Run forward doing all we can...

Dear Mom,

Thank you for sharing which Indy missionaries moms belong to the Missionary Mom’s thing. It’s fun for me to see.  Elder Hjelm, Elder Stone, Elder Cuevas are all Spanish and I know each of them. Elder Van Haren is from Gilbert Arizona and he is my District leader and he and I are pretty tight. Elder Rowe is Chris Rowe from North Star, I have hung out with him a couple times, he is a cool kid. I have met most of the others, but don't know them all that well. So yea it is a really small world.

Although, a sad thing has happened from the days of Elder Hjelm... The Diaz family has gone inactive.  I found out at transfers that they have not gone to church in about 6 weeks and that they are not answering their phone and barely answer the door for the missionaries; I thought something might be up when they stopped emailing me about 4 weeks ago.... It was sad to find that out, I just wanted to drive to their house and kick down their door, and give them a real talk... But it is not my task, so maybe another time... It made me really sad though... Supposedly they got offended at church, which I could see; the Spanish Branch in Indy is super bad at that they are not great at retaining members... It still made me really sad none the less... 

(Ben has asked for new scriptures his others are thrashed, and I asked him how he felt about a package that celebrated his ½ way mark.  He doesn’t really like to think about already being half way done.) As far as the scriptures go I am not bothered with either, whether separate or a quad. Color wise I would say black or Crimson I really like the Crimson ones. Also a case for those so they don't get thrashed by weather like the other ones... Oh and maybe more photos for my frame! (I sent him 3 pictures of Christ) I loved all three that you put in there, and now they don't have to be of Christ they can be anything that you think is really cool and that I would like. Actually, for the scriptures probably not a quad it might be easier to find them separate.

(We had the missionaries over this past week to teach Regina and a classmate of hers.  I shared with him what a great experience it was and that the girls want the missionaries to come back this week) That sounds like an awesome experience with Regina and that is cool that they liked it so much, I have definitely had those experiences speaking Spanish. More so at the beginning of my mission than I do now, but I still remember them. (He is talking about how even though the language is not perfect the spirit is, because I told  him that even though most of us could not understand a word this missionaries were saying as they were speaking in Mandarin, we still understood because of the spirit being so strong)

Okay, so about transfers.  First, my new companion is named Elder Hansen, he is from Riverton!!! he is English speaking and he has only been out 4 and a half months, I am still the senior companion, we are still striping, I really like him, he is nice and willing to learn, he is a good missionary and I am glad to be working with him. I did use my Birthday Visa card for dinner I took my companion and we went to Buffalo Wild Wings and it was awesome!!  Then a few days later a member took us there again it was awesome!! The work this week has been good, not a lot new because we spent a lot of time taking mi compa to members and investigators to introduce him and such. Although Drew is on schedule to be baptized here in about 12 days or so, so I am way excited for that! We teach maybe 2 or 3 Spanish lessons a week if I am lucky, so not a lot, but enough. I really enjoy it. I wish I could talk more, but it is good enough for me for now. The branch has probably about 50 active members so it is pretty small, but I love the branch anyway, they are really nice.  The only thing is they do not feed us much at all...

My belly is doing alright I now weigh 167 so I have lost weight again, but mostly fat I think because I am sure to work out every day. (This mommy is not happy about this weight loss, it means he is down 15 pounds from the MTC :/ I don’t care if its fat or not… that is a lot of weight for a young man who was not overweight to lose) I have not been sick for a while so that has been nice, and most times when I am sick I can work, other times I cannot. (I asked him if he and the Mission President spend much time discussing his health and if the President seems concerned at all.) We discuss my health a little, not a lot, he is a little worried, but not too much, we now have a medical lady besides sister Cleveland she is a Nurse Practitioner so that is nice. I don't let my sickness slow me down to much. I did not come out here to be sick all the time and even if I am I have been through harder I feel.

(In reference to my asking him about a ½ way package) I don't mind either way. I am sad that the time has gone too fast, but if we are depressed about the future nothing gets done, so might as well run forward doing all we can. As far as the missionary front goes things have been really good here nothing too special this week has happened and right now there is a blizzard outside... The Davis family is amazing they are LARCS that live in Monticello and I really like them. Jim Davis is a policeman and reminds me a lot of uncle Marty just with a lot of tattoos and stuff haha. We are working to get them to go to the temple when his wife hits her year mark from being baptized. Other than that things here have not been to eventful.  I did have to teach priesthood this last week so I will share some of my thoughts from that, that have come from past studies and such. Today, though I will talk about Abraham and the story of him sacrificing Isaac. During some studies I came across a lot of interesting stuff about this story and my favorite part about it, was someone talks about "why did Abraham have to sacrifice Isaac?? Why would God command that??" I have come to three conclusions by listening to other people and also by my own studies. One more obvious reason is to test Abrahams' obedience to the Lord, another is to give us an example of putting everything in our lives on the altar, even our own lives if necessary, and lastly and my personal favorite. I believe that God had him go through that, so that at least one mortal man would know at least a piece of what Our Heavenly Father had to feel to willingly sacrifice his own son! That thought to me was so profound and we often think of Christ's sacrifice, but what of the fathers, how it would feel if we had to put our only begotten son on an altar and willingly and mournfully watch him die and worse yet, be hung on a cross and mocked and cursed by many. It makes me appreciate the love that our Heavenly Father has for us to give up his only begotten, and that shows us just how much me we must be willing to sacrifice to obtain Salvation and Exaltation in the Kingdom of God.  Now thankfully most of us will never have to do such, but the simple example means wonders to me. Well I love you all so much and hope to hear from you next week!

Love, Elder Paxman