Surprise!

Surprise! I'm emailing in the middle of the week! Who'd have thought! No worries, I promise it's legit. This has been kind of a crazy week, and pretty eventful too. So I'm not really sure where to begin.

We continue to be in the middle of our drought of people to teach, but it's just an opportunity to build faith, right? We had a zone conference last week and that was really great and inspirational, but unfortunately part of the inspiration that both Sis. Mayer and I received was that we needed to step away from all the remaining investigators we have. ohhh boy. But it'll be okay. It makes for a couple of rough weeks, but just keep holding on.

As for other eventful things, last Monday was quite an interesting day! As background, I have not had many member meals this year. In fact, I have only had six member meals since February (allll the way back in Ravenna). I've decided that the curse is me since Mayfield used to be a ward when you would have to fight to feed the missionaries...until I got here haha. Well, that changed last Monday! A member of our stake presidency had met Sister Mayer's parents in Houston and he had promised them he would take her and her comp out to dinner, but since he lives outside Mayfield, he decided instead to order us a "pizza". So when someone buzzed our apartment last Monday night, you can imagine my surprise when it turned out that "a pizza" actually meant FIVE large pizza boxes from Papa John's! Two pizzas, breadsticks, cheesy bread, dessert pizza plus a 2 liter of soda! haha. We were so appreciative. As were the zone leaders who got all the leftovers!

After the pizza party, we went out to our area and taught a lesson when it started to storm. After the lesson we got back to our car and checked out phone...It was exploding with messages and missed calls! Apparently there was a tornado warning for Cleveland Heights (where we were at the time) and there was a tornado about 5 miles south of us! We got into the car and then rushed over to the Messegee's, but we got there right as they were getting out of the basement hideout, but we had to take cover for the rest of the evening.  Overall, a fairly exciting day!

Well, I need to run now, but I'll write on Monday! love you!

Sister Maughan

Build me an ark...quick!

Hello family!

 

I have no idea if it's raining there like it is here, but there was a thunderstorm last night and we are supposed to get more today and so all the snow is melting. Unfortunately, that means that there is a LOT of water everywhere and there is flooding in the Chagrin River and the Stoney Brook Creek (where the Kirtland saints would dam up the creek and perform baptisms during the 1830s at all points of the year; in fact, Willard Richards was actually baptized at midnight on December 31st so he could start his new year off as a new man, so they had to chip a hole in the ice big enough for the baptism! There's a sneak preview of the tour haha). But really, it's ridiculous. I need to get back over to sites to take some picture if I get the chance, but there is massive flooding. The school's are closed here because of the Chagrin River flooding, and the Stoneybrook Creek/raging river is about to flood the parking lot of the visitor center. It's pretty cool to see, but hopefully it will stop soon because that would cause a lot of problems for a lot of people if some of these bridges get washed out...

 

Anyway, all rain aside, this week has been a pretty good week. Tuesday when I was at sites, I got to see Sister Devenport, and that pretty much made my life. I love that girl. Last Thursday we had zone conference and that was really good. It can be a bit draining to be in meetings and role playing all day, but I think everyone received a lot of good insight and I know for me, I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, because we spent a full day at zone conference, the rest of our week was pretty whacked. We had to spend some make up time at Kirtland which made for another really long day, but I saw a whole bunch of really tender mercies at Kirtland this week, like getting in touch with people that I have been trying to reach for MONTHS but had previously not been able to.

 

Oh, cool story! I don't think I have ever told you the story of Elder Pendleton! So this was probably back in January when it all began. Sister Devenport and I were the only sisters at sites when the phone started to ring. We have the chance to get some of the calls from people requesting a Finding Faith in Christ DVD or a Book of Mormon, but recently we haven't been getting very many of those calls. When the phone rang, it only rang once and then got disconnected before I could answer (dang new phone system). But I saw that the number was a 540 number: Good ol' south west Virginia! So I decided to call the number back and it turns out it was an elder serving in Roanoke! Small world! He had been calling to give a referral for his friend, so I got a whole bunch of names and numbers from him and we've been working a lot together to get in touch with his friends, and we've actually found a lot of success. It's just a small world that he is serving in Roanoke and he knew a whole bunch of the people that I was asking him about. I've even gotten to talk to the elders who are serving in Salem (they didn't give any referrals though. booooo...). The other night I called Elder Pendleton to give him an update and a number from him, and he was over at the Vanderhoovens house, so I got to say hello to Oliver, that was cool. But now Elder Pendleton has been transferred, and to make a small world even smaller, his new area is the same area as Elder Hansen-- my MTC companion's brother. Who'da thunk?

 

Well, life is good in Kirtland/South Euclid/Cleveland, although I must admit I can't believe how fast time is flying. It's already March! Crazy. I hope things are going well for you all. Craig and Mom, I'm glad you made it back safely and I hope jet lag doesn't kill you too bad! Love you all!

 

Sister Maughan