Great Week

4.26.16

Hey there y'all!

We really had a super good week over here in Hurrikin, WV:) So last Monday after email we went with some sister that serve in the same ward as us and we went to this world famous glass blowing company called Blenko glass. It was the coolest thing ever and they make those things soooooo quick. They all have different jobs and it is crazy hot in there so they have a hundred different fans blowing. But it is still pretty cool to watch. While I was standing there watching it some guy started talking to me and we couldn't hear very well but we talked about the gospel a little but he came up to us later and told us, while we were looking around the gift shop that what religion you are associated with didn't matter and some other things that didn't make me feel comfortable but nonetheless the glass place was pretty cool!

Wednesday we went driving out on this road literally called Big Scary Rd and there is definitely a reason it is called that. It is a super curvy road with 100 blind spots that really only has enough room for one and a half cars, so the entire time I am driving on that road I am praying that we will see the car in not a blind area. Anyways we went to visit a member out there and she was not feeling well and we didn't want to go early to our next appointment and I thought we should stay in the area but the last thing I wanted to do was track on BIG SCARY! But guess what we decided to do... tract a few houses. Anyways we knocked on the first house... no one answered and we were about to call it quits. But we did not and decided to knock on 3 more doors. The next one we knocked on was on a super steep drive way and a cool looking A-framed house and we knocked on the door, no answer and we found out as we turned to walk away a man drives up... most awkward thing like ever... but he was excited when we told him that we were missionaries. He said that he could see us from a distance and was really hoping that we were not robing his house. He said that he thought about just driving on because he did not want to have to deal with a situation like that but he came anyways hahaha. Anyways he was super nice and wanted us to come back to teach him more about the Book of Mormon and where it came from when his wife could be there. Other funny thing that happened while we were talking to him, he was telling us about his goats and that their names were solo, Jacob and Esau, Rachel and Leah and they had 2 goats run away and come back and their names were Prod and Iggal lol good one;) Anyways we went back a few days later and they are both pretty excited to read the Book of Mormon. They are not sure about church yet because they love the church they started going to but we are excited to keep working with them.

Also Friday we were tracting and someone let us right in their house and she said that she was agnostic but said it may be a sign from god because she had just moved in 2 days ago and we also told her that we had passed that place a few times wanting to tract it when we had time to! Super cool, she is 20 and excited to learn from us and also said that she was grateful that we were not like the missionaries that she had heard about that forced things on her. She was super sweet!:)

Hope you all are doing well and I cannot wait to hear from you all. This last picture is a picture of the missionaries in my ward right after our fireside on Sunday. They are a pretty fun group for the most part. We are making the west Virginia sign by the way:) Keep up the good work and love and miss you!

Love Sister Mauck

Share Goodness

4.18.16

Hey there!

Hope You all had a lovely week! I sure did. This past week we got to watch a sweet baptism of a lady whom was being taught by some other sisters in our ward but she had asked us to sing at her baptism so My companion and I sang "Abide with me 'tis even tide" and it was a super cool experience with a very strong spirit at that service! :) Then the next day she got confirmed on a missionary Sunday where I and one of the Elders in the ward spoke and the 3 sets of missionaries in the ward sang, although a typical missionary song it was very sweet and brought the spirit into the sacrament meeting very strong, "Ill go where you want me to go." I was asked to speak on how I prepared to serve a mission and pointers I would give to those who are preparing. I did that but to start my talk I talked about how important it is to always be prepared and how you could relate that to the second coming. It was a really cool talk to prepare for and I learned a lot of things and realized a lot of different things that I have been able to learn on my mission. Not only spiritual things but how to deal with people, how to take care of a house(Kind of) but at least to live on my own. I guess the bill paying part will come when I go to college but nonetheless a mission really is for everyone and you can learn so many different things from it!

One experience I learned from this week and hope you all can too, happened while we were at an investigators house with a member of the church. She had a friend over and her friend was bandaging her up because our investigator had just had surgery but after we had been there for a few minutes she asked us what Mormons believe. She said that she had a handful of family that was members and friends too but no one had ever shared what we believed. Friends and family, Never be afraid to share what you believe, who Jesus Christ is and how he has helped you. If you are not sure how to go about it, pray and He will guide you as to what to say! Anyways we share the restoration with her and her friend that was investigating again and she loved it and cannot wait to learn more. She asked where she could get a Book of Mormon and we gave one to her and she said she would try to have the whole thing read in a week... and the pamphlets we gave her and look into doing things on family search.org She couldn't wait to read the Book of Mormon. There are people that are looking, and I know it!

We have a long transfer this transfer and it is 7 weeks and so transfers are next week, I cannot believe how fast it has really gone. And then the next one will be a normal transfer, 6 weeks and then my last transfer (I really cannot believe how fast that has gone) but will be 5 week to get it all back to normal. They had to do that because they just extended the MTC stay for English speaking back to 3 weeks, probably a good thing, maybe hard but good:)

Tonight we get to go and teach a family that are not members a family home evening and we are teaching it on the gospel of Jesus Christ and I am really excited to teach it. The mom is working on not smoking and the 7 year old daughter cannot wait to turn eight so she can be baptized:) Seriously the cutest thing ever! Moments like that are what I live for now:)

I hope you all have a good week and never be afraid of what you believe, share it with others so they can feel of that goodness! Love you all!

Love Sister Mauck

Thessalonians 5:22-23

3.21.16

Hello There!

I have been so excited to tell you all of the experience I was able to have this week! But I will save that for last because like they say you have to save the best for last. So first a kind of funny but crazy story. Each week we go and visit this sweet Hungarian lady and she feeds us every Friday. She is older and needs lots of help so we try to do something for her each time we are there. This past time she needed her dog’s nails cut so she went and did something for a few minutes after she had gotten us the tools to do it. And so we began the journey, I cut the first one and said I was not going to cut anymore because it freaked me out so my companion said she wouldn't mind cutting them. So after the first paw the dog started getting restless, he is a little dog but it was still hard because she was so squirmy. But we were making progress. Then she came back in and tried to help and at this point the dog was getting mad. We did finish but if you were to look at my arms after... it looked like I got attacked by a vicious dog. I was not able to put anything on it for a few day. But thank goodness for essential oils, tee tree is the best!

Next we have been doing a lot of tracting lately because we have been struggling a lot lately with teaching appointments and falling through, but with that hard time we have had Heavenly Father lead us to a few families that have been recently looking for churches and we are pretty excited that we have found a few people that are willing to let us teach them. It really is a miracle when someone you have never met says that you can come back and teach them about Jesus Christ, they must feel the spirit because although we are dressed nice and have the name of Jesus Christ on our name tags we are still perfect strangers to them. I know there is some divine intervention there!

Lastly one of those moments I had on my mission that I will never forget and will keep me faithful for the rest of my life. And really it was so simple. We were tracting and the fourth house we knocked on let us right in. The house before was sadly an atheist and the lady that let us in knew that. That was one of the hardest things to know that the house before had no hope in getting through this life. That this is it, really devastating. Nonetheless the lady that let us in, She asked us questions of what we believed and at that moment I gained a testimony of how important it is to just dive straight into the restoration lesson which we did right after mentioning a few How To Begin Teaching points. Anyways I mentioned her neighbor being an atheist because that came up in our conversation and I was prompted to pulled out my Book of Mormon and to read Alma 30:44, I have never in my life had such a strong conviction that the Book of Mormon is true as I read that verse of scripture. My heart was so full I thought it would pop out of my chest. I felt a burning sensation that I knew with all my heart that it was the word of God and I could not in any shape or form deny it. I have heard of experiences like that, and although the sweet lady did not accept a Book of Mormon I know that she let us in so that I could have that moment where I once again came to know that the Book of Mormon was true for myself.

I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and will never question that. I hope you all can find that testimony for yourselves too. Hope you all have a great week!

Love Sister Mauck