's really interested in what we have to say and was excited to start reading the Book of Mormon :D  Hopefully that'll go somewhere really good!  She wasn't at church yesterday but we're working on it.  We're meeting again with her this week and so we're excited about that!!  Our golden boy..we had the most amazing lesson with him this last week.  Here's this long and short of it.  We watched The Restoration DVD and started sharing our testimonies of it all.  Finally our member turned to him and asked, 'What do you think of all this?  Do you think this is true?'  He sat there quiet for a minute, looked up and simply said, 'I know this is true.'  So in the scriptures it talks about how the Holy Ghost will 'peirce you to the very center and cause your heart to burn.'  That's exactly what happened.  I've never felt my heart burn like that before.  It was unbelievable.  I wish I could put into words the feelings and spirit that was there that night...it's an experience I will never forget.  There are a few challenges that face ahead with this.  It's going to be more work to help him understand that importance of baptism then just..putting him on date.  But there's a lot of hope here.  So we're really excited :)

...The area is doing good...The rain is finally back!  Makes me happy.  I've kind of missed feeling like I'm in Washington!  haha! :)

Despite everything, the church is still true.  I love the simplicity of the gospel.  I keep reading over and over Mosiah 2:41 where it talks about the happy state of those that keep the commandments of God.  It's so true.  If we keep the commandments we will be happy.  I had a member tell me that happiness was living in accordance to the truths that you know.  That's why Latter-day Saints are so happy because that truths that they are living up to are the full truths of the gospel.  That's why we are such a happy people :)  So thankful for that!!

...Yours forever,
The church is true!!

Sister Maxfield"

"And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state

of those that keep the commandments of God.

For behold, they are blessed in all things,

both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end

they are received into heaven,

that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness.

O remember, remember that these things are true;

for the Lord God hath spoken it."

Mosiah 2:41

excerpts from Erin's email 11/18/2013

The Lord sometimes truly tests our faith

"... This week has seriously been a miracle week.  Now you know how I kept saying that Lacamas Creek was about to explode.  It's starting to happen :)  Last Sunday we fasted for a potential family in our ward.  They had taken the lessons in the past but it had turned, I guess it just didn't end so good.  They've been more than happy to have us over, but we've been cautious.  Sunday we fasted to know what we could do to help them.  We were over there the other night and it was the first time they welcomed us in with truly open arms :)  Sister Denison then asked if we could come back and share a gospel message with them and their family.  The father was very quick to say yes!  He was like, 'We will all be home tomorrow at eight.  Come over.' :D :D :D  We left the house on cloud 9!!!  The ward has been working so hard on them!!!  SO that was a huge break-through.  We went back the next night and the husband got called into work.  We tried to have a lesson but it didn't work out so well, BUT the wife let us in.  We ALL sat down (usually we just awkwardly stand) and had a good conversation.  Baby steps.  But we are always welcome to come back, so we're getting on that one!!!

After we left their home we were going to visit some people from the ward we didn't know.  But then I got the impression to go visit another potential we had talked to a few days earlier that was just around the corner.  We knocked on the door and the wife surprisingly answered.  (She was the one we were trying to catch home.)  She let us in and we talked for another while.  She's been looking for a church, interested in the Mormon religion, she's talked to missionaries in the past and she said 'If you're talking about God, I'm listening.'  Once again, we were STOKED!!...

Last night we got into a less active home that we've been really trying to get into but haven't had the chance to yet.  They happily let us in.  We talked to the husband for a while (he's more active that his wife).  He got his wife and Sis. Denison and her hit it off SO well!!  They too invited us to come back.  Another less active family in our ward is doing amazing.  We've fallen in love with this family.  They have a non-member roommate that's living with them that comes out every time we are there now.  We're going over tonight to teach them a lesson.  We feel very strongly that she will accept the message.  The ward is also stepping up.  As we've met with the WML we've run across a few ideas of how to help the ward and they all seem on board.  They want to get this missionary work going.  Our bishop called us and set up a few appointments for us with some part members families in the ward.

...my heart is full of gratitude.  The Lord truly tests our faith and sometimes pushed us to the edge before we see the blessings of the gospel and our hard work.  What felt as though hopeless before is now proving to be fruitful.  We have a full day today.  We've receive some honest referrals and the blessings seem to be pouring out in abundance.

I love this gospel.  I loved this church.  I've been studying about Christ lately and how intertwined the atonement and the gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end) are all intertwined.  If we want the powers of the atonement to work in our lives, we *must* follow those five steps.  That's how we access the atonement.  I'm so grateful that the Lord promises to remember our sins no more.  That when we stand at the judgement bar of Christ, we will be looked upon with our strengths shinning, our good works bursting and our devotion to the Savior pure.  I love this gospel...I wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world right now then here...serving my lord and master, Jesus Christ, my elder brother, my savior.

I love you forever,

Sister Maxfield

'The atonement saved my life' "

excerpts from Erin's email 11/12/2013

We had a ward Halloween party that was so much fun!

[I was sharing with Erin how the AF Marching Band took the state and then the regional competitions, again!]

"I'm glad to hear that AF [marching band] is still on top!! WOOT!! WOOT!!  There's a bunch of kids in marching band around here so it's awesome to say, 'Yeah, but I marched with the AF Band'.  It's something I'm proud to say!  I've met a few people out here who I've march against.  They always have such good things to say.  It's pretty much awesome.

....This week's been a lot better than last week.  Maybe not so much in the work-wise but in our companionship-wise.  I don't know what triggered it or what happened but suddenly we're friends.  For these past 5 week we've been 'companions' but now I finally feel we're 'friends'.  Maybe it's because we've finally had a chance to spend more than 2 days in a row together (exchanges are almost done) or maybe it was when the lady we were visiting asked us to sing her a song, and we did, and it didn't sound half bad.  When we realized we kind of like singing with each other, it kind of broke the ice for other things... We laugh a lot more at our differences rather then letting them get in the way.  We finally realized how to live with each other and how each other works.  She's much more open about how much I disgust her...hahaha!  I mean that in the best way possible, and then I just laugh.  Maybe it's because we've just been bluntly honest with our weaknesses this past week and we both realize that there's no perfection here.  Whatever the case may be, it's been completely different.  So it's been a HUGE blessing.  Like I said, I don't know why suddenly things are so different, but they are...

We had a ward Halloween party this week that was SO much fun!  There were SO many people there, members and non members.  It was a huge turn out.  They had decorated doors so kids could trick-or-treat, a chili cook-off, movies for the kids, games, music, a haunted house and a guy making balloon animals.  (This ward goes ALL out, it's kind of scary!) but it was SO much fun!  Before we went in, we prayed that we would be able to find someone to share the gospel with while here tonight.  And we got that opportunity.  As we were walking the halls we found a lady kind of just sitting by herself so we stopped to talk to her.  She wasn't a member but came with some friends and she was handing out candy.  We talked for a good 15 minutes or more.  She talked about how this is kind of her 'adpoted church'.  She's like..'I probably won't ever join, but I do love a lot of things about your church.'  So we got to testify to her about the church and it was just neat.

Our investigator is doing amazing!!  He met with us on Halloween night because he's like 'Well, I'm not doing anything.  Might as well!!'  This week's his birthday and he still wants to meet!  Who does that?!?!  Dang, this kid is really just excelling!  We may be only teaching one, but he's a golden one!!

Well, I think that's about it for the week.  The rain is finally back and there's not much hope in seeing the sun again.  Here comes the rain!!!  Here we go! :D...


The Church is true, there's no doubt in my mind about that.

Love you so much!

Sister Maxfield

quote:
'Faith is always pointing to the future' "

excerpts from Erin's email 11/04/2013

We must expect success, rejection, hardships and miracles...

"This week's been a tougher week.  It's funny.  I can't say it's been a 'bad' week because there's not such a thing as a 'bad week' on your mission, but this one's been particularly hard, for many reasons.  During this week, one evening after coming in from the day, I felt so discouraged in that no one wanted to listen to us.  It completely baffled me.  I stood there thinking, 'Why in the world does no one want to listen to us?  Why is it that we have this AMAZING message for the world, why is it that we're standing here with the answers people are searching for and yet they slam their doors and avoid us?  Why is it that we have such precious truths and everyone turns it away as if it's meaningless?'   I usually find the whole 'people walking towards you then walk to the other side of the street to avoid you' amusing.  This week I just found it heart breaking.  I just look around and see all these people and want so badly for them to know what I know, and to feel what I feel, and to see what I see and to simply join us.  But their fear, misunderstandings and hard heartedness gets in the way.  It really got to me this week.

...There were many miracles that happened this week however.  There's a less active lady that we ran into and we fell in LOVE with them [the family]!!!  Part member, less active.  She let us into their home and we made Halloween cookies with them! and they LOVED us being there!  Her non-member husband hung around (instead of hiding) and her non member roommate stayed and made cookies, her daughter is hilarious!!  They've invited us to come over tonight and have FHE with them!!! :D what?!?!  Yes!! baby steps, baby steps, baby steps!  That's all the mission is, is baby steps.

Also, the boy we are teaching is doing GREAT.  We've earned his trust and the lessons are going so well.  We're hoping to have him on date this week for baptism!!! :D  We've also been teaching the members in the ward, to help us get teaching.  One member lesson, after the lesson, the member was like 'The lady across the street was talking to missionaries once upon a time and said the other day that she's still interested'  BINGO!!...we are so stoked about that!  And another member lesson, they invited a part member/less active family over and we had a lesson with them! So the work is really moving forward.  I was telling my comp one time that it's like a batch of REALLY good cinnamon rolls in the oven.  They've been baking all day and you can smell them and they smell GOOD and they are *almost* done and you are just waiting for the timer to go off.  It's kind of like that.  There's a lot of good going on here, it's all about to explode!!

Well, that's about all I have his week.  I hope your week goes well...
Be happy and safe! and always pray for missionary opportunities!!!

Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield

p.s. 1 Nephi 21:14-16"

"But, behold, Zion hath said:

The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me

- but he will show that he hath not.

For can a woman forget her sucking child,

that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?

Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands;

thy walls are continually before me."

"From my president's email this week...

We must expect success, expect rejection,

expect hardships, expect miracles,

expect the Holy Ghost to be with us, expect God's holy angels to be round about us,

expect to love our work, expect to be lifted up by the spirit,

expect to be let down by people's decisions,

expect to endure to the end and

expect to leave Washington with a firm and solid testimony

of Jesus Christ and His church.

- President Taylor -" 

excerpts from Erin's email 10/28/13

Things here in Vancouver are very different than any place I've served thus far...

"...Things here in Vancouver are very different than any place I've served thus far, in that it's like serving in Utah.  Everyone knows Mormons and has their own opinions about them.  So finding people to teach is hard.  But that's okay because we are finding success in small ways.  For example, our investigator that we have is exactly what everyone likes to refer to as 'golden'.  Seriously, he comes to church every week, all three hours, he brings himself, he participates and enjoys being there.  He puts the chairs down at the end of the day, he goes to the activities, we gave him a Book of Mormon and he was all excited to read it.  He was like, 'I've been thinking about going to BYU after all this.'  This kid seriously is so ready...he's got such a thirst for what we have to teach...so we're stoked about him!  He's going to be GREAT!!

Along with that, the stake is really pushing for every missionary to teach 20 lessons a week, which
in all honesty, is a lot!  It's great though!  However, we don't nearly have enough people to be teaching 20 lessons a week and have to start somewhere.  So we've been teaching the members.  We teach about two lessons every night to members and honestly they are going so well!  More often than not, we get to the end of the lesson and they make comments like, 'I have a sister I've been wanting to share the gospel with' or 'My niece has been asking questions about the church' or 'I have a co-worker who might be interested in talking to you'.  It's getting the members thinking and the spirit is directing them to people that are being prepared!  Its' such a blessing!  So hopefully through these member lessons we'll be able to find more people to teach!  Like I said, it's going really well!!

This week we were able to go back to Rainier and see one of the ladies I taught get baptized!  It was amazing how when I got there, how incredibly homesick I felt for Rainier.  I *love* the people of Rainier.  Seeing my old ward mission leader, many members I worked closely with, the people I lived with and all those familiar faces, I realized right then and there how much I truly and deeply love these people and what I wouldn't give to be back serving them.  It took me by surprise and I wasn't expecting to feel that way.  But it was a blessing.

To see the lady I taught all dressed in white, ready to enter into the waters of baptism, was so rewarding.  To know that when she came out of the water she was clean from all her past sins and transgressions, to see her life ahead, her family going through the temple, her two girls in the near future being baptized, coming to church, serving, being prepared to serve missions..it was an amazing feeling.  President Thomas (one of the president's councilors) told us one time, 'You have no idea what you are doing', talking about missionary work and how it changed his life and generations.  I feel that way.  Seeing this simple act of baptism and thinking, 'Wow, this is awesome', but in the grand scheme of things..I really have no idea what this is all about.  I only see such a small part of such a grand picture.  It's unbelievable....

Well, were headed for Multnomah Falls today and there are many missionaries waiting for this computer so I'd better run.

Thank-you for all the prayers, love and support.
I love you dearly...

Sister Maxfield

p.s. Alma 26:11-12"

"But Ammon said unto him:

I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom;

but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy,

and I will rejoice in my God.

Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak;

therefore, I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God,

for in his strength I can do all things;

yea, behold, many miracles we have wrought in this land,

for which we will praise his name forever."

excerpts from Erin's email 10/21/2013

I want to share with you a story of this week

"... So we're going on week three here in the Lacamas Creek ward.  This time last week we had no one to teach.  Not a soul, nor anyone interested in the message we had.  We started searching.  We did some serious tracting (we talked to ALOT of people this week.)  We went through our area book, we were doing all we could to find people to teach and still, no one.  It was, discouraging.  I was sitting there thinking to myself, 'Oh, boy.  This will be three months of tracting, knocking on doors and a lot of striving to hold our heads high and keep going.'..It was looking grim.  On evening, we stopped by a potential home, we talked to them for a bit, but it really didn't seem very promising.  We got back in the car and started talking.  My companion was pretty discouraged.  Expectations were not being met, our efforts were feeling awfully fruitless, feeling a little worthless and we were pretty down in the dumps.  (It happens.)  I sat there and kept praying "Heavenly Father, my companion needs to see a miracle,  She needs to see that this does work, that the Lord does realize our efforts and that miracles do happen.'  I kept praying and praying that she would see something.  We were at the end of our night and were doing exchanges.  So I left my companion with another sister in our area and I went with a different sister to her area.

That evening I got on my knees and once again petitioned the Lord for a miracle.  And asked if nothing else, to see the small ones every day.  I begged and pleaded for something to happen so she may have hope in this work.  This continued throughout the day.

The next day when we went to switch back, I got in the car to a very excited companion.  She was like, 'Sister, I have the most amazing story to tell you!'
She proceeded to tell me that that day they were at their lunch break, she was writing in her journal and honestly just in tears, thoughts and feelings from the day before all coming back and slamming at once.  She said she laid there for a few minutes trying to compose herself, when the 16 yr old girl we live with  knocked on our bedroom door.  She came in and was like 'I have friend that wants to take the missionary lessons from you.  He's been in our home for the past year and he's come to church a lot with me.  He wants to know why we're different and what makes us so happy.  He wants to be baptized.'  Needless to say, she was stoked!!!  Fast forward to Sunday.

We come to church and her friend is there (the one we're about to teach) and he's like "I really enjoyed your testimonies today.  I was wondering if you could start teaching me because I want to learn.'  It was one thing to have his friend ask us, it was completely another thing to have HIM come up and ask himself!!  We were talking to the girl we live with again and she was like 'That's what I was fasting for, for him to ask you himself.  He said he wasn't sure why he asked, he wasn't going to do it, but he felt compelled to.'  We have our first lesson Thursday.

After all this happened, the sisters combed through our potential investigators list and contacted every person on there.  We found two more *solid* investigators from this and are going to begin to teach them in the near future.

The Lord hears and answered our prayers.  If that isn't proof, I don't know what is.  I still find it overwhelming to think that we have a Father in Heaven that loves us dearly, that looks out for us, that knows our hearts, our desires, our intentions and still loves us.  He takes care of us.  I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that He lives.  That he hears my prayers and he promises that he will answer them.  I love D&C 98:1-3.  Those have become my favorite scriptures of all time.

I know He lives.  I know that he loves his children.  This is his work and glory, I feel so blessed that he would let me...help him in his work.  It's humbling.  I love the Lord....

Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield"

excerpts from Erin's email 10/14/2013

"Verily I say unto you my friends, fear not,

let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore,

and in everything give thanks;

Waiting patiently on the Lord,

for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth,

and are recorded with this seal and testament

- the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted.

Therefore, he giveth this promise unto you,

with an immutable covenant that they shall be fulfilled;

and all things wherewith you have been afflicted shall work together for your good,

and to my name's glory, saith the Lord."

D&C 98:1-3

Whoa, what a huge adventure awaits...

"Whoa, what a huge adventure awaits.  So, instead of going to Salmon Creek, we got to the transfer site and ends up I'm not going there but rather to Lacamas Creek ward, still in Vancouver.  It's a completely different world out here.  Nothing like what I've been in.  There's SO many more people, and it's not boonyland.  It's more like..Draper, Utah.  Everyone knows who we are and everyone has their own religion.  Course, it's rough.  There's a lot more cultures and what not out here.  Which is good, diversity is great.  It's different.  I miss boonyland though, but I'm sure Vancouver has great things in store!

The ward we're in hasn't had missionaries in about a month.  So as of right now, we're kind of starting at ground zero.  But give it some time, the area will be booming.  We were talking with the zone leaders yesterday after conference (first time I've watched conference in the chapel) and we were both saying how we all feel like there's something big going on here.  It's right around the corner.  It's like it's right in front of our faces and this place is going to explode with goodness!!  I can't wait to see it go crazy dog, but we've got a lot of work cut out for us here.  Whoosh

My new companion is AMAZING.  She's a convert of about a year and a half....she's amazing!!!!!  Fearless, hopeful, happy and has come quite a long way.  There's so much good going on here.  Plus, we live in a mansion, holy smokes, we live in a HUGE mansion.  Heated floors, I sleep in a queen sized bed, we have the whole basement to ourselves, racquetball court, swimming pool with a waterfall and a full size slide, it's unbelievable.  It's like one of those homes you drive by and go..whoa, what in the world? and the family is amazing.  We're quite spoiled here.  But we do love it!!

Ok, story of the week.  I gained a testimony of fasting last week.

We were working with one of our investigators (the one we gave up chocolate for) and we were really worried about him.  Worried he wasn't really progressing or working on it.  He wasn't reading or coming to church.  So Sis. Steadman and I decided to fast for him to see if his intentions were honest.  He had cancelled his appointment 3 times and then didn't show up to another.  So we fasted for him.  Fast Sunday came, he didn't come to church, we couldn't get a hold of him for the life of us (which I thought was weird).  We thought he was avoiding us.  So by the end of Sunday we were really sad (and a lack of faith on our part) and decided that he had dropped us.  And if that was the case, we could eat chocolate, so we did, and we ate a lot :S  It really wasn't that good, nor did it taste that great, but we did it.  Not ten minutes later we got a text from him saying, 'Hey, ladies, sorry, I've been out of town and had no service.  Can we meet tomorrow?'..oops.  We should have had more faith in the Lord, and in him.  But the battle with chocolate won.  Stupid chocolate.  But we got back together and come to find out, he'd been reading and doing REALLY good on the word of wisdom thing.  Lesson learned.  Fasting is real, it works. 

Conference was amazing.  I loved it...

Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield"

"Preach unto them repentance, and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ;

teach them to humble themselves and to be meek and lowly in heart;

teach them to withstand every temptation of the devil,

with their faith on Jesus Christ.

Teach them to never be weary of good works,

but to be meek and lowly in heart;

for such shall find rest to their souls."

 

Alma 37:33-34

"Sister Steadman put together a surprise birthday party with a few families in the ward that I LOVE, and they both made me cakes.  We got our fill :) :)  She's the best.  I felt so loved!! :D"

excerpts from Erin's e-mails 10/07/2013

Transfers!

"...Time is really short today, I only have a few minutes so hopefully I can cram it all in here in the short time I have today.

Okay, transfers.  I'm leaving Rainier :( :(  That's a really bitter sweet thing, I LOVE it here!!! but I guess the Lord needs me other places.  I'm heading to Vancouver... and I'll be training again.  So I'll be white washing into the new area, meaning we're two new missionaries in the area...so that'll be interesting, plus training, that'll be a good experience, plus still being a STL!  There's a lot on my plate, but with the Lord's help (which I'm gonna need a lot of) miracles can happen.  SO there's transfers.  I leave Wednesday morning.  Oh boy, oh boy,  new adventures ahead!!!!

Second, we put another on date!!!!!!  She used to be a JW but they couldn't answer her questions so she left.  She had a bunch of Mormon friends that have talked to her about the church, then we stepped in and have been teaching her and it's been amazing!!!!  Thursday we committed her to being baptized and she was like, 'What?!  You think I'm ready?' and we were like..'ya!!' and she's like..'okay!!'  She's SO excited!!  She's like 'Can I invite this person and this person and can this person sing and what time is it going to be at and where do I need to be?  I'm so excited!!'  It's going to be GREAT!!!!! ...gosh,I'm so excited for her!!!!!! yayayayayayayayayayayaya!!! She's being baptized!!!!!!!

Thingy number three, 5 inches of rain in like two days.  You should see the rain out here.  It's unbelievable!!!  I've never seen so much down pour in my life for such a long period of time!!!  It was AMAZING!! and we were out in it :)  Needless to say we were SOAKED!!!!!!!!  Then people didn't let us in, they just tell us to 'stay dry' or 'don't get wet'; what does that even mean??  We're standing on your porch as if we just got out of the shower..and you want us to stay dry??  Go figure ;)  but that's okay!  We got to our dinner appointment and the sister laughed, handed us towels, put our coats in the dryer and we sat there freezing, but we survived, no pneumonia :)  It's been fun.  It's still pouring outside but the worse is over.  There's no wind now, haha!  It's been a blast!!!!!

The mission is the best thing in the world.  I finished the Book of Mormon again the other day.  Every time I read it my heart just burns.  I know it's true.  These are words from ancient prophets written for US TODAY.  They are true and important for us today.  What a blessing!!

...Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield


scriptures!!  Moroni 10:32 :)

"Yea, come unto Christ and be perfected in him, and deny yourself of all ungodliness;

and if ye shall deny yourself of all ungodliness,

and love God with all your might, mind and strength,

then is his grace sufficient for you,

that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ;

and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ,

ye can in nowise deny the power of God."

excerpts from Erin's e-mail 09/30/2013

I know that He hears and answers our prayers

"... It's been an interesting week, not bad, the Lord just needed to teach us a lesson.  So we had almost 10 fall-through lessons this week and had to rely on all our back-ups.  Saturday night Sister Steadman and I were pondering why this had happened and what the Lord was trying to teach us.  After pondering, we realized that the Lord was showing us that even though this is a very high teaching area, we cannot become complacent in our work.  We reviewed our week and have recommitted ourselves to being better and stronger this week.  I've been taught a lot about humility this last transfer.  It's been a hard lesson to learn, but one that I couldn't be more grateful for.  It's something that I couldn't have learned any other way than to face the challenges that we've faced.  It's truly been a blessing.  Like I said, it's been a much appreciated lesson.

Even though it's been a fall-through week, the Lord still answered prayers.  We've been praying for our investigator to live the word of wisdom and even gave up chocolate so he wasn't alone in his sacrifices.  This week he was so excited to tell us that it had been a few days since he bought a pack cigarettes.  He was also very proud to tell us that one night he came home from work and opened his nightly can of beer.  He said that he took a drink and for the first time in his life he thought it was disgusting.  He put it on the mantle and it's been sitting there, full, for four days.  The church is true!!

As a zone, we all kneel and pray at the same time.  We pray for our investigators and to find new ones in the zone and in the mission.  We've been doing this for about a month now.  Because of this simple thing, we've seen unbelievable miracles... Prayer is real, it works!!!

The rain is back.  We've looked like drowned rats the past few days as we've gotten caught in it.  But it's been good!  I'm not sure if I'm ready for the rain to be back or not..but there's not much I can do about it now!  Welcome back, rain!!!

Thank you SO much for all your love, care and support... My testimony has grown unbelievably since I've come out, in ways I never imagined.  I know that this is Christ's church here on the earth and that He hears and answers our prayers...

Yours forever!!
Sister Maxfield"


excerpts from Erin's e-mail 09/23/2013

I love this mission!

"...Here are a few updates for the week:

One of our investigators is on date now!!!!  October 19.  We're working on the word of wisdom (as we seem to be doing with a lot of our investigators.  We've given up chocolate for one of them to help them quit smoking (*sigh*  chocolate is everything) and so by October 19th she'll be smoke free, coffee free and in the water! :D :D :D  I'm stoked!!!!!!  Ah, we sat down and planned it all out with her last night and we're so excited for her to be baptized!!!  Even if I get transferred, I'm going to her baptism!  If I have to walk, I'll be there!!!  :D :D :D

Yesterday we did a day of service.  The whole stake came here to Rainier and we had service projects going all over town.  Beach clean up, painting houses, fixing up yards. I was with the crew at the high school clearing out trees and bushes, picking up branches and creating huge piles of wood for them to burn.  It turned out to be a huge success and we now have four new potential investigators who seemed really impressed by it all!  That was a lot of fun!

There's a trailer park here...that we are literally at every single day.  Out of the 77 trailers there are at the park, we visit 12 houses regularly!  and we still seem to find new people to teach on that street as we stop and talk to everyone.  They know us well there now.  What a blessing!!  :D :D

Things are going good here.  I'm so happy and the work is just booming.  I wish it felt more like fall (because fall is my most favorite season!) but that's okay.  It's green and the rain seems to be back so it feels like Oregon again :) :)

The church is true.  I know this for a fact.  I love the Lord, I love this mission!

Sister Maxfield"


excerpts from Erin's e-mail 09/17/2013

The Lord does not do random, He does not make mistakes.

"...This has been a really good week.  We have three really good investigators that we've been working with.

- One of our investigators comes to church to faithfully every single week.  She wouldn't miss it for the world!  I just LOVE her!!  She always talks about how the Lord is 'thumping her on the gourd". haha   I've used that throughout the week and it's awesome.  She says it every single time.  She's amazing.  The Lord's been preparing her for a long time now.  We're working on getting her baptized at the end of the month.  So we're really excited about that!

- Another one of our investigators is also doing amazing.  They took the lessons before, but fizzled out.  Now we're teaching them again and they are doing SO good.  They have the strongest desire to know and to be a good example for their kid.  It's amazing to see the gospel take hold of their lives and change their hearts.  It's a miracle to see the change.  I wish everyone could see what we're seeing.

- Our last really progressing investigator came to church yesterday for the first time!  We thought that maybe they wouldn't make it.  But they made it!!!!  We all squished on our seat and enjoyed the meeting!  They loved it too!  They used to attend another denomination, but after they weren't getting their questions answered, they left.  As we were talking they were like, 'You know, I think that the Lord put those people in my path to help me to prepare for this.'  She already realizes the Lord's hand in their life and also wants to be baptized.  It's been such a blessing!!

The work is still going crazy in this ward.  There really is more work to be done than we can do alone.  So our bishop requested another set of missionaries in our ward...it's possible to have a set of elders in just a few weeks.  It will be SUCH a blessing, we can only do so much, having another set here, this will just take off!!!!  It's amazing!!! :D :D :D!!!

Things are going great, the work is still progressing forward.  My testimony has grown beyond what I ever imagined it to grow beyond.  This church is true.  With everything I am I know it.  It's not just a nice saying anymore, it's not just something I say, it's something I know, it's what I breath, it's what I live because who I am.  The church is true.  The work will go forth to every nation.  It cannot be held back.  Everyone will know.  Those who accept it will be blessed.  The Lord does not do random, He does not make mistakes.  His is HIS work and HIS glory.  This is HIS mission, I feel SO blessed that He has called me, imperfect, flawed, weak, to do this great work.  Through Him we can be whole.  Our shortcomings can be made up, our lives can be made pure again, we can and will be made whole.  I love our Savior Jesus Christ.  I know He lives.  Words cannot express my gratitude for Him.  These are the things I have come to know and they are true.

All my love
Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield"

excerpts from Erin's e-mail 09/09/2013

I never thought that I'd work in an area where we almost have too much work!

"...This weeks' been a good week.  It's always kind of funny; some weeks you look back and go, so much happened!! and others you look back and go..what happened this week?  Unfortunately, this was one of those week where we kind of think..where did the week go?  What exciting thing happened this week?  I'm not sure.  Here's a few things...

- We're finally all completely out of our apartment.  We got it all cleaned out and moved out and we're just out.  It smelled worse than it had ever before we left.  I started coughing all over again just being in there cleaning it out.  So I'm happy to be out :)  Plus, it's opened a gateway to all those people that live in the apartment and so it's opened up almost a whole new teaching pool.  It's great!!

- I never thought that I'd work in an area where we almost have too much work!  In the fact that we have SO MUCH going on in this area it's hard to be everywhere we need to be!  We make it work with covering such a large area, but boy of boy, it's a handful.  Bishop has requested another set of missionaries to work in Clatskanie and President said that he'll work on it.  So we'll probably have a set of elders in the other end of our area, which'll be SO good!!  This area is really just doing great!!

- There was a baptism this week for an 8 year old boy in our ward.  We invited a few of our investigators to it, and they came!!  One even came after working for 28 hours straight!  So even after a 28 hour day, he came to the baptism.  I was really impressed that they came and felt the spirit. 
We have some really good progressing people we're hoping to see baptized soon.  One of our most progressing ones I love just dearly!!  She's an elderly lady we've been teaching for awhile and she truly has a testimony of the gospel.  She comes to church faithfully every week and has the biggest desire for charity and wants nothing more than to serve those around her.  She's been reading the Book of Mormon and loves it!  She says she wants to be baptized in October, but we'll see if she'd be willing to do it before then :)  If she keeps going like she will, she'll be a member before too long.  It's SO good!  I just love her!!!

- Exchanges have been a blast!  It's so awesome to get to work with new sisters at least once a week, if not twice.  Some people don't like exchanges but I love them.  You get the chance to learn from other missionaries and hear their stories and their mission experiences.  And seeing all this countryside...you've got to see it, it's unbelievable!!! :D :D :D   So exchanges are great!  It puts a lot on your plate, but I really don't mind.

- I'm as happy as ever.  Sister Steadman is AMAZING.  I've learned so much from her already and we're working together to really become the best missionaries we can be... it's a joy to be serving with her!!


... I hope all is well at home!
Thanks for everything.

Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield

p.s. 2 Nephi 31:21"

"And now, behold by beloved brethren,

this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven

whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God.

And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ,

and the only and true doctrine

of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,

which is one God, without end. Amen."

excerpts from Erin's e-mail 09/20/2013

Elder Holland

"...Alright, so let me tell you how Elder Holland even got here.  He was going to come out to talk to our stake.  And as soon as President found out he was heading out here, he called SLC to see if Elder Holland would speak to the missionaries.  Amazing enough, Holland wasn't doing anything Saturday morning (which never happens).  So they said that there was time for him to speak to us.  So all the missionaries from the mission came and all got together to listen to him.  I can't tell you everything he told us or else we'd be here all day.  But I'll give you a few highlights of the things he spoke about. 

He started out in Moses 1:39 and emphasised that this is HIS work and HIS glory.  It's going to get done whether we're with Him or not.  He'd rather us be with Him, but His work's going to be done.  So it's time to pick up your shovel, dig your ditch and prune your tree because the work needs to be done.  It's truly the last time He will prune His vineyard (Jacob 5).

'Everything you want your investigators to do, God wants you to do.'  (read scriptures, pray, go to church, etc.)

'When you know that this is HIS work and HIS glory, then your mission begins.'

'This is a fight!!  This is a war!!' 

He talked a lot about trials that we face and the things we go through and why missions are so hard.  And then he pointed out that 'If we say this is true than we have to go where the Savior went.'  Where did he go?  Through Gethsemane.  If the Lord bleeds, we at least have to hurt.  We have to do a little of it, we are his disciples.  And it's the same not just for missionaries but for everyone.  I loved how he pointed out Meshach, Shadrach and Abed-nego in the Bible.  Where did they find the Lord?  In the flame of the fiery furnace.  Where is the Savior found?  In the middle of the fiery trials of life.  That's where He's found the most.  That's why we have to go through these trials because that's how we become more like the Savior.

He quoted a poem that went like this..
'Come to the edge
No, I'll fall
Come to the edge
No, I'll fall
Come to the edge!
I went to the edge
He pushed
And I flew'


It was amazing.  I've never felt so blessed in my life to sit and listen to an apostle of the Lord speak directly to me and feel his presence and to know that this man has seen our savior Jesus Christ.  It's change my mission.  It's changed the way I think, it's changed the way I want to live my life, not just as a missionary but as a servant in the Lord's kingdom for my whole life.  It was unbelievable.  I thank my Heavenly Father every day for the blessing of being here at this time.  For being so patient and working with this imperfect, flawed, weak servant.  His continual outpouring of His love and care, His encouragement, forgiveness and willingness to bring about His great work.  What a blessing it is.

...What a blessing.  I'm changing from the missionary I was to the missionary I will become today and forever.  The person I want to be has been shaped by the past 9 months and will continue to be shaped for my future.  I've been forever changed and I know it's because I was sent here.  I feel so blessed.

...I love you.

Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield"

excerpts from Erin's e-mail 08/26/2013

You never teach the same lesson twice

"...It's been an interesting week.  We met a lot of our goals this week!!  We have 3 new investigators!!!!  I'll tell ya about one of them.  So we got a referral from the elders in St. Helens and we were finally able to meet with him yesterday.  He's met with the missionaries in the past, but he's looking for something more.  So we taught him yesterday and it's always interesting because you teach the same four lessons over and over again, but you never teach the same lesson twice.  It always seems to be catered to that person and most the time you never know how it's going to go until you start teaching it (thus the spirit does the teaching).  And this lesson was all centered on the Lord's love for His children.  It seemed every point we brought across went back to "the Lord loves you".  I can't even count how many times I heard that phrase come out of my mouth.  It was amazing.  He said he'd come to church next week and that he'd pray.  We also set a baptism date with him!!!!!!! and so that went REALLY well!!

We also got transfer info this week.  Poor Sis. Clerico was going CRAZY from not knowing, but we finally found out and I'm staying here in Rainier and Sister Steadman is going to be my new comp (she's another STL) and I'm STOKED.  She's really awesome and I'm just really excited.  Sis. Clerico is going around the corner to St. Helens 1st Ward.  She and her new trainee are going to be the first sisters there in a LONG time!! So I'm way excited for her to do that.  She doesn't feel the same way..but that's how we learn!!  So that'll be good!

We are out of our apartment now.  We've moved into the Goodrich's for reals and we're staying there.  It's a really, really nice place and we love being there! although the peeps at our apartment aren't too happy.  So many of them were sad to see us go.  Even those that we'd only talked to a few times were sad to see us go.  It broke my heart but I guess it's better this way..I do feel much better and my congestion is pretty much gone and so is my cough.  So it's a blessing!

....Well, I better go.
The church is true.  I know it now more than I ever have before!!!
I LOVE YOU!!!

Sister Maxfield"

excerpts from Erin's e-mail 08/19/2013

Well, let's just start back when I got sick...

"...It's been quite the week.  Let's start ..well, let's just start back when I got sick.  So 4 weeks ago now I started coughing and coughing and coughing.  Week one I was like, 'Oh well, it'll go away.'  Week two I was like, 'Okay, I'll do something about it.'  Cough syrup, no bueno, vitamins, although helps everything, no bueno, honey and lemon juice, did nothing, cough drops were the best to suppress it, priesthood blessing was an amazing experience, but still the cough persisted.  So finally last week I told my comp I'd call Sister Taylor and tell her about it, that's when I told you.  So I go to the doctor's this week and talked to the doctor.  She listened to my lungs and tried to figure out why I was so congested and stuff.  She couldn't find any real reason.  She attested it to allergies (which I blamed it on the whole time) and she gave me this allergy stuff and an inhaler to fix the wheezing in my lungs.  Well, I started doing the math and talking to the sister I was on exchanges with and we both decide it had to be something in the apartment (her allergies were flaring up too).  The next morning we were about to leave the apartment when I heard dripping from the bathroom.  Figuring that we had just left the faucet on a little, I walked in to discover that it wasn't the faucet but rather the ceiling and that there was a huge bubble the water was coming out of, hhmm....that could be an issue.  So we called the maintenance man.  I must not have been thinking because I didn't really think about calling the Taylors or the mission peeps to tell them, but it just didn't cross my mind.  I was just like, 'They'll get it fixed and all will be well."  So we go to the pharmacy to get my stuff, but the card, surprisingly, wouldn't work, hhmmm....guess we call Sister Taylor and find out what to do.  While talking to her, I find myself suddenly telling her about how our apartment was leaking and we thought it might be mold (because of all the allergies and suddenly realizing how many of the past missionaries had gotten sick while living there).  Like I had said, I didn't think about calling them, so I guess that the fact that the card wouldn't go through ended up being a blessing.  Had it gone through, we wouldn't of called.  Anyway, they told us to find some members to live with until they got things worked out.  So now we're living with the Goodrich family :)  He used to be a mission president down in Mexico, in like 2002.  They're way awesome and super nice!  So, now we're living with members in their spare room :)  My cough is all but gone, amazingly enough, and my sniffles, well, we're still working on those.  So we'll see if after they get the apartment fixed if we'll be back in there or not.

Alright, another miracle of the week:

So we've had a goal the past few weeks to talk to EVERY person we see and to not let a single person pass us by that we don't talk to.  We got out of our car and talked to a man, about 50, that was walking his dog on the other side of the street.  He told us that he used to be Jehovah Witness but has now left.  He was so confused on how we kept our faith.  He was like, 'I believe God exists, but I just have seemed to have lost my faith.'  We asked if we could come over and share about how we can gain faith in Jesus Christ and he agreed.  Last Saturday we pulled up to his house and Sister Clerico was like, 'Oh my gosh, no way" and I'm looking at her going 'what??' and she was like, 'Right before you got here we knocked on this man's door and he was very much, 'No, go away.  We don't want your book, we don't want to talk, we're good, get off my porch' and now he's letting us into his home. We talked for almost an hour.  He told us of the many struggles he had faced in his life and the many things he was now dealing with and facing.  I wanted to just cry.  Some people struggle with so much.  As we sat there and he talked, it was amazing to hear all the questions he had and the challenges he faced were the same ones that the people faced in the Book of Mormon.  'Why do bad things happen to good people?  How can I be forgiven for the things I have done? How do I regain my faith in the Savior?  What makes your church different than any other church?'  While he was talking, stories from the Book of Mormon kept flashing through my mind.  I so much wanted to just reach out to this man, tell him we have answers to his questions and that it was through the Book of Mormon that we find the answers to these questions.  It's through the Book of Mormon we can have peace in this life.  It's through the Book of Mormon that we gain faith in our Savior and can know of His love for us.  We testified to him the truthfulness of the book, that his answers can be found if he would only read.  The spirit was so strong, you could feel the Lord's love for this man, which in turn you feel that same love.  It was amazing.  I hope and pray that he will read the book and find the answers that he seeks for.  It was not a coincidence we were right there at that time.  He needs what we have.  I hope and pray the he'll embrace the truth.


...Sadly, we weren't able to put any of our families on [baptism] date last week.  They must not be ready for it.  It was interesting.  Every lesson that we had planned this week that we were going to extend our baptismal invites to with dates and stuff, all fell through.  All six of them.  For one reason, or another, they all fell through.  I guess this just means that despite what we think, they're aren't ready yet.  But no worries!!!!  We have lessons with them again this week, and with more faith and prayer, they'll have dates. :)


...Thanks for everything.
...I have to go...thanks for the prayers, I promise they are being answered.


Much love!!!!
Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield"


excerpts from Erin's e-mail 08/12/2013

Each day I know a little more than before...

"What a week, my friends, what a week!!!  :D :D :D

Alright, Tuesday's Women's Meeting went AMAZING!!!  Getting all the sisters in the mission together and being united as missionaries was outstanding.  We focused on..pretty much being awesome!!  Because as missionaries and as sisters we can be kind of hard on ourselves and get down on ourselves.  You know, the whole 'I've should of talked to that person, oh I didn't know that scripture' or different things that us as sisters get down about.  Well, we as STL's and the president wanted to help the sisters realize that THEY ARE LOVED! and that's what we focused on - how awesome they are and that they are loved by a father in heaven.  It was amazing.  The spirit was outstanding.  I've never felt closer to the spirit than I have at that meeting....It was amazing.  The sisters left standing three feet taller and out to conquer anything and everything.  It was outstanding.  President said that so far, it's been the highlight of his mission. It was like girls camp all over again!... if I could put that spirit in a bottle and then carry it with me the rest of my life, I'd share it with every single person I'd come in contact with and all the problems of the world would be gone.  And that's why we're here, right???  It was amazing... oh!! and we got to sing, for the first time ever, the brand new Washington Vancouver mission song!!  We didn't sound like a choir of angels, but that's okay!!  It was still cool!!! 

On Friday we had another meeting with all the leaders in the mission.  Once again, a spiritual feast.  We talked about what we can do to help our mission, goals to set and how we can help the missionaries in our mission.  President talked again for awhile.  I've really grown to love President Taylor.  I can't lie, I was hesitant at first.  Just had a hard time adjusting, I guess.  But now I'm on board 100%  I'm no longer an Oregon Portland missionary, I'm a Washington Vancouver missionary!!!  Loud and proud baby!!  haha!  But my goodness, President has a way of speaking and the stories he says fills your soul and makes you feel like you can do absolutely anything!!!!  Missionary work has once again been re-fired up.  All I want to do is talk to every single person, call everyone to repentance, have them come to church and enter into the water baptism so they too 'might have joy'  Ga!! This work is so good!!!! :D :D :D :D :D

We had an amazing experience this week I'll share with you.  So we were at some apartment complexes in Clatskaine this week contacting one of our less actives.  So we talked to her for a bit, then we were going to do some tracting (because I love tracting!)  For whatever reason I had it in my brain that we were going to go back into town and tract around the homes there.  But then Sister Clerico was like, 'Why don't we just tract these apartments?' *sigh*  I don't like tracting apartments, it's just my little thing.  But I could see that the spirit was impressing her to stay.  So I pulled back over and we got out and starting tracting the apartments.  Knock, no luck, knock, no luck, knock, no luck, knock, no luck.  This went on for a good several doors, until finally we knocked on this one door and this older man answered.  His eyes lit up when he recognized who we were.  It was very apparent, however, that this man had had a stroke and couldn't speak.  He could understand us, but couldn't talk.  He kept wanting us to come in but we couldn't because we didn't have a third sister with us.  We tried and tried to figure out who he was, why he knew us (we'd never talked to him before) and what we could do.  I kept praying that maybe we could figure out something to understand what he was saying.  Finally, I think he got frustrated and disappointed that we couldn't communicate, he shut the door.  I realized, standing there, we didn't say a word to that man, nor could he say an understandable word to us, but I loved him.  Whoever this man was I loved him and to simply walk away..was just..I don't know.  We didn't know what else to do, but determined to come back when we had someone with us.  We knocked on a few more doors, with this man still on my mind and disappointment in my heart.  Finally I turned to Sister Clerico and said, "Let's just go back.  We'll give him a Book of Mormon and come back when we have someone.'  We went back.  We knocked three times and the man wouldn't answer.  I was so sad.  We finished the apartments (with no luck) and headed back to the car.  As we walked back I noticed there was a car in his parking spot and a lady going into the house.  I all but ran over to help her with the groceries and find out who this man was that she obviously knew.  Now that she was there - we could go in.  So we did.  Come to find out this man...is a world famous duck caller.  He won a world wide duck competition back in '69.  We still couldn't communicate with him with words, but he was so excited to show us his pictures, newspaper clippings of articles about him he had cut out, and other things around his home to tell us about him.  His eyes were so full of joy that we were there, as were mine.  The sisters before us had been by to see him, but we didn't realize he was there, so he got lost.  But the love I had for this man was unlike anything I'd experienced before.  We're going back to visit him this week as we promised.  I don't know what we'll talk to him about or what he has to say but it doesn't matter.  It's the love and friendship, the care and the fact that he's still a son of God and a brother of mine is all that matters.

...that's about it....we've got an AMAZING week staked for us!!  Whole bunch of lessons with our investigators, we have a few other lessons set up and will have at least two new investigators by the end of the week and a whole grundle of baptism dates!!!!!!!!!  ;D :D :D :D :D
CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!!!!!!

Each day I know a little more than the day before, that our Savior lives, He loves us, this is His church, and it's true.

All my love,
Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield


p.s. ....so I've been debating on telling you or not, cuz I didn't want you to freak out or nothing, but I've had an awesome cough for three weeks. I can't seem to get rid of it....Sister Taylor is aware of it and is checking up on me.  I'm not sick, just coughing... so if you could keep me in your prayers that would be awesome! :D"


excerpts from Erin's e-mail 08/05/2013

A crazy busy week!

"...It's been a good week.  A crazy week, but a good one.  I only spent about 2 days in Rainier. haha!  I had a meeting out in Vancouver this past week with all the other STL's (sister training leaders) in the mission.  There's 4 of us all together and they're so awesome!!  We all got together to plan this huge meeting we're having with all the sisters tomorrow.  It's going to be way good!!  I'm suppose to talk..but I haven't planned my talk yet..I should get on that :) haha!! :D  So that was most of that day.  Then we exchange twice this week.  Once with the sisters in Woodland (about 40 min away from Rainier).  What a wonderful little town and place to be :)  The sisters out there are AWESOME!!  They white washed into the area so they hadn't been there more than two weeks or so.  So we went out to contact some recent converts.  When we walked up to their house this mom was there and she was so confused!  She was like..'What?  Girl missionaries?  I've only seen the boys.  What, are you like girl elders or something?'  haha!  We explained who we were and stuff and that sisters have been going out for awhile.  She was like, "Wow, I've been a member my whole like (less active) and never seen sisters before!'  She was SO excited to see us!!  We talked to her and her son for awhile.  Then we asked someone to give the closing prayer.  The boy turned to his mom and was like, 'Mom, you pray.  I've never heard you pray in my life!' (he's like 22) and he finally convinced her to pray.  It was the sweetest prayer (less active, recent converts and non member prayers are my favorite!!!)  It was so neat to be able to be there and listen to this prayer and to think  'this is the first time this boy has heard his mom pray'.  It was just really neat to be a part of it ;)  Brought joy to my soul!
About a day later I exchanged with the sisters out in Sea Side, so I got to go out to the coast this week and work with them.  That was really fun.  Sea Side is BEAUTIFUL!!  We tracted for awhile, contacted some people, just had a really good time out in Sea Side.  Like is said, it's beautiful!!!! So that was sure fun!!  It's been a crazy week but this next one is going to be another crazy busy week, not as crazy as last but that's okay!!

Our families are doing well.  We're still trying to help that family come to church, they haven't come yet.  Things are still good between us and them, but it's been awhile since we've been able to meet.  They're a very active family and do ALOT, so it's hard to find times to meet.  We weren't able to meet with them last week and we won't get to see them until next week, which is scary, because that leaves room for them to a - forget or b - Satan to get his sticky fingers in there (grr!!)  but we still stop by and get any contact we can!!  They're still going to get baptized, they just don't know it yet :)

We got two new investigators this week!!  Sister Clerico and Sister Rix were out here in Rainier visiting some less activities and one of them was like 'You should go talk to my neighbor.  They're looking for something to do, maybe church is it.'  So they zipped over there, talked to her for a bit, invited her to church and what happens?  She comes!!  All three hours and just loves it!!! :D  So we're going back today because she's got lots of questions, so we're going to go see and teach her!!  :D  She's an elderly women looking for friends, and just something more!  She's awesome already!  I'm excited to teacher her!!  Then we contacted a potential that the sisters before me had found.  We set up an appointment and went back to teach him.  He was a little skeptical, but we testified to him that if he read the Book of Mormon he would gain a knowledge for himself of the truth of the message that we're sharing with him.  So we gave him a Book of Mormon and he's letting us come back next week to answer a few more of his questions!! :D  Rainier is AMAZING!!!!  I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!!

So it's been a pretty good week!!!  We've got another really good week lined up, more exchanges, meetings, lessons to teach, people to find, the gospel to preach, we are staying busy busy busy!! and it's great!!  It's amazing wherever we go and wherever we serve, the gospel is the same.  We all preach and teach and share the gospel no matter where we are or where we're serving!! :D  It's wonderful!!!!  The church is true!!!!

...The church is True.  Don't ever ever forget that!!

Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield"


excerpts from Erin's e-mail 07/29/13