Pictures!!

WOA BUDDY!!!

Hello Hello Family!

Ok, so I know that I JUST talked with you like 2 days ago, but SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED. So I was all warm in my little bed at 10:15 and feeling so secure/exhausted from crying so much. Transfer calls were supposed to be that night, but Sister Wiley and I were positive that we were staying together because she is training me and it is a 12 week program and it has only been 6 weeks. They hadn't called so I was about to doze into a most deep of slumbers- FALSE. then the phone rang. Zone leaders called and said
" Hello, Sister Mahaffey, thank you for serving in the Bellevue South Zone. YOu are being transfered." That was it. Haha. I was in shock and started crying and couldn't sleep for another hour. Sister Wiley and I have been crying for the past 2 days.

I feel so humbled. Seriously. I trust the Lord so much and know that wherever he has me go, that it is for a reason. I will go where he wants me to go and I will do what he wants me to do. I love the people of snoqualmie falls so much. I love the less actives, i love the investigators, I love those who are going through hard times. We went and visited everyone that we could and shared our testimonies with them. The member's testimonies lift me up so much. they are so inspirational to me. Always share your testimonies with the missionaries. It does so much for them. More than you will know.

I have given my heart to that area and loved my companion and the people in snoqualmie falls more than I could have imagined. It hurt my heart so much to have to leave the people and Sister Wiley. She has become such a close friend of mine and has taught me so much. More importantly, I love our Savior Jesus Christ. I love our Heavenly Father and know that he loves us so much. I know that we are the happiest when we are doing His will. There is no other way to find true happiness.

I think something switched in me after I talked with you guys. I just want to be as obedient as I can. I get to be a missionary only for 18 months of my life. I am his servant and I have been selfish in allowing myself to think of my needs/wants! So I trust that wherever he wants me, that is where I will go and give my heart to that area as well. I know that there will be more friends and people to meet that I never knew i had. I already love the people in my new area and am praying for my companion.

So transfers just happened. I got called to the Federal Way area ( aka polynesian central) I took the place of a polynesian sister and we live in a mansion with members. Their house is right on the Puget Sound. The area is HUGE and amazing. haha. I miss Sister Wiley and snoqualmie. I love this area already though! I can't wait to go out and teach! Haha. Transfers are such a rollercoaster of emotions! It's exciting and thrilling and sad and hard. This mission is amazing.

Welp. Thank you so much for such a magical christmas! I looooved seeing you guys! I'm sorry I wasn't as obedient as I should have been. (calls were only supposed to be 40 minutes) but starting today- I am transforming. I am the Lord's and will do only his will! Thank you adam for the advice. Thank you everyone for the support. I'm wearing my new boots :) and cami, I have worn your scarf 2 days in a row now. I LOVE IT! alia. I got transfered to an area with a barnes and noble and I need a new journal so i'm using your gift card to buy one today! yay!! Thank you everyone!

Mom, can you tell suzzaney how grateful i am for the package? I loved hearing from her and she didn't need to send me 20 dollars!! sheesh. The head bands are perfect. The candy... I will have to eat it and work out really hard :)
 Love, Sister Mahaffey

(Can you put this on the blog) for the girl group?

Shout out to the girl group. I LOVE YOU GUYS! I think about each of you all the time and miss you so much. I will never have another group of girls so close to me. I hope you are all living the dream and staying close to our Heavenly Father. Thank you all for your support and prayers. Write Me LADIES! haha. Alex, I will writeth you sooneth. so sorry. Karli- if you're thinking about a mission still... DO IT. Aly, are you married yet? Stina.... write me :) Sara- I saw you on skype. and send that letter. Taya. You know how i feel about you.

Shout out to Nate Burgess- OH MY GOODNESS! thank you!!! I looooved the suprise package and love the calender and songs! How appropriate for my mission :) thank you for your uplifiting words! ps, silly guy. If you wanted me to write you back you should have sent me a return address :) you will just have to write again with the address on it.
 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

HOLLER! 

 

ahhhh! hahah I cannot believe it. Mission president called this morning and explained the rules about calling home- OH MY GOSH. I'm so excited!!!!!! We already talked to the family we are chilling with on christmas and they said we can use their phone! woot woot! hahahah! I can't wait! This is going to be the best christmas ever. I'm so excited to talk to you all! Sister Wiley and I planned a party and game night on christmas night for all the older single people who will be alone on Christmas. I'm excited and they seem excited too. There is this little girl and her mom who have been having a rough go. The mom is going through a messy divorce and the husband is scary. The little girl has such a big heart and is 3 years old. Oh i love her. She asked Santa for a space station hahaha. So Sister Wiley and I are building her a space station and going to leave it on their porch christmas eve. We are also cooking a lobster Christmas Eve. My idea- thank you very much :) They say that the lobster will scream! And the lobsters are fresh up in here so I wanted to try. I will probably make Sister Wiley do it though ( she doesn't know that yet).

 

This week was so great! It's amazing how HARD satan works on you when something amazing is about to happen. We were so discouraged and down but we had so many little blessings this week.  First, we went tracting in Fall City and it was gorgeous! There are pictures and videos of it on the card I will send back home. We walked along the river and walked for about two miles just visiting all the HUGE homes that were really far apart. As we were walking these ferocious dogs started running after us and barking, I thought i was going to die. I screamed and threw Sister Wiley in front of me- without thinking- and she just waved at them and put her Cinderella voice on. Seriously, these beagles were gonne eat our faces. But we were ok. They realized how much bigger we were than them. I think it was my muscles that scared them off.

 

Anyways, as we were tracting I kept feeling like we should go down this one road (for like the past 2 weeks) so we finally did. The first house we knocked on- no one was there. But then we got this text message from Mormon.org about a referral and the address was THE SAME ADDRESS WE HAD JUST KNOCKED ON! woa! So we went back the next day! The guy's name is Larry, he is in his 20's and has a lot of Mormon friends and wants to learn. We have an appt with him this week. Then later that night we were tracting and this 19 year old girl let us in. Her name is Ellie and her friend Nadia was there (ps we had met a dog the day before named Nadia, and Sister Wiley was like "oh i just met a Nadia!" and I said " yea, it was the dog's name" haha she was so embarrassed) They had a Book of Mormon and all these questions about where we go when we die, where we came from, how are we saved... so cool. We are meeting with them tomorrow. I told them I liked them and that I would be their friend.

 

A woman that we have been teaching - Jodi Toney read the Book of Mormon for an hour the other day! We are meeting with her tomorrow too. She was baptized when she was 11 but it didn't mean anything to her and she hasn't been to church ever since. It's like teaching an investigator.

 

Bob Jarchow- the guy i asked to be baptized, came to church!!! For all 3 hours! so cool :)

 

I am learning more and more as time goes on that this is it. There is absolutely nothing greater than this. If we give the Lord our hearts and minds we will truly come to know ourselves. Everything just makes sense when  you understand the gospel and your relationship with the Lord. granted, there are still hard times and times I want to be home- but I know that is just my will and not the Lord's. There is no greater work. If I don't convert any one on my mission or see a baptism, I will be ok with that because I have been converted and that will make all the difference in my relationships throughout my life. Thank you so much for your support. I love you all so much and cannot wait to talk to you Sunday!!! I'm sending a package home, hopefully it gets there in time.

I miss you!

Hi there!!

 

This week was spiritual/weird/great! Haha. Both Wiley and I just wanted chocolate everyday last week. So we ate chocolate everyday. Now I'm on a diet. This is not good.

 

Haha I'm loving my life right now. Seriously. I do miss being able to watch movies and ski and everything else, but I love my life! It's so great. I feel so confident and comfortable in my skin. I'm just so content.

 

Do you guys know what fruit cake is? I do now. We were at the johnson's home and they asked if we liked fruit cake. I said " oh we love anything with 'cake' in it" and sister wiley's face was mortified. So Sister Johnson gave us these huge pieces of fruit cake. I thought I was going to hurl after I took a bite. OH it was just so awful. I told her I couldn't eat it. I didn't like it hahahaha. Good thing it was store bought and they didn't like it either..

 

Guys. I met my kindred spirit/soul mate. I'm not even kidding. Did I tell you about buddy? Oh  my word. He is a black golden retriever. He came out the wrong color! Just like me! haha we both have identity issues and he can just relate to me. It's nice knowing I'm not alone in this world. I'm actually going to walk him right after I get done emailing.

 

WE have a Christmas tree!!! the Barnards left it on our doorstep. It's covered in lights and ornaments! So exciting! 

 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this ward. We went and taught Benzi Pantoja. He is 7 years old about to get baptized. They are a part member family. One of the boys has to be able to do a pull-up to get something passed off for boyscouts so they have a pull up bar in the kitchen. After the lesson I got everyone in the kitchen and got the whole family to have a pull up contest haha. I loved it!

 

Sister Wiley and I wanted to get the ward more involved/excited about missionary work so we came up with this rad idea. The ward has an emailing list and we are going to send out "blasts" through text to the Ward Mission leader and then he is going to email it to every family in the ward. It's going to be a miracle that happened or someone that we want them to pray for and then we are having them text us if a miracle happens to them. We think that if we do this, the ward will be more involved so when we have investigators come to church, members will be legitimately excited!

 

It's so weird, I keep thinking that the investigators we have, we are just going to turn them over to the missionaries to finish teaching them... um, I'm the missionary. It's so weird. It's on our shoulders! 

 

 I'm so excited about the missionaries you are sending packages to! That's going to be so cool. I have become so grateful for everything since being on my mission. This guy in the temple today had cerebral palsy and couldn't even talk or move really. It made me so grateful to be able to say the words I want to. I'm just so grateful for my life.

 

We found 3 new investigators and I love them. Joel, Dale, Shane. Joel was a miracle! It was like 8pm and we just wanted to go home but we felt like we should go to Lori's house. We knocked on her door and she didn't answer but we looked across the street and Dale was just standing there. So we went and taught him the restoration of the gospel and about prophets. He said that him and his wife and little daughter have been looking for a church! Dale is so great. He is from Taiwan and is a photographer. We taught him about prayer this week and he said a prayer to close the lesson. It was the first prayer he has ever said, his whole life. It made me so happy! Shane is 40ish and lives alone. He is divorced and has had such a crazy past with drugs and everything. He is just alone and lost. He said he attends this non denominational church because he feels loved but he talks about our life after this life and it is exactly what we believe. He died once and saw what happens after this life, and then he came back to life. His Faith is super strong. We are getting him fellowship this week!

 

Two of Sister Green's kids came to church this week! Oh happy day! We went over and Family night with them last monday and the entire family sat in. it was amazing how it all came together.

 

Crazy Stories

 

1.So Sister Wiley and I were sitting in our car for our lunch break eating and sister wiley waves at this guy walking by. I hit her and say, "why did you wave at him! he is going to think we are watching him" well... the guy comes over to us. It was trippy. He was from Boston and is a less active member. Their family is estranged and he moved back to make it better. But he went into really deep doctrine stuff that was WAY over my head. He wouldn't shake our hands or tell us his name. It was weird. Cray Cray.

2. We went tracting in Fall City (which is where all the trailer parks are) and we walked, parked our car on the side of the road, and walked up to this farm house. This old guy was outside and we started talking to him and he said " well are you gonna sing us a carol?" and I'm like "no" but of course sister wiley says "yes" so we go inside and meet his wife. then they look past me through the window and say "who are those people". Oh my gosh. It was a family from the ward. I said " i know them, you guys don't?" hahah. The Barnards had seen us walking into this random persons house and so they followed us and brought rolls to them. CRAZY. it was funnny and the old couple really appreciated it and then they gave us deer pepperoni and summer sausage that he had killed himself. I can't eat it, knowing it's deer.

3. We walked outside after meeting this old couple and our car is SURROUNDED by cop cars. Sister Wiley just says " did we do that?" haha. Then we realized that there was a cemetary right by our car and a big funeral going on.

 

Well this is ALL OVER THE PLACE haha. Sorry. But that's this week for ya! haha.

 

I LOVED the package with all the pictures in it! I loved it so much. It totally made my week. And I absolutely cherish the letters i get from Emma and Jaina. Thank you for thinking of me! I'm so grateful for that!

 

love you!

 

write soon!~ xoxoxo Sister Mara

Life Is Good!

Hey There Family and Friends!

I miss you. The end. Haha but seriously! I am missing my family so much right now! I just want to sit in our family room by the fireplace and listen to christmas music. But, this is more important right now ;) How is everyone?? Is everyone excited about Christmas? Who is giving to who? Oh that is going to be so so magical. Gosh, what a blast! I can't wait to talk to you guys. I sound really mature now, so you probably won't even recognize my voice.

Sister Missionaries = the ULTIMATE visting teachers. no lie. We visit all the single women in the ward all the time and I LOVE it. I love these women and their faith. They teach me so much more than I could teach them.

Bueno. This week wasn't as funny as last week, but I laughed a lot still. We got to go out to dinner with Sister Feller and her companions and that was way fun! I got to tract with her for a little while, while our trainers met together. She's is great. She is growing a lot and I love seeing that change.

We have a TON of part member families in our ward. Honestly, it's probably half of the ward. My heart goes out to the moms that take their kids to church each week without the support of their husbands. I love these women. They are so humble and have such faith.

Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel is all about the attributes of Christ- I feel Like i have been taught EVERY SINGLE one of those this week. haha. I have learned that I'm pretty prideful. I'm trying my best to swallow it. Any advice or constructive criticism I get, I have to step back and think if it will make me a better missionary and before I react to what the natural Mara is feeling I think about those things and then say a prayer and it's better! It's so much better to do that then react then ask for forgiveness when the damage has already been done. And there are no tense feelings. I really appreciate everything I'm learning. 

I am loving life this week more than I have this whole mission. I had to change my perspective but that makes all the difference! Sorry I'm like talking all about me... but we aren't really teaching anyone hahaha. We are visiting this woman who is going through a hard time right now and I keep telling her, the only thing that she has control on right now is her attitude... in a more mild way. But it's true- the only thing constant in our lives is the Lord and the only thing we have control over is our attitude. If we attach our hearts to the Lord, then what can the world do to us? I feel Like I'm lecturing. sorry. Just saying EVERYTHING that has been in my mind this week.

Oh! We got to do this sweet service project for a potential investigator. She has Cleisdale horses and had to do carriage rides through the town and she needed us to help her get them read and then watch them while people loaded and unloaded. It was fun! and freezing.

Ok, so we do have 1 investigator. His name is Morgan. He is a young single adult. He looks like a vampire from twilight. Everyone here looks like a vampire from twilight. Pastey paste! He is suppper philosophical. I love talking and teaching him because he thinks about things so deep and it's really amusing. I'm so grateful for this gospel because it makes life so much simpler! I always like to analyze things really deep and think about the why's of everything, but with the gospel those are all answered! It brings such clarity. Anyways Morgan- he is great. He came to the Christmas Devotional last night. Morgan will come around. Pray for him! He has a strong spirit- he is such searching for clarity and direction in his life. I think. haha.

WELL I am tooootally rambling. I love you guys. Sorry this was absolutely EVERYWHERE. Thank you for your letters , they are so helpful to me :)

I love you!! Don't forget me this season!

ps- you guys keep asking what I want for xmas- just letters and pictures from you guys! Seriously. Maybe boots would be nice. and a new skirt from HM or Gap. haha I don't know. I just want love from you guys! I don't need things. I love you!!

- Sister Mara