It's when faith hits the road...

"...It's been a busy week, but Sis. Rix and I were talking about it and we couldn't figure out what happened this week. haha!  One of those weeks where it's like..what did we do?  We did something because here we are again.  haha!  Here's an update really quick:

We saw [an investigator] this week.  It went SO well!!  [He] is doing great.  It think the turning point for him was the Life of Christ.  After that things changed and it's been onwards and upwards from there.  We taught him the Restoration (I think I told you that last week) and this week we taught him the Plan of Salvation.  He was interested.  Not sure if he really believes it but he thought it was quite interesting.  He's open and every time he prays he's like, '...and please help me to know if this is true.  I don't know how you will tell me but if it is, let me know.'  We'll take it :)  He's awesome.  He came to a baptism with the sisters this week (we were on exchanges and I was down in Portland) and they say he really enjoyed it.  He stay and talked to the missionaries and to a few members for a long time afterwards.  So that was awesome!  He's doing great and I'm sure we'll go back a few times this week :)  So there's huge progress there!

I don't know if you remember this story so I'll tell it again to lead up to this point.  So once upon a time about..15 weeks ago we were out driving around.  It was the first time the sun was out and we were feeling GOOD.  We had the windows down and as we were stopped at a red light Sister Rix notices the guy next to us in a convertible.  She gives me a sly look and leans out the window and starts talking to this guy!  Well, before the light turned green we found out that he once was meeting with the missionaries, lives next to some members and might be interested in meeting with us again.  Well, the light turned green before we could exchange info.  So we were determined that we were going to find this guy.  Fast forward 6 weeks.  We were out tracting one evening and we knocked on this door and who is on the other side?  The convertible guy (does God do random??)  He was really busy at the time.  We kept trying to get back but with no luck.  Finally a few weeks ago we stopped in late in the evening and tried him - found him home and available!! (true story!)  We got a short message in and then he asked us to come back next week.  This last Tuesday we went over with the intentions to teach him about the restoration but the spirit directs you other places and things don't always go according to plan.  We taught him about the Book of Mormon and how we came to know the book to be true and how for each of us it's a little bit different.  On some occasions it's an 'ah ha' moment, for others its a gradual thing, for some they just know.  It's all different.  Anyway, it turned out to be a REALLY good lesson!  We are going back tomorrow and are anxious to teach him.  He's amazing and is ready to listen! :)  WOOT WOOT!!

We saw [another investigator] this week (the old man in no man's land)... We taught him the plan of salvation and after watched the Because of Him video.  After it all, he looked at us and he looked at the plan and was like, 'Is this true?'  That moment right there is my absolute favorite moment on my mission because it's that moment that the person changes.  It's right there, that's the pivotal moment when they begin to think for themselves and wonder if it's true.  It's at that moment they are open and their hearts are ready, it's the 'piercing of the heart'.  It's the best feeling in the world to see that moment and to have that happen.  We testified that it was true, but that he didn't have to rely on our testimony and for him to figure it out for himself.  We left him with some scriptures to read and to pray about it.  We'll be going back (yeah!)  But it was so neat!  Like I said, he's progressing, slowly and on his own time but it's better than nothing :)  Oh, it was the best!!

We ran into [the car wash guy] again.  Finally found him home.  Our lesson fell through with someone else and we found him outside.  So we stopped and talked to him.  We showed him the Because of Him video and asked if we could come back.  We are really hoping to meet with him soon.  He's amazing.  He has this light about him that I don't think he realizes that he has and you just want to latch onto it and help him see it.  But everyone has their agency.  It was a good conversation that we had and we are hoping to see him soon.  He said we could meet sometime soon so we're praying that doesn't fall through!!

...The ward is finally starting to catch on and see the vision.  It's been unbelievable.  So many members have been coming up to us and telling us things like, 'I have a neighbor that I want to share something with.  How do I do that?' or 'My son invited someone to church' or 'We're thinking about doing this or that'.  The ward is starting to become much more missionary minded.  It's starting :)  Amazing things are going to happened here in this ward in the next year or so.  As they become more missionary minded they will see the most amazing things happen.  It's felt so good to hear everyone's efforts and their work that they've been doing on their own.  Like I said, that's what's going to change their hears, this is when the true miracles happen.  It's when faith hits the road and turns into miracles.  It's going to be amazing :)  I've been reading that a lot in my scriptures this week.  How miracles don't produce faith, but rather it's the other way around.  That without faith miracles can't happen.  Anyway, that's been running around my brain all week long.

We've been tracting again.  But people have not been so friendly, ..sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't.  We were down in Portland for exchanges this week, went out tracting and people were just rude.  I don't know why they feel so obligated to be rude when we come to the door.  That has baffled me from day one, but no worries, I didn't lose any sleep over it and we did find a new investigator for them! yeah!!  So it wasn't a total loss.  hahaha!  It just always surprises me how people react sometimes.  Go figure.

It's been SO nice this week!!  The weather has been AMAZING and the sun has been out!!  yippee!!!  Although the rain is back today, stupid rain, and on a Monday???  Dang it.  Oh well, what can ya do?  haha!

Well, I think that's about all for this week.  Like I said, things are good here in Vancouver.  We're happy, still trucking along, still working hard doing what we do best!!  I still LOVE being a missionary.  This is the best work in the world.  It seems like such small things we do - talking to people and yet we feel such an approval from the Lord.  Every little bit we do brings that approval from the Lord :)
The church is true every day!  All things are in the Lord's timing and are in His hands.
The church is true!!
Christ lives!!

I love you so much!!!

Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield'

excerpts from Erin's email 05/19/2014

The sun is shinning, the air is clean and there ain't a cloud in the sky! Life is good :)

[she called home for Mother's Day]
"...It was SO good to see you yesterday! Like I said, it's like being home all over again.  You finally belong somewhere.  It's a funny feeling, that 'connection' feeling.  I've missed it.  It makes coming home a little better knowing you guys are there :)  I love you guys...

I have a few cool things to tell you...
So I told you about [a granddaughter of some members in her ward] who we put on date for May 31.  She's SO excited and I'm so excited and boy oh boy, it's such a good feeling!!! :D  And she's progressing like crazy and is all over this whole church thing.  When I invited her to be baptized, she got this huge grin on her face, leaned back in the chair and was like, 'Wow' (the spirit over came her) and was like, 'I've always wanted to be baptized.  This is an amazing feeling.'  Is the church true?  I'd say it is! :D  So we are excited!!

There's another baptism going on in Portland on June 7th (wow, cutting it close!) for a man I taught down in Portland, maybe you remember him?  He's the one we would go bowling with on p-days.  He finally committed to a date!!!!!!!  I've never been so excited in my life!!  Oh, it's so good!!!!!  So I'm really excited to go down there and see him get baptized.  Their daughter is getting baptized later in June, but to finally see them both come around, work out their concerns and enter into the waters of baptism, what a good feeling!!! :D  We are so excited!!!

So there's a lot of great things coming up.  This month is going to be BUSY.  We have a specialized sister meeting at the end of the month, departing temple trip, there's a zone meeting, exchanges, people to teach, people to find, people to baptize, it's going to be all SO good!!  I'm so excited for this month.  It's going to be such a good, busy one!!

I think our biggest miracle for this week though has been...an older gentleman that we found through our phone quite some time back.  The sisters found him about a year ago.  When they tried to teach him the restoration he got all hung up over the apostasy (he's Catholic) and couldn't get past it.  So when we went to teach him, we weren't sure what we were heading into.  But we went for it and gave it a shot.  As we started teaching, the spirit entered into the room and we began teaching with power and authority.  I don't know, it was amazing.  It was different than any other lesson we had taught before.  You could feel the spirit putting the words into your mouth and you could see his countenance change right before your eyes, from 'they are sweet girls telling me a good story' to 'maybe this is true'.  It was unbelievable.  He prayed after and he was like, 'Well, if this Joseph Smith story is true, let me know.  I don't know how you are going to tell me, but I would like to know.'  It was so cool :)  We committed him to reading the Book of Mormon but we found out that really he can't see the pages and doesn't really understand.  So we went over the next day and read to him.  We read from 3 Nephi 11.  After we got done he kept leaning back in his chair and thinking about what we taught him.  The spirit once again was so strong.  He was like, 'You picked this chapter on purpose, didn't you?', and we were like, 'Yup ~ of course we did!'
He was having trouble getting his car set up (he got a new one and couldn't figure out the radio) and so he was like, 'This car is going to be the death of me!  I don't even think heaven can help me!' so we prayed :) and we helped him get his car fixed.  Heaven answered our prayers.  He prayed again after reading and he was like, 'Now, I don't know if reading and learning about this church will change me..but it might.  We'll see.'  :)  Best words ever!!!  So lesson wise, there's progress being made!!

We got dropped by a few of our investigators this week, which is a huge bummer :S but people have their agency.  But we found 2 more and they seem to be more solid the more they come.  We have one lady we are now teaching.  She lives on this street that we tracted awhile back but she lives in the only house we didn't knock on (because it said private property on it and it didn't feel right.)  Well, that's her!  Her friend sent us to her.  She feels like there are things missing from her religion.  She watched conference and is REALLY interested in prophets!  So we're excited about that!!

So, it's been another amazing week.  More miracles and still keeping busy!

...the church is true, every single day it's true.  My relationship with my Savior has grown immensely.  Vancouver has really become sacred ground to me because this is where I've come to know my Savior.  This is where I really understand his love for his children, his willingness to answer prayers and the power of faith... Vancouver is sacred to me...

Well, like I said, the church is true!  Thank goodness!!
I hope you have a wonderful week!!  You're the best!!!

Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!"

excerpts from Erin's email 05/12/2014

The Lord has kept us SO busy

"...So!!! this week!! First of all, I cannot believe we are Monday again!!!  I seriously am floored that it's Monday again.  It's scary how fast time flies.  Seriously..it's scary.  It feels like a dream and suddenly I find myself here again and have new things to tell you but aren't sure where they came from, goodness gracious.  But this week was AMAZING!!!  So many miracles are happening left and right.  It's overwhelming.

So we got to go to the transfer meeting this week (to give rides to some of the sisters) and it was really weird.  As I sat there looking at all the sisters coming in I realized that I remember when every single one of those sisters came in.  I remember when they were the ones standing up because they were new.  I remember training them and then here they were training other sisters, having their feet under them, heading to new areas and new companions. .. I felt really out of place.  It was a really odd feeling.  I felt old.  haha! ..it was hard to think that everyone I knew and those I considered my close friends have really all gone home or are close to going.  Like I said, it was odd.  I won't lie, I shed a few tears.  As President talked about the places this mission is going to go, how things are going to be changing and how things are going to go way up from here, and realizing I can't go with them, that was really hard.  This whole coming home thing is so hard..but it's inevitable.  So we do our best :)  Luckily, the Lord has kept us SO busy there's not time to dwell on it :)

We taught SO many lessons this week!!!  More then we have ever taught in one week since we got here!  Which is amazing because we were literally in all-day meetings all week long but somehow we were able to squeeze out SO many lessons ~ it was one after another after another.  We were running from place to place and people were calling to make appointments and we were like..uh..next week?  It was crazy!!!  What a blessing!!!  Yesterday we taught 3 lessons in 3 hours and got 2 new gators!!!!  We knocked into a lady a long time ago and have been dying to get back with her since then.  It's been a long long process, but we FINALLY got in with her yesterday.  Two of her kids sat in on the lesson and were very intrigued in what we had to say.  Both of the kids had Book of Mormons that they had been reading on their own, that their friends had given to them (MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK!!!!!)  and the mom knows all about the church.  It may have been one of the best Restoration lessons I've ever taught.  It was SO good.  The whole family was involved and they were all right there listening.  They were so intuned and so interested in what we had to say.  It was AWESOME!!!  They're letting us come back and teach them more and we can't be more excited!!  Some people you know it's only going to be a matter of when before they get baptized and this is one of those families :)

We went by to check on another investigator this week and he was SO happy to see us!  He's an older gentleman that lives by himself in this little forgotten corner of the world (pulled on my heart strings!)  So we stopped by to see him and he was so happy to see us!  He was apprehensive before when we stopped by but to see his smile just made by day!!  We set up another appointment and he was like, 'Oh!! by the way, I've been reading the Book of Mormon.  I'm 10 pages in, but I will read more before next time!'  His whole countenance has changed and that was an awesome moment for me! to see his face light up and to know that he's been reading!!!  So good!!! :D  We're excited about him!  He's another 'he'll be baptized in time :)'  yes!!!!

Another miracle, we had some members call us the other day.  They were like, 'Hey, our great granddaughter is here and she's interested in the church.  Can you come over and teach her?' and we were like, 'um yeah!!'  So we zipped over there and one again, sat down and taught her.  And it was another amazing lesson.  She was right there with us the whole time and the grandparents were so involved and a HUGE help!  What a blessing!  She's been so prepared and ready for the truth, she soaked it all up!  I love being a missionary!!  I love getting to go teach and to be able to share my testimony with all these people!  Seriously, nothing is more thrilling than being able to teach someone who: a- wants it and b- gets it!! :D :D :D :D   The church is true!!!!

This week was also stake conference, which ended up being AMAZING.  President and Sister Taylor spoke and they did an AMAZING job!!!  I LOVE them!!!!  They told the stake exactly what they needed to hear and talked about how the Lord is hastening His work and it hastens by inviting people to simply come and see.  Oh it was so good!!  After the meeting, we ran into them in the hall and Sister Taylor was like, 'Sisters!  ..Sister Glover is at my house right now, do you want to come over and say hello?' (Sister Glover went home awhile ago because her time was up and she was up visiting.  I LOVE her!)  So I got STOKED!!! and was like 'can we really!?!' and so we zoomed over to the Taylors and I got to see Sister Glover <3 and visit with the Taylors for a bit!  We almost just slept over there but decided we should come home and not worry our members ;)  but is was awesome!!  I LOVE the Taylors.  They love us like their children.  I feel that love from them and it's such a blessing.  We can tease each other, have fun, talk, be open, we share these experiences, seriously, they are the best thing that's ever happened to me.  The Taylors changed my life and I have learned things from them that has shaped my life forever :)  They are the best.  They will honestly be the hardest to leave. 

The mission has been asked to read the Book of Mormon before the end of this transfer.  So Sister Rix and I have been on a Book of Mormon reading marathon.  It's been awesome!!  I LOVE the Book of Mormon, kind of a lot.  It's my 4th time through on my mission and still I find new things, new truths, the old truths still ring deeper and still true.  This time I've gone through and highlighted every time the word faith comes up and the results of that person having faith.  It's remarkable.  The Book of Mormon is true.  I don't understand how people think it's not.

So all in all, this week was SO good.  Its amazing to see how this place has changed since we got here.  The Lord has been so good to us while being here.  It's been through obedience and hard work that it's gotten here but the Lord promises His blessings.  We are starting to see those promises being fulfilled.
I can't believe I'm leaving.  I feel like I'm leaving right at the best part.  This seriously is so hard.  But no matter what..the church is true.. :)  and it's raining again.  haha!  Christ is our Savior.  He's my best friend.  He has saved my life and I couldn't be more grateful :)

I think that's about it for this week.  I'm certain this next week will fly by if not faster than this last week.  Crazy.  More meetings, more lessons, people to teach, people to find, trust to be heralded and work to be done!!

I love you so much!!  Enjoy this week!!

Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield"

excerpts from Erin's email 05/05/2014