Week 64 - Food is important too

We're best friends with the senior Family Search missionaries. So
this is sitting in our kitchen (the potatoes with meat sauce was just
the lunch that I had made, not from cosco). BEST SNACK FOOD EVER!!!!
But anyway, that was a highlight.

It has been a pretty good week. 

We had an interesting experience. We asked the matrimony couple to come and help us with a visit for a less active woman. And it was such a powerful visit. They knew exactly what to say and how to approach her. We talked about eternal families and testified of Christ while I colored with the 5-year old daughter, to keep her quiet. How do people teach families anyways? But afterwords, we invited her to come to church, and she CAME!! It was a miracle, and even more so because she brought her children and her inactive husband!

The baptism last week was so stellar, but this week Maria´s old woman that she takes care of got sick, and so she couldn´t get confirmed. But, she still has a testimony so that is excellent. 

We called all the missionaries in the zone Saturday night telling them that the Lord was so pleased with their work that He was making the Spanish government give us more sleep for one night... it was hilarious. (we just had Spanish daylight savings). 

We had another miracle this week.The Bishop has had some trouble with his kids getting back to church thanks to some really poor missionaries a long time ago. And so the Bishop hasn´t let missionaries anywhere near his family for years. It was actually something that President had told us to work on when we got here. And this week, he looked at me and said, "I need to you to call my children and invite them to ward activities. Ustedes casi rayan la perfección." It was such a high compliment from someone I admire a lot. To make it even better - the YM are planning an activity to go and see Star Wars VII

In other news, I made fried chicken, spaghetti meat sauce with potatoes, pancakes, french toast, and rice with marinated chicken this week for my companion to stop the McDonalds that we always were eating. I now somewhat know what it´s like to be a mom and make food by request for people and then have them complain :)

Sorry, now I have to write a report. The church is true! And I know it.

Week 63 "Thanks Mom"

Something worth noting - President Pack recommends that Christmas
packages be sent early to avoid problems etc etc. Also Captain Bob
sent me a nice email and I responded - I asked him to give you some of
those color changing starfish for my Christmas package (assuming I
haven't been forgotten :) and that you'd pay him out of my account.
But, knowing captain bob, he'll send a helicopter with 30 other object
lessons and a bunch of money. Side note - he sent me a package a month
or so ago, with $110 as a reminder to always give 110%.... Oh Bob. I
seriously have more than $200 in American cash from grandmas and Bob.
I'll make sure to pay tithing when I get home, which will be easy
cause I can't spend a dime here. President Pack also says "toys" and
"candy" are bad things to declare, but "missionary supplies" is just
fine. Oh, and one other thing - a package valued at more that $50 will
merit large taxes. I figured that wouldn't be an issue but I got one
from Grandma Maxfield last week valued at $47 (there was a tie on the
inside). So I would recommend either cheap packages or lying about the
value. Option 1 is much better for your salvation and wallet :)

That's all that boring stuff. I want to share with you a cool thought
I re-discovered the other day. I was reading part of Hugh Nibley's
Temple and the Cosmos, which I'm pretty sure Dad has. And he made an
interesting comment about religious study - it all goes in a circle,
never really answering anything. He said that there's only one
question worth answering, the "terrible question", and it's the same
that no one except Joseph Smith was ever willing to answer. Is there a
life after this one? We did a cool activity in NDH the other day where
we answered hard questions with the LDM, and much more so than the
bible the Book of Mormon tells us exactly what happens. Thank heavens
for the Book of Mormon. It answers, and we can KNOW that it does.
That's something great we learned this week as we've been practicing,
asking each other harder and harder questions and answering only with
the Book of Mormon.

That's actually been really, really fun. We talk about which
scriptures express certain ideas better or answer certain questions
the best. Like I asked my companion to find a scripture that testified
of Christ's atonement using his name as "Jesus Christ" and not as Lord
or Messiah or another title. What comes to mind? Alma 7:11, Mosiah
3:8, 3 Nephi 11:11-12. Or explain Adversity without 2 Nephi (we're
doing it the hard way to expand our knowledge) We have a great time.

Today, as my companion took a nap, I cleaned the fridge. (Note what
that says about his cleaning ethic... I call it learning to adapt)
(It's ok to do that with dish soap, right? We're limited on cleaning
supplies). It was super gross beforehand because that's something
NOBODY does (missionary-speaking) I found black mold and random sticky
spots. I also washed dishes for the first time in a week - it was an
attempt to make my companion do it for once. Didn't work, but I still
love him.

Mom, thanks for all your support. I am so lucky to have a mom like you.

Love, Elder Maxfield

Random Pictures

Week 62 - Healthy Eating, General Conference, & a Baptism

The first whole week with my new companion. He's my first one to be
younger than me in age - he's only 18! And for the first time in more
than 5 months I didn't lead district meeting. But I did receive a call
about halfway through because another first time district leader had
lost two of his missionaries. I panicked, but it turned out they were
just lost in their brand-new area and couldn't get to District
Meeting. Crisis averted.

My companion and I went shopping today cause we're out of food - and
we decided to buy food together to save money. And as we went through,
he started asking for things like cookies and chips and French fries,
and then! He told me he doesn't like fruit. Or vegetables. Or whole
grain. But breakfast cereal is fine....... And since I volunteered to
be the companionship cook (excellent option - service, food choice,
first showers, and he has no idea which way is up in the kitchen),
I'll have to get pretty creative to make him not have a heart attack
at age 30. Wish me luck.

Conference was Excelente. President Monson's two messages were my
favorites. Along with President Nelson. He was one of those apostles I
didn't really know, up until his talk yesterday (or maybe it was
Saturday.... We watched 3 sessions yesterday). And it was great! I
felt that he was the man for his job. And the new apostles looked like
the Lord had called them. Here, everyone was so excited about all the
non-Americans they could call - but "They" don't call them. He does.

We had a really sad experience when we went to find one of the
Bishop's less-active worries. Paco, because someone wasn't perfect at
church, will never come back (that's what HE says. I'm not so sure).
We bore our testimonies, but he kept telling us to be quiet and ignore
the subject. I asked what sort of service we could do, and he won't
let us. I finally asked why on earth he had let us in - he knows who
we are. He said, "I cannot close my door to anyone. But I won't talk
to you while you're in here." Vaya.

We're going to have a baptism on Sunday! Her name is Maria and she's
from Trujillo, Peru. She has been progressing very well and she even
came to church yesterday, despite having worked all night! We had a
pretty funny experience last week as we taught her the law of
chastity. She asked, "could I get married if my husband wasn't a
member?" Which is a tricky one cause technically yes, but I've seen a
LOT of great women here in Spain who get married to bums and then
leave the church. So we explained how hard it would be without a
supportive husband and encouraged her to marry in the church. And then
she said, "ok good, because Lizandro just proposed and I told him no
until he gets baptized!" Next time we came over, he was there with
lots of great questions. We'll just have to make sure he gets baptized
for the right reasons and that they both have the temple in sight.

My companion had an interview with someone to get baptized on
Sunday... And he didn't pass. It was the third time, and last time the
hermanas almost had my head. But I was proud of him for listening to
the spirit and his gut, and the candidate will get a little more
preparation before his date. It's so hard to make those decisions and
have people who are supposed to be on your team get angry - I needed
to remember which way I faced, and I was glad he did the same.

Spiritual thought, by Elder Maxwell: "Sometimes we pound on the vault
door for something we want very much, in faith, in reasonable
righteousness, and wonder why the door does not open. … Our rejected
petitions tell us not only much about ourselves, but also much about
our flawless Father."

Love, Elder Maxfield.

Week 61 - Advice on Being a Zone Leader

Sent to Eric Maxfield

You make a really good comparison to my first couple weeks in the
mission. I feel absolutely CLUELESS. I made phone calls to the
district leaders this morning and they were expecting me to give the
advice and counsel that I always asked from my very experienced
leaders. And to make it even weirder, two of the district leaders are
from my MTC group! You sent me a talk a while ago by Elder Bednar, "a
conversation on leadership" which has really helped, because he says
that a leader needs to be humble and "yeah, I got this" is the
opposite of humility. So I feel ok in the sense that in the Lord's
work, cluelessness for the first little while makes you teachable.
Some things are different - For the first district meeting in 23 weeks
I wasn't the one giving the meeting! I had to resist the urge to do it
all - I had to let the very young and inexperienced district leader
who is also my companion lead and direct and teach. (See also from
that Bednar conversation, the lawn trimming theory of management). And
now I give a monthly meeting instead (first one is on Thursday.. I
could use a prayer or two). Our zone is everyone from on the Far East
in Castilla La Mancha, Guadalajara to Coslada which has the end stops
of one of Madrid's metro lines - about 45 minutes from end to end on
train. We also have the APs and secretaries in Alcobendas/San
Sebastian. Interesting job. And tomorrow we'll be in Mission
Leadership Council all day, which will be interesting as we talk about
how to improve the mission. My job really is just to teach the
District Leaders how to do their jobs and help them magnify their
assignments, because I can't have nearly as much influence as them.
Think the way a Stake President works with the Bishops or the way a
Seventy represents the prophet to the people. Different sort of
assignment than what I've done, but the same things apply.

Some thoughts.

Elder Stew