10 Weeks to serve: "Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee."

Dear Mom,

I am doing pretty good mom. Although you won't want to hear this, I am tempted to keep my SD card till I come home, to make it more of a surprise hahahaha.

How are you and your new companion settling in? We are settling in pretty good. We are different, but we get along well. I am interested to see if I will finish my mission with him and here in this area. We will see I guess.

If your companion is from West Jordan, did he attend West Jordan High school or Copper Hills? He went to West Jordan for a little bit, and then went to Itineras or something like that

How is your health?  Did you get over your cold? I am feeling pretty good. I have mostly gotten over the nasty cold, only thing left is the cough and it is good except at night. My belly has been doing alright. The drink was working really well, so I wanted to see if I could go without the antibiotics. I have been really tired lately, but I think it is just from the lack of sleep from the cough.

With transfers are you still a District Leader and if so were there any changes to your district besides you getting a new companion? I am still DL and we got a new sister. Her name is Sis. Bulman she is from Iowa. The sisters are really nice, other than that, the district is still the same. The number hasn't changed there are 3 companionship's including ours.

We are trying to plan our trip to Indiana for July.  How many days do you think you need in Indiana and which areas do you want to visit? As far as how many days visiting, as many as we can get! hahaha I would like at least 2 Sundays.  Mainly so I could go to some of the Sacrament meetings. We would have to hit two or three in one day. So it would be a little hard. Maybe do like Logansport and Lafayette Sacraments on the same day, and Indy and Columbus on another. I am not sure. I would like to take you to all of the areas, if I could. Although I am not sure how much time we will have. Elkhart only needs maybe one day. Logansport and Lafayette maybe 2 or 3. Indy maybe 2 or 3 and Columbus probably 2. So maybe like 10 days total in the mission area, just in case you want to see anything else. Also so I can take you by as many people as possible. It would help to plan if I could get in contact with people better. That will have to wait till I get home though. Also I will need to check with church times and everything. We can definitely talk more about it on Mother’s day. Also that way I know how many days the family wants and can spend and stuff like that. That way I can plan a little better on how to do things. So maybe like 18 days total trip. (He is delusional… 18 days. Ha ha :-D ) Also the thought came to me just barely if we only want to spend like 8 days in the mission that is okay. I can come back on the bike with dad or something again. Or me solo. Whatever works.

Mom.. That isn't good that Brooklyn has been really sick! Take her to the doctor! Goodness it reminds me of the time I broke my wrist nice and well, and it took you and dad like freaking 2 weeks to take me to the doctor. That is not exaggerating either! Okay so maybe it was like one week, but still, freak! hahaha.

That is good you did some yard work. I have been doing the same hahaha. Service of course.

You mentioned that you had a lesson with Franklin, isn’t he one of the people that was baptized a few weeks ago.  Do you keep teaching them after Baptism? We do keep teaching them, and they become a LARC after that. We usually keep an extra record with us for about 1 year. We teach them less, but still try to teach them when we can.

How is the teaching of Margarita going?  How has the work been this week?  Have you taught many lessons? Keep praying for Margarita mom. She is so close, so so so close. I can feel it.  She is coming to church every week pretty much, she knows it’s true.  I really hope I get to see her be baptized either before I leave this area, or before I leave the mission. You know whichever happens first. We teach an alright amount of lessons. We are really really working on trying to find more people to teach. Especially the elect. I kind of set a passive goal for me to find teach and baptize a family by the end of my mission. I really hope I can accomplish that goal. I will try my best. If not, that is okay as well. But I think it would be an awesome way to finish it out. Also baptizing anyone else I can find haha. If not though, at least make the difference in someone's life, even if it is just my own. (Which has already happened a lot!).

How was your Sunday?  Did you have a dinner appointment? We usually eat with President Horton and his family after church.

What are you plans for P-day?  Anything fun? Also as far as today, we did laundry, lounged and just the normal stuff. Tonight we will play b-ball with some members and that should be really fun.  We also have an FHE with some other members so that will be really nice.

Any unusual adventures this week?  As far as anything unusual I gave a golden statue of an angel to Margarita. It was in our apartment, and when I saw it the only thing that came to my mind was... "Has anyone heard of the story of Moses with the snakes? Anyone! Goodness freaking Idols in my apartment freak! I was going to junk it, well probably throw it in a river, (more fun), but she wanted it. So I thought that would be better than chucking it in a river.  Hispanics are super superstitious, I knew that before, but she did not want us throwing out that angel.  We are working on listing, which is where we get a street index and write down all of the Hispanics we can find on the streets so we can go knock on those doors later. So finding will be the big push here soon. I think I might have already told this story, but if so that is fine. So the Rodriguez family a while back with Elder Trapp and I, we were getting super duper close. So now I feel really close to that family. Well we are teaching Sis. Rodriguez and Jocy some English at times. Well this is some background. Other than the 2 kids that are with them here in the states they have two other daughters. One of which is dece. (Pronounced dees). Ask Bai or one of my friends what it means if you can't figure it out. So anyway she talks about them a lot. So Elder Trapp and I are leaving, and as we are walking down the hall to leave the apartment building she calls down the hall. "Goodbye son in laws!!" Of course Elder Trapp and I try not to lose it so she doesn't feel bad. We say bye mom, and get to the car. We laughed for a good 30 min. It was hilarious! So we told her and she laughed about it after. So it was really funny. I really love that family mom, they are amazing. Jocy reminds me a ton of Brooklyn it is crazy! Anyway so that was a funny story of the week. We had a few others, but I feel as though you would have to be there for them to be really funny. Also I play the hand slapping game with them; I think we call it bloody knuckles. They are either very slow or I am like freaking lightning!! hahahaha I wail on them, especially Jocy, she thinks I am magic or something. So that always makes for funny stories. Okay maybe one more. We were with the Rodriguez family and as we were talking Sis. Rodriguez stops and is like, you sound like a little kid Elder Paxman. She thought my voice sounded like a child. I was a little offended it reminded me of all the times people would mistake me for you or my sisters over the phone. So we laughed about that, and then she looks at Elder Labrum and says, although he looks like a giant baby... I couldn't help it I started dying hahahahaha mainly because people used to tell me I had a baby face all the time. It was really funny because he didn't understand what she was saying either!!! I got a kick out of that. Another awesome part about that is then the next like 5 lessons and meals with members they all said he looks like a giant 12 year old. I got a good bunch of laughs out of that one. I have felt his pain many a time.

How about the weather?  No chasing tornados..:) The weather has been warm, sometimes borderline hot. Some days have been rainier and cold though. Like today and yesterday have been pretty rainy and cold. hahahah I knew dad would agree with me about chasing a tornado, I mean come on, if you are going to have to go through one, might as well get pictures while it is still coming.

What do you think about me adding a countdown to the title of your blog?  I was thinking weeks. You can do a countdown if you like. Although days might be easier. Seeing as I only have like 68 or 69, something like that.

Okay so now onto more the spiritual. Again, as my mission comes to an end I think a lot about the blessing of being able to return. I expressed it to Pres. in an email once about I was curious what some of the reasons I was able to come back were. He has mentioned a few. This was from the response I got to that letter this week. There are probably a myriad of reasons you returned, but most important has been your example and influence on your companions and the members. You are also growing spiritually and establishing the church in each area you have served. You have an opportunity to help Elder Labrum become a confident and more effective missionary. Helping him realize his potential through your example of faith and diligence. That was really touching to me. It made an impact on my mind and heart. Also he said in an Interview once, that one of the things I needed to learn from coming back on the mission was Confidence. So I have thought a lot about that lately. I think Confidence comes from many things, but to me it is more directly related to the attributes of Faith and humility. Although I want to know what all of your thoughts are. What is confidence? How can it be built? Why is it important?  I have never seen myself as an example of anything to really anyone. I am but a young man trying to do my best. I do hope that I have impacted others for the better though. My second mission as far as I call it, has done many a thing for me in my life. It has been one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. That is for sure. I really hope I can be worthy of all the faith and love people place in me. I hope to touch the lives of people when I return home as well. I love you so much. I know that Jesus is the Christ, and that He indeed suffered for all mankind. His love for us is so amazingly unknown. I hope to prove myself worthy at the last day, so that I may obtain the blessings of an eternal family.  I know and have felt that this life is indeed a time to prepare to meet God. We will all meet Him again someday, and I look forward to it. I am so far from perfect or even tolerable, but I am trying to be better every day. “The man who travels the journey of a great distance risking nothing and has no troubles learns very little. But the man who makes another Journey, with the intent to learn, grow, and try to do things no one else has ever done before, they are those who learn a great many things, and help others learn along the path.” They are those heroes we think of. We all have our own heroes. And we all have our Champion, even the Savior Jesus Christ. I hope to be the man he needs me to be, so that I may not only be on the best path, but help others on theirs as well. I think often of Peter, who denied his Lord three times and whom later would have a personal appearance of the Lord. I wonder what happened in that moment. I am sure many tears of joy and sorrow were shed. Let us try to live our lives so when we come to meet The Savior of the World and Our Father of the Heavenly Courts, that we may be as Peter and say "Lord, Thou knowest that I love thee". So we may be worthy of all the blessings we deserve and wish to obtain. Well have a great week and I hope to hear from you again here soon!!

Love, Elder Paxman

P.S.  HR just told me he is getting married!!!  On the 27th of June!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!  I will just miss it by 3 days dangit!!!