Better Week?

So this past week was another uneventful week. We are trying to get a little bit more work going in Gooding, which is north of Wendell, in our area. That of course is going to go slow and tough until we get some more investigators there.

We have one couple that we are planning on setting a baptismal date with tomorrow night. Hopefully they will be there and not cancel on us. We also dropped one of our eternal investigators. They have been taught for 7 months by the missionaries, haven't gone to church once yet and the wife hasn't "had time" to read or pray about the Book of Mormon. We figured that it isn't worth our time to go over there, even though that will probably mean more tracting, and we are running out of places to tract. We have a couple of new potentials that we feel pretty good about so hopefully they will turn into investigators soon.

This last Friday night we went to our dinner appointment and we were just about to sit down to eat, and the mom's phone rings. It was her daughter saying that they had gotten in an accident, so the dad and older brother left to go check on them, leaving us with the mom, alone. Since we cant do that, we went to see if everything was okay. As we pull up we see a car in the canal, upside down. Both of the girls had gotten out and were okay. They had some nice cut up knees and one was saying that her neck hurt a little bit. they weren't wearing their seat belts and she hit her head on the roof when they rolled. The paramedics backboarded her and took her to the hospital. We talked to her dad at church and he said she is doing alright. It was pretty ridiculous when the tow truck pulled the car out. I would think that they would flip it over first then pull it out, but the winch on those things are so strong, it pulled it out of the canal on its roof like it was nothing. Needless to say the car was totaled. Both of the girls are lucky to be alive, just more evidence that God is always watching over us.

So just a normal week in the mission for me, I am starting to expect to be in or see an accident now. Besides that there really isn't much to say about this last week. Elder wright and I are feeling much better and are still getting along great, so far I haven't found anyone out here that I wouldn't get a long with.

Yesterday was President Yardley's last day in the mission and today is President Cannon's first official day. I am really looking forward to meeting him later this week, on Friday. I can't believe that I wont see or hear from President Yardley for at least a year. He isn't allowed to communicate with us for a year, but that is probably good so that our new president doesn't feel like he is getting cheated on.

I am planning on sending my card home at the start of next month so it will be in a week or so.

We are going to go get a hair cut and some free ice cream now.

Hasta next week,

Elder Paxton

Tricky Phone Call

On Father's Day Frank received a call from a member in Wendell, Idaho. Chris just happened to be there for dinner and they held up the phone and Chris yelled across the room "Happy Father's Day Pops!" I asked him about how this came about and this was his response...

We were eating dinner with our neighbors' and we had talked about how we don't get to call fathers. Sister Anderson said that they have done things like that in the past so it wasn't my idea at all I never even touched the phone. I didn't get dad a card but I figured that I wouldn't need too after doing that.

So this last week was pretty boring, besides Tuesday. On Tuesday morning we got to talk with president. I always bring a few questions to ask him because he is way smarter then all of us missionaries. He told us that he would probably leave Elder Wright and me in Wendell, and on Thursday when we got our transfer calls we found out that we are both staying. Hopefully now we will get to see the night sacraments, and maybe a baptism. This next transfer will be so weird, I have never stayed with a companion for more then one transfer and this will be the longest that I will have been in an area, so far.

I am feeling much better now. My sore throat is pretty much gone and my cough is trying to hang on but it is much better. The other night Elder Wright woke up with a bad cough and a fever and a sore throat. He is feeling much better now, but yesterday we had to make a trip to the doctor, because his stomach felt like it was on fire. He said it wasn't heart burn, so that wasn't very fun, also it used a lot of miles,. Thankfully we have been good with our use of miles so we should be okay even though we cant ride our bikes.

Our investigators have been doing well, they are progressing as much as they can. We are still waiting for the word on night sacraments and our patience is being tested big time. We are hoping to be able to set a couple of baptismal dates tomorrow with some investigators, in Gooding, so hopefully we will be able to see them get baptized.

That is pretty much all that is going on here. We are still playing the waiting game.

Love

Elder Paxton

Boo!!

Did I scare you?

We get to write a day early because tomorrow is going to
be super busy. We have interviews at 9 then an activity
from 11am-5pm. President gave us permission to write
today. Tomorrow may be the last day that I get to see
President Yardley. He is going to leave on the 28th and
that is when President Cannon comes. Something interesting
that President told us is that they don't talk missionaries,
we all get a clean slate, even the super apostate missionaries
get another chance to be good.

So this past week was kind of bleh. I have had a sore throat
and cough so I have been suffering with that and we are
still waiting on the response from the Brethren on the night
sacraments so our investigators can progress and we can
have some more success. Besides that pretty much nothing
has happened. Today is pretty much the first summer day
that we have had, it has been really really nice the past few
days, for me, partly cloudy kind of windy and in the high 60's.
Every one else has found it necessary to complain about it,
how it should be summer blah blah blah. Today they have
no reason to complain. No clouds no wind and it is a little hot.
I am grateful that I have short sleeve shirts.

Also this last week there was a loss in the family. I think you got
my letter. My bike is broken :( a few weeks ago I saw that the
pedal was unscrewing itself and I tried to fix it correctly by
taking it off and then putting it back on. Even with the members
tools I couldn't get it off. So what he kept saying was that it is
stuck so you don't need to worry about it. I wasn't very happy
because I don't like just patching things I like them to be fixed.
So last Wednesday I felt a wobble in my left pedal and noticed
that the part that screws in was very crooked, so we stopped
and when I touched my pedal it fell into my hand. It had
completely stripped the threads.

I knew that leaving it "stuck" wasn't a good idea but it was
too late and there wasn't really anything that I could do
about it. So i am pretty sure that I wont be riding for a little
while, which is sad.

We are seeking for the things that are praiseworthy
or of good report but they are really hard to find among the
cows, and now the flies(that is the one thing that out numbers the cows).

I am really looking forward to tomorrow, I love being able to talk
with President personally. I always bring a bunch of questions
to ask, written down, so I don't forget them, I have been slightly
less forgetful out here but still forget A LOT.

Well I think that is pretty much all that is going on in our lives
here in Wendell.

Love

Elder Paxton

Orange Ties

Dear all,

This week has gone by so fast. The days feel so long but the
weeks are so fast. I am thinking that is how life goes. The
days get longer and longer but the weeks, months, and
years go by faster and faster.

We still have no word on when our night sacraments
will start. We are hoping that it is very soon. Our super
good investigator is going to try to ask for this and
maybe next Sunday off so he can come to church,
which would mean if he could stop drinking he would
get baptized within weeks, I think.

We have also found a couple of new potential
investigators from doing some tracting. They seem
to be pretty interested, we left a Book of Mormon
with one and he said that he is going to read it.
We have also found a lot of angry Jehovah's Witnesses
here, more than I have ever seen and they also
seem like they do a very good job at their missionary
work, which sometimes makes our life a little harder.
One of our inv. was talking to a jw and the jw's point
of how we were wrong is that our book doesn't have
the word Noah in it, which I really don' t understand
why that would really matter but it does have the
word Noah in it if you just read it (Mosiah 12
and others) so the jw here really don't like us.
We have knocked on a few doors and they are just
so excited to tell us how wrong we are, mostly by
using scriptures out of context, it is pretty funny
and I just laugh inside, out loud when we are far
enough away.

Not a whole lot has happened this past week
English classes are going pretty well. We are
working as hard as we can and really enjoying life.
We are not looking forward to President Yardley
leaving on the 28th, but we are getting excited for
President Cannon to come. At President Yardley's
last zone conference last week we all had on our
orange ties. That is his favorite color, it was pretty
cool to see. We Mormon missionaries really did all
look the same.

Love

Elder Paxton

Happy Memorial Day!

Yesterday was a non-proselyting day so we just chilled around
the house until night time when we had some appointments
to go to. We got to brand and vaccinate cows. I think I am going
to be a vet because I have now vaccinated cows and dogs in one
week, without training, so I am pretty sure I could handle being
a vet.

This past week we have used our bikes a lot and by some milagro
we made our miles. I think last week we had maybe 100 left with
6 days of driving and we live 8 miles away from the town
(which is called the hub city because all of the cities connect
into it, but these days every city is connected Wendell just
wants to sound important). We have done 66 miles on our
bikes in the last week. One day we rode to Gooding which is
10 miles north of town and there is a wicked wind that comes
from the west almost every day, so we had a lot of wind
riding days.

Last night we went and taught our super golden super awesome
investigator, Miguel, and it went really well, we taught the word
of wisdom, he was so accepting when we committed him to stop
participating in all 5 of the things(alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee,
drugs) individually. After we said dejara de tomar_________,
he right away would say si. He also raised the concern that it
would be really hard so we shared 1 nefi 7:16-17, where nephi
is tied up by his brothers(or by addictions) and he cries to the
lord, by my faith in thee set me free (that isn't his exact words
but it rhymed so I thought it was funny) anyways, we told him
that if you pray to God in faith he will be able to be set free
from these bands that are tying him down. It was really good
and we are still waiting to hear back from the higher-ups
about night sacrament. We are still hoping and praying for it.
We would be able to get a few baptisms because of it, but
whatever the Lord decides is for the best of the group and
our investigators.

Not much else has happened this week, it was a pretty slow
week, but we are happy and working.

Love

Elder Paxton