Great News!!!

Dear Mom, 

(We told him that Brooklyn is going to try out for the Skeet/Trap shooting team at RHS next year.)

No way, they have a shooting team!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is this a new development or did I just space cadet it. AWWW MAN... That bites. But that is amazing for her and I am sure she will get in, she is a really good shot. Although the true test of her skills will be the older brother when he gets home!! Oh, and maybe after a week of warm up to get my skills back hahaha. So she will always have a training buddy, either me or dad. And not to brag or anything like that, but me and Dad are pretty good shots. I am excited for her, that will be something really fun for her to try out for and she will have to practice a ton.  

You should be getting some friend requests on Facebook from some great people here in Indy.   So be ready to have some friends from Indy. Oh also Sister Romero posts pictures of us on her Facebook so you will get to see those. (I did and they are great!!  It is so good to see him, we haven’t seen a photo of him in over 5 months…he looks skinny.) 

This letter I sent him a list of questions: 

Did you find a new place to live?  IF so what is the address? Do we send stuff to a new address or still to the one you already gave us?
How has it been living with multiple elders and will you miss it when you move?  We are really interested to hear about the new living arrangements. Did you guys have to find furniture and kitchen stuff for it as well?  How does that work?  Details. :) We did find a new place but we will not be moving in for a while, so keep sending things to my current address. I do really enjoy being with all the Elders, it makes nights fun and same with our breaks if they fall at the same time. Details about it, well I am living out of my suitcase which is interesting. I have no bed so I am on the couch. Although, I will have a bed in about 2 days. As of right now we live in their living room. The new house is an old church an investigator is renting out and re-doing so we are moving into the top floor, after we consecrate/dedicate it or whatever that is called. It is nice, it has all the stuff kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedroom all of it. It is good sized too and we are renting from an investigator who is a very good man!!  He kind of reminds me of dad a little bit. As far as furniture, we will ask the branch, same with all kitchen ware and stuff. Beds, the mission gives us as well as study desks. That is about all I know about that stuff.  

How are you and the new companion getting along?  Where is he from? My new companion and I get along.  I like him and we get work done, so I am really excited and I like him a lot! He is from Mexico City, but he moved to Utah when he was 10.  But, he spent a lot of time back there so kind of both places.  

What did you do for Thanksgiving?  Where did you go?  What did you eat?  Was it fun? For thanksgiving we first went to the church for the branch activity at 12 to 3 and they had food and music and we all just socialized and such, which was good because now I know quite a few members. They danced, I did a little but not really because it is not suggested for missionaries. It was really fun. They had this really good turkey in a spicy sauce and also this green pasta that is a tad spicy that is my absolute favorite Hispanic food I think!!!  After that we had P-day, but we had food at Presidente Alarcon's house at 7 and we had leftovers from the party and some really good ham. It was a really great holiday overall.  

Do you still email us from a library? I sometimes will email you at the library, but today we are using the Clerk’s office in the church.  

How is your health?  Are you feeling well? I am feeling well.  I have lost like 12 pounds since last time you saw me. I weigh like 175 instead of 180 something. So that is new.  

Were you able to buy groceries and do you have plenty of good food? :)

Are you being fed by members at all?  IF so how many times per week?
We were able to buy some groceries but not a lot still, so we will be working with that. I should be ok though because we get fed almost every night. Well actually like 6 days a week so not too bad at all.  

How has your weather been this week?  Snowy or warm? It has been both as far as weather goes. Snowed quite a bit, it turns out we get lake effect pretty bad some times and stuff. Then it got into the 40's for two days which was really nice. 

Do you study your scriptures in Spanish now?  If not, we think you should.  It will really help your Spanish.  Also when you and your companion live alone you should try speaking only Spanish in your residence!! It will also help with your language! :) I read my scriptures in Spanish during Language study, the mission Pres. has encouraged us during personal and comp study to use our native language. Which is fine with me. In comp study though we do kind of both and in Language study we use only Spanish. Although my language is doing alright I feel.  

Have you had a chance to teach any lessons this week?  Do you have new investigators if so who?  We have taught several lessons this week which has been really good. We have about 9 or so investigators which is a pretty decent amount and we have 3 with a baptismal dates for this next month and December. One Investigator I love is a 60ish year old single women named Juanita she has kids but they are all grown up. She is preparing to be baptized the 28th! So that is good, she is very nice and always calls us hijo, which means like child or son. She is just like a grandma to us missionaries, she is very sweet. We have several others but it would take forever to explain all of them so we have Manuel and Roselia, she is a less active and he is a non-member but he is preparing for baptism for the 28th as well. So that is really good and probably the two most progressing investigators we have. We have a lot more but like I said it would take a while to explain them.  

How was the branch in your new area?  Are you and your companion the only Spanish Elders serving in this area?  Did we understand correctly that you and your comp are re-opening this area to Spanish? We are indeed reopening this area it has been closed for a bit. There are 3 pairs of missionaries for this branch and they are in the cities of South Bend, Elkhart, and Goshen. So some people have to drive a while to get to church. We live in Elkhart where the branch meets and the Branch is wonderful!!! I love it!!  It is small, we have about 35 active members but they are all wonderful and do missionary work. In the entire city of Elkhart though, we are the only Spanish missionaries. The branch overall though is amazing.

Did you get your package?... Are you being a nice boy and only opening them as they are numbered?  What did you think when you opened it?  Were you excited?  I am so excited for you to have this fun thing to do for December. I hope it didn't get smashed up too much.  I had a hard time fitting it all in. I did get my package like 3 days before December!! So I couldn't open any gifts for like 3 days that was hard. Also I have only opened two and the first one was awesome!! I really like that tie bar! The stories with both were really great and I also loved the Clementine’s, they are some of my favorites. I really like the 25 days of Christmas package and I really like the gifts inside.  

How is the mission in general this past week?  Do you love the new area?  Write any great stories or thoughts?  Ok so now for mission stuff. So yes I do indeed love this area a lot!! I am having a really good time up here and hope I can stay in this area for a couple more transfers and hopefully be here for a bit. We have been this week mainly looking for a house until about Thursday. Then we got to finally do some more lessons, so the work in general is going really well here. 

One thing that I am super excited for is this; The Diaz family is being baptized this TUESDAY!!!!!!!!! So I will be making the 3 hour trip down to baptize them!!! I am so excited!! It is an answer to many of my prayers. On that note comes the story of the week. So yesterday I was told that they will be getting baptized, so we then got in contact with the mission president and asked for permission to travel back to Cumberland.  He then said he would only let me go if I got a member to take us!! So I was devastated because usually members don’t like to drive missionaries 3 hours to Indy than back again, not to mention they would have to find a place to stay because of the baptism being at 7 at night. That is very difficult for members to do.  So it was looking impossible, but I called tons of members both here and in Indy and tried my best to get someone to take me and my companion. But no one could. So I texted president pleading, and he told me to call him this morning. I think that I prayed some of the hardest I have had to for a while. Well while praying and pondering I got this thought and a quote came into my mind... It is a lesson I learned long ago but had forgotten. It was this. "If you truly love someone you will do whatever it takes to make them happy, even if that means cutting yourself out of the picture..." That thought was a hard one to come to grips with, but I knew from the moment I thought it, that it was true. So I went to bed that night with the belief that if it was the Lords will for me to make it than it shall happen, and if not, than it is what is best for me and for them. This is of course after I tried just about every person I could think of.  Oh, I also forgot I was allowed to text the Diaz family to let them know that I most likely would not be able to make it. So we text back and forth me and Ivonne for a while and then at about 9 I get a call from her number.  So I pick it up and the 12 year old boy Andee answers. I can hear the sadness in his voice as he says "so Paxman, you aren’t going to be able to come" That just about broke my heart right there... It was hard to hear... So I explain to him what was going on and said something along the lines of it will be fine, I will call you that night and see how everything went if I can't come, but I will try anything within my power to make it there okay. It was hard, then after that Ivonne is handed the phone and she starts talking and starts bearing her testimony over the phone, than I hear this pause... I knew she was trying to not cry and I was too at this point (I know I am a boob) and through tears she chokes out some words. Some of which were this, I will be forever grateful to you for coming to my home and blessing my family with this and for being the example to all of us especially to see my kids accept this and hopefully one day become missionaries like you. She continued on and was crying pretty good now, and was like we will post-pone the baptism for you to come if we have to. Which than had me probably sounding teary because I started to cry shortly after her, not for my sake but for theirs, I said (in Spanish) don't you dare do that, it is far more important that you be baptized, than that I be there, I will do my best to make it down there but if it doesn’t happen I want you to be baptized ok? She complied and said yes and bore some more testimony as did I as well. She then said that if God wants it and if I want it deeply enough it will happen.  I told her I want it more than she could imagine. She then gave the phone to Jesus who talked to me and also thanked me for being there for him and how I was an example, he said that he wanted me to baptize him as well and that he would be forever grateful for me guiding him to the truth... After which they all told me that they want me to baptize them, but I had to tell them that It seemed as if it were not going to happen, but that I would do my best and that if not I would call them and talk to them after.  I told them how much they have impacted me and then they did the same and we hung up. It was probably the most spiritual phone call I have ever had. Well, this morning the President changed his mind, which I am sure was an answer to many prayers!  I can take a car and drive down to baptize them!! I was ecstatic. Than this morning during personal study I was thinking over this and reading in Ether 3 which is one of my favorite all time chapters in the Book of Mormon.  The same thought came back into my head. Along with the feeling of Sacrifice, and how when we truly put ourselves out there on the line, in everything, we will see miracles unfold. It then made me think of our Father in Heaven, and how that quote from earlier comes into play. He loves us so much he was willing to send us down to this earth where we will be tried and tested and some will not come back to him, but He loved us so much that he was willing to do it. And then give his Only Begotten Son, for that same great cause of bringing us back into his presence, which brought a whole new meaning of Sacrifice and Love. So that was just a sliver of all the story, but I feel I have grown so much from this experience in many ways, and it has and will shape my mission and my life.  

Well I have taken a very long time with this email, but I love you all and hope you have a great week. I am also excited to be able to speak with you all on the phone. Love you all once again and hope to hear from you shortly. 

Con amor,

Tu Hijo, Elder Paxman