Picture sent to me by a dear friend and shared to her by President Coffin,
Elder Paxmans branch president
Picture posted this past week via Face Book by Hermana T.
Dear Mom,
(We recently took a trip to St. George and
while there saw a few fairly large lizards, in the past this would have
resulted in a catch and grab by Ben. I
asked if he would still chase lizards.) Hahaha, as far as the lizard thing goes... Do you really have
to ask that question... Of course I would still go grab them and chase after
them!!! Give me some credit hahahaha. I do remember the Gublers sending me
letters, there is just one problem I don't have them anymore because they were
in the big blue thingy I sent home. Also, yeah I am terrible at writing back by
snail mail, but I want to get better so if they send me some letters I will try
and get back to them. Although one
reason I feel bad to write back to people is because my hand-writing freakin
sucks haha it does, especially when I am in a hurry.
Hermana Selegna Torres is a member that I am tight with. She
is super cool, I knew her at the beginning of my mission. So accept her friend
request, plus she will probably send you pictures of me through Facebook.
(I asked him where the picture of the 6 Elders
shown above was taken and when. I
received it on Thursday, via a text from the branch president to another
missionary momma that sent it to me.) We were at the Branch Presidents home, and it was I think this
last Thursday. (I also mentioned that he
is again looking a little skinny.) I probably am a little thin again, it
has been a while since I got really sick, but my intestines are still not
really normal, they still give me fits every once in a while. I have stopped
the medicine for now. We are doing the 2 weeks on 2 weeks off thing, but I am
keeping a pretty good record so the Doc and I can keep track of things and talk
about it when I see him again.
(We are all doing the Book of Mormon
Translation Challenge. He is doing it in
Spanish, which I told him was awesome!!) It is a little hard to do the challenge in Spanish, but I really
like it, I don't know quite a few words, but I can deduce them with the
sentence and words around it. Another
goal I have is to read the entire bible by the end of my mission. Right now I am in Leviticus 18, it.... okay I
am not going to lie, kind of stinks, like I need to know the 200 different ways
to tell if some guy has leprosy! Goodness I can't wait till I can get out of
that part of the bible, which is pretty much the first 5 books.
I am glad that people
like to read the blog, it is kind of cool to think about for me. I just hope
that people get to hopefully feel the spirit even just a little by the words
that I write, especially since I am not the greatest at it.
Yes I was at the meeting;
it is called Why I Believe. It is a
meeting where a few of the newly baptized people get to go up and tell their
story and their testimony. I really
liked it. They have it about once a
month or once a transfer here in the city. We did get the Easter package and I
did really enjoy it! I loved it, the socks where awesome. I liked the design
ones, I have always wanted some. I did give my companion his Easter sack, and
we didn't open our sacks till Easter and we did find the money. I really liked
the Submarine tie bar, I thought it was super cool and I wore it that day to
church. I loved the package overall and the candy was awesome! I still have
most of it because I have been saving it.
This week has been
good, but as before nothing much new has really gone on. We did find people to
teach, so we will see how all of that pans out. We did also teach a few lessons
and they went well. We did get fed by Hermana
Maria De Los Angelas and Vicky some members. Oh Vicky is
Hermana Selegna Torres by the way but we call her Vicky. I am
serving under Elder Cozzens he is my DL, he
was my trainer, and it is cool to work with him again. We are getting along
well. So as far as the work goes not a
whole lot is new, actually no investigators showed up to Church which was sad,
but it was still really good. Jesus Diaz (now a member Hno. Diaz The father of the family
that Elder Hjelm and I baptized) taught in Priesthood today and it was amazing to
see how much he has progressed in about 5 months! He did an amazing job and
testified of many things, it was a really cool experience for me, and gave me
an opportunity to see the fruits of labor not only on the missionaries’ part,
but also on the part of the convert. The Diaz family is doing really well; they
just got called this last Sunday as Ward Missionaries so that was amazing to
see.
So I do have some
amazing news, but I will get to that near the end. First I am going to talk
about my studies and stuff. So this week we have gotten some training and I
have studied a little bit about Enduring to the End. Which seems to be a pretty
simple principal, but when things come down to it, it can be the one we fail at
the most. One of the big thoughts I have thought about, is how can I endure and
what blessing have I seen in my life from enduring? Well first off, I came to the conclusion in
and of myself that it is not a matter of enduring, but enduring well!! All men
can endure, but it is truly admirable when it is done well. I thought of times
in my life where I felt I have endured well and times where I felt that I have
failed in that aspect. One of the many experiences I came upon was that of
being in the hospital, after the surgeries, especially the 4th one. I remember
being told I had to walk every day. Now if you remember that was not an easy
thing at the time. It took 5 minutes to
get unhooked from all the wires, then it would seem as though I would take 15
steps, be in too much pain, return to the bed get hooked back up, and still
being in pain, doze off. I do remember
though something that Dad and I discussed several times and my own thoughts
from that time in my life. The first "it could always be worse" Dad
would say as he would have to lift his own crippled son out of the bed so he
could watch him take those 15 agonizing steps, than to only return to where
he/I was in utter pain laying almost lifeless in a bed. I learned though that
many people have the thought, “it could always be worse”, but yet when they are
in the act of suffering there attitude changes from that to "Yea it could
be worse, but right now I feel like I am going through hell so who even cares
if it could be worse... I don't know if I can even make those steps!!" I
learned that although those 15 steps would be some of the hardest I would ever
have to take, that each one meant the world to me, and they meant even more
when I had a good attitude about it. People take 200 times that amount of steps
daily and with ease, but yet in their hearts they are in a worse state than I
was physically. Another thought of those 15 steps, I was able to go 15 steps
further in my progression towards being somewhat normal, what if I had not
taken those 15 small agonizing painful steps...? Well I would have been exactly
where I was in the first place with little or no progression. Sadly a lesson I
learned at an early age is that Suffering is something all too common in this life
and often time’s necessary in this life for us to grow. How do we expect to
take a hike in the mountains when at first we don't think of those 15 steps?
Our lives change greatly I believe based on our Attitude, at times I have had a
great attitude and other times not such a great one, but in this life attitude
can make the difference. So I have
learned to smile more, be grateful, and look forward with faith, because if it
wasn't for those 15 steps I wouldn't be where I am today, and so I am grateful
for those "15 steps" or moments like it in my life. Even though at
times we wish we didn't have to take them, after we have done so, we are always
glad we did. So yea that is what a lot of my thoughts have been about
lately.
Well the good news
that I have is that I am going to the Temple on Wednesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am so excited, I haven't been in a little over a year and I am so excited to
go back!! So I am preparing for that, we are just going with the Branch
President, but I am so excited. So yep that is about it for this week nothing
too amazing but it was a good week none the less. Well I hope you all have a
great week, and that all goes well. I love you so much and hope to hear from
you soon.
Love, tu hijo, Elder
Paxman
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