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!!

Week 3, Aug 28

Squid: How did the mouth-burning procedure go?

Emma: Thanks for the emails. Did Maren give you a proper tour of the Junior High school yet? And what do you think of all your teachers?

Maren: Tell me all about how you love Mr. Felt´s class.  Also, tell me all about high school.

Charles: Don’t get hurt on the zipline. But that sounds so awesome! Remember to help your dad on the deck now that I´m halfway across the world. And how is school going?

Mom: Yes, I love being called Elder, and it Is now a very endearing title. Although Spainards keep asking if my companion and I are brothers. What´s it like with NOBODY in the house?

Dad: I wish I packed stain spray and more soap. I´ll be fine though. All of the missionaries on my flight ended up at the Spain CCM, but some stayed only for two weeks – fluent French speakers. None of the missionaries here speak fluent Spanish, and to be honest but not to brag, me and my DL Elder Barlow speak the best Spanish of all the missionaries. Sometimes the teachers ask us to translate because now our Spanish is better than their English! My group of about 50 is all Americans learning Spanish. The first two weeks we had native Portugugeues, Native French, and Americans finishing learning Russian. These last two weeks we´ve had us, Fluent Russian speakers (From the U.S., Ukraine, Russia, and Germany) and another set of Americans learning Russian. Next week, the Fluent Russians will leave and we´ll get native Italians. There are 64 people here right now, with only 17 or so sisters… But according to the MTC Pres (Who is AWESOME) That will change come December, when there will be one 2 week period with 7 elders and 37 sisters. And yes, none of my devices require converters.

Thanks for writing! Getting a letter is awesome, let alone 4 in a 2 day span! It makes life a lot easier to have you guys write snail mail, so thanks.

Couple things I want to touch on:

My teachers here are aweome. They just like to talk to me in Spanish, now that I´m getting closer to my goal of functionality. They´re all way fun and come play soccer with us during PE.

The food here is… bearable, but very repetitive. And EVERYTHING is deep fried. I guess that´s their perception of America.

I´m still quite healthy.

I had a cool experience in the Park with a Russian kid. He didn´t speak any English or Spanish, and we were companions. He said a powerful prayer to start us off, which I didn´t understand. But HOLY COW. He called down the powers of heaven. We led the zone with 8 LdMs given away and 4 referalls – all in an hour and a half! He was great, and kept asking for help translating from his broken English to even more broken Spanish. We had a great day, and I´m sure it was his humble prayer that gave me the courage to talk to everyone I met and gave him the spirit to guide us to our destination – no joke, he just walked in random directions and seemed to run right into people who wanted to hear the gospel. It was such a beautiful experience.

Ok, gotta go.

Elder Weight, Stewart, Elder Bates