Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree

Things in Wendell are pretty good. We are in Twin right now and just got out of the temple. The zone leaders brought me such a nice surprise, popcorn popping on the apricot tree, or a lovely package from a lovely person.(That would be from his Aunt Lori and kids) I really enjoyed the picture of me tracting, except I didn't have a companion. Also I will have to meet your new puppy, I always show off my pictures that I have of my puppies. I am still glad that I got a few boxes of candy. It turns out that I am really hungry so they won't last very long. I cant believe how fast everyone is growing up.

Time really flies by, especially on the mission. Looking back on the last week I just feel like it completely disappeared. Pretty much the only thing that was out of the ordinary was we helped load up a horse trailer with a lady's belongings. She is going to be moving in with her parents just in time to turn 50 she says. That was pretty hard work. We were the only people besides her and there really wasn't very much she could do until the washer, dryer, dresser and other heavy stuff got in to the front of the trailer.

The other day we saw a lot of smoke coming from the direction of Twin Falls, and it turns out that the canyon was big time on fire.I was hoping that some of the cows would burn so our investigators could come to church. Ha ha not really because if the cows left they would too, no work no home so...it would be bad.

Well that is pretty much everything.

Love
Elder Paxton

PS I still didn't get a package with the parts for my bike :(

Its a small world after all...(most annoying song ever)‏

So last night we were at our dinner appointment, with Lon Egbert and his family, and they were asking were we are from. So I tell them Tempe and they ask what part. I saw that they were married in the Mesa Temple. I tell them on Price and Southern, they tell me that they lived on Price and Broadway, and that he was the Elders Quorum president under Bishop Randall. They remembered mom and dad, mom because you gave him a buddy pass once, and dad because he knew you were always moving dealerships. We were talking about all the ward members that they could remember it was really funny, they even had pictures from the 8th ward camp out. I didn't remember them but they remember enough people to where I was convinced that they weren't making it up. They left the ward in 1998 and were there for around 3 years I think.

Last Wednesday we had our first interviews with the president and I really enjoyed it. He is trying so hard to get to know all of us as fast as he can. He is really really good at remembering names, it almost like we have a name tag on...oh wait. We also got to watch some of the District 2. They are training videos from Preach my Gospel and these just came out. The first one was set in San Antonio and it was a little unreal, for how missionary work went, and the other one is in San Diego, and seems a lot more real and believable.

Beyond that there really isn't much else going on. We did go to the temple today and I listened to the session in Spanish, it was really interesting. I had to pay way more attention and it helped me stay awake. I was really happy with how much I could understand. They use language kind of like the scriptures, using a lot of the vosotros form, but I still understood almost all of it.

Today we went to the Shoshone Falls with our zone and had fun hiking around.
(Here is a picture from the internet of Shoshone Falls for those who have not seen them, maybe Chris will send pictures that he actually took)


I didn't get any packages from anyone. Our AP's aren't really that good at bringing packages to interviews like they are supposed to. Hopefully I will get it soon.

We have to get going now, we have house checks pretty soon.

Love,

Elder Paxton

Cups and Knives

I asked Chris in my email about an object lesson that the Elders here in Tempe gave to us the other night. It involves 3 cups and 3 table knives. They talked about how to strengthen your testimony with 3 important parts; prayer, scripture study and church attendance. This is Chris's response...

It just so happens that I have/carry 3 cups and three knives so that I am always ready to teach that lesson. The first time that I saw that my trainer didn't tell me how it was done so I was kind of doubting that it was possible, but I knew that he wouldn't do something impossible for an object lesson. Another cool object lesson that we do to teach by small and simple things great things can come to pass is we balance 12 nails on the head of one another. It is pretty cool, you should go try to figure it out. One hint put the one nail that you are going to balance the rest on, in something stable. None of the other 12 should be touching anything.

So this past week we saw a 50% increase in lessons taught. It wasn't super busy and successful but it was better and that is all that we ask for.

Sometimes it is hard to keep positive and wanting to work when there isn't a whole lot happening, and we aren't seeing the fruits of our labors(2 nephi 26:30-31), but when we keep going the Lord blesses us and helps us.

Last night we were teaching an investigator named Herasmo (silent h) and we started out teaching why reading the scriptures is so important. We ended up teaching more about faith. He said sometimes it is hard to understand the scriptures and that it gets him down. So I shared with him how we need to start with blind faith. That is how it was with me. Many of you know that I am not the best reader and when I first started to read the scriptures I would have to read it 2 or 3 times to understand what I was reading. I knew that it was very important to read and that I would get help from God as I kept at it. Now I can read in Spanish and usually only read things once and understand what is going on. All of us can apply this to everything that is going on in our life. If we are scared to do something or even just don't know how to start, if we just put our trust in the Lord we will get his help in all things and all will be well.

I read a quote somewhere that said "two men (people) can do anything, if one of them is the Lord" that is true doctrine. We also taught last night that God created everything, so we talked about how all things are possible if we have faith.

I have seen the Lord bless and help me and so many others and I know that he will help all of you with absolutely everything that is going on(even dad getting back into the car biz).

Love,

Elder Paxton

New Pictures!

Chris finally sent his camera card. Here are several pictures of people and places in Wendell...

Home Sweet Home in Wendell

Wendell Library

Wendell

Elder Sandstrom (1st comp in Wendell)

Elder Wright (on left, 2nd comp in Wendell)

New Mission President (Pres and Sis Cannon)

Investigator family

1st Baptism

The next few pictures are of some interesting sights and activities in Wendell

Heart shaped potato (only in Idaho!)

Building the bonfire

The Bonfire

After the fire

My shoes could use a shine!

Dirty Shoes, but we have a clean car!

Members daughters' car in the canal

Love the sign!


A couple videos of Elder (vet) Paxton at work with the animals

No cows don't like cookies...





I hope you enjoyed the photos...Of course, Mom did!

Uneventful Week...

Well this week was another uneventful week here in the booming town of Wendell.

This week we were lucky enough to get to do some more tracting, because a lot of our investigators can only meet with us once a week and a lot of our others are kind of malo. We don't have very much work going on right now which is a little sad, but we are still trying to work hard and are hoping for some work.

This last Friday we got to meet President Cannon. He seems super nice, but he seemed super nervous and even scared. I am really looking forward to getting to know him better. He said that there are going to be some changes, obviously. They are really going to focus on having better trainings so that we can be better teachers. Teaching effectively is really an important part of missionary work. He also said that we are only going to have zone conference every quarter instead of every transfer, so it will now be every other transfer. I am not super excited about that, but he did say that we will have other kind of trainings so we will get to see him just as much.

Also I have been meaning to send my camera card home but I dropped my other card at the church Sunday so it will be a few more days before I get that sent to you all.

I can't really think of much else that is going on here, just a whole lot of the same old song and dance.

I hope all is well y que todos esten bien.

Love

Elder Paxton

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