Happy Easter!!!

"Hey...I'm doing great this week!!  The thunderstorm sounds amazing!! [we had a huge thunderstorm at home I was telling her about.]  Last time I saw lightening was in Rainer and I haven't seen or heard thunder since.  They don't get thunderstorms out here.  So it's weird to think you still do, haha!  It's like a secret thing I forgot about! haha! :D...

We have seen SOOO many miracles this week!  You know when it said that the miracles don't come until after the trial of your faith?  This week has been the aftermath :)  We found 6 NEW INVESTIGATORS THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Seriously, they all felt like they all fell into our lap.  One came from a contacting potential we found forever ago while out tracting. We are going back to read the Book of Mormon with her this Wednesday.  Three came from tracting (cool story), two were a member referral (another cool story) and one a former investigator we picked up again :)  ah!!  The church is true!

Alright, so cool story #1:
We were out tracting while on exchanges and we come up to this house, knock on it and this super sweet older couple answers..and lets us right in!  We go in and sit down and we start chatting.  They were like, 'We always talk to the Jehovah Witnesses but we've never talked to the Mormons before.'  So we got talking about prayer and answers to prayers, then one thing leads to another and suddenly we're talking about the plan of salvation.  We pull it out from the scriptures so it's not just us talking and they were so fascinated!!  It was AWESOME!!  They were trying to figure out this verse in the bible and we all three had different bibles and they all said different things.  So we asked if they knew anything about the Book of Mormon and they said they didn't.  We had been there a while already and so we gave them a Book of Mormon and asked if we could come back and talk about it.  They were very happy to!  They had a lot of service for us so the plan was to go over and help with their yard then talk about the Book of Mormon.  So Friday rolls around and Sis. Rix and I get into our jeans and go over.  We sit down and she [the investigator] was like, 'Hey!  I'm too tired to do yard work.  Tell me about this Book of Mormon.'  So we explained to her what it was and the story of it.  She was COMPLETELY fascinated by it.  We told her how Christ comes to the Americas and she's like, 'Where is that in it?!' and we're like, 'Well, here it is!' and so we opened it up to it and read it with her.  As soon as that chapter is done she flips ahead to another chapter and was like, 'Let's read this one' and then flips a few more ahead and was like, 'Let's read this one'.  We ended up reading about 5-6 chapters from 3 Nephi and she was completely fascinated.  The spirit was so there and so strong.  Anyway, we had once again been there for a while at this point, answered their questions and we are going back again this Friday to teach them more!  SO COOL!!! :D :D :D  and we taught them in our jeans.  That was weird!! but the church is still true so I suppose it's oaky, haha! but I've never done that one before!

Cool story #2:
Later that same afternoon we get a call from a lady in our ward.  She told us that her son had strayed from the church since he was a teenager (he's now 40) and wants to come back to church. He asked me to call you and set up an appointment to meet with you and his girlfriend wants to learn about the church.  She'll be here too.  So Sunday, how does that work?  and we're like FREAKING out on the other side!!!  We go to the lesson on Sunday and we sit down with the girlfriend (the son didn't sit this time) and we had this amazing lesson on the restoration.  After it's all over we're like, 'Do you have any questions?' and she's like, 'um..yeah, I have a question.  So I really really want to get baptized.  Like REALLY, that's what I want and I was just wondering what it's going to take to get baptized and how long that will take and what do I need to do to do that?' and we're like..well, well, well!!!  We can help you with that!!!!  So moral of the story, she's on date for baptism on May 22.  She's going to read the Book of Mormon this week, come to church next Sunday and we're meeting again Sunday afternoon.  AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Seriously, we were like..what!?! are you serious?  It was crazy.  It's amazing how they just..fell into our laps.  That's never happened!! but it happened this time.  It was amazing :)  It felt like all those oym's from the past weeks are finally seeing the blessings from them and I still feel confident that we will find more this upcoming week :)  We're starting to get busy!!

...this week is the Life of Christ event.  It's a HUGE event that the stake puts on.  You should google it.  They TRANSFORM the church into the life of Christ, like a museum walk-through, and its for everyone to come and see.  It's unbelievable.  Everyone donates stuff and it's amazing.  We were helping all morning set it up.  Its another 3 days of set up and then Thursday to Saturday is the open house with live actors, choirs and all sorts of other amazing things.  It's going to be HUGE and we're trying to get everyone to come!!!  We are so excited!!!  What a good week ahead!!

The weather is amazing up here.  It's not been this good for so long!!  We are going hiking today which will be SO nice!  So it's a good day ahead!!

We gave talks on Sunday.  I talked about true discipleship.  It was a really good Sunday!  We've been working on them all week.  The ward is getting onboard with helping us out so we don't have to tract so much.  With the talks we gave on Sunday, us going around helping the members to do their own missionary work and the bishopric onboard, we are getting the ball rolling.  There are going to be amazing thing happening in this ward.  Hang tight, they are on the way!

Well, I think that's about it for this week.  Time is FLYING by.  It freaks me out kind of a lot..but there's not a whole lot I can do about it.  I LOVE being a missionary.  I LOVE Vancouver, the church is true every single day, Christ LIVES.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

I LOVE YOU!
Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield


'What I need, Peter, are disciples - and I need them forever.  I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs.  I need someone to preach my gospel and defend my faith.  I need someone who loves me, truly, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do.  Ours is not a feeble message.  It is not a fleeting task.  It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history.  It is the work of Almighty God, and it is to change the world.'
- Elder Jeffery R. Holland"

excerpts from Erin's email 04/14/2014