#FreeElderMaughan

 Hola de nuevo familia y amigos. 

I only have 1 1/2 weeks left in the MTC, isn't that exciting!! My Espanol is nowhere near perfect yet but I am a whole lot better at it than I was when I started this journey so that's a win in my book. I am so excited to end the beginning chapter of my mission and move onto the real thing. And lucky enough for me, I finish the mtc the day before general conference so that will be super super bien. 

This past week in the mtc has been nothing short of miraculous. I was able to watch all of the Book of Mormon videos in order on Sunday and that strengthened my understanding of the Book of Mormon in incredible ways. I've also had many good experiences with the gift of tongues. Last week I was evaluating my spanish skills and I was not confident at all. Then I prayed for many specific blessings to help me learn this maravilloso language and I was able to receive these blessings. My spanish seemed to flourish overnight. The day after I prayed I was in class and I finally could understand almost everything my teachers were saying. Things finally started to click and it has been awesome. I also had the opportunity to go to lunch with a few of my missionary friends and returned missionary friends and that was awesome. I learned so much about mission work and that I am going to be ok. I also had the chance to finally leave the house so that was cool too. 

Ok now for the topic of this email. These past two weeks I had to take care of some legal actions that occured like 8 months ago. (I blew up a spray paint can in front of a cop on accident) Because of this I had to go to court and deal with all that extremely entertaining and not at all boring stuff. Anyway they ended up dropping my case so it's not on my record and I have now fully been forgiven of that sin. Although God has forsaken this sin, my district hasn't. I texted our group chat that I was in court and they asked me why and everything so I explained it to them. As if the torture of being a young missionary in a room full of drug dealers and other criminals wasn't bad enough, my district started flaming me in the chat and in the preceeding classes. Luckily for them I am a good sport so I started to play along. I changed my zoom name to Ex Con Maughan and started the #FreeElderMaughan campaign. It was an instant hit and now it appears in almost every chatroom, group chat and email me and my district communicate in. I've also taken the name of Lil Maughan due to my impressive rapping ability about the Book of Mormon. 

I guess I have to explain that now too. This week during class we had to make a video on the Book of Mormon and I got put in a super dope group so we all unanimously decided that we were about to drop the most fire rap in all of history. After a few minutes of writing some of the hottest bars of this century and a few minutes of filming over zoom, our rap was released and a star was born. Like any other rapper Lil Maughan had legal trouble in his background but has since ceased his days of crime and started his days of rapping. His first song "The Book of Mormon: Another testament of Jesus Christ" was an instant hit and might be dropping in some future emails. 

Ok now let's get real. This past week I have studied a lot about Ammon. Ammon was a friend of Alma the younger, so during his younger years he was far from perfect and he committed many sins. Then an angel visited Alma and Ammon and all their friends and basically told them to either shape up or perish. They all followed this prompting and were spiritually reborn of Christ. They all were very powerful teachers and they preached the gospel in many ways. Ammon was prompted to go to the land of the Lamanites. He is captured and brought to King Lamoni, who was so impressed with him that he wanted him to marry one of his daughters. Ammon declined this offer but did agree to be one of the King's servants. While he was guarding the King's flocks with a few of the other servants, a few Lamanite robbers scattered the flocks and the servants feared for their lives because whenever this happened the King would slay his servants. But Ammon stayed calm, told the others to go find the flocks and waited for the robbers to come back. When the robbers came back he threw rocks at them and singlehanded chopped off every arm that was raised against him. Following this, Ammon went to ready the King's horses. The servants were astonished at this and went to tell the King the things which they had saw. The King was astonished as well and asked Ammon who he was and if he was the great spirit. Ammon then explained what gave him such great power to the King and he believed and long story short, repented of his sins and was born again of Christ and so were many of his people. Ammon was amazing because he never ceased to serve. He was purposely captured so he could serve King Lamoni, then during his service he went to great lengths to accomplish the tasks at hand, performing many miracles through the power of God and his faith in Christ. This led to King Lamoni's curiosity and eventual baptism. Through Ammon's simple and somewhat simple service, a truly great thing was brought to pass. 

I write about this today because service is one of the focuses of missionary work. Through service we help others and by helping others we are serving God, and when we serve God he will bless us with his Spirit and power. I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I hope you all have a good week and you can feel free to email me separately if you'd like, just don't respond directly to this email. 

Con Amor,

-Lil Maughan, Ex Con Maughan AKA

Elder Maughan

Week 3 of the MTC

 Holo again mi familia y mi amigos.

I know i didn't send an email out last week so I'll try and make this one good. Anyway can you believe I am already halfway done with the MTC? Neither can I. Time flies when you are on the Lord's errand. 

These past two weeks have been super bueno. I've had the opportunity to teach many investigators (members who volunteer to help the missionaries out) with my companion and it has been very fun. My companion took three years of spanish in highschool so he carries the lessons most of the time while I still learn but it's been good having him around to help me. When we aren't teaching or planning lessons we are usually talking about sports. This dude is 6'5 190 and he's a beast at basketball. If we end up as companions in Guatemala we will probably be the two tallest people in that country. 

The language is finally starting to click for me. All of the stuff I couldn't understand in the beginning I understand now. Grammar was especially challenging and it still kind of is but for the most part I have it figured out... I think. Last week we were told we had to remember like 2500 words and like 500 phrases in spanish by the end of the mtc. I thought this would be a challenge but lowkey it has been easy. Being at home is nice because we have access to quizlet and kahoot. Shoutout to the missionary in the past who put all 2500 words and 500 phrases on a quizlet. I don't know who you are but you are truly a hero. Anyway 2500 words and 500 phrases seems like a lot but it really isn't. It's been cool to see how many words I already knew when we started. I thought I knew like five but after looking at the quizlet I was reassured that I am in better shape than I thought. 

My district is pretty cool. We all have started getting closer as the weeks go by and we all have a similar sense of humor which is awesome. Last week we all changed our names on zoom and it totally threw off our teacher. Then she told us that even though we are all scattered across the United States, she could still hit us with her chancla. (flip flop)  It was funny but we all decided we can't prank our teachers like that anymore, or atleast to that extent. Most of us live in Utah and Colorado with a few being scattered in places like Reno Nevada and the island of Alaska, (inside joke, I know Alaska isn't an island). The kid from Alaska is the target of many jokes because Alaska is like a foreign land to most of us. He said he has a dog but we all think it's just a baby deer or something because they don't have dogs in Alaska. Just kidding but anyway yeah my district is the bomb. 

I guess I'll end with a spiritual thought. In the scriptures it frequently says, nevertheless thy will be done, or something along the lines of that many times. Usually what is happening is that God is directing someone to do something and then they place their argument, opinion, etc. But because they trust in God they always end by saying, Nevertheless thy will be done. That is so powerful because it literally shows them forfeiting everything they just previously stated because they know God will provide a way for them. At the beginning of the summer I remember that a goal of mine was to try and submit to God's will more fully. As I did this I received many blessings. Then when I started the MTC I kind of forgot about this. I was so nervous and scared that I closed the door to God's will and only sought after mine. That was a dumb decision, but luckily as time has gone on I have realized that I am doing God's work, so I better be submitting to his will. As I have done this more fully and strived to be exactly obedient the blessings I have received have been miraculous. I testify that God's plan for us is always better than our plan for us. We may not like it at times but he knows all. His plan is on an eternal perspective and sometimes ours isn't. If we just submit to his will and have faith in him I promise he will lead us in the right direction. Te dejo esto en el nombre de Tu hijo, Jesucristo, Amen. 

Week 1

 Hola mi amigos, Como le va? 

Week numero uno in the online MTC was.... well it was something. The first few days were hard but then it got easier. I did not receive my learning materials until monday so I was muy behind in espanol, but now that they are here I can finally catch up. It is crazy to think that in 5 more weeks I could be fluent in spanish. I know that this could not happen without del don de lenguas (The gift of tongues) even in my first week I witnessed the gift of tongues first hand. Even though I am a little behind I have still learned more in 1 week than I ever thought possible. This Mtc experience so far has challenged me and made me change the way I study, but I know that if I am diligent and work hard, I will be blessed with the gift of tongues and the language will come faster. 

I am still adjusting to the missionary schedule but so far it has been pretty beneficial. Waking up at 6:30 and studying all day is not fun, but it is 100% necessary. 

My spiritual thought is short but sweet. In order to have the constant companionship of the holy ghost we must practice exact obedience. Exact obedience requires many small and sometimes large sacrifices. These sacrifices are not easy, but if we love our Heavenly Father we must do them, and I promise he will bless us for our efforts. 

I do not have any pictures yet but hopefully by next week I will have some.

Hasta Manana

- Elder Maughan