Great phone call!

We got to talk to Elder Paxton on Christmas day and it was great. We talked for about an hour. He sounded great! When Nicole asked him about if he knew when he would be coming home he said "when it has been 2 years!" She asked him if he thought he would come home a few weeks early since it would be so close to the start of the school semester and he said "if I serve 1 year and 364 days I will feel gypped" I guess that means he is not trunky or wanting to come home anytime soon!

Elder Paxton and Elder Sewell had permission from their president to go and visit family on Christmas day for about an hour. They first went to Aunt Lori's house and Grandma and Grandpa DeMond were there. They had a nice visit. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall! Then they went to Elder Sewell's uncle's house.

His email this week was very short. Elder Paxton is sick.

Here is his email...

So this week has gotten off to a rough start. Yesterday I got sick and threw up at a members home. We went over there for lunch and I hadn't eaten all day so when I ate a little bit I just felt super sick. I went into the back room and took a little two hour nap. When I woke up I was okay for a little while but then I went to the bathroom just in time to blow chunks. So today I am still feeling a little sickly, which stinks because we, well all of the other missionaries, are playing soccer.

That's okay though. There will be other opportunities. Not very much has happened this past week. On Wednesday we had a mission Christmas activity. Friday we just visited a few people, and started to eat our brains out. Saturday we went to visit our families, which was pretty fun. It was nice to meet Elder Sewell's family. They are super fun.

Sorry this letter is so short I am kind of feeling a little brain dead and can't really think of what else to write.

Love

Elder Paxton

Otra Vez!

Ok, so this is twice in 3 weeks that I have not emailed my son and this time he is really chastising me for it...I will have to repent and do better!

Wow life must be super bien crazy right now. I understand how that goes. We are always hoping that there are a few more hours in the day so that we can do more work, but we can't change that, so we will have to start working more efficiently and the best way to do that is to have effective planning. So mom, maybe you need to read preach my gospel chapter 8; using time wisely.

Thank you all for the wonderful gift that I have received, and I haven't looked in anything that didn't have, open ________day, or no peeking, but everything else since it wasn't labeled I assumed it meant it was fair game. Thank you everyone for everything. Also the big one from mom/dad I am pretty sure I know what it is based off of shaking and my massively huge smart brain that I have been blessed with(or by reading) but you might be pulling a fast one and be tricking me, which is possible, so we will just have to wait and see.

Okay so a quick report on this past week. Last Tuesday we had dinner with the Mendez family, which is probably the coolest family in the mission. Wednesday, I can't really remember anything too exciting, so lets just say that we had 600 people get baptized and all of them were immediately translated so we can't really count them in our numbers. Thursday we did our weekly planning, which has recently been moved from Monday, so it is a little interesting and will take some getting used to. Friday we had our branch Christmas party, which was great. There were almost 150 people there. I wish half of that would come to church every week, that would be great, but we had a good time there and met a lot of people. We hope they will one day want to listen to the missionaries.

On Saturday we went had zone meeting then we went to visit a ward member of grandma's. They are the Garrido family, from Argentina, and we recently helped them move. they are such a cool family and we really enjoy visiting with them. He is a black belt in tae kwon do and is fun to try to beat up, haha just kidding we don't ever fight him. Anyways, they asked to see pictures of our family and he saw grandma and grandpa DeMond in the picture from the family reunion. He asked "is this your family or just a family that you know from the Franklin ward", I said, "BOTH." I guess their son Gordo, I don't know his real name they NEVER use it, was one of grandpa's cub scouts. It is so funny how small the world is. Sunday was a normal day at church and Monday was another day with thousands of baptisms that got translated right after.

Everything is going so well for us here, we are really loving the area and trying our best to baptize people that don't disappear, right after so we have have our branch grow. But that is okay, soon enough it will be a ward and there will be a whole stake in the area.

Thanks again for all of the support and have a super fantastic Christmas.

Love,

Elder Paxton

Moving...

Okay, so last Friday we got transfer calls. Both Elder Sewell and I are moving, but we are still going to be together, in Meridian. We just got kicked out of our house is all so we moved to a different apartment. There is a rule in our old apartment complex that says that we cannot have more then four people living in one place. The Boise elders are now in a three some, because they have an elder who is going to Chile, but is here for the time being for medical reasons. We are still very close to the mission office so feel free to send any and all packages and letters to the office, we stop by there often.

This week has been a great week. We have taught the highest number of lessons for this transfer, which is good because we wanted to end with a bang. On Sunday they called a branch mission leader, which we have been asking for since we got here pretty much. He is super excited to work with us. He is an American who went through some rebellious years and didn't serve a mission. He lived in Texas, 2 miles from the Mexican border, learned a little bit of spanish and met a nice girl. Then they got married and he baptized her and her mom as well. He has said since he got married that his mission is with the spanish people, so he is really excited to work with us. After sacrament meeting he came up to us and asked us,"okay what do I do?" we are very happy to have someone who is as willing as he is.

So it seems to be a weekly happening now. Last night we got another group of visa waiters in. We got our first one that isn't from Utah. We have met around 15 elders who have come for their visas and all, except for this one, have been from Utah. The special one is from Blackfoot Idaho. We really enjoy having them over. It also helps with the work because when we are just two missionaries we cannot visit single ladies unless we bring some one with us, but with the extra elders we can walk into any door we feel like, if we are invited in...

Not much more then that is going on. We are getting moved in and today we are going to be doing our Christmas shopping, but I am pretty sure that I am not going to be buying anything, but Elder Sewell will be getting some things. Later tonight we are going to be eating dinner with the famous Mendez family. Every spanish missionary on this half of the mission knows them and have permission to go over to their house, if they have the miles. but they live in our area so it is great for us.

I will be checking the office often to pick up all of the wonderful presents I know you are all going to get me, I like all colors of ties...and anything food related...

Thank you for all your support and prayers! Always to remember to keep on keeping on, like it says in Mosiah 2:41

Love,

Elder Paxton

Happy December!

Well, it has been one busy week of Holiday concerts and activities this week at the Paxton house and as you can see from Chris's email below, I was so busy I forgot on Monday night after my concert what day it was and that I needed to email Chris. I hope when he finds out I didn't die that he will forgive me!

From Elder Paxton -

It was super sad to find out that mom has died, I mean that must be what happened, I didn't get an email from her so she must not be alive.

I guess I will go on with what happened this week though. Last Wednesday we got a couple more visa waiters. They were going to Mexico City Northwest Mission, and they needed to talk to the Mexican consulate. I guess they send them all to Boise because the church has a good relationship with the consulate or something, and we get to hang with them because we live two miles away from the office. We always have some good times when we have them. This go around was like a family reunion. One of the elders knew Elder Vazquez (our district leader and roommate) from back home, and the other elder that was hanging out with us knew elder Sewell from BYU. So far all of them that have come have been from Utah. Maybe one day we will get some from Arizona. We thought that we were going to be lucky and have them for a few days longer because the servers at the consulate were down so they couldn't do anything. Then on Friday the consulate got their servers running on a generator and everyone got their visa. We thought that they would probably be with us until Monday, but bright and early on Saturday morning, at 5:15, they had to be at the office to go to the airport.

We are really loving the weather. last week it snowed for two days straight and put 9 inches of snow on our back porch, and a lot of snow all over the road. Our leaders told us to stay home, at least until the roads were cleaned. Elder sewell got sick and barely left his bed the whole day, so it was good timing for us. I wish it would keep snowing, it has warmed up a little bit and it has been raining so the snow is trying to run away and ruin my hopes for a white Christmas. I am really feeling like this year will be the year for my first white Christmas (going on vacation and seeing snow doesn't count). We also have a "real" tree this year. it is a fake one but it is about 4 feet tall and beats the one that I had last year (maybe two feet that stood on our table). so if you would send all the presents soon so we can have under our tree loaded up with presents to open on Christmas day.

The work is slowly picking up. We are also trying to include the members more by teaching them the message of the restoration, and by giving them the pamphlet that goes with it so they can share it with their friends. We have given a bunch out and now we need to follow up with everyone to make sure that they know that we are serious about working. We are trying to visit a lot of people, but we have mostly been visiting closed doors, so we need the help of the members to get us passed the closed doors and that is when we work our magic and lead the horse to the water and hope and pray they they jump in. If you know anyone in the 8 stakes that we cover(meridian, meridian north, south, east, west, meridian paramount, meridian amity and eagle stakes) please give them our number(208)794-4476 we are available just about all day everyday and we would love to visit with them.

Today we are going to be running a bunch of errands. We have to go shopping for us, and for others. We are going to get some nativities and add to a 12 days of christmas thing for some people. We are thinking our neighbor down stairs, because we make a lot of noise sometimes and it isn't exactly pleasant when you are trying to sleep and it sounds like the roof is going to cave in, but we'll see. We are also going to go to Cabelas to party, it should be a fun and busy day for us. We also have a teaching appointment at 5:30 and we are hoping to set a baptismal date with him. Wish us luck!!!!

Love,

Elder Paxton

Here are some of the pictures that Elder Paxton sent this week.

Storm in Wendell

Cow in storm in Wendell

Waterfall

Elder Acuna

Fall colors...

The Dunn's Styrofoam and concrete house where Chris put in a lot of service

My district

Elder Sewell (my son) and Elder Paxton

Watch out E. Sewell, my belly was flat like yours when I was a greenie too!

E. Sewell (Chris's trainee), E. Paxton, E. Castillo (Chris's 1st trainer)

Is that a missionary regulation haircut?

My room in Boise

E. Sandstrom, Sewell and Paxton with matching pink ties

Wow they have pretty sunsets in Wendell!

That's all for now