Week #2

Hi Everyone,
      Sorry this post is a little delayed.  I've updated Sadie's address (on the left) and I will keep it current (in case you'd like to drop her a line!).  Here's a little excerpt from last Monday's email and few pictures.  The best part was that Sadie got to see her cousin (Elder Anderson).

Hello my beautiful family!! Thank you for all of the wonderful emails and stories from this week. Makes me miss home but I know you are all safe and watched over! Ok I'll be straight up honest, this week was extremely hard. I guess I really didn't explain in my last letter, but the area I'm in is really hard to find investigators. We can tract a whole 2 streets and no one will let us even talk to them. Do you know what though? That's ok! Last night my comps and I were talking about how the Lord measures success, and we know he measures it by our obedience, our dedication, and how often we feel the Spirit. It's ok that it's hard! Honestly! I think my expectations were that when I got out here we would be teaching everyday an baptising every month. But that's not the Lord's plan! I think this mission has only had a total of 3 baptisms so far, and I can't remember if I told you but there are 600 people in our ward, only half are active. 600 members, 6 missionaries total! It's a lot of work but we can do it with the Lord's hand. We are working really hard to get the members active with working with us, I really just want them all to help us out more often but they really don't want to half of the time haha. 

Ok end rant now on to the happy things! I try to look for the good things only in our days now, if we focus on the bad we get really sad! And sometimes you just have to cry and let the Lord comfort you. I am learning so much about the Atonement, and how much we need to use it's enabling power in our lives! Also mom and dad, I just want to apologize when I have been such a brat sometimes, I've realized how much you mean to me and how much you've done for me my whole life. There are kids out here who have NOTHING. And on top of that, their parents care little or not at all. I'm so grateful that I was raised in a home where I can feel safe and know that I can always count on you. I hope you can forgive me for being so selfish sometimes! I am really working on turning out when I feel like turning in, because I know this is not my mission, it's the Lords! (Moses 1:39) 

Ok for crazy stories, we almost got in a really bad car accident a couple days ago! It was pouring rain, and we were going down the street (kinda fast) and a car was about to turn left in front of us. Suddenly, like 60 feet before we passed them, they pulled out in the middle of the road, so the car in the other lane stopped, so we were heading full force towards this car in the middle of the road! Sister Tofa slammed on the brakes and, I kid you not, we skidded to a stop, with only 2 inches between us and the other car. BLESSINGS! (We say that all the time) We pulled over and thanked Heavenly Father for protecting us. I know he watches over us all the time. He is so good to us!

I'm so sad that Diana is home, but I know that she is going home for a reason! I prayed the other night about her and just felt so sad, but I got a confirming feeling that there is a reason she is going home. Please let her know how much I love her and I know that the Lord will bless her for her diligence in serving him. 

Trials make us stronger! If we never went through the bad we would never understand the good. Just because this week wasn't good doesn't mean the next one will be too. I trust in the Lord with all my heart and I know that he understands so much more than I do, I know he will always help us if we listen to him. '

hello houston

Sadie arrived safely in Houston last Wednesday. Her first location is in an area very close to the Houston airport. Below are a few excerpts (if it seems a little disjointed) from her letter.

"Dearest sweet family of mine,

I'm here I'm here! Holy moly I have so much to tell you so please excuse my fast typing and mistakes. Ok so I LOVE IT HERE! So I am the minority here... I'm like a real gangsta now. (haha Sierra, from your letter) Everyone calls me baby or hun or whatever, I'm like YO MY NAME IS SISTA! Haha anyways but Dad you are correct, mis companeras are from TONGA and SAMOA!!! Sister Tau is from Tonga and SIster Tofa is from Samoa. So cool right??? They have accepted me as their cuz, and they say I'm not a polangi, which means white girl. They say I'm a poly :) Tell Bumpa they are teaching me a dance and we are going to video it and send it home! KUTAAA! Ok so this week we have already seen so many miracles and crazy things. Don't worry mom I'm not afraid because angels are always protecting us, when we walk, there are only 3 of us, but I can feel a whole bunch of angels behind us. Ok so let's see... Let me talk about Saturday. While tracting on Friday, we had a feeling to go to a certain street. The first door we knocked on was a Muslim woman, and she said the missionaries 5 years ago came and gave her a Book of Mormon in Arabic. CRAZY right?? So we went back to their house Saturday. The son, 25 years, has been to the Mormon church and felt the Spirit....."

"Then that night, we met a Church of Christ huge man that was like "If it isn't in the Bible, it isn't true!" After he found out we weren't there to convince him, he let us in and we bore testimony of Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith, and the Spirit was so strong!! He didn't accept our message but he was very thankful for us coming to talk to him..."

"Also Dad, you would be so proud, a lot of people are Hispanic too and speak only Spanish, so I'm learning to speak it and it's AWESOME! Somos misioneras para la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias, Tenemos un mesaje para tu familia! Haha it's getting better. I prayed out loud in Spanish for our companionship prayer, and it was good! It's amazing how the Spirit can be felt in any language...."

" We rely on the Spirit to fill our mouths and if we do, the Spirit can testify to their hearts that it is true. I also want to let you know that remember how my setting apart blessing says I will teach those of the lost tribes of Israel? It's so true already, there is so much diversity here it's almost like being in a foreign country. We are teaching a lady names Christina from Liberia, Africia, and she even speaks her own dialect! She has a baptism date, and we hope she will continue to develop along the road to Christ." 

"Ok I love my companions because they are letting me to keep using the computer, because they're are only two and they let me have it a little longer! They are seriously the greatest! They both have a New Zealand accent, because they've lived there too, so don't be surprised when I call at Christmas and sound like them! Haha seriously I'm already picking up on their accent and I sound Hispanic sometimes when we all speak in Spanish. Fabulosa!! "

Alright well I've got to go but I love you all! 

Oute alofa iate oe!!! (Means I love you in Samoan)

MAUGHANS CAN DO HARD THINGS! 

XOXOXO,

SISTER MAUGHAN or SISTER MONGA (my Samoan name) 

And a few pics I pulled from the Houston Texas Blog.

  Sorry.... not great quality since I pulled them from another blog.  Hopefully Sadie will be sending her own soon!!!

The MTC

Hi family and friends!  Sorry it's taken me so long to update Sadie's blog. Here's our first letter and a few pics. We got to talk to her yesterday before she flew to Houston.  She is LOVING IT!!!

On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 11:47 AM, Sadie Maughan <sadie.maughan@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Family and friends! Oh my goodness I made it to the MTC!! It's already been a week, can you believe it? I'm like whoaa I just got here didn't I? The MTC is so amazing and there is so much to learn and take in and it's really amazing. So I'll try to walk you through the week as best as I can remember, (don't worry mom I wrote in all down in my journal so I remember). OK so my companion's name is Sister Andreason, she is from Ohio and she is very knowledgable about the gospel! Haha... and she's pretty spunky like me so we get along well in that sense. So when I got to the MTC, my host was so sweet and walked me through everything, (and I got my name tag!!) and I got on a bus to ride down to MTC West. (Raintree are our classrooms, what room were you in again mom and dad?) So we live at Wyview and have to trek across in the morning to our classes, but it's ok because I'm getting used to the cold now. Plus us Houston sisters keep saying we better enjoy it since it will never be cold like that in Houston. Elder Anderson I'm coming to see you soon!! Get ready! So I absolutely love my district, they are amazing and have become my second family. All the sisters are going to Houston Texas and the Elders are going to Farmington, New Mexico. We get taught in a tiny make-shift classroom, but it's ok because I love my teachers to and the Spirit we feel whiole they teach us. 

Ok so back to the schedule on Wednesday I dropped my stuff off and came back to Raintree, met my companion and went back to the other rooms in Raintree. I don't remember a whole lot about Wednesday but I do remember we had an orientation (I saw Elder Malais a couple times!) and for our song we sang "We'll Bring the World His Truth" and we changed the words at the end to "and we are now the Lord's missionaries" and I just felt so incredibly happy! I went to bed feeling super tired but I slept like a rock. Getting up hasn't really been too hard, but that alarm clock sure does start to get on your nerves! I just do what you told me Dad, I sit up and I smile, and I roll down on my knees and thank Heavenly Father for this great opportunity I had. I don't remember the chronological order of the next events but just some more stories I want to share with you! 

Ok so remember how Sister Kimzey was not able to come into the MTC with me? Well let me tell you how much the Lord loves us. We went up to a Devo on the Main MTC campus on Saturday I think, and when we got in we got to sit towards the front of the room. A host came up and said Sisters would you like to sit front row? We we're like heck ya! So we went and sat right in front of the speaker. So cool! It was President Daines of the Provo Temple, and he was an amazing speaker. But as I sat down out of the corner of my eye guess who I saw... that's right, SIster Kimzey, who sat on the end row of me. I was soooo happy to see her, and when the Devo ended, we ran up and hugged each other so tight, it was pretty emotional because I thought I wouldn't see her until after our missions. Then guess what! FOUR other missionaries from my BYU ward came up and talked to us because they saw us!! Such a blessing to reunite with them, I had to leave pretty quick because my companion wanted to go, but it was such a tender mercy to see them (Mom ask for pics from Madisen's mom, Madisen took pics of us!)

I've learned incredible patience in the last 5 days, I have never been so humbled in my entire life. We have what's called a progressive investigator, which means our teacher basically is our investigator and we teach him. As we prepared to teach the third lesson, I felt that what we had already prepared was not what we were supposed to teach. Finally I felt so sick about it, I turned to her and just said straight up, "Sister, this isn't what we need to be teaching. We need to teach him about families." She was like what? We only have a couple min left to prepare, but ok. So instead of scrambling to prepare again, I said that we should say a prayer and ask for the Spirit to be with us. As we finished the prayer, I felt very calm and I knew that however the lesson went, it was because the Lord wanted it to go that way. Basically as we went through the lesson, our investigator told us that his mom had passed away a year ago and that he had never know his dad, and that he believed in the Plan of Salvation. My companion couldn't stop crying and I couldn't stop thanking the Lord for such a unique teaching opportunity for both my companion and the investigator. I then asked him, (Justin), what about your future family? Do you ever think about them? To which he replied: "You know, I guess I really never have before. Until now." It was the most amazing experience I have ever had. I mean, this was just our teacher too, imagine what how the Spirit could touch the lives of those who really need this Gospel in their lives! I can already feel the presence of those ready to be taught in Houston. I know that if I am exactly obedient and follow the Spirit, he will guide me.

 BTW, please watch "Character of Christ" by David A. Bednar. Most amazing talk I have ever watched. I just want to let everyone know that even though I know this mission will be hard, there is nothing I would rather be doing than helping others come unto Christ. He is REAL. And his love and Atonement can heal anyone, if they let it work in their lives. I thank him daily for his mercy and for teaching me through these amazing experiences.

NEW MISSIONARIES COME IN TODAY! And guess who gets to welcome them... my companion and I :) We got called to be Sister Training Zone Leaders. which is such a humbling call, I LOVE helping all the sisters and making sure they feel God's love for them. Don't worry mom I will take care of the new missionaries coming in, just like that host took care of me! 

Ok I'm almost out of time but I love you all and here are some pics!!! Heavenly Father loves you all so much too and don't forget to watch GC this week! (Sadly I will not be singing this week, still amazing to watch it in the MTC) 

P.S. THANK YOU FOR THE LETTERS AND PACKAGES! (Yes I got your package mom!!) :) :) Missionaries love mail. And I love you all. Keep on smiling. 

GIVE EM HEAVEN!