Who's Ready for Round 4?!? (In Wendell)

Today was a really fun day. We spent p day RIDING OUR BIKES!!!!! It felt so good to go riding around, we did a lot of hiking down in a canyon, its called box canyon. It has crystal clear water that is really tempting to jump in. I did take my shoes off and stood in it about mid calf. It felt so good because today was a little warm when the clouds weren't over head. I took a bunch of pictures so whenever I get my other card I will send the one I have now home.

We get transfer calls last Wednesday. Elder Wright is going to Jerome to be zone leader, for his first time, he is a little scared. My new companion(my 7th comp in 7 transfers) will be Elder Waldorf. He is coming from Jerome and will no longer be the zone leader. He is from ATL, so he says sir and ma'am, like a good southern boy. I am really excited to serve with him, he is really funny and Elder Wright says that we will get along really well. I will also be killing him (which is missionary lingo for I will be his last companion). So it is up to me to keep him from being too trunky. The good news is that he says that he wants to ride bikes everyday, at least for a little bit, I am looking forward to that.

Last P day was really fun. We went to the church and set up the gym for war. Everyone had pvc pipe blow guns and Nerf darts and divided into two teams and tried to kill everyone. It was really fun. I was the sniper for our team. I had the longest "gun" and I was really accurate with it. Standing in the back corner of the gym I could get darts stuck on the supports for the basketball hoop on the far side, almost every time. So our team captain would said if I get out it's game over. We all had a lot of fun.

This past week we had a pretty good week. We were able to have 4.5 investigators at church. 4 are our investigators and the half is a non member from Jerome that used to be taught here and she just decided to come to church. She also referred her sister to us. Last night we set a baptismal date with one of the investigators that went to church. We are hoping that he keeps coming to church so we can baptize him on the 28th of this month.

We are still waiting on word of the night sacrament. I guess it takes a long time to think about when 1. you take the month of July off and 2. they are changing the policy church wide, but we are hoping that by the end of August we will have word.

That is pretty much all that is going on here in the booming metropolis of Wendell.

Love

Elder Paxton

I'm Jealous!

I am so jealous that you are in McCall, so is Elder Wright it was/is his favorite area. That is where he was trained and also where he was right before Wendell. He really wants to go up there sometime after the mission and do the whole lake thing. I told him we could take him to the cabin.

This week was really slow. we weren't able to teach very many lessons, but we did do a lot of service and also got to know a lot of less actives that our English ward wants us to visit.

So this week was over all a good week. I really enjoy doing service for other people, sometimes I wish I could do service all day long, but that isn't best use of time.

So I am trying to grow some pansies as a district activity. We are trying to develop more patience and it is also an object lesson to show how the sower doesn't always get to see the fruits. That is big time true in Wendell. We have some super awesome investigators that we know will get baptized and be super members one day, but we are probably not going to be able to see that happen, mostly because we still haven't heard back from the big wigs in slc about the night sacrament. but we are still trying to stay positive.

The word on the street is that transfer call will be tomorrow night, but no one really is sure because this transfer has been very interesting and different. I am pretty sure that I will be moving out of Wendell but there is no sure thing when it comes to transfers.

We need to get going our day should be pretty busy we are having a zone activity and we have to eat and do shopping as well.

Thats all for now,

Elder Paxton

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