Final thoughts

Hey everyone. This is my final email from my mission..... I'm coming home. I will be in the air in 10 hours. So I just wanted to share a few thoughts that have been running through my head. 

I am so incredibly blessed to have served here, in Australia, to have met the people that I have, and to have had the experiences that I have had. This has been the wildest, funniest, most interesting 2 years of my entire life. So many crazy things have happened. I guess I'll stop babbling and get to the point. 

Over the course of my mission I feel that I have changed. I've changed in a few ways (still kind of annoying but that's okay hahahaha). The biggest way that I've felt myself change is in my testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ. I love Him. I know that He is there for me in good times and in bad times. He has helped me through so many tough decisions and so many crazy experiences. He has shaped me and molded me into something (hopefully) better than what I was 2 years ago. My desires are different now. What I think about is different, the way I act is different, and so many other things are different. I'm the same guy, still weird and crazy, but different. 

Everyone. I cant describe these last 2 years in an email. I'm so grateful for what has happened here. I will never forget it. If you want to hear more, come to my house. I'd love to talk about it. Yall know where I live. 

I love yall heaps. Ofa atu (as they say here too). See yall in a few hours. 

Love Elder Maxfield. 

A hard lesson learned easier.

Hey everyone! I hope you've had a super awesome week celebrating the grooviest nation ever!!!!! HAPPY 4TH EVERYONE!!!!! 

So this week I'll give a short sum up, most will have to do with the subject title. 

Monday some Elders were interviewed by President this week and we got one of them to be our companion for the week so that him and his companion weren't together. 

The week was going great!!

Thursday Elder Brown was on trade-offs with the APs. I was with this Elder (who I actually really love and think hes a great guy)! Well, we were on our way to the hospital to visit a member when I received a call from President. He informed me that this Elder was going to be sent home on Saturday. My heart dropped. This Elder is a good guy and I knew he wanted to stay out. He hadn't done anything too crazy against the rules, so I was really really sad for him. President then asked me to hand this Elder the phone so he could tell him. I guess this is where the "hard lesson learned easy" comes in. I handed this Elder the phone, and I cannot describe the pain and sorrow that I saw this Elder go through for the next 4 hours (plus for the next few days). A new understanding to the scripture "And Peter... wept bitterly" came to me. I understood maybe a part of what Peter went through that night when he denied the Savior. Suffering and shedding intense tears of repentance. I understood more that regret is the worst thing that you could possibly feel. I cant fully describe what I saw and learned. But it was extremely sad to see this Elder go. I hope he will come back on his mission again!

So that was a very very sad email to write, but that was my week. 

But! Transfers came in! As I was looking at transfers, i once again realized, as I have a million times this transfer, that this district has been the best district I've had my whole mission! I have absolutely loved the people that I've served around this transfer. They have all been so kind and fun and hard working on top of it all. What a huge blessing to have that as my last district. Well, I love yall hecka heaps!!!! Hope you have  a groovy week, and yeah.. I'll see you next week!!!!!!!!!! 

Elder Maxfield. 

Honestly, I don't even know what's going on.

Hhahaha I think the title sums everything up. I have no idea what I'm doing or what's happening half the time hahah. 

So this last week was pretty crazy. We had a somewhat normal day on Tuesday; as normal as a day can get for me. 

Wednesday was a little odd. We did several visits and stopped by a lot of people's houses, but the curse of the midweek blues hit... no one was home. Sad. Well, that's okay. For zone conference on Thursday we were all wearing matching ties, so we had to hand sew those on Wednesday. That was an activity. Pretty crazy doing a lot of ties, but we had a good amount of help. Zone conference on Thursday was good. It felt weird for it to be my last zone conference. I still really don't feel like I've been out for as long as I have. I know that everything is coming to an end, but it doesn't feel like it. My brain just hasn't wrapped around the fact that my whole life will change yet again in 16 days. I don't get that. 

Anyways, the rest of the week was good. We saw a pretty cool miracle on Friday where we went to go visit a referral but it wasn't the right home. However, the Elder I was with for trade-offs (Elder Qaqa) knew the man who opened the door back in Fiji. Pretty cool! 

Welp. Not much else  

Exciting news, I'll be in a trio this week with my companion (Elder Brown) and another Elder (Elder Savaiinea) from Samoa. 

Okay. Peace out everyone!!! Love ya'll heaps!! Have a great week! 

Elder Maxfield 

Ps. That family I mentioned last week was the Fagas. Okay bye. 

Larry and a whole lot of trunky

So I'll jump right into it today. 

This week was nuts!!! 

Tuesday was trade offs with Elder Greenig. I love that guy. We had a good time and HEY! We had dinner with a family that is family with someone from Tracy ward hahahah who woulda guessed. Pretty cool. They were super excited when I said I knew them hahaha. 

Wednesday was the reason for "a whole lot of trunky." I had my self reliance meeting. Which basically is a meeting where they tell you how to best be successful when you go home. We were all just making trunky jokes the whole time. (Don't worry I'm not too trunky). We had a temple session afterwards and that was great! I learned a lot from it. I always come out of the temple feeling ready to be better than I am. I love the temple. 

Thursday Elder Brown was sick so we stayed inside all day. I slept sooo much hahaha. 

Friday was cool. We taught our friend VJ and brought a young man with us who is working on his mission papers. He did a good job of teaching and testifying. Vj is continuing to work on himself and trying to do everything he can to follow the gospel. He has such a great desire. 

Friday night we drive up to orange again. I love orange. Last week I told you about how I beat a member up there in ping pong. Well, apparently he didn't like that. Cause when he heard I was coming up again, he said "I want a rematch!!" Elder Mallory told him he wasn't sure we'd have time cause we had service. He said "6:30am at the chapel tomorrow. I'll see you there." Hahahhahahaha well that's what we did Saturday morning, and needless to say, he had been practicing. And he destroyed me hahahha. It was pretty fun though. After that we had service at a farm!!!!!!! And we met Larry!!!! The sheep. Hahha he was a cool sheep. So we went out to the farm and we just helped gather some firewood for the couple that lived there and then the wife let us feed and play with her sheep. It was so much fun. I never knew sheep actually had that much wool on them. Its soooo much!!! Anyways, that was our Saturday. 

Sunday morning at 3am we woke up to get back to our area before church and meetings. Driving at that time is not fun. Especially when you see a kangaroo chilling in the middle of the road. Yep, those will definitely mess up your car Haha. I didn't hit any. 

Then we partied today again in the Blue Mountains. My district is so awesome! We have a lot of islanders, a couple Asians, and a few Americans. Making this district a very large melting pot of cool people. Everyone loves being outside and enjoying each others company. And we all just joke around the whole time it's awesome. 

Well, that's the week folks. 

Big lesson learned this week; the temple is amazing!!!! I knew this already, but I am continually amazed when I go to the temple. I love learning and feeling the Spirit each time I go. I hope each of you get the chance to regularly go (especially since the Oakland temple is new and improved and functioning). 

I love ya'll heaps!!! Have a great week 

Elder Maxfield 

Orange ya glad I'm still on my mission?

Hahahhaa. Orange ya glad. 

Anyways. This week was pretty dang awesome. We'll kick it off with the young men. So the young men in this ward are awesome! There are heaps of them and we went to mutual on Tuesday night with them to talk to them about working with us and coming to teach lessons. They were all keen to come and help. I'm so grateful for that!!! It's hard to find people willing to go out with us to teach lessons here. So, if you know the gospel, go out with the missionaries!!! 

On Thursday I went to Orange. Orange is a pretty groovy country town about 3 hours west of here (and everything else for that matter). There's pretty much nothing out there. Basically tamworth 2.0. It was so dang fun! Cause the missionaries out there cover 5 branches and all of them are an hour away from each other. So it was a lot of driving. We had a lunch appointment with a senior couple and a dinner appointment with another senior couple. So this is how our day went. Wake up and do normal studies till 10. Then do language study (for my companion) until 11. Leave flat at 11 to go to bathurst where the senior coupe lives. Senior couples usually talk a lot (which is totally fine cause they're always so dang awesome!) so we were there for a while. Then we visited a couple people, taught a few lessons. Then we went and played ping pong with a member. He was SO DANG GOOD! Crazy good! (But not as good as me hehe) hahaha just kidding he was a lot better hahaha. Umm yeah we had a good time doing that and then we went to the dinner appointment we had, which was an hour away, then after we drove an hour back home to the orange flat. It was "heaps of fun." 

As an update for our friend, he did not get baptized this week, he has a few things he needs to work on, but that's okay! We're working with him until he will be ready. He wants us to come over every day Haha. So I'm totally fine with that. He really wants to be baptized and we'll do our best to get him there. 

Love you all heaps and I hope you're having a great start to your summer. Remember that God loves you and that Jesus Christ is real and can help you in any way you need. 

Elder Maxfield 

Also the sisters in our district are super cool and made us kangaroo stakes. 

Ummm what even happened? I'm so tired

Hey all!!! So yeah, I think the title of my email pretty much covers everything. I'm very very tired and I have no idea what happened this week hahahaha. I'll give a quick rundown. 

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we woke up early to get certain things done or to do things. Monday was bball with President, Tuesday was trade-offs, Wednesday was zone bball, Thursday was picking up and Elder from the Assistants.... maybe that was Friday.. ? I cant remember. It was pretty dang crazy though. 

Now for the work. On Tuesday I went on a trade off with Elder Dill. This guy is a towering 6'8". Almost as tall as me. Hahahahaha but hes so cool. We had an awesome time on trade-offs getting to know each other. 

At one point we visited a friend of theirs. This guy had been going to another church for a while, but didn't feel loved by the people there. He then ran into missi onaries. Hes only been to church once and had one lesson, but he already knows so much and has done a lot of research and stuff. He is unbelievably receptive and embraced everything we say. We talked to him a little about the restoration and about the Atonement. It was great meeting him. I know people in the world are prepared to receive the gospel. Lots of them are your friends btw... share the good news with them! 

Our friend VJ is still excited to get baptized this upcoming week. We're meeting him tomorrow and will talk to him more about the importance of the promises he'll make at baptism and the significance of joining the church. It should go over well. Hes pretty receptive and open to what we have to say. Hes such a funny guy too. He jokes around a lot and loves to have a good laugh. But he also loves Christ a lot. Which is super awesome. 

And on a final note, today we went to the Blue Mountains. We did a super cool hike that took us over a waterfall, to the middle of it, and to the bottom. It was awesome. We had a good time taking pictures and walking for ages. I finally have a picture with my companion. Sorry I'm really slack at that. But its attached below. 

I'm loving the work still, and I love this area. I hope we can get to help out those young men some more! Not a ton of progress yet, but it'll get there. 

Love yall heaps!!! Stay groovy and stay cool in the summer heat (I forgot it was summer until Reese reminded me today haha). 

Elder Maxfield 

OH!!!!!!!! I FORGOT TO MENTION!!!!! DOES ANYONE REMEMBER JULIA??? MY HOMIE FROM THE CITY??? Okay, anyways! JULIA IS BACK IN AUSTRALIA AND SHE CAME TO VISIT ME!!!! AHHH!!! It was so good to see her again. We had a good time catching up and hanging out. She and Amber surprised me. I thought Amber was just coming, but Julia came too. Soooo awesome! Missed her heaps!!!! It was good to catch up with her again. 

Me and elder brown (my companion) 

Heaps of blue mountains pics. 

Julia!!!! 

Heaps of miracles and cool experiences

Hey everyone! How are things?? 
So this week was pretty interesting. We really just went around trying to introduce me to people. Not many people were home, but hey, that's okay. I'm still having a good time. 
Really not a ton to talk about, so I thought I'd talk about how work happens in this area. And what we're doing. Which, I guess is what these letters are supposed to be anyways lol. 
So this area is very Polynesian. There are soooo many Polynesians here. From wherever, you name it; Fiji? Yep. Samoa? Yep. Tonga? Yep. New Zealand? Most definitely. Well you get the point. There are just islanders everywhere. Which is awesome! They have such a fun culture. Areas like this really only come with one downside. I'm going to get so fat hahahaha. But hey, go hard or go home right? 
Since there's a lot of Polynesians here, we do a lot with sports. Monday evenings is touch rugby with the members from 3 different stakes, Wednesday is zone basketball (not really missionary work related, but we do it early and I thought I'd chuck it in there for emphasis haha), Saturday is basketball with the ysa of 3 different stakes, and we're trying to start up basketball on Tuesday nights with the young men; help them prepare to go on missions and do their own missionary work here at home. So that's been really exciting. Although I am garbage at touch, and pretty not good at basketball, i can fake it well enough to make people think i know half of what I'm doing hahaha. So that's good. 
Right now we are currently trying go build a teaching pool. Like I mentioned earlier, we're trying to focus on the young men. People around here really have a hard time getting out on missions. Idk why. But we are really wanting to connect with these young men and help motivate them to get out in the field (this 2 year experience will change their future, change their future family so much; and definitely for the better. These young men need that experience, all do). We also want to help them get involved in doing missionary work with their friends. They have so many friends who aren't members and that they've already invited to activities. Now we're trying to help them take that next step. I'm excited for that. 
As for other events hapnin, we are teaching one guy named VJ. He's planning on being baptized in a couple weeks, so we're really excited for that. We need to help him prepare for that. But he is excited too, so that's really good. 
Other news and shenanigans of various sorts (wow, that's definitely something my dad would say hahaha. Love my dad). Today we were invited to play basketball at 6am with president and a few other missionaries. Well, that went on for just about 3 hours hahahahha. President is such a good basketball player. I'm sure I've mentioned this, but he played European league, and I'm pretty sure that if you look up top 10 BYU basketball players of all time he's still on there. He's good. So we played with him and that was tiring. But wait, there's more. I mentioned earlier that we play touch every Monday. Well, that went on for 2 1/2 hours tonight. I'm currently trying stretch my legs so I'm not dead tomorrow. Hahahha. 
On Wednesday the sisters asked us to come kill some spiders in their flat cause "they're HUGE!" (And they couldn't reach a few of them). Well we were like, yeah sure that's okay Haha. So we went over and there were a few outside. Now, if we were in the states, I would've probably been like, wow, that's a hecka big spider. Probably could eat my hand. But since we're in Australia, I thought, wow, that's pretty small. Hahahhaha well, then we go inside to kill a spider in there that's way too high for them to reach. (They were outside their flat so its chill, we weren't there together). Well they have super high ceilings and no ladder or anything, so luckily my companion is a very large man from American Samoa. I stood on his shoulders on my tip toes and killed the spider up there. Fun stuff. Then the sisters gave us cookies. MEAN!!! 
Umm yeah. That really wasn't a very exciting story hahahha sorry. I'll have more fun stories hopefully next week when I'm in the blue mountains!!! 
Everyone! Jesus Christ lives, and He wants to talk to us! Listen to what Hes telling you. It's probably pretty important. I love you all heaps and always remember, the church is true, the book is blue! 
Elder Maxfield 

Sorry. No pictures cause I'm a lame-o

Heaps of miracles and cool experiences

Hey everyone!!! Sorry I didn't send an email last week, I'm sure you all missed it sooooo much. Probably wondered if i was still alive or if i was hurt. Ya know, Australia is a very dangerous country. Haha. 

Well these last two weeks have been so awesome. Highlights

1) Of course, the top highlight is going to be seeing the prophet. On Sunday the 19th we were able to go (as a mission) to a fireside in Sydney with President Nelson, Elder Gong, and their wives. They all had some amazing points to speak on. But the biggest part about it was the Spirit that I felt during it. That man, president Nelson is a prophet of God. No disputing it. I felt that confirmation once again on Sunday night. He is guided by the Spirit and by Jesus Christ to know what he needs to share with us. 

2) there were sooo many small miracles these last two weeks. For example; we had exactly the right amount of change for the parking meter. When we overstayed the parking time, we didn't get a ticket. Another time we were in a huge rush to get to a dinner appointment and there was like no parking on the street except for right in front of their flat. So, miracles. We also didn't know what to teach this family, because they are so awesome already. Well the Spirit prompted us to share a certain message with a certain commitment and they told us at the end of the lesson that that was the exact thing they needed to hear that night. That is always such a comforting thing to hear people say. There were many many others that happened. I'm so grateful for the Lord showing His hand in our work. 

3) WE FINALLY MET SOMEONE!!!!!!! AND THEY LET US IN!!!!! So for the last 4 weeks we've been trying to find members and we had visited like 20 of them, literally only 1 of them was home and she was super super crazy. Well, we knocked on this door and they said, "yeah hes here, come on in!" Elder Halls and I were sooooo shocked. We were like, what the heck, really? Hahaha. But this guy was sooo cool!! He was seriously like me and elder halls combined. He likes all the same things we do so that was even more of a miracle. So that was awesome. 

4) Every May through June Sydney does something called Vivid. This is when the entire opera house bay gets lit up by super super cool lights. (See pictures below). It was so awesome. Its definitely been on my list for the last 20 months Haha. 

5) so transfers came around. After being in this area for 4 weeks I figured I was pretty safe and would just die quietly in South Harbour. Well, I was wrong. I'm now in Claremont Meadows with Elder Brown. So far it's a pretty awesome area. I'll most likely be here for my last 7 weeks and I'm super excited to be here. The ward seems awesome and the area sounds pretty productive.  Plus elder brown is awesome. Hes originally from American Samoa but moved to Washington his Sophomore year. So we'll be out here in Claremont having a gospel party! 

Hey everyone! The gospel is soooo true. Jesus Christ has once again organized His church on the Earth and He wants everyone to find it. That's why I'm out here. So people can hear and receive His gospel. I love Him, and I am grateful for what He has done for me in sacrificing Himself to help me and save me. I love my Savior and I love Heavenly Father. 

Have a great week everyone. Love yall heaps!!!!!! 

Elder Maxfield 

Got to see some friends from Canberra. The punzals!

Sydney Vivid. 

MOMS ARE SUPER AWESOME!!!

Hey everyone and happy mothers day to all you wonderful mothers and grandmothers!! You guys are pretty dang awesome! All of us children and grandchildren of yours appreciate you SOOOOOOO much and love you hecka heaps as!!!!!!!!!! 
So this week was a lot of driving, and very few people being home. Being in the city, but not street contracting makes things very very difficult. We don't really have any good place to street contact without treading on the YSA missionaries' turf, so we are going through the ward list and visiting everyone. With that comes city traffic and a lot of "no right turn" signs. After finally arriving to our destination, no one is home...ever. Frustration is sometimes higher than it needs to be, but we have a really great time. We try our best to make sure we have a good time throughout the day. 
Oh! Also, we've run into some pretty odd things in this area. I think I already told you about the blood on her walls lady, if not, well, yeah... Anyways. Last night we were going and visiting people and it was crazy! We went to visit this one couple and the main door to the complex opens, letting us in. We go inside and its kind of a weird place. Then this SUPER crazy looking guy comes around the corner and gets on the elevator with us. We're like.. uh....... then we get off the elevator and the hallways had writing all over them and everyone we met in the building was sooooo crazy, asking us for cigarettes and stuff. It was a pretty weird experience. Upon leaving the building, I realize that the main door that opened when we got there was actually a SUPER heavy duty metal and bullet proof glass, door. Needless to say, we'll be going back again tomorrow. Hahaha jk not going back there again hahaha. 
Well, I think that's about it. I got to see a few other friends this week at games night and going out to dinner. That was really really awesome. I'm glad I was able to see them. I was talking to Elder Halls and we both agreed that one of the things we'll miss the most about Sydney is all of the Chinese people. I love them so much!!!!! They're all awesome! 
Okay. Love yall heaps!!!! Keep being awesome moms you moms. And everyone else, yeah, you're cool too. Hahahha love yall
Elder Maxfield. 

Wow, I missed the city!

Dang I missed this place so much! Seriously, I love the people here so much and I am so excited to see them all again. 

So this week was a little odd. When I first got here, an old friend, Archie, said "I have to hang out with you." I was totally fine with that; seeing an old friend again. So he took us out to dinner one night and we had a good talk catching up and talking about the gospel as well. Hes so awesome! (We went to the Thai restaurant that we live above hahaha). 

Also, this area is pretty dang wealthy, and a lot of people work, so the daytime is tough. We decided that the best option was to visit all of the 71+ year old people on our ward list to see if they're still there/alive. 

Well, we started and got to one sisters house. She has been less active for a while but was very very sweet and invited us in. We chatted for a while and she talked pretty much about everything. We then said a prayer before we left. On the way out, I walked past a wall that had dirty splotches on it. I looked closer at it to see what they were. Clearly they were from some liquid that had dried. As I got closer, I realized that it was blood. My companion saw it too, got closer, and 100% agreed. There were also feathers all over the floor. I'm not saying this lady is a bird murderer (or a "birderer" I guess) but something went down in there. She was so nice though and gave us food. We'll go back and visit her. She's cool. 

Also, I was able to catch up with a really good friend from when I was with tobler and fang over 6 months ago in the city!! LISA!!!!! She's been in China a lot, but we were able to catch her before she heads back to China next Sunday. We had an awesome time and its sooooo good to hear that she loves the Lord so much still, that she faithfully reads the Book of Mormon frequently, and tries to share it with her family. She's such a stud!! It was awesome to see her again!!! 

Other than that, not much to share. 

Just want yall to know that I love the Lord! He has helped me so much, and I've seen that my desire to serve Him has increased soooo much! That's definitely Him changing me. It's incredible how much He can do that when we let Him. Stay converting everyone! 

Love you heaps

Elder Maxfield

Archie, elder barnes elder halls and I. (We were in a trio)

The zone (well, half of it)

Me elder halls and lisa (elder barnes got transferred) (president is doing CRAZY things with the mission) 

Hey. I made it! I'm alive

Hey everyone!!!!! Hope you've all had groovy weeks!!! Mine sure was crazy hahaha.

So this week was nuts!!! We had pday on Tuesday because we got to go to the temple!!! I absolutely love going to the temple and I learn so much each time I go! 

The night before we stayed with a few other elders down on the central coast. Elder Griffiths was in my MTC district, so we know each other pretty well and we had a good time hanging out. 

Tuesday afternoon, after the temple, we had MLC where president invited all of the District leaders to, so I got to go. Man, going to the temple and then having a meeting right after is not a good idea hahahhaha. My brain was 100% fried and i had a hard time gathering my thoughts Tuesday night hahahaha. Just so much information in one day. MLC was awesome. I learned heaps about how I can improve as a district leader and what my roles are. We talked a lot about accountability. 

Also, President said that Elder Pabona and I will definitely be leaving Tamworth on Monday (today lol) and that we'd have a few days to say goodbye. And that's what we did. The rest of the week consisted of telling all the people we meet with that we were leaving. Honestly, it was really sad. I didnt realize how much I've grown to love these people. 

In 3 Nephi it talks about the Savior and the Nephites. He says that He needs to go, and that He has other people to visit. They look on Him as if asking Him to stay a bit longer. He then says that He has compassion for them, and stays a little longer. (Quite a bit longer actually). In a very very tiny way (one cannot compare themselves to the Savior) I feel like I felt that this week. These people wanted us to stay, and I was touched with compassion for them. I wanted to stay. But knew we needed to leave and that that was for the better. I will miss them a lot. 

We then had an awesome opportunity on Sunday to visit the Armidale branch. A branch about an hour and a half north east from us. First of all, Armidale is so pretty right now. The colors of the trees is amazing (its fall right now haha). So we gave our talks in sacrament meeting and then got to know the members up there. They went on and on about how much they love and miss having the missionaries in their branch and that they really want some back. They were all great people. That was a great experience. 

Well, we woke up this morning not knowing what area we were going to. The Assistants told us to drive to the mission office. So we started driving, still not knowing where we were actually headed Haha. About halfway through the car ride (a 4 1/2 hour drive) we got a call. Elder Pabona and I were actually split up! That was a surprise to both of us! We thought wed stay together. Well, we're in the same zone as each other, and I'm back in the city (sort of). Elder Pabona is in the Summer Hill ward, and I'm in the South Harbour ward (the ward just east of the YSA ward). I'm super excited to be here, back in the part of the mission I've known the most. My companions are Elder Halls and Elder Barnes. Fun fact, we all are on the same plane home together. 

Anyways, I'm excited to be here. I miss tamworth, and the people there, but am glad to be here. 

I love yall heaps! Keep on doing whatever you guys are doing over there! 

Elder Maxfield 

Sister Eykamp

The Weldon family

Warren

The Davisons

The Grahams! 

And the Coopers

Transfers Pending

GDAY LADS AND LASSES (not quite sure how to spell the latter word). So this week was eventful. And that's a good thing. So Tuesday and Wednesday were quite a few teaching appointments. We were able to teach a pretty decent amount of lessons which was super nice. The rest of the week was trying to do the same. 

Saturday and Sunday were easily the highlights. We had GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!! 

So I'd just like to say that the speakers are all awesome. There were so many good talks this conference. Some of my favorites include (but are not limited to) Sister Craven's, Elder Stevenson's, Elder Holland's, President Nelson's priesthood talk, President Oaks' Sunday afternoon talk, and Elder Bednars talk. So yeah, like all of them hahahhaha. They were so good! 

Another big deal on Sunday morning was that we had a less active family come out to watch conference and have breakfast with us. It was great! I hope they enjoyed conference. 

Well that's all my folks. We're still waiting on some news from transfers, but as of now, my comp and I will be staying for his last 6 weeks of the mission. 

Well everyone, hope ya have a pretty satisfactory week. (And if it's better than satisfactory, then good job!) Love yall heaps!!! 

Elder Maxfield. 

This is troy. 

Rain makes corn.... and that's why there's no corn here

Hahaha yet another really dry week in Tamworth. We get very little to rain up here. So I guess not much different then Tracy. (Except for this spring I guess)

Anyways. Umm this week. We had trade offs on Tuesday!!!!!! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. That was a lot of fun! Speaking of Woooo! That's was my companion! Elder Wu! Seriously, the man. Hes going home next week back to the almighty Hong Kong. It was good to be with him, cause I lived with him a year ago, so we already know each other pretty well. Well that was a fun day  we taught like 5 lessons, one to an old Canadian-Australian who just roasted the United States the whole time. Oh well, she's really old and can say whatever she wants. Hahahaha. 

The rest of the week was alright. Just trying to visit people and teach some lessons. I'd say a highlight for the week was finally being able to sit down with a lady who has been in the ward for 7 years but only visited once. I don't know how, but she just fell through the cracks and people hadn't even heard her name. So we got to meet with her and had a great conversation with her. We'll be seeing her again this week. So that's good. 

Other exciting news, a member is introducing us to some of his friends this week!!!!! WooooooooooohWooooooooooo. Hopefully they're keen! I don't think they know anything about the church, but they're a couple, one from Taiwan and the other from China, so I'm actually pretty sure they don't.  Hahah. So exciting! Hope that goes well. Well, next week is transfer calls. I find out the day before I email next. I'll let you know what's happening. 

Well, as my sister would say "that's the tea." Hahaha. Hope ya'll have a great week. Love ya'll heaps! 

Elder Maxfield

We played basketball with a potential and I got caught by the camera trying to be the same height as them hahahahhahahahahaha

We wanted to go somewhere no missionary has knocked before. #Barrabafinding"

We got a bit of rain! woohoo!!!

Yay! There as a bit of rain this week! That's exciting! 

Okay, so onto the week. It actually turned out to be a little better than a "realistic week." Cause we found a new person to teach!!! So that was really exciting!!! We'll teach him again on Sunday so we'll let you know how that goes next week. 

Other than that it's been a long week. A lot of visits and a lot of knocking. Highlight of the week though: So in our mission we have these dudes called traveling trainers. Basically two missionaries who travel the whole mission helping missionaries be better. (Its a new job made up this transfer). Anyways. They stopped by on Thursday night. Needless to say that was a very very nice surprise due to the fact that we have no contact with any missionaries face to face except the occasional conference. So they came by on Thursday night and stayed until noon on Friday. That was a heck of a lot of fun. Even though really we just talked. It was nice to have other missionaries to talk to. #exiledlife

Umm other than that, really nothing. This week we have zone conference. That'll be a lot of fun! Looking forward to that. 

Hope you have a great week!!!! Love yall heaps! 

Elder Maxfield

Our district, the APs (in the other chapel) and the travelling trainers. 

Hope you have a realistic week!

Probably my favorite quote of the week. But there's been some good ones including a text we received "President has advised that we are absolutely not to go to any dances put on by wards or stakes." -Assistants

So yeah. This week was a good one. This area is pretty small, in terms of people (not area wise though). So the whole town has already be knocked, and there aren't too many members to visit Haha. We're trying to meet with as many people as we can on a regular basis though. 

Highlight of the week though (at least one of them). Yesterday we we trying to meet people and we were FINALLY able to meet with a Filipino part-member family that we've been trying to see almost daily for the last 2 weeks. Hahaha. They've really never been home. So we finally got to see them and it was awesome! Elder Pabona pretty much just spoke Tagalog to the dad the whole time, then the 17 year old son realized I had no idea what was going on, so he talked to me (hes 100% fluent in English). So we built good relationships with the family and we'll hopefully be going back again soon. The son wants to play bball with us too. So that'll be so fun! I hope hes ready to get his ankles broken. (Cause ya know, I'm sooo good at basketball). 

Other than that, we've had a good pday. We went to a lookout (I'll send pics at the bottom) and that was a really good view. I enjoyed that. Then just brushed up on ye ol' ping-pong skills with Elder Pabona. (He got a scholarship to play in college back at home. Hes really good hahaha). So that was good cause he taught me heaps in just an hour and now my back hand is wayyy better. 

Well, that's about it for yall. Hope you have a groovy week!!!!! 

Elder Maxfield 

1&3)Such height. Greatly cliff. (Its like a 5 foot drop. Hahaha) 

2) everything the light touches is our area (and sooooo much more)

4) me and pabona

5) haha we went out to a place called Manila. Not much in Manila. 

6) also not much out here either haha

I still dont really know where I am

Wow, this place is a bit different than my other areas. hahaha. Its a great place though!! A lot of fun! 

Okay so this week was nuts! Tuesday we had a good pday. Kickball and food eating challenges. What could be better? 

Wednesday was the crazy day. I was supposed to get up at 3am to catch my 5:30am train (which was an hour drive away). Well, I heard my alarm go off, turn it off, and passed out again. Woke up again with Elder Santana turning the lights on at 4am (he woke up then to say bye) shaking his head doing a total disappointed mom look. Needless to say, I got ready very very fast. We got out to Goulburn on time and I got my train. Elder Leae and I traveled up together to Macaurthur and then I changed trains, went to central. 

So its awesome to serve in the city for many reasons. One of them being that you can tell your friends that you're going to have a train change at central station and they can come and say hi! Hahaha. So I got to see archie amber and Yvette. But wait!!! Who comes out of the train unexpectedly on his way to work?? TOU!!!!! Man, i missed Tou. Hes the man. So I got to see all of them. They're all pretty dang awesome. 

Alright, next stop, maitland. Maitland was a beautiful! 2 1/2 hour train ride. Such pretty coastline!!! It was awesome. 

So when i get up there at 12 and meet the zone, gotta wait for my comp, elder pabona. He got there around 1 and we headed to tamworth. That was a long 3 hour drive hahaha. Almost fell asleep 

Tamworth is a good place. It's a lot busier than I thought itd be, but still not very busy hahaha. Town of about 40,000 and most people are very very country like people. The ward here has about 20 active members and they're all pretty solid. We're trying to get a few people back to church though. Church really is so important. So that's a good time. 

Ummm okay. So what else? Friday night we went back down to maitland cause Saturday we had a mission conference! Wow! Lit! So this time, Elder Ardern (some area 70) and the executive of the mission department came!! They mostly trained on the doctrine of Christ and how we can get that message into the hearts of those we are teaching more effectively. 

Besides the training, IT WAS SO FUN TO SEE ALL THE MISSIONARIES AGAIN!!!!!!!!! Man, I realized how many awesome friends I've made out here. The missionaries are so awesome and it's so cool to see how a lot of us are so tight, even though there's over 250 of us. A couple of my friends are either home now, or going home soon, which us sad. I'm so grateful to have served around such awesome people!!!! 

Sunday we got to meet the whole ward!!!! (Basically). All 20 of them. Hahahha. Its not too hard to remember who everyone is when there's only 20. It'll take me a few more days though to solidify who's who. 

Welp that's a whole lot of fun right there. Today we did service and just chilled. Almost nothing to do for pday here, but that's okay. 

My comp is awesome btw. Hes from the Philippines and is going home in 2 transfers! I'm sure hes stoked! But we're getting along well and I'm learning a lot about the Philippines. Which is awesome. Who woulda thought that even though I had heaps of Filipino friends growing up, I knew nothing about it. Hahahahha. Oh well. 

Love yall heaps! Stay fresh, not frozen. 

Elder Maxfield 

Train station homies!!!! (Right to left: Archie Yvette amber) 

Tou!!!!!

Elder Bowers! (I was supposed to take more pics at the conference but forgot...)

When you have district meeting via Skype, you get a little bored. 

I'm going where? To nowhere land hahaha

Hey everyone!! So transfer calls came in last night. The mission is doing something new with transfers. since its on a Wednesday, they are now informing us on Monday night (which will be a normal proselyting day) and then our pday will be on Tuesday for that week. So every 6 weeks my pday will be on a Tuesday. Just FYI. I hope you didn't miss my email too much yesterday! haha

Okay anyways, Im going to a place called Tamworth. Now, I'm in Canberra. My area in the 2nd farthest south area that a missionary is currently serving in right now. The furthest is literally 5 minutes from my flat hahaha. So Tamworth is the second farthest north area, but the farthest away. Ill be traveling over 500ks and itll take me about 9 hours.. i think hahaha. I'm super excited actually. From what I can gather about Tamworth (thankfully elder Tobler served there for 6 months) its just super super outback. Really interesting people. The best stories seem to come from Tamworth, so we'll see what happens. I'm excited though. It should be a good transfer. having 3 transfers left, I'm not quite sure what will happen; if I'll stay there or go somewhere else, but I'm excited either way. We'll see what we can make of it. 

My new companion is Elder Pabona. He served in Canberra a few transfers ago, so I already know him a bit. And I'll be sending him home at the end of this transfer. So we'll see what happens. It should be a good transfer. I'm really excited to see what true Australia is like. 

So other news. This week we did a lot of service. On Tuesday we helped out an old lady with her garden. It was really funny. She asked us to dig a whole underneath this massive bush. So we started, one person was leaning up against the bush to hold it back and the other was shoveling. We got to harder dirt after a bit, so we needed to break out the pick-ax. So that explains the video. No worries, no harm was done during the making or after the making of that video. 

We also started prepping for a new form of finding! So don't judge on this cause we don't have any investigators so we're trying to find new ones. So there's a lot of old single ladies in our ward, and as usual, they have a lot of friends. So, Elder Tobler had the idea of using his ability to crochet, and turning it into a finding activity. So we started organizing the first ever Canberra Crochet Club!! WOOHOO! We invited all the old ladies in our ward and some of the non-member old ladies we know as well. There were actually a lot of people that were really excited about it! So that was cool! Itll be going on on Thursday, so I'll miss it. But I guess I know how to crochet now, so that's cool. hahahahaha (wow... what have I become..?) 

So that was all fun and games. Lastly, to finish off the transfer strong, we had a food eating competition with the zone today. Elder Tobler and I had the very very bad fortune of drawing for McDonalds. We had to eat a BigMac, Double Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger, McChicken, 10 nuggets, 4 medium fries, and 4 medium drinks. Well, needless to say, we didn't finish. That was soooo much food, and I didn't want to throw up, so I stopped. hahaha. I think the only one who finished was elder Leae who ate 3 feet of subway sandwiches! So yeah. 

Well, I think that's all the information I can muster for ya today. Overall, this has been yet another great transfer. I want yall to know that missionary work is awesome!! And even though most of you don't have the current opportunity to serve a full time mission, you can still do the work wherever you are. The leaders of the church time and time again have told us of the importance of this work, gathering Israel, and I've come to realize its importance over this last year and a half. Yall can do the work at home too! Share the message with your friends. Whether that's by inviting them to church, or inviting them to a ball game. It doesn't matter. When you do a good thing, find out how you can turn that into a ministering opportunity. You'll see blessing upon blessing flow into your life. 

Okay, that's my shpeel. Love yall heaps!!!!! Keep being awesome!!!!! 

Love Elder Maxfield

Found this cool mural thingy. Hahahhaha what the heck? 

Service. 

Safety first kids! Make sure to wear your helmet