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