Daily Grind X2

I was just reading the emails from my Family, Ciera and Mom. My Mom told me a super funny story about Zack and I started to cry..... WHAT THE FREAK WHY AM I CRYING RIGHT NOW.... The mission literally has made me a baby..... and changed my perspective on my family. I then read my sister's e-mail about her buying a new washing machine and I STARTED CRYING MORE!!!!!! Yep.... something is definitely wrong with me. I have problems haha. My comp and the Chileans in this internet shop think I'm crazy.. I don't cry in lessons just when I read your e-mails haha... hahaha... Freaken Elder Paxman...

So ya.. It was another good week. I'm just trucking along on the daily grind. Finding Investigators to put fechas with, trying to bring them to church, bringing in actives to church.... I swear THE hardest and most stressful thing in the mission is Sunday morning 1 hour before church when we go looking for all our investigators and inactives. Running around every street. All of them sleeping. Having to wake them up, pounding on their door to come to church, yelling through their open window when they don't wake up..... Oh the Agony.... hahah. The mission¨for ya...

We have this investigator named Kelly, her daughter was baptized about 6 months ago and we decided to try and work with the mom. BUT WAIT. Kelly is Blind.. She has been Blind since birth and is very famous here in the city of Arica. So ya she is very receptive and loves listening to the missionaries. We are trying super hard to get a Libro De Mormon en Braille for her so she can read, if not then just audio. But we put a Fecha with her and she accepted. We are planning to baptize her the 23rd of November. She just needs to come to church and get some friends and stuff like that... Yep. We're excited. Hopefully she progresses more rapidly. Other than her we don't have many investigators but we have re activated a lot, which is basically like baptisms for me so I'm happy. 

The garbage men here in Chile are on strike (paro)..... You can imagine the wonderful smell that are in the streets during the mid day with the sun blazing down on the mountains of garbage.... I´ll send you some pictures. Ya but here in Chile we are starting summer and boy is it HOT HOT HOT, especially here in Arica. At the end of the days I am super super dead from the walking in the sun, but that's what I get for coming to the driest desert in the World. I'm getting super super tan. More tan than my Latin Comp haha.

This week we did some intercambios. I went on a Cambio with my new Bishop. He is excited to visit visit visit people, inactives, our investigator. He is very excited to work, so that was fun to talk to him and work a little with my Bishop. I also went on a cambio with an 18 year old in my ward, his name is José. He has his mission call to Lima Perú and leaves in Enero. He is a stud, a little shy but he is gonna do great in  Perú. That's awesome that he is getting the practice of what the mission will be like for him. We found an inactive this week, se llama Paul. He has been inactive for about 15 years but right now he wants to be an example for his wife and son. He is sooo humble and it's so amazing finding people that actually WANT to change their lives and start coming to church and be a good example. We don't find many people like him so I'm super excited to hopefully help reactive him and his family. He is such a great guy. 

But ya.... Calm week working hard. We went to the beach again today and played baseball on the beach... Man I love baseball and the beach haha. I miss you all so much. Hopefully I can control my crying when I write all of you haha. 

Con Mucho Amor 

Elder Paxman

Pukarani, Arica, Chile, Cambio Week

Hello. Cambio week. I'm staying here again in Pukarani with my same comp, Elder Cardozo. Whatever the Lord wants I will do. 1 Nephi 3:7

There were a lot of changes in our ward this past week. We have been meeting with the Stake President and our Zone Leaders and the Stake was very concerned about our ward and was thinking about bringing it down to a branch... Which would be very sad. But in the end they made the right choice and he changed the ward  boundaries so Pukarani gained about 55 active members from neighboring wards and called a new Bishop. Pukarani went from being the lowest assisting church in the Stake to the highest!!!!! The ward got blessed tremendously and with the new boundaries us missionaries have a lot more families and houses to teach and visit. So I am super super excited to stay here in the same ward for my 3rd cambio (transfer) to work with the new members. Lots of work ahead of us. 

Kinda a cool story. We visited a family this week Natali and Bella. Natali is about 20 years old and Bella like 60. Natali recently had a baby but she was in the hospital for about 2 months cause the baby wanted to come out early. So she was in risk of losing the baby and losing her life. Both passing away or both living. The ward and family were very concerned about her. My first day in this sector, about 3 months ago, we visited the family and back then Natali was fine with no problems with the baby. We shared a scripture, bore our testimonies and didn't think much about the visit. When we heard she was in the hospital Elder Rogers and I thought it would be a good idea to visit her. Not thinking too much of it, visited her in the hospital, raised her spirit a little, talked with her, laughed with her then left once again not thinking the visit meant much. 

The other day we visited her. Her and the baby are healthy and happy and she is happy to be back home. BUT she shared some of her feelings with me. She started crying when telling this story of the first time Elder Rogers and I visited her and how she can remember every single word and feeling she felt when I bore my testimony... My simple testimony... and also when Elder Rogers and I walked through her hospital door without telling her we were coming. She recalled as if it were 2 Angels coming to visit her and how amazingly happy she felt with the small 30 minute visit from us missionaries. The smile she had when we walked through the door was something I will never forget. And her hospital roommates commenting to her of how they felt as we were talking and laughing with Natali. Of the spirit her and even the other roommates felt.... What an amazing testimony builder the other day was for me and how I felt the spirit so strong while she was crying to us telling me of these experiences of our visits... Things that missionaries do on a DAILY basis. Not thinking anything of the visits or my testimony REALLY has an effect on people.... People actually listen and remember the things I say... I'm telling you. There is NOTHING like the mission to hear these stories from REAL people who have REAL problems and how I'm actually helping people.... I needed and loved these experiences Natali told us. New perspective on the mission ... People actually care and listen to me:) Just wanted to share that cool experience with you guys. 

Chile qualified for the World Cup in 2014. People went crazy here. Viva Chile. I take lots of pictures... I love taking Pictures I hope I'm not over doing on sending pictures home and taking pictures hahaha, I love pictures:) On Saturday we went to the Feria, Its like this GINORMOUS Garage sale with people putting up tents in a 5 mile Radius that people make their living off of selling random crap. You can find ANYTHING you need in the Feria. and They happen every Saturday. The Stake bought a spot in the Feria this past week and us missionaries ran it and basically did contacts from all the 1 billion people walking by our booth, (The picture I sent you guys). We talked to the People about emergency preparedness and how we can help. Then asked if we could pass by their house and teach them a little more about being prepared and also about our beliefs. It was a huge success we got tooooons of references and was sooo much fun to talk to all those people in the Feria. hahah I had a blast doing it. I love missionary work and talking to random people about what they need to do if a giant tsunami comes tomorrow hahaha. Chile.... hahah. We have a Noche De Hogar (family home evening) every 2 weeks and this past Wednesday's Noche De Hogar was a bigger success than the last. 61 people showed up and about 8 non members. The ward is helping us a ton finding new people. I love it! Hopefully more and more people come every week. We need the help to find. 

Hmmm. Ya pretty busy week with visiting all the new families in our ward and sector (area). We have lots of work ahead of us. Another Cambio here will be interesting and I'm excited to see more success in the Lord's work. I love you all so much and am so happy to hear from all of you. Elder Sargent is staying here another Cambio. YAY. I still get to see my best friend every now and again. That makes me happy. I miss my other best friends Tyler, Trevor, Tanner W., and Chase, and all my other family:) Oh I've gone to the more professional look and I'm wearing glasses without prescription.... I look better and more Professional, so I can get into more houses;) Smart thinker huh. 

Con Amor, Elder Paxman

Game Day!!

Hola. Como Estai

Good past week. To start off I want to talk about a family we have been working with for about 2 months. Her name is Marta and her Pareja (Partner) Angel. And her 2 kids. They have been dating about 6 months. She was baptized about 5 months ago and he was baptized 5 years ago, but are both very inactive in the church. But slowly, with our help, and the ward's help they have been coming to church and activities and Family Home Evenings. They even went to Conference! We have slowly helped reactivate them in church.  And they are so so excited every week for our weekly Family Night and to go to church and we are talking about setting a date for marriage as well as going through the Temple. There is such a great feeling when we reactive a family. It's as if I just baptized her, him and her 2 kids. That's what the Mission is about. A lot of people and missionaries think our job is to only baptize baptize baptize but there is more to that. Reactivating families is just as important and rewarding in the end. I love the feeling whenever I see the people come closer to Christ here. Our ward is really really focused on reactivating families. We don't have a very high percentage of families coming to church so the vision to help the ward is really improving.

On Friday Chile played Soccer against Columbia... The country literally SHUTS DOWN when Chile plays. Chileans\ Latins love their Fútbol. Haha it was tough getting into houses none the less pretty tough getting into houses without the game on hahaha. I may have seen a tiny bit of the game hahah. Oops... not my fault ;) We tied 3-3. People were mad... hahaha Chileans... Some of the members here are super funny, at times we can walk into their house and they can talk for DAYYYYZ. Especially the old people haha Chileans really like talking! 

I gave the lesson in Gospel Principals class yesterday... In Spanish... I'm basically pro now..;) Jk.... But seriously, haha jk... 

Hmmmm what else...  Last P Day we went to the beach and played baseball. How awesome was that!!! I had so much fun and got so burnt haha, I love living sooo close to the beach. And today for P Day we went to a Museum of Mummies.. hahah super weird but awesome hahah. Nothing much more. I love the mission.  I love getting e-mails from all of you about what's happening back at home. It makes me smile hearing about all my family :) I have a list of people to pray for above my bed and I literally pray for EVERY last one of you by your name. I love you all so much:)