OHHHHH I get it now!!!

Ohhhhhhh wait really???? That was THE Opera House? Haha just kidding I already knew that. 
And hey guess what? President gave us permission to go see the Piano Guys perform there TONIGHT!!! Heyyyy I'm so excited! I've wanted to go inside for the last year and now I finally can! Woohoo!

This week was hectic as. It started off with MLC on Tuesday. We talked a lot about using the phones to actually put in our weekly information correctly. And President also wanted our opinions on a few "rules" that we've had. So that was a good discussion talking about what people really thought to be affective. There were many other great things said.

One other thing that stood out to me was when President was describing a HUGE meeting he was holding with an apostle. Can't remember what it was for, but he was hecka nervous. Well, this apostle before the meeting knelt and prayed with him and then told him to not be nervous because the meeting was now in the Lord's hands. I realized that "where 2 or 3 are gathered in [Christ's] name, there will [He] be also." As we figuratively turn the time over to the Lord during each meeting, and really let Him teach us what to say, we cannot go wrong. I've tried that this week and hope to do better at really trusting that He will guide my words.

As for the rest of the week, a lot of lessons. We have a few really awesome people we're teaching. Hansen is now on baptismal date for the 10th of November. He has such great faith! What a great guy!! Catherine is so awesome. She has a lot of questions but is overall looking for love and belonging in her life. I hope she knows that she can find that here. She's so nice. Julia is awesome. She has a lot of great questions and has felt God's love. She also cooked us a HUGE Taiwanese meal. Sooo yummy! 

Yvette just finished reading the Book of Mormon and hasn't decided if she will continue to come to church or not. We challenged her one more time tonight to be baptized. Idk what will happen, but all I know is that the Lord's will will be done. If she's not ready now, that's okay. My kids can teach her one day. A few other amazing people. Doowon is awesome. Ian just headed back for Taiwan, but I'm gonna miss him a lot. He's the man! It's great to teach here. I love it.

Umm all other thoughts..? I think my cousin Nathan said it well, the mission is hard because you give up all you had at home and daily get out of your comfort zone. Despite the difficulties, I love it. God will bless any one of His children when they follow His commandments. So follow them, and see what He has in store for you. I promise it's good. (maybe not Piano-Guys-at-the-Opera-house good, but still good). I'm just kidding, it'll be even better than that.

I love you all heaps! If you're wondering whats up over here, or if you recently got married or something like that and haven't told me, shoot me an email.  Love you all.

Elder Maxfield

We went to a baptism of a guy elder fang used to teach (he's been learning for 10 years..). Linda is a very interesting person. Hahha

This pig looked sooo yummy but we couldn't eat it.. So sad

Ian's in Taiwan now! Doowon is the homie though! 

Elder Ferguson ngatuvai and fang! 

中秋節快樂

Hello!! Happy moon festival everyone!! Aka mid-autumn festival!

This week was so awesome. Ian and Doowon did not get baptized, but that's okay, they're still preparing and still learning. They're both awesome and are really trying to follow the Lord. 

Tuesday was transfer days and we had to hang out with a sister for about 8 hours so that she had some sort of companion while she waited for her train. That was pretty fun. Hahaha she's super cool. One of my friends from earlier in the mission.

Thursday, Elder Fang set up a big BBQ with some investigators, members, and recent converts. It was pretty dang fun, and for those of you who saw my Facebook story, that was the view we had at the BBQ. Pretty nice. Well it was a big success and a lot of people showed up. That was really nice for one of our investigators especially. Catherine has felt pretty lonely recently and she was able to make some good friends at the BBQ. That was really good for her. She ended up staying until 1am, loooooong after elder fang and I had left. (yes we made curfew hahahha).

On Saturday we decided to go basketball finding, something I've never done before. I loved it. Even though my basketball skills are sub-par and I would rather be going for par instead of shooting hoops, it was a good time. We also made some good friends out of it and will be inviting them to activities soon. I'm pretty excited to see what comes out of our finding activities this transfer. Hopefully a lot!

Not much else is going on around here. Just a lot of teaching and a lot of talking to people. I hope that this upcoming transfer will be full of teaching and finding those people who have been prepared by the Lord. 

I've been reading the Saints book recently and am loving it! It depicts the lives of the 

early saints in a way that I've never heard it before. I love how it's told in a story form, but really shows the true history of what happened.i encourage all who have an interest in history to pick it up and read it (along with a healthy dosage of the Book of Mormon).

I love you all! Have a great week lads and lassies! 

Elder Maxfield 

1) elder fang and I, and a big building.. Can't remember what it's called

2) same building with me archie and Elder fang

3) view at the BBQ. The best part of the view is me btw... Hahhaha

4) Elder Fang, Lisa, me, Catherine

5) gotta hook up elder fang with the good angles

6) mmm bbq

7) just a human chair
8) They call me DJ chicken mixer. 

YAY!!! IM STAYING!!!

WOOHOO!!!! I get to stay one more transfer!! At least! I'm so pumped to get to stay here. I would hate to say goodbye again to so many of my friends. It'll be fun to at least be here for another 6 weeks. 

Well this week was pretty fun. I'd say the highlights were Ian and Doowon, and my trade-off with Elder Bowers. 

In our lesson with Ian and Doowon on Tuesday, we taught them the word of wisdom and the law of chastity (if you dont know what those are, ask the missionaries, they'll tell you). We had taught the word of wisdom to Ian before, so he was just chillin during that part. However, we did challenge him to throw away every cigarette he owned that night! He agreed! I'm proud to say that he has done that! WOOHOO!! While we were talking about these laws, Doowon seemed more and more heartbroken the whole time. However, he agreed to live it to see if it is true. Now that's what I call faith!!! He will surely be blessed so much because of his desires to test out what God has commanded him. We still aren't sure about their baptism this weekend, but I will let you know next week what the dealio is. 

On my trade-off with Elder Bowers, we had a really good conversation about motivation and about looking outside of self. He's an awesome Elder with a lot of great insight. We started talking about adopting a "There YOU are" mentality as opposed to making yourself the center of attention. It was a really good conversation! I learned a lot from him! A lot of great things are learned on the mission! I am so happy that I can serve! 

Well all, I hope you have fantastic week! 

Love you heaps!! 

Elder Maxfield

Its a party out here!

Watermelon cake

We took an old timey photo of our district

well, no title..

Hey everyone. Sorry this is muchly late. Im trying to write in the mornings, but everyone always plans activities for the mornings... sorry!!! 

Well this week. Everyone is getting sent home. Well not everyone but there's a few that are. So sad that people choose disobedience. Just CTR and you'll be okay!!!

Monday we went and got some MEAN pancakes with Archie. Hes doing a lot better and seems to be happy. Hes been pretty sad he said for the last few years. But seems to be doing better than before. He hangs out with us a lot. 

Ian and Doowon are doing awesome and we are having a good time with them! They're learning the commandments this week but are enjoying the teachings so far. So that's really awesome. I'm excited for their baptism soon. They're both progressing to be better people and its cool to see the good desires they have. 
THURSDAY WE GOT OUR HOT WATER BACK!!!!!! Woohoo!! The plumber came and fixed our sink so that the hot water wasn't running constantly.. its been almost 2 weeks... hhaha. 

Friday we hung out with the assistants for trade-offs and that was a good time. We weren't able to work much cause there was a lot of errands to run, but that's okay. We had a good time and I learned a lot. Such awesome missionaries. 

Saturday was a baptism of some really cool people that others were teaching. Their testimonies were great! 
Sunday we had some fun and had a MEAN feast after church. Also had a cool object lesson some of you may have seen with Yvette. #treeofli[ght] 1 ne 8. She's so cool. Just needs to find an answer. 

Well love yall!!!! Hope youve had a great week!!! If not, i hope this week is good for you!!! Love ya! 
Elder Maxfield 

Lots of meetings, lots of people

Well, first things first. Sorry for not sending an email last week!! 
Okay. Now, the rest of my email. 
Hi everyone! Things are going swimmingly out here in the Harbour YSA. We just had stake conference, so a lot of our friends received the Melchizedek Priesthood this week! Youk (remember him from UNSW?) Vincent, Tou, and Ash received the Aaronic Priesthood today! It was so cool to see all of them advancing in the priesthood; especially because each of them have grown to be my good friends. Great guys! 

This week was a packed one.. as this whole transfer has been. Its been 4 weeks now into this transfer and I feel like we've been in meetings the whole time. Hahaha. Its been good though. We've seen a lot of cool things happen! So I guess probably an investigator update would be good. 

Well, Ian (dude from Taiwan) texted us on Saturday and said he received an answer and felt that God was real!!!!!!! Woohoo!!!!!!!! That's a HUGE step forward for him and I'm so excited!!!!!!! Hes an awesome guy! He has a long way to go, but he will definitely be able to keep moving forward. 

So Ian brought his friend to a lesson a few weeks ago, Doowon. Doowon is Korean and is studying to be a chef or cook. Hes a pretty cool, quiet guy. After the first lesson, we were shocked at how keen he was and how good his prayer was. Then that Monday I find out he's already Christian. Hahahaha. But he is so open and willing to learn more about God. Just on Saturday, he accepted the invitation to be baptized! We're looking forward to that with him. 

Catherine is awesome. Shes super super nice and has a bajillion questions. We taught the Plan of Salvation to her the other day and it all makes sense to her, but she has TONS of questions that go pretty in depth about the Plan. That's a good thing though. We are looking forward to her progressing. She wants stability in her life, and I know the gospel can provide that. 

Yall remember Amy? The one who yelled at Elder Tobler and I and became an investigator? Well, shes soooooo keen!! We talked to her all about the Book of Mormon on Friday and she found sooo much power through it! She accepted that if she finds an answer, she'll be baptized. She has a lot of struggles, but as she reads more from the Book of Mormon, it will bless her life immensely; I know it will because its done that for me. 

Well, Ill say that those are the main reports for this week. Overall happenings and wherabouts: Last week for pday we went to the "Real Bodies Exhibit." That was soo cool! Everyone that came with us was actually really excited to go, I was surprised. Haha. If you want pictures, ask me personally cause I wont send them here. Umm we've been working hard to try to find a way to help people move forward in the gospel quicker and more frequently. So I guess like helping more people actually desire to learn the gospel. I'm not quite sure how to word it, but that's what we've been doing. We've come up with a few new ways that I'm excited to implement. Umm I got my keys stuck again... this time it wasn't for several hours though. Well, long story short, Elder Fang now takes care of the keys. Hahhahahhaha

Oh one more thing! Interviews were this week with President! It was really cool to get to know him and Sister Runia a bit better. They're great people and I'm so happy that they are the one to succeed the Checketts. Some changes are coming into the mission, and they're good. 

Love yall heaps!!! Hope youre doing well over in the good old America! Or if youre in another country, enjoy that place too!! Love yall! 
Elder Maxfield 

1) The Burkes hooked us up with Costco muffins!!!! 

2) Yes, that's octopus. Yes, it was delicious. hahahaha

3) Just Ash being Ash

4) Amber needed me to hold her purse.. 

PS, by the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARLEE!!!!