Dear Mom,
I will be staying in Lafayette to finish off my mission! So that
is crazy!
With only 6 weeks left, do
you think you are Trunky? Man mom you always ask me if I am trunky but I think you are
much more trunky than I am. Although, with the arriving in the airport.
Remember to invite EVERYONE!!!!!!!! Friends the whole 9 yards mom!! Come on!
Please!! It would be awesome! Yea I don't know what time they will release me.
They usually try to do it earlier than later I am sure.
How has the mission been
this past week? Teaching any
investigators, LARCS or even members? Okay so the mission this past week. Not a ton new has really
happened. We have taught Lupita and Vicenta more. They are both doing well and
really trying to learn. Lupita is reading in about 1 Nephi 14, which is really
good. So we are hoping all goes well with them. Members we taught a few of them,
and LARCS we actually didn't really teach any this last week. Which was really
strange, but we have a few we will be hoping to go by here in the next few
days. We are also teaching a weekly English class for anyone who wants to come,
which has been really fun actually. We have done a ton of service this week,
almost all day Saturday, and then on and off throughout the entire week. We feel like we have worn our service clothes
more than our proselyting clothes, which is really funny. Service has been
everything from moving people, to helping with yard sales, to a bit of
gardening, so just about everything.
Have you had any Zone
conferences or District meetings this week? I noticed on the Indy Facebook page
that there have been some zone conferences. We had a Zone Conference this last week with
President which was really good. There was a lot of good training and such
given. One thought that I loved was continually trying to be better, because we
all fall short on what seems to be a daily basis, but if we are trying and
really put forth a good effort we will be blessed.
Do you have any exciting
plans for P-Day today? Plans for P-day, we ended up doing mostly service which was
different. We were busy all day. Sorry that is why I didn’t write you until
today. (Tuesday)
Do you get along well
with all the Elders and Sisters in your area? I feel that I get along alright with the
Elders and Sisters in the area. They are really nice; some I am good friends with
and others more like associates, but still fun either way. We actually went out
with some sisters that work on Purdue Campus and ate some food. It was really
fun. Sister Goodstein (probably spelled that wrong) was one of them, and I met
her back in Columbus, she also goes home the same time I do. So she is really
nice, it was fun to hang with her and some others this last week.
How are the investigators
doing that were at our Skype? As far as the ones I skyped you with, they are doing alright.
Lupita, Vicenta, and Daniel are doing really well, so that is awesome. Aurelio,
Maria, and Perla are not doing as good, but we are hoping to get them
investigating more here soon.
How about your health? Staying steady? Your Iron is really low. My health is hanging in there, I was pretty
sick one night, but other than that, I think it is doing alright. I don't know
why I have trouble sleeping every once in a while, I just do. I am not overly
stressed, well not more than usual or anything, so who knows. Oh also before I
forget I bought more Iron and Hair gel so there is going to be a 20 some odd
dollar charge on my card. We are also going out to eat today, so that might be
on there as well.
I am jealous that you and
your compo get to go out to eat with Daddy this coming weekend. Are you excited? I am so excited to meet
with Dad!! It will be awesome to see him, so he will get a sneak peak haha.
Although, I really haven't hardly changed at all, I just like to joke around
and say that I have. Yes mom I got it cleared with Pres, don't worry haha!!
Six weeks left can you
believe it? I really want the time left to count and make them memorable so
I will be doing my best to do that.
Anyway, like I said this email will probably be a little shorter
because of the fact I am emailing Tuesday because of the service. Spiritual thought... Well this will probably
be all over the place. This last week has had me thinking a lot how this will
be my last transfer on the mission, and what will happen when I get home and
everything... Well one thought was this. I was never a big fan of people saying
your best two years are the two years on the mission. For a few reasons, one if
they were my best years than that would make the rest of my life just average,
and in a talk given in this last conference "average is the enemy of
excellence." So that would be lame. So I narrowed it down, also because
there are many days in these best two years where we don't do our best or could
have done something differently or whatever you wish, but in the long run it is
far more than worth it. So I narrowed it to days. If you can try and make every
day your best day, you will live a good life, filled with hardships and
mistakes, but you can say that you put it out there and at least tried. Many of
us shoot ourselves down before we even try. I will relate this to a story with
Calin. So we were on a hike when I was back home. It is a beautiful hike called
Kanaraville Falls. Well I will make the story shorter and less interesting for time’s
sake. We were going along and decided to go up a little slot canyon thing.
First off bad idea, I was home to recover, not go adventuring, (but like that
was gonna stop me..... it never has before). Anyway we get up there, and before
we know it, (and this has happened on many different occasions with Calin and
many other people), we didn't know how to get back down... So we sat
contemplating... Finally since I was lower I needed to go first, also if
someone was going to get hurt, better me than him. So thinking of ways I am
going to get down, I eventually decide I am going to have to jump and use the
opposite wall to bounce off to get to the lower bulging rock. So after many
almost attempts I finally leaped. Now as anyone whom has ever had to make a
jump where there might be unsavory results knows the feeling of everything goes
into slow-motion as you go through the air. Well after the leap, I managed to
actually do what I had planned, which kind of surprised me. We then continued
on our merry way and were able to do many other awesome things that little
outing. So One thing I learned from that. Never let fear get in the way of you
doing something that could change your life and the lives of those around you.
Perhaps another example. So me trying to be nice and an idiot at the same time
decided to jump a chain-link fence to grab a ball some investigators hit over a
fence. So I get to the top of the fence, you know the awkward position with one
foot on and the other kind of dangling on the side you just came from. Well the
fence started to shake, which made me a little nervous so I grabbed the fence
through one of the diamonds that the links form. Well then like an idiot
letting my fear get the better of me I just jumped, which caused my arm and
hand to double back on themselves. Let
me just say that didn't feel too great, along with a few cuts. So again I
learned that, fear will stop us from doing many things in this life. It is
indeed a chain that can bind us down to the gulf of endless misery and woe. So
let us shake off those chains and be better always improving and overcoming our
fears. I jumped the fence again to make myself feel better.... hahaha, It’s a
guy thing. Anyway, that is my spiritual lesson that I was taught this week.
Sadly there is a lot more to it, but I do not have more time.
Well I love you so much and hope that you have a great week.
Remember mom, don't be trunky, you still have 6 weeks. That is like forever...
Okay maybe I just tell myself that to make myself feel better. Anyway I love
you and hope you have a great week. Sorry again about the pictures.
Love, Elder Paxman
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