Elder Chase Paxman

Hello there.

We ate a lot of fish this week. it was wonderful. Members will periodically ask what we would like to eat for dinner and we know that Cathlamet is a great place for fish so we have been asking for that recently. It finally caught up to us and we had some good spring salmon and Alaskan Halibut. Yum. Elder Crowther didn't like fish so I am grateful that Elder Mellies does.

Well. In district meeting we set a goal as a district to get 50 oym's and 3 new investigators per companionship this week. Cathlamet has never got more than 30 oym's in any given week. It is just really hard to talk to people here. And also, oym's have been dipping recently around our mission. So that is what president wanted to focus on this week. We were able to all get 50 oym's! we all got 2 New investigators so one short for each of us but that is harder to control. The things we could control we were able to accomplish. Elder Mellies and I spent 3 1/2 hours knocking doors yesterday and we only got 20 oym's. It is really hard to oym in Cathlamet... If we ever spent 3 1/2 hours tracting in Yakima we would end up with 100 oym's haha. Oh well. we worked hard.
Another thing I tried to do this week with our district is give a little incentive to exercise in the morning. I promised free lunch to whoever could do the most push-ups between the times of 6:40-7:10 from Wednesday-Saturday. Elder Mitchell did the most - 1000 push-ups in 2 hours essentially. So now I owe him lunch. I'm thinking of what we are going to do this week. I cant afford to buy someone lunch every week so I am going to have to tailor the prize a little bit.

We put Frances on date! May 26th. The work moves forward. She was very nervous to commit to a date but we guided her through it. We didn't want her to become stagnant and she knows it's all true so we helped her set that goal. I really hope she feels ready by then. We got her a large print Book of Mormon so it is easier for her to read. She would read a lot with the small book but now she can read a whole lot more! Sister Johnson stopped by her place without us the other day just to say hi. Sister Johnson is the best. I am really excited to see the progress that we have made with Frances.

Bill Duba came to church. I dont know if I've mentioned him. He is in his 90's and is a WWII veteran. He was a spy and had to pretend to be a nazi for awhile so he didn't blow his cover. He has some crazy crazy stories and he has no problem talking about them. He ran the ovens, he watched what German soldiers would do to the Jews. He had to clean out the ovens when everyone was dead. He has seen some terrible things. And now he is living in a barn where his house used to be. His house burnt down recently... He is very kindhearted. just depressed at this point. If he ever goes to church it is to the LDS church. But he isn't a member. He just feels too old to get baptized... We help him out though. He likes company. Brother and Sister Johnson are good friends with him too. Sister Johnson... missionary.

Mark came to church again. Like always. We are going on an exchange on Saturday so that Elder Peterson can see him and talk to him about baptism before he goes into the army. I hope that goes well.

Stan didn't come to church.

We had interviews this week. I love talking to President. He makes you feel good.

I've been taking ASEA too. Can you take too much of that in one day?? At first the taste was sickening but it has gotten a lot better. It is tolerable now. I think it's making a difference. We'll see

We're going bowling today!!! ESPN will probably be on and I will try to avoid it because I hear the Mavericks lost by one point in their first game with the thunder... Not good. Also, Im a missionary, and missionaries don't watch ESPN ;)

I LOVE EVERYTHING!!!!!! Sorry this email was boring... My emails have been boring lately huh?


Love,

Elder Paxman