Restoration and Country Music

Ohh man! What a great week!!!! First off to start the week we went to
these apartment complexes and knocked on doors for about 2.5 hours. It
was awful. It was so hot and we "stinketh" as they say. The humidity
here is bad. Whoever started school in Hawaii last summer in August,
remember that last week in July? How flipping hot it was? Yeah... Now
add about 10 degrees and wear a white shirt, slacks, tie and church
shoes. Oh and bike around all day long! So fantastic! 👍🏼 we got
basically nowhere from tracting but that's okay. We them went to
dinner with a family who's son just got back from SLC east Spanish
mission. He came out with us to an appointment with Amber. Remember
her from a few weeks ago? We tracked into her? Anyway we told her we
were coming that Tuesday evening and when we knocked on her door she
didn't answer! Her dogs are barking like crazy, but it didn't seem
like she was home. As we got in the car to drive away she sent us a
text that asked if that was us at the door. We were super happy and
then went on to teach her a great lesson about the restoration! We
talk to her for about an hour and extended baptismal invite for her.
She said that as soon as she comes to know that the book of Mormon is
true she will be baptized! She really has A desire to learn more about
our gospel. She knows so many Mormons and loves the example that they
are to her. She wants to have that light in the kindness that she sees
her friends. My LDS friends, it's amazing to see how much of an impact
we have on the people around us. You are a light to those around you,
even if you don't realize it. People notice us. They realize that we
are a little bit different than other people. What Amber noticed
specifically is how kind her friends are to her and to everyone around
her. We will never know exactly who we are in example to and how we
are in example to them.

The next half of the week, Elder Adair and I went on exchanges. We
served in the Clarksville 2nd Ward up near the border of Kentucky. We
are literally about 500 feet away from the Kentucky border at the
apartment. He and I got along really well! The first night that we
were on the exchange, we turned off the lights at 10:30 just like the
white handbook says too, but we stayed up until about 12:30 or 1:00
talking about music. Hahah it was really fun! We both love country
music so we made a list of songs that we love. We also talked about
some songs that bring us back to places, ones that we love or can't
sing anymore. We both have a lot of those. We ended up making a list
of all the songs that we sang/talked about that night. It was 3.5
pages of song titles! Sooo much fun!

Although we had a lot of fun, we also did a lot of hard work! One of
the investigators in that area is named Tristan. He is such a great
kid! I think he's 14 years old and his parents are less active
members. He has A huge desire to continue to read the book of Mormon.
His goal is to read 10 minutes every single day for the rest of his
life. He has a lot of questions about it and is willing to ask us all
of them. By all of his questions I mean ALL of his questions. We spent
about 45 minutes talking about his questions just from first Nephi. We
had to wrap up the lesson in about 15 minutes and get out of there to
head to the next appointment. He is such a great kid.

SARAH MITCHELL LEAVES FOR HER MISSION THIS WEEK!!!!!!! How on earth
has this happened!?!? Man! I'm so excited for you Sarah! You're gonna
do so great! Hannah and Stephen are not too far behind! So excited for
all of you guys!

That's about it for the week! I'm very grateful for the two people
that took pictures of me at dinner this past week and sent them home
to my mom! That was really fun because it was kind of like talking to
her through them.

I hope y'all have a great week!

Love
Elder Reese Maxfield

Elder Maxfield and Elder Jessop

Throwing it back to Da Bus on Da Aina

More sunset pictures haha sorry. It's so pretty.

A storms a brewin

Storms and Heat--

So first off I hate LeBron (Princess) James. Just gotta get that out there.

Now back to business. This week was another rough one. Doors slammed
in faces are made up by nice people who literally get off their bike
while we tract to shake our hand and say "I appreciate what you are
doing." That's what I've come to love here in Sango. The 75% of people
that we talk to are kind and say "Thank you! But no thank you." The
other 24% say "don't come up here we aren't interested!" But that
1%... Ohhh that special one percent--- are members. Hahah😂😂 yah the
work is tough here. People know and love Jesus and are firm in their
faith.

But hey! We did have one investigator at church!  He is 17 and is a great kid. His
friend is Sis. Becks son who is actually inactive. But he was really
interested at church. His friend Andrew, was kinda wandering around
and elder Jessop and I were worried that he would stay with
Andrew. But he didn't! He came to all of our meetings with us! He was
following along with me in the book! Hopefully he is actually really
interested!

We also started teaching a lady names Carol. She is also friends with
Sis. Beck. She is probably 65 and her husband is in very poor health.
But we taught her the first lesson and extended a baptismal invite!
She said if she comes to know that these things are true she will be
baptized!

Welp if y'all want a quick summary of the week here ya go.
Rain+Tracting+heat+thunder+lightning+walking+biking+other
miscellaneous things=our week! There was a sweeeeettt storm that came
through here on..... Wednesday? I think? But I got a sick picture!
I'll send that in a second. It was almost clear skies and HOT but then
all of a sudden it got really cold and dark and windy. No green skies
though. No tornado. Yet. ;)

Anyway! I hope all of y'all have had a good week! Miss you and love
you. I think about everyone who reads this every day. I pray for you
all the time. I love y'all and I would love to hear from you guys!
Have a great week!

Love
Elder Reese Maxfield

This is that storm I was talking about. We went out of this members
house and looked up and said... Ummm we are gonna go back inside.

One thing here is the sunsets are absolutely gorgeous at least 4/7 nights every week. No filter. None needed. 

Aloha! Buenos Dias Amigos!

Aloha! Buenos Dias Amigos!

Finally! Elder Jessop and I had a great week! We have been praying so
haaarrrddd for people to find and teach. We placed 6 Books of Mormon
this week! It's been fantastic! We have an appointment with a sister
later tonight who is interested in the church. She is super nice and
really wants to know more. Hopefully she opens the door tonight. Ummm
what else did we do this week.... Hmmmmm OH!

As a companionship we are going to start doing a ton of service. We
have mowed 3 lawns in the past few days. One of the sisters we mowed a
lawn for had about 3 acres of grass. Took so long to mow but it was
cool because I got to use a zero turn mower. They are super cool.
That's all I have to say about that.

Last night we taught someone who had a lot of questions. They are new converts and have a strong faith in God and Jesus
Christ. BUT. Key word. But. They still believe in the Bible a loottttt
which is good! A strong faith in the bible is good! But, they don't
have as strong of a faith in the Book of Mormon. They brought up the
topic of, who created the earth, because we teach in the Plan of
Salvation lesson that Jesus Christ created the earth. In Genesis it
talks about God. And that's it. Elder Jessop and I were stumped. We
had no clue what to say. I brought up the Pear of great price in Moses
2:1 how it says that through Jesus Christ God created the earth. But
they want it out of the bible. HELP. If any of y'all know how to
answer this out of the bible please email me at anytime this week. I
can read emails but just can't respond until Monday.

That's pretty much it for the week. The work is progressing. My
homesickness is starting to come upon me more and more. I think as my
friends leave on their missions in the next few months or so it'll get
better.

I'm so proud of my friend Christian getting baptized this week!
Congratulations bro! Proud of you for making a great decision in your
life to bring you closer to God.

Have a great week y'all. Thank you for your love and prayers.

Love,
Elder Reese Maxfield

This is a dog. Reminder. I have 32 inch long legs. He weighs about 200 lbs and is about 6 feet long. BASICALLY biggest dawg I ever did see. His name is Cosmo and is soooo nice! Lots of bark and everything else! But no bite;)

After we mowed the lawn. Sis Beck fed us this shrimp boil. It was corn, sausage, shrimp, oranges, potatoes and some other things. It was soooo goodddd!! We ate it just like that. No forks/plates just with hands and the table! So much fun! So delicious.

BAAASSSIICCAAALLLLYYYYYY.....

I don't even know what to do right now. Elder Jessop and I are living,
how you say, "the struggle." It is very real here in Sango. We can't
find hardly anyone to teach. We go and tract for at least an hour each
day and no one has wanted to hear our message. But that's okay I'm
tying to keep my head held high, work hard, and keep my faith in God
high. I know that as I continue to keep my faith in Him, we will find
people to teach.

The other day I got really discouraged while biking around... I'm
began to become really homesick, not that I miss home or I need to go
home, but that I have 23 months left here. That's a loonnngggg time!
It didn't really hit me until Tuesday while elder Jessop and I were
riding on our bikes along these roads. Let me tell you, these roads
are no joke. I mean there are hills (kinda like the ride to midway or
Patterson pass) EVERYWHERE. I mean EVERYWHERE. I honestly think my
legs are going to fall off. It's super pretty but still....
Ughhhhhh.... Anyway, when these thoughts hit my mind I just think of
where I was 2 years ago. I think of what point of life I was in and
how fast the time went. Gosh, wow. I'm thinking about it again now. I
mean I was dating someone who is now married, I'm on a mission, all of
my friends are on missions/going to be on missions, etc... Wow... Haha
okay anyway lol

I got to see Elder Cox and Sis. McFarland this week! (MTC district) It
was so great being able to see them! We had dinner with this one
family who is inactive part member who are such great people! The wife
is a less active member who is married to a baptist and to
avoid conflict in the family, don't go to church. The Gottschocks are
so great! They brought us to their home out in the middle of nowhere.
Fed us Dickeys BBQ and we were able to teach a lesson. They always
love hearing them. I hope and pray that one day they will get
baptized.

Saturday was a struggle. Elder Jessop and I got the impression that we
needed to go to this area of our mission that's up more north of us.
If y'all wanna map it its up near the "Kirkwood baptist church." We
went to a few members homes up there in a neighborhood with a main
street called upland terrace. Let me remind you, we have bikes. No
car. Just bikes. So we ended up biking all the way out there. SUPER
PRETTY! I'll send pics in another email but it was SO FAR AWAY
#nickleback. We ended up going a total of 33.6 miles if not more. So
my legs feel like they gon fall off right 'bout now. But it's okay.
I'm going to be able to do those Tri's with Ryan and others when I get
back. Possibly beat him on the riding portion. Hahah

Well that's all I have. It's been a tough week. I pray for all of you
each night and love and miss you all so very much. I hope you enjoy my
pictures!

Love 

Elder Reese Maxfield

Hmmm 24 mph? Okay

We saw this house on the way to that area super fer away. IT'S HUGE. So much property!

I'm searching for investigators but all I see is corn fields. 

"Oh beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of graaaaaiiinnn" I don't see no purple mountains tho...But lots of 'Murica here!!