Still In The Place I was Born...

Dear Mom,

I am super stoked for the dessert stuff because that stuff is amazing.  (We told him we were sending him some Ultimate Cookie Bars from the wedding).  Sadly my health has not been the greatest as of late, it hasn’t been bad, but not great.  Most days I feel decent to good so that is nice but every once in a while it gets a little difficult.  I do think riding bikes helps unless I am already not feeling very good, than not so much... But, all in all things are going great.

I am still in the place I was born, Cumberland Spanish.  I will be here with my companion till next transfer which is the beginning of October.  I will be out for 6 months shortly and I am freaking out!  It has flown by so fast and I can not even believe it.  They all say it just picks up even more speed, they say the first 6 months feels like a year, which has definitely been true on some fronts.  Then the next year will feel like 6 months, so that I am not looking forward too.  Then the last 6 months will feel as if 6 weeks.... That is just one of the analogies.  Overall it just means it goes flying by even faster.  The thing I have seen is that the days seem like weeks and the weeks seem like days.

My jeans they fit as of about 4 weeks ago, but they continue to get smaller it seems and I am sure that they will continue to do so.  (I asked him if all the biking had made his jeans too small in the thigh)  I also can do like 4 pull ups now Booyahh, from 0 to 4 in like 10 weeks!! I will take that.

(I also asked him if he had all the information regarding his upcoming Doctors appointment with the GI there at the University of Indiana)Yea they got me all the information, so I still have to get all of that stuff ready to go so I will be ready by the time of the appointment.

On the mission front, not a lot has changed besides me not going anywhere on transfers. Sister Ivonne and Bro Jesus as well as their two boys will be baptized sometime in September I believe.  That is good and I am excited for that. Other than that not much has changed, oh we do have to stay on bikes for the rest of this week because the people we are sharing our car with are going to transfer meetings and need it, although I believe we will be getting a car sometime in September. Which is good because even though bikes aren’t too bad, our area takes a hit because of its size, and the fact that it takes too long to bike to the investigators and then from one to the other.  Things will continue to get better I think, especially since Elder Hjelm and I are getting into the swing of things.

Well I am burning down my time and have not much left so I love you all so much, and tell Brooklyn to keep practising volleyball and if she does she will get into it next year.  If she has any of my same genes she will be awesome hahaha, because I played all the time in the MTC, although lets face it I stunk,  but it was fun anyway. Well I love you all so much and you are constantly in my prayers, Love you all and I can't wait to hear from you next week.

Love, your son, Elder Paxman

Excerpt from his letter to Bailee:

(She had told him she made a really good dinner for her and Kyle on the honeymoon and that they had played with almost life size checkers)Ok, first what did you make him chicken noodle soup??? BAHAHAHA. I laughed when you said you forgot how to play checkers because it took me a second to remember the rules and by a second I mean like 10 min!! Also how did you move the pieces are they heavy or do you like kick them because the are like a giant hockey puck? Also the chess pieces made it even funnier in my minds eye. Oh and squeaky cheese is awesome, I forgot how to spell squeaky because Spanish is killing my English so sorry if it is wrong.

Well it sounds like you are going to be way busy at school and stuff, it will go wel,l just remember to follow god and he will never lead you astray. I love you so much and I can't wait to hear of all the crazy stuff that happens next week. You and Kyle are both in my prayers on a daily basis and I hope and pray everything will just continue to get better, Well I love you so much and I cant wait to hear from you next week.

Love, your little bro, Elder Paxman

Tell Kyle I love him too.

Excerpt from letter to Dad:

The mission President is awesome, I had interviews with him for the first time a few weeks ago and it was amazing.  He said something very profound, he said that it could be the very reason I was sent to Indian to serve was so I could meet this Doctor.  I thought that was a very interesting thought.  Overall I am loving it out here on the mission and it seems I grow to love it more and more.  Dad,  I love you and you are in my prayers always, I am excited to hear form you shortly and I love you and the family so much.

Love, tu hijo, Elder Paxman

Awesome spirit...

Dear Mom and Dad, 

I read all about the wedding reception and such from Bai, it sounds as if it went amazing.  I am excited to see even more pictures. The entire thing looked beautiful and really fun. I really liked the cake with the roses and the pic of Bai. (He sent a video message to Bailee and Kyle and some of my family got to watch it) I am glad Brenda got to see the video and especially Alex I am excited to see if he emails me that would be super bueno!! I also have a man out here for Brenda if she is still looking hehehe, he is way awesome. He is new to the branch and is from Utah, speaks fluent English and Spanish, he is a way cool guy and fed us Lasagna.  Man I miss American food... Like a good steak or maybe some juicy ribs man that sounds good, as you can tell I haven’t eaten lunch yet and am starving.  

My health has been good, I had a little hiccup this week, so I will just have to be way careful. I only have one experience this week that I will write about, but first, all the people you asked about are doing good.  Anna y Jorge understand very little, so we have to go extremely slow with them. Ivonne y Jesus are doing really good, they are reading but we just have to get them to come to church more, they have only been once.  They are scheduled to be baptized on the 10th of Sept. but it seems as if we might push it back to the 24th... 

So by this time next week I will find out if I am getting transferred... Can you believe it!! It has already been 6 weeks with my new Comp, man things are flying out here it seems. Oh, anyway the experience, so we got back in contact with a couple named Arturo y Beatrice, they are very nice, and we asked them the question… hold on I have to try and translate it in my head, Oh ok, "Why is it significant that God is our Loving Heavenly Father?" I asked that and had no idea why. So Arturo answered and what he said was good, but Beatrice started crying and gave a long answer about confusion and how hard things have been in her life lately, and that because he is our heavenly father he can help her. So after that I told her that is why we are here.  I can promise you as a disciple and servant of Christ that we were sent here by him for just that, to help her.  It was like “what the freak” awesome spirit time, it was awesome!! Sorry if it doesn’t all make a ton of sense I had to translate it in my head. So that is my one story for the week.  

The music is good, (In his last package we sent him a few CD’s) I really like album Trek.  They are talking about bringing back IPods and letting us use those, so that would be nice. Also I want you once everything calms down to look for a back/side pack like the camera bag we have at home. I could really use that here.  They are going to be outlawing backpacks in about 4 months, so I need something like that for when I am on bikes. Well, I am super stoked to hear and see more about the wedding and a picture of my picture there, hahaha. My Spanish is doing well it improves daily.  I still struggle but it is a ton better than when I started...  

Well I don’t want to take too much more time, but I love you all so very much and tell everyone hi for me. You and the Fam are always in my prayers and I can’t wait to hear about the other stuff next week. Love you all. 

Love Your Son, Elder Paxman 

Five Months in the Field!!

Dear Family,

(I always ask after his health) Well my health is going good, there are times at night where I start to get a little bloated and not feeling to good which I do not like, but overall good and even when I do feel a little sick it is bearable. Thank you for cancelling the August doctor’s appointment.  That made things a ton easier for me.

Yea I do need to write back people.  I feel way bad but I am so busy it is crazy... Although here soon I am hoping to get a bunch done and send them out. Man I wish I could have been there for Bai at the Temple.... But iz all good, I am so excited for her. (I told him that Bailee had received her endowment on Saturday) That story you told me about the young boy, I really enjoyed!! I will have to make sure to get something to them soon... (A primary class in our ward wrote to Elder Paxman and one of the grandsons of a sister in our ward was really concerned for Elder Paxman and asks about him all the time and prays for him.  I shared this with him in longer detail)

I know Trenton left, I got an email from him this week that I need to read. I can’t believe I have been gone for 5 months now tomorrow!! It is flying by way to fast and my sister is getting married!!!! MAN things are just cruising by... Some of the guys here tease me about how I am going to be replaced by a little one... 8/ That better not happen!! I am okay if she is preggers when I get home but only like 5 months or else I will be forgotten... My companion told me that when I arrive home at the airport, I am going to have to get an airport taxi to go to home or the hospital and I am going to walk in and you are all going to be like OH!!! You came in today?? hahaha We get a pretty good laugh about it.

Me and my companion are doing amazing, we get along very well, the branch sometimes call us Niño’s or kids because we get along like brothers even the bickering with each other sometimes. This week not a whole lot new happened although if I do say so myself I am looking good bahaha, we biked over 140 miles this last week!! It is crazy!! So my legs are huge but I still have toothpick arms... But they are getting better I can now do like 5 pull-ups hahaha and my abs are awesome haha, other than that awesome bit of information, not much is going on here.  We did find two new investigators Anna y Jorge, they are solid, and they are progressing well and are reading the Book of Mormon now. Sister Ivonne and Jesus are doing very well, although they have only attended church once, but they are still reading and wanting to meet with us so we are hoping we can get them to church with us this next week. Other than that not too much is new... Oh although I need you to do something for me... I want you to find a place where you can either buy or get 2 Indian arrow heads... Even if they are just like chipped by machine or something. They are a gift for two boys here and I have a lesson to go along with them. So if I could get those that would be great. Well I can't believe by next e-mail Bai will be married...

Well Mom I love you so much and keep having tons of fun and don’t get too overwhelmed as time approaches, remember to cherish every moment and remember the moments that matter most because often they don’t come back. Love you all and I can’t wait to hear all the new things from home next week.

Love, your son, Elder Paxman

El Pecoso and some photos

Dear Family,

(Ben recently sent home another SD card full of photos and video.  I had told him some of the photos are blurry and has he checked the auto focus etc.) Yeah, I have noticed that some of my pictures on my camera are blurry too and I do not know how to fix it so that is kind of a pain... I am just going to keep working at it...  

Well Things here are going great.  Celeste is still doing well and is interested.  We stopped by one morning at 9 a.m. on our way to a meeting and shared something real quick and we gave her a Book of Mormon.  She said we could come back after the meeting, so we did, and by the time we got back around 1:00 p.m., she had already read the intro and the testimonies!!  I have never had an investigator progress in less than 24 hours not to mention about 3 and a half hours.  

My health is still doing pretty good, although I found an addiction out here. It is called Tampico.  It is a really cheap juice that tastes good.  I get the red one and it isn’t that unhealthy too which is nice. We also got Ivonne and Jesus to church for the first time this last week.  It was good, but they could only stayed for the first hour. 

My Spanish is getting much better and I think it is because both my companion and I have to try harder to communicate with people, in fact sometimes I catch myself talking Spanish when I am supposed to talk in English, but only a few words that sound common. Well Yazmine the girl that was my first baptism is doing really well, she is planning on getting a car so she can come out to lessons with us. Her mother Adela is an investigator who knows it is true, she is just stuck in her old traditions so it is going to be interesting with her.  Adela can never remember our names, (as it is with most of the Hispanics I have met so far) Most the time they just call us Elder, or sometimes a descriptive word, for me it is El Pecoso, or just Pecoso, which means freckly one or freckle face.  I like it and it is pretty catchy haha. 

I was able to get the backpack and it works wonders so far, although they just announced that in about 6 months they want us using side packs.... Which is hard while biking, even that taska bag... Side bags are just not meant for biking. The mission gets cars in September, so we won’t get one till then, and I will have 6 months on my mission by that time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What da freak, where did it all go!?! (I’m assuming he is referring to the time) So after some time I might have you look around there for a good side pack, like one we use for the camera, like a cross-over thingy. 

(He has asked me to contact a few friends via Facebook and get their current addresses) Yes if you could do that with some of the people I mentioned, that would be great, because I have a letters for them, but I don’t know what they are doing with college and stuff, so I don’t know where to send it. I will also be sending letters to Annie, Matthew Hair, Lara, Daniel Sorenson, and people like that to the house and I need you to once they arrive tell the respective persons you have a letter from me for them and that they need to come get it.  Or if you can get the letters to them.  This will save on postage which I am running low on, and will let me get mail to those people that I don’t have contact info to.  

Biking is still hard, my Bike is just a beast, me and my companion compare our bikes to like his is a nice Lambo or something and mine is an ancient Ford that dies every 5 miles but it makes me in shape and it gets me from point a to point b so no complaints here. The Hi-Chews were very appreciated by all, although many have been disappearing very quickly, the little thief’s haha. Yea I tried not crying during the videos but it wasn’t happening.  (He is referring to a video message he sent for his sister who is getting married in a few weeks)  I finally got a full one after like 5 tries goodness. But there is one that I really liked in there and I hope you use that one. You will have to include tons of pictures for me because I need a lot more. Also the new temple movie sounds cool; I wanted to ask what they changed but decided that probably isn’t the best idea. Well our fridge currently has 5 gallons of Tampico in it because we got so much!!  It was on sale for 3 for 4 bucks so that was awesome. Oh also we are going bowling today so if you could put some money in my debit card to use that would be fantastic thanks.  

(In one of the videos he sent he is being challenged to eat a whole pepper of some kind)The people I am eating the pepper with is Freddie a member, Yazmine, and her mom Adela. I have had to ride my bike in the rain and it is way fun except the part where all my planner and stuff in my pockets got soaking wet. But my back is drenched here anyway with sweat most of the time, the humidity makes me sweat a ton and it is a pain in the butt. Your weather sounds way hot, but I think I would trade you types of heat any day haha.  

Well I love you all so much and I hope everything goes great for the wedding and everything preparing for it. You need to send pictures and take tons of video.  Tell dad the deck is looking good and let him read this too. Well Love you all so much and I will hear from you next week. 

Love, your son Elder Paxman (Pecoso) 

Elder McDaniel, Elder Paxman, Yazmine and Elder Cozzens.

Elder Paxman and Elder Aranda

Keep Presing Forward...

Dear Mom & Dad, 

My health is still good, so I agree with the cancelling thing. (We are going to cancel the appointment with the Dr. for August 19^th and just keep the appointment with the GI from the University of Indiana on Sept. 19^th) 

My new companion is from Rexburg, Idaho. Biking is a beast and we share the car, one week with the car, one week off, but we got jipped and have like no miles till Thursday sooo... we are still biking. My legs feel like Jelly but man do I look studly on the bike with my shiny silver nerd helmet hahaha.

I can get the video done hopefully tonight or tomorrow.  It will be tomorrow actually because we have exchanges so I will be way busy tonight. I hope that is enough time so it would be in the mail by Wednesday. Oh my companion wants you to send me my baseball mitt as well, so we can play catch for exercise. Which by the way I am now ripped!! Not really but I like to think so. 

That is great with ******, (name  starred out for privacy) keep working with her and have dad go over too one of these days and talk, he can be very social and friendly when he wants to be hahaha :P  

Tell Brooklyn HAPPY B-DAY!!  I still can’t sing that in Spanish because it is oober difficult but tell her I love her and that boys still have the plague!! She worries me with that stuff sometimes..... So a spiritual experience... there are a lot but I am bad at telling them,  one time we were going by this lady named Goven that we had found and only taught once.  She lives with her daughter, so we go to the house and actually the Grand-daughter answers the door her name is Celeste.  I actually have talked to her once before, the first time we came.  She is very energetic, she reminds me of an 18 year old Brooklyn.  Well Goven wasn’t there and if she was, she’s just not that interested. But Celeste made the soul saving "mistake" of asking us "So what do you teach exactly anyway?" So we explained kind of the restoration with a little of the Plan of Salvation in it and she was very interested.  She wants us to come back, but before we got there, (I think he means earlier in the conversation, before they made arrangements to come back) she said what happens if I make it to the highest glory but my family doesn’t  it truly would not be happy for me if that happened. And then a moment came where I actually had to really search myself and the spirit for the answer and it came somewhat like this. I told her that God would never cut anyone short, and we are all given ample opportunities to get to the Celestial kingdom.  I then said, you know one of the things that I have realized as time goes on is that I wouldn’t be happy if I was around during the Second coming and had to watch and see all of those people die, even if they were all strangers just to have to watch them die and be able to do nothing for them would just tear me apart... She than got quiet and said so... I guess that is why you are out here huh...?? I paused and said yea, I guess so, because I couldn’t stand watching someone die and suffer because I didn’t do my best to share what I know, or because I came short or even if they were just "evil"... So that was a very cool experience for me. Well that is about it of that story for now.  We meet with her tomorrow.  Other than that our area took a hit because of the bikes and how it takes about an hour and fifteen to get to some investigators, but we will keep pressing forward. 

Well that is about it for new stuff, oh so I think I already told you , but they are going to start incorporating technology in the mission within the next 6 months so that is going to be weird...  I also had to replace a pedal on the bike and a tire.  We have ridden more than 85 miles in the last week!! Our bikes are getting thrashed, and we are even very careful.  I need you to contact Joy on Facebook and ask if she is at that same address or if I should mail it somewhere else. Also some letters are going to be coming for other people to you, and I need you to contact them on Facebook when you get the letters and tell them to come get them. Oh one last thing so I got called Cuban today because of how I look and my Spanish!!! I was stoked!! hahaha. Well I love you all tell Brooklyn happy birthday and she is now the age of Joseph Smith when he had the first vision... And I love you all very much and I hope things will keep going great. D&C 6: 32-the end. My favorite scriptures now I think. Well I love you all and have a wonderful week!  Also let dad read this. 

Love, Your son/stud muffin, Elder Paxman 

Here is the scripture reference he gave:

D&C 6:32-37

32 Verily, verily, I say unto you, as I said unto my disciples, where two or three are gathered together in my name, as ^atouching ^bone thing, behold, there will I be in the ^cmidst of them—even so am I in the ^dmidst of you.

 33 ^aFear not to do ^bgood, my sons, for whatsoever ye ^csow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow ^dgood ye shall also reap good for your ^ereward. 

34 Therefore, fear not, little ^aflock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are ^bbuilt upon my rock, they cannot prevail.

 35 Behold, I do not condemn you; go your ways and ^asin no more; perform with soberness the work which I have commanded you.

 36 ^aLook unto me in every ^bthought; ^cdoubt not, fear not.

 37 ^aBehold the wounds which pierced my side, and also the prints of the ^bnails in my hands and feet; be faithful, keep my commandments, and ye shall ^cinherit the ^dkingdom of heaven. Amen.

The mission and biking

Dear Family, 

It sounds like you had a lot of fun over the last little bit! It has been pretty amazing here. My new companion is Elder Hjelm.  He is awesome and we get along great, except since they jacked our car it hasn’t been as sick, (remember sick means awesome) However, I will be freakin ripped when I get done with the mission. The first day I had my bike, we biked over 25 miles and in under 2 and a half hours.  It was ridiculous, and I hadn’t even really ridden a bike hardcore for like 8 years, so I was dying.  It was brutal!!  I looked like I just got out of the pool because of the stinking humidity. 

(We asked him to do a video message for his sister for the wedding) I can do the video thing either today or next p-day and send it. Or maybe some time in the week. I am not going to address this letter to any of you in particular so you are all welcome to read it. My health has been very good, and I did start the pills both of them, they really help.  I am hoping that is all the doctor here is going to say, in fact did you want me to still go to the one on the 19th of August??  

My companion and I speak almost the same amount of Spanish, his is a little better than mine.  We speak it a lot and it is funny because it is going to make us learn a lot faster, and I feel like we ask people to repeat stuff a lot but it will be well worth it.  

I loved the package the HI-CHEWS are almost gone because everyone loves them and if they swing by they always thief massive handfuls.  I hid the cookies just for me and my companion.  OH!! So today I saw Andrew Luck!!!!! It was awesome, tell dad to tell the Fire guys if you don’t know who that is.  (I don’t know who that is, apparently he thinks the fire guys will tell us)  He was in the library doing an appearance thingy, but he was way busy so I didn’t get a picture, not to mention now that we are on bikes I can't carry my camera as often because we are in the danger zone haha. So that was awesome to get to see him and shake some other Colts guy named Allen’s hand in a passing moment. Other than that things are going pretty normal.  Yes I got a bike and it works pretty good, but we have already had to replace a tube.  We are going to get some of that green goop stuff to help. Although I do need you to send me a backpack this side back thing on a bike isn’t really working, it makes it a lot harder, if you can you can send me the one dad uses for practicing the pack test it is like grey and green it would be perfect. I would only really use it when I am biking but that would help a lot. Not to mention my companion bikes like a mad man, he averages 20 miles an hour, half the time he is a white dot in the distance as I am dying biking at like 16 miles an hour, which is still fastish hahaha.  My cardio is bad, but not for long... 

I will do the message thing for Bailee... no guarantee how long it will be, I will try to keep it nice and short and not cry.  I have noticed being more in touch with the spirit that sometimes I cry more and other times not even at all..... It is weird.  But it is more often that I do not thankfully hahaha.  

(Last week he mentioned receiving 10 emails.  I asked whim who had written him) The people that write me are (Friends also serving around the world) Joel, Cameron, Trenton, and people from my district in the MTC. 

Well I need to wrap up so I can write some other people. But the changes in my daily schedule is now we only have one hour comp study and I talk a ton more which is awesome. So things here are awesome. I have some good stories I will have to share maybe in the next emails or so but I changed and started writing you first so I could have a little more time. Oh interesting fact to bike from our apartment to the church is 16 miles, all the way across town, and to our better areas and most of our investigators about 7+ miles!!!! Well I love the letters dad sends me I have been keeping them all, to remember and hopefully write back too. Well I love you all so much and don't be having too much fun without me!!! Geeze all the cool stuff you do after I leave. That’s it, love you all and I will hear from you next week. 

Love, your son, Elder Paxman

6 New Investigators

Dear Mom and Dad, 

D&C 20 is really good on covenants. (I had told him I was teaching a lesson on the importance of keeping covenants). 

Anyway, I actually won’t be able to answer your questions today mom, it is transfer p-day and we had to deep clean, and do a bunch of other stuff. So this will be short, sadly, I will try to get through what I can. Yes there are other Spanish areas outside the city.  There are seven Spanish areas total and three are in the city.  

The shoe picture was way funny, if I remember right the biggest donut collapsed about 1 year ago. (this is in response to a story I told him about hiking to donut falls at girls camp.  And a trip into the river that made my shoes black)

Anyway my health has been good, one night I felt a little weird and since then things have been better.  Sorry I only have 20 min for e-mail today total. It was a hectic p-day. Elder McDaniel left for Brazil today, the APs picked him up at one, his flight takes off in about one minute 5:37. I am staying here for this next transfer as well, but Elder Cozzens is moving and he is going to be a district leader. The bad news, we are going to have to share a car for a little while so we are going to have to get me 2 things, a bike and a GPS, so that is going to be fun.  I don’t know how we are going to work that out, if I were you I would put money into my account for both.  

We found 6 investigators yesterday!!  2 families of 3 and both families had members missing and they are both very solid. Tonight in about 20 min we are teaching a woman named Ivonne and her husband Jesus, they are awesome, we have only taught her 2 times and him once. They are great. Elder McDaniel commanded me to baptize them and some others in my next six weeks here. So haahaha we will see.  

I was excited and sad when I got on e-mails today!!  Excited because 10 people had emailed me, and sad because with just 20 min I am just emailing back to you. Well I have to go because I am about out of time, let everyone read this email because I didn’t get a chance to send others out. Love you all so much and you are all in my prayers.

Love, Elder Paxman

Note from Mom:  Some good news on the health front.  Benjamin's GI here in SLC has agreed to call in two months worth of prescriptions to hold him over until he see's the GI in Indiana. WE are thrilled about that. Also I spoke with the mission presidents wife today and she said he is doing really well.