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
