Would you like a Pamphletta?

Elder Paxman and Elder Ryan visiting the Diaz family in Indianapolis.

 Dinner with the Diaz family and the Indy Elders.

The 2 pictures below were sent to me via text tonight from someone in the Columbus area.  

These two picture came with the caption... 

"The four greatest Elders in the Indiana Indianapolis mission. 

 Thanks for sharing them with us."  Sent from the same person.   

Dear Mom,

How are you feeling?  How was your Doctor Appointment? Okay I am feeling pretty good actually. The doc appointment was good. Yes, they went ahead and scheduled my next appointment; It is like March 14 or somewhere in there... So Yea that was a bit weird to put that date down, time is flying. She did remember me so that was kind of interesting, and nice. Elder Ryan did go with me. We had a fun time overall at the doctors.

I received picture from the Diaz family of you visiting them, was this after the doctor visit, since you were in Indy anyway? Yes, we just stopped by to visit them. It ended up lasting a long time though haha, oh well the whole day was mostly taken by the doc anyway. It was awesome to see them again! I love that family so dearly! Elder Blood and Elder Hansen came because the Diaz family live in their area, so we went to a lesson with them. I did surprise the boys at school so that was really awesome to do that. They were very excited to see me as well.

I noticed you wearing a zip up argyle sweater where did that come from? The sweater was left in the Seymour apartment from I do not know where.  I think it might be a members that they either lent or gave to a missionary. I like it though and want other sweaters like it!!

Did you get the two packages I sent you?  Did you receive the small package with the Christmas tie? We did get the other two packages!! Thank you so much for those, we have so far really enjoyed all the stuff you have given to us. (The package contained the 12 days of Christmas for him and his companion) Thank you so much for that. Elder Ryan said to tell you thank you and that you are the best. I liked the little gift bags that you sent, so I will see who I can give them out to! I have a few ideas. I did get the really small package with the tie in it. Thank you for that by the way.

How is the training of your compa going? His training is going pretty good, he is very willing to learn, which is awesome. His Spanish is interesting, especially since he tried to give me a pamphletta when we were practicing the other night. (Just so you know the real word for pamphlet is folleto!). So I lost it and couldn't stop laughing after that happened haha!! We get along super well. I thought I was awkward around girls and then I hear some of his stories hahaha I feel like a player compared to this kid... And I haven't even kissed a girl!! hahaha so that always makes me laugh. Overall though we get along really really well, which is super nice.

I received a picture of you from Sister Kimberland with an Elder I didn’t recognize. Why were you with him and who is he?  So Elder Limb is a ZL and we were on exchanges, so that is what that was all about. He is also a really cool Elder. She did give us stockings it was really nice of her, mine had two ties in it!! It was really nice of her to do that for us. She is very nice. Yes the sisters were also there with us. They came after we had been there for about 20 min.

As a district leader do you mostly do exchanges with the two other Spanish Elders? How do you like being a District Leader are you adjusting? Yes I really only do exchanges with the Seymour Elders and I got permission from President to do them more often. So we will be doing those probably once a week or maybe once every other week. We will see. I am adjusting alright overall. It is stressful sometimes, but for the most part I actually quite like it!

In your area now, where do you email from? How often are you using your Spanish?  Is the Branch in Spanish? We go to the library to email here. I am using Spanish quite often; we are trying to teach the ones who speak mostly Spanish a lot of the time. Although I would say you do speak more English in this area then you do in some of the other Spanish areas I have been in, because most of the members speak fluent English as well.  It is sometimes easier for them to just talk to us in English. Although now I feel I can do both so that is awesome. Sunday's it depends, sacrament is always in Spanish and gospel principles is always in Spanish, but sometimes Priesthood switches back and forth. I actually do the translating for the branch here in Columbus.

Again I sent him a list of friend requests and asked for direction. I feel popular lately on Facebook. Although in reality it is mostly just returning missionaries. I will take it though haha. Yep I know all of those people. Ben Reeder is an Elder I was really good friends with, he went home back in April, so I haven't seen him in a long time. I also don't think he knew that I came home from my mission. So he must have thought I had just gotten home with all of the others.  I am sad you missed Andrews homecoming, I really like Andrew I hope everything went really well for him on his mission. He is a good friend.

We just attended the homecoming of one of his past companions and spent time with his parents and really enjoyed ourselves. That is cool that you got to go hang out with Colton’s parents, that was probably really fun. I would like it if you became good friends, they are a really nice family and I can just chill with Colton whenever you guys want to hang out.  I hope to see him at my homecoming as well.  It sounds like you had a really nice time overall.  I’m happy you got to meet Natalia she is a great girl and a good friend.  I love her family as well.  You will have to let me know how Elder Rowberrys homecoming goes as well. He still emails me every week. I also hold him as a dear friend that I hope to keep for many years. As I do with pretty much all of my companions, even some other missionaries that I was never companions with.

We harassed him jokingly about N being a very pretty girl and he should date her after the mission. If something were to happen after the mission with a girl that I met on the mission awesome, but there will be no intentionally flirting with a purpose from this guy!! At least if I can help it anyway

How is your weather?  Does it feel like winter?  Ours is warm.  Wow that is a really warm winter in Utah. Here is has been oddly warm as well. It is killing me; it doesn't even feel like Christmas without the snow and cold! I want some snow dangit and I don't even like the stuff that much hahaha. The last couple days have been high 40's low 50's so nice weather.

How do you like having a car full time?  Does it have a CD player? It is really nice and the car does have a CD player which is also really nice. It is a pain to manage miles, but I prefer it to biking that is for sure

How is the work?  Any new investigators?  The missionary work is going alright. We were able to find two new investigators over the last week, we are not sure how they will pan out because we have only taught them twice, but hey you never know the works of the Lord. We are still able to teach active members and some less actives which helps with all the other time as well. There are always opportunities especially with the He is the Gift cards. Those work well when we are PCing and stuff like that.

Have you been able to do any Service? We helped a guy move, and some other small things, jumped a car stuff like that. We have a branch Christmas FHE tonight so that will be really fun to go to. We have been pounding the pavement a ton looking for new investigators so we will see as we keep going if we can continue to find and teach and baptize.

Will it be FaceTime or Skype for Christmas, do you know about what time?  I do not know if we will be face-timing or if it will be Skype, we will work on that as we continue down the road. But we should be able to do something like unto it if not. I will shoot for afternoon, but we will see how things go. I will give you a call the night before so we can work out all the details. It might be the day after Christmas if we can't find anyone, but we will let you know when we know more.

So my more spiritual message for the week....  This week has been an interesting week for me spiritually, for many different reasons, of which I will not really get into. But there are a few things that I have learned over the week, well a lot of things, but I will only address a few. We were teaching a lesson to Sis. Kimberlan and it came out how I had gone home from my mission and was back out, which she did not know. I mentioned it briefly and talked about it very little. Although it made me ponder about those days, as often times I do. I remembered talking to the first girl when I got home, and not just talking, but actually flirting with her. I remembered how it feels to be alone, how it feels to be different (and not in the greatest way). I remember so many things, and each has shaped me and molded me. Often time’s people think of experiences in life like a clay sculpture that can be molded into anything. For me I always seem to see it more as the making of an arrowhead. Many trials in our lives do not come in a smooth touching motion, but a quick hard strike to our very being, even if it is just subtle. As you know, to make an arrowhead you have to Knapp it. Making strikes against it with another rock to break off large and small pieces. The force and angle determining how much breaks off.  Our lives to me are much the same, or at least my life has been. Arrowheads have a few different uses, but generally have one purpose, as do we. Our purpose and goal is to obtain eternal life and the highest celestial glory in the kingdom of our Father. We are "stricken" quite literally by the things and challenges of this world and the choices we need to make. Each one shaping us into the thing we are meant to become, but many times, if done improperly the arrowhead will break. If we don’t see our trials as a way to grow often times they will break us instead of chip off the extra bits. In which case because the Savior atoned for each of us the Master or in this case the Flint Master as I will call him, picks up a new piece of flint and goes back to trying to shape it. The broken pieces are not forgotten, they are not left for nothing, they are still there and forever will be. But they are no longer a problem; they are no longer something of great import, not as important as each one of us is to our Heavenly Father. We are given multiple opportunities in this life; it is up to us to make them work. You can either allow this life to sculpt you into whom you wish to be, and to whom you can become. Or you can let it break you, and the need to start over comes again. We are made to live with God again. Every single person on this planet is "destined" to return to his presence, but it is our choices that either hinder, or accelerate the process and in the sad few circumstances, stop us from being what we are destined to become. We are meant to be happy, meant to love, meant to grow, meant learn, and sadly at times meant to suffer, so ultimately we may be forever joyful in the presence of our God and King. So, those were my thoughts from the week a little. There is many more about the parable or analogy of the arrowhead, but I enjoyed it. Well Mom I love you so much and hope you have an amazing week this week, with the holiday fast approaching. I am excited to be able to skype you all in a week or so. I love you and have a great week!

Love, Elder Paxman