5.4.15
Family and friends!
I am soo sorry that I have missed so much in the last few
weeks. We have been more than busy the last few Mondays!
Let’s start off with the most exciting news! We are having a
baptism this next Saturday. This lady has been taking the missionary
discussions for a really long time and has wanted to be baptized for longer
than I have been here but the missionaries really never listened to her. My
companion and I talked to the mission president about her situation and he
helped us to figure out a way that we could help her progress forward and she
is now able to be baptized:) It will be my first one and she has invited so
many people to the service which will help with finding new people for us to
teach! Ya gotta love missionary work!
So I have to tell you about my new companion now that I am
actually getting to know her a little more. She is super funny and is really
easy to get along with. She is actually Samoan ( I won’t tell her that some of
you thought she was Tongan, she would take some offense to that) but came to
her mission from Alaska and it is kind of funny because when people ask her
where she is from she says Alaska and then people have weird reactions on their
face and then she proceeds to tell them that she is from a hot sauna and then
moved to a freezer box and she is not use to the cold haha. She is super funny
to joke around with too. So before I proceed to tell you about some experiences
I have to tell you about our first night here. So when we got to Elkins we
didn’t go home, we just got straight to work and then ate dinner with our
bishop and we had not been home yet. So when we were on our way home it was
storming really hard. We kind of live in the woods and she started getting a
little scared and when we pulled up our drive way and it said no trespassing,
she said when we finally got in to the house that she thought that she was in a
horror movie and when we pulled into the garage she asked me where we were
*face palm*. She said that she was never really scared or jumpy before she got
to WV but I am not sure if I believe her 100% of the time. One day we were
running late and she forgot something in the house and I was sitting in the
truck so she ran inside and I honked and I have never seen someone jump so high
from hearing a horn, I about died laughing as I proceeded to try to drive. We
have many stories like that so I am not sure if she was never jumpy before she
came out.
So another funny story. Last Sunday not yesterday but the
one before we were leaving the house to go help one of our investigators get ready
for church so I jumped into the truck and realized I forgot the keys in the
house, so I went to open the door and about died (We never lock our house) and
realized that my companion who is really scared of where we live, had locked
the door. WE stared at each other for a little while and then called the land
lord, and realized that he was about 40 minutes away in the next town over and
was not going to be home too soon. And then I had this “brilliant” idea. I had
left my bathroom window open, perfect how hard could it be to get into the
house. SO after my companion had stood on my back for a good 10 minutes she
finally got the screen loose and then another 5 minutes later we got it off.
Then she sat on my shoulder and I lifted her into the house, not sure where
that strength came from because I had been laughing this whole time because of
course we would lock ourselves out on the day we have to go to church. Needless
to say we were only 15 minutes late to ward counsel and we did not even have
time to go over to help our investigator to church.
We have been very blessed here in Elkins to have the work
moving forward so well. We always have people to teach, and sometimes don’t
have enough time to get all the lessons in that we do in one day. We have 9
people who have set a goal and have a date that they want to be baptized and we
are so excited for that to all happen. We have been talking to lots of our less
active members as well and are hoping that we can help those people remember
the reasons why they wanted to be baptized and help them to come back to
church.
I have come to love this gospel more and more as I have been
on my mission. And as I study each day I learn more and more about it all and
it just starts to make more and more sense. I hope that as I continue to learn
more and more that people we teach will be more and more involved and excited
about the gospel as well. I am so glad that my family has stayed strong in the
gospel and that I was born into this wonderful gospel. The opportunity to serve
and to be a part of this great and marvelous work is more than a blessing to my
life and will continue to be! Being on my mission I have come to really
understand that God is our literal father in heaven who loves each and every
one of us so much and his glory and work is us and he just wants us to find a
way and strive to live with him again one day, and that is only possible though
the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I love you all and hope everyone is well. Hope you enjoy the
pictures as I have been slacking for a while now. Hope you all have a great
week and keep up the great work at home.
Love,
Sister Mauck
