It took a Perfect Son

Dear Mom,

So for today’s email I will start with answering questions.  Now of course I do not have a lot of time because it is transfer p-day, so we will see how well this goes.

Will you be transferred or are you staying in Logansport?  Will you be keeping your companion?

So I am staying here in Logansport and my companion is leaving, so I will be getting a new one which should be really fun although I have really liked mi compa.

Did you get your birthday package?  I sent him a framed photo of the Savior and Peter, but behind it I also put two other pictures, so next month he can change it out, to have variety.

I really enjoyed the package it was awesome, we have not had a chance to make the cake though so I will do that here in the next few days. I had no idea that there were more photos behind that one. That is freaking awesome!! I love the one that you got me, I have never seen it before and really enjoy it. I did think of one more thing I do need, but can wait for my year mark, and that is a new set of Spanish scriptures, a nice set and also some cases for them, my last ones are really beat up from the bad weather and the extreme cold. But they work for now so I am in no dire need of them. Overall I loved the package and I will probably go on the dinner with my new companion as a b-day thing and also to get to know him.

So, if I remember right you said you would be speaking in church one your Birthday.  Did this happen and if so how did your talk go? (I also spoke on his birthday and shared some of my talk with him.)

 I will talk about my talk later on in the letter.  I really enjoyed your talk though I liked it a lot, yours was a lot shorter than mine too hahaha. Although, I already knew the thing about the Flamingos I never thought of it in that way so that was super cool.

 I got invited to join the private page on Facebook called missionary mommas.  I LOVE it!  It has over 1800 members, all mothers of current missionaries.  They just post whatever, and when I joined, it asked me to tell a little about my missionary and where he is serving.  There are about 12 other Indy moms in the group, but so far the Spanish one I have found is named Elder Stone.  Do you know of him?  Anyway I do know Elder Stone he is from Colorado, near Grand Junction. His Spanish is really good, although I haven't served around him for about 3 months or so. He is really cool!!. What are some other people who are on the mama facebook thingy?? I might know some of them.

How has your health been this week? My health has been pretty good this week, I haven't really been sick, my intestines though have been flip flopping and I haven't been very hungry

How do you like your Mission President, now that you have had him a while?  Do you have much interaction with him?  I like our mission Pres. He is awesome, although we do not have much interaction because I am not in a position of leadership. Although I do have an interview with him soon, so that will be interesting.

What are your thoughts about the crazy weather and cold you have had this year?  My thoughts on the cold are that I do not like it, but it doesn't feel like the worst I have ever been in. Except when it gets to below the negatives that really bites haha, overall though we stay pretty warm, they also don't want us out for more than 15 min. at a time in the open air when it’s really cold. That is not good with the snow-pack hopefully things will get better with that here in the next few weeks so you won't be in such a drought this year.

Ok so now for the work stuff. So I did give my talk yesterday in Sacrament meeting, it went really well as far as people tell me. I got a lot of people who came up and told me how well I did. Although, good story about that. So that day we were not expecting many people to show up to church because of the storm and everything which gave us about 5 inches and lots of ice. So my companion and I were to bless the sacrament that day,  so we were sitting up on the stand like usual and this really tall guy came walking in and shook our hands and sat down on the stand, now I knew a high councilman was coming to give a talk as well with me for church. So that is who I assumed it was, but before the meeting started and we were finishing up the last minute things this short guy came in and talked to us and said he was the high councilman, so than I was thinking who is this really tall guy?? Now only about 45 people showed for church so that was nice because I was really nervous and all the ones who showed up I knew pretty well, although I was still nervous because of the high councilman.  Anyway, while we are singing the first hymn I nudge my companion and ask who the tall man is. He pauses and is like "oh that is the Stake President" I had a flip out right there!!! The Stake President!! I have to talk with him here!! It made me nervous and I thought I might have a nervous breakdown. J  Well long story short, I had been praying a lot that the message I would tell would be what people needed to hear and that the spirit would be there with me. Well I gave my talk which was on Service and Sacrifice; it was a really good talk I felt. So I went first and took a good chunk of time and then it was the High Councilman, and then the Stake President took a few minutes also.  We all gave our talks and I felt mine went well and people said they loved it.  Although, it was funny this lady came up to me afterward and said that I was an amazing public speaker, but that I need to speak in the mike better, she than gave me 15 min. lessons on how to do so, I laughed and said sounds great thanks for the help, she is kind of an older lady haha.

Other than that this week has just been really really good. We have taught a lot of people and are coming along good with a few of them.  Drew is scheduled to be baptized on the 1st of March.  We area also excited for the Davis family a less active, recent convert and part member family, that is working towards the temple here in April. So everything is going really good. We also housed a puppy for about 8 hours until we found the owner during the massive storm, and companion got the car stuck absolutely sideways in a long driveway at a member’s home. So overall a week filled with a lot of fun and adventure.

I will share a little bit of my talk and wrap up because of the time constraint and a lot of people emailed me because of my B-day. So in my talk, I talked a lot about how sacrifice is often a part of service that is essential yet often times not so desired.  I shared some thoughts from Elder Holland's talk about "missionary work and the Atonement" It was really good, I will share a brief piece I used that talks about why service and this life is not easy. He talks about why this life and missionary work and other things are not easy, even when we do our best and are earnestly trying.  He continues, and says he firmly believes that this life is not easy because Salvation was never easy, it took a perfect son to suffer and bleed from every pore to atone for the sins of the world, and shouldn’t we be willing to at least do a little bit for our fellow man. He goes on with a lot of great thoughts, but overall a really good talk that you and the family should read, I really enjoy it. Anyway I love you all so much and hope you have a great week, I will tell you more about my new companion and all the new stuff next week, I love you and hope and pray that you have a great week.

Love, tu hijo Elder Paxman