Herrmiston

The best part of any week is to read Mason's emails. I also loved looking at all the pictures. Grandma is right, it's fun to see what actually happens at the MTC. And it's nostalgic to me haha.

I got 19 emails this week... I'm so popular. It took me 56 minutes to get through all of those... Soo. I will definitely be going over time today. But this will probably also be short. Or not. We'll see

line up: Kentucky Hillbilly, Teonna's baptism, Joe Kindle, Mike Munoz

We did a lot of work in Heppner this week. Heppner is a tiny town just a little bigger than Cathlamet. It's part of our area so we drive down there once a week and do work. We stopped by Floyd White's home. He is a member and we were told to stop by his place. When he answered the door he introduced himself as a "genuine Kentucky Hillbilly". And I believe it. I asked him what the requirements were to be a Kentucky Hillbilly. He said you need to wear Overalls, Have a rocking chair on the porch, talk with a country drawl, and own a hound dog. He meets all the qualifications. We talked on his porch for a while. He needs to come back to church. But it was fun to talk with him nonetheless. It made me think of a friend from school. Stetson Earl. I went to the U with him. He's from Ohio, but he was a big fan of the University of Kentucky haha. Good ol' Stetson.

I got to baptize someone this week. That was kinda unexpected. We've been teaching Jeremy Raymond in the YSA for awhile now. Jeremy showed up for church one day and wanted to start coming. He had never been before but something told him to give it a shot (the spirit!). We've been teaching him ever since. He lives outside of our ward boundaries but we cover the YSA so we teach him. His sister is 16 and wanted to be taught too so we sent the missionaries who cover her ward over there too. So for the past 2 months there have been two sets of missionaries coming over to teach Jeremy and Teonna. usually we see them once a week and the other elder see them once a week. So we pretty much both taught both of them but officially Elder Hutchens and are Jeremy's missionaries and Elder Camba and Knight are Teonna's. Teonna progressed much quicker than Jeremy and got baptized this weekend in Butte ward and asked that I perform the ordinance with Elder Knight doing the confirmation. It was kinda surprising since I wasn't even her teaching missionary but I was honored and it was a great experience. Normally someone from the ward would do it but she only knows Young Women and their leaders, not any priesthood holder except for the missionaries. That was good. Hopefully Jeremy follows her example.

Also in our time in Heppner we talked to Joe Kindle again. Joe was the first door I knocked on in Heppner. And he let us right in. We taught him a little of the restoration and left. Two weeks later we came back and taught a little more and he told us about how he talked to his friend Charice Lemmon who lives in the area and is a member. She taught him about the Word of Wisdom (which he wasn't even close to living) and he decided to give it a try. So for those whole two weeks that we didn't see him he stopped all drinking and drugs and everything (except for chewing tobacco, he couldn't kick that one). After that we couldn't get a hold of him for a few months. He texted us about 2 weeks ago and said he was going through a rough time because he had changed his lifestyle and he was losing all of his friends. We took that as good news because his friends are all drunks and druggies and they lived with him so it was making it really hard for him. He told us that he would get a hold of us when things calmed down. And he actually did! That never happens... He texted us on Thursday and asked if we were in town. We told him we were and we met up. He is a completely different person already. We set a baptismal date of May 18th. He wanted to get baptized before I got transferred so we set it for that day. And we went through all the requirements and preparations. It was a little bit more of a commitment then he first imagined but was still willing to try. He was up in Hermiston the next day so we met at the stake center and we had another lesson. He is on probation... Felony charges for possession of a firearm. He had a machine gun for some stupid reason and got caught with it. So he was on probation for two years and wont be off until August. So, we are doing everything we can to get him integrated into the branch now so that he will be ready for baptism in August. I went down to church in Heppner this week with our Branch Mission Leader and Elder Hutchens stayed in Hermiston. Joe didn't show up... But we went over afterwards and talked. It was a good meeting and he got to meet some of the branch members, Brother Chick (BML) and Brother Petzoldt, who is a recent convert. It was a huge miracle to run into Joe and to have him be so ready to change. We hope we can keep that fire alive. So cool :).

We taught Mike Munoz last night. It was about 8:00 and we didn't have any appointments so we decided to stop by this family that we tracted into a few weeks ago. Normally 8:00 is late to stop by but it's getting lighter at night! Which I love. It makes missionary work easier. They let us in. Camille Munoz is a Less-active member and Mike is her husband. They have a 3 year old named Gracie. Mike is kinda lazy and told us if it was up to him he wouldn't have anything to do with church but his wife has a desire to go back. We were there for about 15 minutes and taught a quick lesson. Sister Munoz definitely felt the spirit and we told her and her husband that as missionaries we had the opportunity of carrying that spirit with us and that's why it felt different with us in their home. Camille started crying and Mike had a change in his countenance. By the end of the lesson Mike asked what he needed to wear when he came to church. There was a big difference in a short amount of time. It was very cool to see.

Deanna Badgely is doing well. She wont be baptized on May 11th but she has met the Relief Society President and we are having a church tour with her today. It's very good. We're excited for her.

love love

Elder Paxman


P.S. Sorry I didn't send this until Tuesday. The computer freaked out on me yesterday and locked me out of gmail.