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

Week 7, The Parable of the Pans

The parable of the Pans.

I do a lot of dish washing, and in doing such have plenty of time to think about life, the universe, and everything (that was a hitchikers guide to the galaxy quote).

My compaion has a pan. Every morning he gets it dirty, and then leaves it out - his excuse is that it´s just going to get dirty again, so why do anything about it? Two fried eggs, lots of grease, why just get it clean to get it dirty?

I have my own pan. I make Scrambled eggs, fried eggs, sauteed vegetables, etc. Every time I clean it and get all the goobers out and let it dry. When I try to clean HIS pan, the goobers stay there unless I scrub REALLY hard for a long time.

What does this mean? (Everybody should take a stab at it before you read my interpretation)

The goobers represent our sins, and the cleaning is Christ´s atonement. If we don´t repent just because we might sin again, where does that leave us? Super dirty and greasy with bugs laying eggs (no joke). In fact, the cleansing power of christ´s atonement makes us better. It changes us for next time (like seasoning the pan through repeated use). In the end, it is easier to let go of our sins (goobers) the first time than to persist in our sins. And it will make a better us in the future (a seasoned and easy to clean pan.) If you let your goobers build up forever, it´s very hard to get them off, and it can seriously damage the pan - but sincere, oft repentance does the opposite.

Happy birthday!

Week 7, Sept 22

There is not a lot of time to write, because we´re heading to play soccer with the memebrs pretty soon. But! I´ll do my best. Also - sorry for not saying earlier where I was headed - I couldn´t resist.

So I´m in a small pueblo called Telde. It´s the tiniest unit in the islands, a branch with about 40 attending members on a good day. It is a first world country, but the water isn´t potable and the plumber only attached hot water to one of the two showers. (Literally every place to get water in the piso will scald your hand. EXCEPT my shower). We do all our own cooking - which means for me pancakes, fajitas, smoothies, scrambled eggs, and toast. My companion lives off cereal. We also walk EVERYWHERE. It is so cool, and I´m really quite glad we don´t have a car. Occassionally we´ll take a bus to one of the outskirts, but really we just pound the pavement all day long.

My companion/trainer is SUPER cool. His name is Elder Dyer, and he´s been out for a year.

New Area

New Companion

He´s been here for 3 months now, so he knows the area. He is a fantastic teacher and has lots of palabras de sabiduria for me - the chiefest of which is to always have a purpose. Much the way the Lord leads people to a specific destination (Nephi, Isreal, Jared) he only helps you out when you are headed someplace. If you contact by taking laps, you´ll get discouraged, tired, and won´t have any success. If you contact on the way to a Menos Activo who may or may not be there, you´ll see miracles - like the three new investigators we´ve gotten in three days by contacting alone. Isn´t he awesome? Shorter than me, and knows his scriptures very well.

We`re working on organizing basically the entire piso - all our papers, extra info, dates, so that we can be more effective users of the Lord´s time.  He has been working super hard to get this place back on the upward climb, and I am so excited to help!

We have two investigators with baptismal dates - a married couple named Will and Mercedez. They are super cool, and she insists on making us dessert every time we show up. They love the gospel and love learning about Christ - and even better they love church and have friends!

Alrighty, the rest will have to wait until I´m not running from a haircut to a soccer game (hence, next week).

Suffice it to say: I LOVE IT HERE. I love my companion. I love my investigators, I love my rama, I love the members, I love my investigators, I love contacting, and I love walking everywhere. The Obra Missional is the best thing ever!!

Elder Maxfield

Week 6, Sept 15

This is the last time I´ll be emailing from the CCM – this awesome place that has been both my home and my school for the past six weeks. I have loved it here.

Stewart with President and Sister Jackson

I got to meet my Mission President (Jackson) yesterday… He is a super cool guy with lots of spiritual power and advice. I can tell we´ll be buddies. It was cool because he asked me two questions at the end of the interview – “Are you worthy? Are you willing to obey the rules?” When I asked him why only those two interview questions (because by now, I know all 14 by heart) he told me it was because in his patriarchal blessing, there was one line regarding his mission – “You will have success inasmuch as you are worthy and willing to obey.” It was super cool because in MY patriarchal blessing it says, “Strive to be obedient, to quickly obey, that you may not be influenced by the power of Satan.” Which means that this missionary will not be disobeying mission rules one jot or tittle.

MTC Group at the Mission Home

My companions and District have been so awesome while I´ve been here. They made it awesome. Only one guy in my district – Elder Barlow – is headed to Madrid with me. Oh well. And even though I had some Elders to discipline regarding bedtime, craziness, falling in love with the sisters (yep), being ZL was also a great experience. I learned a TON about what it means to be a leader and how to be a better missionary. The CCM taught me Spanish, yes, but more so it helped me in my scriptures, my knowledge of the gospel, my people abilities, my thinking on the fly, my courage, and my patience (that´s one my companion said I needed to work on, so I did).

I am so excited to get out into the field. I find out my trainer and my location tomorrow morning at 8:30 when I walk across the street to the stake center. (The mission home and office are about 40m away) I´ll be sure to take copious notes on all my orientation stuffs to inform you. My buddies all leave tomorrow morning at 4 for the train station.

I´ll be sure to email when I can again – I don´t even know when my new P-day will be.

Elder Maxfield

Week 5, pictures

REAL Madrid Soccer Stadium

Stewart with Elder Maughn

Week 5, Sept 11

Whoa. It is my last P-Day in the Madrid CCM. This is an odd feeling. It seriously feels like I have been here for a lot longer than 6 weeks. I have made such great friends, not only in my CCM district (whose name is Amulek - an awesome missionary) but in the other districts as I´ve done ZL stuff. It has been so much fun! (Pause: Elder Maughn is the coolest guy ever. Thanks Jodi! We´re convinced we´ll end up companions or ZLs or something in 15 months when we finally learn Spanish)

Maren: Holy cow, you´re in high school! You need to tell me all about everything, especially that first test in Mr. Felt´s class - it´s rough for most. Also, I am really happy you haven´t killed Dad, had Robby kill you, or died in a practice driving accident. It´s probably a sign you should just stop driving altogether. P.S. There´s a dude in my district who is very world events deprived... You don´t have to, but if you want you can send him some of your debate homework for him to read (I´m doing this not because it´ll make him a better missionary but because he threatened to fart on my pilllow if I didn´t... and if you lived with him you´d comply too.) logan.stockwell@myldsmail.net, and he´d like world event updates if you´re up to it. If you don´t feel like it, then don´t. 

Charles: GUESS WHAT. Today, for P-Day, I´m headed to a SWORD STORE. It´s a store that sells both modern replicas and actual old swords like from the olden days with knights and stuff. I´ll send you some pictures, but I doubt I´ll buy one cause I´m poor.

Dad: I used your family history story in a lesson about tithing and fast offerings (the one about Sarah Maxfield´s wheat) and the spirit was super powerful. Thanks!!

Mom: The Italians are SUPER cool,, and they tell me I have a great Italian accent,, but only on the phrase, "Sono aformatto" (I think that´s how you spell it.. I´m starving,, right?) One doesn´t speak any english, so we communicate through grunts, gestures, expressions, that one phrase, and me humming the Mario theme song. Also,, I´m sure you´ll do just fine on the tour guide/interpreter front. You are, without a doubt, the best at it. 

This week was just like all the others, but in the sense that we´ve hit a groove and not that we´re bored or stuck in a rut. We got up, learned Spanish, taught lessons,, learned Spanish, ate, learned Spanish,, and talked in our sleep in Spanish. (No really. There´s this computer program called Tall that we all hate but are required to use to correct our pronunciation. As a joke, we started talking like robots to protest the computer system. "Guardar. Guardar. Guardar." One night, I hear my companion start rustling, and after saying "Donde esta mi compañero?" IN HIS SLEEP, he went off for about ten minutes saying random words like a robot. "Comida. Comida. Comida. Expiacion. Expiacion. Expiacion. Mandamiento. Mandamiento. Mandamiento.) I can fully understand my teachers, mostly understand random people, but communicating my own thoughts is more difficult because I want to get my grammar exactly right - conjugations and subjunctive and objects et cetera. 

I have my last fake lessons tomorrow with Lucia and Guillermo. Lucia was super anti-God because her son and husband died, but we taught her that she could see them again and she has a "baptismal date" for the 20th (the same as Jake´s real investigator) She had a lot of questions and the Chastity talk was super enjoyable (not) but it was a great experience. (Pause. This investigator also saw spirits around her house, was convinced Satan was grabbing her neck every time she prayed (like Joseph Smith) and THAT was not fun. I don´t do goofy stuff like that.) Guillermo had family issues and a lot of Book of Mormon issues, but he also committed to be baptized after a VERY spiritual lesson where I shared five or six scriptures which I can´t remember now about how the holy ghost speaks to our hearts. Even though it was only practice, I´m calling gifts of the spirit because I do not know my scriptures THAT well. 

I have LOVED the CCM and what I´ve learned - it has been great for me. I enter the field (by walking across the street) on Tuesday, and I think I´m ready... although my first lesson with a real life investigator will probably prove me wrong! I am so excited to be here and to do this work. In the words of Joseph Smith:

"Shall we not go on in so great a cause?"

Lots of Love from my last week in the Spain CCM!!!!!

Elder Maxfield.

Week 4, Sept 4

Short email this week. The P-Day activity is either a one hour ride to a bowling alley or soccer here… So I can write a snail-mail letter and get more info to you guys. Also because this ordenador was muuuuy lento and I just barely started. I guess you´ll hear about week five in 12 days haha! I had a couple questions and a spiritual thought.

Charles: THANKS FOR THE LETTER!!!! It made me really excited to hear from you, buddy, because that was a hard day. I had to deal with a few district leaders who were being sub-par examples for their districts…. Not fun. But your letter made the whole day better!

Squid: How is school, now that you´re the oldest Maxfield at Cottonwood??

Emma: Tell me everything about jr. High. How go the class changes and having a locker?

Maren: Likewise – Everything you can about high school. And nearly killing Dad in the car.

Mom: You haven´t cleaned out my room yet, have you?

Dad: See your email.

Spiritual thought – My MTC president. The guy is so unbelievably awesome. Since I´m a ZL, I get to work with him more than most, and he is really cool. Quotes:

“Don´t be talking about goofy things. (referring to spirits/Satan) You´ll feel something, and it won´t be the spirit.”

“We practice consecrations on that oil, so it´s been consecrated half a dozen times… It could be really good ori t could be REALLY goofy.”

“BYU is a goofy place”  Dad will understand.

“I don´t know. But I do know this .. . . Is the best way to answer goofy questions about things like polygamy and Satan´s body temperature”

He also likes to talk with me – about Elders that might need help, things I can do to work harder, and answer my doctrinal questions – like where Alma´s priesthood authority came from, since nobody put their hands on his head and gave him the priesthood. He is such a cool guy with a powerful testimony, a love of the góspel, and a willingness to help everyone. He reminds me of my Grandpas. He shared a scripture with us, Mosiah 2:18-19 in one of our leadership conferences.  He then compared the scripture to Christ being our King… Very powerful.

And that´s my time. Next week will be my last P-Day in the MTC, so I can take pictures and send them to you via dropbox or email.

I love you all!!