I am so excited to get out to Bulgaria!!

This week has been pretty awesome and this P-day has already been super good we finally got to go back to the temple this morning!  I saw John Wilson after I got back too, he is working for BYU and he was refilling some vending machines so we got some free ice cream from him 'cuz they have to throw out any that have holes in them so he just gave them to us!

 

The Olympics sound like they had a good opening I wish I could watch them, I love the Olympics!

 

Oh well, lets see... also this week, one of the new elders in our hall is the boy who played Joseph in the restoration movie, that was cool. Oh and one night, me and a few other guys from our district, hid in a room under the beds and in the closets, then when Elder Wall was going to sleep we all jumped out and like dog piled him, it was pretty fun.

 

Other than that nothing too exciting, just classes and all. The language is coming along well I feel pretty comfortable teaching the lessons and understanding and answering questions although I'm still not very good at just talking, my non-gospel vocabulary is pretty small. Still having a good time here at the MTC but I am so excited to get out to Bulgaria!!

I know that if we will study hard and seek to do what our Heavenly Father wants us to do the Spirit will guide us! Our Heavenly Father loves us and has given us so much!

And yes, please do write, these other elders are making me look bad with all the letters they get! Ha ha, just kidding but I would love to hear from you all!

Love Старейшина Максуел

My MTC District

Okay, so this is my district!

(except for the middle sister, she is a solo sister going to Poland so she is companions with our sisters) 

For the Elders... (from the left):

•  there is Elder Killpack, from Idaho Falls, he is way cool and loads of fun
• then there is Elder Bellows from Spanish Fork, he is interesting and a good elder
• then Elder Wall who is from Michigan, this guy is super smart and he's already basically fluent in Spanish and he is learning Bulgarian super fast!
• Next is Elder Straton, he's from Layton, UT and he is crazy organized, he's the one who got this picture for everyone.
• Then there is Me!
• Then my companion, Elder von Niederhausern, from Florida.  He is super fun and a great missionary.  He did Air force ROTC and wrestling so he is pretty buff and he loves eating all the food here. 
• Next is Elder Greenacre, from southern England.  He is way funny and he used to be a model so he loves getting in everyone's pictures!
• Then it is Elder Mock, from South Carolina, he is great and super cool.
• Then it is Elder Goodwin, from Washington, he played in BYU's marching band last year.
• Next is Elder Forshee, from Highland, UT he is crazy good at singing
• On the end is Elder Hoy, from Canada, and he is very Canadian, lots of fun

For the Sisters.... (from the left):

• Sister Frame, from UT, and she doesn't like making normal faces for pictures.
• Then Sister Packard, going to Poland, she is crazy buff and she wants to teach PE when she gets back.
• Then there is Sister Roper, she is super nice to everyone.

So that is all the Bulgarians at the MTC, plus a Polish Sister!  This was from our first weeks temple walk, that is why the sky is so smokey.  So, yeah, lots of cool people to work with for sure!!!

It's still going by crazy fast!

Okay - so this week has been pretty good too.  Pretty much the same as the other weeks.  It's still going by crazy fast, the language is still coming along pretty well.  I really enjoy teaching in Bulgarian.  Having such a simple vocabulary definitely helps keep the lessons simple and basic although, I do wish I knew how to explain some things a bit better.

This week in one of our gyms I got a bunch of guys to play softball.  I hit a ground ball and my companion went to get it but it hit a dip and went straight into his face and gave him a bloody nose! It was pretty funny but it didn't hurt him bad so it's all good.

The temple finally opens up again next week it will be good to be able to go back again it's going to be a long time, once we get to Bulgaria, before we will get to go to the temple again!

Other than that, this week wasn't too eventful.   My companion and I get along real well and I really enjoy working with him! I know the Book of Mormon is true and I enjoy reading it everyday I know that by doing that I learn more of Christ and our Heavenly Father and their love for me and for everyone! The church is true!

I love you all and I hope you all have a good week!

 старейшина максуел

It's Crazy...!

This week went by super fast!  It's crazy how much I feel like I have already learned in Bulgarian but I still have so much more to learn! I could say the same about my testimony too, I thought I had a pretty good testimony before but seeing how much it has already grown and how much it can still grow through obedience and faithful study I never want to stop living a life like I do here! All you siblings' be sure and read your scriptures every day they are awesome and they can teach you so much.

Yesterday for our devotional we had Jenny Oaks Baker come and talk and play.  That was really good.  Her family was there and all here little kids (5-12ish or something) played and they are all crazy good too.

 

Oh and this week I found a black widow on the soccer field and that was way cool it was huge and Greenacre, the British elder, was freaking out, he doesn't like spiders. So the supervisors caught it and took it somewhere else.

  

That's pretty much all from this week! Love you all have a great week!

 

старейшина максуел

I'm amazed at how much the Lord blesses me!

I don't usually include Christian's "family" messages but I had to include his advice to his sisters this week.  It is SO Christian and SO funny:

 

Emma you can't turn 16 yet you'll have to wait till i get back before you start dating cuz that's just weird.

 

Allegra (and Emma) sounds like you had a good time at the dance and watch out for cheesy pick up lines, real men would never stoop to using those.

 

And now on to his mission report!

 

Okay so this week has been pretty good.  Today, since the temple is on shutdown for cleaning, we went to help with that instead of doing a session so we were there for a few hours cleaning. They really get everything super clean, they literally gave us toothpicks and q-tips to use while we were cleaning the lockers.

 

On last Thurs we had our first TRC teachings and those went pretty well, mostly just RM's from the mission came in for that but we taught a couple twenty min. plus lessons to them.  Although I'm sure our grammar was terrible, we were able to get our messages across! We teach lessons almost every day, if not to one of our Teachers( investigators) then we are at the TRC.

 

For the fourth of July we had a special devotional thing then we got to go outside and try and watch the fireworks through the tree's. It was okay but they planned it over our gym time so that was kind of upsetting having to sit for a super long devotional after sitting in class all day instead of going to play soccer or something.

 

I'm almost a third of the way done here at the MTC, I cant wait to get out into the field but I still need to learn a lot more first even though I think we are making very good progress. I don't know if I told you last week but I've seen Elder Tidwell a couple times (he's like your cousin right?). It's way fun teaching with my companion, we get along really well and between the both of us we usually are able to understand what is going on in our lessons and what to say. We are working really hard on the language and setting goals and such for what we want to learn and how we are going to learn it each day and that is helping a lot. 

 

Oh and so every Sunday we all prepare talks then they call a couple up to speak after the sacrament so yesterday I had prepared my talk on repentance because that what I though we were supposed to prepare for that day and then after the sacrament they said that I would be speaking after one of the sisters and that the topic for the day was faith in Christ so I had like four min to quick plan something in my head, I don't know that it was the best talk but oh well. 

 

I am so excited to be a missionary, every day I am amazed at how much the Lord blesses me in this work and I'm not even out in the field yet!!

 

 

 Love you all, 

старейшина максуел

Loving the Work!

Okay so this week was good. Tuesday,  we got up early to go to the airport and flew to LA.  We got to talk to a few people. ( A large group of missionaries tends to attract attention!) Then, we went to the consulate and got all our stuff signed.  We went to the LA temple for a bit and then we went back to the airport and flew back.  When we got back, the bus driver that picked us up was late and he had droped a group of missionaries off at the wrong place so we had to get them and take them to where they were supposed to be and that took forever so we didn't get back till very late and we ended up missing dinner and everything, that was a pain. 

We had classes all week and one of the class periods we had one of the Swedish teachers, Brother Harris, sub and he taught Austin when he was in the MTC. I also met a couple of Sisters who got in this week heading to Rochester, so if you get and fresh Sisters in the ward in the next couple weeks be sure and feed them!

I get to see Ammon all the time, he is in my zone and just down the hall from me.  Their classroom is also pretty close so we get to talk lots. Oh and last week they had the mission president training stuff so they had half the cafeteria all closed off and they just had paper cups so every meal we would take like five cup each back to the room.  We built this awesome arch thing around our door and labeled the top (keystone) the Book of Mormon in Bulgarian but then the room inspectors took it all down the next day which was kinda lame but I got some pictures of it.

 

My disrict is totally awesome!  We all get along real well, it's like we are a family and we have some really good times.  Last night we had a devotional thing where this guy did this act as, I think it was, Willard Richards (or something like that, one of the guys who was with Joseph at Carthage jail). That was sweet and the spirit was way strong and after, we sang, Praise to the Man" and that was absolutly incredible!  There is no doubt in my mind that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God who restored the gospel to the earth in these latter days and translated the Book of Mormon, through the power of God.

 

Thats all I can really think of that's had gone on this week, the time sure is flying by, loving the work!!

 

старейшина Maxwell