Happy Birthday Elder Paxton!

To answer mom's questions...So about the camera card, we were super busy on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I didn't get it sent until Friday, because of thanksgiving. I was thinking about putting it in Grandma's mail box, but I wasn't sure how long you would be there or if the mail would steal it or something like that, so it should be there soon. (I got his card today so I will soon be posting pictures.)

For Thanksgiving we spent some time with an American family that goes to the branch. We were really at his parents house and some more of their family was there as well. After that we had a teaching appointment to go to so we left and went and taught Daniel. It was the best lesson that we have had with him. He is a little hard to understand, because he mumbles all of his words together and also doesn't always look at you when he is talking, but it still went well with him.

After that we went to the branch president's house and didn't actually eat anything since we were still full from the last place. We stayed there until we had to go to another teaching appointment which when we got there, nobody was home, so we just went home and I went to bed a little early.

Speaking of going to bed I am already loving my new pillow, it will take a little getting used to not sleeping on a flat crappy pillow but I think I'll get by. Also it has a ten year warranty so I hope you keep the receipt. Also all of my gifts were so perfect. I think everyone was reading my mind somehow. Trevor, I had been craving a new purple tie and was probably going to get one today but you beat me to it. Grandparents DeMond, I have been wanting a Boise state shirt since I got to the area. Jeff gave my a hat but I needed the shirt to go with it, now I have it. Grandparents Paxton, I re-fell in love with beef jerky last transfer when I was in Wendell but I have been too poor to want to buy some. Also thank you for all of the other candy that I got, my snack drawer on my desk was pretty empty and now it is very full, with only healthy food (ie: lots of chocolate, beef jerky, more chocolate, hot tamales etc.).

Muchos thank you's to Grandma DeMond for the cake. It is already half way gone, me eating 3/8 of it, Elder Sewell had the other 8th. The other elders that live with us have only eaten the crumbs. I keep telling them that it is the best cake in the world and that they need to eat a whole slice but they haven't yet. It was really interesting to tell the Elders from Mexico that it was my birthday because, the Mexican happy birthday song is around 3 minutes long and talks about King David and all sorts of other strange things, the English song was better, 30 seconds and then cake.

We decided against getting Elder Sewell's bike here for now, since it has been pretty chilly and we have been doing very well on our miles so far. I do have my bike in our little storage thing at our apartment, so if you see a sweet cheap indoor trainer, go ahead and send it because I am ready for that now.

Last week from Sunday to Wednesday, we had a visa waiter hanging out with us. He was in Pocatello for around two months and had to come to Boise to go to the Mexican consulate. Since the Boise elders and us are close to the office we both had an elder for a few days. It was really fun we all got along super well and he was a little sad to have to go to Mexico, only because we aren't there, and the super cool families here. I know that he is going to love it down there, and that he already loves the people of the Mexico Villahermosa mission.

That is pretty much everything that is going on here. Today we have the zone activity and also some service as well.

Thanks again for all the love and support from everyone.

Love,

Elder Paxton

My Greenie!

The mission office sent a picture of Elder Paxton and his "greenie" Elder Sewell, along with President and Sister Cannon.

Life is Great!

Hola todos,

This past week was a super improvement on our first week. The first week we only had one lesson, mostly because we had no idea where anything was and the members didn't trust the missionaries before us so they didn't give us any help. Now we are learning where things are and are regaining the trust of the branch so with their help, we were able to teach 7 lessons. Not a huge amount but a huge improvement, which is all we can hope for.

Everything is going well. My son(Elder Sewell) is really the best greenie that I could ask for. There really isn't anything that I can teach him, he already knows it all, except for Spanish but he is coming along. We have gone through our area book and tried to contact everyone who has been taught by missionaries for the last year. We have had a couple of people say that they would like to hear more and some say that the Catholic church is better and that they don't want to change, we get that a lot with Mexicans.

The best family that we are teaching was referred to us by the sister missionaries in Eagle. They live with a family that had set up a dinner appointment with their landscaper. Bro. Clegg (the brother that set up the appointment) had given Manuel un Libro de Mormon and he had been reading it in his spare time and had really been enjoying it. We went to dinner with them and then taught the first lesson(the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ) he and his wife Maria really enjoyed it and we were hoping to set a baptismal date with him, but... we forgot. Tonight we are hopefully going to see him and have a date set for him. Elder Sewell and I are hoping to get two baptisms before Christmas and we are thinking that these are the two.

We weren't able to go to the zoo last week, if we did go we would have only had 3 or 4 hours there and that isn't enough time, even in a small zoo. We will probably go next week or sometime. Today we aren't really up to much, just going shopping and not a whole lot more. We went to the temple this morning and we will hopefully have enough miles every pday to make the huge 2 mile trek to the temple. If you want to send me anything it is easier to just send it to the office, we go everyday to check the mail and Elder Sewell and I don't have a key(that works) to our mail box in our apartment complex.

On wednesday, we went tracting in a trailer park in Eagle. We came up to this one house that said beware of dog. We didn't see one, but we heard a little tiny dog barking from inside the house. At first we thought en serio but then Elder Sewell noticed that there were some rather large dog kennels so I whistled, and we hear this big huge bark and see this big dog in the house. The family wasn't home. As we continued on we were going through a gate to knock on another door, and Elder Sewell decides out of no where to whistle. From a back shed run out maybe 6-8 chihuahua and I just shut the gate and we keep going. If Elder Sewell didn't whistle that would have been an interesting door approach with a million little annoying dogs barking and trying to bite off our ankles. He was big time in tune with the spirit on that one.

Another super cool thing is that Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration is now on DVD. I have been waiting for that to come out since I first got out. So naturally when I heard about it I had to get it and go and watch it with a family. That is probably my favorite church movie there is. It is so powerful. You(everyone and anyone who reads this) should go get it and show it to all of your friends.

That is all that I can think of that may, or may not be, interesting. I could tell you about our weekly planning, but that would probably just bore you all to death, it does to me and I am involved in the 3 hour planning session.

Love,

Elder Paxton

New Home

My new pad is pretty sweet. We live in an apartment with two rooms and a pretty sweet kitchen, complete with a dish washer!! We also live with the Boise elders which is pretty cool to be able to see them a lot. I am starting to adjust to the "big city" life again. Even though we are in the big city we still can't completely escape the smell of the cows. Yesterday we went and did service for a member in the Boise branch and we were cleaning up horse and cow poop. He lives at Five mile just south of Overland.

My new companion Elder Sewell is super cool. He is from California, outside of Sacramento, and is out here to work his butt off. I am really happy that president has given me this opportunity to train. We are trying really hard to get a lot of member help to put some life back into the area. The past handful of elders in Meridian really did very little missionary work, so it is almost like we are opening the area. I have the perfect companion to help. He struggles with Spanish but has a great attitude and really wants to learn.

I have made sure that president knows that almost all of my family lives in this area, he just says that I need to not go out searching for them and focus on the work. That is okay because we are pretty busy doing things and don't really have time to just hang. The biggest reason we went to visit Jeff was to ask if he knew any Hispanos. Elder Sewell also has an uncle who lives in our area, so both of us can't escape our families, even on our missions!!!

I of course brought my bike and Elder Sewell is going to write home and ask for his too. We will drive to the church or something then bike from there.

Last night we had a really good lesson. We started with dinner and then taught the plan of salvation, and the family that we were teaching really seemed to enjoy it and kept saying oh that is logical, which to me it really is. Every thing about the gospel just makes sense to me. I hope everything keeps going well with them.

Well we need to get going. I am pretty sure we are going to the zoo today.

Love

Elder Paxton

Goodbye Wendell, Hello Meridian!

I don't know what my address is but you can go ahead and send everything to the office, we live about two miles from there. I am serving in Meridian, spanish of course, and I am doing what we call shotgun training. I am going to be teaching a gun safety class, not really, I am to be shotgunning the area which is when both the current elders leave and two new ones come in. I am going to be training a new missionary. This should be a pretty fun and tough transfer. I will need to rely on the help of the members, so Jeff if you know any Hispanics send them my way.

Our area covers Meridian, Eagle, Star, and in Boise everything west of five mile, so it is pretty big. I am really excited to be training but also a little nervous because, 1. I don't know the area 2. I haven't been in a "big city" like Boise in almost a year, so I feel super out of place. I keep thinking, why are there so many buildings everywhere?!? Where are all the cows and corn fields?!? I will get used to it super quick I am sure.

Well that is pretty much everything that is going on right now, today I have a bunch of meetings to go to, to learn how to be a trainer and stuff like that. Not much else is going on in my world.

Love,

Elder Paxton

Yes, Elder Paxton is back near family. I have not got his actual address yet, but hope to get that tomorrow from the mission office. His Grandpa and Grandma DeMond and Uncle Jeff and his family all live in this new area. Watch out Elder Paxton, let the spoiling begin!