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