Feeling The Blessings

Hello People.

Pretty Solid week. Feeling the blessings being poured down on us. Firstly, Andres (Bolivian we baptized last week) received the Priesthood and he is anxious and excited to bless the Sacrament this week. There really is no better feeling than seeing a complete 100% change in investigators after they are baptized. You can literally SEE the light in his eyes. You can see the difference in his countenance ever since his baptism. I cannot wait to see him be a leader in the church in a few years! Such a great guy, and knowing I was an instrument in this work makes it all worth it! Like I have been telling all of you, we have been working super hard with the family of Bolivians that live in the same house. 

 

There is about 10 Bolivians in total and 2 are now baptized and we have 5 others that are very very interested. How interested are they you ask? Yesterday we had the interviews for baptism for Andrea (13) and Lisel (19) and all went well and they will be getting baptized this Saturday, the 1st of February. Lisel is SET on serving a mission also. The sister missionaries in Copiapo came to our last baptism to meet Lisel and she is planning on doing splits with the sister missionaries... Lisel is sooo sensitive to the Spirit, cries while watching Mormon Messages and stuff. I love it!!! 

 

The Bolivians are awesome. And also we have the other Bolivians Luis Jose (18, We call him Lu Jo) Dalmer (35) and Osvaldo (26) 3 Future Priesthood holders for their baptism on the 22nd of February!!! They are all soooo stoked also. Its not 100% for that day but we are going to be working super super hard for that day for them. They need a little more help getting prepared but that's why Mangum and I are here right:) I LOVE BOLIVIANS. 

I ran out of long black socks so I'm wearing short ankle socks.... I look like a goon its funny. 

 

Go look up the Mormon Message, My Brother Hyrum, It's a good one. I cried. I love my little brother:)

 

We had Interviews this week with President Dalton. What a great man, so spiritual, so understandable. All went well, I'm happy, I'm pure, I'm loving the mission :)

 

Like I said last week we have goals to get in better shape. I knocked 3 seconds off my mile time to 5:42! I like running. Not as much as Elder Peck, but I enjoy it. 

 

There is a town called Nantoco that is in our area, about 20 minutes in bus to get there, and we have a recent convert, Mary, that lives there. She is awesome. Anyways we were out there waiting an hour and a half in the dry heat waiting for a Micro (Bus).... I love the sun..... It wasn't too enjoyable.... just thought I should share that with you.... Silly Chile with their Micros....

 

Nothing much more happening. Chile and Peru were gonna go to war, That woulda been cool. Peru wanted the Ocean..... I'm not quite sure why they want the ocean or HOW you can own the ocean but they want it.... So we might go to war... Is it even a big deal?... ALL the Chileans are talking about it. Have you heard anything about it? I doubt it's a big deal. Chileans are funny when It comes to things like this. Anyways ya... We are working hard. Excited to baptize! And can see the hand of the Lord in the work. I love being apart of this amazing work. All is good :)

Elder Paxman

 

 

Baptisms!!!!!

Not too much time today family sorry. We just back back from a beach called Bahi Inglesa.... Supposedly the best beach in all of Chile... I wasn't too impressed but ya it was fun none the less:) This week went perfectly as planned I will try to explain it all. The baptism with Andres and Mary went perfectly. The other Elders here in Tierra Amarilla had a baptism too so we had a great night with 3 baptisms. I was honored to have baptized Andres, even if it took me 2 times dunking him to get him all the way under the water and saying the prayer 3 different times..... hahaha silly Paxman. All that matters is that he is now clean! An Elder from the city next to us baptized Mary cause she wanted him to. He was the First Elder she met so it was awesome to have him come. Everything went well giving them both the Holy Ghost the next day in church! They are officially members! There is no better feeling than saving souls! During the baptism the family of Andres all the Bolivians were loving it. A few of them crying! They are next!!!!! We don't have a fecha with all them just yet because of a few problems but we will work it out. We are excited with the potential we have here in Tierra Amarilla!

We have doing quite a bit of work with the members to find their friends-family to teach and its going well but also we do a lot of door contacts to try and find new families ready to hear our message. There are always people who are ready to hear and accept the message, we just gotta find them! I think I figured out why its sooooo hot here... Air conditioning doesn't exist... I just found that out... it took me 9 months but ya... So basically our apartment is hotter than it is outside most times... so ya fóme (lame) I know. 

One of my favorite parts of the day (I have many) is definitely personal and companion study in the mornings. I love love love learning more in the scriptures, Preach My Gospel and all that other awesome stuff. I was reading in Alma 5... Go read it!!!!! Now!!!! And what I did was I wrote down every single question that comes up in that chapter and asked myself, What Do I Lack?¿ Do the same, it's a great chapter in the Libro De Mormon. We run every morning all 4 of us. Elder Peck ran Cross Country in High School he is super fast, I try my best to keep up with him every Tuesday we run the mile and record our times to get better for the Next Tuesday. Last Tuesday I got 5:45 my goal by the end of the cambio is 5:20... I love running!!!  My Boy Elder Joey Sargent is now In Antofagasta as Senior Comp!!!! He has been here 7 months sooo insane, love that kid #SargentAndPaxmanComps2014

I love the mission, seeing little miracles ever single day. I cant deny the push that the Lord gives me to make through some of these hot days. The Push he gives me to keep knocking on the doors. The Push to find more and more people who need this Gospel! I love my Mission.

Elder Paxman

I'M LEAVING!!!!!!!!!!

Well we got transfers yesterday... and Elder Mangum and I are both leaving.... They are closing the Sector... and shutting down the Branch and telling everyone in the ward and with fechas for baptism that they can't come anymore....

JK I'm staying.... I'm so funny sometimes.... There are no changes here in Tierra Amarilla. Elder Mangum and I will be together for another Cambio.. Woot Woot.. We´re stoked. We are seeing many many miracles here in Tierra Amarilla and were able to see success this week with our investigators. We brought 9 investigators to church and had 3 great hours of amazing talks and lessons! Our President of the branch threw Palos in Sacrament meeting with 3 talks on The Word of Wisdom, The Law of Chastity, and Tithing... and Then in Gospel Principals we had everyone together and taught Lesson 1, The Restoration and watched the video, The Restoration... Our 9 Investigators basically got ALL the lessons in just 2 hours of church hahaha. I thought it was funny but it went sooo well. Especially watching the movie on the Restoration. Our 2 Fechas Mary and Andres both came and are super stoked for their baptism this Saturday. Andres asked me to baptize him. I love baptizing, especially men!!! That's something we lack... Priesthood. So we are super excited for him to get baptized and also Mary. 

This past Saturday the other 2 Elders here in Tierra Amarilla have been working on a couple that are convive and it took 3 months but they finally got married!!!!! We spent all of this past week working and planning a wedding... Ciera would be proud of me.... I never thought I would be planning a wedding and doing a reception with food and crap... quite stressful..... but they got married and the bride is getting baptized this Saturday also.. So Tierra Amarilla is excited to see 3 baptisms this Saturday... Doesn't happen too much here. The wedding turned out great. I´ll send some pics. I took some videos I´ll show yal in 2 years... 

We cleaned our pension the other day... I think its been a while since a DEEP clean has happened in that pension. And due to the fact that we live in a forest, we killed approximately 1,204 spiders in 10 minutes.... And our pension isn't that big... Very disturbing and now I have a complete hatred towards spiders.... We played soccer today.... I like soccer.... I'm basically Chilean now..

Cool quick story. So this youth in our ward he has about 18 years and we have been working hard for these past 2 months to get him to church but with his work it's super hard. He just started working and we were frustrated that he wasn't coming to church and we went over to his house the other day to visit. We were talking for a bit and then asked if we could share something.. He said, ¨Oh wait hold on I have something for you guys¨ and he comes back with a tithing slip and says ¨Do you guys mind helping me fill this out? It's my first time with a job and my first time I'm paying my tithing¨. I don't know it was just like... Wow... How cool is that. An 18 year old kid with his parents not active in church and he hasn't been to church in a looong time still has the faith and the knowledge that he should and wants to pay his tithing... It was a really really cool experience especially considering we can count the tithing payers in our ward on one hand. Such an awesome kid and we felt bad we were mad he couldn't come to church but after we realized that he is trying his hardest to do the right things and obey the commandments even with his circumstance of working on Sundays. 

We were talking the other day and just saying how the mission is sooo much of a personal journey... I can't really explain how or what I feel when I'm out here in e-mails or even face to face talking about the mission. There really is no 2 missions the same. My mission is shaping me for what I need to be later on in life and it could be the complete opposite for any other missionary-ex missionary I talk to... I wish I could explain EVERYTHING I feel, see, and crave for here in the mission. I just can't... hahah. 

Just know that I love my Savior, I love my mission, and wouldn't change anything that I have learned here. I love Mosiah chapter 27. Basically in a few verses Alma the Younger goes from destroying the church to becoming one of the greatest missionaries in church history. I feel a little like that for me. I love my conversion to this gospel and will never go back. 

Chase sent me an e-mail today about goal setting. It's one thing to set goals and say you are gonna change but its another to ACTUALLY do them.. Work on that. Actually act on the goals we have. Act on your faith. Faith without works is dead. We're here on the earth to prepare to live in the presence of God. If we can't keep the commandments here on the earth we will NOT be able to make a change when we die. Jesus Christ will be begging God to let us stay in the Celestial Kingdom but if we don't know how to obey, we wont be able to handle the obedience that the other people there have.We will have to go to a place where we do feel comfortable.... I hope that made sense sorry... all over the place but you catch my drift.... Obey... and do it cause you want to.... Not cause you have to. I´ll send a pic of my goals for 2014... Now I just gotta do them! 

Love you all so much. Happy Birthday Zack! I sent a picture of the money we use too. Just basically double it so the 20 Mil (orange) is about 40 Dollars. 10 Mil (blue) is 20 dollars..etc..  

Elder Paxman

Happy Birthday Ciera!!!!!!! 23

Bueno.... If I were to put a name on this week I would call it the ¨humbling week¨. Elder Mangum and I have been working super super hard and actually had the best week, number wise, our whole Cambio. But the results just didn't come. We basically look at Sundays as our ¨Game Day¨ and the week we prepare for our investigators and menos activos for Game Day (Church). During the Holiday season its a bit tough at times and it showed this week with only 1 of our investigators being able to make it to church. We still have our spirits high and haven't lost a drop of excitement!!!!!! WOOOOOOO YAAAAAAA (That was me showing my excitement).

Chile is a lot different in the States for New Years.... They burn little Monos they call them. Like stuffed scarecrows with newspaper in them..... Freaken Chile.... It's like symbolism that they are burning all the bad things that happened during the previous year...... ya.... Don't ask me.... IDK.... Chile.... But we decided to follow along with them so we burnt a little mono missionary.... hahaha. White shirt and all hahaha I have a video... I´ll show yal in 2 years... At 12  o'clock The Chileans got freaky with the fireworks. There was so many it was shaking our apartment. Literally like Disney Land quality fireworks... I was impressed. So we watched them for a bit. That was fun. But just a regular New Year here in Chile. Everyone asked us what we did back in the States for New Years and they got mad at us that we don't hug every person in sight - burn random stuffed human sized scarecrows. Latins are a lot different than Gringos.... a lot.... 

Lots of things happened with our fechas this week... Don't wanna say too much other than.... All is good.... They will get baptized sooner or later. We are working hard to help people save their souls! ESTAMOS AQUI PARA SALVAR ALMAS!! We are happy and healthy. I will be working on my New Years resolutions this next week, so be ready to be blown away with the new and defined Elder Paxman next week. We fasted a few times this week for help from the Lord showing we will sacrifice to help the people here in Tierra Amarilla, and I can tell all of you that the strength of my testimony of fasting grew 10 fold because of the things that happened during and after the days of fasting. I wish I could share more on that, but I cant... But ya... Fasting... It works! :) I want all yal to go and read Ether 12:27 and think of all the weaknesses that we have in our life right now. Or this past year of 2013 and look what the Lord promises us! I testify that our weaknesses can become our strengths. New Year, New You! 2014 Change your weaknesses to your strengths! Tengo Fe en Ustedes :) I appreciate your weekly emails to me and I love all your thoughts and advice! Love you.

Elder Paxman