Another Great Week

3.30.15

Hey Y'all,

Hope you are all doing well! I had another great week here in West Virginia! Last Monday we had a game of soccer with the Elders in our area and a game with some of the members here and it made me realize how out of shape I really am, but it was still lots of fun nonetheless.

Our investigators who are progressing the most came again to church!:) And they are getting really excited about their wedding, and so am I. Their kids are so cute. The 10 year old is always trying to read to the family because the mom and dad have a hard time reading but she loves reading to them all. She gets her 2 younger brothers together and they discuss what the Book of Mormon says and I wish I could see some of the discussions they have. Their dad says it is the cutest thing to watch them talk about it. Moments like these make being on a mission so worth it.

Saturday was so much fun! We went and helped one of our members in the morning with a pancake breakfast fundraiser and were able to talk to people about the new Easter video that is out #BecauseHeLives, an amazing video if you have not seen it take 3 minutes out of your life to see it, it is amazing!! ( http://www.mormon.org/easter ) Anyways we got to go and teach some lessons with our Ward mission leader after that. That is the first time he has been able to come out with us and he is so awesome, some of the little testimonies he bore strengthened my testimony. Later that night he took us out to dinner with the elders and that was lots of fun. His wife is the most bubbly person I have ever met:) She just laughs at everything she says and it is very contagious. Right before we went to dinner we were able to go and visit a little girl who recently got baptized but doesn't get to church very often and we made cupcakes with her it was the cutest thing ever:) Then later that night we went to the Women’s broadcast at church and were able to bring a treat to share:) That broadcast was great and I loved the last talk from Henry B Eyring!

I hope you all have a great week. Transfers are next week, I am a little nervous about them but excited as well!

Love Sister Mauck

 

On a Spiritual High!!

3.23.15

Friends and Family,

What an amazing week (especially this weekend!) This past weeks weather has been a lot nicer. The end of last P-Day we were able to be outside and Play ultimate Frisbee. Super fun! In the process of being out for hours I got sunburned on my face. Didn't even think that I would need sunscreen this early in the year but I guess so.

Tuesday we had a relief society dinner and were able to have a handful of the people we were teaching there. We also met lots of less active members there and a lady who had been taught by missionaries before but had something come up but was ready to talk to missionaries again. She is in the Elders area but we are going to try to talk them into letting us teach her.  If we could get all of our less active members to come to church we would have to get a new church because there wouldn't be enough room to keep them all there. I love these ward things because we get to meet so many people and mingle with the members we do not really get to see outside of church that often. Next month we are going to be having a western themed ward activity and my companion told our bishop that I knew how to swing dance, so I am now going to try to teach swing dancing to the ward, we will see how well that goes haha.

One of the investigators who we were able to pick up asked us how to help her stop smoking and we told her about the stop smoking workshop so hopefully she will continue to do well. She is one of our most progressing investigates and she is really fun to teach. Hopefully we will be able to get her husband as involved as she wants to be. We just picked her up last week and she is doing soo well.

On Friday we drove a little over half an hour to the closest sisters area for a sleep over. No we were not breaking rules and we went over there after we had finished for the day. Our mission president wanted us within 2 hours of the place he wanted us to be the next morning. The next morning we had to wake up a little earlier then normal and we drove down to a stake center where all the missionaries in the mission met up that morning. We all were excited to see the entire mission in one area and the coolest thing is why we were all there. We all went in to the chapel area sat down and read scriptures for a little while and then president had us all stand up while the apostle Elder D. Todd Christofferson entered the room with a member of the 70 and an area 70's. Then we all got to shake his hand and the conference began. The talk Christofferson gave was a question and answer and then he ended it with a powerful testimony and promised blessings on our entire mission. It was truly a once in a life time experience and I was so honored to be in his presence and learn from him for the short 2 hours we were in that conference. Before we left our mission president told us to exit quietly and take the spirit of that meeting back to our areas. And that we did.

Sunday we had 9 investigators at church. We usually have 0-2 each week and that sunday we had that many investigators at church. It was the coolest experience ever. Four of the investigators are on date and we also helped the couple pick a date to get married. It was an amazing experience. Later that night we went to visit a less active member because the appointment we had originally had canceled. I was really sad that it was canceled but what came of that experience reminded me that our heavenly father is always watching our for us. WE left that less active members house and saw this family outside so we went to talk to them and then ended up teaching them about the restoration and then asked her if she would want to be baptized and she said yes!! Hopefully we can continue to have that spirit that the apostle had with us as we continue to teach our investigators and strengthen our ward. I love this missionary work and weeks like this are what make the days that don't go well soooo worth it! I love this gospel and know that it is so true. I know that the savior lives!

Hope you all have a great rest of the week, keep up the great work and I will talk to you later!!

Love Sister Mauck

Traveling To and Fro

3.16.15

Hey!

We had a crazy busy week but it was a successful week nonetheless. So Tuesday we had exchanges which is when we trade companions for a day and I stayed in Elkins. I was able to get so many different insights on my teaching and things I can do better to be a better missionary. I love exchanges because it is so nice to get different incite on the people we are teaching and things we are doing. It is nice to be with someone who has been on their mission almost a year and a half because of the little things that they have tried out and things they have learned. I am so grateful for that opportunity.

So I had my normal companion back for half the day wendesday and then the next morning we had to wake up at 4:30 (ugggh) for another little exchange. I had to drive my companion 30 miles to go and pick up another trainee to take back to elkins that day. My companion went with another sister to this big meeting in Charleston that she had been invited to and learned so many things that we are now able to apply to our teaching. In the mean time I was with one of the sisters I met with in the MTC which is the coolest thing ever and we got to see the different things that we had learned since being there. We had a full day lined out and a few things fell through but our Heavenly Father had some other things in mind because when we had a few things fall through we went and talked to this family of 4 and are now teaching them and we were able to talk to so many different people on the street and teach lots of different lessons. Greenie power is what our companions said it was haha but really was a cool day.

Friday we had another long day of driving but when we got back we were still able to see a few people and the meeting that we had that day was wonderful. We have been able to apply many different things that we have learned from the week we had of training and learning and have seen so many blessings from it. 

I hope everyone is well where ever you are and would love to hear about the fun things you are doing and learning everyday!!

Love Sister Mauck

Looking for new ways to share the Gospel

3.9.15

Hey!

The highlight of my week was sacrament this weekend!! The first one we have had in 3 weeks!! The weather has finally been more like a lamb then a lion, and it is beginning to feel more like spring and I love it. We had a fast and testimony meeting because we had stake conference last week and there were some wonderful testimonies about how important it is for the ward to be involved with missionary work, all given by members which was really cool. Our bishop gave a very frank and bold testimony about how we need to get up and get out and tell people about the gospel to make our ward stronger because we have lost 14 active members of our ward in the last few months due to people moving. We have a wonderful bishop who is always looking for ways to help and be a part of the work:)

We had a really good week of teaching investigators. One thing that I have been working and am still working on because it is one of my weaknesses is inviting everyone we see to learn about the gospel. Not that I have anything to lose if I walk up to the people and start talking to them about the gospel and everything to gain, I just need to do it. I love the gospel and love learning new things about it so why is it soo hard to walk up to people in walmart and talk to them, is the question of the week. If anyone has any ideas as to how I could make that easier I would love to hear suggestions! Finding new ways to find people to teach was what our district leader talked about at our last meeting and has been one of our new goals.

We have been teaching a couple people of the Muslim faith and one that they do not believe which I think is so sad is that Jesus Christ is our savior. If I did not believe that. I cannot even imagine how hard life would be. I love my savior and am reminded everyday of how important he is to me! One of the other big things they have a hard time with is prophets and how they are on the earth today. I wish everyone could see how important prophets are in these latter days. I know that Thomas S. Monson is our prophet today and he receives modern day revelation for our church today that is need in this day in age.

I am so excited because we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to go down to Charleston on the 21st and hear an apostle talk to our entire mission. Elder Christofferson is coming and I am soo excited to learn something new from him and get some new incite from him on how to be a better missionary.

I love and miss you all and hope you are doing well!! Have a great week!!

Love sister Mauck

The Gospel is for EVERYONE

3.2.15

Hey family and friends!

It has been a slower week but nothing that is going to stop my companion and I. We were supposed to have 3 baptism this Saturday and they all fell through:( But we have learned a lot from it and learned different ways we can be teaching better.

So the cooooolest thing happened while I was emailing just now. I have been sitting next to this lady for about 20 minutes just emailing away and then the power goes out so I started talking to her and come to find out she has been looking for a church recently to be a part of. She had been trying one church but sounded really interested in what I had to say:D Anyways that is one thing that I have been trying to be better at lately is inviting EVERYONE to learn. I am not really shy around people I know but trying to talk to someone I don't know is a struggle but as I have come to know my Savior more and come to learn more about the gospel I really do want everyone to be a part of this gospel and receive all the blessing that are associated with it!

We had stake conference and we had both a 70's and an area 70's come and speak to us. The Clarksburg stake got a new stake presidency, and I never knew how much goes into the process of that. The area 70's speaker talked about how important it is to have Christ like attributes be a part of councils and meeting that we have in the church that way we can invite the spirit to be more present and to avoid the spirit of contention, doing the work of the Lord and not trying to do it all on our own.

I know that being on a mission has blessed my life tremendously and that it can bless the lives of so many others! There are so many promised blessings that come from being a part of this church especially if we do all we can to obey the commandments of our father in heaven. We also were able to listen to the president and his wife of the DC temple at conference and one thing he said was to always be worthy to hold a temple recommend even if we cannot attend often. I hope everyone is doing well!! I love and miss you all dearly and hope you have a great week!!

Love

Sister Mauck

Snow, Snow and more Snow!!!!

2.25.15

What a CRAZY week, more like a crazy weekend but nonetheless. My companion and I were able to attend a baptism where we gave the talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost. I had the talk on the Holy Ghost and have learned a really cool analogy about the Holy Ghost. Before Jesus was baptized, the Holy Ghost was watching over him in the shape of the dove. The dove was there watching over him and whispering guidance or testifying of truth when he saw needed but was not a constant companion. As soon as Christ was baptized the dove descended upon him as a constant companion, to always be there with him. I know that as soon as we were or are baptized we will have that constant companion of the Holy Ghost as we live worthy of it. The Holy Ghost is watching over those people who have not been baptized and is waiting so that he can come and be a constant companion.

So this past week we have had lots of snow, like enough to get stuck in our truck… twice. Anyway the day of the baptism was really bad and 2 of the people coming to the baptism (one was the one being baptized) missed the turn to the church and turned into the ditch and so right before we were going to get started on the baptism the police show up and help get the cars out. One of the cars started coming up the hill to come into the church and got stuck so a couple of us ran down to help him get up the hill so we could get started. Later that day my companion and I went to go see one of our investigators and we got stuck really bad. We were shoveling and pushing to get it unstuck for about 20 minutes but we got it unstuck. Then later that night we went to a members house because all our lessons had canceled on us because of the weather so we were there playing in the snow with them and then went inside to talk about missionary work for a while. My companion and I must have been prompted to leave because right when we were leaving outside there was someone trying to get out of the middle of the road and so we helped them and then started talking to them about who we are and what we do and they invited us back for a lesson, was a blessing that was after a long day. They walked up the hill to their house and I turned around in the truck and somehow got stuck again. So by the end of the day we had managed to see a baptism and get 4 cars/trucks unstuck in one day haha.

Church was canceled again and we were really worried that we weren’t going to have sacrament for 3 weeks in a row because this next Sunday is going to be stake conference but one of the bishopric members invited us over for a little church service and had gotten permission from the bishop to hold sacrament at their house which was so nice! There are wonderful members who are always willing to help out the missionaries.

One thing I have learned while on my mission is how important it is to have a meaningful personal study in the morning, not just randomly reading things but studying the scriptures and preach my gospel and mission materials. When I have a serious study in the morning it makes such a big difference in my day and I am able to use the things I study though out the day. The other day we went to meet one of our investigators and I had been studying about prayer in the book of Mormon that morning and was able to use a scripture about prayer and she love it and asked me to highlight it in her book! I love missionary work and the blessing and understand it has brought to my life! I hope you are all doing well at home and staying warm, its been pretty cold here but we have been able to keep warm. Hope you enjoy the pictures!!

Keep up the good work!

Love,

Sister Mauck