Tuesday, November 12, 2013

The Loyal Steed is Limping along...


Dear Mom, 

Sorry mom, but I am reading this on Tuesday because of Veterans Day... I am super excited for my package because it snowed here for the first time this morning and it is freezing cold!! Ha-ha. So thanks again for that, it is really funny and ironic. (His package has his winter weather stuff in it.) 

The Loyal steed is still limping along, it makes terrible noises and sounds as if it is going to die shortly, but still movin along.  (He is referring to his bike, I also instructed him to purchase a light for his bike asap!) Actually my companion got a light from home, but already has one so he gave it to me. So that was awesome.  

(I told him this was his last chance for a Christmas request since I need time to purchase/package/mail) For Christmas I could use either an IPod or some CD's with music especially Allred Christmas and Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band Christmas.  Any other really good Christmas music would be great! Also all other music you can think of. Some good photos, that photo of Christ we have hanging in our living room just a smaller size. Oh the little frame maybe that is in my room that talks about a missionary, well I don't want it but I want it to be put upstairs with some photos of the mission on it. Also I need you to get on Facebook and see if Sister Ivonne or Jesus or Andee or Kevin friended me on Facebook, they wanted to do that.  Oh and ties and tie clips/bars. Or really whatever you think I would like, I am not picky.  

My health has been good this last week no hiccups so we will see how everything continues to go. I want you to send Trenton a rubber fish and a rubber snake mwahahaha!!! It’s a personal joke.  Milkyways used to be a candy he really liked and peanut butter, I do not know if they have that in Japan so maybe peanut butter and chocolate chips haha.  I am going to send my SD card when I get to the new area or whatever happens at transfers.  

Happy anniversary way late, but hey better late than never. I bet Ruby River was yummy we are actually going to a place tonight called Buffalo Wild Wings or something like that tonight so we will see how that is... That is good Brooklyn is going on to regions tell her good job for me, because I do not have a lot of time to email this week seeing as how it is a Tuesday and not a Monday we have a really limited time. That is a good idea to put up the Christmas lights and outside trees and such because it will be easier in the warm.  Last year doing that in the cold was not fun at all!!  

Missionaries have frustration with people and commitments too.   I have many ideas to help with that if you want because it is probably one of the things I can help with.  One is to make the challenge or action meaningful to them and make sure to... Do it with them!  When they don’t do it, tell them they need to try again, that they must, for the Lord asks us to complete our tasks, not forget about them. And of course we all forget a lot of the time, but we are not trying to demand perfection because that does not come in this life, but we must expect improvement. You could also give the commitment/task in an indirect way. 

The role model for us is Christ as well as other great teachers, but Christ was perfect, remember he taught using parables and questions. When referring to the Pharisees he tells a man who is paralyzed “thy sins be forgiven thee”, and they say that it is blasphemous because only God can do such things. Right after which he turns to them and says something like, “why do you think evil in your hearts would it be easier to say arise and walk or thy sins be forgiven thee?” Then he heals him. The statement “wouldn’t it be easier”, to me isn’t directed towards the power behind it, because he can do both, but because he shows them the way, and says something like “that ye may know that the son of man hath power to forgive sins I say unto thee arise and take up thy bed”.  He gave them a commitment there that is hidden and I will let you find it because it will have much more worth to you. I really enjoy things like that, anyway a little bit of my advice for you. 

Ok now I will include the things about the work. First off the Diaz Family (Ivonne, Jesus, Andee and Kevin) are doing great they are progressing well and have taken the commitment to leave their other church and come to ours only for a while, this is a good start.  We are going to have a movie night with them on Thursday and watch Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration with them it will be fun, and then we will teach from it afterwards. The Pastor loves us now and is still doing well.  He didn’t come to church this last week for transportation issues it sounded like. But he is reading and doing everything else so we shall see.  The down side is he is going back to Honduras in December so odds are he won’t be baptized here, but who knows so we shall see here shortly. We also found some less-actives that want to come back and a boy they want to take the lessons and be baptized, he is 9. Other than that, lots of tracting and just working. We did have a freezing bike ride on Wednesday because we were going along and it had been cold all day so we had coats and stuff but it started to rain this Ice cold rain and it was about 7:45 at night and all appointments had cancelled, so we were biking to and fro to find people.  We taught one lesson on the porch while they stayed inside and we stood outside and it was cold. This was because there was no man in the house. But I rather enjoyed it even though it was miserable.  It just shows that sometimes we might just have to sit in Gethsemane for a few minutes and suffer for these people out here and for the work, so I rather enjoyed it. So the Diaz family probably won’t be baptized before I leave, but they want me to do the baptism, so I am trying to get permission to come back and do it when they are to be baptized. They are also a family that after my mission I want all of you to meet. I love them so much and see them as my own and I am blessed to feel the love Christ has for them even if it is just for moments and slivers, it is still all worth it!! So that is about it for this week in the field. Overall things are amazing and we are just rolling along.  Well I have to go and email other people so have a great week and I hope everything goes well. 

Love, Elder Pecoso Paxman

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