Goodbye Meridian...

Buenos Dias(o tardes, o noches depende en cuando esta leyendo esta carta) Familia y Amigos,

This past week was a great way to finish off my stay in the great area of Meridian. We had a wonderful baptism of Maria Montgomery, on Saturday. It was such a great experience to see her get baptized and it was also great to hear her testimony the next day during sacrament meeting. She has a wonderful story. About a year ago after her husband died, she had no where to live and was trying to find some work by cleaning houses. She was walking down the street with two bags of cleaning supplies and a woman, Cindy, was driving and felt prompted to stop and help. Maria climbed into the car crying because someone was willing to help her in her time of need. After time went by she was introduced to the missionaries and she immediately felt that this is where she needed to be and she felt that an emptiness was filled that she had always felt at the catholic church. I know that she will be a great member and I know that her 3 children will also be able to be baptized very soon and will all be a great addition to the branch.

It was also an experience for me because she wanted me to confirm her, and it was my first time ever confirming someone so I was a little nervous, but I think it went okay and hopefully she enjoyed it.

Another fun thing that happened on Saturday is at 6 in the morning all the missionaries loaded up two buses and drove down to Twin Falls for a special missionary meeting. We had the privilege of hearing from Bishop Mc Mullin, second counselor of the general bishopric, Elder Gonzalez, of the presidency of the seventy, and from Elder Russel M. Nelson, of the quorum of the twelve apostles. It was also such a great experience to hear from Elder Nelson. I have been thinking about the things that he said since we finished the meeting, and this morning I studied Hebrews 11, one of the chapters that he shared with us on faith, so I could better help our investigators understand why faith is so important. It was also great to hear from Bishop McMullin and Elder Gonzalez. It was such an uplifting experience and one that I will not soon forget.

I am grateful for the opportunity I had to serve in Meridian and also now I am serving in Ontario Canada(or Oregon)!!!! It is a Spanglish area, so that means that we cover a few wards in English. Elder Cottam is my new companion and is from Rancho Cucamonga California and has been out of the MTC for a whole six weeks now. He is still a little green but that is okay. He seems to be a bit of a work-a-holic so that is always great. It has been a long time since I have taught a lesson in English and I will need to work on finding scriptures in my English scriptures, but I know that it will all be okay and that Elder Cottam and I will be able to help this area progress.

That is about all that has happened this past week and I am excited to be serving in this area.

Love

Elder Paxton

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Twin Falls...

"Ready to go and Do what we are commanded..."

Hola Amigos, Hello My Friends,

Sorry the last email have kind of been short but today's should be better. We have already done just about everything that we need to to for the day so we have a little bit of time.

This last week was another great week for Elder Sewell and I. We were able to teach 12 lessons and have found 3 new investigators who want to learn more about the gospel. One of the best things was that we got to help one of our investigators not get kicked out of her apartment. She is a dog lover and isn't allowed to have one, the management found out and told her that she had 3 days to get rid of the dog and all signs, or get out.

Another great experience of this past week is that we had Maria, our investigator who is going to be baptized this saturday, go to a baptism that was in Nampa. She really loved the whole program and is really excited for this saturday. The only bad thing is that she is a little afraid of water, and it didn't help that the brother that got baptized had to be baptized 3 times in order to get it completely right. We made sure that she knew that it was because he is really tall and we told her that it will be okay. She told us that she will have to practice so that everything goes well.

Elder Sewell and I are excited to hear what is going to happen with this next transfer. I am super grateful for this last two transfers, they have been two of the best of my mission. I know that what ever happens is what the lord wants and we are ready to go and do what we are commanded. President Cannon has pretty much guaranteed that one of us is going to be leaving. President also told me that what ever happens to me I will still be senior companion. I have got the feeling that I am going to be leaving the area. I really hope that I get to stay close to this area.

I am super grateful for all of the support that I receive from everyone. Speaking of support I got all of the medical cards and I am planning on using the visa for all sorts of "medical expenses", does making my stomach feel better by buying food count? haha just kidding, hopefully I wont need to hardly use it.

I sent my camera card home with the prescription receipts and everything, and I am planning on taking a lot of pictures at our baptism so I may need the card back soon so I can send you pictures. I hope you have all been enjoying the pictures, and hopefully they are not too confusing, if not you will have to wait for a while in order to hear what is going on in each picture.

Today we played basketball for a good little while at the mission office, and in one of our games out of the 15 points I scored 6. I was dropping everything that I put up. I made two 3's(which counted for two points) and two 360 windmill between the legs air jordan status, normal nothing special shots. I had almost all of the first points for our team. needless to say we won that game. and thankfully it was the last so I could end on a high note.

That is about all for this week. TUNE IN FOR NEXT WEEK'S EPISODE OF ELDER PAXTON'S MISSION. Will he be staying in Meridian or will he be off to face another area in the great Idaho Boise Mission. YOU WILL HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Paxton

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

Winter in Boise

The day the President told us not to drive!

9 inches on our deck

I love snow!

Christmas 2010 - Our apartment decorations

Elder Sewell

Our Tree
Our District
Having fun!
Hunting anyone?
Happy meals make me happy!
Another Idaho sunset...

Super good week!

This week has been super good and we are doing super well. We now have two baptismal dates for the 22nd of January, Maria and her 13 year old son. We are super excited for the both of them. I will be sure to take a lot of pictures of it all. We have also found a few new investigators that we are really excited about. One of them we went to visit with uncle Jeff. We needed a guy to go with us because Rosa is a single mom. We tried to call everyone in our branch to go with us, but they were having baptisms for the dead and all of the men that we could get a hold of were going. So Elder Sewell said,"doesn't your uncle know Spanish", so we gave him a call and thankfully he was able to go and we had a great lesson with her.

We have taught 13 lessons this week and have been trying our hardest to keep finding people and thankfully we have been blessed for our efforts. Sorry this email is so short but today pday is going to be pretty short because of a zone activity. We are going bowling and probably going to play soccer after too.

Thanks for everything.

Love,

Elder Paxton

Happy New Year!

Hello to all, Happy New Year,

This week has been pretty interesting. It started off really just like Rocky's fights, rough from the get go, but ended up great with us on top as the new heavy weight champions. Last week we taught 6 lessons and 5 of them were from Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with the first one on Monday.

One of those lessons was with our new investigator with a baptismal date. Her name is Maria Montgomery (which is funny because there are some Montgomerys in our branch, not related). She was a referral from some English elders and she is super golden and is so ready for baptism. She also has a 17 year old daughter who is interested as well. We are so excited for all the good that will come from her and her family. We also met a friend of hers who also seems pretty interested.

We are really being blessed for the hard work that we have been doing, also for getting sick. In the past 5 days we have taught as many lessons as the previous two weeks prior. The rest of this week should also be pretty fantastic as well. We already have a few appointments set and we should have a member go with us to a lot of them.

Today we are going to have a fun day of service. We are going to help our branch president take his cows to the butcher and maybe we will get to help drop them, but I am not sure. I will have to let you know more next week.

That's all folks!!!!

Love,

Elder Paxton

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