How are we going to make it to the door?

What a week!

 Well it has been great having a new companion. He is amazing and very
 dedicated to the work. The Ward is very shocked that I got a companion
 who is going home four weeks from tomorrow! That is the fastest stay
 that any missionary has had in a ward! I think it is quite strange
 that our mission president would pull him out of his area and put him
 here for his last five weeks. That is hardly enough time to get to
 know the ward. We definitely have our work cut out for us. We are
 staying very busy and getting lots of work done.

 This week I had the amazing opportunity to go to the wedding of
 Stephen and Jeni. If your remember back in January when we had the
 baptism in the pool. Well Stephen and Jeni are now married. I got to
 travel across the mission to go and support them and be part of the
 fun. It was an incredible event. Beautiful weather and amazing people.
 It is cool going to a wedding and knowing both sides of the family. I
 feel like that doesn't happen too often for guests. It was so good
 seeing both of them again and seeing their families. It is so cool
 being around people that you really love and you can feel that they
 really love you back. I am so glad that I can call Jeni and Stephen
 life long friends. There will always be a special place for them and
 their families in my life.

 We also got to visit a wonderful family this week. I had never met
 them before so we were going in blind. It was a less active member
 couple. We show up to the house and my first thought was, how are we
 going to make it to the door? The front door was on the second floor
 and the right side of the porch was destroyed. It was hanging clumps
 of cement connected to twisted pieces of rebar. The wooden flooring
 was strewn about the front of the house as if it had just been hit by
 a tornado. I can imagine the look on our faces as we stood there
 staring at the path ahead of us. Off to the left there was a slim
 remaining piece of the former steps leading to the front door. We
 decided without saying a word to proceed forward to our goal, the
 front door. The wooden steps creaked with each step and I told my
 companion several times to keep his distance because I didn't want to
 die.

 Thank you so much for the birthday bash in a box! You all are so
 classy. It has been a great birthday so far!!! I love all the gifts
 and Austins idea for the bobble heads would have been hilarious but I
 don't know if I would have understood it without a note! Perfect on
 all the treats. You still understand what I like. Good work family!
 The dynamite birthday cake was fantastic. Great idea! And as for Ian's
 gift. Keep your eyes out for a really good video :D

 I love you all! What did the dinosaur say after he finished eating
 Tonga? I WANT SAMOA!!!!

 Have a great week!

 Love, Elder Maxwell

 Oh, PS: elder Schnell is...
 1- A missionary
 2- A reader/writer
 3- A brother to two brothers and a sister.
 4- A whovian (someone who is enthralled with Dr. Who)
 5- A Ravenclaw from the tribe of Ephraim

A new companion

Just got back from getting a new companion. He is great. He is from Washington. He only has five weeks of his mission left. What? Is this real? I thought I was getting my last companion on my mission today and then I get to the meeting and they give me one of the few elders that will be going home next transfer. It is a crazy contrast being with him and being with Hamilton. Elder Hamilton was so excited about home and his levels of trunks were skyscraper high! My new companion, if you didn't know him, could pull off being in his first year still. My new companions name is Elder  Schnell.

So that is it. Elder Hamilton is gone and Schnell is here. This will definitely make the last two transfers of my mission fly by. Before I know it I will have a new comp that will be cutting my tie at the end. That is so weird to think about that. I got to see Elder Forsgren again today. He is looking really good. He is serving down in Morgan Hill now.

We had some really good meetings with Max this week. He came to the outgoing fireside for Hamilton and he brought his friend Savannah with him. We had volunteered him to be one of the speakers at the fires side. He said yes so he got to speak as one of the converts among all
of the missionaries going home. He gave a great little talk and gave some good shoutouts to Elder Hamilton. We are going to start meeting with savannah and her family. I will let you know how that progresses.

Well for some reason my mind is blank once again. I don't know what else to say. I feel like there is something big that I am forgetting but  if I remember I'll throw it in next weeks letter. Hopefully
things slow down a little this week and I can get my head back. Sorry my letter is so short! I feel like this is the shortest one in a long time. I'll have to do better next week.

I love you all!!!

Elder Ben Maxwell

I wake up in the morning just as tired as when I went to sleep!

Well here it is! Monday again! Only one more of these until my companion is on a plane! His trunkyness  is rubbing off on me but I am holding as strong as I can. Pretty soon he will be home and I will have a companion that is not dying soon and that should keep me from being trunky again. Although the end is approaching so very quickly! I can really notice it now because I wake up in the morning just as tired as when I went to sleep! I am always exhausted! I sleep all the way through the night most nights and it still doesn't help! I must be working too hard. Maybe I'll take a week off or something... Just kidding! I'm pushing through to the end!

This week has been filled with miracles! We were doing everything we could to find new people to teach and one of our potentials has been Max's girlfriend. She has come to church with him and everything. We have talked with her before but have never taught her anything. Earlier this week we find out that the elders that border our area have been in contact with her entire family before. They have never been taught but we were worried that they lived in the bordering area. we found out on Thursday that the family lives in our Ward boundaries which is perfect because they already have a connection with our Ward!!! Yes! We still haven't taught them anything but we have a family home evening set up with them for tonight as long as Max's girlfriend asks her parents for permission.  opefully the family knows
we are coming before we show up! I am sure everything will go well. We are hoping that the family will all come to church and will be welcomed in by our Ward and will never want to leave. They have five kids all over the age of 8! So the whole family could get baptized  together! And then later on sealed for time and all eternity together! That would be so cool! I am really excited for  onight. I hope we don't mess it up. Pray for us!

The road trip sounds like it would be fun! Having the Benions over would be so amazing! I am so sad that I missed them. I would be down to room with Lehi. I hear rooming with friends can be tough though. Maybe it would be better to get rooms close to each other so we can use each others rooms as escapes from our own room! But we can worry about all that later.  I am excited for college but I have been putting it off so long that I'm dreading it! Hahaha.

Say what's up to Christian for me. As for the offer to sleep on their floor I think I'll pass but maybe the occasional drop by for a nice home cooked meal. That sounds like a pretty good plan. I'll let Austin and Maddi feed me on odd days and Christian and Abby can feed me on even days. Man I have the coolest older siblings ever! You guys don't know how much this means to me!

I love you all! Happy birthday week in the car! Woo hoo!

Love,
Elder Ben Maxwell

There is no time for procrastination!

And another week has gone! I feel like not enough has happened for a whole week to have gone by. Where do these weeks keep going? Just the other day I was sitting here thinking about where I was going after leaving Stanford. Now, four months later, I am sitting her thinking about where I will be in three months! Crazy how fast things can change. Goes to show how we always need to be ready. There is no time for procrastination! 

 

We continued to meet with Angelo this week. He is doing super well. We have taught him 4/5 lessons now. His baptism is about a month away and boy the time is trickling through our fingers. Not really much new to say about him and his progress. He is still a changing man and I still marvel as I watch him make mature decisions and lead a course in his life that will hugely influence the remaining years of his life. The gospel will forever be a blessing and a strength in his life. He can so clearly see the changes in his life and he loves them all! 

As for the Fourth of July, we had a really incredible day. One of the blessings of being a missionary is that you can go to any party or BBQ and people are so happy to give you all of their food. It never crosses anyone's mind that we may have just eaten, but that is fine by me. We had so much good BBQ through the day. We started our day off with a ward party at 8. It began with us running/walking a 5k. Now I have never ran a 5k before so I wasn't sure how fast or slow I should go for a pace. I started running with one group but they were too slow so I picked up my pace until I caught up with one of my favorite members and we ran the rest of the race together. It was really cool. He is usually a very social guy but he said he can't talk and run. He has to focus on breathing.  Hahaha, he is such a stud. The 5k was fun and there was a breakfast right after that. From there all through the rest of the day we went from BBQ to BBQ. Eating our fill of various meats and kebabs of all types. Quite the filling day. I slept very well that night. The evening of the fourth our mission president gave us permission to stay out and watch fireworks. So a nonmember we were with took us into downtown San Jose where they were putting on a big show! It was pretty incredible. The fireworks were right over our head and there was a skyscraper right behind us so the explosions would echo off of the building and amplify the power of each firework. They would shake you every time they exploded. I sent some videos to try and help you all see what we saw. Pretty crazy!

That's about all that happened this week. Angelo and the fourth! So I guess it is a short letter this week. I don't think I will be effected by our coming transfer on the 21st. I hope and pray that I stay here in Los Gatos and train a new missionary for my last two transfers. That would be the best! They are just hopes and dreams though. My companion is getting more and more trunks as the days go by. He is starting to have his first "lasts." Last fast Sunday on a mission. And other things like that. He spends a lot of time looking at his calendar so I told him if he looks at it long enough he will be going home. Hahaha, he didn't take too kindly to that. I am trying to keep him grounded but sometimes his head is definitely on the plane. I can imaging it gets very difficult in the last few weeks. He still works hard when it's time to work though. He is a great missionary. 

Lots of pictures to go with this week even though not a lot happened! That's always fun! Love you all! I miss you and can't wait to run around like a crazy person on the driveway with Jonathan. 

Love you lots, 

Elder Maxwell

Another week has come and gone

Well, well, well, another week has come and gone. This week was one of those weeks where you work really hard but when you get to the end of the week there is really not much to show for it. That is alright when what you do have to show for it is a new baptism date with your investigator! Angelo prayed and decided to set a date for August 1st. He is really excited for his baptism. I think the best part about his story is that you can really see his commitment to the changes that he is making in his life. He doesn't have the greatest living situation at home. His mother and siblings support him in the changes that he is making in his life but he says they told him to not try and change them. The rest of his family is not ready to make the same changes that he is making. So in order to show his commitment to the gospel and his willingness to follow his Saviors example he has decided that he needs to find somewhere else to live for the summer until he returns to college in the fall. At only 19 years old and already being able to make life changing decisions such as that. I honor his commitment and dedication to what he knows is right. He is a good example to me of what it means to be diligent. Little does he know that as we meet and he is learning so much from us and the spirit. I am in turn, learning an unspoken lesson and have grown so much from his example. I am really excited for the continued lessons over the next month. We meet with him twice a week so he is extremely dedicated to his conversion process. I love it. 

 

As for the rest of my email I am not sure what to write. That is really the only notable event of the week. So I will be spending the rest of my time writing whatever comes to mind as I am sitting here. I guess before I do that I can reply to what was said in your email. The process of getting a visa all taken care of sounds extremely painful. I think it is a good thing that I didn't have to do that to come out on a mission. Otherwise I may have not made it out. Hahaha, I am just kidding, I would have had to have Mom helping me and pushing me to be on top of it every step of the way. Thank you Mom for helping me get out on a mission. You rock! Paperwork just isn't my thing. Hopefully the road trip goes well and nobody gets sick. Albany is only a three hour drive away. That's just six hours in the car... I'm sorry, that does sound awful. Enjoy the drive everyone.

"You never realize how strong you are until being strong is all you have left." This is a line from the Mormon message titled "Courage". I was spending part of my studies the other day trying to find a good video we could share with the family we were having dinner with and I watched this one which honestly is 99.9% geared towards women. But I ended up getting that .01% out of it that I needed. When we get down to the rocks at the bottom and we are thinking there is no place we can go. When the footprints in the sand go to just one set. That is when we know that our Savior, Jesus Christ, is there for us. That is when we know that He is carrying us through our hard times. That is when being strong is all we have left. Neil A. Maxwell puts it best when he says, "...let us use our energy to hold up the shield of faith to quench the incoming fiery darts--aided perhaps by a touch of spiritual Teflon." Pure poetry, I can not picture it better in my head than that. So that was my aha moment of the week. It doesn't make as much sense in words as it does in my head but hopefully everyone's intelligent brains can piece together all the jigsaw puzzle pieces. The picture is quite beautiful! 

 

 

I have decided that one thing I am really excited about is to have the calm quiet peaceful moment when you go out onto the street at night in the winter time and there is a fresh coat of snow falling to the ground. A couple of inches already covering everything in that peaceful white. Every step making the slight squeak as it crunches the dry cold snow under foot. Looking up into the dark night sky and seeing the peaceful flakes of snow falling and hitting you in the face. All the noise of life and the world muffled out and all you see and hear is peace. You all know that moment I am describing. I am excited for that! I am excited to share that moment with all of you. Then we will proceed to run around and tear up all the snow and send shrill screams that pierce the cold night air as snow get shoved down someone's coat. Haha, and then after about five minutes of being outside I will be so cold that I will go back inside and hibernate next to the fire that we don't have until spring. The end. Sounds like a good time! I can't wait. 

Well I don't really have anything else to say besides how much I love you all and how awesome you all are! Thank you Mom for everything you do for all of us! I don't know what we would do without you! Thank you Dad for all your hard work! You make all of this possible for us! Thank you Austin and Christian for getting married and getting out of the house... Just kidding, you Men are awesome. Thanks for helping me become an uncle! ;) Thank you Emma for your excellent example to not only me, but all of us. We are so proud of you for choosing to serve a mission. Thank you Allegra for being the most beautiful sister ever! You are so classy and always so determined and dedicated to what you do. You are truly a lady! Thank you Jono for being the stud of the family, someone had to take my place. Those were some big shoes to fill and you have done more than I could have ever imagined. You make a better Ben than I ever could. :) Thank you Nathan for being intelligent and bringing the rest of us crazy heads down to earth. You keep us all alive. And somehow you always seem to do it while on your own planet. That is good. I am guessing you have changed a lot from the panda I once knew. Ready to become a teacher this winter! And last of all Thank you myself.... Just kidding, thank you Ian for you ingenious comments that always seem to make us laugh. Your incredible talent for comedic relief can never be replaced. You are so cute and will always be the baby of the family. Sorry bro, even when you are 37 you will still be cute and we all get to pinch your old baby cheeks! Haha, I love you all! Have a great week! 

Until Next Time, 

Elder Ben Maxwell

I hope that it made my fathers, Father's Day.

We had such a great week! I wasn't too sure how the call home would be on Sunday but it went great! The unplanned surprise call was a success from my view. It was nice being able to just talk with the two of you! Although I did miss having all the chillins around filling the screen. How was it talking off of your iPhone? Small screen compared to home! It made my Father's Day! And I hope that it made my fathers, Father's Day. Haha, kind of a strange sentence right? All in all the week was amazing. 

We had a pretty cool thing happen for us this week. About three weeks ago we met a non member boyfriend that came to church with his girlfriend. He said that he would be interested in meeting up but he was leaving on vacation the next day so it would have to be when he got back. We failed on our part to find out when he would be returning so after our first encounter we were disconnected. First mistake. Then the cool thing happened earlier this week. Tuesday morning we get a text from an unknown number. It was Angelo asking us if we could meet up sometime that day. We were thrilled! He reached out to us and wanted to be taught! We met with him several times this week and have taught him the first three lessons and some of the commandments already. He knows he wants to be baptized soon. So we gave him a couple of dates and told him to pray about which one felt right for him so he could know when he needed to be baptized. The only thing that is stopping him from being baptized today is he is worried about how everyone he wants to be there are going to be able to get to his baptism. We promised him that God would help him know when he needed to be baptized and that everything else will just fall into place. I absolutely know that is true! Angelo is awesome! He is going to be a member of the singles ward! 

 

Let's see, what else happened this week... We were asked to teach the lesson for gospel principles and we were teaching about the final judgement. Ended up being the perfect topic because I had recently read a talk by Neil A. Maxwell about Joseph Smith called "How Choice a Seer!" Such a good talk. It blew my mind! There is a line in his talk that was referencing the final judgement. I love the way that Neil A. Maxwell would use metaphors and similes in his talks. The line I love that I used in our lesson is "Since we are thus fully accountable to Him, on Judgment Day we cannot invoke the Fifth Amendment!" Hahaha, such a subtle way to rebuke all of us and help us make the corrections needed to get our lives on track to our Heavenly Father. The lesson went really well. When it really comes down to the final judgement we truly will be judging ourselves. God is so smart! 

 

Well once again Happy Father's Day! I hope it truly was a great day and all of your children let you know how grateful we are for you pops! You truly are one of a kind. Thank you for all you do! 

The yard looks great! I look so good in that picture on the wall too. How am I supposed to top that when I get home? Hahaha!!! A good challenge for later on :) 

Love you all a ton! Have fun this week. Jono and Nate, you boys still need to write me a letter and send it in the mail. It's summer now so you should have plenty of time! There is your homework. Everyone else has wrote me so you are all off the hook! 

Love, Elder Maxwell

Starbucks+Missionaries=HappyTime!!!

     Having technology has enhanced our ability to do missionary work by 1%! It is super funny having these iPads now. I honestly am pretty bad at using my iPad. The iPad rollout is happening in three parts. We are on phase one right now where they just give us the iPads in their limited form. They don't have all the apps on them yet so the only thing that they can really do is LDS tools and the Gospel Library.  I can also email from my iPad now, which is pretty cool if you ask me! So how it works is now receiving an email is like getting a letter during the week. You can read it right when you get it. However responses are supposed to be kept to Monday still. That's what makes hand written letters the best, they have no bounds. As for receiving emails. I still want to get the weekly update on Sunday or Monday but as far as distracting me during the week I say do your best! I am a focused machine, can't get me distracted. I would honestly love to get little shoutouts from everyone during the week. 

 

  "A good character is something you must make for yourself. It cannot be inherited from parents. It cannot be created by having extraordinary advantages. It isn't a gift of birth, wealth, talent or station. It is the result of your own endeavor. It is the reward that comes from living good principles and manifesting a virtuous and honorable life." -Elder L. Tom Perry

     I have been inspired by this quote from Elder Perry. This is what serving a mission is all about. I have been changed by service out here. I am so glad that I get to be in this area with these people that I am with. I love them all so much! I would do anything to help them. It is truly amazing how we change as individuals as we forget about ourselves. 

 

   We had to do some online training with our iPads this week. Most missionaries went to the church to get wifi so they could do the training but my companion and I decided we didn't want to sit in the church for an hour alone so we made the decision to go to Starbucks. We were out front in the sun doing our training and people kept staring at us as they walked in and out. It was so funny. As a missionary you get used to people staring at you all the time so that was completely normal. The funny part was how we were destroying all of the stereotypes that people had created in their minds about Mormons. We didn't get anything to drink because we didn't want people to think that we were drinking coffee because that would be sending them the wrong message but we did sit there on our iPads and people kept saying they thought we didn't use technology in our church. (Amish) We probably talked with close to 30 people as we sat there. All were positive interactions as well. We even taught one guy and handed him over to the elders in the area he lives. It was a really good finding activity. Turns out that when people go to Starbucks they instantly get in the mode of socializing with other people in Starbucks, or they are at least open to talking. It is a place where all walls are broken down and people were very open with their questions. Starbucks+Missionaries=HappyTime!!!

     It has been a really great week overall. My companion and I get along really well and it is almost erie at how empty the apartment feels with only four living there instead of the previous five. It is interesting how just one body can make such a big difference. Random thought, yesterday was my 20 month mark! It has gone by so quick! I can't believe how close October is. From certain perspectives it still seems far away but right now it is knocking at my door! Wow, I am excited for this summer. It is going to be a blast! I am already getting pretty tan. We have been having some pretty incredible sunny days! We have been going to BBQ's pretty consistently and I have eaten a lot of meat over the past two weeks. And a lot of dessert as well. One of the blessings of being a missionary, you always get a big dinner and a dessert to tie it all off. Every. Single. Night. I am going to miss that about being a missionary. I want to go have dinner with everyone in the ward when I get home. Maybe I should make myself a dinner calendar... Just kidding, once I'm home we just have to invite people over every once in a while. Do the missionaries get fed well in the ward back home? I remember always grabbing the calendar and putting our name down for them. Max invited us over for a BBQ tomorrow at his place and he invited a lot of his non member friends to come as well as he family that is supportive of the church. It should be a really good finding activity! Max is such a stud. I want to go surfing with him when I come back. Then I am going to move here and become a surfing beach bum. It is going to be gnarly! I'll live in the hills of Santa Cruz and Jonathan can drop out of school and come with me. Jokes! Haha, it would be too much fun.

Well now I am just rambling so I will end it here! Have a great week. Work out. Play hard. Study harder! 

I'll send some sunshine to replace all that rain you are getting. We need the rain over here but the sun is so nice you can keep it for now :)

Love you all! 

Elder Maxwell