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

2 Emails in One...

Last week's email that didn' t come...

This week has been very busy, we have been working a lot
and did quite a bit of tracting. We walked a total of 12 miles
in two days, our legs and backs were pretty tired. We taught
a bunch of lessons this week,18, which is a lot for the Spanish
missionaries here. We have one boy who wants to be baptized
but his dad wont let him. Both he and his mom are super ready.
He has read the entire Book of Mormon in braille, he is super
awesome.

Besides walking a lot this week was pretty uneventful.
We haven't done as much service recently, but we did mow a
dandelion field (someones lawn) in our shirt and ties. I took a
video of Elder Sandstrom mowing, but won't send it because
it is too big.

Elder Wright is coming tomorrow and Elder Sandstrom
is getting sent to Ontario Oregon, he is happy
to be leaving, he has been here for a little while. I can't really
think of anything else that has happened this week. I hope all
is well back where it is good and hot.

Love Elder Paxton

This week's email...

This week has gone pretty fast, it was a little long because I still
don't know the area super well so we did a lot of wandering.

I do have good news, I got to finally ride my bike. As of today we
have enough miles to go 20 a day for the rest of the month,
so we are going to drive to the church, park and ride into town,
it takes us 17 miles to get to the church and back from our house.
So we should hopefully not go over too much. We are also trying
to get more rides so we can get more work done.

Last night we taught a couple of lessons, one to someone that
we found tracting. They are pretty much my first investigator
that I have found tracting. I have not done an awful lot of it but
my fair share. Anyways he had a whole bunch of really good
questions. He has even told his family that they shouldn't worship
la virgen maria guadalupe, la madre de dios, because one she isn't
even a virgin anymore, she has had other children, and perhaps
more importantly the 2nd of the 10 commandments says not to
worship false images.

The other lesson that we taught was super awesome, these guys
are so golden and have super testimonies. Because of the big fat
dairymen who won't give them Sunday off they can't go to church
and get baptized. They told us last night that they have also been
listening to the j dubs (Jehovah Witness), and they(the investigators)
said that they will listen to anyone and respect their religion,
but this(holding the book of Mormon up) is their religion. It was
so great to hear that from them, they already have a testimony
bien fuerte. These are the same guys who ask if they needed
to quit their jobs to go to church. The general authorities and
the 12 are going to have a meeting to discuss night sacrament,
starting at 7 or 7:30. We are praying for it so we can have our
investigators go to church.

Oh yeah I forgot I have a new companion I almost forgot.
His name is Elder Wright he is from Virgina. His dad works for
the FBI so he has lived in Utah, Hawaii, Ecuador, California and
Pennsylvania so he has gotten around a little bit in his life. Right
now his family lives in Virgina and his dad works in DC. He is super
obedient so I always have to back him out, even in an empty
church parking lot which I don't really see the point of, but it is
good to be exactly obedient.

President Yardley is going to go home this transfer and our new
president is going to be here in about one month. I am getting
excited for him to come. He probably is going to be super strict
since P. Yardley is a little more "laid back" for lack of a better word.

Well, that is pretty much all that is going on here in the hub city of Idaho
(that is what they call Wendell)

Love

Elder Paxton

No Email this week....

I did not get an email this week from Chris. :(
So, no post update.
I guess we will have to wait until next week.

Happy Mother's Day!

I will begin this entry with my own comments about Mother's Day!
I had an awesome day spending it with my 2 children at home
(Trevor and Nicole) and then we got to talk to Chris for about an
hour. We had a great visit. He sounds great and still sounds
like Chris. He said next week is transfers, but he will be staying
in Wendell, but will be getting a new companion.

He talked about the splits that they do and he said that some
of the Elders need to do splits because they need a break from
their companion. Chris said that he has been very lucky and
has not had any problems with his companions and just
goes on the splits for a change of scenery. I think it is Chris's
easy going personality that also contributes to his ability to
get along with all of his companions.

It was really nice to be able to ask him questions and get answers
back right away. We know how Chris does not always answer
my questions in my emails.

He said the trailer that they live in is pretty nice. He said that he
does have a nosy neighbor that likes to call the mission
president and tell him when he thinks the elders are not
doing what they are supposed to be doing. One day he
called the mission president to tell him that Chris and his
companion were leaving for the day late and they were
dressed in jeans and t-shirts. The president had to tell
the neighbor that the Spanish speaking elders don't leave
their homes until noon and they were in jeans and t-shirts
because they were going to do service.

Chris said they had to get rid of their "pets". The owner of
the trailer was not thrilled to hear they were keeping spiders
and snakes in her trailer. Trevor tried to ask if he could
get rid of the tarantula that Chris left behind in his room
at home, but Chris said "NO".

After talking to him for an hour, we really got all caught
up on what he is doing and what is going on at home.

His p-day was only 2 days later, so he did not have a lot
to say in his email. He did try to attach pictures with his
email, but they did not come through, so most of his email
did not make sense because we did not get the pictures.

Maybe next week he will figure out how to attach the
pictures.

Here is part of his short email, minus the picture descriptions.

So pretty much nothing has happened since Sunday, we are
expecting transfer calls tonight so next week I will be able
to tell you who my companion is and all that fun stuff.

We have been working super hard. We went tracting in the
rain for 6 hours you can see the results. (need picture)

Last night we had a pretty good FHE with a part member
family and we got the non member to read and he was
showing a little bit of interests which is a big improvement
then just sitting there and seeming to be in his own world.

That is pretty much everything that is going on here we
are trying to keep busy and not die from the smell of the
cows.

Love,

Elder Paxton

The Bonfire

So this week has been pretty fun for us, we did the bonfire
as a service project. The way that farmers get rid of stuff
that they don't want is to burn it. So we were just burning
some branches and rail road ties, two other elders came to
enjoy the awesomeness.

Last night we had a sleep over with the elders from Sun Valley
and we played some card games and we also played chubby
bunny. For those of you who don't know about chubby bunny,
you see how many large marshmallows you can fit in your mouth
and still say chubby bunny. We had around 9 or 10 before would
couldn't stop laughing.

This morning we were supposed to go to the temple but the power
went out in our trailer so we didn't get up. Good thing it is
pday and we didn't waste a lot of valuable time by sleeping in.
We aren't sure what we are going to do today for fun but we'll
figure something out.

I never did convince Elder Sandstrom to ride bikes, but
our area is too big and spread out to ride here.

When we do our exchanges they usually last for 24 hours
so I slept in Sun Valley last week. It is pretty nice up there.
We saw a bus stop with a leather couch and we were going
to stop and take a picture but we didn't because we had to
go some where.

Well I think that is all for now.

Love

Elder Paxton