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