Still In The Place I was Born...

Dear Mom,

I am super stoked for the dessert stuff because that stuff is amazing.  (We told him we were sending him some Ultimate Cookie Bars from the wedding).  Sadly my health has not been the greatest as of late, it hasn’t been bad, but not great.  Most days I feel decent to good so that is nice but every once in a while it gets a little difficult.  I do think riding bikes helps unless I am already not feeling very good, than not so much... But, all in all things are going great.

I am still in the place I was born, Cumberland Spanish.  I will be here with my companion till next transfer which is the beginning of October.  I will be out for 6 months shortly and I am freaking out!  It has flown by so fast and I can not even believe it.  They all say it just picks up even more speed, they say the first 6 months feels like a year, which has definitely been true on some fronts.  Then the next year will feel like 6 months, so that I am not looking forward too.  Then the last 6 months will feel as if 6 weeks.... That is just one of the analogies.  Overall it just means it goes flying by even faster.  The thing I have seen is that the days seem like weeks and the weeks seem like days.

My jeans they fit as of about 4 weeks ago, but they continue to get smaller it seems and I am sure that they will continue to do so.  (I asked him if all the biking had made his jeans too small in the thigh)  I also can do like 4 pull ups now Booyahh, from 0 to 4 in like 10 weeks!! I will take that.

(I also asked him if he had all the information regarding his upcoming Doctors appointment with the GI there at the University of Indiana)Yea they got me all the information, so I still have to get all of that stuff ready to go so I will be ready by the time of the appointment.

On the mission front, not a lot has changed besides me not going anywhere on transfers. Sister Ivonne and Bro Jesus as well as their two boys will be baptized sometime in September I believe.  That is good and I am excited for that. Other than that not much has changed, oh we do have to stay on bikes for the rest of this week because the people we are sharing our car with are going to transfer meetings and need it, although I believe we will be getting a car sometime in September. Which is good because even though bikes aren’t too bad, our area takes a hit because of its size, and the fact that it takes too long to bike to the investigators and then from one to the other.  Things will continue to get better I think, especially since Elder Hjelm and I are getting into the swing of things.

Well I am burning down my time and have not much left so I love you all so much, and tell Brooklyn to keep practising volleyball and if she does she will get into it next year.  If she has any of my same genes she will be awesome hahaha, because I played all the time in the MTC, although lets face it I stunk,  but it was fun anyway. Well I love you all so much and you are constantly in my prayers, Love you all and I can't wait to hear from you next week.

Love, your son, Elder Paxman

Excerpt from his letter to Bailee:

(She had told him she made a really good dinner for her and Kyle on the honeymoon and that they had played with almost life size checkers)Ok, first what did you make him chicken noodle soup??? BAHAHAHA. I laughed when you said you forgot how to play checkers because it took me a second to remember the rules and by a second I mean like 10 min!! Also how did you move the pieces are they heavy or do you like kick them because the are like a giant hockey puck? Also the chess pieces made it even funnier in my minds eye. Oh and squeaky cheese is awesome, I forgot how to spell squeaky because Spanish is killing my English so sorry if it is wrong.

Well it sounds like you are going to be way busy at school and stuff, it will go wel,l just remember to follow god and he will never lead you astray. I love you so much and I can't wait to hear of all the crazy stuff that happens next week. You and Kyle are both in my prayers on a daily basis and I hope and pray everything will just continue to get better, Well I love you so much and I cant wait to hear from you next week.

Love, your little bro, Elder Paxman

Tell Kyle I love him too.

Excerpt from letter to Dad:

The mission President is awesome, I had interviews with him for the first time a few weeks ago and it was amazing.  He said something very profound, he said that it could be the very reason I was sent to Indian to serve was so I could meet this Doctor.  I thought that was a very interesting thought.  Overall I am loving it out here on the mission and it seems I grow to love it more and more.  Dad,  I love you and you are in my prayers always, I am excited to hear form you shortly and I love you and the family so much.

Love, tu hijo, Elder Paxman

Awesome spirit...

Dear Mom and Dad, 

I read all about the wedding reception and such from Bai, it sounds as if it went amazing.  I am excited to see even more pictures. The entire thing looked beautiful and really fun. I really liked the cake with the roses and the pic of Bai. (He sent a video message to Bailee and Kyle and some of my family got to watch it) I am glad Brenda got to see the video and especially Alex I am excited to see if he emails me that would be super bueno!! I also have a man out here for Brenda if she is still looking hehehe, he is way awesome. He is new to the branch and is from Utah, speaks fluent English and Spanish, he is a way cool guy and fed us Lasagna.  Man I miss American food... Like a good steak or maybe some juicy ribs man that sounds good, as you can tell I haven’t eaten lunch yet and am starving.  

My health has been good, I had a little hiccup this week, so I will just have to be way careful. I only have one experience this week that I will write about, but first, all the people you asked about are doing good.  Anna y Jorge understand very little, so we have to go extremely slow with them. Ivonne y Jesus are doing really good, they are reading but we just have to get them to come to church more, they have only been once.  They are scheduled to be baptized on the 10th of Sept. but it seems as if we might push it back to the 24th... 

So by this time next week I will find out if I am getting transferred... Can you believe it!! It has already been 6 weeks with my new Comp, man things are flying out here it seems. Oh, anyway the experience, so we got back in contact with a couple named Arturo y Beatrice, they are very nice, and we asked them the question… hold on I have to try and translate it in my head, Oh ok, "Why is it significant that God is our Loving Heavenly Father?" I asked that and had no idea why. So Arturo answered and what he said was good, but Beatrice started crying and gave a long answer about confusion and how hard things have been in her life lately, and that because he is our heavenly father he can help her. So after that I told her that is why we are here.  I can promise you as a disciple and servant of Christ that we were sent here by him for just that, to help her.  It was like “what the freak” awesome spirit time, it was awesome!! Sorry if it doesn’t all make a ton of sense I had to translate it in my head. So that is my one story for the week.  

The music is good, (In his last package we sent him a few CD’s) I really like album Trek.  They are talking about bringing back IPods and letting us use those, so that would be nice. Also I want you once everything calms down to look for a back/side pack like the camera bag we have at home. I could really use that here.  They are going to be outlawing backpacks in about 4 months, so I need something like that for when I am on bikes. Well, I am super stoked to hear and see more about the wedding and a picture of my picture there, hahaha. My Spanish is doing well it improves daily.  I still struggle but it is a ton better than when I started...  

Well I don’t want to take too much more time, but I love you all so very much and tell everyone hi for me. You and the Fam are always in my prayers and I can’t wait to hear about the other stuff next week. Love you all. 

Love Your Son, Elder Paxman 

Five Months in the Field!!

Dear Family,

(I always ask after his health) Well my health is going good, there are times at night where I start to get a little bloated and not feeling to good which I do not like, but overall good and even when I do feel a little sick it is bearable. Thank you for cancelling the August doctor’s appointment.  That made things a ton easier for me.

Yea I do need to write back people.  I feel way bad but I am so busy it is crazy... Although here soon I am hoping to get a bunch done and send them out. Man I wish I could have been there for Bai at the Temple.... But iz all good, I am so excited for her. (I told him that Bailee had received her endowment on Saturday) That story you told me about the young boy, I really enjoyed!! I will have to make sure to get something to them soon... (A primary class in our ward wrote to Elder Paxman and one of the grandsons of a sister in our ward was really concerned for Elder Paxman and asks about him all the time and prays for him.  I shared this with him in longer detail)

I know Trenton left, I got an email from him this week that I need to read. I can’t believe I have been gone for 5 months now tomorrow!! It is flying by way to fast and my sister is getting married!!!! MAN things are just cruising by... Some of the guys here tease me about how I am going to be replaced by a little one... 8/ That better not happen!! I am okay if she is preggers when I get home but only like 5 months or else I will be forgotten... My companion told me that when I arrive home at the airport, I am going to have to get an airport taxi to go to home or the hospital and I am going to walk in and you are all going to be like OH!!! You came in today?? hahaha We get a pretty good laugh about it.

Me and my companion are doing amazing, we get along very well, the branch sometimes call us Niño’s or kids because we get along like brothers even the bickering with each other sometimes. This week not a whole lot new happened although if I do say so myself I am looking good bahaha, we biked over 140 miles this last week!! It is crazy!! So my legs are huge but I still have toothpick arms... But they are getting better I can now do like 5 pull-ups hahaha and my abs are awesome haha, other than that awesome bit of information, not much is going on here.  We did find two new investigators Anna y Jorge, they are solid, and they are progressing well and are reading the Book of Mormon now. Sister Ivonne and Jesus are doing very well, although they have only attended church once, but they are still reading and wanting to meet with us so we are hoping we can get them to church with us this next week. Other than that not too much is new... Oh although I need you to do something for me... I want you to find a place where you can either buy or get 2 Indian arrow heads... Even if they are just like chipped by machine or something. They are a gift for two boys here and I have a lesson to go along with them. So if I could get those that would be great. Well I can't believe by next e-mail Bai will be married...

Well Mom I love you so much and keep having tons of fun and don’t get too overwhelmed as time approaches, remember to cherish every moment and remember the moments that matter most because often they don’t come back. Love you all and I can’t wait to hear all the new things from home next week.

Love, your son, Elder Paxman

El Pecoso and some photos

Dear Family,

(Ben recently sent home another SD card full of photos and video.  I had told him some of the photos are blurry and has he checked the auto focus etc.) Yeah, I have noticed that some of my pictures on my camera are blurry too and I do not know how to fix it so that is kind of a pain... I am just going to keep working at it...  

Well Things here are going great.  Celeste is still doing well and is interested.  We stopped by one morning at 9 a.m. on our way to a meeting and shared something real quick and we gave her a Book of Mormon.  She said we could come back after the meeting, so we did, and by the time we got back around 1:00 p.m., she had already read the intro and the testimonies!!  I have never had an investigator progress in less than 24 hours not to mention about 3 and a half hours.  

My health is still doing pretty good, although I found an addiction out here. It is called Tampico.  It is a really cheap juice that tastes good.  I get the red one and it isn’t that unhealthy too which is nice. We also got Ivonne and Jesus to church for the first time this last week.  It was good, but they could only stayed for the first hour. 

My Spanish is getting much better and I think it is because both my companion and I have to try harder to communicate with people, in fact sometimes I catch myself talking Spanish when I am supposed to talk in English, but only a few words that sound common. Well Yazmine the girl that was my first baptism is doing really well, she is planning on getting a car so she can come out to lessons with us. Her mother Adela is an investigator who knows it is true, she is just stuck in her old traditions so it is going to be interesting with her.  Adela can never remember our names, (as it is with most of the Hispanics I have met so far) Most the time they just call us Elder, or sometimes a descriptive word, for me it is El Pecoso, or just Pecoso, which means freckly one or freckle face.  I like it and it is pretty catchy haha. 

I was able to get the backpack and it works wonders so far, although they just announced that in about 6 months they want us using side packs.... Which is hard while biking, even that taska bag... Side bags are just not meant for biking. The mission gets cars in September, so we won’t get one till then, and I will have 6 months on my mission by that time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What da freak, where did it all go!?! (I’m assuming he is referring to the time) So after some time I might have you look around there for a good side pack, like one we use for the camera, like a cross-over thingy. 

(He has asked me to contact a few friends via Facebook and get their current addresses) Yes if you could do that with some of the people I mentioned, that would be great, because I have a letters for them, but I don’t know what they are doing with college and stuff, so I don’t know where to send it. I will also be sending letters to Annie, Matthew Hair, Lara, Daniel Sorenson, and people like that to the house and I need you to once they arrive tell the respective persons you have a letter from me for them and that they need to come get it.  Or if you can get the letters to them.  This will save on postage which I am running low on, and will let me get mail to those people that I don’t have contact info to.  

Biking is still hard, my Bike is just a beast, me and my companion compare our bikes to like his is a nice Lambo or something and mine is an ancient Ford that dies every 5 miles but it makes me in shape and it gets me from point a to point b so no complaints here. The Hi-Chews were very appreciated by all, although many have been disappearing very quickly, the little thief’s haha. Yea I tried not crying during the videos but it wasn’t happening.  (He is referring to a video message he sent for his sister who is getting married in a few weeks)  I finally got a full one after like 5 tries goodness. But there is one that I really liked in there and I hope you use that one. You will have to include tons of pictures for me because I need a lot more. Also the new temple movie sounds cool; I wanted to ask what they changed but decided that probably isn’t the best idea. Well our fridge currently has 5 gallons of Tampico in it because we got so much!!  It was on sale for 3 for 4 bucks so that was awesome. Oh also we are going bowling today so if you could put some money in my debit card to use that would be fantastic thanks.  

(In one of the videos he sent he is being challenged to eat a whole pepper of some kind)The people I am eating the pepper with is Freddie a member, Yazmine, and her mom Adela. I have had to ride my bike in the rain and it is way fun except the part where all my planner and stuff in my pockets got soaking wet. But my back is drenched here anyway with sweat most of the time, the humidity makes me sweat a ton and it is a pain in the butt. Your weather sounds way hot, but I think I would trade you types of heat any day haha.  

Well I love you all so much and I hope everything goes great for the wedding and everything preparing for it. You need to send pictures and take tons of video.  Tell dad the deck is looking good and let him read this too. Well Love you all so much and I will hear from you next week. 

Love, your son Elder Paxman (Pecoso) 

Elder McDaniel, Elder Paxman, Yazmine and Elder Cozzens.

Elder Paxman and Elder Aranda