Service and Teaching

Family and Friends,

This week was a very good week. We have gone up in lessons each week I've been here. Last week we taught 18 and we put someone on date! Kyle Rather. I'm not sure I told you about him. He is a 19 year old kid and he is planning on marrying Sam McClain. She is a member and they are living together in the McClains home currently. He was in jail for a year because he and Sam got in an argument while Sam was driving and he wanted out but she wouldn't pull over so he got mad enough that he grabbed the steering wheel and pulled. Bad accident. Sam had some pretty bad head trauma and Kyle went to jail. He's out now and he wants to change his life but he still acts pretty stupid sometimes. Its funny to think that I'm only a few months older than him but he is so so far away from where I hope I am. We are trying to point him on the right path but he still has his hang ups. He respects us as missionaries and he wants to be baptized (April 21st is the date we set with him). But he still smokes. Sam and him aren't married and they are living together, among other things. They want to get married but Sam's parents don't want them to because Kyle still doesn't get it. He needs a job and needs to quit wasting time doing pointless things... I hope he gets it sometime. Sam works. But that's not going to cut it. He could be baptized on the 21st but right now it seems like a long shot.

We had a Specialized Training this past week. President was in town and he told me that all the baptisms that we had lined up in Yakima all happened! they had 6 baptisms last week! So so sweet. Also, at the specialized training was Spencer Larsen. He is President Greer's nephew and he plays football for the Broncos. He played for the Broncos the past 4 years but just signed a contract with the Patriots. He talked to us about his mission and how it trained him for the rest of his life. You could tell he was a football player. He tried real hard to pump us up! He told us that we need a 'why'. The 'whats' don't matter. Whats are the rules and Whys are the reasons why we are on a mission. If our whys are more important that our whats then we will follow the rules no matter what because that's what we need to do to achieve our why. Our whys are because we want to be a better more celestial person. Because we love the people we serve. Because we love the savior. Because we want to share what we know. Or at least those are what our whys should be. That's what we are trying to do. We are trying to align our desires with our Heavenly Father's desires. That's what Brother Larsen talked about.

We saw Sister Zerckel this week. It was pretty regular. We are going to help her move things on Wednesday. We're also going to help the Fullertons rebuild their burnt down home. Construction has been going on for a few months now and we need to tear down a wall. We can do that!

We helped with some yard work at the St. James Family Center on Saturday with Brother Tannahill. He volunteers there and offered to let us help. So we accepted of course! It was a great excuse to get into human clothes. I actually wore shorts and a t-shirt. It was a beautiful day. When it doesn't rain it is usually in the 50's and sunny. Perfect. But it usually rains... We get a week of rain then 2 days of not rain. We are just starting the week with rain. But it is getting better. Spring just started. Kristen's favorite season! I wish it was summer already. But doing 4 hours of yard work on Saturday was refreshing.

Nothing much else to report! Love you all! Keep the letters coming!

Elder Chase Paxman

391 E SR #4

Cathlamet, WA 98612

Love,

 

Me

Snakes

These pictures were taken at a branch party...YIKES!!

Average Week

This was an average work week in the mission field. We saw Bonnie Zerckel this week. She is an excommunicated member of our branch. She chose to have her name taken off the records. At first I wondered if she got excommunicated for publishing false doctrine because some of the things she tells us are far out there. I have met with her about 5 times now. Each time I leave there I understand her a little bit more but I am still way off. I don't know what she is thinking. This last discussion with her was a good one. Elder Crowther doesn't like confrontation too much. And the first few weeks in this area I let him take the lead on most of everything both because he knows the area/people better than me and because he has been out 21 months. He definitely knows what he is doing. I hope I can be as good as he is someday. But we have different styles of teaching. I like to push our investigators and make them think, otherwise they won't do anything! So for the first three weeks with Bonnie we would go in her home and have some small talk, share a scripture and challenge her to do something small and leave. But this last time I pushed her a little further. I read on her teaching record that she had an issue with prayer and that she doesn't pray anymore so when we went there we planned on talking about that. I asked her "what do you think about prayer?" and she told me she didn't pray at all. That just doesn't makes sense because she believes everything that the Book of Mormon and the Bible says. She is a genius too! She knows it backwards and forwards. She knows the doctrine way better than I do. Yet she doesn't live it. So I asked her "If you believe everything in the Book of Mormon then why have you decided to take a different path?" That was a scary question... But the spirit told me to ask her. After a little bit of thought she said "Well I don't think I am on a different path". And then I backed off  because I didn't want to offend her. I should have gone one step further but I got scared ha ha. I guess we will save that for next time. It is very interesting the way she thinks and lives though. She is offended by the hypocrisy she sees and also the practice of unrighteous dominion by some of the members and that has drove her to the point where she has left the church. We are trying to let her know (even though she already knows it) that the members aren't perfect but the church is. She knows that! But she has no plans of coming back to church. At all.

We also meet with Kyle Rather. He is a 19 year old kid that is dating Sam McClain. Sam and her family are members. Less-active member, but members. They think they are active... It's weird. They promise to us that they will be at church every single week. And they never come. They truly think they're active but they only come once every other month. Hopefully that will change now that a non-member is living in their home and planning on marrying Sam. Sam and Kyle should be married in a month or two, which is good because they are currently living together. Kyle wants to learn though. Brother McClain said that he could live in his home only if he went to a church. He picked their church. The LDS church! hooray. So now we are teaching him and he came to church this past Sunday and he is loving what he is learning. He is reading as well. That is good. Good progress. We will probably put him on date next time we see him (Wednesday at 3)

We also teach Mark. Mark is 17 and he comes to church every single week. He attends seminary as a non-member. But he doesn't want to be baptized. He lives with members and they don't require him to go to church or attend seminary. He wants to do all that himself. He lives with our Branch Mission Leader, Brother Riley.

Elder Crowther is from Littleton Colorado. I don't know if I told you that. He went to Columbine High School. Littleton is closeish to Boulder area. About 40 minutes away, so we can relate on some things that I remember from living in Colorado. So that's fun. We get along. He likes video games a lot.  He is excited to be home and play video games again. And listen to The Beastie Boys.

What else? I dunno. No time.

Love you all. I keep hearing GG and Papa's names up here :) That's fun.

Love,

 

Elder Paxman

Photos

 This is the school where they filmed the movie, Twilight. 

Elder Russell M. Nelson

Elder Nelson came to town this weekend and we were made aware that he was going to speak specifically to the missionaries. We met with him on Saturday at 11. He left us with a lot of good words. It was really cool to be able to shake his hand and look into his eyes. They were soft hands and soft eyes. It was weird. There was a lot of depth to his eyes. You could tell that he had seen a lot and that he knew a lot. He is a funny man. He only visited half of our mission and the other half just gets left out hahaha. Poor guys. I just came from the other side of the mission so I got lucky. ALSO. The reason he was in town is for Longview Stake Conference and I just happen to be in that Stake. So not only did I get to hear him once with just missionaries. We also saw the adult session of stake conference and the general session. It was so great to hear Elder Nelson speak so much. He is so ridiculously smart. He broke down all these words for us. He took us to their Greek/Hebrew roots and helped us understand what they really meant. He broke down Atonement and Conversation and Conversion and Submit. I wrote a lot of notes and also I wrote in my journal afterward. I learned a lot of doctrinal things but I believe that most of all my testimony was strengthened. I heard a lot of testimonies born this weekend by President and Sister Greer, President and Sister Child (Portland Temple President) Elder and Sister Bussey (Area Seventy) President Bolen (Stake President) and also Elder Nelson. They all bore similar testimonies but I know that all of them were sincere. Each of them bore testimony of the Savior and many bore testimony of Joseph Smith and the Restoration.

Elder Nelson once said "The earth was created and the church was restored so that families could be sealed for eternity". That's our whole purpose here and all of that is made possible by Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith played an integral role in that plan. It all makes too much sense to not be true. It makes sense logically but it also makes sense in my heart. I feel that it is true. I love the way I feel when I go to the temple. I know that that is what its all about. That is why we are missionaries. Elder Nelson said that we are here to Endure to the End. and That the ENDowment is the end. Endure to the Endowment and then live all the promises you make there. We (as missionaries) shouldn't bring anyone into the church without telling them what they are joining for. Which is to go to the temple of course!! I know that Christ is our Savior. Everything is made possible through his atonement. Its phenomenal.

I also went on exchanges this week with Elder Fenn, one of our Zone Leaders. In his area is Kalama Washington which is the home of "twilight high school" I took pictures. I didn't recognized it. Perhaps I need to watch the movie again. Exchanges are fun. I learned a lot that day too.

Sorry this is terribly short... I'm just glad to be a missionary. I know the church is true. Love you all.

Elder Paxman

Another Week

Cathlamet!

I cant believe its been another week.

Cathlamet is great! It's way fun to be here. It rains every day. Some days its just a little bit and on those days it is pretty nice. high 40's. humid. That's good weather... I cant believe I think that's good weather... In St. George high 40's is the coldest day of the year. Anyways, it's nice to have a car. When you actually have a car. We had to get some body work done on our car this week so it was in the shop on Monday morning. They said it would take 3-4 days so we came back into Longview on Thursday morning. We called them and they said it would be another day. So we went back to Cathlamet and came back into town the next day. We called them and they said it wouldn't be until 5... It was 2. So we had nothing to do. We were in Longview, 30 miles away from our area. So we walked to the Stake Center even though we had no way of getting in. We tried one door and it was locked and it was windy and cold and we had been walking all day. So we walked to the other door and called the missionaries in the area. Then we tried the door and it opened! Elder Crowther told me afterward that he said a prayer before we tried the first door and he thought it didn't work. But then we tried once more and of course the Lord answered his prayer! So we sat in the church until our car was ready. So we went this whole week without a car in Cathlamet... Where everything is spread out. That was a lot lot lot of walking. More than I ever did in Yakima.

Elder Crowther is trunky... He always talks about what it will be like back home h aha ha. I try and keep him focused and I tell him that this is the one time that he will have to be on a mission and he will have his whole life to look back on it either with regret or satisfaction. He kinda agrees with me but mostly he is just excited to be a normal person again. But he still works hard! He hasn't taken any short cuts as a missionary, he is going to work hard until the end. So I guess in that light he isn't so trunky. I think what did him in a lot was that he got his "trunky call" from Sister Wilson. That is just when you get the call to set up your flight plans for home. He still has 4 months left but they need to set that up. OH WELL! He is a good missionary and we get along. He always tells me that I remind him of his best friend from home.

There was a baptism in Yakima last Saturday. Adriana got baptized and she looked great. I still ask Elder Dutson how things are going back there. It sounds like its all going well. People are still on date. 2 other people are too. Yakima 3rd ward is on fire. That makes me sad that I had to leave... Cathlamet isn't on fire ha ha ha. But the work is just as important here. I have to keep telling myself that. There is a reason I am here.

I keep hearing a lot of news about Grandma Bingham. Everyone knew them!! And everyone loved them. Pamela, could you send me her address? or email? or anything and everything? phone number too. There are a lot of people here that want to get into contact with her. And I wanna write her. We visited the Hogans yesterday and they were telling me that the Binghams stayed in that very home for about 9 months! It was so weird to think of that. Then after that we visited the Fullerton's and they told us that they were best friends with Max and Ladonna and still stay in contact with them. They made a big impact on this branch. and that was 20 years ago! Its really cool to see all the connections.

Anyway. I'm happy. This place is very rural. There are farms everywhere. Its also right on the river so we see barges and tug boats floating on by daily. I need to send you pictures. Ill do that next week. I love the atmosphere here. We are always trying to help people with the work we know they need to do. I have done a little bit of work and its fun. We want to do more. We stacked wood for an older couple. We are going to help Brother Lomax on his house. Brother Leavitt need to finish tagging some of his cows. Elder Crowther and Elder Peterson did a lot for Elder Leavitt before I got here and we are trying to do more. That is the kind of work we do here. We just try to gain their trust by being their friend and helping them out. Different kind of missionary work. Lots of Less Actives. A few investigators. Mark Crystal Kyle and Stan are our four main investigators. Mark comes to church every week. Kyle and Stan said they would come this week but didn't. We are working with them. We just need to work harder.

I love you all. Especially Kristen.

Love

Elder Paxman