As we near the end, I thought we would look back at a few pictures from the beginning.
His first companionship
I think first District minus the Sisters
Elder Paxman and his very first companion Elder Johnston
The night before leaving the MTC, both pointing to their destination.
Elder Paxman's adventure in Indy begins!
Dear Mom,
The work has been
good. We are finding a lot of good people, which will be nice for these boys
when I am gone. I wish I could be here to keep teaching our investigators though,
but some things are just not supposed to happen. They are doing pretty good; I
am hoping to see around 3 baptisms before the end of my mission. We will see
how it all pans out though. So I will let you be in suspense about that one...
;) Yes they are all still progressing and they were all at church today. It
makes me so happy to see them doing so well. Rodrigo we have not been able to
teach... I am not sure why, but he just hasn't been there, plus we hear he has
gotten a new job... So that is a bummer. I feel like we have been keeping busy, and we
have done some service nothing too big, just smaller stuff here and there. We
tract or go by potentials to stay busy, or formers. We try to keep ourselves
busy as much as we can though. I will try and take pictures goodness mom...
hahaha it is a lot harder than you think. I am trying though.
We found a few new
people a girl named Patty who is new here from El Salvador who is really nice. We
hope to keep teaching her. Also a guy named Carlos from Columbia who is a good guy
here with his wife who is going to college at Purdue.
What are the three funniest moments/memories from the mission? The three funniest things... Well there are too many...
One was at the start of
my mission... We were coming back from a soccer activity we had been at with
members. On the way to the soccer activity, we had already all three changed in
a taco bell bathroom and that was embarrassing. So I came up with this idea
when it was time to change back. Hey why not the church?! I know we don't have
a key, but there is a white fence around the parking lot. So all that we have
to do is park in the corner and use the car and the car door to block two sides
and the fence the other. Good idea right!? Well we get there and Elder Cozzens is still on the driver’s side, so only the car to cover him. We start changing
and he drops his pants (jeans). So he is standing there in his G's and I get my
belt off when I look up. All of the sudden a silver car turns into the parking
lot. Instantly I know who it is. I yell SISTERS!!!!!!!!! So here we are pretty
much stripping in the parking lot, Elder McDaniel and I are covered by the car
and still haven't taken off any major articles of clothing minus shoes. While
Elder Cozzens is in the open with his pants around his ankles!!! So the sisters
pull in and he superman leaps into the car! He starts screaming get in the car!
GET IN THE FREAKING CAR!!!!!!!!! Elder McDaniel and I start losing it with
laughter as we try and get in the car. But there was one problem... The trunk
was open... So he screamed for a good forever until I got out and closed it.
The sisters turned and waved and I waved back. I then get in the car to Elder
Cozzens still having a breakdown, and still with his pants around his ankles.
He then drives off with his pants still around his ankles having a heart
attack. hahahahahahaha I was dying. He would probably kill me if he knew I was
telling this story. We got a really good laugh out of that one. (I guess the cat will be out of the bag,
since it’s now on the blog, guess Elder Paxman didn’t think of that.)
Another funny one is of us getting our
car towed. I will skip that one. One time we get a call from a member family in
Logansport. You know how we always tell people "let us know if there is
anything we can do for you!?" They always say no. Well we get a call from
these people and they say they need our help. They tell us they need some toilet
paper for something. We were like well we can't bring it for about an hour or
so, I can’t even really remember how long. So we go get it, and go to their
home. We knock on the door and the husband answers. He is Puerto Rican, but is
also from New York area. So imagine that accent, in English. We knock with
about two rolls in our hands. When all of the sudden we hear this "JUNIOR!!!!!
DID YOU CALL THE ELDERS YET!!!! I NEED SOME TOILET PAPER!!!!!! I GOTTA
WIPE!!!!!!!" Oh man did we lose it. So we hear that and variations of that
screamed from the trailer bathroom. (They lived in a trailer.) For about what
felt like 10 min. He then came to the door and said "Thanks a bunch
guys...". We hear again "HURRY IT UP JUNIOR!!!!!!!!!! I GOTTA
WIPE!!!!!" We did our best to keep a straight face... So it was really
funny. We laughed for a really long time about that one in the car.
The story of the
stalker is pretty funny, and kind of scary... Another good one was when Elder Hjelm crashed on his bike.. now my
bike I guess... Anyway we are riding down this street. He is on one side and I
am on the other, as I crossed just earlier anticipating the turn to come. He is
riding and a dog attacks the chain link fence he is riding next to. He swerves
a little but maintains control. He then looks back at the dog, but misses
something... So you know those big power poles. How they have a cable that comes
off the sides, that has a yellow thing on the bottom. Well when he swerved he
lined up with that, then looking back runs into the thing with his handler bars,
which makes the bike for flying with him on it. He lands in a big pile of dirt
in his nice white shirt. So I stop.... Now comes my moment of decision... Do I
see if he needs help, or just stay over here? By this point he has gotten up,
stomped around a little, looking a little angry. So I decide to stay on my side
of the street and yell.. "Hey are you all good..." I see a glare of
despise and a sarcastic thumbs up as it looks like he just slid into home-plate
in a white shirt and tie. I was doing my best not to laugh.
So there you have it.
There are hundreds more, but I thought that would be sufficient for today.
I am still feeling like my happy normal self. On
Sunday we ate with two different member families and just had a good time with
some members. It was really nice. We are also working on planning our/my last
temple trip a little bit.
You have a last doctor’s appointment this week? Make sure to transfer your care back to the
Doc at the U. Do you think you will get to visit a few converts and friends in
the city? It would be nice to be able to
say good bye. I hope to visit a few converts in the city
when I go back down. Yea my last appointment is this week. I will let her know
mom
.
Trenton came home. He did
a good job on his homecoming talk. He
looks about the same. It is good to see him. That
is good he is doing well. I am excited to see the bugger. We have a lot of time
to catch up on. I bet it is quite the shock for him to be home from his
mission. He is a good dear friend.
How has your weather been?
Are you experiencing the mid-west summer heat? The weather has been really humid and pretty hot. Lots of
little thunder bumpers that last about 30 min, which makes it really humid and
hot.
Can you believe in 2 weeks and just a day you will be home? How
are you feeling about that? Yea it is really hard
to believe for me that I will be home in such a short time... It makes me sad. It
has been some of the best two years or 25 months of my life. It has been
amazing. But I still got plenty of time.
Okay so this has
gotten really long, so just a brief spiritual thought. I have thought a lot
this week about faith, and religion, and who we are, as well as a load of other
things. Have you heard the parable of the pinecone? So think of ourselves like
a pine cone. It takes us a long time to grow and we start small, we work and
grow. One day we are put to the test, fire comes so to speak. It is then our
time to shine, we grow bigger by spreading open and casting our seeds
everywhere. For all of those who are around us. We are put through moments of
fire throughout our lives, for many different reasons. One is to share our
experiences with others. My mission has changed my life, and I hope it has
changed the lives of at least a few other people. I am no great missionary as Ammon,
or spiritual giant as the Brother of Jared. I am just a young adult, who is
doing his best to tell people that there is always something better coming
along, if we fight for it! I know that we are destined to be happy; it is part
of who we are. We are all in a dire search to find it every day. And it seems
the search starts over at the rise of each new sun. I know that we can be happy
through this gospel and all it teaches us, if we but apply it and live it. I am
grateful for all of you and your examples towards me. The parable of the pine
cone is really long, but I do not have time to write it all, so I did my best
to explain a tiny part of it, in a really short time. Well I love you all and I
hope to hear from you soon. If not I will see you in the not too distant
future!
Love, Elder Paxman
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