Plainview Stake Center-Plainview, Long Island

"A couple of weeks ago a family, the Mercados, took us to The Outback Steakhouse for dinner. The manager recognized us as elders and came over to visit. It turned out that she was a member living in another ward, out here in Long Island. She's been inactive for some years. Her boyfriend is a Marine. We couldn't convince her to give us her number(she and her boyfriend are originally from Texas and she knew we would never let her disappear if we had someway to contact her!) Well anyway, we figured that was the end of that. She did give us free desert afterwards! Elder Oliverson and I were blessing the Sacrament this past sunday at fast and testimony meeting. Out of nowhere, a Marine and a woman walk into church and made their way to some seats in the back. Oliverson and I looked at each other with our mouths open in surprise and excitement. It was the woman from Outback and her boyfriend. Her boyfriend bore his testimony and thanked us and the Mercados for befriending his girlfriend. They seemed to be in a bit of a hurry to get out of there, so we only got to say hi. It was awsome to see that!

It's those little things that make everything worth it out here. We haven't been able to get any baptisms, but we were still able to help someone feel good."

-Elder Maughan

"Almost" Home Alone-Lost in New York

"Well, as you know, I went to the temple this week, Wednesday. We left the apartment at about 8:30am and made our way up to another area, Huntington, to pick up another Elder, and then made our way into to Queens. Once we got to the mission office we just waited around for a little while for everyone to show up. There were about 14 of us I think. Elder and Sister Comer were the senior couple that accompanied us. We went through an endowment session that began at 12:30. There were two members from Staten Island in the session as well: Brother Ostreicher and Sister Zeniou. Sister Zeniou didn't see me but Brother Ostreicher and I met eyes as we were first entering the session. It was exciting to see someone from Staten again. So, after the session, we all got changed and made our way to chaple and distribution center next door. We were all supposed to meet in a room, somewhere that I didn't know. I got stuck at the distribution center talking to the two sisters working behind the counter, guess where they were from, yep, Staten Island . It was Sister Melendi, the organist (she had us do a couple of musical numbers while were there), and another sister whose name I'm not sure of. It was so fun seeing so many people from Staten in one day. As I was talking to these two sisters I began to realize that all of the missionaries that had been at the distribution center had all disappeared. I had figured that if i just stuck with a couple of 'em that somebody wouldv'e known where we were going. But now I looked around and realized I was all alone. "Ah, crap," I thought, "of course this would happen." I went downstairs and outside to see if anyone was out there. I got out on the sidewalk, looked around and realized that I was all alone in NEW YORK CITY...AWSOME! And then Elder Comer came up out of the temple behind me and helped me find my way up to where everyone was meeting. So I didn't end up getting lost or left, which seems to have happened only all to often throughout my growing up years, oh well. All and all, the temple was awesome. But the adventure doesn't stop there. The Comers said we still had some time and that we could all take a walk. So we made our way around the corner and down the street to Central Park. Oh it was awesome. We headed south to the next train station. We just walked along the outside but it was still awesome. New York is exactly how it looks on TV. We saw the

"Trump International Hotel" .

I've got some good pics to send home. "

~Elder Maughan

That's our boy!

District Meeting and Interviews with President Bennion

"Big plans on Wednesday: Manhattan for the Temple Trip! Originally I thought that it would be on the 17th, tomorrow, but its on the 18th, Wednesday. I'm pretty excited. We'll leave in the morning, probably around 8:00 and get back around 5:00. We've gotta go to the mission office and get MetroCards for the the trains and then head into the city. The Train will take us pretty much right there. I'm excited. NYC is THE Place. "

"Oliverson is by far one of my favorite companions. We get along great. We've got a lot in common. Hunting, fishing, outdoors, he had his own landscaping business too. We teach great together. "

"We got a couple of new investigators last night. The cousins of a family Oliverson was teaching out in Riverhead. We met them last night. We knocked on the door and they let us right in. We just talked last night. We didn't try and teach anything, just got to know them. Their names are Heather and William. She's Jewish and he's Catholic. At the end of our visit we told them what we were all about and they said that they would listen but that they were'nt really interested. Thats okay, neither was the family at first that referred them. We'll see what happens. We never would've gotten in the door if we were just tracting, thats why referrals are so helpful. Wish us luck. "

~Elder Maughan

Pie or Pie? March 10, 2009

"We've pretty much emptied our previous teaching pool and started anew. Tonight we're delivering a couple of pizzas to some families. Sister Memhidi owns a pizzaria. She always hooks us up too. She's the Relief Society president and is having us deliver some pies to a couple of families in need right now. This is a good way for us to get into homes and share the spirit of missionary work. It'll be agood evening tonight."

~Elder Maughan

Working hard on Long Island, NY

"Oliverson and I are working HARD. I haven't been this busy before. Our phone is ringing off the hook. Members are calling us all the time asking us for help in the ward. We are getting into peoples home. We're teaching all the time. In fact, we just taught a lesson to a lady this morning and now her sister is somewhat interested. We're going back on Thursday. Hopefully we can see some success.
I love it out here. Sometimes I just can't believe that I'm out here, in New York, even Long Island. I really do love it.

~Elder Maughan

Spring Snow Storm March 1st

"Hey, sorry I didn't get an email out yesterday. We got hit with a huge snow storm sunday night that closed everything down yesterday. We got stuck trying to get of our driveway. The roads were terrible. Sorry. We got to the library as soon as we could today."

~Elder Maughan

"All of New York and most of the eastern seaboard was plummeted with snow - the biggest of the season - even as Spring approaches. Universities, schools, some businesses and most preschools were closed. Area airports canceled numerous flights and experienced countless delays. The Long Island Railroad had rare delays due to blowing and drifting snow and problems with frozen switches and added an additional eight trains from Manhattan east to Long Island beginning in the early afternoon to get commuters through the storm. "

~Sister de Paula

Interesting Facts about this storm that "charged up the Eastern Seaboard and blanketed the Northeast."

For the first time in 5 years NYC Public Schools were canceled affecting 1.1 million students.
It costs the city 1 million dollars an inch to remove snow. Long Island got 14 inches.

There are 6,000 roads to plow in NYC , the equivalent of driving to LA and back.
More than 450 flights were canceled at LaGuardia Airport, 119 at JFK and they currently are experiencing 3 hour delays.
The storm stretched from Virginia to Quebec.

Elder and Sister de Paula

Elder and Sister dePaula are from Highland, Utah. They were called to serve as Institute Missionaries in the New York New York South Mission. If you've followed this blog, you would know that I stumbled upon their blog (http://www.depaulamission.blogspot.com/) before Justin left. I have followed their blog regulary and was thrilled when I found out Elder Maughan would be serving with them in Bay Shore. The following posts are courtesy of Sister dePaula's blog. The dePaula's will be returning home in May.