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.