Monday, September 5, 2016

16 Months

Queridos,

The best month of the year has begun!  And it started up here pretty good in Argentina.  Although it was pretty cold, we had a good week.
In the mission we are always setting goals.  Lately, bueno... siempre.  I have not been reaching my goals in the mission.  So my companion and I have been doing some deep analysis to reach our goals.  I thought about my goals before the mission. Basketball, grades, etc.  All of these goals depended on what I did every day.  The only thing that affected the results of the goals was me. I could work as hard as I wanted in order to reach my goals.  Well goals here in the mission depend on other people.  If I put the goal to bring 3 people to church, I can work as hard as I possibly can, but in the end, the result depends on the will of the 3 people.  If the 3 people don`t want to come to church, then I will not reach my goal, no matter how hard I try.  So my conclusion:  The only thing that matters is our effort.  If we give it absolutely everything that we have then we will be happy and God will be happy.  Regardless of the results.  True happiness and true success comes by giving our best effort.  This is so true in life.  Complete effort and strength brings us complete joy.  This is something cool that I realized this week.  So everyone go out there and give it your best!  In work, in school, in sports, and in life.  If we give it our best, then we will be happy!  
This week we found 5 new investigators! It was awesome. With all 5 of them, we kneeled down at the end of the lesson to offer up a prayer.  One guy hadn`t prayed for 3 and a half years, but he prayed with us! How cool is that?  It is one of the coolest experiences in the world to humbly kneel down and say a prayer with complete strangers.  Can you imagine the smile on God`s face? He had 5 sons and daughters this week that prayed to Him after a long time. Missionary work is awesome.  
I think we knocked on about 500 doors this week. haha We contacted so much but as you can see we received the blessings. At one point Elder Pearson said, "Woah we have knocked on too many doors." I died laughing because I was thinking the same thing.  Who would do this madness if it wasn`t the truth? Well it is the truth and that is why we do it.  One day I asked Elder Pearson, "How many times do you think we have done this?" He said "Too many." haha We have a good time and I am enjoying it.  We are going to keep on knocking and we are going to keep on seeing the many miracles that come to pass every day!
I know this church is true.  It is the best. God loves us and He lives! Everyone go to the temple this week because I miss it. Hasta la pròxima.

Saludos,


Elder Maynard

 Chocotorta (Dulce de leche, milk cream, and chocolate cookies) with banana dulce de leche ice cream.  I am going to recommend it to the prophet to serve it in the celestial room in the temple
 Food pics for mom :)

 THE RESULTS!!

 PARTY TIME



 birthday selfie with elder pearson
 Best mission in the world
 Also the mission found a bunch of letters that were in the mail box for over a year haha It was funny to read grandmas letters from last august.
 My packages came!!!
 Mama chiapello made me a cake :)

 birthday lunch


 street I contacted on my birthday 

 My last selfie being 19!!

SERVICE PROJECT smashing rocks!



Tuesday, August 30, 2016

The Mission is Awesome

HOLA!

I think I just blinked, and this week passed by.  Crazy.  It was such a full week. Lots of food, many spiritual moments, and lots of things learned. Here we go...

First off, an awesome spiritual lesson that Presidente Pèrez taught us.  It comes from 1 Samuel 15.  Read the chapter and this will make more sense.  But Obedience is better than Sacrifices.  As missionaries we sacrifice lots of things.  Time, family, school etc.  We sacrifice all these things for the Lord.  And God can be pleased with these sacrifices, but if we are not obedient then the sacrifices don`t mean very much.  The only things that God requires from us is our heart and our obedience.  So let`s all think of things we can do to be more obedient to the Lord. And God has a great promise for those that are obedient. Mosiah 2: 22-24.
This week I was translating for President Pèrez to the new missionaries, and I had a realization of how blessed that I have been in the mission.  I remember when I got here and I just couldn`t understand a single thing that anyone said to me.  I was a goat in the middle of the ocean, just completely helpless. But now I can kind of talk, and kind of understand what is going on.  God is so good and so awesome.  I love a quote that I read a while ago that says something like ``God can make us into something so much greater than whatever we could possibly make of ourselves.`` Without God we are nothing, but with God we can be everything.  
In the mission you learn a lot about having accountability to leaders. It is a good lesson to learn in life. It is something that helps you to be more effective and work harder.  We have been focusing a lot on accountability here and Elder Pearson and I were studying a bit on it this week.  Like all things we should look to the Savior for our example.  I love how Christ was accountable to the Father in all things that he did. Even up until the final moments of His life when He was on the cross and He told God ``It is finished.``  Realizing this made us pretty excited this week. 
As for the investigators we are having a bit of progress.  Marcelo seems to have a brighter look on his face and he tells us that he prays every day.  We invited him to be baptized and he wasn`t sure, so we kneeled down to pray.  As he prayed to God, asking Him if he should continue in his path and be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit, I had so much peace.  It was an awesome prayer.  I just thanked him and I trust that God will answer his prayer as He has answered mine.  Marcelo at the last minute couldn`t come to church but we will be working with him.  And every day we experience miracles and lots of potential and hope for the future.  We taught a lady this week who gave us mate cocido and she accepted a baptism date.  We will teach her again on Wednesday and we will see if she is the real deal.  
Well I love each and every single one of you! I hope you all have a great week! I will surely enjoy mine :)

Love,

Elder Maynard

 Mom we ate food this week.


 Saying goodbye to Elder Ricra
 The new missionaries party



 walmart :O
 New missionaries




 Eating food
 Consejo de Lìderes




 we didnt have gas for 3 months so we had to bath ourselves with this dumb water heater, but we finally got gas and now we are happy.

 Teaching Elder Mackleprang from texas how to milkear


 My friends in church :)
 I did magic tricks for the kids and they went nuts
a statue thing that I don`t know what it is so I took a picture with it