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.