"Guardians of the Horizon"

Dear Mom,

I am doing well and my stomach has been pretty good this week, no real problems so that is a good thing. Oh tell dad that I am going to keep trying the Kefir thing so to transfer $20.00 to my account every two weeks to pay for that.

I am going to answer a couple of his questions from his letter in this because I do not have a lot of time today, so I will just answer some of his questions here. First, no they do not provide an I pod so if I am going to get one I need you and dad to buy it and put a ton of music on it, instrumentals (cool ones), Christmas, a lot of solo artist stuff and all that good stuff and cool remixes of the hymns and stuff like that. Mom, don't kill my popularity with the Blog hahaha.

I was always curious what they did on those Relief Society retreat things, from what you told me it is pretty much like a vacation??

I really hope you can be a part of bringing that family into the gospel, it is an amazing experience and it is something you or them will not forget.  Also get dad to go I know he is like me and is not super social but when he gets there I know he can make an impact on their lives and also be a part in their progression.

(I, mom, am on a journey to finish the Book of Mormon cover to cover again in a short period of time.  It has been a few years since I have read it cover to cover.  I told him that last week a few days I was not feeling well and didn’t get my allotted amount read, he is trying to encourage me.)It is ok to falter we all do on one day or another, even though it is something small, I have learned that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass, so keep up the reading!!  One day in the past is not worth fretting about it for one minute in the future. (Or however many days you missed).

Fall by far is my favorite season just everything about it I love, but here it is different you don't have the “Guardians of the Horizon” out watching over the valley’s here!! (Came up with that myself, ha-ha. The mountains are what I am talking about if you couldn’t figure that out ha-ha). Also the leaves are barely starting to change, pretty much it is still green here, and still in the low 80's high 70's except this week it is supposed to drop down to the 60's and 50's.  My favorite kind of weather, the 60's, Yes!! Really encourage Brooklyn's picture taking, I love doing it and wish I did it more at home and it is something I want to do more when I get home. Also Zion's is a perfect place for taking pictures and it will give her a chance to get out and take a deep breath of mountainy air (which is actually a smell I miss ha-ha) Here it just smells like city.  It is kind of terribly smelling,  but around Hispanic homes it smells like spicy food which is good. I actually miss the acorns; there are not many if any here... Although I hated mowing those things it was like flying projectiles at my shins.

(We purchased him some sweaters and are sending them to him)Sweet I am stoked for the sweaters I love those and they say I will need them here soon, but we shall see.

(I got the idea from another mission blog I read to send him a list of questions) I am going to start with the questions that don't take as long to answer and work my way up I think.

2. Was it a car or bike week?  If bike how far did you have to ride and is it getting cold? Well car and bike week, we share it like this Monday-Thursday is us and Friday-Sunday is them. So it works well like that.  We have biked a ton I don't even know this week not, as much but I would say mileage into the 80's. The temperature isn’t too bad here I am still in short sleeves and sweat pretty good.  Nights on the bikes in short sleeves gets a little nippy though.  It makes for fun bike rides in the night, because I don't have a light for my bike so I use the headlamp I brought for a flashlight ha-ha.

3.  Do you and your companion get along?  Do you follow rules and work well together?

My companion and I get along well.  He is an oober ladies-man, jock. :) I really like him and we get along well, we follow the rules, maybe not to the T ;). Ha-ha.

4.  Do you always use the computers at the Library or can you sometimes go to the church?  Do they have computers there you can use?

We only use the computers at the library, not at the church.  I am not even sure if there are some there or not...

5.  On Sunday do you only attend one ward/branch or do you attend several.  Do you go to ward councils? After church what do you do on Sunday?

We attend only one Branch Council and only one missionary from each companionship goes in, so three missionaries at this moment. Other than that Sunday is a normal day we tract or go to appointments, eat with members or whatever else.

6. How has your health been?  Stomach?  Any other issues I should know about health wise? My health has been fairly good, so that is nice every once in a while I get a little bloated but not too bad overall.

1. How is the work?  Who are you teaching and how is it going?  (Yvonne and Jesus, Francisco and family, any other new ones) details. Write and tell me all about your week?  Ok now for how the work is. We had a very spiritual lesson with Fransico and his family; they are ready for baptism except 2 big things are slowing them down.  One is their church attendance, Fransico and his daughter Alejandra attended this week but no one else in the family came and we need all of them to come. So we are meeting with them today to see how they liked the meetings and are having family home evening with them. No one else new really, we found a guy named Roberto but we have only taught him once so I don't know how that will go at all. Now with Ivonne and Jesus, this week was a hard one for me... So we went over there on Tuesday after they attended a session of conference over the weekend. We walked in and everything seemed a little different, we sit down and start talking and immediately Ivonne says, "We are not going to be baptized".  At first I thought they were joking, but than she was very serious and I discovered that they were not joking. That was a moment I could hardly bear... I have grown to love them and their family like I do an aunt and uncle and cousins and even a more deeper connection that is hard to explain.  When she said that they weren’t going to be baptized and was talking about it.... It took everything I had to hold it together... Even then a few tears came out... So it was very hard... It turns out they were antied by another church who told them we were like a sect or a cult, and that we held Joseph Smith higher than Jesus and all this false stuff... So we tried to fix things but they pretty much said they don't want it anymore... But thankfully at the end of our visit, Ivonne said she will get baptized but she needs more time.  Sadly though it really shook Jesus and we will need to work more with him.  Yet he wants what is best for his family and he told us once he believed Joseph Smith was a prophet... He also really wants the Priesthood... So that was hard. We were able to meet with them again on Thursday and do a lot of damage control which was good, also really teach a good lesson about why we talk about and the importance of Joseph Smith.  We took Yazmine (a new convert they baptized earlier in his mission) with us who has had a lot of people trying to anti-her, but she always has done well, so it was good to have her with us. We will be taking her a lot more with us and having her help with them. I still believed they will be baptized within the next six weeks but it is going to take a lot... So that was with them. That was about it, but that experience not only shook them but shook me... and my faith it seems. This week I struggled with a lot of stuff but overall now I am doing amazingly better because after the pillow of tears and bed of sorrow we ascend heavenward saying thy will be done. (I combined two talks there). So other than that not much else has gone on. Oh also Ivonne said after we told her I will be in this area for six more weeks (this was at the second visit) she said "Well than we have got six weeks to be baptized" She has expressed how she wants me to baptize her already, so we will see how all of that unfolds in the coming weeks. So other than that as far as Spiritual stuff goes just really trying to strengthen myself so that I may stand strong and be a light for others.  Also Elder  Holland stated in a talk once that Preach My Gospel and this work is often to first convert the missionary then the Investigators.  I believe I am in the middle of this process right now, really finding myself and building my testimony more and also helping others, so yep. This week was rough and great at the same time.

Well My letter has gotten forever long so I will end. I love you all so much and hope everything goes great at home, have a fun time down south and be safe. I love you all and I hope to hear from you next week.

Con Amor, Tu Hijo, Elder Paxman