Week 39 - May 4 - First baptismal interview, listening to the spirit

Well we had another bomb week here in Oviedo!  Not sure where to start. Sorry about last week, I had to make a fone call right in the middle of emails. Elder Maughn needed to chat.

I got the chance to do a baptismal interview! It was one of my favorite experiences thus far. She got baptized yesterday (so you already know the end of the story) and it was almost as cool as her interview. Not very spiritual for me, because I spent the whole time making sure no small children drowned in the font. And Elder Weiss performed a very clean dunk, so todo salio genial. But back to the interview. We sat down, this being the first time I had conducted an interview and the second time Claudia had been interviewed. So she knew more about it than I did, and the hermanas had prepped her well. I´ll be honest, I went in with doubts not about her worthiness but about her understanding of the need to come and partake of the sacrament. It´s been tough to get her to church. BUT! As we talked (and I did the interview Bishop Grimm style, finishing the questions in about 2m flat) I felt the spirit confirming what I had hoped to believe - that she was ready and worthy. It really reminded me of the experiences I´ve had with the LDM - Compare Alma 32:27 and Ether 4:11. I really wanted to believe she was ready, and I was looking for that answer . And the Spirit told me that yes.

We thought long and hard the other day about what is the best thing to do for Ada, the dominican woman who was recently baptized. And we decided that all the next lessons will be taught in member´s houses - great way for her to get friends and we don´t have to actually teach the lesson. Just sit down and relax and make sure no one goes apostate. And it has been an AMAZING decision in terms of her growth, the members growth, and our peace-of-mind when it comes to lesson planning. I´d really reccomend that folks who want to help the elders make their homes open for NDH AND offer to teach a short lesson on baptism or something. Really helps.

Funny story, we had a VERY apostate Gospel Principles class on Sunday, which meant I had to take over halfway to clarify comments like, "Before Adam and Eve fell, when they gave birth it didn´t hurt." Teaching helps the teacher, inasmuch as he knows his doctrine. 

Love,

Elder Maxfield

Week 38 - April 27, 2015 - ipads and district leader

Well this was a crazy week! It started off as I got made district leader thanks to some emergency transfers, and today President Jackson announced that Madrid will be recieving IPADS. I have no idea about what that will entail. I figure right off the bat it means less paper, less getting lost, more organization, more showing movies and videos, and more pain-in-the-rear problems when the whole thing inevietably crashes. Oh well, we´ll see what happens. May 7th the whole mission will be in Madrid for a bunch of training on what sort of things the church IT folks have cooked up for us. (I´m imagining now they´ll have the same sort of exasperated look Maren gets when the rest of the family is completely clueless). Only 15 of the 30 European Missions will be getting Ipads, and Elder Bednar said in the seminar where this was announced, "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."

So that kind of changed everything. 

We have really seen some awesome miracles in the past week. Elder Weiss brought with him so much faith to see great things happen in the mission. (He also brought lots of pictures of a girlfriend whom he´s going to marry.......) One day last week, we were failed by all our investigators in a row. 5 of them, and all the lessons were in the church. So from 3 until 8, we were really just waiting in and around the church doing sporadic contacting for people to show up, calling it off 20m later, and then going back - super depressing. And then that night after some fervent prayers in the heart for SOMETHING to happen, we wandered around contacting and taught street lessons and contacted and had more success than I had ever seen. It was amazing - and I´m not sure what I did to recieve those blessings. And what´s great is that next time that happens, I´ll probably have an Ipad to show people videos on the streets.

Love, Elder Stew

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!