A Joke and Some Growing Up

so ya... ive got 9 months on the mission.... im learning so much and im realizing how fast the time passes by.  I´ve changed so much in just 9 months.  my priorities have changed and im living a new reality where im putting God in the first place.  It´s amazing the experiences ive had.  

I see differences in the lives of people, between those who put god first and those who trust in the material things.  Unfortunately there are so many ppl who think they have faith in God but when tried their faith crumbles... like a cookie :)

i had the coolest experience this last week... we are working in a new area called minas do leão and as well in butiá. we have 2 towns under our responsiblity.... anyways in minas theres a man (70 yrs old single) we´ve taught him several times, he has never been baptized and he wants to be but he wants to wait a little more.  He is really cool and intelligent. he studies the scriptures a lot.  But the other day he talked with us and said "i think i´ll just stay here in my church, but i enjoyed the time we had together."  i thought that was it, but then he looked at me and asked "you are always looking at me so intensely, what do you see?"  i responded "what i see is," paused and thought... "i see a man who is good, who loves god, but he is missing something.  theres a vacancy in his heart and he doesnt know where to go to fill that hole.  He searches but to no avail..." when i said that the spirit came and testified so strongly... i felt that God had just used me to speak to his child.  sooooohooo cool

it was one of those "you had to be there" experiences....

i made a grown man cry @lex... 

but ya i love the mission... the mission loves me.

it truly is a good preparation for the life post mish... i council people and i see them as my family foreals

well bye...

heres a joke u guys deserve it for reading this email,

whats black white black white black white black white black white black white black white red?

.....

a penguin falling down the stairs... haha

l

love ya!

elder maynez

The Lions Mine: July 8th

Wellllll another week went down... i cant believe how fast it went by

so this week we´ve had some major success.

we´re teaching several families that are progessing greatly...

im so happy for their progress.... we have been working on having the spirit present in every lesson... so far its been working very well... the spirit is the greatest teacher and without him theres no way the people will convert...

we´re starting to open another area called Minas do Leão.;.. the Lion´s Mine!  haha we are received there very well;.. we went to a high school and the principal gave us tons of students addresses so we could go visit the families..  ITs really neat because the town is so small every one knows each other... We´ve met tons of new people and its cool to bring the gospel to people who have never even heard of it.  The only downside is that in the next week or two tons of pastors will be showing up to bible bash with us because we´re taking their congregations away hah its ok ill destory them with my scripture knowledge!

haha #nerd

I love the people here.  there are some real warriors here... people make some amazing changes to accept christ in their lives . and when they forget about the material goods and think about spiritual blessings the change in their lives is incredible.  The church is true.  Joseph smith is the prophet of the restoration.  He translated the Book of mormon.  Thomas s Monson is the ´prohpet in these latter days and i know God lives... he loves us and is always listening to our prayers

Love you all thanks for the support

for any questions, comments, concerns, jokes, or childhood traumas you can contact me at elan.maynez@myldsmail.net

# churchistrueandthebookisblue

Love ya,
Elder maynez

I've Got Juice in My Blood...

Happy early independence day :)

 im gonna download the american anthem and blast it on july 4th at 630 am

thatll make my chilean comp happy haha

no but seriously i will

well im all transferred to BUTIÁ... a small town in the middle of nowhere.;..its a good thing that i have learned german because the majority of these people are german descent and the gpas and gmas are german!

haha welll nayways i had a good week.... we had a party at the "chapel" (a little house with a podium)  it was fun .... before i had to help prepare a drink called quentão... genereally its made with wine but they decided to make it with grape juice and natural orange juice.

they appointed me as official juicer... so they gave me 400 oranges and a little electric juicer... i cut all the oranges in half and started my job.... i juiced about 3 oranges and then yaaaa the juicer decided to take a break.... so i was left there by alone with my two hands.... never again will i juice something.... it took forever! i had so much juice on my shirt, tie and in my blood... all that juice diffused through my skin into my blood stream... whoa.... yaaaa...
then the party started i got to know tons of people.... then ya we were having a good time... then all of a sudden there was a lot of hub bub.... 

apparently some hoodlums entered without being detected and stole a few things from people....

we had to go search them out in a car and ya long story short the cops got involved... wow so much drama.... then ya i gave a talk the next day about charity... so ya good stuff huh?  

i cant think of much more of what happened bc so much has happened... and my fingers are cold i cant type fast...
well love ya all and take care

Elder Maynez

#churchistrue