Zone Leader

Hello Family and Friends,

 

I miss you all so much, everything is going pretty good this past week. So many crazy unexpected stuff happened. First I woke up Saturday morning to a new companion in our room. Ha ha ha that was very surprising so now I have 2 companions. His name is Elder Dykstra. He was here at the MTC in November for 5 weeks but he tore his ACL MCL while playing basketball so he had to go home and get surgery and recover for a couple months. He learned 5 weeks of Spanish before but he lost a little of it so now he's back here sorta reviewing so he can get ready for Chile. I have some good companions. We all have very different personalities but we teach very well together. Which is really all that matters. We teach an Investigator once a day so this is really beneficial practice for when we get to the field. 

 

I'm really liking the MTC a lot better now that I can speak the language a lot better.. I'm nothing near where I want to be but it's coming along really well. This computer is acting like a complete NOOB and is freezing every 10 seconds so I'm very upset right now, Lo Siento. I just finished my whole e-mail and It deleted it so now I have to write it all again..... AHHHHHHH I just punched the wall and now my hand hurts..... there were some amazing things happen this week. The new companion, and on Sunday me and Elder Butler were called to be Zone Leaders. A zone Leader is someone who just sorta looks out and helps in any way possible for the zone. We are here to welcome new zones, and just be good examples to everyone else. at least that's what I think we do. We're over about 30 Missionaries so that is so awesome to have this awesome opportunity for the next 3 weeks. Its going to keep me focused on being the best example I can be. I'm so excited for this opportunity. 

 

My official weigh in this week was very disappointing:( I lost 2 pounds... CURSE YOU AMAZING METABOLISM I'm very distraut( distraught? Distrout? Distraut?) about this tramadic experience. Looks like I'm gonna be skinny forever oh well. We also had this amazing opportunity yesterday to hear from ELDER RICHARD G SCOTT. How awesome is that. I was 50 feet away from an Apostle. I was in the choir so I had a really good seat. It was such a great experience to listen to him for our Tuesday night devotional. Elder Scott has a way of speaking that is just so calm and I felt the Spirit so strong yesterday. Something he said that really stood out to me was something very simple but amazing he said,  "I don't know a lot of things. But I do know that Heavenly Father loves you"... I felt the spirit so strong when he said that. Heavenly Father called me on this Mission not to fail, but to succeed tremendously. Spanish is very hard for me to learn but the challenges our Lord is giving me is making me such a better man. Spanish right now Is getting better for me. I can keep a conversation going ask people any question bear my testimony even better and pray sincerely. And to think I'm halfway through my MTC experience I still have so much time to master this language. I'm so excited for this opportunity. 

 

There are some awesome Elders here and I've became good friends with a few of them. My roommate, Brad Hauck and I grew so close, just sharing our hard experiences here, helped us come really close to each other. He's in Denver, Colorado right now because he's waiting for his Visa to Brazil. I'm lucky I don't need a Visa for the first year of my mission to Chile. I'm going there on like a Visitors Visa or something. I don't know I'm lucky because every single person going to Mexico or Brazil or Argentina are getting denied their Visa. 

 

Another awesome friend I made here is Elder Creer. He lives In Kenawick, Washington right in Chase's Mission. He was at BYU while Chase was there so he probably didn't see him. But him and his family are moving to St. George after his Mission. So we're gonna be very close for a long time I can tell. Missionaries are seriously such studs.. AKA me..... There is this Elder, Elder Christoferson imagine a 6'2 300 pound Teddy Bear. That's him. He has the most amazing voice you will ever hear, I will record a video of him and send it home to you guys with some pictures. He comes into our room every night and sings us to sleep... No joke ha ha ha I absolutely love it. My favorite songs I've learned are Come Thou Font and I need the Every Hour (in Spanish) I am absolutely loving my time here in the MTC and thank you for all your support. Keep me in your prayers You are all in mine. Love you guys so much.

 

Elder Paxman