I'm comin home, tell the world I'm comin.... Home

Well everyone. That's just about a wrap. I've only got one more week here in the TNM. I honestly couldn't have asked for of been given a better assignment for my last two weeks on my mission. For the past week I have been traveling around the mission visiting different areas for different reasons. I have been updating my Facebook profile of where I've "lived" so if yall have been up to date on that... You'll see that ive been to Princeton KY, Clarksville TN, Bowling Green KY, and now in Nashville TN. We will be spending today in Nashville and will be leaving tonight around 6:00 for Linden Tennessee. Tomorrow we will go to Winchester, then Jasper, finishing in White House Tennessee. Hopefully I'll be able to hit Alabama and Georgia! We went to Illinois last week! 

I've been so grateful for my mission everyone. It has taught me so many different things, from how to live with someone for 24 hours a day, to who is Jesus Christ to me. I have learned a lot about The Book of Mormon. Now I want to extend the same invitation that ive extended hundreds here in Tennessee or Kentucky. Read the book of Mormon. What is holding you back from reading it? There is so much good that can come from it. Everything can come from it. Our personal salvation comes down to whether or not that book is correct or not. If it is? Then the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints is God's only church on the earth. If it isn't? The book has still made me such a better man than I used to be. 

I am so very grateful for this time. I found out this week but if yall remember the kid who messaged me a few weeks ago and said that he was interested in joining he church? He is on date to be baptized on April 20th! I am so excited. Oh I believe the other kid we were teaching in Morgantown is still on date to be baptized on April 20th as well. I'm pretty dang excited for them!

Although I am saddened to be leaving my mission, I am excited to be coming home to see my family. The past 2 years has been the fastest years and the beat 2 years for my whole life. I wouldn't trade it for anything. 

I love yall. I'll see you next week. 

Love 

Elder Maxfield 

Elder Salinas-Brotha from anotha motha 

Departing missionaries. Most are home except a few of the elders. 

Stay, a minute, just take, your time

Once again, the weeks blow by. This one was jam packed with stuff. Like I talked about last week, we had the opportunity for Elder Holland to visit our mission. He was accompanied with Elder Klibengat, and Elder Baheshti. The meeting that we had from Friday til Saturday were some of the most learning and spiritual moments on my mission. On Friday we were able to attend a meeting the Young adults, then on Saturday morning we had a meeting with Elder Holland down in Franklin TN. Which was amazing. Then on Sunday he held a special stake conference for all of us in the stakes throughout the mission. Although none of y’all will be able to hear it ever, it was probably the best meeting I’ve ever been in. It was so inspired. I can’t really explain anything else about it. It was just so great. All I can put into words is that the coming of Jesus Christ is soon. We really need to be doing all we can to be able to prepare for it. 

That weekend kind of just explained the whole week! I guess on Saturday we helped a member build the beginnings of a greenhouse for his wife! It kinda looks a little dumb and lame, but it took like all day haha. And I learned a whole lot about how do construct frames.  So that was pretty cool. Pictures later. 

Transfers! So I will be leaving Morgantown for the last 2 weeks of my mission to go around the mission and help other missionaries. So this will be fun! I have no idea where I’ll be for the next few weeks. I could be somewhere in Tennessee or Kentucky, or even Illinois or Alabama or Georgia. Who knows. I’ll keep ya posted next week! 

Love y’all see you soon 

Reese 

Elder Neuenschwander and I! He is going to replace me in Motown! 

Sis. Rummler. The BG homie. 

Happy birthday to me! 21? Woah 

The hardest thing I’ve ever loved to do

What a week! It’s kinda hard having pdays on Wednesday’s now becasue I can’t seem to remember anything before Sunday! So I guess we will just start from there! 

On sunday we had stake conference! What a great thing to go to. I don’t know if y’all remember but last year I was in Morgantown for stake conference when Alissa Orr gave her first talk! Alissa was a girl that Elder Jessop and I taught and  baptized way back in Sango, my first area. So just a quick reminder, I have now served in the Hopkinsville stake for over a year! I was in Clarksville for 6 months and now have been in Morgantown for 6 months! So crazy! I have developed such a love for the people here. As I walked around at stake conference I was able to talk to so many different people who I love! I love this stake so much. People kept asking, don’t you go home soon?? I was like... that’s what they tell me. My ward mission leader in Clarksville 1st ward is only like a year older than me (and is married) got pretty close! So when I was talking to him I asked what had he been up to, then I looked down and saw that he was holding a baby! I was like IS THIS YOURS!?!? Apparently he found out his wife was pregnant the week I left Clarksville. So that was pretty funny. 

Sorry If I'm kinda all over the place today I'm pretty tired and I haven't been sleeping all that well. 

Another thing that happened this week was we went on exchanges. While we were in exchanges, we walked into Walmart and these people stopped and talked to us for about an hour and a half. They just talked to us about their life and some of the problems that they had been dealing with. It was such a special thing and we actually found out that they live in the Morgantown area! So we will be going to teach them on Sunday! Pretty excited about that!

That's about it! 

Love youins!!

Reese

Cool little souvenir 

It snowed!!!

Hoptown zone 

You have forgiven

These is so much to be said nowadays. So much going on, yet I still lack the words to say sometimes. You would think after being out here for so long I would know how to bring all my thoughts together each week but it’s just not possible. I don’t know why but it just doesn’t happen for me. 

The other day we had my final zone conference. During that conference we 1. Received smartphones. 2. Learned a lot about how to become better missionaries, as usual in zone conference. 3. I shared my departing testimony. I got it on video so if you would like to have it just let me know and I will send it to you! One of the things that I shared in my testimony was an experience that I had when I was sitting with one of my friends, where we talked about how we wished that after this life was over, that there was nothing left. That was just it. We could kinda do what we wanted and then it was over. We had a good time on earth and that was it. My testimony of the gospel has changed and grown and I now have a testimony of what the plan of salvation is. I love and am trying to hold strong to that belief. But as with a lot of things. It is very hard at times. 

This area, as I have always said, has been very hard and confusing sometimes. We work super hard for weeks to no avail, but then all of a sudden someone comes out of nowhere and decides that they want to be baptized. That exact thing happened this last week. On Monday evening, someone that I have known since last year messaged me and said “Hey, I’m interested in joining the church” goodness I just about jumped through the ceiling.... he is such a good kid and when we met with him last night we had a great discussion with him and he is praying about the church and honestly is starting with the question, is god really there? He told us today that he prayed and felt really good. That is the best start someone could ask for! 

Anyway there is a whole lot of other random things that happened this week but I won’t get into the details of that. I do know that I’ve got 4 weeks left. In 4 weeks I’ll be on a plane home. It’s nerve racking. Before my departing testimony, I was sitting next to one of my friends and I said look at how much I’m shaking... so that was funny. 

I want you all to know that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth. That Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that through him, Gods authority to preform ordinances such as baptism, are possible and are “written in heaven.” It is hard to change the way you live. But if it is a way to get closer to God, then I would say it’s worth it. Every second of it. 

Love y’all 

Reese 

We got smartphones!!

He had God, Family, and country

Well I am now entering the last month of my mission and a lot is going to be going down so it'll probably go by really quick. 

Next week we have Zone Conference where I will share my departing testimony. I honestly can't believe it... I feel like there is so much that I could talk about. But Ive decided that I will just say what comes to my heart when the time comes. At zone conference we will be getting smartphones. So that will be kinda cool. They're Samsung J somethings so nothing too fancy but it'll be cool to have an actual phone again. Then on the 17th an apostle is coming to our mission again! This will be 2 apostles I meet on my mission! We don't know who it is yet but I'm pretty excited! 

This past week was pretty cool. We have really been trying to visit a lot of less actives and people who are recent converts. It'd kinda interesting coming back and seeing how many people aren't here anymore. It's really sad to see how these people have just stopped coming to church... 

Sorry I'm not writing a whole lot. I don't feel all that good. The other Elders are fishing right now and I just wanna go get some food and take a nap... But it is what it is. 

Love yall have a good week

Reese 

We made a little grill in our back yard out of blocks haha

It rained a bunch this past weekend so the river flooded. This house has been abandoned but the river was super high. 

Trust me when I say, today’s a new day throw your broken crown away

It’s so great to be back here in Morgantown. It's such a great place to be. We are working pretty hard to make up for some lost time. There has not been a whole lot of work done here for the past while and it's kindof upsetting to see an area that you work sped so hard in be thrown to the side... But it is what it is. We immediately meter the bishop who we told we are ready to work hard and do what is necessary to help the area in the best way possible. We talked to him about what he wanted us to do so that we can find and teach more people. Im sure we earned some of his trust back. 

We are also living in a different appartment than where we used to. It's a whole lot nicer. We actually live up underneath some members so we hear the kids kicking and running around all morning getting ready for school. They are out the door by 7:00 so it's not too bad. Haha 

We have seen almost all of the people that we baptized here last year. All of them are inactive... But they still have a testimony of the gospel, so thst is good. We will get them back to church by helping them read the book of Mormon each day. 

It's also been pretty cool to be able to see members and eat with them, or talk with them. I love it. The people here are so kind to us missionaries. But I remembered very quickly that respect must be earned here. We went over to an investigators house and he didn't even look at me while I was taking to him. So that was annoying. Anyway... 

Thats about it for the week!

My new address is 

1780 Caneyville Rd

Morgantown KY 42261

Love yall!

Reese

Our sketchy bench. 

So many trucks out here look like this haha 

Just give me Five More Minutes

So what a crazy week. We have began to get the area ready for the sisters to take over. So we have been continuing to work with formers, cleaning out people who don't live there or aren't interested in having us come by. A lot of success has come out of that. But. One thing happened. The sisters are leaving the area. And so are elder stucki and I. They are basically double  "whitewashing" our ward. Meaning new missionaries in every area. 

Transfer calls came today but last night president Stone called me and said that "there are three former Zone Leaders who will be returning to an area that they have served in. You are one of them. You will be going back to Morgantown to finish your mission there." I WAS SO STOKED!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited to be able to go back up there!!! I love it so much in Morgantown and so much has changed. I'm super excited to be albe to get another look at the area! I will be with Elder Isaak. I don't know him at all. So ya 

Last PDay we went down to Madison and had a crazy PDay. We played spikeball with a bunch of people and I got my behinds handed to me a couple times. BUT! I learned a lot and was able to beat the people I played against at least once. But needless to say I was sore for about 5 days. 

The past few days have been hard. Having to say goodbye to some of the people I love here. Once again I got really close to the youth. All of them are great kids. There is one in particular, his name is Nate. He told me that he hasn't had a good missionary friend ever before. It was so funny at dinner with their family the other night, Nate would not stop talking. He was so sad to see us go. He didn't know what to do with himself. I love that family as well as many others. 

I love Bowling Green. It's a great place to be. But as always, I'm excited to move to a new place. 

Love yall. See you soon 

Reese 

Some of the young men here. 

The Moore family. Nate is to my right. 

What a great lesson we had with these kids. We sat them all down, they have only been in the states for 1.5 years, and we all read the book of Mormon together. One of the most simple yet spiritual lessons I've had in Bowling Green. We read 3 Nephi 11. And the kids just listened. The spirit was strong. These kids were peaceful. 

This is Kelvin. He is just a pup. I love dogs. 

So much more than this

This past week was full of a lot of events. It all started off with zone conference down in Nashville last Thursday. I said goodbye to some of my good friends who shared their departing testimonies. Its really sad getting old in the mission field because all of your friends go home. I was looking around the room filled with missionaries and I thought to myself, I don't know hardly anyone in here. Everyone was super young and here I am with a transfer and a half left. 

Then my week continued on with exchanges with the Zone Leaders which were great! I got to go with my good buddy elder Ensign. He and I have been on about 5 exchanges together so quite a bit. Apparently I'm tied for 2nd most exchanges. But elder persons, he is my district leader, has been on 11 exchanges with Elder Ensign. So... I'm kinda close. Haha but we went and walked around in the cold all day long. I'm still trying to recover bit by bit from my illness a few weeks ago so I was once again coughing a lung out.... Sick of it. 

Sunday was fast and testimony meeting! Since I knew that elder stucki and I would probably be leaving next week at transfers I figured I should probably get up and share my testimony. As I fasted and prayed during the day I came to realize that God has a plan for me. Sometimes I need to make decisions on my own and only ask him to tell me if what I'm doing is wrong because there may be a lot of correct directions. Thst might not make a whole lot of sense to yall but since I know what I was trying to figure out, it makes sense to me. 

We had a great lesson with a girl who hadn't been super interested in meeting with us before. We discussed the book of Mormon with her for about an hour! We asked her if she wanted to get closer to God. She told us she felt like she wasnt super close to him... We promised her that if she read the book of Mormon that she would fell God more in her life. 

Love yall! 

Reese

Headed to a dinner appointment 

The zone! 

When Hank brings the sermon, Cash leads the choir

Right now we are sitting in the Firestone getting our oil changed, why it's on a PDay? I don't know. A little upset but it is what it is. 

Last... Friday I believe it was we were headed to a dinner appointment and we saw this house on the side of the road and it looked like they were burning trash or something like that. We looked a little closer and saw that it was a little too close to the house. So we pulled into the drive, and went up to the door. Noone was burning trash. The brush around the house was burning and the flames were scorching the brick. So we helped the family put out the fire while we waited for the fire department to show up. It was pretty crazy! The family was pretty happy that we knocked in their door. Also it was a good thing that it was a brick house and not anything else. That house would probably have burnt down if it was anything other than brick. 

So I don't really know what else to write. The work is a little slow. We are filtering through all of our former investigators because like I said last week we will be handing off the area to the sisters at the end of the transfer. 

That's just about it for the week. It started snowing again the other day! We were walking around in it and it was really cold right before the storm hit. The wind was the worst... But as soon as it started snowing it wasn't too bad! 

Love you guys! 

Reese 

Someone didn't want to take apart the trampoline. 

Oh.. I’m good at talkin but maybe I should be listenin.

So I kinda cheated my system of using a different song every week, but last week I wrote the lyrics to the song, Phone call to God bye Brett Eldridge, and I was listening to it while I was in the shower earlier this week and I heard this part. That I’m good at talkin but maybe I should be listenin. It hit me pretty hard. What am I doing? Do I talk to God to much and ask for too many things? Or do I actually listen to what he has to say? Do I want to change or do I just complain and tell Him that he needs to help me? Maybe he is answering me, but I’m just not listening. 

Honestly not a whole lot went on this week. I’m still on my antibiotics for my pneumonia becasue I felt the side affects from the pills. So they got me on some new ones. So that out me down for a few days. I’m still trying to recover honestly. I would have much rather just stayed coughing than some of the side affects.... it was miserable. 

The snow is completely gone now... which is really upsetting but I’m a little happy that it is heating up a little bit. I’m not too sure if it will stay warm now or if it will drop off again sometime this month or next. Who knows. 

We had interviews with President this week and they went pretty well. Want to know something crazy? I only have 2 more interviews with him before I go home... wowza. K cool. That’s strange. 

That’s it for the week! Like I said not too much went on but that’s okay. 

Love y’all! 

Just a man making a phone call to God

Things are going good! I can't remember if I told yall but I've coughing for like 5 weeks now. I finally went to urgent care yesterday because my cough isn't getting better. It's just getting worse. So they said I have light pneumonia. I have a little fluid in my left lung thst isn't coming out. So they gave me some antibiotics. So hopefully I get better soon! 

It's been super cold here. During the day time it's not too bad when the sun is out but as soon as the sun goes down you lose that "Light heat." You know when it's the same temperature but it just feels colder because there is no sun? Also it's been super cloudy and there has probably been a total of about 8 inches of snow but on Monday the first set of snow melted so there is about 4 inches on the ground now. It's still snowing now. I absolutely love the snow. I didn't think that I would enjoy it this much but I love being in the snow. It's kinda tough being in dress clothes in it but if I could be in normal clothes I would be perfectly fine. 

Not too much new is happening in terms of missionary work. We are still sorting through people who may or may not be progressing in the gospel. We have been trying to lessen the people who are in our "Former investigator" lists. There are so many of them in there. It feels a bit overwhelming  to just keep adding people to the list. So what we do is we look for someone who is on the list, visit them, see if they 1) Live there. 2) are interested. If they are we set up a time to see them if not we delete them off the app so that it isn't cluttered anymore! 

Thats about it for the week! Love yall! 

Reese 

Love is the answer and music is healing

So I'll be honest. Thus week was rough. In and out of mental highs and lows, but I gained a testimony of working out. The Bowling Green 2nd elder have a really nice gym in their appartment complex so we made an extra effort this week to go out there and work out. On Saturday morning I just wasn't having it. I woke up at 6:00 to go to the gym and I knew it was going  to be a rough one... 

After workouts I just felt sadness and frustration fill me up. As I sat down to read the scriptures and begin personal study I just cried. I tried to pick myself up and we went out and walked all around town. 5 miles later I felt a lot better. Talking to people sharing the gospel. I defiantly tried my best. God helped the with all the rest. 

I remember that making sure to have good workouts is super important with regards to staying happy. So I made sure to work out really hard this week. And now I'm a lot better! So workout=truth. Haha 

Other than that, following up on Nene has been awesome!! I'm so happy for the sisters out there being so willing to help her out. Nene has been received so well out there in Rexburg and the sisters are going to take great care of her. 

I love all yall! Congratulations to Hannah and Sarah for finishing their missions this week! Yall are the bestest friends I could have! 

Love 

Reese 

Chipotle can fix anything. Except sis. Rummlers face Hahaha @panorama

Directing traffic at the park. 

It's not swimming in you can stand on it right??