Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Time to run!

So today is going to be a very, very short email. We went to the Zoo again, as a Zone activity, and getting back took longer then hoped (we almost ran out of gas, we pumped half a gallon more then I had ever pumped in this car).
Also tonight we are going Ontario, for a baptism that I have been waiting for a long time to have. Cornelio and Zenaida are going to get married and baptized tonight at 7:00 (another reason for being in a hurry, we have to go to dinner, and make the drive out to Ontario and hopefully get there by 6:30ish).
Cornelia and Zenaida
We had a better week this week and are hoping to be able to teach a lot of families this week. We have a lot more appointments set for this week then we did for last week.
Well, sorry for the shortness, but it's time to run!
Love
Elder Paxton

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Hello Family!


This week was a little disappointing, because our investigator pool has been drying up, but we are working on creating a lot of streams (of new investigators) to keep it full and to keep us busy.

Elder Acuña and I are working extra hard this week to have a lot of referrals and to convert those referrals into new investigators.


On Sunday evening we were finally able to contact a referral that we got from the Zone Leaders almost two weeks ago.  Her name is Rosa Dominguez, and Elder Acuña actually knew her in Boise when he served there, over a year ago.  She seems pretty interested for herself, but more interested in the Gospel, for her children.  She was our last visit of the week (week ending on Sunday at 9:00, and we visited her at about 8:30).  We were able to have a lesson with her and set an appointment with her for Friday.


Last Friday, I went on exchanges to Caldwell.  I always enjoy going back to visit my "birthplace,"  especially since I am now able to communicate, much better, with everyone there.  We were able to have a couple of teaching visits, and also had a random service project.  We were at a house and started to visit, and the mom came out and started to get the lawn mower ready, and we took it from her and mowed the lawn, in our shirt and ties.  I know that they were very grateful for the help, and Elder Ilagan (my temporary companion) and I were happy to help.

Yesterday, we had a funny experience.  We were told that we had interviews with President Cannon in Boise, so the whole zone went.  We were all a little confused, because normally interviews are done by district.  So we were waiting in the mission office and when he got done with the other Elders that he was interviewing, he looked very surprised to see all of us there waiting.  It turns out that it was supposed to be the district that is close to Boise, and not the whole zone.  President was happy to see all of us there ready and on time, but he said that he didn't have time to be able to interview all 16 of us.  So we are going to have interviews on Friday morning, like he was planning.

We are planning on having a great week and we would also appreciate any prayers and referrals on our behalf (we are teaching in the Nampa West Stake, so if you know any one there that speaks Spanish let us know).

 Love,
 Elder Paxton

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Sights in Boise


We have had a couple of fun P-Days these past few weeks.  We did make it to the zoo last week, and even though it was a lot smaller then the PHX Zoo, it was still really fun to go. We might be going back in a couple of weeks. We didn't have enough time to see all of the animals for as long as I would have liked.



Today we took a trip to the famous Smurf Turf.  We didn't get to actually go on the field, but we took some pictures close to it and in the book store they had some old turf that was used in years past, so touching that had to do.  It was pretty fun, because one of the members that goes to the Boise branch works there and she gave us the guided tour, which included going to some of the other things that there is on campus (I think she was just trying to get us to want to go there).  We also got to eat lunch at the cafeteria there.  It was buffet style so we all enjoyed it.



While we were in Boise, so close to Lori's house, we decided to make a quick stop there.  Only Lori, Gus, and Josie were there but we did see Ilah walking home as we were driving away.  It was fun to see them, and we will be seeing them again before to long.

On Sunday we were able to have Mike's baptism.  His family have been members for a long time, but because of some legal issues he was able to finally be baptized, after two years of anxious waiting.  It was a fun baptism, no filling of the font by hand, but the Spirit was very present.  For some reason, most of the baptisms that missionaries have are always really warm. We were all sweating in the room where the font is and have the entire room filled to standing room only didn't help the problem.  I think for our next one we are going to get there 3  hours early with some portable swamp coolers and fill them with ice water so that the room is freezing cold when everyone first gets there. By the time things get going it should be a very nice comfortable temperature, especially for us missionaries who have to wear our jackets.

So we have had a pretty long day today, we got up at 6:30, like always, but we have been going since 7:30, when we got our haircut, and then we went down to Boise. We have an appointment at 6:00, and still need to go shopping for the week so we need to get going pretty soon.

Love,

Elder Paxton

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Another Shalimar missionary


That is so crazy that Jake is going to be coming up here.  I will have to show him around when he gets to the field.  If Bishop wants us to speak together that would be great.

With that note about the language in Jake's call I am pretty sure that every call letter says that your mission president may adjust your language assignment, according to the needs of the mission.  I have only heard of one English Elder that served in Spanish for his very last transfer, but that is because he has served in a lot of "Spanglish" areas and had a lot of Spanish companions, who did their language study, so he studied Spanish as well.  Besides him I have never heard of anyone coming to Spanish from English.  Elders do go English from Spanish quite a bit though, I have been lucky enough to never have to do that.

The fun never ends in the great Idaho Boise Mission.  In the group of Elders that came with Elder Arrieta, there was an Elder Flake, from Snowflake.  The funny thing is that his cousin Elder Flake from Snowflake is already serving in this mission.  There was actually a 50/50 chance that Elder Flake would train Elder Flake (it didn't happen).


This past Saturday we had a pretty fun day.  We went to a baptism, in Caldwell, for Jesus Benitez.  I am pretty sure that all of his family are members.  I had met them when I served in Caldwell, but I didn't meet Jesus until his baptismal interview  this past Thursday.  When we got to his baptismal service an Elder was outside and told us to not put on our suit coats yet because the font wasn't full yet and they were filling it by hand.  I thought that it may have been mostly full, but it only had about three inches of water in it.  So everyone was filling up the font by hand with pots and pitchers and even trash cans (only the clean ones).  It was pretty fun to do.  Eventually we got a hose from somewhere so that was going into the font, and at about that time, the font filler finally answered his phone and came and started to fill it the normal way.  It was good that a lot of English Elders were there so there was a lot of helping hands.  After all was said and done we had a great baptism.


Jesus Benitez' Baptism


That is pretty much all that has been going on here.    We are planning on going to the zoo today.  I have planned a couple of times but never been able to make it so we will see if we get there today.

 Love,
 Elder Paxton