LET'S DO THIS!!!

My Sweet Family,

I hope it’s not too late and that Sumner gets this before he leaves. So each missionary kind of has their own little saying (I’m beginning to pick up on this haha) Our AP’s saying is “PUT SOME PEP IN YOUR STEP”. One of my zone leaders’ sayings was “Just Dan Jones It!” Sister Kim’s and mine is “Let’s do this” hahahaha. I love it so much. It started out as a joke and now every time we are getting out of the car we say “let’s do this!”

Sumner’s farewell sounded awesome. I cannot believe you had 46 guests at church!!!!! That’s a missionary’s dream come true!  I thought about sumner so much yesterday and just felt so close to the family. Mom, I loved your letter to the family. I thought about you so much too. I hope you heart is doing well!

I’m so proud of Sumner already. I was studying in Preach My Gospel this morning in chapter one, under “successful missionary” – I think it could be applied to members too. Basically anyone!  I love what Elder Oaks states “We invite all to come unto Christ by repentance and baptism and confirmation in order to open the doors of the celestial kingdom to the sons and daughters of God” The word invite means to “request formally” As missionaries, we are set apart from the world to “formally ask” others to come unto Christ, but as members you can invite others through your example.

On page 11 of PMG it lists ways to measure if you have been a successful missionary or not. I shared this with a member family last night and know that if we (children of god) measure ourselves according to these standards every day, we will be successful!  “ You know you have been a successful missionary when you : feel the spirit testify through you, love people and desire their salvation, obey with exactness, live worthy of the spirit, develop Christ-like attributes, help build up Zion wherever you are, invite people to make changes, teach and serve those closest to you, DO GOOD. “

I loved Dad’s idea and invitation for all of our families to try and go to the temple weekly.

I can see the focus and spirit of our families changing. I am so grateful for the righteous priesthood holders in our family and for the pure and virtuous ladies. “all the virtuous ladies!” ( you know, like all the single ladies? Hahaha)

Anywho, there are my two cents J I cannot wait to be serving with Sum in the field. It is a magnificent experience. He has already inspired me to be a better missionary and to work harder. Oh happy day J

So a recap of this week:  Our investigator got married to his girlfriend and now he can get baptized.

Jake and Patricia have had a rough life. They are only 18 and 19 and they already have a 2 year old and another on the way.  All of their families came to the wedding. Oh my goodness. 

Dougie is getting baptized this week.  Please pray for him.

I have accidentally taught Sister Kim many phrases. It’s so funny. It’s like teaching a little kid new words. People really do learn by example. She has learned “ghetto, crappy, definitely, absolutely, snap” It is so hilarious to hear her say all of them.  But I told her not to use slang words. Then she asked me why I can say them. OK, SERIOUSLY? I feel like I already have a child! Haha.

Oh, FYI- Sister Kim informed me that “Cindalella” was actually “psycho”. Her exact words. Haha. She said that cindalella imagined it all in her head  hahahah. So funny.

Oh President said that we weren’t allowed to laugh loud anymore. Oh goodness. Good thing My laughs are silent and only my nose moves J

Ok, I love you guys!!! Sumner! I will write you in the MTC asap. But I need you address.  Love you!!!

Let’s do this J

Love, Sister mara.

 

Dad, Adam, Brad- Happy Father's day you lucky dogs. Hope you all had the best day and thought of me on a mission. hahahah! Ok kidding kidding. I thought of each of you yesterday. I hope it was awesome. Especially for you, Brad. You first timer!!

Ok, enough of that.:) jk jk Guess what?! My bread ROSE! ha! I finally got it to rise! and then it cooked perfectly... on the outside. The inside is ALLLL DOUGH. haha. Sister Kim didn't like it. Rude.

My mind was ON FIRE this week. I couldn't stop thinking about things and it made me mad because I just want to focus on the mission. Haha. I thought about Sumner and how he is leaving SO SOON. when does he fly out to Utah? Every time I think about him I have this flash back of him and I taking the red wagon around the neighborhood and collecting EVERYONE's newspapers... and then redistributing them. haha I'm sure the neighbors appreciated that. Or I think about when sumner and I both got doll's for christmas and after we walked around the hood with them in strollers. Oh man, look how far you have come :) No wonder you are so good with Liam :) hahahaha.

I thought about Alia... and how she is moving to Turky. I'm a little worried about adam and alia moving over there. Can I be your nanny next summer? Kthanks. I know adam would LOVE that.

I thought about Mckay and how he wrote me!

Serious. My mind was everywhere. But! Despite my distractions, He still blessed our area with miracles. Stormie ( an investigator we found 2 weeks ago) came to all three hours of church. Bishop introduced her over the pulpit and everyone said hi to her afterwards. We fasted for her this week and then had a couple of lessons and lunch with her. she is truly searching for truth and just wants to know what is right. Please pray for her. She is amazing.

Heavenly Father blessed us with amazing service opportunities. We are now official volunteers at the local arboretum. So every wednesday we go and plant plants or weed with 5 people. We are the youngest by about 40 years haha. Then one of our member's neighbors asked us to come weed wack and mow his lawn! It was great! It is sooo theraputic for me. It  just clears my mind and I love working hard and seeing the progress-right there! I was so grateful for that.

I gained the biggest testimony of daily contact this week! It had been a few days since we were able to contact Dougie (who was on date for june 23) and then he randomly texted us and told us that he wanted to push back his date! Oh no!  I would hate for him not to be baptized knowing that we didn't do absolutely everything we could! Oh goodness.

Welp. I don't really know what else to say. Love you guys! Be happy! I pray for you every morning and night!

Love, Me.

Ps- i thought about cami, ma, selah, jaina,emma too. no worries.

Hi !! It's ME !!

Family!

My lil, Pumpkin -munchers. This is going to be short because I only  have 19:12 minutes left on this comp. I hate that dang timer at the bottom. It stresses me out every time! But I'm just going to copy and paste my email to president, so you can get the good info on what happened this week. Then I will add a lil' more at the bottom. Mmmk? Ok :)

Hi there President!

I'm so happy both Sister Kim and I are staying in Maple Valley for another transfer. We can see the work progressing... slowly, but it is progressing nonetheless! I love seeing these wards become more missionary minded and ask about our investigators, and ask how they can help and then act on it! It's great.

Dougie is doing awesome and is on track for baptism!  He probably will need to be interviewed by you, so you will get to meet him :) One of the members of our bishopric came to a lesson and invited his family over for dinner yesterday! Dougie thanked him and said that he wanted to get to know more "guys" in the ward. He was tempted to have tobacco this week, but he stayed strong and remembered all the promises he made so he didn't buy any or chew any! Hurrah!

We have been praying and working with Lake Wilderness. We really want them to be able to see the people who are prepared in this area. Well... prayers were answered! We found three new investigators in lake wilderness this week and had great lessons with them! We hope and pray that the work will continue here.

Beth set a date for baptism, but every option of housing for her is falling through. It's disappointing and we are trying to understand why we can't help her progress. We know that there is a reason for everything. We will continue to be patient and continue onward- it is the only thing to do.

Sister Kim and I set goals for this next transfer. We both want to work on our attitudes/perspective and diligence. We have been working hard, consistently but we want to put our whole heart into it- all the time. We prayed about a baptism goal and we feel that two of God's children are prepared in glacier park/lake wilderness to be baptized this transfer! To Zion!

I love this work, President. It is not easy and there up days and down days, but it is worth it. I trust our Heavenly Father and he knows each one of his children perfectly. I love our Savior and am so, eternally grateful for his sacrifice. .

much love,

Sister Mahaffey

Ok, so as you may have noticed... I'm a little more serious with President. I don't think he would appreciate me talking about stray cats we let in the car.

I do want to say that I LOVED the pictures from Sumner's and Cami's visit to Alia! Oh my! That made my heart so happy! I yearned to be there with you all! But this is such a great work :) I loved the pic of Asa and Liam on the couch! I loved the pic of Liam blowing out candles and you can see Sumner ready to take a camera photo in the background. I loved every picture! I love our family.

I got long emails from a lot of you! Thank you so much for thinking of me and taking the time to write those! I haven't had a chance to read mom's or Cami's yet, but I will print those off. I just want to say There have been times that I wonder if President knows or cares about me haha. I love that man so much and respect him more than he will know! BUT to have words of affirmation from my own pops is the best feeling in the world! " Mara, you are a wonderful daughter.   You mean the world to me . I'm so proud of the service you are rendering and know the Lord will walk with you all of your days for this."  My heart! Thank you! Thank you!

Family, I love this work! Your words sustain me and help me so much! More than you will know! Thank you!

Ok, I gotta run! Love you all! Sorry this is so scattered!

- Love, me!

Pics: We went tracting at a parade with the elders
- Sister Kim made fun of how small my mouth was and i told her we had the same size... so we compared!  See fo yoself...

Happy Birthday Liam !

Um halo please,

Where is you guys??! I meees you and didn't hear from many of you this week :( It's ok. you are forgiven.

Sumner! Congrats on going through the temple :) :) I WISH i could have been there! Ma said it was an amazing experiences with you.  Oh i love that you love the temple!! Isn't the temple wonderful! You are so prepared for a mission. This is great!  Thank you for being so ready!

So, Sister Kim and I fasted this week. #1- I really don't love fasting. #2- When we sacrifice and pray in faith, our prayers are answered.

This was such a sacred week. I have a FIRM testimony that our Heavenly Father is aware of each of us as individuals and is genuinely concerned for our welfare and happiness. I have felt a fraction of his love for his children this week and only desire to do his will.

" It is for us to make the effort. The result is always in God's hands"- Gandhi

This week- we continued to work hard and diligently for the rest of the week without any major success- We tracted alll day Tuesday and Wednesday during our fasting. (MOM thank you for fasting with us. I felt your strength and power- i KNEW that i wasn't alone) It was the first time in 2 weeks that we found solid potentials. Miracles.

So Mom wrote me and said that she thinks that one of the ways Heavenly Father shows his love for us through animals-  FACT! So we talked to this woman and she was super interested and told us to come back. We continued on to the next house and the CUTEST brown lab comes bolting at us with his tongue hanging out. He was so cute. He then proceeds to tract with us for the next 20 minutes. He would run along side of us, up to the next door and sit there while we knocked and waited for them to answer! I loved him. haha. Then we found out he was the woman's dog who was interested! We have an appointment with them on Tuesday :) Ha! it was perfect timing too because I was hungry and tired and down and I prayed for Heavenly Father to take away those feelings, and 5 minutes later this dog comes sprinting around the corner :) My Heavenly Father knows me and knows how connected I feel to His animals.  What a gift!

 SUNDAY the Lord opened the windows of heaven here in glacier park/lake wilderness. It was a beautiful thing. Aaron, our new investigator, was unable to meet with us for a second appointment His mom gave us the Book of Mormon back and said that he wasn't interested. We had set up fellowship for him- and he went over Saturday night (unbeknownst to us) and invited Aaron to church. So sister Kim and i were sitting in the chapel watching for Dougie and his family, and Aaron walks in with the fellowship!! It was incredible!

Dougie is doing amazing. It's amazing. I think i feel a sliver of god's love for him. I cannot put into words the love that I have for that family. I just want to do every single thing that I can and protect them from the adversary's influence. We talked about WOW and LOC last night and he already started living it on his own over a week ago. He is so prepared. I feel incredibly humbled to be able to even assist in preparing him for the ordinance of baptism.

A former investigator called us and told us that she and her (soon to be husband) want us to come over and teach their family. MIRACLE! Serious. This is a wonderful work. The lord can do this work without us, but we CANNOT do this work without him. To Zion!

So fast Sundays I don't ever bare my testimony because I want to let the members do it, but i felt so incredibly prompted to bare my testimony. I had to. So i got up and it was the weirdest thing I heard my voice but it totally sounded like Cami's! It was insane. I felt like i was just watching/listening to Cami talk through me. Is that weird? haha. Basically i have Cami's voice. lol. it was cray cray.

Ma, thank you for your letter. I really really loved all of the pictures and everything you wrote.  I miss our family, but I have had some sacred experiences with our Heavenly Father this week and he has reassured me that "all is well and to just stay the course" Everything works out when we sacrifice our time and talents.

I was in shock and extremely humbled when i saw my diploma. I don't know how it happened but I dropped to my knees immediately. The Lord works in mysterious ways. I will spend the rest of my days doing our  Heavenly Father's will. I am determined to never turn back.

I love you all. I hope everything is going well!!!! Be happy! Love life! Laugh always and smile even more :)

Always and forever- Sister Mara.