Week 38 - April 27, 2015 - News from the Mission President - ipads, Stewart's new responsibilities

The Spain, Madrid Mission is now officially an iPad mission! Sister Jackson and I just returned from a Mission President's Seminar, in Frankfurt, Germany, where we had a marvelous experience. We were instructed for two and a half days by Elder David A. Bednar, of the Quorum of the Twelve. Accompanying him were Elder Brent H. Nielson, and Elder Stephen B. Allen of the Seventy, as well as our beloved Area Presidency. We are excited to share with you some of the things we learned, but mostly the feelings that we experienced. On Thursday, May 7, we will meet at Temple Square as an entire mission. This is the first time we know of that this has happened in this mission! Those outside of Madrid will arriveWednesday evening. We would like to have you in your seats in the Stake Center, studying reverently at 9:15 am on Thursday. We will be trained on the use of Digital Devices by Elders Timothy J. Dyches and Stephen B. Allen, and their wives. This training will take place in the Chapel. Please show appropriate reverence. When you are asked to take a break and to be in your seats at a certain time, please do so quickly and reverently. Please not take photos in the Chapel. Dress appropriately to welcome General Authorities, and sit with your companion. We will include in this bulletin a talk by Elder Russell M. Nelson, from the New Mission President’s Seminar last June. It is entitled, “Begin With the End in Mind”. Please read and study this talk, and come prepared to share your thoughts about how it applies to missionary work in the digital age. The Brethren have asked that each companionship read together and discuss the Missionary Handbook, looking for how it applies to Digital Devices. We realized after attending the Seminar, that Digital Devices are just another tool that can help us better fulfill our purpose as missionaries. Elder Bednar said that instead of using cimeters, bows and arrows, we are using iPads to combat the enemy. The Nephites knew the "intent of the enemy", just as we do in our day. Our mission has been selected as one of the few missions throughout the world to participate in this program. There are only about 86 missions worldwide that currently use Digital Devices. Only 15 of the 30 missions in Europe were chosen. We became excited about the possibilities for sharing the Gospel that this brings. Our focus has been and always will be on our purpose - to invite others to come unto Christ. We love and TRUST you! President and Hermana Jackson

Dear Maxfield Family,


This letter is to inform you that your son, Elder Stewart Glen Maxfield, has been assigned to be a trainer. He has demonstrated his ability as an effective, obedient missionary.  As a trainer, Elder Maxfield will be responsible for teaching and training a new missionary. This is a 12 week program, which includes an additional hour of daily study, including language study. Both your son and the missionary he is training will be responsible to report their weekly progress to the President. Only the best and most dedicated missionaries are called as trainers. He will serve as a role model for his new companion, and will hold a special place in the heart and memory of that companion.


We have also assigned Elder Maxfield to serve as a district leader in the Oviedo District. This position carries with it increased leadership responsibility. The District Leader is to set an example for the other missionaries in his district through his study of the scriptures and the gospel, obedience and hard work, proselyting skills and other aspects of missionary work. Elder Maxfield will be responsible for planning and conducting weekly District Meetings, and in supervising, teaching and inspiring the missionaries in his district. He will also interview baptismal candidates, which requires spiritual sensitivity and maturity.


Thank you for sharing your son with us.  Sister Jackson and I love him and pray for his continued success in this important calling.


Our best wishes to you,

Week 37 - April 20, 2015 - Gesundheit

For Family

So I got the new green missionary companion! And he is amazing. He comes from Switzerland, and already speaks a good amount of Spanish. Which for him is not very impressive because he speaks German, Swiss German, passable English, and French already.

One of the coolest experiences of the week came yesterday. I´ve kinda been pounding away at the ward council about the need for giving more callings to less-actives, medio-actives, YSA and new converts. And they had done quite a bit, but I wasn´t hoping for much seeing as Ada just got baptized 2 weeks ago. But Lo and Behold, Sunday morning they called her to be a primary teacher! A perfect calling, which I´m about 90% certain the branch president didn´t know about. I´m going to apologize now for any and all grammar issues - we´ve nearly eliminated English from the piso to help out his understanding. It works great, unless it´s early and my brain doesn´t speak spanish and his brain won´t speak spanish or english and then he speaks german and I speak english and World war 2 starts up again. (Kidding. We have yet to fight at all.)

The best part about Ada finally getting a calling was that I was able to set her apart! I told the Branch President to do it, but he said, "Elder Másfiel, es su trabajo." (Elder MostFaithful, it is your job.) The spirit was so strong while I gave a blessing in still sub-par spanish, and I really felt the truthfulness of President Hinckley´s message that every convert needs "a friend, a job, and to be nourished by the good word of God".  

Training is pretty darn fun. The best and worst is that now every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of Elder Maxfield is doctrine. And everything I do is subject to intense scrutiny so that it can be copied exactly. I have a habit of starting out street contacts by asking "Have you ever seen men like us before?" And sure enough, 30m later, Elder Weiss was doing the exact same thing. For 12 weeks, we read about teaching and studying and what we planned for lessons. I told him that EVERY lesson needed to have some sort of explained doctrine that the person did not understand before, a testimony and a committment, and how omitting any one of those parts was not the way the savior taught (See 3 Nefi 11,12:48). And later that day, I glanced at his brand new Spanish PMG to see he had written just that. 

Bunch of stuff happened about 30seconds ago. More next week! The work is true. Salvation and hope and life are in and through one man and one name - JESUS CHRIST. And He really likes to pick inadequate missionaries for His most important jobs, because it tends to make them much better.

Elder Stew

For Me and Eric

Elder Weiss. He needs a fairly long backstory. Grandma and Grandpa Weiss moved from Switzerland to Chile, where his dad was born. He married a Chilean woman, and then they moved back to Switzerland. So he is Swiss, with a Swiss last name, but with Chilean parents and the ability to understand most spoken spanish. Reading, grammar, speaking, are a different story. He speaks enough English to get along, but only from school and not enough to understand sentences like "Well how ya feelin´ today?" So English has been nearly eliminated from the piso. And our 1 hour of Language Study got a whole lot more interesting, because although his English vocabulary is quite large, grammar is tough to teach to someone who only REALLY understands German. For example, I had trouble explaining what is Albedrio o el verbo aprovechar. Because I know what they mean, and I can translate and explain well enough into english or spanish at this point, but not really with his limited vocabulary. Oh. And he also only spent 2 weeks in the MTC despite speaking NO spanish upon arriving in Spain. Like I said, a very interesting challenge you don´t expect when getting a green companion.

He´s 22 years old with a girlfriend committed to waiting at home (and he´s writing her as lovey-dovey a letter as can be written with words like gütenhimer and shlëifershwitzen) Yes, I made those words up. But he did teach us a german tongue twister about a self-contracting water hose that goes like "shlufershultzen slufe shulin shlufen shlitzen shflutzen. Being Swiss, he spent a year in the army (so being away from home isn´t that big of an issue), has all his money is in Swiss banks (which makes me laugh) and owns a Swiss army knife from the actual Swiss army. 

We´re working hard on being obedient, which isn´t hard thanks to the Swiss army. He understands obedience and leadership by example having been a Lieutenant in charge of 30 men. We have trouble with diligent studies, which I understand - Thanks to 12 weeks, we leave piso at 1 every morning and come back at 2 for lunch - so missionary work only occurs at nighttime. I have trouble because I want to keep up the same work ethic and lesson numbers I had with Elder Emmett, because we worked really hard to improve the area after a series of bad weeks with his last companion, and now we have 1.5hrs less per day. As to your other questions, yes. We work hard to be happy in all the ways a missionary can be happy. 

I feel excited but also a little scared. I´ve definitely asked the Lord for more help and I´ve felt more humbled than ever after getting this responsibility. It has made me pray more and strive to be better.

Which is maybe why I have this responsibility. 

Elder Stew

District Meeting

Elder Weiss (Switzerland), ElderMaxfield (Utah), Elder Porritt (Utah), Elder McWhorter (Idaho), Sister Barkle (Australia), Sister Toone (Utah), Sister Stephenson (Utah) and Sister Valverde (Peru/Chile).

Week 36 - April 13, 2015 - "The price of greatness is responsibility" - Winston Churchill

Transfers came in and Elder Emmett is leaving to Madrid. I´m staying and I´ll be training a brand spanking new missionary. 

I´d be lying if I said I felt ready/able/the right guy for the job. We´re in a pretty tough area relatively speaking. (Doesn´t mean I don´t love the hard work.) But I know that that´s how the Lord works, and I remember a story from Elder Eyring in a BYU talk that came to mind as I was pondering this:

A Stake President feels the need to call a slightly less active member as the stake clerk. He feels like the member won´t accept the call. But he acts on the prompting and the member says, 

"No. There are much better men for the job who are more active and worthy." And the Stake Pres. says, "Well, I guess our stake won´t have a clerk."

"What??"

"Well the Lord called YOU. Who are we to pick somebody else?"

There´s my thoughts. I love you.

Elder Stew.

P-Day last week was fun, weather is nice, got a hair cut etc. etc. We can refer to my journal for boring stuff. The biggest news is contained in the subject line. Definitely a fulfilling and productive week.

WE HAD A BAPTISM!!! WOOT WOOT! 

Her name is Ada, and I´ve talked a lot about her. Well, her baptism took place! The coolest part was to watch her progression the whole six week transfer - she was our project basically the whole time. At the beginng she said things like, "I´ll never go to your church" "I only need the bible" "My church has a prophet too" "I guess I could get baptized, if you guys are the only ones with authority in Spain. I already did it in my country."

Mateo carried out the ordinance, Giacinto and Manuel were the witnesses, Elder Emmett gave a talk, I made sure everything went smoothly, Hermana Barkle played the piano, and the missionaries sang the primary song "I like to look for rainbows..." It was one of the most spiritual meetings I had ever seen. (General Conference excepted)

In her testimony, both at the baptism and at church on sunday, she did things like 

1. Explain how strong she felt the spirit.

2. How excited she was to take the step of faith to be baptized

3. Bear her testimony of Thomas S. Monson

4. Bear her testimony of Joseph Smith

5. Bear her testimony of the LdM.

6. Quote Mosiah 5:4, from which we had NEVER ASKED HER TO READ.

7. Cry.

That was really cool, because it was pretty much our project of the whole transfer. 

Speaking of transfers, Elder Emmett is leaving! I only got six weeks with the guy. They were six excellent weeks. And now, I will be training. Yup. President (and therefore the Lord) have decided that some poor brand new Elder is going to be trained by me. Definitely a huge responsibility, but I´m really excited. I won´t even know his name until he comes up on a train, really late Tuesday night - I´m about two hours away in a city called Leon. I´ll be living here for a couple days. So more on that when he actually shows up!

Love,

Elder Stew.

Week 35, April 6, 2015 - General Conference, baptism, and the miracle of the banana bread and ice cream

This email starts off week six of being in Oviedo. And that means transfer information will come this saturday. As for the district, we´re pretty sure the hermanas will get changed up, but it´s also possible that my companion will head somewhere else. I doubt it, but I know that I´m not in the islands things are a little more shake-up-able. In the Canaries, people usually stay for six months and that is that. 

The biggest news of the last two weeks (I know, I´m sorry) is that Ada, our investigator, is going to get baptized!!! The sisters put her on fecha, and now that day will arrrive this saturday. We (the elders) have planned a bomb program complete with talks, musical numbers, and food. The hermanas were very surprised to find out we could handle such a monumental task. 

We also watched General Conference! My favorite part was Elder Holland followed right after President Uctdorf, both of them talking about Grace. My goal is to spend one of my upcoming mediodias studying those two talks along with "His Grace is Sufficent" By Brad Wilcox and "In the Strength of the Lord" by Elder Bednar. Just spend about two hours reading just about grace. I felt such a powerful spirit as we listened to the the modern day prophets and apostles. My other favorite part was during the prayer of the SundayMorning session which we watched live - I realized that in many places around the world, I was saying "Amen" with faithful members and missionaries and maybe even my family. 

In other news, I tried to make cookies but then found out that I had bought a cookie sheet that didn´t fit in the oven....That was frustrating. So I made banana bread instead, and found out that during our one-hour break between Saturday afternoon and Sundaymorning, no one had brought any food. So with a little loaf of banana bread and a some ice cream from the hermanas, the whole branch got a snack to tide them over for our last session of conference. We had exactly enough banana bread and ice cream for the branch, my companion, and the Australian hermana. I and the other Utah hermana didn´t get any, but that was just ok! Because that was our loaves and fishes miracle of general conference. 

Love, Elder Stew

To Eric:

I just read your letter about Apostacy. Thanks. What´s funny is that another Elder in our district just recieved "The Great Apostacy" by Elder Talmage for his birthday, and I´ve been reading it whenever we have intercambios. Really, really good.

The fact is that we find/are told about/get hit with anti-mormon stuff quite a lot. More than I thought. But I found a recurring theme in this conference that relates back to an awesome talk by Elder Holland hace a couple years titled "Lord, I believe". And my reaction is the same as yours - I´ve seen too much good and felt too many things to deny what I DO know. 

I was wondering if you had any thoughts about how the people yelled "No" during the sustaining of the Prophet. It kinda made me mad, which I know was not the correct reaction. Obviously its just something I should ignore, but I was curious. 

Elder Stew

To Lara:

I just read your letter about Apostacy. Thanks. What´s funny is that another Elder in our district just recieved "The Great Apostacy" by Elder Talmage for his birthday, and I´ve been reading it whenever we have intercambios. Really, really good.

The fact is that we find/are told about/get hit with anti-mormon stuff quite a lot. More than I thought. But I found a recurring theme in this conference that relates back to an awesome talk by Elder Holland hace a couple years titled "Lord, I believe". And my reaction is the same as yours - I´ve seen too much good and felt too many things to deny what I DO know. 

I was wondering if you had any thoughts about how the people yelled "No" during the sustaining of the Prophet. It kinda made me mad, which I know was not the correct reaction. Obviously its just something I should ignore, but I was curious. 

Elder Stew 

Week 34, March 30, 2015 - A quick note from Los Brown

Hi to the McWhorters, Porritts, DeWalls, Barkles, Maxfields, and Emmetts:

Your daughters and sons are very busy teaching the gospel here in Gijon.  They are doing a great job and we are very proud of them.  They relax too.  Here are a few pics of them celebrating Elders McWhorter and Maxfield birthdays at lunch.  We also have pics of Sister DeWall and Barkle at a pancake breakfast and at district meeting lunch.

We tend to eat a lot in Spain.    We've concluded that missionary work is better on a full stomach!  Except that the Sisters complain about weight gain!  Life is never simple.

Last Sunday they had a baptism in Gijon.   And there is much good work going on in Oviedo too.    

We hope all is well with you.

Chau,

los Brown

Happy Birthday Stewart!

Week 33, March 23, 2015 - Bagpipes and Mateo with crazy hair

We had some pretty cool experiences in the last week. First things first. 

So we were walking down a lonely street looking for some old investigators. And I heard a familiar sound from what looked like an abandoned lot... BAGPIPES. So I yelled over the wall that I played the gaita too and I wanted to come say hello. Any other contacting approach would not have worked, because I soon found out that the bagpiper was a late sixties-ish Spaniard. Hanging out in a bunker dating from the Spanish Civil War with his cat and the garlic plants he´s growing. Usually not a very golden contact.But we shared bagpipe knowledge and he said we could come by, play the bagpipes, and talk about God anytime we wanted to. Now my only problem is getting a set of Asturiano bagpipes - the scottish kind won´t do here. 

Ada, the dominican whom I mentioned last week - she´s now come to church 3 weeks in a row! And what´s really cool is that she wants to progress. There have been some people who try to back out when they first commit to a fecha (that´s when all the trials start) but Ada looked at us and said,"it´s been really hard. But I believe God wants me to be baptized. And I know the book [of mormon] is true. So help me keep going." What´s really nice is that the Hermana missionaries are helping out too (we´re tag-teaming, it seems) and Ada invited THEM over today to make delicious Dominican food. I´m going to try and count that as a blessing. 

I love these little branches I´ve been asked to serve in. Only in a branch of 50 can some of these things happen. For example, I´ve now given two lessons in priesthood and Gospel Principles because people haven´t showed up to teach. I sat and translated for a visiting British RM during sacrament. And quite regularly the Branch President looks at us during FHE friday nights, the look that means, "Nobody showed up. Can you guys plan an upliftling lesson and fun game in the next 30seconds?" And the Lord always delivers. 

So there´s an Italian man named Jacincto here, with his Asturian wife and two children. (Is that a common name it Italy?) One is an RM named Mateo, with nothing better to do than grow out his hair Jamison-Afro style and come help us on lessons. And Jacincto made us the BEST LASAGNA the other day. And tomorrow he promised to make us yet more italian food - we´ll see how that goes. But back to Mateo - this kid served his mission in England, and now is just the best person you could ever find. He speaks fluent english with an accent, so we also have a secret code. Direct quote from last Sacrament meeting - he´s the second counselor in the Branch Presidency and shows up without a jacket and his sleeves rolled up and his Jamison-hair going por todos lados. 

"The Priesthood may now go back to their seats after administering the sacrament with such reverance. We will now be privileged to hear a talk from Brother Gonzalez. (looks around - brother gonzalez isn´t here.). I mean, we will actually be privileged to hear a talk by Hermana  Barkle (poor Hermana -Barkle´s only been in the field for 2 months - and all her freckles turned white at the prospect.) I mean, actually, it is now my privilege to give a talk." 

And then he gave an awesome talk that he literally prepared while in the act of giving it. (Maren - this is known as "Running Impromptu speaking" - getting up and starting after only 30s of prep. Not very easy, unless you have the spirit. More on Mateo in the future - he´s one of my new life heroes, especially because he´s one of a few people who genuinely want to help us out. 

Spiritual thought, from the oldest general conference on Lds.org. I´ve made it my goal to listen to every general conference talk they have on record - MedioDia is a great time to do it. 

I am presently in possession of the world’s mostvaluable information. I know that God lives, that wewere created in his image, and that by obeying theprinciples of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the offspring ofGod may eventually hope to become like their eternal parents.

But all of my great experiences are not in the past.Branch Rickey, the great baseball manager, was onceasked to describe his greatest day in baseball. He said,“I can’t because I haven’t had it yet.” Charles F. Kettering, themechanical wizard of General Motors, once said, “My interest is in the future, because I am going to spendthe rest of my life there.”

Love from far away,

Elder Stew

Week 32, March 16, 2015 - Hurray for the Hermanas

Well I´m still getting used to this place. It´s very much bigger than Telde, so buses actually run in the city limits! In Telde all buses were headed for other places. I also can´t distinguish the big buildings from the other big buildings (In telde there were only 2) AND THERE IS A MCDONALDS. A member took us there to taste "America" And for three people he spent 35 Euros (About $47). Which means we´re never going there again. 

So another thing that´s cool about Oviedo is that we have Hermana missionaries here. Basically our new best friends. As Elders, there´s important rules about being alone with women, which makes teaching single women (regardless of age) really hard - every lesson needs a third man. And since all of our third man plans fell through, we called up the hermanas and asked if they could teach the lesson. We gave them a quick plan, ideas, and told them what we wanted to get out of the lesson. Well these sister missionaries put our investigator on a baptismal date!!! T´was awesome. Her name´s Ada, and she thinks the coolest thing about our church is that the B.O.M. talks about HER ancestors (Latina) and that nobody in the branch judges her - everybody is really loving. And then I had to check my pride about how great our church is. 

Speaking of which, GENERAL CONFERENCE IS COMING UP. I´m so excited. I´ve been putting old talks on my USB and listening to them (like old McConkie, Maxwell, Hinckley - the classics). So it´ll be nice to have a whole set of new scripture!

The spiritual thought of the week comes from one of those very talks. Every week, Elder Emmett and I have decided to focus a little more on a certain Christlike Attribute. And this last week, we did hope. As part of our study, we listened to an old Maxwell talk titled "A perfect  Brightness of Hope." Which was awesome. "Hope does not let yesterday keep tomorrow hostage."

Here´s to a week filled with hope of progression, baptisms, and more work to do. It´s so darn great when there´s more work to do. 

Love, Elder Stew

P.S. Tell Dave and Catherine that I got their letter (the very first one to show up in Oviedo - they even beat Mom.) And that on or around that day, We had a VERY productive district meeting, McDonalds, and a baptismal date. So Catherine can make more birthday wishes if she wants, because they all came true. 

P.P.S. You don´t have to share this part because I don´t want to brag about myself, but it´s pretty funny. My comp is really bad about making his bed. And so for the last week, I made both our beds while he was in the shower. Only a 5m job, and it makes me feel good. And then the other day, HE made the beds. So now, for the first time in my life, I declared in my mind "This means war" -Bugs Bunny to ALWAYS be the one who makes the beds. Definitely a different change from the past. 

P.P.P.S. Sorry there´s no pictures, I don´t have my camera with me. Use Google Maps!