"...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
"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Chirst, the Son of God. I have been called of Him to declare His word among His people, that they might have everlasting life." 3 Nephi 5:13
A missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Oregon Portland Mission 2012-2013
Washington Vancouver Mission 2013-2014
Oregon Portland Mission 2012-2013
Washington Vancouver Mission 2013-2014
Monday, August 26, 2013
Monday, August 19, 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
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
Monday, August 12, 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
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
Monday, August 5, 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
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
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