wow... what happened?

Well, this week was crazy, so Ill try to put in the highlights in a way that makes sense. 

Tuesday

We went to the city and worked at the giant Book of Mormon. So, we left and were like "oh, it probably wont rain". Yeah.. we were wrong. It DUPED!!!!! POURED!!! Other words that describe a torrential downpour! So we got totally soaked for the two hours we were there, but it was so fun!! I talked to a girl who was an usher for the Book of Mormon Musical. She'd seen the play a few times and knew that it wasn't really "accurate" so she wanted to learn more of what we're about. so cool!! OH! And we went to Outback Steakhouse with a super cool old lady. She gave the best advice ever. (more about her in later emails)

Wednesday

Interviews with President. He always gives the best advice. I'm really gonna miss him when he leaves, but I cant wait to meet our new President!!

Friday

MISSION CONFERENCE!!!!!! President Clayton of the Seventy came and spoke to our two missions on Friday. He told us our new President was going to be R. Scott? I think> He said like 5 different names and we're all confused. hhahaha But we're all super pumped for that. 

Other than that, heaps of appointments this week. Youk (an old investigator form the city) asked me to speak at his baptism, so I'll be going there next week. I'm so excited to see all these people in the city get baptized!!!!!! AHHHHH SO FUN!!! I'm so proud of them and their decisions. 

Well, thats pretty much all folks. Sorry, nothing new on investigators or anything. 

Love yall heaps!!! 

Elder Maxfield

1) The city was so fun!!!! This is the display

2) we ran out of milk and I had already poured a bowl and put honey on top... it was too late. 

Im famous!!!!

Hello my beautiful friends, family, and assorted "mates". First off, I want you to know that you are awesome!!! yep. :) That's all. 

So this week was a little hectic. I learned how to siphon this week, and that was super cool. Don't worry, we were taking water out of a pool, not gas out of a car. hahahhaaha. But that was fun. We were doing service for an ex-mission presidents wife who served in Melbourne. Shes so nice and told us all about her mission and her husband and her grand kids. Shes just a sweet lady. I love her. 

Okay, also, we met Brother Bailey this week. brother Bailey is "exceedingly rich". He's the CEO of ITP (income tax professionals). He is also the stake missionary leader and helps us out a ton because he used to be a mission president in New York. So we went over to his house and tried to figure out what advice he had for us. As you can see in my planner, one of our daily goals was to see, smell, and lick a Ferrari. We didn't lick it, but we accomplished the other two. His is a one of a kind, only in the world, Ferrari.So pretty!!! But, I don't have a picture,sorry. So he helped us a lot. 

Also, big news!!! I baptized someone this week!! Tiffany was a old investigator that I found in the city about 5 days before I left. She came to church with us and told us she had met with missionaries and had all the lessons in Melbourne. But I left... so I never got to teach her. However, a week or so ago, I got a call from Elder McCleskey and he said that she had asked me to baptize her. She said I want "the smiling Elder" to baptize me. They all thought it was Elder Clark (who never stops smiling) but then she said, "no, the one with the eyebrows" They all immediately knew who it was and called me up. hahahaahhaah. Also, most missionaries in this mission know about my eyebrows apparently. Or at least the ones that I've talked to have heard about them before they served with me. hahahaha so funny. Well, its been a cool week. Not much else to report.

Love you all heaps!!!! 

Elder Maxfield 

1) view from an investigators house (this is my area hahah) 

2) TIFFANY!!!! yay

sister williams always forgets my name... so she needs a reminder hahaha

Everybody's got a hillbilly bone down deep inside

Even the Aussies listen to country. Well at least one family that we met. Brother Harris told us about an acapella ( I think thats how you spell it but the computer doesnt like it...?) group that is country. He showed us them singing "How Great Thou Art". It was soooo good!!!! Home Free is the name of the group. 

Okay, so, I will explain my area for you. :) 

So, we live outside of our area, so we have to bus 45 minutes to get to Cherrybrook. That's a huge neighborhood that has best mostly knocked. The people there are pretty nice though. There's a few other places that are neighborhood areas. Pennant Hills, Thornleigh, Castle Hill, and... I think that's it. TONS OF EUCALYPTUS TREES!! They're everywhere. Like, that's all you see. Ill have to send a picture on time of that. Then when you head up north, its all acreage. Huge plots of land with mansions!!! Everywhere!! Its just land too, they don't really grow anything, just land. That's where a lot of ward members live, so its fun to travel up there. SOOO pretty. But yeah, that's pretty much the area.

We don't have anyone to teach right now. All lessons are pending. we cant really get in contact with anyone. And the one guy we taught said he wants to stick to his church. (we'll see about that when he feels the spirit). 

Ummm, other news. We got to go to the city!!!!!!! And we manned the giant Book Of Mormon. We had a lot of fun and I loved!!!! being in the city again!! Street contacting is so fun! I got into a conversation with someone from Gilbert AZ, that was so cool! Hopefully he came back later like he said he would to check out the display...? Nothing else really.. It was a good week. 

BTW everyone, Elder Ferguson is the man!! We talked about country music for about 7 hours (while working of course) the other day. Just all the songs and bands we could remember. It was so fun!!!!!! 

Okay, love yall heaps!!!! 

out in the country

Hello my beloved friends and family. I hope yall are doing well. 

So, this week has been a little insane and this email may or may not make sense. I have no idea really whats going on in this area, so don't blame me.. sorry. :)

So, this area is all farms and acreage. Lots of the members are super rich but they're all really nice. The ward mission leader had us over for a meeting and dinner to kind of fill us in on what is going on. Man, he can talk. He filled us in for 2 1/2 hours, and then we had dinner. That was a really long time, but sooo helpful. We learned a lot of info and he seems like he's excited to do the work. 

So, I guess the most exciting thing is that I'm driving now. I actually really like it. I missed driving and driving on the left really isn't that hard. You just need to make sure that you stay to the right side of the lane instead of drifting over to the left. That's an adjustment. 

Other than that, not much. We met most of our investigators and we will meet with them some time this week or soon next week. It should be a good transfer. My companion is awesome. Elder Ferguson is from Kaysville Utah and has been out for 15 months. I think we will get along really well and we will have a fun transfer. 

Love yall heaps

Elder Maxfield

This is a good description of the area. hahaha

Off to the suburbs, get ready Dural

BUCKLE YOUR SEAT BELTS BECAUSE THIS IS GOING TO BE AN ACTION PACKED, EPIC EMAIL OF TOTAL AWESOMENESS AND MIRACLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

So, we will start with the title. Dural. the super rich area in the mission where I will do lots and lots of door knocking. Elder PhimPhan (remember him?) was there for 9 months. ahhaha so I'm excited! My new companion is Elder Ferguson. I literally know nothing about him, but I will inform you next week about how awesome he is! Yes, so that is next week. 

Boom, this week. SOOOO SMASH!!!!! So, this week was the zone competition. We had two teams "Alpha lion tiger puma cougar cats" versus "omega wolf jackal dingo dogs" Of course, Alpha lion tiger puma cougar cats destroyed the others. Basically, whoever got the most points (did the best in finding and teaching) won the competition over the three day period. So, some ways to get huge  points was baptismal dates. Elder McCleskey and I were able to get 3 people on date this week. BOOM!!! SO SMASH!!! MIRACLES!!! 

Youk is super super solid. He's on date for March 24th. He will be in a picture below. Kyle is awesome as well. We are going to hot pot tonight with him and his mom. He's 17 so we need permission to baptize him.. whoops, sorry, he's on date already! Also march 24th. BUT GUESS WHAT??? HE TURNS 18 ON MARCH 21ST(Reeses bday too) SO BOOM!!!! MIRACLES!!! many more miracles occurred this week and they are not all able to be contained on this email. So ask away next week. :) 

SO!!!! This week was so awesome! And to top it all off, we went to the most awesomest place ever this morning. that is why I'm so late now.... sorry. :) 

We went to Watson bay. The view was absolutely incredible. It reminded me a little of the southern tip of the Big Island in Hawaii. So pretty. Pictures will be included. The ferry ride was of course awesome and it will be missed a lot when I go inland. 

Okay! my companion said I need to finish. Love yall heaps!!!!! 

Elder Maxfield

Weet-Bix

Zone conference!!!!! And Book of Mormon Musical training!!! So this week we had both of those. On Tuesday we had a special training meeting because the Book of Mormon Musical is coming to Sydney in a week or so. We are all super excited for it to come; because even though it makes fun of us, it brings us a lot of publicity!! So, we were trained on what we are going to do for the play, and what to expect to be asked by people. So, I think the best way to find out what we're going to be doing, is for you to check out the Melbourne campaign that the church did last year for the play. We will have a giant, 10ft tall Book of Mormon out in the middle of the square. Missionaries will be there to answer questions and help people find out whats inside the book. In the display will be some questions that the Book Of Mormon answers and some pop up displays. It'll be so cool!!!! I'm excited for it to start!!! 

This week was also zone conference. President, Sister Checketts, the zone leaders, the assistants, and the sister training leaders all gave training. I found that in each of the 5 trainings, we were taught different things that we need to do in order to really see progression in our investigators. I'm excited to implement those things into my work and see what happens. 

I love this work everyone! I hope yall know that. I love my Savior and I am privileged to testify of Him every day. Please follow Him and His teachings. Its the best thing you can do ever. 

Love yall heaps!! 

I've been getting questions of "what is weet-bix" weet-bix is the best cereal in the world!!! Its 97% wheat and is the best with honey. 

HELLOOOOOO

Okay, miracles galore!!!!! 

1) I found golf clubs and a Socceroos jersey!!! So cool!! I've been wanting both of those

So for the rest of the miracles, they're actual miracles. I've been working on increasing my faith in Jesus Christ and trusting that as long as I'm working, we will find success. So this Friday, before leaving the flat, we prayed to have a miracle. On the way to a lesson 5 minutes later, we met Josh. He had been in Australia for 10 hours and was lost. We helped him and then invited him to games night. He came and was super excited to meet everyone. He wants to meet up again!!! He's awesome!!! 

The next day was really rough. At the end of the day we  did a finding competition with the district. Whoever got the most points won. We did so bad and knew we were going to lose. Just no one would talk to us. So we were a little discouraged, but I told Elder McCleskey that on the way home (5 minute walk) we were going to find someone. Guess what??? We found Siyu!! He's awesome!! He is super keen to meet up and wants to come to games night tonight and learn about our church!!! Woohoo!!! 

Sunday, we met with an investigator. This person has lied to us before about believing in God just to make us feel good. So we prayed before that he would tell us the truth. He did and now we know how to help him. 

Miracles happen when you have faith. My faith is not as strong as it could be but as we try to increase it, God will openly bless us. 

I love yall heaps!!! 

Elder Maxfield