ARICA!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm in Arica. Cambios were yesterday and I'm in Arica, the most northern city in all of Chile right next to Peru I think... So crazy but I'm soo stoked. My companion is Elder Rogers. He has the same amount of time as me on the mission, about 4 months. He already could speak Spanish before the Mission though so he was only in the MTC for a week. He is a Lingo, he speaks Spanish and English fluently. He is from Arizona. We get along really well so I'm really excited for this upcoming transfer with him.

We are in a little place called Pukarani Arica. It's a little bigger then my last sector but it's just really weird to be away from the busy hustle in Antofagasta. It is a lot calmer here. It's just a different feeling but I'm so excited.

We have a few Investigators that we will hope to baptize in a few weeks. Arica is famous for how cheap everything is. You better believe I'm going to be going crazy on buying soccer jerseys for like 4 Mil ( about 8 dollars). Antofagasta is the most expensive city in the mission and Arica is the cheapest. I don't have much to say I'm just super excited to be here in Arica.

We just ate with our Mamita, she cooks for us everyday so that is really cool, sorta. I'm gonna eat a lot better than I did in Antofagasta that's for sure. We live in a really nice pension with 2 other Elders. One is from Argentina and the other is from Canada Eh. The Elder from Argentina speaks perfect English. He learned all of it on his mission in just 11 months, so we only speak English in our pension oops... haha oh well. Lovin life right now.

Elder Paxman

Elder Funaro and Elder Paxman

Hoozahhh!!

Hello Fam and Friends. Short and Sweet again sorry sorry.

It's the last week of transfers so it's basically finding week. We need to get some investigators that are progressing so we can baptize them next month. I have a really cool story, stay tuned for later in the show. (This isn't the cool story, it's actually kind of sad. So feel free to feel bad for me) This Friday I woke up pretty weak and sick and so I did what a good missionary ought to do... I worked out and showered and got ready for planning meeting and I went to planning meeting. But this is where it goes wrong and I turned into a bad missionary. I was so sick that I made the mistake of lying down on the somewhat comfy benches.. I had zeroooooo energy so we went back to the Pension (House, for you gringos out there) and I took a little nap due to doctors orders. I tried going out to work that night and had to end up coming home after a couple hours due to sharp pain... blah blah blah ya ya. So turns out I had/have an infection in my intestines or something... All I know is I have lost a couple pounds and couldn't work the past 3 days.. I did go to church yesterday and I think I might have left the Pension Saturday who knows. Luckily for me one of the Elders in the office is a certified doctor so he gave me lots of drugs to make me feel better so hopefully all is well. I probably won't die or anything... Probably... Nah I'll be fine. No worries. 

Cool story time. Last Monday we did a zone attack in a little town called Mejillones. It takes us about 20 minutes to walk from the farthest left of the city to the farthest right and about the same from top to bottom. So imagine having 16 mormon missionaries knocking the doors trying to find some new investigators... It was really entertaining to watch hahah. Anyways, we all broke off into little sectors of the city to knock some doors and we got new companions for the day. I was placed with Elder Storey. Elder Storey and I have the same amount of time here in Chile, and we're both Gringos hence we were entrusted in a big responsibility. Turns out Elder Storeys Spanish is coming a little slower for him so I had to do a lot of the talking. About 2 and a half months in Chile and I was speaking to full on Chileans in lessons and in the streets and while touching doors. We found 2 new investigators and taught 3 lessons... Better than some of the Latin companions did... HOOOZAHHH That's right.... I know Spanish hahah JK.... but it really was an amazing experience and I learned so much in those 3 hours. The Lord helps us when we need him the most. All you need to do is ask for the help. I think I can do this. I'm ready to train Elder Sargent. Love you all.

Elder Paxman

#Hi

Hello People,

The weeks seem to just fly by. It feels like it's only been a few days since I wrote to you all. That's a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. Well all is well, nothing to complain about. I had a baptism this Saturday, Kaimy Elisibeth Muños Castillo. She is an adorable little 9 year old. She is the step daughter of our young mens president and her mom is very active. Why she wasn't baptized still confuses me.. But that's where the missionaries come in. So we asked her this week if she wanted her step dad to baptize her. She said no. Then we asked if she wanted the bishop or the counselors. She said no. Then we asked if Elder Martinez. She said no. Then we asked if she wanted Elder Paxman (That's me by the way) and she jumped up and yelled "of course I do!!!" hahaha She is such a cute little girl. So I was able to baptize her this Saturday. The ward was very confused why I was in the font and not the step dad or the bishop... Oh drama.... Oh well.... Who cares.... Not me... I'm just here to save souls. So that was basically our week.  Kaimy was confirmed on Sunday and also Javiera from last week because we baptized her after church last Sunday so we couldn't confirm her. So this week was a good one. We have 1 or 2 potential investigators hopefully we can baptize on the 27th of this month. All is good though.

Something miraculous happened the other day... Here in Chile we are in winter and guess what... It rained..... IT NEVER RAINS HERE. So flippin amazing. Except when I use the word rain I really mean drizzle... But the gente here NEVER see rain so people were going crazy haha. Some missionaries go 2 years without seeing rain. Nothing much else went on. We are teaching lots of lessons. My Spanish is really coming along and today we are headed to a small little town called Mejillones and the whole zone is going to do a zone attack. 14 Missionaries in one little zone knocking all the doors trying to find some new investigators for the zone. Hahah it should be fun. We are gonna go there, play some soccer, and eat Churipan... (Mini Hot Dog thingys) and then do the attack. It should be fun. 

This week I had the opportunity to teach the law of tithing twice. So I wanted to share that with all of you, the importance of tithing. I think in Malachi 3 it talks about the importance of tithing and how God gives us so many blessings the least we can do is help out the church with 10%. The blessings we receive from tithing will overpower that 10% and we will really be earning blessings in the long run. The church is growing in the world and they need the money to build the church buildings and temples and basically everything to make the church function. That is something Chile has a lot of problems with. People are poor here and giving up their money is difficult for them. But what I stress when I teach it is the blessings that will come from paying. Ya okay I'm done. 

Always try to love everyone. It's REALLY hard for me right now but it's something that makes life easier. Love you all.

Elder Paxman

Baptism, Spanish, Mamita and Completos

Hola Familia, Este Semana was good we had a baptism this Sunday and she is going to get confirmed next Sunday. We also have another baptism Saturday, Kaime and Leonardo. Leo is 21 and me and him have became really good friends. It's very rare you see a man above the age of 17 get baptized here in Chile. There is just so many things that these people are accustomed to doing and trying to change their life is difficult. But Leo has put everything he has into quit smoking and the law of chastity. That's an especially hard thing to get teenagers and young adults to stop. But Leo is a stud and wants me to baptize him this week so I am stoked for that. Kaime is 9 years old and is the daughter of the Young Mens President.... Ya I know.... The church in South America doesn't work the same way it does in the states... That's something I'm getting used to. People are very laid back and chill here and don't take the importance of getting baptized seriously.. so that's where the Missionaries come in haha.

My Spanish is really really improving. My spelling of it is terrible. Sorry for that but oh well. Having to speak it all day every day really helps me out with learning. I know the Lord has His help with me as well. I bore my testimony in church yesterday (In Spanish, ya crazy I know). A good thing here in church is that whenever members go up to bear their testimony they always talk about how the members need to help the investigators because almost all of the members are converts of less than 20 years because the church here is pretty new. So that helps so much when we have investigators in church with us and the members are bearing their testimony of the importance of our investigators. Other than that it's really hard to get references from them for their family members who aren't members hahah. Oh well, thats Chile for ya. 

Oh P.S. family, Tyler Strehlow (my best friend if you didnt know) signed to play baseball at Salt Lake Community College... What a freakin stud right. He is so excited to play college ball, so everyone congratulate him hahah. Ya okay.

We got a mamita this month. A mamita is a ward member who cooks for us so that's chill. I don't like it haha I like having the freedom to eat however much I want and save a lot more money for food. Oh by the way I re watched the missionary broadcast thing and I saw flippin Katelyn St. John.... So awesome hahah. I want her email to email her. So someone help me out with that. Oh Happy Birthday Chase. You're a stud. Dont get Trunky ;) 

I get bored a lot of the times walking so I start singing in the street in English. That might be why people think the Mormons are weird... Oh well... There are also these things that I love, they are called completos. They are basically a hot dog except 10,000 times better. I will never eat a hot dog again because of completos. They are a hot dog with guacamole, tomatoes and mayo stacked on to it.... You have no idea how amazing they are. I´ll cook them for you all in 2 years. Also, empanadas, but that's a different story. You better be ready for some amazing food in 2 years. Anyway, ya I think that's all I'm gonna write about.... Love you all. Go read 3 Nephi 27:16-21. It's my favorite scripture to use to set fetchas (baptismal dates) with investigators. 

Elder Paxman

Chile

Hey people. Sorry I don't have much time. My companion is really fervent on being here for only an hour and responding to 18 e-mails is hard (cough cough why am I so popular cough cough). Jk that was a joke. Anyways, this probably won't make any sense because I don't have much time. Sorry. Everything is good though. My companion, Elder Martinez, is pretty chill. Let's just say that Gringos and Latins have a COMPLETE different culture. The things they find normal are things that might really get on our nerves but it's just the way they are. My Zone leaders, who I live with, are really struggling to get along with him but he it's just a diffirent culture that Gringos and Latins have. All is well. I love him. I go forever without speaking any English. I'm learning Spanish so fast with him. Most times when I don't know how to say something in Spanish I just want to say it in English and have my companion interpret it but he can't cause he doesn't speak any English, so it's frustrating but also very good for me to force myself to learn.

We were riding on a Mecro today and I had an ultimate test of spanish... A couple of cute snakes (teenagers who are in love with Gringo Missionaries aka Me) ;) started talking to us. Usually you want to stay away from the snakes but I felt like I deserve to talk to a few girls since it's been so long. We started talking and they believed me that me and Justin Bieber are really good friends and we even called Justin Bieber and the snakes talked to him hahah. We called some other missionaries and told them to pretend to be JB.... sad Chilean people..... they are a sad people ahahah. I can understand so much more and it's weird cause I feel more comfortable talking to cute girls then actual people hahah I was able to keep a conversation with them for about 20 minutes on the bus. Pure Spanish... All the practice with talking with girls at home really payed off huh ;) They asked for my number within the first 45 seconds... I still got it.... hahaha

About the missionary broadcast last week. Well I had to listen to it in Spanish so I couldn´t catch everything that was being said but I do know that we aren't able to use Facebook in this mission just yet. Sad day... Who knows with the new president coming in last week. He might change the rules but for now, it's the same for us here. At the end of most days I'm so completely dead because it's really hard to interpret Spanish all day. It's a tough process and hurts my head a lot hahah. In the streets at night and especially on weekends the drunk people really really like talking to us... There are a lot of drunk people. It's weird they never want to talk to us during the day when we are trying to get in their house but when they are drunk they love us hahah.

I've been reading the Bible. That's something I wish I did at home. Most people here are Catholic and so knowing the Bible I know exactly what to show them to show that they aren't in the true church. That's not what I do but I just dont get it. They believe the Bible and yet in the Bible it explains exactly why their church isn't the true church.... silly people.

Elder Martinez is a finder of little kids. We have 4 baptism fetchas for this month and they are all under the age of 11... It's not my style and personally I think its chanta to look for little kids, but they are souls too and they need to be baptized so that's chill. Missionaries work different and he is senior comp so he is in charge hahh. All is well though. Just trying to save some souls.

I bought a new jacket. I look real good in it... okay ya that's all I think... love you all :)

Elder Paxman