I couldn't of asked for a better week to end my mission on :)

"Alright, whoever has been praying that I would have the best week of my life, THANK-YOU!!! because their prayers were answered!  Wow, I couldn't have asked for a better week to be a missionary or to end my mission than this one.  It's been full of miracles, completely, utterly full of miracles.  Every single day.  It's been overwhelming.  The Lord has been so good to me.

...So this week was unbelievable!!!!  We found many new people to teach, taught SO many lessons, had so many people at church, was guided by the spirit, went to the temple twice, went to a baptism!!  Where do I start?!?!  (this might be jumpy so hang on!)

So first of all, let's just start somewhere.  We had a real live lesson with [the car wash guy], in his home, with his girlfriend and the lesson went amazing.  The spirit was incredible there! and having his girlfriend there (who's a recent convert) was the biggest help that could have happened!  She was amazing!  (Come to find out an elder that I served with in McMinnville taught her!  How crazy is that?!?!)  The lesson was amazing and he was so in-tuned with the spirit.  It was so strong.  By the time we got to the end of the lesson, we invited him to come to church with us and he said YES!!!!!!!!!!!! he said he would come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Not only that, he was going to go to a baptism with his girlfriend on Saturday.  So fast forward to Sunday, [the car wash guy] comes to church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Before church we were freaking out, jumping up and down, saying '[He] is coming to church, [he] is coming to church !!!!!!!!!!!!!!'  Oh, it was remarkable!!!!!!  He walked in and we all sat down.  He said he loved the baptism that he went to on Saturday.  And church couldn't have been better!  He had to leave after the sacrament but said, 'I'm going to see if I can get [his girlfriend] to come to church here next week.  It should be easy enough.'   [HE] WANTED TO COME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!! gosh dang it!!! he's going to get baptized, he just doesn't know it yet!!!!!!!!!  GA!!!!!!  It was the BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We taught [another lady] this week.  She doesn't see the difference in religions except she feels the spirit for sure.  So! we decided that we were going to watch the Restoration with her.  When we go in there I realized that my ipad had only 13% left on it.  The Restoration was a 20 minute video and I know that with that much battery and what we wanted to watch, we weren't going to make it.  But we exercised faith in the Lord and decided to go for it.  We gave [the lady] the ipad and began praying that the battery would last.  My heart leaped with joy when we got to the end of the movie and the ipad was still alive!!!!!!!  I couldn't believe it!!!!!  I know my ipad well.  It shouldn't have lasted, but it did.  That my friends, was a miracle.  And she LOVED IT.  She loves the church, she loves the building, she feels the spirit.  She'll come, with time she'll come :) :)

Wednesday was an incredibly filled day.  We got up at 5:00 a.m. so we could go to the temple that morning.  I haven't been since December and oh boy oh boy oh boy was I anxious to go!!!!  The Portland temple is my favorite place in the world!  The celestial room is..undescribable!!!  That place is amazing.  We went as a district and all I can say is it was exactly what was needed.  I learned so much and came away feeling so much better about life.  Wow!  Then we went to [a granddaughter they have been teaching's] lesson.  The lesson went great.  We talked about reading our scriptures, praying and being obedient.  And guess what!!! by the end of the lesson [she] put herself back on date for baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  She's going to get baptized still!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yayayayayayaya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh, it was the best feeling in the world!!!  I cried saying goodbye to [her] and the [family].  I couldn't hold back the tears anymore, I just couldn't.  They just came (super embarrassing haha!!)  but wow, that's going to be a good day [the baptism] :)  We zipped off to a lesson with a member's less active daughter.  She has so many questions about the gospel and hasn't been sure who to ask.  So she came to us with her questions, and they were TOUGH questions.  I didn't know the answers.  So we've been searching them all week.  You could see the relief just be lifted off her shoulders as we listened to her questions and told her we would find answers to them.  Finally she felt she had someone she could talk to and confide in.  It was the best feeling ever!!!  We finally saw [the 15 yr. old they have been teaching for a long time now] that day too.  I love her, I love her, I love her!!!!  She's amazing.  We talked about where she's at in all this.  She said that she wants to make sure she believes this 100% and is in it for the long run before she gets baptized.  She said she still sees herself getting baptized, she just wants to make sure.  I'll take it.  Its work but I'll take it...she is going to be amazing.  She also came to church on Sunday with us!!!!  Her and I hung out in the Young Women's together and she was answering questions all about the priesthood that she knew.  Oh, I was like a proud mama!! :D  She's something special.  She doesn't know it but she is something special.  That night we went to dinner and they brought a non-member to dinner.  We got talking and she's been to church several times, loves the gospel and the people.  We asked if she has ever met with the missionaries before and she said she hadn't, only talked to her friends about the church.  We invited her to take the lessons and she said YES!!!!!!!!  Tears filled the member's eyes as we left.  They've been friends for a long time and all he could say was thank-you.  It was like we were floating on cloud nine.  The spirit was so good and continued to lead us.  We went to [an older gentleman they have been working with] after that.  [He's] been reading the Book of Mormon and he LOVES it.  You should see him when we read.  He gets all into it and then he'll stop and ponder about what things mean and what it means for him.  And then he asks questions and wants to hear about how all things are.  His son was over one day while we were talking and [he] convinced him to stay and read with us.  He told his son all about the Book of Mormon and what it's about and how it all works out and who Nephi is and what not.  It was SO good!!!  We invited him to church, but he didn't come.  That's okay.  Time, just time :)  It was the best day EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!  We got to the end of the night and was exhausted from the day!!!!  We had been up so early and going all day long.  It was amazing.  We slept well that night!!!

We saw [another lady] this week, our Jehovah Witness friend.  She was really struggling with the concept of a spirit world and a premortal life and the fact that we had spirits.  So we dove into the scriptures and began reading all over the place.  It was so funny.  She was like, 'Oh my goodness, it says it right here that we have a spirit!  Who would of guessed!  Well, I guess if the scriptures say so!!  I'll keep pondering this.'  She wants to believe this so badly.  She kept telling us, 'I want believe this.  I really really want to believe this.  I want to know if this is true.'  Over and over again she kept saying that.  She'll find her answer :)  She also came to church on Sunday!  She had tears in her eyes most the day as I'm certain she has found what she's looking for.  Saying goodbye to her was a killer!!  She's like, 'I would cry, but I won't.  Just remember that I love you.'  ah!!!!!  I love [her]!!!  I think that's the hardest part about this whole thing is that you grow to love these people SO much and then when you have to leave you can't see them grow and progress and gain that light about them and see it change them.  It's SO hard to walk away as you started this journey together.  ga! It rips my heart out!! but her being in church was the icing on the cake!!!!!!!!

We went to the temple again on Friday with President and Sister Taylor and the other missionaries that are leaving.  Wow.  The three sisters and I and Sister Taylor sat in the celestial room by ourselves for almost 45 min (poor Pres was waiting for us, hah!) but seriously being up there with her and talking and just..wow.  It was a special  experience for me and the advice and love and care that she showed to me - my heart is full.  I know I was meant to meet them.  We were friend before this life.  I've learned so much from them.  They've been the greatest example to me and have had the unconditional love they've loved me for, for how I am and I couldn't be more grateful to them.  Being in the temple with them knowing that these relationships have gone on forever..what a blessing.

And then we come to Saturday.  The baptism!!!  Oh my goodness, everyone was there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The dream team, all the Mount Scott people, [the man being baptized]!  President and the office staff, ah!!!!!  Life doesn't get better than that!!!  I gave the talk and honestly I'm not sure what I said.  The spirit took over and I bore my testimony of baptism to [him] and the importance of it.  It went well.  But to see [him] dressed in white, knowing his story and his background, seeing his wife, who I'm sure has long awaited this day, and to see that it is all finally and actually happening, more tears.  To see him come up out of the water, knowing that he was clean, knowing the promises he's made and him knowing the promises he's made.  Life doesn't get better than that.  He was confirmed at the baptism and oh my goodness.  It was amazing.  The spirit there was unbelievable!!  As once more a child has taken the first step back into the presence of our Father in Heaven.  Words cannot describe, only love.  There was so much love.

After the baptism we zipped back to Vancouver for a conference.  Elder Call and Bro. Ridd were here from SLC and they talked to us for a bit.  It was really good.  By the time it was over though and we were all leaving, it meant I had to say goodbye one last time to all my sisters.  They have been my mission.  The sisters in the mission don't know or realize how much they have influenced my life.  Some missionary's missions are all about the investigators, but my mission has been about these sisters.  I love them as if they were my own.  We are family now.  They've become my best friends.  They understand, they have the biggest hearts and their testimonies have strengthened mine in ways they may never know.  They are the hardest to leave.  More laughs, more smiles, a few tears and many many hugs.  I love the sisters of the WVM.  They are my family, the sisters I've long awaited to have.  They will never understand what they mean to me.

Yesterday after church!!! (with everyone there!)  All I wanted to do was tract!!  I just wanted to tract!!  I wanted to knock doors until I couldn't knock on doors anymore!!  I wanted to testify of Christ to every person I saw!!  We've tracted a lot so we were trying to find a neighborhood that we hadn't tracted.  Thank goodness Sister Rix was in-tune with the Holy Ghost and remembered one we hadn't spent much time in.  As we were driving around the neighborhood looking for what street to start and a place to park, we drove past a house and the holy ghost hit me with a 2X4 saying the we HAD to go knock on that house.  It stood out like a sore thumb.  So we drove down the street for a bit and then got out.  Sis. Rix headed to one side but I was like, 'No, we have to go knock on that house with the blue door and the brick siding' (it was quiet a ways back) and so she's like.. okay.  We walked up to the door and a guy answered.  He had to be 18 or something.  We talked to him and told him the message we were sharing about Christ.  We testified of the restored gospel and about the Book of Mormon.  We offered him a Book of Mormon and he gladly took it.  We asked if we could come back and without hesitation or a moment of thought he said, 'yes'.  They are going back Wednesday to teach him.  It was amazing.  The rest of the night..pretty much no one answered their door.  Wow.  The holy ghost will lead and guide us to all places in our lives.  God knows where his children are and who we need to talk to, if we only listen to it's prompting and follow it's council.  We will be blessed and see miracles.  I was floored.  I wasn't sure what I was expecting but the spirit told me that there was someone in there who was ready and they were.  Never doubt the spirit.

We spent the last hour of the evening saying goodbye to those we love.  It's been really hard to walk away from all this.  These people have become my family.  They've become my life.  They've helped me to become who I am today and helped change me into this person I've become.  And I can't believe that I am simply going to walk away from it all.  It's a stabbing to the heart and it kills.  Its been so hard to say goodbye.  It's taken everything I've had to simply walk away.  But I've been praying and praying that the Lord would give me strength to make it through this.  And I've felt the strength of God being poured out in abundance.  I've felt angels bearing me up and giving me the strength to move forward.

It's onward and upward from here.  My journey has come to a close but the memories will last forever.  It's now time to apply the lessons I have learned from this past 18 months to the rest of my life.  This journey has not been easy.  It's not what I ever expected it to be.  It's been so much better. I feel full.  I feel satisfied.  I'm at peace.  I've done the work that the Lord has called me to do. I've done what he's asked.  I've tried my best.  Miracles have happened.  The Lord has been so good to me.  My heart has been touched and changed forever because of those I've met and the experiences I've been through.  I'm not the same person I was, and that's a blessing in and of itself.

I know that God lives.  I know that he is my loving Heavenly Father.  I now that he knows his children.  Joseph Smith did in fact see what he said he saw in the grove of trees.  The priesthood is on the earth today, in it's fullness, with all power to bind families forever, to give blessings, to bestow gifts to all God's children.  The Book of Mormon is the word of God.  By reading it I have come closer to my savoir then ever before.  The words within it are true.  Words cannot express how grateful I am for my savior Jesus Christ and for His love, kindness and most of all, His atonement, so we truly are never alone.  He knows how we feel and how to succor us.  Through him, all things are possible.  He is my best friend, my redeemer, my savior and master.  I will follow him to the day I die, for in his arms we are safe.  We are protected and he can make this life ever more greater than what I could ever make of it.

I love my savior Jesus Christ.  He's been so good to me, but all in all, THE CHUCH IS TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

'... my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.

Yea, I know 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 mighty miracles we have wrought in this land,

for which we will praise his name forever.

Behold, how many thousands of our brethren has he loosed from the pains of hell;

and they are brought to sing redeeming love,

and this because of the power of his word which is in us,

therefore have we not great reason to rejoice?

Yea, we have reason to praise him forever, for he is the Most High God,

and has loosed our brethren from the chains of hell.

Yea, they were encircled about with everlasting darkness and destruction;

but behold, he has brought them into his everlasting light,

yea, into everlasting salvation;

and they are encircled about with the matchless bounty of his love;

yea, and we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work.

Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord;

yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full;

yea, we will praise our God forever.

Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord?

Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy,

and of his long-suffering towards the children of men?

Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.'

(Alma 26:11-16)

 

 

What a journey it's been :)

I love you forever,
See you tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SISTER MAXFIELD"

excerpts from Erin's last missionary email 06/09/2014

Hang on tight, this is going to be quite the email...

"This week had some very high highs and some very low lows.  We were all over the place this week.  So this will be a wild ride.  Let's start at the beginning...

Seeing the Morbys was the BEST!!  It didn't feel like it had been as long as it had since I had seen them.  We walked up to their door and Sister Morby answered.  We hugged and cried a little and oh, it was so good to see them!!  We sat in their living room for awhile and talked about the mission and talked about how things are going, talked about plans after (since they are packing up to leave, too).  We talked about all the other missionaries that are still here and the good old times :)  President kept saying how hard it was to let me go (he kept tearing up over it).  He kept saying how incredibly hard it was and now I realize (being out so long) how hard that really must have been.  He's like, 'But I knew President would need good leadership so I had to let you go.'  He was still sad over it which made me love them that much more.  They never do forget you :)  We had cold pizza for lunch and said goodbye.  I love them but at the same time it made me realize how at home I am here in the WVM and how much I LOVE the Taylors.  Like I said, this place is home.  The Morbys are like my grandparents, the Taylors are my parents.  I feel at home here and know now more then ever that this is where I needed to be all along.  On the way home we stopped at Salt and Straw (an amazing ice cream place in Portland).  I tried dandelion ice cream, balsamic vinegar ice cream and ended up with getting a cone of lavender and honey.  It was good for a scoop, haha!  What a place!  Good old Portland! haha!

Tuesday conference was..I would say better then expected but that is not the right words to use.  Let me tell you what happened.  So Sis. Rix and I were doing a break-out on comp unity and had set up this whole three legged race and what not.  We had been working on it all week long and it was going to be GOOD.  At first, the break-out was going to be after lunch but Sister Taylor changed it at the last minute to before lunch (which we like never do, but okay!) and so we got to do it all before lunch and it was good!!!  The sisters loved it!!  We had a lot of sisters say that is what brought them together and what unified them.  We also gave them get to know you questions, talked about how to have fun and enjoy the work together as a companionship.  Oh, it was so good!!!!  Right after our break-out we had lunch.  We were all standing around chatting and visiting before we started lunch in the gym.  Then President Taylor came in and said, 'Sisters, I have some bad news.  Sister Lierlie has passed away.  We are going to the hospital now to go release her, but we thought you sisters should know.'  The gym fell silent.  (Quick background: Sister Lierlie had been in the hospital all weekend long.  She was sick for the past few weeks and they weren't really able to figure out why.  Anyway, they finally pinpointed it down to an infected/abscessed tooth and they were going to do surgery.  They were going to do it on Sunday but her jaw had locked and the doctors (no matter what they did) couldn't get it opened.  The whole thing was strange and the doctors didn't really know what was going on.  They did the surgery Monday morning and kept her overnight to make sure the recovery was going well.  I'll pick up the rest of the what happened in a minute, back to the gym.)  So the gym fell silent and my heart sank.  Cries broke out and sisters began hugging the other sisters looking for comfort.  We all were just starring at each other, no one knew what to do, and then it was suggested we pray.  Within half a second everyone in that church was on their knees, and I was the one who said the prayer.  I didn't know what to say, my mind was blank but the Holy Ghost took over and we prayed.  A sense of 'everything is going to be okay' enveloped the room.  After we prayed we once again didn't know what to do.  We hadn't eaten yet and someone suggested we get our plates and eat as we could.  Slowly we all got our plates and sat down, but no one was eating.  No one was talking.  We all just sat and stared.  Suddenly a few sisters got up and began singing.  We all sung hymns in that room together....I've never heard so many angels singing in my life.  The room was full of angels and it was beautiful.  I've heard us all sing together and it's NEVER sounded like that.  It was from heaven and it was the most comforting thing that has ever happened.  It was beautiful.  Certainly a heaven on earth.  After 30 minutes or so of that we all picked at our food and then went back into the chapel.  We had Bro. Scott there from LDS Family Services.  Originally we asked him to come talk about stress management but due to recent events, he talked about grief.  President Anderson showed up and treaded water for a bit before President got back.  About 3:00 President Taylor got back from the hospital.  He got up and simply said, 'I don't know what to say.  We don't know what happened' and told us what he did know and what had happened.  He said at 10:35 that morning Sis. Penrod (her companion who was at the conference) called her at the hospital to check up on her, they talked for a bit, then she said that she didn't feel well and was going to go.  She dropped the phone and the nurse found her on the floor not long after.  They were able to revive her for a bit but she came back scared and couldn't breath, then they lost her.
It was hard for us all.  But at the same time, amazing all the pieces fell together, in the fact that we hadn't been all together as sisters since November.  We picked this day at 'random'.  The Lord let us teach our break-out sessions because we worked so hard on them.  Matt Scott was there and we were all there to be able to comfort each other.  I won't lie, I didn't know Sister Lierlie that well at all, but I knew she was loved and an amazing missionary.  When we planned this event, we were going to bring in balloons and have everyone write their fears on them and we were going to release them.  It never really fit in the program anywhere but we went with it.  Then after all this, we changed plans and took the balloons and released them for her.  It was amazing.  We all realized how short of time we really have, to love our companions and to love our family and our friends, because we never know when God will call us home.  It was a tough day and a sad loss, but we are all doing well now.  My heart ached for the family and the Taylors.  But like I said, God doesn't do random.  There are no mistakes and she's exactly where she needs to be, but she will certainly be missed.

The baptism that I'm speaking at is this weekend.  Woot, woot!!!  But...[the granddaughter of a member they have been teaching] isn't going to get baptized this weekend anymore.  She fell off date last Wednesday (heartbreaking!)  She talked to her parents and they said that this was moving way too fast.  They kind of talked her out if it and kept telling her to think about this logically.  It was a hard lesson.  She asked all sort of what I like to call left field questions that weren't hers.  Her little growing testimony got shaken a little.  But! she's not giving up.  She's still reading.  She still went to church and she's still praying.  We testified to her that this is her choice and her decision, to not do this for anyone else but herself and if she is not ready, then that's okay.  We'll still help her and set her in the right direction but she needs to figure this out for herself.  ga, it was so hard I wanted to just cry!  She'll get there.  It'll just be more time.  The baptism in Portland is still going on this weekend! So looking forward to that next week!!

We also had a few gators drop us this week, so it's back finding new ones!  Don't worry though, this week wasn't all shot.  We had NOTHING planned on Saturday but studies, lunch and dinner.  So we decided we were going to tract, all day and while we were planning we decided that we were going to teach 6 unplanned lessons tomorrow.  I felt it, we were going to do this.  The most we had ever taught was 2 but we were going to teach six, no doubt, so we went out to do it and boy, did I feel good about this!!  (short version, I'll tell you the long one another day!)  The first door we knocked on, we talked to him for about 45 minutes, all about the church.  Lesson one.  Second house, family outside, taught the restoration, third home, the man talked to us for another 45 minutes, another interesting lesson, but lesson taught.  (Sister Rix and I were like..holy smoke!!  What is going on?!?  Well..we have 3 more lessons to teach so let's keep going) so we keep going, 4th home we walk up and the man lets us right into his backyard and we sit down with him and his wife and we read some from the Book of Mormon.  Super nice couple!!  The next home the lady tried bashing, but we showed her the Because of Him video, testified of Christ and His teachings.  It softened her heart and she was very happy to talk to us after that.  We had one more lesson.  So we walked up this huge driveway and I just got this sick feeling some dog was going to come out and attack us, and barreling down the driveway comes this bounding golden retriever puppy!!!!  Cutest thing you've ever seen in your life!!!!!  We talked to the lady planting bulbs and taught her the plan of salvation, she recently lost her sister.  It had been all day and we had only talked to 6 people..and taught 6 lessons..in a row.  Amazing.  Just amazing.  We were like, 'What in the world?!?!?!?!  Is this for reals?!?!?!?!?  Every house we knocked on after that, every person we talked to, quickly turned us away and didn't want to talk to us.  But those six, we taught lessons to just as we planned, had faith and prayed for.  Wow!  Miracles happen!!

So all in all, it's been an all over the place kind of week, good, but all over the place... Oh!!  We are meeting with [the car wash guy] this week!!!!!!!!!!!!  He set an appointment with us and everything!!  We're going there tomorrow with him and his girlfriend!!  YIPPIE!!!  [Another investigator, an older gentleman] is reading the Book of Mormon!!!!!  [HE] IS ACTUALLY READING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  that's HUGE!! and he loves it!!!!!!!!!!  We took another gator on the church tour!!!!!!!!!!!! (we've been trying to do that for so long) and the lady that we took with us hit if off like a million bucks, our other gator is also reading faithful and LOVED the plan of salvation lesson we taught her.  She loved it.  She's incredible!!!!!  So there are great things that are happening here!!!  This work is still going forward and it's still progressing.  Onward and upward!!

I'm doing good.  Well, honestly, it varies from moment to moment.  I have my panic freak-out moments where it's like..I'm leaving!!! and then I freak-out or panic or try to hold back the tears and what not.  And then at other times I get really excited to see everyone again and do so many fun things and all that jazz.  And I'm at peace knowing that I've done the work that the Lord has called me to do.  I've done everything He has asked, this mission was exactly what He planned it to be for me and I've done the work that He needed me to do.  So it varies from moment to moment.  This week should be interesting, but we've got a lot to keep us busy (thank goodness!!!)  It's going to be a crazy week, I just hope I can keep my head afloat!  haha!!

Well, that about it for the week.  You know, I finished the Book of Mormon for the 4th time on my mission today, and still, it's true.  It amazed me the faith that the people had.  It was all by faith that EVERYTHING happened.  It was by faith that all things come about and it's by faith that we have those words with us today.  Faith is everything.  It's the essence of life.  Without it, we are nothing.  We are lost.  Life is pointless without faith.

I'm so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and the love that He has for me.  I know without Him, we would be nothing.  We would have no hope, but He understands all.  I love my savior.

I love you!!!!!  Looking forward to seeing you soon!!!

Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield

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

excerpts from Erin's email 06/02/2014

There's a lot going on out here and it's a joy to be doing it.

[Erin was heading to Portland early this morning so instead of typing her email she dictated it and let the ipad type it up instead.  The results were a very funny email due to the fact that many words and phrases were typed up incorrectly!  I have done my best to decipher it all; some of it had to simply be left out because I can make no sense of it!! :D  Here is the best translation:]

"...Well, you're right, we are on early this morning because I'm headed down to Portland, which is awesome!  [they were heading down there for a surprise farewell party for President and Sister Morby, Erin's first mission president, in the Portland, Oregon mission.]  I'm talking this email so I'm not really sure how it's going to turn out.  I hope you can read it and it works...good luck!

...I will admit I'm a little sad about coming home..okay, that is a lie.  I'm really sad about coming home, haha!  It's hard not to be...  It will be hard not to get emails every Monday and to hear from everybody and get the quick updates from everybody, that will be really weird.  Love you emailing on Mondays, haha! ...so looking forward to it but there's a lot to lose.  There's a lot to gain.  So we will see what happens! haha!

...This week has been a good week.  I'm not sure where the week went...our investigator are doing well.  [the great-granddaughter of a member] is getting baptized on June 6.  She couldn't be more excited!!  She has been reading the Book of Mormon. She went to church yesterday.  We Skyped after church to see how things went.  She loved it.  She was telling us how she is so excited to go to church and have the first time to be the first day of the rest of her life.  She was telling us how that in her 16 years of living, this last month of her reading the Book of Mormon, meeting with the missionaries, have meant the most to her.  The gospel is really changing her life.  You can see the change in her and you can see the change that it made in her family.  She is incredible and couldn't be more excited for baptism.  So that will be next Friday.  Most seriously looking forward to it. 

On next Saturday the man from Portland is getting baptized, the one that would take us bowling.  I couldn't be more excited for him!  On Sunday he asked me over Facebook if I would give the talk on baptism at his baptism.  I've never done that before!!  I was so excited to say yes and now I can't wait.  However, now I'm a little nervous because I don't know what to say.  It's a good thing that they hardly ever remember anything that you say anyway, haha!  But we're looking forward to that.  It's going to be great.

Our other investigators are doing really well...We have one investigator that we've been teaching.  I'm not sure if I told you about her Jehovah Witness friend.  She told us she was a referral from another ward's bishop and she had some disagreements with her current religion and is looking at the Mormon church.  She was going to come to church with us yesterday but forgot about some previous commitments she made.  So she will come to church with us next week.  But [we have been] talking to her and sharing the gospel with her.  She has loved it!!  She loved the Book of Mormon.  The thing that really touched her heart was the testimonies from the apostles.  She said, 'The first time I heard the apostles they spoke right to my heart. ..the testimony of those men were so real and sincere.  There's something different, something special about them.  They truly know Christ.  And it touched my heart.  I never felt like that before.'  She's a wonderful older lady and we're visiting with her later this week.  It's been a joy to teach her because we truly go through the scriptures as we teach and testify and she understands.,  It brings peace to your heart...you should see her face light up when we speak truth that she can understand.  It's been a blessing.  She is leaving out of town this week and we had a really hard time seeing her.  We did stop in before she left and shared a little message with her.  It was much needed.  I think she's forgotten a little bit about the spirit and how it really feels and how it makes her feel.  We were able to remind her how it feels.  She's coming but she's got a little bit caught up with everything else.  So that ...reminder was much needed for her.  We're planning on seeing her when she comes home and hopefully things will get better from there.

Everyone else is still making progress, still moving forward.

This week we have a specialized sisters training meeting that we're doing tomorrow.  It's an all day meeting for the sisters.  There are a lot of issues with the sisters going on lately and so we though it would be a good idea to get everyone together and see if we can't figure things out.  So everybody's coming form all over the mission and we're doing a huge training.  Sister Rix and I are doing breakout sessions about companion unity and love, haha!  We got volunteered to do that one so looking forward to it.  It should be really good.  We've got big plans...on how we can strengthen our companionships.  It will be great!  So that's going on all day tomorrow.  We have a couple of baptisms coming up.  We have a temple trip coming up.  We have one more exchange, wow!
More people to find, work to be done, there's a lot going on out here and it's joy to be doing it.  I love being a missionary!!

...wow!  These emails get long when I am just talking and not typing! haha!
I hope you enjoy your Memorial Day weekend and that things go well for you...

Things are well out here!  The church is still true.  I still loving being a missionary.  There's a lot of work to be done and not a lot of time to do it in.  So we're working hard having the spirit to the end.

...The church is true... I love my Savior Jesus Christ.  He lives.  He loves us.  He wants the best for us.  Through the scriptures we can truly come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ.  Joseph Smith was a prophet.  He did see what he said he saw in the grove of trees.  I know this to be true.  I know this as much as I know that the sun will come up tomorrow.  There's no doubt in my mind.

...Talk to you soon.
Have a great day!!

Yours forever,
Sister Maxfield"

excerpts from Erin's email 05/25/2014