I actually have a real, living, companion!

  It is a great week here in the California San Jose mission. I have had some really amazing blessings happen this week. 

 

     First of all, I actually have a real, living, companion now. He is a really cool guy from Vernal Utah. He took my place in Fremont when I left and finished training my son. He has been out for almost a year and is such a solid missionary. He is perfect for this area and has been working hard for the past week. We have seen so many wonderful things happen just in the time that he has been here. It has been such a huge blessing having him here so we can give full time and attention to the Stanford wards. He has a birthday coming up on the 21st of February and will be turning 20 years old. He has some of the slickest looking hair I have ever seen. I think I'm going to get him to donate it to locks of love :) Just kidding, his hair is salubrious. I would like to welcome my new companion Elder Ayotte to the area. I am happy to have him here! 

 

    Second, I found him! It was not easy but I did it! Elder Forsgren made it to California. How it works in the mission is all the new missionaries will arrive on Wednesday morning and will spend a day together. Then Thursday morning they meet their trainers and go to their new areas. My zone didn't have anyone training so we had no reason to be at the mission office for the trainee meeting. But we did need to drop some things off at the office later in the day so we tried to plan going to the office in time to see the new missionaries so I could say hello to Elder Forsgren. Unfortunately by the time we got to the office, everyone was gone. We had no idea where Elder Forsgren had gone.  We saw some of his paperwork on a desk, but other than that, there was no trace. We went back home defeated. That night I decided that I would find him before the end of the week. 

 

    On Friday night we got out the phone and we started to call the areas that we knew had trainees. One, two, three zones called and nobody knows where Elder Forsgren is. Four, and then five! I got a hold of Elder Forsgrens MTC companion! Strangely he had no idea where his previous companion had ended up. I guess he had other things on his mind, such as I am so terrified, I have no idea what is going on, who is this weird guy that I have as a companion, etc. (There are a lot of thoughts going through your head on your first day.) We had no idea where the three other trainees were, we had found five out of the eight. We started to call the other zone leaders to ask them who was training in their zone. Finally, calling the seventh zone we found the area that Elder Forsgren was in. I called him and we connected for a quick 5min phone call. How cool is it being able to have a friend come and join you in the mission. He has helped me realize how adjusted I have become to the weather here. We have had a cold rainy weekend and Elder Forsgren said over the phone how nice and warm it is here. Oh boy, the adjustment back home is going to be fun! Elder Forsgren has a great companion in a super awesome area. He is Elder Kerby's great grandson in mission genealogy. He is going to love serving in that area. Right in San Jose, he has San Jose State in his area and he will be working with the YSA and family ward in that area. Really really good area.
 

   One of the cool stories of the week begins at family home evening last Monday. At the end of FHE, while everyone was socializing, a member came up to me and said that he needed me to challenge him to do something. I said I would love to and before I could say anything else he said that he wanted me to challenge him to have someone for us to teach on Saturday. I was taken back a little by his request but I agreed and said I would call him later that night with a challenge and a time on Saturday. I call him that evening and tell him that we want him to have someone for us to teach on Saturday at 4:00 pm. He accepted. We go through the week checking in once or twice and he still didn't have anyone. Saturday morning we give him a call and he still didn't have anyone set. Now at this point we had two options. One, we could have thanked him for trying and told him it wasn't a big deal and he could try again another time. OR... We could have told him that there was still time and that he could call down power from heaven and God would help him achieve his goal. We did the latter and a miracle happened!  He got ahold of one of his fellow classmates who said he would be willing to meet up with us. We met with them at 4 and it was incredible. I learned from this experience that if we truly set our sights with what God would want us to be doing. If our will is inline with His, miracles will happen. He does provide. The guy we met with on Saturday may never meet with us again. All we did was plant a seed and we don't know when that will sprout and grow but it is planted. 

 

Love,

Elder Maxwell