Week 21, Dec 29 - The Purple Lady

Well, here´s the weekly letter - it definitely feels more natural communicating like this instead of through skype. It was defenitely weird to see all of you instead of just read. But it was so cool! All the missionaries were definitely a little homesick afterwords, including me. But that changed after a good solid night of contacting and getting rejected every single time :) It´s funny - Contacting is that activity that seems to get most missionaries down about life - but I always feel really good about it. In fact, after most boring meetings (don´t tell anyone I said that - but they do exist) I am really, really excited to go street contacting. We don´t have a lot of success during the holidays - the whole country seems to be infected with a dangerous deadly disease called "prisa". And here, that´ll last at least until the 6th, because Christmas starts on the noche buena (Christmas eve) continues through the 26th, then New Years Eve and New Years, and then Reyes Magos on the 6th. I know I might be a Spanish scrooge, but I do NOT like Reyes Magos - it has seriously gotten in the way of proselyting. 

There´s not much that´s happened since we talked last - Except for one experience. We were visiting menos activos with Christmas letters around one of the sketchier parts of town called Las Remudas. We knocked a door, expecting just to drop off the letter, and a woman probably Grandma Maxfield´s age opened the door. Instead of just asking for the letter and calling it good, she invited us in. First, she was wearing all purple. Like those lady jackets and pant suits - all purple. Purple earrings. Purple necklace. Purple shirt underneath the lady purple pant suit. Then we walked in. ALL OF THE WALLS WERE PURPLE. And the rug was purple. And the Christmas tree was purple. And the Christmas decorations were purple themed. The dog was wearing a purple bow and collar. She offered us water and a pastry, served on purple dishes and the pastry had purple frosting. The couch was purple. The lightbulbs in the lamps were purple. The kitchen table was purple. Even the knife she used to cut the pastry was purple. There was modern art on the wall, the kind that Dad likes with the simple squares and lines - and they were differing shades of purple. And the dog´s name was violet. (al final, she didn´t really want us there - just too nice to tell us to leave. She wouldn´t even let us share He is the Gift, and EVERYONE likes that. Sad, because she really liked the church when she was involved.) 

Well, I´ll take this little time I´ve got left to say that I am grateful for Christmas - it is the best time to reflect upon what we´re giving away as missionaries - the hope that comes from Jesus Christ.

Adios, hasta Enero 2015!

Elder Stewart Maxfield.

Home cooked lunch

Week 20, Dec 25 - Christmas in Telde

Christmas Dinner with Zone at the Old Mission Home

Christmas Dinner American Style

Opening Presents

The Christmas Nap

Week 19, Dec. 15 - Baptism and New Companion

So I got a new companion last Monday, after I wrote. Named Elder Norrell. He´s pretty darn cool. He´s not Elder Dyer, but we get work done. He´s been up north, in Madrid, and now down here in the islands (what the missionaries call a 3-mission mission. Because those three areas are all very, Very different.) He cooks, cleans, preaches, teaches, has the Spirit, and sleeps during MedioDia. It´s a goood time.

Saying Good-bye to Elder Dyer 

I´ve been  showing him the ropes, which is pretty fun. Things like, "Don´t talk to that guy, he´s nuts. And thisa Testigo. And the bus stops here. It goes there. Well. I guess is doesn´t go there. We´re lost now. I really should have paid attention last transfer." Not really like that, but we have been lost twice because, why not take the new guy to places you´ve never been? Yesterday we wandered around an unfamiliar beach pueblo, because people are ALWAYS on the beach on Sundays. (Seriously. Sunday is a holy day of rest - at the beach.) But we didn´t go out on the sand or close to it or anything bad like that. As soon as he gets to know the area, we´re going to do splits - the members are really excited because for them all the work necessary is showing up, and we´ll do all the planning. Working with the members is funny here, because there´s not very many. There´s ten people in Ward Council and 40 that come to church every week - the ward mission leader told me there were "Muchos jefes y pocos indios" when I asked him about ward Council.

We also had a baptism this last week  -  TWO. One of them was Ezikiel, and the other was an 8 year old. Baptisms are really, REALLY stressful because I want everything to go perfectly. But it´s very rewarding to see an inactive man watch his son get baptized, and then to watch a baptism of an 8 year old whose mother is only partly active. It makes the stress and the letdowns and the missed appointments and everything else that makes Missionaries get down worth it. I´ve been reading the "History of the Church" by Joseph Smith and there´s some pretty cool stuff in there. If I remember right, the editor and compiler of Joseph´s history makes the following comment regarding the scripture, "After much tribulation come the blessings." He says that means not that tribulations might come, but that they have to come. Also that blessings have to come as well. I thought that was super cool and can totally apply it to the mission. The stress and heartache from investigators can surely be listed as tribulations - but after a lot of those you see things like Mercedes and William and a growing church. I love it here.

(Pause for a second. I´m realizing how fun it is to read scriptures and Mission Stuff. Our church library has a few books in English that I´ve taken advantage of. Since the MTC I´ve read the BOM twice, the New Testament, Jesus the Christ, Our Heritage, Our Search for Happiness, A Marvelous work and a Wonder, Articles of Faith, The Miracle of Forgiveness (still on that one - Spanish) and three volumes of History of the Church.  We also just barely got the Liahona with all the Conference talks. Yessss. You realize how incredibly AWESOME Joseph Smith was when you read History of the Church.)

I seem to have contracted a cold or allergies or something. Runny nose, teary eyes, lost voice, etc. It´s a good thing oranges are in season because they are really, REALLY good for when I´ve felt like this - The Mercadona lady gave me a really wierd look when I bought 5 pounds of oranges for one person. But other than that, I feel great and I won´t let it impede me from working. That´d just be downright silly. 

While we´re on the subject, Skype calls next week - no letters. P-Day will be Christmas. I´ll be at the old mission home with all the other missionaries from the island from the morning until around 6:30 that night. Which corresponds to the early, EARLY morning at home until eleven thirty (7 hour difference to the Canaries).  I have no idea how to put on contacts, nor what sort of money it will cost. I´d like to do it earlier in the morning (Utah Time), at 8:00 or sometime around there. What we can do is assign Maren or Dad (seeing as they´re the IT of the house) to check out the account I created for the family under Mom´s email before I left (mom should have the password) and try and add me as a contact or something (if that´s necessary) and we can start the call then (at 8).  Maren can work her technology gismo wizardry from both ends. I´ll be on my email starting at 1:45 (7:45am Utah) and we can email for a second before it gets figured out. It won´t take very long. Our very technologically un-savvy Mission Leader asked us to set up a skype call for him with someone on another island, and it didn´t take longer than ten minutes. So I´m sure we´ll figure it out. If you guys want to change anything, email me and I´ll see it while Santa Clause is doing his thing over there (From about midnight Utah time onward I´ll be able to check my email.)

Well, that´s all folks. The Church is true. 

Elder Stew.

Week 18, Dec. 8 - Transfers in Telde, Stewart Gets a new Comp

Well transfers just occurred. I´m staying right here in my little spot of heaven. (It really is very nice in Telde.) My trainer got transferred to Cuenca - A city on the easternmost part of the mission in Castilla - La Mancha. He´s going to be very cold and need to work very hard. Being the missionary that he is, he was very excited for the work (but not so much for the cold - He´s from Arizona.)

Last picture of zone before transfers

I´ve been assigned a new companion, named Elder Norrell. I haven´t heard anything about him except for that he´s from Texas. So more updates when he arrives - I put my old companion on a plane for Madrid. at 6am this morning and he´ll be here later tonight. Right now I´m with the Zone Leader Elder Sarango, from Ecuador. He sure makes the Spanish learning go faster.

So I have a lot to say and not very much time. Some new pictures should have uploaded, so tell me how that works out. If we´re lucky, we´ll have some from the baptism that we did today. Yep. Today. My trainer let me take the lead on this one, and everything went. We had the idea to have William baptize Ezequiel, (The guy who we just baptized a month ago), and it went GREAT! The only thing was that William´s nerves got to him and he messed up the prayer like 7 times. But it was beautiful. William was being awesome (as usual) and Ezequiel loved the spirit that he felt. I had the idea to have his seminary teacher give a talk to have his seminary friends give talks and prayers. And then, in typical Mormon fashion, delicious food came out of nowhere to finish it off. (Sometimes I think the relief society just creates food out of nothing.)

William baptizing Ezequiel

Mercedes is William´s wife. And she is.... She brought Columbian food to the baptism today. She ALWAYS makes us food when we go to her house. She loves the missionaries (she started crying when my companion gave his last testimony yesterday.) She insists on staying after ward functions and cleaning up. She explained to the Sunday School class yesterday how we shouldn´t read the scriptures - we should "escudriñarlas"  (I think it´s a mix between ´scrutinize´ and ´study´). There was an investigator who felt/looked a little uncomfortable at the baptism today, not really talking to anyone. So she walked up to him, took him by the arm, and said, "I made these sandwiches. Eat one and tell me they´re good. I don´t want there to be any left." (She did the same thing to me at the ward BBQ a couple weeks ago - she makes so much food!!) As she did what the members were supposed to have done (fellowship this investigator) she winked at me and later said, "I could tell he needed a friend if he was going to come back." That´s to say how awesome Mercedes is, and not that the members had forgotten or that they´re bad - there were a lot of investigators there. She told us the other day that she knows she´s going to get baptized, she just doesn´t know when. 

Mercedes wasn´t that way when we first started teaching her. There was a time when she thought we were pressuring her too much, that wearing skirts at church was too hard, and reading the scriptures was just adding onto it. She almost went back to her old church. BUT. The members of the relief society literally saved her. From day 1 they were all friends and she never stops telling us how great it is to be in the relief society. I have no idea what they do in there, I just know that it works miracles. I am willing to bet that her desires to progress came cheifly from two places, neither of which was us nor her husband - the relief society sisters and the spirit. 

President Hinckely said once that every new convert needs three things in the church - A job, to be nurtured by the good word of God, and a friend. As missionaries, we focus WAAAY to much on the second. And as an investigator, there´s not much you can make them do on those first or second categories. But everyone can have a friend. The other things will come later. I am so grateful for our rama that has accepted every investigator with open arms - nothing would happen if the members were shot off or acted like the church was a club, hazing the new guys. 

There´s the missionary message for the week - be a friend to everyone. Even if they´re new or shy and even if they don´t want to be friends with you. 

Saludos from a place that has never, ever seen a white Christmas, 

Elder Stew.

Eating a fish, picture most likely taken by a native

Stewart baking - but what?  I see powdered chocolate mix

Week 17, Flash Back to MTC in the Park

Hello Family!

Here’s a couple of pictures the MTC president’s wife printed out.  Somebody would always take a camera to the park, and she would print out the pictures.  The really, really good pictures got framed.  These two both are Elder Semenyuk and I.  he’s the Russin park comp. that I had once.  I’m pretty sure I mentioned him in an email. 

This is us contacting an Egyptian woman who spoke English!  My companion spoke Russian and Ukrainian, so this was as good as it was gonna get.   We caught her because she was taking a selfie, and we offered to take it for her to make life easier. Afterwards, I told her about why we were missionaries and what we do.  And, she took the Book of Mormon and promised to read!  She also gave us her number so we could put her in contact with the missionaries in Egypt – bummer, HUGE bummer that I’m pretty sure there aren’t any.

In one of the pictures there’s a lady in blue looking at us.  I don’t know what happened with the Egyptian, nor the lady, but I do know this – 1) People saw us doing missionary work 2) We were giving a good impression of the church – we didn’t bother anything or anyone.  Sometimes that’s all we hope for, that we give good impressions to both those we contact and those randomly looking.

Same thing at home.  People can just see you living the gospel and know that it is good.  One of my goals is to NEVER do anything that might hurt other missionaries’ work here.  Always be a good example, and nothing but good will happen.

Love,

Elder Stew

Proselyting in the park

Week 17, Thanksgiving Pictures

Phase 10

Dinner at the home of Brother and Sister Larsen

Week 17, Dec 1

I am proud to announce my new culinary creation. It doesn´t have a name yet. But you lightly fry potatoes with salt, pepper, onion powder and cinnamon (yeah, I was just messing around). And then you fry two eggs so the yolks are nice and gooey. And then you cook a really, REALLY good sausage (not allowed to be pre-cooked) and you eat it all together, and also raspberry jam toast and orange juice. I´ve gotten it down to a science, so that I can cook all that in 15 minutes and eat it in another 15. Breakfast is a good time in Telde. 

I had another intercambio with Elder Sarango this week (The Zone Leader - He´s companions with the District Leader) He´s from Ecuador. We´ll just say that you learn more Spanish in 24 hours living with a native than 6 months with a book. It was so awesome! Unlike last time, we were totally able to communicate. We gave a blessing to an older nonmember man headed for surgery this week. That makes the fourth health blessing I´ve given while being here - it feels good to be able to use the priesthood to bless the lives of others. One thing we always say when we teach about the priesthood is that it´s only here for other people - you can´t put your hands on your own head and give you a blessing. I am so grateful to have had Dad around all the time to give me blessings - for AP tests, for school, for the Page life. I think I´m going to ask my trainer for a comfort blessing when he leaves. 

We have an investigator named Fran. He is very, very invested in getting an answer for himself, and he told me that he would be willing to change his life when that answer came. What made him particularly interesting this week was that we had a lesson with the Stake president. We taught about the plan of salvation - what Christ did for us, how families can be together forever, that we are children of God - all the important stuff (lightly treading over the Fall - it is definitely easy to teach TOO much about the Fall, haha.) And then Presidente Déniz bore a sweet testimony about this church and this plan, and Fran closed with a prayer. We´ve been working on getting the investigators on their knees for the prayers - and the Spirit was so strong - I KNOW that he was affected somehow. He´ll get his answer. That lesson single-handedly pumped me up for the next week! Missionary life is so rewarding and fulfilling - it makes me happier than pretty much everything. 

We just finished up with week five of this transfer. We set a goal at the beginning of the week that to work harder than we ever had to make our goal of 50 people at church. We worked very, very hard. And didn´t make the goal. To our credit, before we got here the asistencia never broke 40 - And it´s broken forty every week now, save one. But it reminded me of something that President Lovell liked to say - that you set goals so that you have to reach and stretch and work and work more, so that the goal is almost just out of reach. It´s definitely the hardest way to set goals - because you set it with faith, with the intention to get it, but knowing it will be very difficult, and then when it doesn´t happen you can get down on yourself and do worse. But when you set the goal right, with faith and an attitude that whatever happens, you worked your hardest, and you did your best and the Lord was on your side -  then setting goals becomes rewarding, and you relish the opportunity to set goals again. There´s the spiritual thought! Maren told me the Plan says she´ll get a 33 on the ACT. And she´ll aim higher! Stretch as high as you possibly can and God will help finish it off. Or your goal won´t happen but you know you worked super duper hard. 

To the kids - How goes school?

To Mom - Nope, didn´t get any thanksgiving pictures.

Much love from the eternal spring (seriously, it either shines or just barely rains - what kind of paradise is this?).

Elder Stew.

Week 16 pictures

Doctor Mission President

Mickey Mouse and Subway

Coin Football

Week 16, Nov 24

Crossing the Seas

Well this transfer is moving quickly - Mostly due to three days we spent in a tri-panionship and two more days spent in Tenerife (the other island. We´re back now). You asked what transfers would be like - Well we´re starting week 5. Which means in about two weeks my companion will probably leave. Usually people stay in the islands for four transfers, and ususally after training either the trainer or the trainee leave - both of which will occur this upcoming transfer. So we´re thinking he´s going back to the peninsula and I´ll stay here to area-train somewhere. Our district leader is also up to leave, along with three other missionaries on this island. So things will be getting a little shake-up (we think - It´s still two weeks out.) 

Crossing the Seas

We´re planning a baptism for Monday the 8th, a 15-year old kid named Ezikiel. (from last letter). So more on that, obviously, when Monday the 8th comes. 

This week we´re headed to the Senior Couple´s home for Thanksgiving MedioDia. It won´t be like home... But this lady is a really, really good cook. And she´s promised pie and turkey. We should survive. 

The other sisters in the ward are great cooks too. Every week we have at least three home-cooked Spanish meals, two during a MedioDia and one later at night, served by Hermana Doli, Hermana Leon, and Mercedes (husband of William, the guy we baptized). 

Hermana Leon (more on her husband later) has six kids in a very small house and reminds me of Mom. In approximately 30 seconds she can make enough food to feed a small army.  But she doesn´t stop there - all of the food she makes is delicious and INCREDIBLY dense and in four bites you´re full but she demands that you eat seconds and have an extra piece of bread. It´s pretty stressful. Walking afterwords is difficult. We tried to ask what the word for "waddle" was (because that was the only way we could walk) and they told us "penguinar". Literally "to penguin". I´m not sure if it´s real. 

Hermano Leon teaches High Priests and loves to go out with the missionaries. That is not a good combination. Investigators need very simple explanations of things. We took Hermano Leon and his son, Danny, to teach Ezikiel and his dad, Cristo about tithing. My companion said, "Hermano [Leon], in simple terms, what for you is the law of tithing?" 

"Thank you for reminding me to be simple. *Chuckles* For me, paying tithing is a privilege because of the many blessing I receive because of it. Basically the law of tithing is giving 10% of our increases to the church. It´s a law that´s been around forever - Abraham paid tithes to Melchizidek. That´s the same Melchizidek like the Melchizidek priestood - they used to call it the priesthood after the order of the Son of God, but in their language they used the actual name of God and so they changed it to avoid repeating his name too often." His son stopped him there to say, "Dad they said not profundo!" To which he ptotested, "But I was just scratching the surface!" 

So we have a ward punster who likes to make word jokes. He got me one day because I missed the placement of an accent. If you say "presbítero" it means priest. BUT. If  you say "presbiterio" you mean Presbyterian. He also got me because the Canarians don´t say "para" (means "for"). They say, "pa". So the dish "Paella" could mean either a delicious rice and seafood dish or the phrase, "For Her." Spanish is coming along. Dad, you´ll have to explain these other puns to the kids who don´t speak Spanish (maybe Charles will get them) - 

"Como se dice ´ojo´ en inglés?"

"(Eye)"

"HAHA (maniacal laughter)! HAY que tenerlos para ver!"

"Yo vine. El vino. Yo whiskey. HAHAHA!"

During Zone Conference this last week, we had President and his wife in the islands. President used to be a surgeon and so he liked to tell surgery stories/parables to teach. He told us that, as a surgeon, he asks questions regarding the accident/issue, and focuses on the needs of the patient. He told us that background information makes about 80% of his diagnosis. One time, asking questions led him to discover that what seemed like growing pains exacerbated by lots of dancing was actually a very rare, agressive, and deadly cancer. Had he not asked questions and been receptive to the Spirit, she might have died. He told us to to focus on the investigator´s story and what the Spirit prompts us to do - and then we can save them from spiritual death. (Metaphors don´t get much better than that, now do they?)

President the Surgeon

Until next week, 

Elder Stew.

Week 15, Nov 17

Tomorrow we have zone conference, so today we´re in the neighboring island of Tenerife. We took a three hour boat ride, and the canadian sister missionary got sick. So now we´re on a greener island with the whole zone - about 30ish missionaries. 

Stewart and his companion on their way to Zone Conference

We played soccer today for P-day, which was a great time. Afterwords, I was sitting in the goal letting some other guys practice, when President Jackson came up and said he would like to take a coupld penalty kicks (he spent the whole P-day calling us over and interviewing us on the sidelines, gauging our comfort and generally seeing what´s up.) So he shot - and I blocked it. And he shot - and I blocked it again. Everyone yelled that I should let him score (because President seemed like he would keep shooting until he beat me), and then he scored. He said, "Remember, Elder Maxfield, I can send you anywhere in the mission". So if I end up in Parla next transfer (known as the pits of the mission) everyone knows why. Haha. 

Stewart Plays Goalie

Mission President Shoots

So my last email got cut off - I was talking about our ward mission leader. He´s awesome. A picture should have uploaded with him and all the primary kids, because that´s his second calling. We went to go catch frogs at the ward BBQ, the Elders, the kids, and the Ward mission leader. He put a indian feather in his head and said, "How." He definitely makes the work go faster. 

So my Spanish was going quite well - and it is, I can understand everyone pretty much all the time. But sometimes I mess up. The other day, instead of saying "Can we close this meeting with a prayer (despedir)?" I said, "Can we wake us up with a prayer (despertar)?" So that was fun. Down here in the Canaries, people eat the "s" in most words (or the z or the c, when those letters make the "s" sound"). The other day in church, someone was talking about fishers of men. BUT. If you take out the "s" sound from the word fisher (pescador) you end up with sinner (pecador). So I spent a good two minutes wondering why Jesus was asking his apostles to be sinners. So the Spanish is coming along, poco a poco. Really I can see every day that the Lord blesses His missionaries with the gift of tongues. Sometimes I´ll not have much to say, and Elder Dyer will start looking for a scripture - and then I have to open my mouth to bear my testimony. And EVERY TIME it has been filled with vocabulary and the subjunctive and not perfect things but good enough for the Lord´s purposes. Wow.

We´re going to baptize somebody else coming up soon - Ezikiel is his name. He´s 15 and his dad is a menos activo who called wanting us to reactivate him. He was very back and forth and they missed church for nigh on 12 weeks. (They met him before I came) Until one week when either they ran out of excuses or just felt like coming. They showed up, only for the first hour. Then Ezikiel came to the ward BBQ. Then they came to church again, and Ezikiel stayed the whole time! And then he decided to go to seminary the next morning. And he hasn´t missed seminary since - even though it starts super early in the morning. And then one time, he came to English class and one of the English class attendees said, "I haven´t seen you here before. Are you a member of this church?" And he just said, "Sí." His testimony is super strong and this 15 year old kid taught me that if you want the blessings of God in your life you need to DO something. What a stud. 

We have another investigator named Juan - keeps the cleanest house I´ve ever seen and made us meatballs the other day. He´s a brother of a menos activo, and he loves church. Baptism - very probable.

That´s all I got today - I love you guys!

Elder Stew

Week 14, Nov 10

In terms of eternal spring - it's really weird. It's hard to judge time because it's still the same temperature it was back in August. All it does is rain occasionally and then go back to sunny all the time. We got soaked last night in a freak rainstorm - it was awesome.

Oh yeah, the cookies - my oven is gas powered without a pilot light - we light it with a lighter and you can see the actual fire, hence a not very even heat distribution. I'll work out the kinks.

I had my first D&C bash the other day. We got back in contact with someone who (maybe) had been excommunicated. He had LOTS of weird questions about worship on Sunday. We answered them all from the Bible (because Sunday worship is a primitive church thing) and he said the following - "I don't believe the Bible. It's wrong and was translated too many times. What does Joseph Smith say?" We were dumbfounded. Nobody EVER cares what Joseph Smith says. We tried to help him out, but it was nearly a lost cause. 

Our Ward Mission Leader's name is Carlos Castro. He's from Uruguay, and he does work. He is very intense during our correlation meetings. We told him about the experience with Jesus (the excommunicated guy [ironic, right?]) and he told us, "Don't waste your time with that guy. All he's good for is to get information about his family and see if they're interested." And then, two days later, Jesus came to church AND he brought a new investigator for us. 

So there's not very many members in this rama, which means that everyone has several callings - and the ward pianist alternates between three of the young women. (Emma and Squid, take note).  Carlos' other calling is in the primary, and it's hilarious to see the change that comes over him between High Priests and the Obra Misional and hanging out with the Primary kids. He kinda reminds me of Grandpa Frazier, except for he speaks Spanish and I very rarely see his un-serious side. 

Well there was going to be a lot more to this email, but I've just been kicked off. Suffice it to say that Telde's had a great week, that I'm healthy, that the potato is God's gift to missionaries, and that next chance I have I'll fill you in on the Rama BBQ because there are some pictures I uploaded related to that. 

Love, Elder Stew.

Week 12, Oct 27

I found a cockroach in my bathroom, it was disgusting, It also died I lot easier than I thought - A good solid smack with a shoe and it was not doing any more living. Welcome to the Canary Islands.

It has been a great week here in Telde!! I´m trying to load photos to Dropbox, so we´ll see what happens. As for mail - the Telde address works just fine, about a 7-day delay, and sending it to the mission home means I´ll get it once a month. No matter when mail gets to the mission home, I wait until Leadership council, when the Zone Leader will go to Madrid and bring everything back. So that´s how mail works here. (which means I haven´t seen Grandma´s package she said she sent, and I won´t see it until Leader meeting in two weeks.)

I think it´s probably cooling down in Utah now, right? It is pretty close to Halloween - Maren´s test is on the Ancient Americas (Aztecs, Mayas, Incas) and it will be printed on orange paper with Halloween jokes. That is how awesome Mr. Felt´s class is - I still remember. But anyways, it´s still hot here. My companion said he hasn´t really felt a temperature change since he got here in June. Which means that this Christmas will be hot and humid - but not rainy, because it NEVER rains here. It started sprinkling after church once and the whole rama lost it, huddling inside waiting for the men to go and get the cars. Those who walked to church just waited out the 30m drizzle.

We just had transfers - my whole district is staying. I´ve been told that you usually stay in the Islands for 6 months (although that rule has definitely been broken) or four transfers. I was my companion´s third transfer here, and we will be staying until the next, which ends on Dec. 7. After that I bet he leaves and I stay to Area-train, which basically just means I´d introduce the new guy to the area. But anyways, for the next six weeks my trainer and I are remaining in Telde. 

I had a super cool spiritual experience this week. Elder Bednar gave a talk, (an MTC devotional, not sure if you guys could find it or not) where he talked about spiritual promptings. We watched it in the MTC and his main point was basically that you never know when the Spirit is talking to you - just be a good boy, obey the commandments, honor your covenants, and the spirit will direct you and YOU WON´T KNOW IT. 

My companion and I were walking down the street, headed to go and visit a Menos Activo who is never home. Really, we just had 30m to burn (late at night with no lessons that managed to remain planned) and this guy lived 15 minutes away. So we went. We were headed down our usual route, and I said, "Nah, let´s take Castile y Leon" another street that was close by. It didn´t really matter and I have no idea why I said that. But as we were walking, we met an Argentinian man and his cat (whom he had named "kitty," not knowing that meant cat in English). We stopped to say hello, and as we were talking, he said, "Do you guys like Tortilla? I just made some for my kids, they´re coming home right now." So we ate his tortilla, toured his house, talked to the cat, and shared a 2 minute message of the Restoration. He loved it, and said, "So are you guys going to take my number or something?" Turns out, he was an old investigator whom the other missionaries before my companion (other - read: lazy - not my words, but my companion´s) had stopped teaching. How cool is that? In the moment, I would not have said anything about the spirit. But based on what Elder bednar said, I know that I was being led "not knowing beforehand the things which I should do." 

We have this pueblo in our sector called Jinámar. It´s a super sketchy government housing district - We´ve met two transvestites, my companion has stepped in poop, and someone threw a rock at him. The people there are very humble and ready for the gospel (due to their Latin-American-esque circumstances) but they´re just hard to find sometimes. When the Canary Islands was its own mission, there were a couple Elders assigned to just Jinámar, and they did work - door knocking, baptizing, etc. There´s a member in almost every of the 50-odd buildings. But one thing led to another, and now there are a boatload of menos activos, all of which are hard to find. We met one man who went inactive because somebody offended him, another who found Anti-Mormon material, another who said that he´s not a member of our church (even though the records say he got the priesthood), etc. But we found one guy who hasn´t been to church in 20 years because he felt like the Branch President wasn´t doing his job. He used to be the Elders Quorum President. When we knocked on his door, he let us in and we started talking. And, unlike every other Menos Activo we´ve taught, he said, "I know now that I never should have left." How cool is that?! He came to church the next week, and he brought his nonmember brother too!

Alright, I gotta write the President now. I love you Mom. Thanks for the pictures.... Sorry I couldn´t be there to help finish the deck. But it looks so awesome!!

Elder Maxfield

Week 11, Oct 20

This week´s letter will have to be short. We got stopped on the way to letter-writing by a man who yelled out, "Hey, it´s the Mormons!" We went over and said hello. It turns out he was totally nuts. I could hardly understand what he was saying, but I caught the words "Mormon" "Jesus" "Heaven" "America" so I felt like we were on the same page. He also asked us some weird hypothetical questions with appropriate gestures, like "What would you do if you were reading under this tree and somebody cut it down right then?" We told him that we had to go, and he responded by kissing us on the forehead, on the hand as we shook hands, and on the pass-along card that we gave him. Maybe we´ll cross paths again.

It has been another great week in Telde! I´m convinced that this is the best place in the mission. That picture I sent was of me and the man we just baptized, William. He is just the best. (I´m pretty sure I already told you about him...) He loves church, loves reading the Book of Mormon, and his wife will get baptized soon. Every time we teach them she insists on cooking. And even though he´s baptized, we still go over a lot to teach the new member lessons and to teach her (because she´s still an investigator, technically). And then, one of the rama members showed them the chart where you can sign up for feeding the missionaries. AND THEY SIGNED UP. They´re both South American and are our best friends. 

This is a picture of our rama, faulting maybe 1/3 or 1/4 at Willy´s baptism. There´s an old man in the back, behind a girl in brown. His name is Parreño and is the coolest ever. Not sure why, but he kinda reminds me of Grandpa Walker. He loves church and helping out, and he always tells the same old man stories. One of these he told last time in Sacrament, and I could not for the life of me figure out what the story was about. I know for sure I heard the words "las papas" meaning potatoes, "los papas" meaning popes, misioneros, finca meaning farm, and catolico. So not sure. But he´s so cool and the very definition of enduring to the end.We´re great buddies (when I understand him, about 90% of the time)

Sorry it´s short, but rules are rules.

Love, Elder Maxfield

Week 10, Oct 13

Being a missionary is super awesome. Every day we get up at 7:00 and
exercise until 7:30. We then get ready and eat breakfast, and personal
study starts at 9. I´ve been re-reading the Book of Mormon, in english
because my Spanish is still coming along. Then we have companion study
at 10. Here, we plan a little for the day, read from the white bible,
and practice the lessons we´ll be teaching our investigators or
practice contacting situations. These are super helpful for learning
Spanish, because my vocabulary is still very small but I´m very good
at talking around things. Speaking in Spanish is just one big giant
game of Taboo. After that we have language study, and I read things in
Spanish to practice grammar and learn new words, be it the Missionary
Library (Except Jesus the Christ... Not in a foreign language), old
Liahonas, or an investigator´s philosophy homework - he promised to
read the Book of Mormon if we´d help him with philosophy. We´ll see
what happens. Then, depending on the day, we have either training
study (12 weeks) or we go out and proselyte. Walking around this
city/town/village is super fun. There are parts that are really nice,
like where the Stake President lives, and then there are the
not-so-nice parts. There´s farms, where the people live with their
goats, and then there´s nice homes as well. We have an investigator
named José who lives in half a house. It was half torn down, and then
he moved in. He lives among piles of rubble, random garbage, and he
laid down some linoleum floor next to his bed, which is on
cinderblocks. He wrote in what appears to be charcoal on the wall,
"And ye shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, might, mind,
and strength." Very Evangelical man... He´ll be converted the second
he reads the Book of Mormon. He also steals cable and electricity from
the neighbors, which he was very proud to show that he rigged up
himself.

We do a lot of contacting, because we´re always out walking. It´s a
really great time. Sometimes we say hello to people and they just give
us a death stare. Sometimes they run away. And other times, they chat
for a second and are super golden. William, the guy we just baptized
on Saturday (after a 9-month dry streak! Woot!) was 1000% prepared by
the Lord and was also met as a street contact. Miracle. His baptism
was so cool!! I couldn´t stop from grinning the entire meeting, and he
was so excited. His testimony at the end was so powerful... I just
wish I had understood it all. The Spanish will get here.

A typical day, after all our study, involves contacting as we head to
our various lessons in various pueblos - some in the mountains, some
on the coast, one called Jinamar where there seems to be millions of
apartments in which nobody ever answers. We teach on benches, in
parks, in pisos filled with cigar smoke, or in nice homes. After
MedioDia, which is both lunch and study time, we go and do it all over
again until we literally collapse into bed at 11 - not like a rut, but
like a groove. I am loving missionary work. I love you all!

Until next week,
Elder Maxfield

Week 9, Oct 6

Time seems to fly by here. I never really know what day it is until I look at my calendar. 

We had a baptism last week! It wasn't our investigators, it was some others from another island who came here to be with their family. But Elder Dyer and I took the opportuity to teach all our investigators about baptism and then take them to a baptismal service! Because everyone is "Catholic" here, you HAVE to go to a baptism if you're invited - it's just the thing to do. We definitely took advantage of that.

We have one investigator whose name is William, from Ecuador. He is getting baptized this saturday! We've been teaching him for a while now, and he is super cool. First lesson when he was asked what he knew about Jesus (before I got here) he responded, "Well it's pretty cool how he provided the example for us by getting baptized. That means we all should get baptized as well." That. Never. Happens. William's wife, Mercedes, needs to be very very sure.... that happens a lot here. Oh well - She'll ripen soon enough, being as religious as she is and with her husband having the priesthood. My companion, the President, and PMG all say to "find the people who will listen." That means, that if you're walking through this white field that is all ready to harvest, you have to harvest the ones that are ready - and not just sit next to a green piece of corn waiting for it to ripen. That corn you do your best to encourage, but you might have to leave until later. For example, about six months ago, some investigators were "dejar-ed" (left behind for later missionaries due to lack of progress). We found their information amidst our newly organized piso (yeah!) and went over to say hello. They were super excited to see us, still had their Book of Mormon, and made us lunch - they were Peruvians and the food was unbelievably good. So now they're our new investigators, and I'm pretty sure they're ripe this time around. 

We also have a new investigator named Daniel, who we contacted in the street. He LOOKED like a punk kid with his headphones and beard, but he turned out to be very religious and was really wondering what to do about baptism. We went to his house and met his family, and they're super spiritual too! We left some B.O.M.'s and if they read, they will get baptized this month. If they don't read, they'll get baptized in the near future. It was super cool because that day we talked about how, during contacting, we need to "fear no man" (Elder Uchtdorf). And we did, and it turned out just like the Lord promised. 

General Conference was the best!! Our investigator came to the Stake President's house and loved it (Especially since Elder Uchtdorf told her that she needed to stop doubting). It was actually not that difficult to listen to it in Spanish (including the one that was originally in Spanish. Holy Cow!!!)

Spiritual thought for the week: Think of what it would have been like to be Alma - he goes from the vilest of sinner to a missionary to the high priest AND chief judge, and then both of his father figures die (Mosiah and Alma). How much would he have had to rely on the Lord? Through him, all things are possible - including speaking halting Spanish and not knowing how to teach. The Spirit and the Atonement have the power to change.

Elder Maxfield.

Week 8, Sept 29

Telde is still the best place to be. These people have lots of things
going for them:

1. Everybody walks everywhere. Cars are required to stop anytime they
see a pedestrian, regardless of if there´s a crosswalk (apparently
it´s the law). The whole city/town is super pedestrian-friendly and
there´s always someone to contact.

2. There´s this stuff called "goffio" that´s just a canary islands
thing. It´s like ground up corn and other stuff that you mix into warm
or cold milk with a little brown sugar. And man is it good! Can´t
really describe what it tastes like... Suffice it to say I bought a
ton of extra milk this week because it is fantastic. There´s a saying
when something is REALLY Canarian - "Canario como el Goffio" - and if
you respond to that by saying how much you love Goffio, you have
instantly made a new best friend, despite my terrible Spanish.

3. The Medio-Dia. It´s really nice because we just have one meal
besides breakfast (not sure how healthy that is) and we use the other
time to clean, study, plan, and occassionally Elder Dyer takes a nap.
(He´s been a little under the weather and tired and stuff. I told him
to drink orange juice and not touch me.)

4. There are beautiful parks EVERYWHERE.

5. Dealing in coins and sometimes cash - pretty much all transactions
can be preformed with change alone, so I feel like a pirate with all
my gold.

We have had so many awesome experiences. Since I last emailed, we got
a new investigator named Carolina. She showed up to English class with
her member friend, and she liked reading out of the LdM (because we do
a spiritual thought at the end of each class) and so we scheduled a
day to talk about religion and stuff. Since she loved the LdM - we
asked her to read Mosiah 2 and she read 6 chapters after that as well
- we showed her how it testified of Christ and how it could lead us to
him. When we asked that after she gained a testimony through the holy
ghost if she would get baptized - She said yes! We have a baptismal
service planned for 3 saturdays straight in October. How cool is that?
    The Spanish (here they prefer to be called Canario) do not belive
in a lot of things. The most important is peanut butter. Where it does
exist, it is not peanut butter - it is something that smells like
peanuts but without any taste (The peanut is an important ingredient.)
The second would be going to church on a regular basis - Pretty much
everyone says they belive but "no practicante." They also don´t belive
that smoking is bad for your body or that people should dress normally
in public - Sometimes it seems like a goal to show as much of your
body as possible without getting arrested. And that´s not just
immodestly dressed women - Old men wander the streets wearing short
shorts and that is all. Babylon, the missionaries call it.
    My district is super cool. It consists of me, my companion, our
District leader Elder Thunell, and one of the Zone Leaders Elder
Sarango (no English). Usually Zone leaders are a companionship, but
our zone is 5 different islands so the two islands with the most
missionaries have one zone leader each. We also have a Senior couple
on the island. I don´t see them a whole lot except for District
Meeting when Sister Larsen cooks us American food. Best meeting ever.
I haven´t tried anything beyond eggs yet.
   Spiritual thought for the week - Obedience. Missionaries always try
to do ANYTHING that will bring the spirit, because they know that the
spirit converts and that the spirit teaches. This means obedience with
exactness - all the rules, all the time. I have truly seen that when
we get up on time, leave the piso on time, and do everything to bring
the spirit miracles occur - like a member bringing her friend to
english class and then church. That lesson was super powerful because
we were earnestly searching for the spirit by being obedient and
studying specifically, and because there was a member there. That is
the only way missionary work gets done. Whenever the spirit is there
and members help out.... Miracles.

I love you all!

Elder Maxfield