3-2-1...

Okay, this is becoming ridiculously funny now. I'm getting transferred....again. haha. I know, 4 areas and 8 companions in only 7 transfers, but hey, life is full of change, right?! Actually it is just really funny. Sister Everson and I were brought into South Euclid six weeks ago where Sister Wattles has been since November, but we found out after district meeting this morning that Sister Everson and I are BOTH packing! I can't wait to have a conversation with Heavenly Father and finally ask "WHY?!". It's a 3-2-1 pattern. 3 transfers in Chardon, 2 in Ravenna, and 1 in South Euclid. zero is the next number, so I half expect to be sent home! just kidding :)

How am I feeling about leaving? I feel okay about the whole thing. After the whole heartbreak being yanked from Ravenna last transfer, I've stopped trying to guess what's going to happen, but I'm really not surprised that I'm leaving. (Besides, irony is when you DON'T expect it, right mom!? haha). I feel fine about leaving and I'm excited to see where I'm headed, although I have no guesses on that either. It's weird though, because I don't feel like I have had enough time to be really attached to anyone in this area. There are strong relationships (especially with Sheila who is getting baptized in 2 weeks!), but I don't feel a special attachment, like I have previously. So now I really just feel like someone passing through, but it's okay. It's all about the eternal perspective, right? I've grown a lot this transfer. Being thrown in a refiner's fire is painful, but it's worth it in the end.

By the way, I hope yesterday you all celebrated the 175th Anniversary of the Kirtland Temple Dedication!! If you didn't, you should have. It's more significant than you give it credit for. We got tickets to be in the temple for a very special service that night and it was AMAZING! Seriously, there are no words to describe how powerful the spirit was. We got to hear from President Sorensen, President Haymond (our Stake President) and the Temple President of the Columbus temple. They each spoke on one of the priesthood keys restored by Moses, Elias, and Elijah in the Kirtland Temple. So basically, the current holder of the priesthood keys, spoke about the keys restored. For instance, President Sorensen, the mission president, spoke about the keys to gathering Israel (aka missionary work) restored by Moses--and as mission president he holds those keys. Make sense? Elder Seldon of the 70 also spoke to us. It was just so powerful! Especially with the choir singing Spirit of God and My Shepherd Will Supply My Need. I want to re-live that moment over and over and over again. I wish you all could have been there with me.

SCOTT!!! YAYYY FOR YOUR MISSION CALL!!!!! Now all I need to do is learn how to say "Belem Brazil" in the right accent, and we're good to go, right? I am so excited for you. I may or may not have screamed then cried when I got the text message from Sister Carey, haha. I'm proud of you bud. You're going to do amazing work! When I checked on LDS.org it looked like it bordered Eric's mission, and apparently it does. How cool!! My brothers are awesome :) I forsee a family trip in our future to go to Brazil and visit missions, but of course that will be after the Sister/Elder Maughan road trip to San Diego, right? :)

I love you all!! So much.

Sister Maughan

"my conscience sometimes sounds like Snoop Dawg"

It's so good to email after a crazy week! Because it has definitely been a crazy week! I'm not even quite sure where to begin...

For starters, this week we got dropped by 7 investigators in 48 hours. 6 of which were supposed to be baptized this coming Saturday. Hadn't planned for that one! BUT in my opinion, I didn't really feel like these people were quite ready yet and there are other people out there, and apparently the Lord agreed with me and so he has moved us into finding mode! Ahh...always a treat. :) 

Nah, it's okay. It's hard, but we're actually finding some new investigators. We found two new investigators this weekend. One is named Alberto. He is SO funny! We were reading the Book of Mormon with him and he was reading outloud and said that he prefers to read in his head because then he can change the voices in his head, and his "conscience sometimes sounds like Snoop Dawg" hahahaha! Oh my gosh I wanted to die when he said that. I love my area! haha. But Alberto's main goal in life is searching for truth, so we have a lot of hope for him.

Kirtland is definitely starting to get so much busier now! This past Saturday, we had 290 people come through sites! We even had a bus tour of Restorationists, and several groups of Seminary kids, two from canada and two groups from pennsylvania and Baltimore. I LOVE Kirtland when it starts to get busy again! 290 is actually a slow day during the summer, but for now, it's like a drug for us. We just want more and more! It's fantastic :)

So I want to tell you an amazing miracle I've seen at Kirtland. We obviously take SO many tours and even though I have some freakish ability to remember names and faces, it's still hard to remember specific tours, especially from last summer. But last August, Sister Lee and I took a tour of a woman named Rebecca and her two children (all members) and her Catholic friend John. This was one of the best tours I have ever taken: it was fun, the spirit was really strong and everyone was engaged in what we said (the 10 year old boy even wrote on his comment card "this was the best. day. ever"). 

For some reason, I really felt a connection with everyone, especially with John. At the end of the tour, we collected the comment cards and John had not left his phone number, but to make a long story short, I called the missionaries in Pennsylvania and told them to stop by his home. Remember, this was back in August. I called to follow up with those missionaries at the end of September and they said that they had stopped by a couple time, left some notes, but were never able to get in touch with him. I was disappointed, but figured that maybe it would happen later.

Okay now fast forward to the end of February. I had been trying to get in touch with Rebecca over the last few months to get information about a referral that she had left, and FINALLY got in touch with her. I got all the information I needed, and just as we were getting off the phone, I felt like I needed to ask her about John. I didn't have his card anymore, or any of his information, but I had just remembered. We talked a little bit, and I asked if I could get his phone number and if it would be okay if I called him. 

I called him right away and he answered on the first ring. I introduced myself and we talked about Kirtland. He told me that he LOVED Kirtland, and it really had made an impression on him and he had wanted to come back the next month, but thought maybe we'd think it was too soon!! I talked with him about those feelings he had, and if he wanted to make that a permanent part of his life. He was quiet as he thought about it, and I started to bear testimony of the gospel and read him some things from the Book of Mormon. He told me he had a copy and I committed him to start reading about it and praying about it. He told me he would because he wants to know it's true, and he said I could send the missionaries. 

I sent the referral, but also called the missionaries to tell them to get their butts over to John's house asap!! haha. I told them I would follow up on their lesson in the next few weeks. Which brings us to this past Saturday....

Saturday I called the elders to follow up on John. They made an appointment and went and taught lesson one. This is what the elder told me: "Sister Maughan, in the 19 months I have been on my mission, I have never been in a more powerful lesson. The spirit was so strong. At one point, as we were reading the Book of Mormon--apparently the section you had already read with him over the phone--he stopped. We sat in silence for just a minute. We asked John how he was feeling and he started to cry. He just started to say 'it's true. It's all true.' " !!!!!!! John is now in Florida for a few weeks, but when he gets back, he's going to be baptized. I am so excited for him, and I am SO happy!! This is the most amazing work!! I am SO lucky to be serving here, and especially at a call center with the opportunity to share my testimony and the gospel not only in Cleveland, but all around the world. I LOVE THIS WORK!! :)

Scott, I am so excited for you to get your mission call on Wednesday!! Then you and I can do this work together :)  I'm so excited to hear where you are going!! But no matter where it is, it will DEFINITELY be where you need to be. Which will probably be San Diego. haha :)

I love you all so much! I'm sorry this email is so stinkin' long, but I wanted to get it all in. Have an amazing week, and happy spring!! :)

Love,
Sister Maughan

Over the hill!?!? Already?!

Well, I'm not quite sure how we got to this point, but we're here. I am officially halfway through my mission. I dunno how on earth that happened. I still feel like I am a baby in the mission, but of the 30 sisters here in Kirtland, after this transfer there are only 5 sisters older than me in the mission. That's kinda scary haha. But you know me, I'm all about remembering dates and weird facts and such, so it's also interesting that a year ago this week my mission papers were FINALLY submitted. Well, for the first time haha. I never even imagined then that in a year I would be halfway done with something I have been planning to do for so long...

BUT, since I still have a TON of time left of the mission, let me tell you about it! For starters, I am REALLY tired today! Everyone is! Not only did we lose an hour of sleep on Sunday (stupid daylight savings--worst day of the year. No offense Craig haha), but this morning we had to be out of bed by 4:45 AM so that we could be at the John Johnson Farm by 6:45 for training meeting! It was really neat to take a tour of it! It kind of made my heart hurt though, because EVERYONE wants to be able to serve at the Johnson farm, but there's only two areas that are assigned to it, and one of those is Ravenna--been there done that! Oh well. At the rate that I am getting transferred, maybe I have a better chance than I thought to serve at the farm! haha. Better start praying now ;) It was really great though. There is a very powerful spirit in the Johnson home, especially in the room where Joseph Smith was dragged out of bed and tarred and feathered, and also in the Revelation Room, where Doctrine and Covenants 76 was received (and 15 others). The spirit just kind of feels magnified in the home...It's fantastic. Thankfully we took the tour on p-day though, so we can try and get some rest! My companions have already taken a 3 hour nap today haha. I wrote letters instead. Be proud :)

One of the many things I love about Kirtland is the tours that we get to take that are all different, and all so interesting. You meet the most interesting people. For instance, last night we took a woman on tour whose name was Gwen. At least her American name was Gwen, but she is Muslim. She came to Kirtland because she had been driving by several times and had been drawn to this place, but was afraid to come in because she didn't think we would want to talk to her because she was Muslim...!! Wrong! She actually has a very fascinating background. She was born Amish, become a devout fundamentalist Christian at the age of 27, and then became Muslim! Who'd have thought that!? She had lots of questions and we were able to talk with her a lot--in fact, she was there 3 hours, and we didn't even finish half the tour! We had to cut it short because we were closing. We had a really great time exchanging belief and learning more about her religion. In fact, we learned that Islam (at least her sect) believes in Jesus Christ--not that He is the Savior of the world or the Son of God--but that He is a significant prophet who did exist, who will stand at the right hand of God, and who will come again to save us, but that Christ was not crucified. Instead, there was deception and it was actually Judas Iscariot who was crucified. Interesting, eh? Never heard that before. We were able to bear testimony about Christ being our Savior and about the Atonement and she actually self-referred and asked for missionaries to bring her a Book of Mormon! It was really neat. Hopefully something good will come of it.

Other than that, unfortunately I don't feel like I have a whole lot to share. But I hope things are going good for everyone! I hope the birthdays went well for the boys, and Scott, does this mean your mission papers are officially submitted now?! So so SO cool. (Cleveland! Cleveland! Cleveland!)

Love you all so much!

Sister Maughan

Happy Birthday to the Younger 1/3 of the Fam!

Hello family!

Before I forget, Happy Birthday Scott and Craig! I can't believe you boys are turning 19 and 16 this week! What the heck!? The idea of Scott getting his mission call this month and Craig DATING and DRIVING is enough to make my head spin haha. But I am excited for you boys. Hope you have a fantastic birthday! Sending lots of love from your very favorite sister in the whole world :)

 

It's been a pretty good week in South Euclid! We enjoyed our beautiful spring weather that's been going on this week, but was disappointed to wake up Sunday morning to a lot of snow. Oh well! We are being optimistic and just going to say that this is the last snowfall of the year. I'd be okay with that!

 

Oh, quick update on my first area, Chardon. First of all, I don't think I mentioned this last week, but Liam got baptized! Do you remember me telling you about that 10 year old who was in a part member family? Well he got baptized and his dad was able to perform the baptism! Liam really wanted me to speak at his baptism and Bro. Potter said he really wanted me to be there, but I wasn't able to go :( But it does make me feel good just knowing he got baptized and to know that I haven't been forgotten! 

On the sad side of Chardon, Brother Calandra died this week. :'( He is the one that G&G Watson know, and he and his wife were SO important to me (he's the one who gave me that book that I sent home a few months ago). I can't imagine how Sister Calandra is doing, being a widow twice now. The funeral is today. I'm not sure if grandma and grandpa know, so if you could pass that on, I'd appreciate it.

 

Back to South Euclid, things are going really well! We have set 6 baptismal dates for March, but lifestyle in the ghetto is really so different than anything else, so we're not sure how solid those dates are. We have seen a lot of progression in investigators though. We had a mom and two of her teenage girls come to church yesterday and they had an awesome experience. The daughters, Mishurrel (pronounced Maa-shur-ell) and Kaleina, have baptismal dates and have come several times before because their dad is a recent convert. Of course, the dad didn't come to church yesterday because he knew his baby momma was going to be there! ohh man. Good ol' Cleveland. haha. Not sure how we'll work that out, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. We also have a few other investigators with a lot of promise, including an investigator named Chris. We have to go slow with her because it's a big change for her, but she is praying and reading her scriptures and seeing the peace that comes into her life as she does so, and she DEFINITELY needs that peace. It's so cool to see the happiness coming into her life. 

Chris wasn't able to come to church yesterday, but she did come to the chili cook off on Saturday and she had an AMAZING time! I did too! It was way fun, although I left with quite the stomachache! We have 7 missionaries serving in our ward, and they made Sister Decker, Elder Andersen, and I the judges of the cook off--one from each companionship. I ate 20 different kinds of chili and 10 kinds of dessert! Ughhhh... It was yummy but seriously, couldn't they have sent me to a mission that would make me lose weight, not gain 20 pounds in one night?! haha.

 

We had zone conference two weeks ago and President Sorensen said something that has really been on my mind since then. He said that the blessing of being obedient is simply obedience! We don't need to expect anything else from the Lord beyond that. I thought that was interesting. Especially as a missionary, I hear stories about miracles happening when missionaries were obedient and I have to say I don't always see that. But there is definitely truth to what President said. When I go to bed at night, I know that if I have been obedient that day I have made the Lord proud and I am doing what I came on a mission to do and there are blessings in store by being obedient, although they may not come the way that I anticipate or expect. It's the same way with life not as a missionary. We still have commandments and things that we need to do, but we are obedient because it is what the Lord has asked us to do, and He will bless us, but it will be in His time, in His way. Until then, the blessing of obedience is simply obedience. Just food for thought.

 

Well I love you all! Have a fantastic week and Happy Birthday Scott and Craig! :)

Sister Maughan