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!!!!

Mom's Email

Umm well this week was busy as. We had MLC on Tuesday pretty much all day. Well, as I said to Elder Tobler (he was sitting next to me) after the meeting, "We just got trained." Elder Ardern (a member of the 70) came and trained us. And oh boy did he train us. I have never felt so uplifted and motivated after a rebuke in my life. It was pretty incredible actually. He didn't openly rebuke us, but he told us that we need to be doing a better job. He shared a lot of different things that we needed to work on, but he praised us many times for what we were doing well. So it was a good experience. I've never had an MLC like that before. 

On Thursday we had a half mission conference where Elder Ardern spoke and told us how to be better missionaries. That was a great discussion and it led into a great accountability call last night. Elder Bowers (the man himself) and I got talking last night about how we can more often get our new investigators to turn into progressing investigators. A big problem here is that lots of our friends just hang around for a while and don't really progress. Or they have lessons but aren't too serious about it and then eventually life gets in the way. So that's trying to get fixed this week. 

As for my companion, yeah he's called Chinese speaking but that doesn't really matter because he still needs to learn English. So we mostly have conversations in English and then when translation is needed or in just casual conversation, Chinese is used. I haven't actually picked up much Chinese. I know a few phrases and a lot of useless things. Yesterday I learned "I will destroy you." Which is pretty funny using it to find. You ask the people if it means that you like their shoes, pretty funny. The Chinese people are so cool. I really enjoy serving around them and I'm looking forward to my (now almost required) vacation to China in the future. 

Well, thats a long email. But thats my week. Ill send some pictures as well cause we took some this week. 

HEY GUESS WHAT??????? WE'RE GOING TO THE REAL BODIES EXHIBIT TODAY!!!!!!! YEAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! IM SO PUMPED!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!! 

Well, I love you mom! I hope you have a great week!!!!! 

Love Christopher. 

1)Lisa was leaving...very sad day but its all good. She'll be back at some point. 

2) this is (from left to right) Amber, Catherine, Julia, Elder Fang.  Amber is a member and Catherine and Julia 

This is sparta

Well, as a famous poet once said, "Hi." Think about that quote for a minute. If you do, it'll blow your mind. 

Well everyone. I hope you are all having a great day! 

This week has been a good one. To start, my companion was almost too sore to walk for the first few days this week (he's used to having a car so walking has been killing him. Hahhaa). That was fun though cause we walked really slow all over the city. Hahaha! 

It was a week of miracles (sort of more than usual but not tooooooo crazy). I guess i say this because it was a really productive week. We were able to help out a lot of our friends with their concerns. We are still working with Yvette on finding her dang answer... but she'll get one!!! I'm excited for when she does! 

Lisa leaves for China (she'll be gone for 3 weeks- 3 months. She doesn't know) next Sunday, so we will go to the temple with her this week (hopefully!) Tou is getting the Melchizedek Priesthood and so is Vincent. Ash will be getting the Priesthood soon, and Archie had a great day today! So all is going great for them! I'm so happy for them because they are finding joy in the gospel. Vincent and Tou are awesome. They really enjoy serving and Ash is great too! Archie has struggles at times, buy I love him to death. I'm excited to hear tonight why he had such a good day. 

I guess I'll just close by saying, God answers prayers. When you're down, when you don't know what you're doing and you don't know why things are happening the way they are, you can always turn to Him. He will help you. I know He will. And I'm so happy and grateful that He does. 

I love you all. I hope you have a great week!! 

Love 

Elder Maxfield

At the water, we take pictures.

Hello!!! What is going on??? Well this week was so fun and busy and crazy and nuts and wild and.. well, I think you get the point. Its been a good week though. 

First things first. I got a new companion, same area. This is actually the first time I've stayed in an area that my companion is leaving. Hahha so that's kinda strange. Its pretty fun though. Elder Fang is my new companion. My brotha from Taiwan. He's been out for about 17 months and this is his third area.. wow! I don't think I would enjoy that. Hahaha. Hes from the southern portion of the mission, so its interesting to see the culture from there. Hes awesome though. I really like him. He is adjusting to the city life, but is doing a great job! I really like him a lot. 

Also, we had a mission conference this weekend where we were told the rules of the mission and how to use the phones and stuff. So that was all good. It was good to see some old friends again. Like ELDER FERGUSON!!!! THE MAN!!!! I miss him. Hes a cool guy Hahahaha. So that conference was really fun. 

Then we had Lisa's baptism!!! Woohoo! She was sooooooooo nervous, but we took heaps of pictures and she was okay. She is gonna be a solid member. Now she wants us to go find her a cute boy that we can baptize and she can date. Hahhahaha so im liking where she's going with this idea. She'll have to help us fellowship sometime. Hahah just kidding. We dont convert people like that. Hahha! But she is really cool. She'll be a good member. 

Well, this is going to be another exciting week.

Love you all heaps though!!!! 

Stay awesome! 

Elder Maxfield.