Wonderful Season for Missionary Work

11.30.15

Hey Y'all!

It really was a Crazy week! But lots of wonderful things! This coming week will not be as crazy but the week after that is going to be crazy but we are going to enjoy this week, it is only going to be a little crazy not super though.

Tuesday last week was great, crazy but great! We drove at 5:15 in the morning to this meeting. It was such a great and productive meeting. I learned so much from it and we were able to discuss the new Christmas initiative for this year that just started... #ASaviorisBorn, it is such a sweet short video, If you haven’t watched it yet...  check it out. www.mormon.org/christmas Just as sweet as the one from last year he is the gift. We also talked about how important it is to get those who are just baptized to the temple, for them to feel of the spirit. Our mission has a goal of getting everyone who is baptized to go to the temple with family names in 1 month! It will be hard work especially since there is not a temple in our entire mission but entirely possible especially if we are planning well and getting this done that we need to!:) The Spirit of the Book of Mormon combined with the Spirit of Elijah... now that is powerful! After our meeting we traveled back and got home a little after 7:30 and had a member come and pick us up and we went to see the Brother that got baptized Saturday and then went and saw someone who is really sick that we have been working with that has not been going to the church for 40+ years. The elders came to the hospital to give him a blessing and he said that he LOVED the spirit that he could feel with all of us there and he has called us often asking us when we were going to come again and wanting to learn more. He also came to church on Sunday but that lesson we had Tuesday right before we had to be home was wonderful and full of the spirit! As it says in Preach My Gospel... "When the Spirit touches the heart, hearts are changed." The day before he was not really excited about us coming and learning more and after that blessing and realizing that there are people that don’t even know him personally that love him. That is one of the biggest blessings of being part of a ward family!!

Thursday, Thanksgiving, was super busy. So the night before we were worried that we were not going to be able to make the day full of proselyting and full of purpose but man was it! I realized that I needed to have more faith in the missionary handbook that talks about holidays are prime proselyting times! So at 10 in the morning we left our house and went and had 2 quick 30 minute lessons with 2 of our progressing friends. And the second house we went to ... fair warning a funny story is coming... we knocked on the door and he had just woken up and when he opened the door a little dog ran out. My companion when she had went on exchanges the week before had chased this dog for like 30 minutes in Blacksburg and I thought that was what was going to happen with us and luckily it was not that way! I caught the dog in 2ish minutes and had it against my side and brought it back to the door. I tossed the dog back into the house and looked down and realized that the dog had peed on me... Are you kidding me?!? In the meantime my companion was pretty much rolling on the ground laughing super hard... thanks for that sister. Welcome to the life of a missionary. So we went inside and had a quick lesson with him and then we went home so I could change, not the end of the world but it would have been nice to go through Thanksgiving, not having a dog pee on me. But later in the day we made cookies and put cute thanksgiving bows on them and a scripture and handed them out to lots of people and we were able to talk to people that we had not talked to in a while and will be teaching them soon:) and we also had a lesson with someone after we had had our second Thanksgiving meal haha.

Saturday was amazing! We were able to watch one of our friends get baptized and his mom came as well!! All week we had been inviting people to come because we were worried that everyone was going to be out of town but we were able to have a wonderful service and felt the spirit soooo strong!

This season is really a wonderful season to do missionary work! The spirit that is in the air because of the hymns that are sung and the celebration of Christ birth is really a reason to be grateful for! I know that this is the true reason we celebrate Christmas! I know that our Savior still lives today and loves each and every one of us so very much. I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Love Sister Mauck

'Tis the Season

11.23.15

Hey Y'all!

We had a great week this past week in Christiansburg, VA! Learned lots, went on 2 exchanges, volunteered at a Christmas clothing store, and one of our friends came up to us in church on Sunday and said that he was going to get baptized on Saturday! Yes you read that last little bit right, we have been teaching this guy for about a month and told us that he was ready to get baptized 2 days after Thanksgiving! Let the preparations begin! Now I thought last week was crazy, this week starting today, we had 4 lessons scheduled and usually we only proselyte 3 hours on P-day, tomorrow we have to go to Charleston, WV for a meeting and get home in time for one lesson. Then Wednesday is going to be our almost normal day, Thursday as we all know is going to be crazy because it's Thanksgiving, Friday we have a zone meeting where we have to teach a couple handful of missionaries and then Saturday we have a baptism. So sneak peek for what next email is going to consist of... the life of a missionary is CRAZY! haha

So this past week we have been trying to help one of the people that we are teaching quit smoking so last Monday when we went over we asked him what was holding him back from quitting and what could we do to help. He mentioned that he had one cigarette every morning around 5 or 530 and that was the one that he was having the hardest time breaking so I told him that we would call him every morning at 5 and we did and he had not smoked since then! getting up that early was not easy but when people succeed like that it makes it ALLLL worth it!

Sunday the one friend of ours that is getting baptized this weekend came to church for the 5th time in a row and we were going to push his baptism back a few weeks because we were not sure if he was understanding the doctrine but he came up to us at the end of church and he told us that he really wanted to be baptized this Saturday and he said that he was willing to do whatever it took. We went over that night and finished teaching all the commandments and explained to him that we would see him everyday this week. We met him at the end of October and he had been studying before we even met him and went over the baptismal interview questions with him and he is super excited for this weekend!

Hard things really are possible! So our friend that got baptized in September had surgery, like life or death, a week and a half ago and the Sunday after she had it she was in a lot of pain so she didn't come to church. We went over on Friday to check on her and she was doing better and was trying to not take any pain killers, She is crazy and is way tougher then she needs to be, but she asked us to call the elders in our area to give her a blessing and they went over later that night. Then when we went to church Sunday We had planned to go over to her house after church to see how she was doing and she was at church because she did not want to miss taking the sacrament. She is amazing!! Hard things are possible when we keep in mind what really matters!

So we went to a fireside on Saturday that was all about Family History and we had one of our friends there with us that we have been teaching for about 2 months and it was really cool to see the spirit of Elijah work on her. She struggles believing that Jesus Christ is more than a prophet and has a hard time with the basics. But when she was there she felt the spirit and got really excited to do more of her family history. On my mission I have really under estimated the power that it family history has when teaching people about the restored gospel. She is progressing and Hopefully we will get her to church in the next few Sundays.

Those exchanges we went on this week were really cool. The first one I left my area and in the other sisters area we were able to find like 4 new people that were interested in learning more and also had dinner with their bishop which was super fun!! Then the second exchange I stayed in the area and a brand new missionary came into our area, she has only been in her area for 2 weeks. Before the exchanges we always ask the sisters to come up with something they would like us to study for them and then in return ask them to study something for us. I asked both the sisters I work with to study hope in missionary work. The new sister asked me to study confidence for her and as I did that I realized that it has everything to do with hope. Hope is an abiding trust in the Lord, that he will keep his promises. Hope is sure when it is referring to the gospel. Hoping for the weather to be good is a different kind of hope because there is uncertainty there. Confidence is trusting in ourselves and not worrying what is to come. Having faith that the things that we mess up will be taken care of by the Lord if we are trying our hardest!:)

Funny story from this week! Sunday night (last night) we went home and I was not driving because I had a pretty bad headache and I was moving pretty slowly and my companion had already gotten out of the car. So as I go to pick up my bag that lied at my feet I hear this super scream and look up and open my door really fast to see what had happened to my companion and I saw her stop dead in her tracks and start running toward my side of the car. "did you see that??? There is something under our porch!" I about died laughing. She said she thought it was a dog and I told her that it was probably a skunk just joking around. I sat there for another minute trying to get myself together and then as soon as I stood up to walk toward our house, low and behold a skunk walked out from under our porch... What the?!?!? My companion ran toward the door and was having a hard time unlocking it after that, pretty funny.

Funny story #2 from earlier in the week. So on Thursday night we had correlation and so there is a member that lives in town houses and then another member that also lives in town houses, the house that we were going to and the second members house has no parking and their house is down the hill from the first members house who we parked at. So Sister Kelly and I were walking to correlation, laughing and joking about something and all the sudden I stepped in a hole and slide halfway down this hill. My companion looks back and run back as I sit on the grass looking like I was trying to slide down the hill, needless to say it was dark and not much light from the street and we were trying to see with our phone light that is not very bright. She was sure that I was not going to be able to get up but I got up, limped down the hill a little and then during correlation we were not able to keep it together because we were laughing under our breath half the time haha.

I hope you all have a wonderful gratitude filled week! Thank you all for who you are! Thank you for the examples you are to me and keep up the great work!

Love Sister Mauck

Elder Kopischke Came to the Mission

11.16.15

Hey!

What a crazy week we had. We had two meetings with our mission president and member of the first quorum of the 70 which was really cool!! We learned so much from him and have so many new things that we can apply to our missionary work and many things that really strengthened my testimony.

Before I tell you of all the wonderful things I would love to tell you all of the wonderful tender mercies Heavenly Father has given me! 1. I love my companion sooo much! She is so sweet and loves the people that we work with. She is always trying to improve and helps me to be a better person and missionary every day. And we laugh... a lot! 2. We have been working with a wonderful newly rebaptized member and we found out yesterday that he may be moving to Montana soon:/ but because of that we went over to his house to see if he needed any help and there were some people there and we met this really sweet high school girl who has been going to a baptist church for a really long time and said that recently she has been thinking that she wants to go to a new church, we talked about faith and set up a time to go to her house to teach her and hopefully her mom:) 3. The mom and son who came to church a few weeks ago is progressing so quickly and still wants to be baptized in the next few weeks! He has liked everything we have taught him and has been living the word of wisdom for more than a week now! 4. One of the less active members we have been working with since I got here pretty much came to church 2 weeks in a row!! 5. We have a wonderful mission president and wife who love and want the best for us so much! The other day, when we were on exchanges, we missed a few calls from our mission president’s wife and I was really worried something had happened. I called her back and she said that she was just calling to thank me and asked me if I was okay. That put me in tears and it was a much appreciated phone call.

One of the really cool things that we learned with Elder Kopischke has to do with the scripture John 17: 3 " And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." He explained that really all we have to do is to know God... but it is different in his language, the word know. Jokingly he said that our language is lacking a little and then went on to explain that in the scriptures that there is different meanings for to know and to know in the bible. He explained that in German there is a word for to climb and if you add a little phrase to the word, which you can add to any word, it makes the meaning of to climb, to reach the top. So for the word to know if you add that little phrase it means "to become one with." So if you replace the word, to know with to become one with it change the interpretation of the verse... " And this is life eternal, that they might become one with thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." He said that if you do that with the scriptures as you read them, replace every time you see the word know that a new meaning of the scriptures will come into your life, it has been really interesting to do that!

One of the other cool things that I can't wait to apply to my missionary work is how important the temple is! He told us that we should invite others to walk with us and help them make their way to the temple. In our mission we have a goal to have every convert to have a name to take to the temple within 2 weeks of being baptized and within one month to get them to the temple to do work for their family. Pretty big goal but as he talked he helped us to remember to keep the end goal in sight at all times. Our goal is to walk with them, to be there to help every step of the way!

Also Elder Kopischke talked to us about Christ and how he didn't just give people answers. In Luke 24 two men were walking and they were talking about Christ and what had happened and he walked over towards them and they didn't recognize him. He asked what they were talking about as if he didn't know what had happened to this Christ they spoke of and then told him all about the crucifixion and the resurrection. And in verse 24 and 25 he says that they need to have faith and believe what the prophets had taught, he used the scriptures. Christ could have just said, it is me, here I am but he wanted to HELP them and grow their testimony. As soon as they realized that it was Him, he left them.  We do not have to answer every question people may have because then it takes away the learning they can do by faith, though studying the scriptures. If we just give them all the answers they will know the doctrine but they will not have grown from it. Learning from the Ultimate example and applying those things is what will really help others learn of his doctrine because he was the only true and perfect missionary.

My faith and understanding of the Savior and who he is has grown immensely. Before my mission I knew that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and they he died for my sins. Many people we talk to say they believe in Jesus Christ. Elder Kopischke told us to ask those people, "Do you know who Christ is?" and then explain the restoration and how loving both He and God really are. God said, "This is my work and my glory- to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." Our purpose as those in his church is to help him fulfill his work, his glory, his will.

I hope you all have the opportunity to study the word of Christ each day and cherish that moment. I have found a new love for the scriptures as I have studied them more and began to start to understand them. The Gospel is true, God lives and loves each and every one of us too! Keep up the great work! Love you all!!

Love Sister Mauck

Let Transfer #8 Begin!

11.9.15

Hey y'all!

Lots of great things going on over here! I am staying in Christiansburg for a 4th transfer and am still a Sister Training Leader so I guess my companion and I are doing something right:) This coming week is going to be really cool!! So one of the members of the presidencies of the 70's is going to be coming to our mission, Elder kopeschke. We have a mission conference for it, split into 2. Ours will be on Wednesday in Roanoke, VA and then on Friday the leadership in the mission, Zone leaders, Assistance and the Sister Training Leaders are going to a council with him in Charleston! A crazy week coming up. Lots of reasons to prepare. When general authorities come into the mission our president always gives us special things to study and for Him, we are studying a talk on the atonement and he has asked us to come with questions to ask him.

So miracle from the other week! We went to church and there was this lady and her son, he is in his mid 20's, I think. Anyways we started talking to him and he had never really heard of the church and just wanted to check it out but wasn't interested in much more. But we started teaching him and he wants to get baptized at the end of the month! How cool is that!! Heavenly Father really prepares people for us to teach the gospel to or even share a testimony about the Savior. Everyone is at a different spot in their life but everyone can use a message about Christ! One thing I have been working on lately is Charity, Remembering that everyone is a Child of God and that I am not perfect. In combination with charity comes working on patience with people. The struggles are real but as I have looked at people in a more charitable way my testimony of how much God loves each and every one of us individually has grown!! I hope that you all have a wonderful week! I love and miss you all dearly! Keep working hard and loving the gospel with all your heart might mind and strength!!

One thing that my companion and I have been working on the past few weeks is doing a gratitude prayer in the middle of the day. And since we have been doing that, usually right after lunch, I have really realized the many little tender mercies and blessings that our Heavenly Father blesses us with though out the day. The little things are the things that can make the biggest difference!!

I hope you are all doing well! The gospel truly blesses lives and is the center of real joy! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Mauck

The Lord Provides A Way!

10.26.15

Hey Y'all!

Hope you are all doing well! I had a crazy but wonderful week! I have learned lots and my faith has grown immensely! So first off let me list with you some of the craziness of our schedule this week... we went on exchanges, went and helped some sisters that are struggling (Sister training leader assignment), had a district meeting, had interviews with our mission president, found out that we have to drive to Charleston tomorrow ( AND we don't have like any miles left for the month now) and walked a lot! Pretty Crazy week, and it was exhausting but not bad:) We also found lots of new potential investigators and were able to learn a lot from the experiences that we had this week.

So one of the ways my faith grew this week is after we found out that we have to drive to Charleston tomorrow. We thought that we were not going to have to do that meaning we would have 300 extra miles but we don't so we have had to walk a whole bunch extra. SO yesterday we were walking home from an appointment that cancelled and this lady stopped us in our tracks and asked us if we were the new missionaries in the area. Then she proceeded to tell us that she had met with missionaries a while ago and that she wanted to do the stop smoking work shop again. If we would have been driving then we would have never found this lady. When the Lord needs things to happen, he will ALWAYS provide a way!

In my interview with my president he asked how everything was going and thanked me for everything I am doing. He then asked me how I was doing personally and I said I was doing pretty good and then he asked, "How could we make that great instead of just pretty good?" and then I started tearing up. I told him that I was super overwhelmed because of the STL assignment and was frustrated that our area was not doing better with how hard we were working. He then told me to let it all go and just put all your faith in the Lord because he said that when he got into the mission he was really overwhelmed and when he asked an apostle how he managed it all, David A Bednar told him, "I dont, I do my best and the lord takes care of the rest. When we are doing the will of the Lord he will ALWAYS provide a way." and that came from an apostle of the lord. Needless to say, my interview with my mission president went really well!

The weather out here is beautiful!! And the colors in the leaves are beautiful. This morning we went with another set of sisters to a pumpkin farm that is really close to our house and it was so much fun. We went through a corn maze and went on a hay ride and got a cute little pumpkin. And after we got home we cut up the pumpkin and made the seeds and also cooked the pumpkin and have pumpkin to make cookies or whatever else with! We had a super fun morning!:)

I hope you all are learning lots everyday like I seem to do as I am on this mission!. Keep up the great work at home and love the Lord and serve him the very best you can (PMG.) When life gets too hard to stand kneel!

Love Sister Mauck

Doctrine and Covenants 123:11-17

10.19.15

Hey Y'all

Hope you are all doing well! I love and miss you all but man is time just a flying by out here! So our district decided that we wanted to memorize the scripture that is the subject of this email. So my companion and I have decided that we are going to take 2 versus a week to memorize it because it is kind of long but it is a really good scripture, especially for missionary work but in general, I would invite you all to look it up. So sorry I didn't write last week, I kind of ran out of time but it feels like our time is filled up so much faster since we have made this area an STL area. But so just a few incites from 2 weeks ago. We went on exchanges with some sisters in Radford who are in a YSA area, meaning they do not have a car and boy am I grateful that I have a car in my area. Trying to walk everywhere gave us opportunities to talk to people but it took so much longer to get to appointments but it was a really cool experience and I learned a lot about their area.

This week was kind of uneventful. We did go on another exchange and had to drive more than 2 hours round trip to get there but it was a great experience! The area had like 500 members but only 50 are active and the sisters in the area are working so hard. It has been really interesting to go on so many exchanges and learn so much from them!

Interesting story from this past week. We went to meet with someone that we have been working with a lot and brought a sister member with us and she drove with us because she really doesn't like driving at night. Anyways so on the mission we have a rule of sight and sound. Meaning that we always have to be within sight and hearing of each other with only a few exceptions for our own safety obviously. So we were leaving and the lady that was with us got in the car and I thought my companion got into the car and so I drove down the street to turn around in the cul-da-sac or however you spell that, and as we were driving the lady was like what are you doing, and I looked at her with a puzzled face and then she said "Sister Kelly?????" and I was like what and I looked in the back seat for her and she wasn't there and I started freaking out and started driving really fast back. She was running after me and I felt so bad and on top of that I really thought I was going to have a heart attack. Anyways we laughed about it the whole way home and for the past week if she does something and I say something about it she says, " Well at least I would never leave you," and then I roll my eyes haha. It really was weird and it felt like the worst but it ended up being okay.

I love being a missionary and getting to see the gospel change people’s lives! It really is the best! I hope that I can reach all those I need to and make the difference in the lives that Heavenly Father needs me to! I hope you all take every opportunity you can to share the gospel! I love you all and keep up the great work!

Love Sister Mauck

CRAZY Week, then Conference!

10.5.15

Hey there!

Was conference great or what?? Let me take you on a journey of my past CRAZY week as a brand new set of inexperienced Sister Training Leaders. It is crazy to think that I have only been with my new companion for less than 2 weeks! Anyways so the rest of last P-day we went to the institute building in Blacksburg and hung out with some of the missionaries that were there while we waited for the Zone Leaders to bring us the Express Pass for the tolls that we were going to have to go through to get to Charleston. We had a great rest of the night meeting  a few members who we had never met with before and invited them back to church. They declined but they did say that they would open their Book of Mormon again and maybe watch conference. We will be following up on that in the next few days. One thing that I have learned on my mission though is that 1) no effort is wasted and 2) that if you don't ask you will never know, so just ask.  All the person can say is no. They may get a little defensive as I have experienced but their loss, at least you asked or invited.

Anyways then Tuesday came and we had to wake up before 5 in the morning because we had to be to Charleston a little before 9 for a Mission Leadership Council. It was super good and really nice to go to at the beginning of the transfer because now we have some insight that we can take to exchanges that we have. But some sisters met us at our house in the morning and we drove them up and it was really fun to get to know those sisters that we would otherwise not interact with much. One of the things that we talked about a lot is what we were going to do for the winter because last year around this time we lost lots of momentum in the mission and lots of improvement was needed. Our mission is doing great things now and we talked about how important our diligence and faith was going to have to be as it gets cold and dark and windy outside. One thing that our mission really has been focusing on is exact obedience and how that is what truly brings blessings. I know that as we do obey with exactness and do the work the Lord's way blessing flow and miracles happen!

Wednesday was for the most part normal. We got our assignment for what we were to teach at the next zone conference and were not really sure how to go about it and were just hoping that during our companionship study that we would be able to put all these things together. One of the most intimidating things that came with this assignment is how often we would be teaching missionaries. I know that I have learned a lot and that the Lord qualifies those he calls but teaching bunches of Elders and Sisters that have been out longer then both my companion and I was intimidating at first but when we remembered once again that the Lord qualifies those he calls we were able to work together to know what to teach and work though prayers as well.

Thursday was weekly planning and that was really long but we have lots of ideas that we have been now working on to find new people and work with the community. We got the mayors number and have called him to work with the community and build their trust in the missionaries:)

Friday was our zone meeting where we taught the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion and that was really cool. There was so much involvement/incite from everyone that it felt more like we were leading a discussion then teaching and that was really cool because I learned so much in that little amount of time. Later in that day we went on exchanges with some sisters in our zone who are struggling and that was really cool. I stayed in our area and brought one of the sisters back here and really saw her desire to work and that strengthened my testimony as well. We talked a lot about how the little things can make the biggest difference and it was really cool when President Eying’s talk testified to that, when we act upon the little things that it will make all the difference and we will be able to have the true constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. Although I was the senior companion on that exchange we both learned so much!

And then Saturday we exchanged back and Conference began! Oh it was wonderful to me, the things that were taught of, nothing really new just great reminders of the things that really do matter in this life.  Hopefully I can apply all the things I wrote down. One thing that I would like to start sharing on my emails is the scripture that I will be "Ponderizing" for the week. This week my companion and I wanted to really focus on finding new people to teach about the restored gospel. Our scripture for the week is Alma 31:34-35 talking about how each soul is precious and that it is only though the Lord that we can bring our brethren back into the fold. I hope all of you took that challenge to ponderize (20% memorized and 80% ponder) a scripture each week!

I would love to hear all of your incite on conference and what you learned! Both from the prophets and apostles and from the spirit as well! Maybe even some fun experiences from asking the question to our Heavenly Father "What lack I yet?" Our Heavenly father has a plan for each of us and if we ask him what that is and how to accomplish it, that is what will bring us true happiness! I hope you are all well and that you learned much like I did this week! Keep up the great work and remember to just "Do it."

Love Sister Mauck

Excited to Listen to the Prophet

9.28.15

Family and Friends,

This upcoming transfer is going to be AMAZING! I love my new companion. We laugh all the time and also work together really well. The first day we had together, Thursday, we had a couple hours of weekly planning and then we got right to work and knocked on lots of doors and taught a couple people and in that first day we were able to find a handful of people that were interested in listening a little more and we are so excited for it.

Serving in the new Sister Training Leader area we had to make SO many phone calls Thursday through Saturday and have been able to help all the sisters set goals and are excited to have the opportunity to keep them accountable to those and to have the opportunity to learn from so many more sisters. I didn't realized how many calls that the leaders I had in the mission had to make but it is nice to be able to check up on all the missionaries and to be accountable to them as well and keeping them accountable and being able to hear all the miracles that are happening in the little part of the mission that we are serving:) The first few days we didn't actually know what we were doing completely but as we have received more incite what we need to do I am so excited.

Friday we had a really cool lesson with a member who is kind of sick right now and hasn't had the opportunity to come to church in a long time and last time we had met with her we had given her some specific scriptures that we wanted her to read, and we had a wonderful discussion with her. We talked about the light of Christ and how the thoughts that come into our minds are more than just us. And that our purpose in this life is to find that light and to share it with others.

Saturday... The General Woman Broadcast was the BEST!! I really loved President Utchdorf's talk/ parable. I loved how he talked about how important our look on life really is and with the knowledge of the gospel that is so much more possible. And now I can’t wait for all the opportunity to hear more of the leadership of the church speak Saturday and Sunday and to hear who our new apostles are going to be... three of them, how crazy is that!! I hope all you have planned to watch them all. We really are blessed to have the opportunity to be at the click of a few buttons to hear a prophet’s voice twice a year. A servant of the Lord who receives direct revelation for our church and for the entire world for that matter! Hope you all are doing well and can’t wait to hear everyone's thoughts on conference and what you learn not only from the prophet but what you learn from the spirit that is present when we listen to it. What questions are you going to go in with? What are you going to learn that is not said?:)

Love you all!!

Love Sister Mauck

Another Transfer Gone By

9.23.15

Fellow friends and family,

Yes another transfer has gone by, how crazy is that. I have just started my 7th transfer out of 13, so pretty much halfway done! I cannot believe it, it couldn't go by any faster. So this transfer I am not a trainer again which will be different but I still got a call from our president on Monday, I have gotten a call from president every transfer I had a companion leaving, and yes my companion is leaving, She is going to Morgantown University, YSA ward for sisters, which doesn’t happen very often and she is so excited, I am sad we are being split up but I know she is going to do great up in West Virginia:) Anyways the call from our mission president for me, He told me that Christiansburg was going to become the new Sister Training Leader (STL) area... WHAAAA? and my new companion has never been in this assignment either. I am not sure what all it consists of but it is going to be great, I am just a little nervous. For those of you who don't know what a STL area is, it is Like a Zone leader over just the sisters, So we will call and check up on the sisters once a week and go on exchanges with each of them once a transfer. Lots of stuff but I am really excited to learn so much from so many different missionaries! I know my companions name, But not much about her, other than she has been out like 1 or 2 transfers more than me or something like that.

Anyways so that is how this last few days have gone, lots of phone calls about what this next transfer is going to consist of:) But this last week was really good. Lots of good bye lessons for my companion but lots of cool things as well have happened. We have been able to see people that we have not been able to get lessons with easily and hope to see lots of people more often now.

So last week we had this training where we got something called a TIWI box installed into our cars. I am not sure how many missions actually have this box but our mission has it now. So let me tell you a little about this TIWI box. It is plugged into our cars and has a GPS in it and tells us when you are speeding, when you start or stop to fast, when you take corners to sharp and when you go over speed bumps to fast and things like that. So we got it last Thursday and yesterday was my first day without it having to tell me to check my speed. I don't actually speed that bad but there are a few places where the GPS in the system are wrong. And another thing about this TIWI box, when it warns you it is the scariest thing in the world. I don't know about the other warnings but when you speed a little red light comes on and it says "CHECK YOUR SPEED" and it is the scariest thing in the world. Really though, like you are just driving along and then it freaks you out. It really will save the church money and lots of wreck and lives will be saved, I know that it was an inspired thing but it doesn't make it any less scary. I'll have to take a picture of it for next week, It actually makes our car look a little bit like a spy car when the GPS is up on the window haha. It was my goal every day to not make it go off and when I would make it go off my companion and I would laugh about it for like 5 minutes because I would get so frustrated haha. But the training we had while we got those installed into our car was excellent, it was about how to improve our teaching skills and there are lots of things that we want to do now. One of the things we talked about was getting creative with our missionary work but staying with in the White hand book and the Preach My Gospel guide lines. The elder in Christiansburg that is staying here and I have talked about going with our new companions and talking with the mayor and how we can help the community more and gain the trust of the community more. I am way excited about what lies ahead in our next transfer!

We have been working with this one guy and we have really been trying to help him quit smoking and this past week he had a couple days were he had none and other days where he only had 1 and his brother that lives with him is hoping to come to church next Sunday and said that he would start sitting in on the lessons we have with him soon and accepted the Book of Mormon a few times ago when we went over there and said he wanted to read it!:)

So yesterday one of the members we have been working with who has been coming back to church wanted to take us out to dinner before my companion left but we were running out of time so he asked if he could take us out to lunch at some Chinese restaurant so we took him up on the offer and really enjoyed it. Sounds like a random little tid-bit to put in my email but I tell the story because of what happened at the end of our lunch appointment. So the Brother that took us out is like 78 and does really silly things. So he gets his fortune cookie and opens it and looks at the paper really weird. "Learn Chinese....... Potato???" then pauses for a few seconds with a really confused look on his face, "Thats a really weird fortune. By this time my companion and I were laughing and told him to flip the paper over and then he smiles. It was really funny, maybe a had to be there moment but I thought it was really funny:)

I hope you are all doing well! And that you are learning lots. Another side note, I was really sad to hear that Elder Scott passed away the other day!:( I cannot believe that we are going to be getting 3 new apostles in the next general conference! I hope you all are getting excited about that as well! I know I am! I never really did understand how important it really is to listen to the prophet and the apostles. But how blessed are we to be able to listen to the prophet of this world! SO excited! Love you all and hope you have a great next week!!!

Love Sister Mauck

 

Crazy Week

9.14.15

Hey!

We had a crazy week, but it really was a great one!!

So on Wednesday we went on exchanges and I went to Roanoke with my MTC companion who is my Sister Training Leader now but it was good.... very crazy but good. Earlier that morning of the exchange the sisters training leaders had a few pipes burst in their apartment and their kitchen was a mess and they just had to leave it. But they had a couple guys coming in to the house to fix it as they were leaving. Anyways my companion stayed here in Christiansburg and I went to Roanoke for the day and it was crazy because we had to go to their house often and check on the progress. The last time we went to their house that night the entire kitchen ceiling was ripped out and then we had to go and stay with another set of sisters that were closer then Christiansburg. So we slept on the couch and a recliner... a little bit of a rough night but it was a really fun experience! Right before we went to bed this guy that the sisters in Roanoke had been working with only a few weeks had called and said that he wanted to become a member earlier and the sister I was with almost lost it. He moved his date up for baptism by a month and on top of that we put a man on date for baptism earlier in the day. Really lots of great things came from it. The next morning we had to get up early to let the plumber in to their apartment and they were super loud while we were trying to do studies, very distracting but funny, but lots of great things came from that exchange. It was crazy. So not that you were even in all that but that is some of the crazy things that happened this week for us over here. Later that day when I got to Christiansburg we got to work and picked up a new person to teach and they are really excited to get to reading the Book of Mormon.

Friday we had a district meeting and it was really great, all about how important the Book of Mormon is in the work. Then after the district meeting one of the members from Blacksburg, the ward that Christiansburg shares a building with, made all 12 of the missionaries brunch and it really was some good Southern cooking!:)

Saturday was crazy as well. So we got up and did our normal studies and then went to our church building where a member picked us up to go to the stake center to help out with a sister Training meeting. The stake relief society president who is from our ward had been stressing out because she could not find anyone but one of her daughters to help with this so she called us up a couple days before to see if we could help, we were able to but had to get special permission because it was so far out of our area but we did that and got back an hour before the baptismal service of our investigators started. Like I said last week a little 8 year old girl was getting baptized and lots of his co-workers that are not members were there. We were able to talk to a few of them and hopefully soon will be teaching them about the restored gospel as well. The baptismal service was wonderful and lots of good testimonies given.

Sunday was the confirmation and our bishop gave this sister a wonderful blessing! She has already been assigned visiting teachers and has an assignment herself as well:) She is the best! We also had dinner with a less active member who is a returned missionary and said that she was hoping to go to church next week!:)

Lots of great things happening over here!! I love being a missionary!! The church is true!! Have a great week y'all!

Love Sister Mauck

 

The Lord Prepares People for the Gospel

9.8.15

So because it was labor day we were not able to email yesterday because all the public libraries were closed, but in the mean time we had a great Labor day and spent the end of it in 2 Family Home Evenings.

So I have to tell you about the end of last P-day as well. One of the members in our area took us out to eat, as well as another member, at Texas Roadhouse which was really sweet of her. Anyways we were getting ready to leave and the waitress comes and asks if it was altogether and the member who was not paying said that the money maker in the group was going to be paying for it, teasing the member and she was like I am taking the ticket but rolled her eyes at the other member. The waitress asked jokingly if she would pay for her meal as well. The paying members said sure on one condition, "If you let these young ladies teach you about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ." the waitress said of course I would. I am glad that I didn't drop my mouth when that happened because I could not believe what had just happened. The waitress proceeded to tell us when we could meet with her and where she lived. Later that week we had this wonderful lesson with her and realized how inspired it was that we had went there for dinner! She has been so prepared for the gospel.

We are so excited about this weekend because we will be attending a baptismal service of the lady who got married about a month ago. She is progressing so well and is so excited about her own baptism. Watching her progression in the gospel has truly blessed my life and helped me to realized how blessed I have been to have been able to work with her! The other really cool thing about this baptism is that an 8 year old girl will be baptized in the same service, how cool?? The little girl’s parents are super into missionary work and have invited lots of people to this service and I cannot wait to see the fruits that come from it!:)

Hope you all have a great week! And I will talk to you all soon:)

Love Sister Mauck

Humble Ourselves and Act on Faith

8.31.15

Hey Y'all

We had a really great week over here, lots of interesting things happened but as much is expected being a missionary. On Tuesday last week we had the mission conference I had mentioned in the last email. It was really great! It was also very long but man was there lots of stuff in it. One thing that we did was role played, just random scenarios where we invited someone to do something, and our mission president pulled out his iPad and videoed us doing it and then he put it all up on the big screen. Talk about nerve racking. But it made me realized that our teaching elevated just because there was a video on us but really we should always be bold and teach with inspired questions because we are on the Lord’s errand. So that is something we worked on though out the rest of the week. We also talked about Alma 32. That is the chapter that lots of us associate with faith, it is the chapter that talks about faith being like a seed and how important it is to nourish it and if we do not, our testimony will wither away. But when I was studying it before we went to the conference I realized how much that chapter is also about humility. I underlined every time that the chapter said humble or a form of that word and it said it more than ten times in that one chapter. This really shows us that we must humble ourselves and act upon our faith to receive the blessings that we need and ask for.

One thing that we get to do in this area is help with the Bishop Store house and put food orders together for people. I love doing this and being able to put together something to help someone who really needs it. At the end of the service this week we took someone's order who was not able to make it to the church to get it. We went and visited with this lady and talked about Alma 32 and talked to her about a few of the things that we learned about the chapter while we were in our zone conference the day before and she really enjoyed reading scriptures and she came to church Sunday and it was a big step for her and her family. They had a little daughter that got baptized a little while ago and we were not able to see her on Wednesday when we dropped the order off but we saw her at church on Sunday and it was the cutest thing, after I gave her mom a hug she just kept looking at me and I told her she was allowed to give me a hug if she wanted to and she ran towards me and give me the biggest hug like she had known me forever and it was the first time I had ever seen her.

The lady who got married about a month ago, had her baptismal interview on Friday and will be getting baptized in about a week and a half. We are soooo excited for her! She is so sweet and has read though the triple (Book of Mormon, Doctrine and covenants and Pearl of great Price) and now her and her husband are working on reading the bible from the beginning. She attends church every Sunday and loves it. We love seeing her ever Sunday and we learn something from her every time we meet with her.

Yesterday we had a missionary Fireside and it was awesome. It was really cool because it was not just our ward but we had 5 sets of missionaries working together to put it all together. It was 3 wards coming together and the fireside was on "Recognizing the spirit" and it was really great. We showed the video "Because He Lives" which was the Easter video that the church put out this year. It was great, just a little video all about Christ and what he did for us. Then we showed the Patters of Light 3 part videos by Elder David A Bednar. Those videos are so amazing, I would highly recommend them, they are 2 -3 minutes. We also had a handful of members bare testimonies after each of the videos and the primary kids sang for the opening and part of the closing songs. Really a wonderful uplifting service!

Hope you all are doing well and learn lots from the studies you have. School starts over here at Virginia Tech today, so for all those who are getting ready to start school good luck this year! Have a great week and I will talk to you all again soon!

Love Sister Mauck

The Gospel Truly brings Happiness to ALL!

8.24.15

Hey there!

Sorry I didn't update you last week. It always throws me off when we have P-day on Wednesday. We have been having a lot of good things going on over here in the east though! We have 5 people who have accepted to be baptized in the near future and have a handful of others who want to do lots to change their life.

We had a lesson with a man this week and were talking to him about how important it is to turn all our challenges over to Christ. As we were talking about this I brought up a quote by Brad Wilcox, which I do often which is, "No unclean thing can dwell with God, But no unchanged thing will even want to." While I said this the thought came to my mind that Christ forgets everything we do if we truly repent of it. Christ has felt all our pains and sorrows and Christ knows all our sins and when we ask for forgiveness that means that he has to remember them know more. So as we repent we are letting Christ forget those sins when we truly apply that atonement and do not dwell on our mistakes and just let the atonement work in our life. I know that the atonement is real and that we can apply it, and when we let it work in our lives we will truly be blessed for it and will be happy again when we can let that guilt free.

Another family that we have been working with is a single mother who is a less active member and her daughters are not members but have lots of questions about God and she has been interested in getting back to church. This week we went over and taught them, her girls are 8 and 12, and brought over our stake president’s daughter who is 16 and she worked with the girls really well. We talked about Alma 32 and how important it is to have faith in our lives and we did a little activity at the end where we put a box of animal crackers in a bag and my companion knew what was in the bag and she told the girls what was in it and they didn't believe her and we related it to faith. It was really cute and the best lesson we have had with the girls and the spirit was really strong there.

Yesterday we got a text from this couple who we tracted into the week previous and it was really interesting. So a little back ground knowledge, when we tracted into this family they told us we could come in and he said that he wanted us to tell him something that he hadn't already heard. He said that he knew all about Christ and that we probably didn't have anything new to tell him. And then we told him about the restoration. When we asked him to read the Book of Mormon he said no and then we told him how it is comparable to the bible and showed him the foot notes. He told us that when we showed him that they work together that he would read it. Then we invited him to be baptized and he said that being baptized was just a show for others. Um in the bible it says that it is a commandment to be baptized and we talked a little about how Christ was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Then he said he would think about doing it again now that it would be his choice and if it was not in front of a whole bunch of people. So that was our first lesson then yesterday he texted us that he had God on his mind and asked us what he should do, may I say he texted us while we were at church. We texted him back and told him to read the book of Mormon Alma 34, and what he was thinking about. He told us that he was worried about going to hell for all the bad things he had done and that he wanted to make it all right but wasn't sure how to do that. Hello plan of salvation, right? This guy is really cool and wants so badly to follow Christ. I am so glad that he let us in instead of turning us away like he said he had done to lots of missionaries in the past.

Lots of good missionary work going on over here in Christiansburg and we have really learned lots. We have a conference this week with our mission president and our preparation for it was reading about commitments in preach my gospel and studying Alma 32. I am really excited about it. I hope you all are doing well and hope to hear from you soon!

Love Sister Mauck

Dare to be a Mormon

8.12.15

Hello all!

Hope all is well! We had a pretty great week this last week and have met some really cool people this week. These last couple weeks we have had lots of appointments that have been falling though and have prayed a lot to have people put in our path who are ready to receive the gospel and the Lord really has blessed us.

First off School in Christiansburg started yesterday (The 11 of august, yes that early) kind of felt bad for the kids having to go back that early but lots of them were excited to go. Anyways, during our dinner appointments with the members we have been sharing the Mormon Message, Dare to Stand Alone by Thomas S Monson, who have kids school ages and sharing the scripture Joshua 1:9 afterward. In the Mormon Message the prophet shares a rhyme that he remembered from his childhood memories:

Dare to be a Mormon,

Dare to stand alone,

Dare to have a purpose firm,

Dare to make it known!

I think it works with missionary work lots but it works well with just being a member of the church. It’s really cool to hear stories from the kids in the last year how they stood up for what they believe in. I love being able to relate with them because living in a place where there really are few members makes it hard sometimes but when we do so many blessings and opportunities come from it!

We have been working a lot with less active members here in Christiansburg lately and have seen a lot of miracles come from it! One of my favorite people I have met on my mission, Brother Laue, loves the church and has been a member for a long time but when he remarried he left the church because he just went with his wife. When we first got in the area him and his wife were the first referral we got to go and work with them. His wife loved the church but had so many obligations with her church, and it was the one she had grown up in. But sadly she just passed away like a week or so ago and we have been working with brother Laue a lot and he came to church on Sunday. He was afraid to leave the church he had been in for 32 years now because his pastor told him that if he left the church it would fall apart without him but we made a  promise to him that he will make a bigger difference, especially in his family coming to the Mormon church. He is a really sweet older guy who is raising a few of his great grand kids and now a few of them are our investigators.

Another less active we have been working with is the sweetest lady. She is an RM who has one of the strongest testimonies I have ever heard. She loves the church and as we have talked about the atonement a lot, she told us she will be to church next Sunday! Yeah!!

One other less active we have been working with is Awesome! He just randomly came to church and he had not been since he was younger, was baptized at the age of 8 and didn't go much after that so he is almost like an investigator and he loves the church and wishes he would have gone with his extended family more when he was younger.

One of the most recent converts in the ward we got and visit once a week just to keep up with her. Anyways last week at the end of the week she called us and asked if we could change where we were having our lesson and she asked us if we could have it at the laundry mat. Weird but we went. But it ended up being a tender mercy because we met this really cool guy in the process. This guy was waiting around for his stuff to finish and we started talking to him. He told us he was raised catholic but didn't love it the older he got. And just a year or so ago he came out gay... but when he told us he said he didn't agree with it. He told us that he was a republican and that he voted against gay marriage being legalized. He wanted to learn more and wants to do anything he can to follow God. He told us that at one point in his life he didn't believe there was a god but now he can’t deny that there is a God.

Also last week, on Saturday, we attended a wedding of one of our investigators and it was the sweetest simplest wedding. There was like 9 or 10 people there. She is the investigator and he has just recently started going back to church. She is really excited to now be baptized in the next couple weeks. She is another one of the favorite people I have met on my mission!:)

There really is a lot of cool things going on here in Christiansburg! So in Christiansburg we have to share a building to the town directly north of us, Blacksburg and lots of people in the ward have talked about how they really want a new building especially the older group, the ones who have been there for a long time. And this past week we had over 170 people at church and when we first got here I am pretty sure that there were only 150 some attending church and it is really exciting to see the growth of this ward in just under 2 months. It is really awesome to have elders and sisters in one ward and being able to work together so well with them and with the ward who really wants to do missionary work. I love being a full time missionary!!:)

Hope all y'all are doing well and would love to hear from you!

Love Sister Mauck

 

 

The Lord Watches Over Us

8.3.15

Hey!

Hope y'all are doing well! I had a wonderful week, crazy but great! It was more the end of the week that was crazy. One of our crazy experiences we had on Friday, we(me and one of my Sister training leaders, we were on exchanges that day) were driving home from Pembroke, from a zone meeting and we were about a mile out of the city and the girl sitting in the back of the car yells, "It's a baby Bear," the other 3 missionaries in the car, including me thought she was talking about a statue and as I continued driving I looked in the rearview mirror and there was a real baby bear, upside down in the air and it had been hit by the car right behind us, along with the baby bear in the air was a large part of a car as well. The sister who saw the bear first said that it was running towards our car. It was the craziest thing, I am really glad the Lord was watching over us that day because it really was a close call.

Later that day we had some wonderful lessons and the spirit was really strong. We went to one more lesson that night and in the middle of the lesson our phone was going crazy with calls. And it was one of my family members and when we got home later that night we called our mission president and got  very special permission from our mission president for me and my companion to go to lunch with Donna and her family and Sam and his family the next day. So Saturday we helped a family move in, went to lunch with the family for an hour, exchanged back and then went and moved another family. It was the craziest exchange I had ever been apart of. But nonetheless it was a great experience!

Yesterday after we had church we went to see this guy who said we could come back and he was home so we told him we would be back soon. We got a hold of some members to come to the lesson with us and it was a great lesson. Toward the end of the lesson I asked him how he could come to know what we had thought him was true. He said that he already knew it was true. He said that he had a friend when he was younger that talked to him about the book of mormon and that at this time in his life he had been trying to quit smoking. It was really cool to see how the Lord really had prepared him for the message of the restoration!

Hope you all are doing well and spreading the gospel too:) Have a great week, hope to hear from y'all soon!

Love Sister Mauck

God Prepares People for the Message of the Restoration

7.27.15

What a week it has been, all over the place. Let us take it one day at a time.

Monday: We had a fun P-day and had dinner at our stake presidents house with the elders in the area and they shared a really awesome message with them and we received a couple referrals from them. Later that night we went and knocked on a door because a member told us that there was a family on this street and we had knocked on a couple of the doors on that street, they didn't give us a name or exactly where they lived but we were sent to that area for a reason. So we went and knocked on one of the random doors on this street and a really nice lady answered and invited us in and she told us that she wanted to get back to church. We talked about the savior and the book of Mormon and she was really excited to learn more about it and her grandkids were excited to learn more about it as well.

Tuesday: We had dinner with a member and I left my book of Mormon there but she lived really far out and we couldn't turn around because we were running late for interviews with or mission president (if there is anything you should not be late for it is that) We ended up being on time and I learned lots of wonderful things from him. One thing that he talked about was that we must live a life with purpose and inspiration. He talked about how important it is to apply the things that we learn from the spirit (inspiration) to our lives. Really great interview!  And later that night we also found a new investigator.

Wednesday: We had day of falling though appointments ALL day so we went and had a lesson with the lady who we met on Monday, the one that was really prepared by the Lord. She had great questions and was really excited about church on Sunday and talked about going to church Sunday.  We also told her a little about the word of wisdom and she though it was really cool and wanted to try to start following and living it. She also wanted to keep reading the book of Mormon because she loved it so much. And a couple funny things from that day. We went and knocked on a door by a referral from a member who we had seen. A lady came out and told us she was not really interested and told us that she knew all about that Mormon thing because her neighbor’s daughter had a boyfriend that was a member of the church at one point in his life. We told her that we could answer questions and she said she had no problem. It was just really interesting that she thought she knew it all because of the relationship she had with someone that knew it really well. And the actual funny thing that happened was the member called us that I had left my book with and she said that she wanted to bring it to our house. She got there and started talking about the people who owned it and that they had 2 and a half kids. At first I didn’t catch it and when she left my companion was laughing really hard... How do you have 2 and a half kids. haha

Thursday: We had Correlation today (Correlation: a meeting that we have with our Ward Mission leader each week to talk about the things that are going on in the area and tell him if we need any help with anything.) Anyways we had it at the library, terrible idea because we had to whisper like the entire time. It got to the point after whispering for a time that that we all lost it and couldn't speak with out laughing. We have decided that we needed to not have it there again. One of the elders sitting right across from me was kind of quiet and then all the sudden he was like I can’t hear anyone because I am in a jungle over here. We all looked over at him and he had a plant that was all over him and it was just kind of funny, maybe one of those you had to be there moments haha.  But at the end of the correlation the WML give a wonderful spiritual thought of how important it is to ask questions when we are teaching. (Alma 32:7-11)

Friday: This day was really weird day. Although it started off with a wonderful district meeting. We had talked about how we were going to help one of our investigators, who we had planned to see with a member later in the day. We had been running a little bit late to his lesson and felt kind of bad because the member was already there but we parked our car and started walking toward the member to talk about what we were going to be teaching him and before we got to her the guy across the street came out and asked if we were going to see Leo. With a smile on my face I said that we were:) and then he apologized to us and said that he had passed away from heart complications the day before. My mouth probably dropped open. I was taken away and didn't know what to say or what to think. After we had talked to him for a moment the member comforted us and told us that we had been preparing him for the spirit world. I realized that we had talked to him in the 4 weeks we knew him about the plan of salvation. Heavenly Father really has a plan for everyone that we come in contact with. I have really understood the plan of salvation a lot more lately and really see why it is important for people to know about the plan of salvation especially after losing a loved one.

Later in that day though we were knocking on the door of this guy we were trying to find and he wasn't home so we knocked on a few more and the second door we knocked on a tall guy, opened the door and we talked to him about who we were and what we do and it was really cool because he asked when church was and we told him and told him we could get a ride for him:)

Saturday:  We went to a baptism for the sweetest 12 year old boy the elders had been teaching. Seeing that ordinance makes every hard time and every hard thing alllll worth it!

Sunday: The tall man we met came to church, LOVED IT and told us that he wanted to come back and that his mom would enjoy that church! And we met a less active that wants us to come and teach her girls more often:)

Missionary work really is the lord's work. As missionaries and members, when we are more obedient to the things we know we are supposed to do, the Lord's blessings poor out on us. If you imagine the lord's blessings as rain that flows upon us all the time. When we are not receiving blessings it is not because the Lord has neglected us, it is because we have closed ourselves off and put up an umbrella. The blessings are right there and falling off to the side. We must close our umbrella to partake in all the blessings that our heavenly father has to offer us. So what are you going to do to close your Spiritual umbrella? I know that our Heavenly Father really does love us and wants to bless us! I love this gospel and the knowledge of the plan of salvation that comes with it! I know that it is all true.

I love you all and hope that you are all well.

Love Sister Mauck

Don't Give Up On Promptings

7.20.15

Hey Everyone!

We had a really busy week! We went to parts of our area that have not been visited in a long time (a little town called Riner, VA) and met lots of cool people out there. We got to meet lots of less active members and lots of them were really nice. Also while we were out there we found this guy in our area book that had been interested in the church a little while ago but the missionaries never went back to visit him is what he said. He said that he still had lots of question because he was kind of upset with God because his wonderful wife died when she was kind of young like 15 years ago and also had a son that died when he was very young. He said that he had lots of questions and we told him that the church still had lots of answers and he was really excited to learn more about it again. We got his number and are really excited to teach him!

We had a fun relief society activity this week as well, an ice cream social, it was pretty great. We had 3 less active members that came and an investigator who really got even more excited about her baptism date after she had met all the wonderful women in the ward and how much it felt like a second family. I really love this new ward and love working here. The members here love the missionary work and come to lessons with us all the time and really have seen blessings come to our investigators and less active members we are talking with progress as we involve the ward.

I had a really cool experience on Sunday. So before this weekend we had been looking through the records of members and trying to pick out some less active members we wanted to work with. One name in particular stood out to me. So we went and tried to contact him and couldn’t find where he lived. So we told the elders to go and find him because he was now in their area. They couldn't find this less active so I didn’t think much about it anymore. Next time we had ward council I wanted to bring his name up to the bishop and see if he would be some who would be receptive to missionaries. So yesterday at church there were a lot of new faces that I hadn't seen before and we were in gospel principles class and they went around the class and has us introduce ourselves and the guy that had stuck out to me was in the class. So we went and talked to him after church and he said he was interested in getting back to church. It was really cool to see the face of the name that had really stuck out to me. A testimony was born in me to never give up on strong spiritual promptings that I have though out my life and especially on my mission.

Funny story of the week: So we were at a lesson with someone for the first time with a member who just got back from her mission like less than a month ago and we were done with the lesson and asked him if he had any questions. He said that he had a personal question and so we said he could ask it. He asked if as missionaries we were like nuns and asked if we were ever going to get married. We explained that we are only on missions for a little while and told him that family is really important to our Heavenly Father. He then asked if we were married yet and we explained that we were not and then He then asked me personally again if I was married. Of course I said no  and asked him why. Then he asked if I get asked out a lot on my mission and I told him no and then he told me that maybe if I didn't wear the ring I have on my ring figure that I would get asked out more often, all three of us on the couch just laughed really hard. (the ring I wear is a CTR ring and the only finger it will fit on is on my ring finger haha) it was kind of weird but super funny.

Love y'all and hope all is well!

Love Sister Mauck

God gave us Talents for a Reason!

7.13.15

Hey there Everyone!

Hope you all are still doing well. I have had a crazy week still trying to adjust to the new area and what is our area and what is the Elder’s area but I think we are getting that all figured out. In the mean time we have met lots of new people; actually the crazy thing is I have met like 4 people with the name Courtney and we are teaching 2 of them. It must be a sign that I really was supposed to be here;) Anyways we have been able to teach lots of people here as well. There is a recently returned missionary here who LOVES to go out and teach with us and she comes out with us often and she is the best. She has already taught me a lot and given great insights of how to better teach. The people here in Christiansburg are so nice and the ward here is sooo excited about missionary work and really wants to work together as members making this a combined effort, a work that is all the Lords and it makes it so much more exciting and much more success comes from it. When we first got here we had no investigators who had accepted the invitation to be baptized but now we have 3 of them who are so excited to be baptized and are excited to come to church and learn more about the great and marvelous work.

Yesterday we had a lesson with an older guy who has been talking with missionaries for a long time but he has never talked with sisters before and it seems like just having different insight he has progressed so much more and hopefully in the next couple weeks he will be at church. Anyways thought I would tell a funny story about him. So we took a different member then we had the 2 times before and we sat down to get ready to start and the member was introducing herself and talking about how she had just moved from Utah and out of nowhere he asked if she was going to be bringing him some string beans soon. We all just looked at each other and she said no maybe I could bring you some cookies sometime. And we just laughed a little when his response was oh well I just wanted to make it easier on you. We had a great lesson once we said a prayer and invited the spirit but he is quite the interesting guy. 

Also yesterday we were prompted to just stop by this guy who was kind of on the way to the investigator we were going to try to go and see next. The guy we were prompted to go see never really has time and so we just stop by and try to get a return appointment so we thought we were not going to be there for a long time, it’s good that we didn't have a scheduled appointment with someone else because this was a great way to end the night we actually had a lesson with the guy, we were prompted to go and see. So we show up to his house and he was having a hard time and offered for us to come in but we didn't have another sister member with us so we could not go inside so he grabbed us some chairs for us to sit on outside, grabbed his Book of Mormon and we shared a scripture with him, Ether 12:27, which is one of my favorites, I would highly recommend it but he loved it. So quick insight about this guy he is a film producer and he LOVES music. So we were talking to him about how we had this idea of helping him learn a little bit of how to read music, so we could see him more often and share a message with him after the piano lessons. We mentioned that we knew how to sing because that is how we knew a little piano but we could try to help him learn the piano a little. Then he asked us to sing for him, without hesitation we ran to our car and grabbed our hymn books and sang “Come, Come Ye Saints” for him and I was able to harmonize and he was almost in tears by the end. He asked us if he could say a prayer to thank God for the love he was feeling. I teared up during his prayer a little because the spirit was so strong. Moments like that is what missionary work is all about and after that he said that he would be baptized as soon as he understood the doctrine a little more and we are so excited for him.

Having that experience I gained a testimony that God gives us talents for a reason and that I was called to a place that I could share my ability to sing with someone and it would make a difference in their life. Heavenly Father has a purpose for all of us and gives us things that will bless our lives so much. I also gained a testimony of how praising our Savior and our heavenly father through hymns can really invite the spirit into wherever we are. I love this gospel and everything that is associated with it!

Hope you all are doing well and that you are all using the talents that Heavenly Father has given to you. I know that you all have many and that He loves each and every one of you dearly! Hope you all have a great week and I will talk to you soon!

Love Sister Mauck