Dear Mom,
This last week though was a rough one for me mom that is for
sure. Not as far as health goes, but motivation. I will get into that later,
well and it wasn't that bad, just different than I am used to.
I told him that we had a serious hair crisis with some
highlights for his sister. Hahaha, you women and coloring your hair. I am sure it did not
look that bad. Plus if Bai were to just keep it natural it would look plenty
cute I am sure. I am sure it was a
lovely mess of things; I can see it now... ooohhohooh freak mom, I am not
looking forward to those antics and female drama again, and I am supposed to
marry one of you weird creatures!! The excitement level for that just went down
a few solid notches. ;-)
Your aunt told me that your Cousin Alex is very excited for his
buddy to get home so you can hang out. I am
excited to hang with him when I get home.
Thoughts on taking less
active cousins to the singles ward with you when you get home? Singles ward!! What
makes you think I am going to that torturous place where happiness and souls go
to perish? You know how outer darkness is never shown to man for very long, it
is because it would be a singles ward, where you are the only single!! Which is
what actually happens!!!! It is freaking insane!! You show up the first time
and they give you this dinky flower/boutonniere thingie; that says
one of two things. Either: "Here I am a nice hunk of fresh meat!!" (Now
imagine a a deer shaking its butt at a hunter who intends to kill the thing
with his bare hands) Freaky I know!!!! Or option number two, (Some voice calls
from the background) “Did anybody ask for a reject!! Anyone! No well if you
need to find him, look for the flower!" What is this Prom!!! Freak mom, I
am not even home yet and you bring that terrible place up. I would give a full
discourse on singles wards, but it would take too long. Okay so maybe that was
a little exaggerated... It isn't all that bad, just a giant meat market with
vultures and tigers. You want to scare someone away... Send them to the singles
ward. After you get friends it is alright. Until then, freaking nightmare! Now
like I said maybe exaggerated, but it won't be as bad if you are one of the
people who actually has a girl to sit with. Then you aren't in the recall
section. Which in the ward I went to was the middle. Anyway, enough about evil
things. ;) I think his description
of singles wards is harsh… remember the only time he attended one he was home
for medical from the mission and his heart wasn’t in it, and all of his friends
were on missions. The people in the ward
were actually very nice to him.
There is going to be a
pot luck type gathering in Indiana when we visit, would you be interested in
attending this? Many members from
Elkhart and Indianapolis will be there plus other returned missionaries that
are there to go the temple open house. That would be awesome!! Although are we
invited? I do not want to crash someone else's party I would feel really bad.
Although that would be awesome! Plus it would be great to see some of the old
missionaries again. Although, I hope to see Elder Hjelm before then. He is busy
I am sure, and might not be able to make it to my homecoming.
How has the work been
this past week? We continue to pray for you and your investigators. Thank you for the
prayers. As far as the work goes this week, nothing too crazy has come up. We
are really trying to find, and to this point with no avail. So hopefully things
will improve on that front. I would love to find, teach and baptize a family
before the end of my mission. Margarita is doing alright; she is still in the same
place as she was before. She is so close mom, I can feel it. I just do not know
when it will happen for her. I hope and pray that I get to see that day while I
am still out here.
We did teach an English class this weekend which went really
well actually. So we are doing that every Saturday and are hoping that it will
open plenty of doors. There is a fiancé of a member here that we are really
trying to teach. He has a desire, it is small, I think he is scared and a
little nervous, but he is a really good man. So we are really hoping and
working with him. Also we did find 3 really cool guys last week. They are not
super interested at this point, but they are willing to have us come back. So
we are really working on establishing friendship with them. Yesterday we went
and spent time with them, watched some of a good soccer game, and also just
talked about their lives and just hung out. It was really nice. They have potential;
it will just take some time.
Have you heard from the Diaz family lately? Will you get to see them
before you go home? We will see them when we go back in July? I have not heard from the
D family, I need to give them a call sometime and see how things are going. Thank
you for the reminder to give them a call. Yea when I go down for my last doc
appointment here on the 17th I really hope to be able to see them one last time
before I go home.
You mentioned doing yard
work, was this service? Yea the yard work is just for service, it is not too bad and I
don't mind it.
You said you are working
on listing or where you make an index using a map and list all the Hispanic people
on it. Is this to help with
tracting. It will help those that follow
you as well. Yea we hope it will really pay off for those whom will come
after us, and that we can really have a good base to work from. This week we
will be in Frankfort for about half of the week really trying to help that area
grow. So I am really hoping that all that goes really well.
Do you like the Branch
President in this area? I really like President Horton, he is a really nice guy and way down
to earth. He also has a motorcycle. So that is awesome as well. He has been the
Branch Pres for a good amount of time, I want to say a good 5 years or so, maybe
less. He has a family our size. He has 2 sons and a daughter. They are a super
nice family.
Did you know Natalia Coffin had gone
to China to do some sort of Study abroad? I actually did know that. Elder Labrum served
in White River not too long ago, and she left when he was there, or close too.
So he mentioned it. That would be really a really cool experience, although I
would like to go to somewhere in South America or Spain. I hope she is enjoying
it.
So more onto the spiritual thought. I have been thinking a fair
amount about desires. I will continue to do so, because I have just started at
the end of this last week. Well I found some very interesting things. As I
mentioned earlier, this last week was really hard for me to get motivated, I am
not even entirely sure why. My desires to really teach were just not as strong
as usual. Luckily I would just drag myself out anyway. So I realized something,
and I knew it, because we had been taught this principle since we were little,
but it had never come to me so strong. That is this; that God grants us
according to our desires. When we truly have the desire, God gives us the ways
and the means to accomplish the task or whatever it may be. Many times it is
just by helping us to continue to have those great desires. The will of one
person can change the course of the world, not to mention the lives of those
around them. Now Agency will not be hindered in this of course. But our
influence will spread far beyond what we know, as I have come to find out. Now
with me being unmotivated, there were several things I did to try and help. One
of which was to try my best to be happy and go out there and do it anyway.
Sometimes we obtain a desire whilst in the middle of the journey. Another one
is when your goal is in sight it is easier to obtain it. For example I suffer
from what I call hiker's syndrome. As many people can testify once I get to my
destination or some point along the trail and I see something better or another
peak ahead, I immediately press on to go to that mountain. Now there will
always be more mountains so usually someone has to stop me or something else
dissuades me from the next adventure. Overall though if we pray to our
Heavenly Father to help us to have a righteous desire, whatever it may be, He
will help us obtain it. To me this just shows the great love our Father in
Heaven has for us. He loves us so completely that He is willing to answer our
prayers and even give us small mercies. Heavenly Father in reality
cares for each one of us, so deeply and tenderly He is willing to give us
what we desire. Now if our desires are not pure, we are the workers of our own
destruction. I was talking once with a companion about this and how he thought
it would be at the last day. We discussed it for a while and we came to the
conclusion that we will judge ourselves just as much as He will judge us. Now
this isn't doctrine or anything just the thoughts of some young men when they
are bored. Heavenly Father will never force us to do anything. So if we like to
drink, and have "fun" that is what we will receive. As Alma said
Wickedness never was Happiness. I have learned that Sin is never happiness, but
as many people know it sure can be fun. That is what makes things so tempting,
if sinning sucked than nobody would ever even have the temptation to do wrong
things. Fun is momentary and not all the time bad, Happiness and joy last
forever if we let them. They are those memories we can look back on with joy
and peace, and yes sometimes this does include fun, but I think you get my
point. Some of my greatest memories are with Dad; we have had so many great
times together. Like the time we tried to go Dove hunting on our pretty much
last weekend together. The trip went anything but as planned, but we made the
best of it, and I doubt dad or I will forget that trip for many years to come.
I guess all in all, God will grant us what we desire, those who desire riches
work for them till the point they obtain them. Therefore in a roundabout way,
God grants them what they desire, no this isn't like a genie wish or anything.
Desire means you are willing to work for it, I believe that is the difference
between desire and want. Desire like faith is a concept of action, wanting like
belief often times requires very little effort, and a thing of the mind. Now I
am not the greatest with words so if I explain something wrong I am sorry, I
hope this helps someone though. Desires are great if they are based on
those things that matter most, and are of "good report". They can
also be hindering if they are after something that brings about bad
consequences. In my experience this week though I learned that we can always
obtain those good desires, sometimes they take work in and of themselves, but
they will come if we are willing to work. Dad used to say stuff like All things
come to a man that works. Of course I phrased it differently, but overall to
have righteous desires is the start to living a happy and righteous life. Now
we must use those desires to fuel our lives and help us be better.
Well my thoughts were probably all over the place, but that has
been my thoughts over the last week or so, along with a ton of others of course.
Well I love you mom and you and the fam and many others are in my prayers often.
I am excited to talk with you in about 2 weeks!! It is crazy that the time has
gone by so fast! Then after that, I will only have around 50 days till you see
me in person 8/ not sure how good that sounds. Well I love you and I hope to
hear from you next week!
Love, Elder Paxman
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