So that's the story of the $200 text!

I finally get some time to sit down and write home! What a week! That's all I can say!

 

I will get right to the part that everyone is waiting for... Why did I send mom a text in the middle of the week asking for $200? Well let's start at the very beginning...

 

We were doing service at the good old thrift shop, as we always do, and as I was working so hard a very kind old lady came in and asked us to help her get some donations out of her car, as lots of people do.  We kindly told her that we would love to help and proceeded out to her car. When we got to the car, all that she had to donate were four sets of old golf clubs. As missionaries do, I instantly jumped on the chance to talk about the connection that we instantly had because of the work I have done at golf courses.  After a very lovely conversation she decided that she wanted me to have one of the sets of old clubs.  I told her that I would have no use for them but she insisted, so I took them and put the set of clubs in the trunk of our car.  I planned on donating them to the store the next time we visited.  That night I was bored and I had happened to bring a ball and the putter into the apartment to help pass some of the time. You have seen how I would just putt around the house and that's what I was doing in the apartment.  But I remember a saying now, "When boys get together the smart factor goes down!" Or something like that.  I guess this never stops being true, its not something we can grow out of I guess.  Anyways, the other elders were so impressed with my putting skills that they kept challenging me to more and more crazy putts.  (Like bouncing it off walls and around corners and across the tops of tables and other stupid things like that.) Everything was going great and we were all having a lot of fun until I tried to putt a little bit to hard and the edge of the club caught the ball wrong and sent it flying into the front window... The fun instantly ended and everyone looked at me like, "What were you thinking, are you crazy?"  Cleaned up the glass that had fell and put some duct tape on the window for the night. Made some not so fun calls in the morning and found out I would be owing 200 dollars to repair the window. The words of my mother continue to ring loud and clear in my head, "No playing with balls in the house! Take it outside before you break something!" Another rule I guess you can't grow out of! Now that its all said and done, the window is repaired and everything is back to normal, it is actually pretty funny! But still bad. The new window is a lot better than the old one though. Still just a single pane window though, I thought that was weird coming from freezing cold New York. There is no such thing as insulation here in Cali!​ So that's the story of the $200 text!

 

Other things that happened this week... Well nothing else is quite as exciting as that but... We did get 4 new investigators this week and those two girls that we met at church last week are still super interested and have listened to the first two lessons now!  We have a lot more work to do this week than we had last week.  We wont have to struggle for how to fill the time this week!  That's a huge blessing and very exciting.  My companion and I did a three day challenge last week of 100% obedience to every single rule. That is a very, very difficult thing to do! Let me tell you, it is a struggle. There are so many rules and it would take me at least two years to get to a point where I could consistently be in the habit of keeping all of them.  But the blessings that we received from being obedient is so obvious!  Four new investigators in one week?!!!! That never happens!  Awesome!

 

I love you all and keep you all in my prayers. Stay strong and keep each other close. I know that you are all amazing and that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of you! He knows you, He knows your pains and struggles and trials. He will help you with anything. Just ask. I will help you with anything as well, as long as it is in my power. Take care!

 

Love,

Elder Maxwell

Let it change you!

Happy Easter right back! I hope your Easter was wonderful. I did get the package and I actually used the eggs to teach an Easter lesson at our Easter dinner. It went super well and saved me a lot of creative thinking a preparation! We have had a couple of really cool miracles this week. 

   First we were at church on Sunday (imagine that), and these two girls walk in and are asking to learn more about the church because they live down the street and want to know more about the church that is right next to their house. So we taught them a quick version of the first lesson and got there information and will meet up with them later in the week. Pretty cool how they just walked into church.

   Second we  help a lot of random people with service this week. We decided that whenever we saw someone that might need help we should  stop and help them so we did that all week and it was awesome. Random acts of service are the best! Lots of yard work and lots of sun time! It has been so nice out. 

  With the new transfer I got an all new district so its basically like starting all over again which is really annoying but easy at the same time. I love serving my fellow missionaries. They are awesome!

 I hope you all had a great week and  that all are doing well. Take care and I will have more to share next week!

Ps: Really short on time this week, Sorry! I love you all so much. The atonement will change you! Let it change you! It is wonderful.

Love, Elder Maxwell

The seeds have been planted

It has been quite the week. Transfer calls have come and for the first time absolutely nothing has changed. Kind of disappointing and definitely not as exciting as moving around or getting a new companion every six weeks. I love this ward though and my companion is a complete opposite of me but we have found a way to work out our differences and work together. He is definitely not the person I would choose to be friends with on my own, but I love him and I am excited for another six weeks of service with him.

 

We were doing service at a non-profit thrift shop this week, where all the proceeds go to breast cancer.  We just help them move furniture out onto the floor and pretty much do any grunt work that they need done. I have been serving here ever since December when I first got to Fremont and this past week while we were there the guy that we were helping wanted us to put a perfectly fine leather couch out back because it was a sectional and the other section to it was missing. I told him that he shouldn't throw it away because we could use it. He then told me that if I could get a truck to the shop in the next hour I could have it and another section that could fit with it. I got on the phone and had a member there in 20 min. He was quite impressed and asked me how I did it so fast and I had an opportunity to explain how wards work and how we are always willing to serve and help each other out. He was impressed again and gave us two matching sectional leather couches that I must say look very good in our apartment. I wish all missionary work was like that. He definitely loves missionaries at this point. The seeds have been planted for him.

 

I got to do three baptism interviews this week because I am a district leader and anyone in my district who is having a baptism has me do the interview. The first interview went really well. He was a young man, about 17 years old and he was so ready. He got baptized on Saturday at 3. The other two interviews were a husband and wife. The wife had been progressing super fast and was ready to be baptized about 2 months ago, the husband was a bit slower but he had committed to Saturday. I interview him first. Baptism interviews are supposed to be 15 min long. They are supposed to be spiritual and make them excited for their baptism. This man took 1.5 hours to interview. Our rules are that you have to go all the way through the interview questions no matter what. I asked him question by question and each time he asks me what does that mean? or What is that? AAAHAHAHAH!!!! It was the hardest hour and a half of my life. I had to teach him the entire first three lessons all on my own. He answered no to over half of the questions and the whole time I had a feeling that I needed to pass him. I didn't know why at the moment but I passed him. His wife came in right after him and her interview was in and out. She was another perfect interview. Both of them passed and they were both going to be baptized on Saturday morning.

 

After the interview I got a call from the stake president who was in a lot of the lessons while they were getting taught. He wasn't too happy with me on the phone. He was telling me that a baptism interview should never be that long and all I could do was say I'm sorry I did what I thought I should. So now its about 3:00 in the afternoon, I have the stake president mad at me. The sisters that taught them are mad at me. The zone leaders are trying to call me and find out what in the world I did, and on top of it all I passed someone who didn't even want to get baptized! But after everything settled down a little bit (we are talking 5:00 the next day) I got another call from the stake president, he apologizes and says that he was impressed with how well I handled the situation. The zone leaders call back and explain that they wouldn't even know what to do in that situation and they were impressed with how I handled it. The whole time I'm confused because last thing I knew, everyone was mad at me. Then the sisters call me and explain that the husband had chose not to get baptized Saturday because he didn't feel ready but his wife was still going to get baptized and he just needed a little more time.

 

Then the sisters where explaining how they were glad that I didn't fail him because then he was able to think about it and make the decision on his own. The wife wasn't mad because her husband had made the choice and everything was working out. What it all comes down to is that nobody lost any trust in anybody and everyone was happy at the end of the day. I am so glad that I have been called by God to do what us missionaries do, because without God's help there is no way that everything could have worked out how it did. I know that God's hand is in the work that we are doing and I know that He is watching out for me and helping me more than I could imagine. What a blessing it was to be able to be at the baptisms this weekend and feel the wonderful love and spirit of our Lord. I know that he truly does love each and every one of us.

 

Take care and help the missionaries like you are doing!

 

Love, Elder Maxwell

No pride, Just the truth!

I hope everyone enjoyed conference as much as I did. It sounds like you all had the usual Maxwell family conference! That's awesome. Its not the same sitting in the chapel for all of the sessions but it does help you focus more. Or maybe that was because I am a missionary... Either way conference was great.

It has been another wonderful week out here in sunny California where the sun never stops shinning! I understand that you have stopped looking at the weather for over here but I think its good for you to know that it will be in the 80's most of the week! Ahh, my tan is coming along quite nicely. By the end of the week I should be golden!

Anyways, on to the important things. I had the opportunity to go on exchanges this week with two members of my district. It was really a lot of fun because I am really good friends with one of them and I got to spend all day with him on Friday. It is a very relaxing process, being able to just slow down and enjoy the time that has been given to us, while doing the Lords work. I honestly enjoy being a missionary so much. I can't even explain to you how it has changed my life. Everything that I have gone through in my life has prepared me for right here, right now.

I have had so many memories come back to me this past week, both good and bad. I have struggled for a little bit trying to understand how I can remember what I learned from bad experiences without having to remember all the guilt, pain, and sadness that came from them. Then my answer came during conference. I believe it was Sunday morning when Dieter F. Uchtdorf spoke about having an attitude of gratitude. It is exactly the answer that I needed. I realized that as I have let the Atonement change my life the memories stay with me but not with God. I realized that I could learn from them by being grateful to my Heavenly Father for letting me have these experiences. Through an attitude of gratitude I can let bad things have a positive influence on me and on those who I am able to share these experiences with. That is probably what has struck with me the most this week.

I have learned a lot about what the Lord is expecting from me. I also really liked the talk about the young man who gave a talk in church and then was seen in his "street" clothes right after church. I think there is a great lesson to learn from this. Stand as an example of Christ at all times in all places.

We also got to go to the Oakland Temple this week. It was amazing! Such a beautiful temple. The spirit is so strong there and it made me remember all the times that I worked in the temple in Palmyra! I also realized that I have never gone through the temple endowments in the same temple. Four times in for temples! Pretty cool!

No more time this week but I love you all! Keep being kind to each other and always remember that our family ROCKS!!! We are seriously the coolest! No pride, Just the truth!
 
Love, Elder Maxwell

Being a missionary is a good thing!

So I have decided that being a missionary is a good thing, this week. I am happy that this week has flown by. I am not sure if time goes faster with a car or a bike but having a car all week was awesome! But I think it's actually change that makes things go faster! Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that because my companion has a hurt foot and can't bike, our mission president purchased an old police interceptor for us to drive around until he gets better. Our mission president felt this was a easy thing for him to do to help the work continue to press forward here in Central Park. And the work really has pressed forward. It has been an amazing week!

 

 

I am so happy for the opportunity to serve with my companion Elder Jensen. He is an amazing missionary! He is very gullible, he will believe anything that I tell him. It has been very tempting to trick him into believing ridiculous things like I did with Jonathan and Nathan and Ian but I have refrained.

 

We have been able to do a lot of really amazing work this week. We got to meet this one less active member in the ward and when we knocked at his door he welcomed us in happily! Once inside I looked around and he had different artifacts from all around the world around his house. As I talked with him, I learned that he is a really cool guy. He has traveled pretty much everywhere in the world and he does lots of cool outdoor adventures everywhere he goes. I looked at this guys life and I saw that he had done everything that he had ever wanted to do. Then as I looked closer I could see that he had gone through a divorce recently. He had lost his connection with his family and the church and I could tell that he was at a point in his life where even though he had done everything he could have ever wanted to do, he had nothing.

 

On Sunday we had ward conference,  the stake president gets up and gives a talk focused on knowing the difference between good and evil. He told a story about how there was going to be a wedding in his backyard so for the weeks before the wedding they started to get the backyard ready. There was a row of rose bushes that were just starting to bloom so he thought that it would look really nice if he didn't prune them back. As he let them continue to grow over the next few weeks they got bigger and more full with more roses and they looked amazing when it came time for the wedding! The wedding came and went and the backyard went back to normal so he took his clippers and went to clip back the rose bushes. As he clipped them back he realized that the rose bushes had overpowered the other plants around them. Everything else had died and had not received enough light or water because of the rose bushes.

 

We can compare this story of the rose bushes with the story of this less active. What are we holding onto that is overpowering the other things in our lives that are important? Are we giving too much time or attention to something that in the end doesn't have any real value? As I thought about this I realized that we can get trapped in this same story if we are not careful. We need to make sure that we are not giving all of the attention to ourselves. What I want to do...where I want to go...who I want to see...I...I..I.I!  Don't get caught! We are in a constant battle between good and evil. That's a fact!

 

Got to have a zone leader come and spend the day with me and he is going home in two weeks. He asked me if I was excited for General Conference. I said yes and then he looks at me and says, "I'm excited for spring break."! Thats a good one, I have to use that at the end of my mission!

 

It was a great week cruising around in the Police Interceptor! My companions foot is almost all the way better but we are going to milk it for as long as we can ;) The beach was great last week but no we were not able to swim. Just have fun in the sun! I am sorry to hear about all the snow! No fun! Let me know if there is anything that I can do to help any of you. I love you all! Take care and stay warm!

 

Love, Elder Maxwell

It has been a wonderful week full of craziness and confusion and blessings and upsets!

It has been a wonderful week full of craziness and confusion and blessings and upsets, but through it all it is still just a week! JUST A WEEK! What on earth is going on! It feels like it has been a month! So much has happened this past week that I don't even know where to begin. So lets start with Tuesday morning. We wake up on Tuesday to go to play some sports with other missionaries and half way through (so about 630 in the morning) my companion randomly runs up onto the stage and then he ran and jumped off the stage like John Wilkes Booth. No joke, he went soaring off of that thing. His air time must have been five seconds! Then to no ones surprise gravity kicked in and brought him to the ground. Normally this wouldn't be a problem but in my companions case he decided to keep his right leg in the locked and secure position. This is good for standing or sitting occasionally but it is never good for a landing. So, as always in this case, the landing didn't end well and my companion bruised his heel. He hasn't been able to walk on it all week and we are waiting to see if it is fractured or not.

So, because my companion has not been able to bike or walk all week, I have been doing a lot of exchanges this week. I have spent more time with my good friend, Elder Le Beau, than I have with my own companion! (not true but it feels that way) It has been really fun trying to set up rides with members for every single lesson that we want to go to. Oh, and if we want to eat dinner at members homes now we need to get a ride there or have them pick us up for dinner. Its crazy how dependant we are on the ward right now. Honestly this is kind of like what we need the work to be like. Very involved with the members but I really don't like the part where we depend on them for everything. So that part of the week has been a little bit stressful but it has really taught me about how important it is to have set appointments and being in tune with the members to help achieve the goals that we set. I know that the Lord has a purpose for all of this and I feel like one of those was to give me time to be with Elder Le Beau. We have grown really close in the past week and I have been able to help him a lot and he has been able to help me a lot. I know that we never would have had this opportunity if it wasn't for my companion jumping off the stage. It sounds funny, I know but it really has been a blessing for me from Heavenly father.

Another amazing thing that happened this week was yesterday! We got to go to the beach as a zone! We drove all the way down to Carmel by the Sea. It is so nice, I took lots of really cool pictures and got a really nice tan. Unfortunately tan lines are unavoidable on a mission, but it was still a really great time. I caught a crab and fed it to a sea anemone. It was awesome. Then we fed hermit crabs and snails and little fish to little anemones. It was an amazing day and perfect weather. Enjoy the pictures and don't hate me because of them. (note from mom: more like envy him, it is only 13 degrees here in NY this morning!) Just know I love you!

Had my third district meeting today. Last week I did a district meeting about helping less active members and investigators and we did a cool activity where we had to build towers with oreos! This week I talked about Faith and Preparation and we did a cool activity with the alien baloons that you sent me. It was cool. It has been fun being a district leader. I love my district and I want to keep helping them as much as I can. I have learned so much from them. I have learned patience, I have learned responsibility, I have learned love (can you learn love? If yes... I did), and I have learned how important it is to embrace opportunity. All of these things are important and will help me throughout my life! Learn them sooner rather than later!

I love you all so much and I love hearing from you! I also really like pictures, send me more pictures of things. They are the best. I will try to do the same.

Love, Elder Maxwell

The spiritual inspiration comes from God.

My first district meeting went very well. Talked about the importance of working with members and I came up with a cool relay game that we could all do to help illustrate how working with members is more effective. Thats what I mean by advice for district meetings by the way. I need to know cool activities that the missionaries have done, the spiritual inspiration comes from God.

 

Had the Assistants to the President come to my area to go on exchanges with me this week. I was nervous about why they wanted to come and see this area but it all ended up going very well and we had a great day.

 

For part of the day we were contacting and we were walking down the street and this guy and his girlfriend are walking towards us so we start to talk with them and we get to know them a little bit and then we ask them if they wouuld want to meet up sometime and learn more about the gospel and he said no but that his mom was religious and she would listen. So we ask him where his mom lives and he wouldn't tell us but then as he was walking away he turned around and said, "you know, why don't you go and see her."  (I dont know if he was trying to put it to her or if he was being nice)  But we got her adress and we had time so we went to her place and ended up teaching her the restoration and she said she would love to have us back, but because she is a single woman we said that there were sisters and she said she would be more comfortable with that. SO... now the sisters are seeing her. Its awesome! Quite the miracle!

 

Not a lot of time this week but I will write more next time!

 

Love you all, 

Elder Maxwell