Monday, August 26, 2013

Happy 5 Months Paxy

Well hello everyone,
Where to start... This past week I was given lots of good advice to keep moving forward from family members. My companion and I made the challenge to each other to be as exact obedient as possible. It's not like we were chueco (disobedient) before but we were lacking a few things to be exactly obedient. This week was an eye opener... I gained a tremendous testimony of obedience this week. My comp and I were able to set 4 baptismal fechas for the last week of the cambio in 2 weeks... That has never happened to either of us where we set 4 fechas in one week... Blessings from Heaven I'm telling you. Thinking about all the little tiny blessings this week due to our obedience to all the rules just gives me so much joy. The mission is so much more rewarding, fun, and better when you give all you have to the work of the Lord. Like I said before, it's not like we were disobedient before but we focused our minds entirely on the missionary work this week and the days were filled with so much more joy for me. 
Our 4 fechas are 1. Eli, she is the 16 year old girl in the picture I just sent. She has been sharing with the missionaries for about 4 months and never wanted to close her computer to pay attention, but ever since I got here she has changed her attitude about changing her life for the better. She is tired of making her mom cry and wants to change a few things. So we set a baptismal date for her and she is very ready it's just all about her knowing this is the true church. 2. Jessica, she is going to be a little harder. Her daughters were baptized 2 months ago and their living conditions are pretty difficult and her husband died 3 years ago so there are a few problems that she needs to get over. We also need to have her quit smoking which is very hard for her but we got her down to 3 cigarettes a day where it used to be a pack a day. 3 and 4. Max and Nicol. They were Con Vive for a longg time (living together) but they recently got married and Max is a lost registro so he needs to be baptized again and he is sooo excited to be able to be baptized again because he can't remember anything about his baptism. He says he was 6 or 7 when he was baptized hahaha. Silly Max... and his wife wants to be baptized with him so we need to have her get the answer that this is the correct church to do that. But we are working hard with all of them and also a few other potential investigators. 

My soccer- Fútbol skills are getting a little better than I would like... as a baseball player us and the soccer players didn't get along in high school... haha so as of right now, playing soccer every Monday with the other missionaries and every saturday with our investigators and members I'm getting pretty good... Pucha hahaha.. Nah Im gaining a love and a respect for the game. The mission changes people haha. 

This week we as a mission were privelaged to have Elder Viñas from the quorum of the 70 talk to us in a conference. It was such an awesome experience to have such a spiritual and powerful man in our presence talking to us. We talked about the Expíacion (atonement) and how it helps us as missionaries in our everyday lives here on the mission. It was such a great experience. 

So ya... I got to see Elder Joey Sargent today and we hung out for a couple hours playing soccer. I'm so lucky to have my best friend not only in the same mission but also the same zone so we can talk once a week. He's doing super well and has a Latin companion so his Spanish is really well. He is such a stud.

I appreciate all the e-mails to me of encouragement and such. I love you all so much. Remember everyday who you are... and be obedient!! you WILL see blessings like I have. ENJOY LIFE!!! 

Elder Paxman


Elder Paxman and Eli


Monday, August 19, 2013

Arica

Hello Family and Friends.

I Have had lots of different feelings this week. Happiness for my awesome brother returning from his mission and a little sad I couldn't be there to share in the excitement. The more I think about it the harder it is for me. I feel like my job and vision as a missionary has been strengthened by Chase's example. I'm just a little 19 year old kid and the mission can be tough at times. But reading the messages from my sister, Dad, Mom, Aunt Julie, and Chase gives me SOOOO much joy to be here on a mission. It is such a weird feeling I get when I think about all my family and friends who have this gospel in their lives and how much I want to save the souls who might be falling away or don't have it in their lives. It's kinda a funny thing right now because I'm in an internet shop with about 20 teenage flaite kids who are swearing in Spanish every other word and yet thinking about all of you with the gospel in your lives I feel the spirit so strong here hahah. Silly Chilean teenagers. I have a profound love for all of you and I need to just forget myself and go to work for you all back home and the Lord. The mission brings blessings to you all so I will always keep that in mind when I'm feeling down here in Chile. Sorry. Random but ya, just felt like sharing that.
 
Things are good here in Arica, Chile. Fighting everyday to find people to come unto Christ. Love you all so much. A little summary of my best friends so you can know how they are doing. Tyler is playing college baseball at Salt Lake Community College and I couldn't be more excited for him to be living my dream. Trevor is serving a mission in 20 Days in Argentina!!!!! I am soooooo excited for his desire to serve the Lord. And Joey is here in Arica with me serving in this mission. Gosh I love my best friends. Okay. Love you all.

Elder Paxman












Monday, August 12, 2013

Pacman Waka Waka

Hi People,

With a new president of our mission there are a few rule changes happening in our mission. One of my favorite is there is no limit on our internet time!!!!!!!! Score... So ya. E-mail me I guess. We still are only allowed on church websites but with ALLLL the people e-mailing me I can now write them back... That was a joke.... Ya okay...

I gave a talk yesterday in my new ward Pukarani. I wasn't nervous one little bit.. oh and the talk had to be in all Spanish too.... silly Chileans who don't know English.... I hope through e-mails people can catch my sarcasm and jokes... Oh well. I talked about, in Spanish, how the world is changing so much and how missionaries were enough in the past but President Monson has a different vision. He wants us to work with the members. So I talked to our members about how we NEED their help. The doors in our sector have been touched thousands of times...sarcasm... so we need the help of the members. I spent about 20 minutes talking in Spanish about missionary work... I'm getting to the point where my Spanish is flowing really well... Finally.... I'm proud of my accomplishment =)

Being a little new in this area and meeting all the people here it's really funny watching them try to say my name... I never thought Paxman was a hard name to pronounce but for them I guess it's close to impossible. They all call me PACMAN WAKA WAKA, and then follow up by laughing really loud at their joke.... silly Chileans. I don't mind being called Pacman. I've actually started introducing myself as Pacman... Silly Mason... As my Spanish and my accent is getting better more and more people sincerely ask me if I'm Chilean.... Compliment to the max.... Sorry I'm being very proud in this e-mail but whatever. YOLO... I have a face of a Chilean I guess.. Sick.

Life and the Mission is a lot better when you just have fun. Obviously I'm not disobedient but with Elder Rogers we like to find different ways of finding investigators to teach. We bought a broom the other day and would do door approaches asking if we could help them sweep their front porch. Chileans front porches get realllly dirty really fast because of all the dirt here. A lot of people looked at us weird but that's the mission. haha. Silly Elders... 
We have an Investigator named Fransisca, shes 20 and is really really good. We were teaching her the plan of salvation the other day and after she asked, "what do I have to do to live in the Celestial Kingdom?", and we obviously told her baptism. And then she asked if she needed to take a test to be baptized and we told her just a simple interview. She asked if she could do a pretend interview right there. So we did the baptismal interview and she said yes to every single question including if Josesph Smith was a prophet and if the Book of Mormon is the true book. She answered OBVIO to those.... and yet she didn't want to accept a fecha for Baptism but she is GOLDEN. All is well here. Working hard at having a positive attitude. The mission is difficult very very... but all is good.

Elder Paxman

















Monday, August 5, 2013

Arica

Hola Personas.
Arica is going good. Lovin life up here with Elder Rogers. He has the same amount of time on the mission as me so basically we are both Senior Companions. He can just speak Spanish cause his mom is Hispanic. He is a stud. And we are working muy duro. My Spanish is coming along really well. It helps me a lot that he can speak both Spanish and English fluently cause he can correct me after a lesson in English where I can understand him. I'm learning a lot and really fast. We get along really well and hopefully we baptize baptize Bautizar. This sector here in Pukarani A is really really small. Smaller than my last sector in Antofagasta. with the huge flood of missionaries coming in these past few months a lot of the sectors had to be cut in half so they have places to put missionaries. Which is good and bad at the same time. It's good that our missionary work is growing so fast and good cause we can focus in on families really easily but also a bit difficult because we run out of things and places to visit at times. All is good though. 

Chile is great. Just a great big desert here. It's a lot greener than Antofa but still dirt, dirt, sand, dogs, poop, trash and more dirt. Just the way I like it ;) haha nah but all is good. Thank you for the concern about me. Hope all is well at home with you all. I pray every day for you guys (In Spanish, so it makes the prayers work better). Chile is weird because they eat 1 meal a day, and it's lunch. Their big meal for the day comes at 1 or 2 in the afternoon and then they take what is called a ciesta (a loooooong nap) silly Chileans. Weirdos. But this eating schedule that I have to get used to is really hard for me because as many of you know I'm not a fan of eating so when it comes time to eat that huge Almuerzo it's hard for me to finish cause I don't eat a lot but I also like to have little snacks throughout the day. So Chile is messing up my eating habits.... I have a rough life I know... Jk. 
Our new president has a vision of missionaries staying in the same sector for up to 6 months so we can really get to know the wards and work with them. So I have a feeling I might be here in the northern part of Chile for a while. But who knows, we'll see. Our last president liked to move missionaries around a lot but I'm down for whatever. I'm a chill guy... 
Anyway we have some potential here in Pukarani. We have Eli, 16 years old. Really a nice girl and she has the desire to change her life. She's done things in the past that she wants to ´´be clean¨ so we talk with her a lot about repentance and she knows and wants to be baptized. It's just on her time. So hopefully we can help her out. For my investigators I try really really hard to have love for them. For some it is really hard but for others, like Eli I just want the best for them. We have Fransisca who is 20 Years old, she is verrry receptive to our message about the restoration of the church on the earth. She is really good and we are going to try and set the fetcha this Thursday for her baptism at the end of the month. We went over to a Menos Activos house the other day and she came home with cigarettes and we asked if we could buy them from her so we did and we tore them up in front of her and she even tore up a few hahah. She has the desire to stop smoking but for a lot of the people here, they have been smoking their whole life so it's hard. But as missionaries we can help and that's what we try to do.
Oh ps. Joey Sargent is up here in Arica with me!!!!!!!!! I saw him the other day. We are going to be able to chill like every Monday. I'm really lucky haha. He is such a stud and was so good to see him. He has a Latin companion so he's gonna learn spanish really fast. Sooo stoked for him. So crazy one of my best friends is actually here and in the same city as me right now.

Cool cool. All is good. Thanks for being such a great family and friends to me. 

Elder Paxman


The cigarettes that Elder Paxman and Elder Rogers cut up

Elder Paxman and Elder Rogers