Hey Folks

It sounds like it was a good week back home. Especially for Mason. That is so cool to hear that you made the all-star team. I really hope that he will be able to make it on the team at the U. At the very least he will make some friends on the team.

It was a really good week here too! We taught 28 lessons! And we had 2 baptisms. Jairee Young got baptized and so did Emily Waters. Jairee is 9 and his mom just got reactivated in the church. So it was just a process of teaching all the lessons and then baptizing him. Pretty easy.

Emily was harder. She is 17 and her parents were baptized in March and it was a matter of time before she was baptized too but she was nervous. She felt pressured and wanted to wait a couple months before she did it. She knows it's true so we tried to encourage her without pushing. And then after church last Sunday she texted and said she wanted to get baptized the next Saturday. I think I put that in my email last week. Well, the baptism happened. It was a very good one. She invited a lot of her non-member friends and her siblings, who aren't members, invited their friends too. So we had a lot of non-members there for the baptism. And then after the ordinance was done, Emily wanted to share her testimony. So she did and it was really cool. After she bore her testimony two of the young women in the ward also bore theirs. And her mom bought her a quad with her name engraved on it. It was a really good baptism. I like that family a lot.

A perk of working in the Tri-Cities is that President comes to baptisms. I sent Sister Greer a text about 30 minutes before Jairee's baptism and they were able to come. So they were there to meet all of Jairee's family. Jairee's family on his dad's side are all non-members. It was great to have President there for that.

Also, I got a text from AP Fenn telling me that Frances Woods got baptized and confirmed in Cathlamet this weekend. So everything happened that needed to. That was very good news as well. The work is still moving forward. We still have 3 people on date. Connie Ramirez for August 11th. Linda for June 23rd. and Baby Ann for June 23rd. Each of them wants to be baptized. Linda will be the toughest to get there. She and her fiance have a hard time following through with commitments. They know they need to come to church and read and pray but they don't always do it. However, with them we can be very straight forward and kinda boss them around ha ha. That is what we did in the last lesson at least.

We also had 4 new investigators last week. As a mission, the push that we are going for right now is finding new investigators. The trend has been in the past that we need to find about 13 new investigators before we get a baptism. That is the average. So we are putting in an effort to find as many as possible. That's what we're focusing on right now.

Well. That was our week. It was a good one. I didn't get any letters at all this week... Bummer. Keep praying for me.

Love,
Elder Paxman


Also... killed a chicken today. And blood got all over my white shirt... That was a bummer. But the chicken is dead!

Pasco

I'm in Pasco now. In the 2nd and 4th wards. They say this is the best area for English work in the mission. So far it has held true. We had a baptism this last Saturday and we have 2 more this Saturday. There are plenty of others who are close too! It's crazy really. I think it mostly has to do with the members in the area, they are always telling us to go see people. We received like 8 referrals in 4 days while I've been here. It has been really really good.

I'm still DL. Elder Lee has been out 16 months now. Elder Hoskin and Elder Williams are in my district and so are Elder Pickett and Elder Rudinger. Hoskin goes home in 5 weeks and Rudinger has 11 weeks left. So I feel young again. I've only been out 9 months so I have like 70 weeks left ha ha.

My new address is

1712 N. 24th Ave. #E2
Pasco, WA 99301

Write me letters.

At the baptism this Saturday we got there two hours early and at first we didn't have a key. Elder Lee forgot to get it from the Zone Leaders. But we fixed that problem and we still had time. Then, the water wasn't working for the font. It was only coming out a little bit. So we were messing with it for about 45 minutes and finally our Ward Mission Leader came and figured it out. At that point we had only about an hour to fill the font and they say you need about an hour and a half if you want it filled in time... So all we could do was wait. It turned out to be perfect timing. We got the font filled and then Dakota was baptized. She got really nervous though and didn't want to come out of the dressing room. It was kinda hectic. Dakota is 17.

Next week the baptisms are for Jairee who is 9 and Emily who is 17. Younger baptisms from part member families. The work is very very cool here. Emily has been close to baptism for awhile now but has been resisting and yesterday she texted us and said "Why do people fold their arms when they pray? I just put my hands together, is that okay? Oh, and by the way I want to be baptized this Saturday." It was so cool. I always have heard of people getting texts from investigators like that but it hasn't ever happened to me until now.

It's kinda hard walking in to all of this work because I feel like the new guy that walked into all of this. I want to develop a relationship with all of these people! Oh well, I guess it all just takes time. I just hope that I can do all the right things to keep the missionary work going in these wards. We teach a lot of people, but we could also be teaching a lot more. Always room for improvement everywhere.

Elder Lee is great. He is Samoan. From Salt Lake City. The rumors about his snoring are all true. It's ridiculous. The reason he snores so loud it because he has sleep apnea. So President has authorized that he can sleep in another room so that I'm not up all night haha. Even with the door closed and the fan on I can still hear him. It's not normal snoring either haha, it sounds like he is dying. Crazy kid.

With Elder Lee I have to remind myself that there are a variety of ways to do good missionary work. Over the past few days I have felt a little unorganized... I don't know the area well enough to take over but Elder Lee is always turning to me like I know something haha. A member will ask us a question and he turns to me to answer and I don't know because I've been here for three days. It makes me think that Elder Richey took the lead a lot in their companionship over the past 4.5 months. It is definitely giving me the opportunity to learn fast. Dad always said "Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance" and I hope I will be able to work on that with Elder Lee. He is a very good missionary and I love him a lot, but often times I have to take the lead on things that I have no clue about because he didn't think about it beforehand. It's a little frustrating. He will probably be leaving in 6 weeks... It's always hard to say goodbye to any companion and I just hope that I will be able to bring some organization to this area before I have to take it over in 6 weeks...

I hope that didn't sound like I was ripping on my companion, because I love him and there are about a million things he does well. There are just some things we could work on. Yeah... That's all.

Well. That's all I got for now. The weather here is perfect. High 70's low 80's usually. I love it! OH!! We drive a 2012 Ford Fusion. It is so so so nice. Its the best mission vehicle we have. And Elder Lee doesn't like driving so I get to drive every other day. I'm sure that will help me learn the area too. Elder Lee never drove when Elder Richey was here.

Write me. Be missionaries. Love one another. Do other good stuff like that. But mostly write me.

I love everyone. Especially Elder Hafen. He wrote me this week.

Love,
Elder Paxman

P.S.We're in an apartment. It is very nice. It's just Elder Lee and I. The Spanish Elders who cover the same area as us live in the same apartment complex as us. Lots of Mexicans. But a nice place. Not dangerous in the least amount. You should tell everyone about that as well.

Transferred to Pasco

I don't know if I have too much to say... I just talked to you. But I will try.

I'm going to Pasco to cover the 2nd and 4th wards there. It's a big area and I will have a car again. I'll be with Elder Lee. I have heard that he is very funny and a hard worker. He is a really big Polynesian and he snores loudly, people say he is the loudest snorer in the mission. He just served for three transfers with the same companion and they didn't really get along so hopefully I will be good for him...

Pasco is hot. And I will be there for the summer. It is very deserty. Elder Boswell just came from there so he told me a little of what I could expect. I'm excited to go. The hardest part is leaving the members of the branch and people like Frances and Stan and Mark. I'll get over that too though... I'm excited to get to know more people and work in the Tri-Cities for the first time. The area that I'm going to had 14 baptisms in 5 weeks just a few months ago. It has cooled down since but I'm sure it's a great ward to do missionary work in.

Things change fast in a mission... I wasn't prepared for this one but I have come to a better understanding over the past few days. I'm excited.

Frances came to church and to a baptism on Saturday. She was upset to hear I was going but she still seems strong and she wants to be a member of the branch. She loves the spirit there and loves how happy everyone is. She made the comment that no one seemed to feel like it was a chore to go to church. Everyone was happy to be there. And she wants to be a part of that. She will be on May 26th when she gets baptized.

I don't even know what else to say. I already said it all yesterday ha ha. Ummmm. I get to drive from Vancouver to Tri-Cities. That will be fun.

Pray for missionary experiences. They will happen if you look for them. That will bring you a lot of happiness. I promise. Don't be scared. FEAR - False Evidence Appearing Real. That is something I taught in my last district meeting.
 
I'm sorry this is so short. I know I will look back later today and realize that I could have said more about something... I love you all. I pray for you daily. Stay safe. Stay happy.

Love,

Elder Paxman

24 Lessons

So this week was a good one. We teach a lot. We taught 24 lessons this week. Yesterday we had a good experience.

When I first got to Cathlamet the members we live with told us that they gave a book of mormon to their neighbors as a part of the "book of mormon challenge" that the missionaries had instituted for a couple weeks. So we went over and followed up. They seemed uninterested but nice and told us it wasn't a good time but we could try back again another time. So we tried and tried with no response. Now it's two months later and we still have minimal contact with this family. Now, when we say "neighbor" it means that they are right next to us but to get to their house we have to drive. We cant walk. Because we are on a hill and they have a fence between the houses. So we drive down our hill, go around and drive up their hill. Just to go next door. And I was about ready to drop them because they weren't going anywhere, they were just too nice to say no. We set up an appointment to see them yesterday at 3:30 after lunch and I said "lets just not go, they aren't going to be interested, let's just erase them from our board" But Elder Mellies told me we should go, so we did. And now we have two new investigators... Humbled. They listened to a shortened first lesson and it seemed to make a lot of sense to them. We're going back next Sunday. I still don't see much promise but that might change in the future too. Perhaps I need more faith. Don't we all?

We also went on a couple of exchanges this week. One was with Elder Mitchell and we ended up spending the day in Woodland knocking doors all day. One of our Zone Leaders goes home next Tuesday, and he has planned to have a presentation this Saturday and he wanted everyone in woodland to know about it. So all the missionaries in our zone went to Woodland and we handed out flyers. Elder Randall and Elder Smith (our Zone Leaders) went to churches in the area to personally invite pastors and ministers of other faiths to this event. We are going to blitz that area again on Wednesday. Which isn't really great for us but that's okay. We like to help other elders.

I got an email from James. Elder Peterson. He says that he just hit his year mark a few days ago. He finally knows the language. He is senior companion for the first time and was just called as DL. He is going to finish training a missionary so it should be a great experience for him. He is in his third area and on his 6th companion I think... He also has a baptism this week and he will be performing it for the first time. He's nervous. But I'm sure he will be fine.

We got an voice mail from a guy a few days ago. It was hilarious. I have no idea who it was. We knocked on his door and left a card but he wasn't home. It went a little like this... "Stay the H of my property, I don't believe in your religion and I'm sick of you pestering me. The next time some SOB comes on my property I'm gonna punch him in the nose. I don't like your religion. F off." hahahaha. If you don't think that's funny then you need funny lessons. He sounded like he was in his 70's.

Frances is still doing wonderful. She is going to be baptized on the 26th. She is attending a child of record baptism on the 12th to see how it all goes. She is coming to church on the 13th. MOTHERS DAY!!! Im excited to see my family that day.

OH! also. We get transfer calls this Saturday. I don't think anything will change for me. But you never know... I really really hope I stay. I don't want to move again. I like Cathlamet a lot. I don't know which I like better. Here or Yakima... That is a tough one... Ask me again on Sunday. Don't forget. They are both so great. I do miss Elder Dutson a lot though.

I ran out of time... I had a lot of emails to read today. I would write more but I always end up reading for most of my time. Maybe I should learn to read faster.

I love you all. Stay happy Kristen.

Love

Elder Paxman