Kennewick Zone

Last week we got a call from Nanci Warner. She is an older lady in our ward and she needed help. Her dog got hit by a car and she needed to bury it. So we went over in our proselyting clothes  and dug a 3 foot deep hole in her front yard in 100+ degree weather. She loved that dog more than anything else in her life right now. It was sad to have to bury him, but it was also an odd experience. I never thought I would be doing that on my mission.

We made good progress with the Morgans this week too! We had a lesson on Tuesday and afterward played bocce with them and the Wesslings in our ward. The Wesslings are the coolest. It was good fellowship for John and Kelly and their 10 year old son Tyler. They missed church this week though... They had come three weeks in a row before this week. So we went over last night to check in and they're still doing great. She's been reading every day. He's been reading whenever we give him assignments. They've both made big strides in their progress in the gospel.

I ran into two former companions this week! We were at the church and we saw Elder Boswell in the parking lot. He's here visiting the mission. And then Saturday and Sunday we got to see Elder Metz who is doing the same things as Boswell. They're just coming back to visit before school starts. Elder Metz came to dinner last night with us too over at the Rose's house. It was pretty awesome to see both of them again and weird to see them not as missionaries.

We found a new investigator named Debra Halley-Hanson. She is super cool. She's met with missionaries in Pasco before and has attended church with a friend before. We "accidentally" found her when looking for someone else. SHe's coming on a church tour on Tuesday and then she's going to cook us dinner on Wednesday. Things are going well!

Speaking of church tours. We had zone conference this week and that was a big focus of it. In the Spokane Mission (which we just picked up a lot of) they were really big into church tours, and we have just adopted a lot of their ideas and tactics in our mission now. So there is a greater focus on getting non-members to the church to give them a quick tour of the building to help relieve any anxiety about coming to sacrament meeting. We're trying to get everyone through a tour! Including the active members to show them what we do when we take investigators on a tour. It was a great training, and my last zone conference. I learned a lot. President Ware and the Assistants trained us well.

A lot of other good things happened this week but I don't want to bore you with more details :). Just know that we're doing a lot of eating. Way too much eating. Take it easy on your missionaries, don't feed them so much that they pop. Even if they're skinny. No sense in making them fat like me haha.

This upcoming week will be one that is full of meetings. District Meeting, DoChrist training, MLC, then zone meeting next Tuesday It will be a good week.

Love you all.

Elder Paxman

Jackie Chan

Yolo,

Elder Paxman speaking.

This week was a pretty normal week I guess... We received Elder Tays on Tuesday. It's super fun to have him with us. I remember when he first started his mission in Sunnyside (Yakima Stake). He was struggling because everything was all so new to him. He has only been a member for 2 years now and it still shows sometimes but in other things it seems like he's been a member his whole life. This is the first time I've had a companion who is a convert and it's been super useful. He can really connect with people on a fundamental level. Hopefully Elder Hansen and I just fill in the blanks. It's been a fun week and I'm excited to keep it going with Elder Tays from Richmond Virginia.

 

Another thing that's fun is that my past three companions have all been from somewhere other than Utah and people love it! Members are always disappointed when you say you're from Utah, unless your companion isn't from Utah, then it's okay. And now I have two companions from California and Virginia! People love it. It's fun :). And Elder Tays has a little drawl too so that makes it even better. 

It was go go go all week. We had three district meetings to be at instead of two this week because of transfers. Transfers was on a Tuesday which made it impossible for some people to hold district meeting but others could, so we had D.M. on Tues Wed and Thurs... Lots of meetings.

 

On Saturday we actually got out at 10. It was the first time we were able to do that in awhile. Usually our mornings are filled up with meetings or planning time. This upcoming week will be no exception. We have stake correlation on Wednesday night. I love those meetings. It's so great to learn from all the men of the church in this area.

Cool story. We have been going through a potential investigators sheet lately to find new investigators. One of the names on the list was Jackie and it said that he was an 18 y/o male that still lived at home. We stopped by a few times and we caught his mom at home but that's all. His mom is Asian and we thought it was funny because this kid's name is Jackie. So we joked around all week calling him Jackie Chan. We stopped by again last night and caught him at home. We talked a little on his doorstep and then I asked him if people called him Jackie Chan in high school because his name is Jackie and he's Asian. he said "yeah, it started in the 3rd grade" I said "wow that started pretty early, no mercy from your friends" Then he said "yeah, the teachers would go down the roll and they would stop at my name and ask if it was a practical joke or something" Then I stopped and said "wait, what's your last name?" and He said "Chan". So his name really is Jackie Chan hahaha. So funny. He loves it too.

 

Another crazy thing about Jackie is that he is planning on majoring in business at central washington university and wants to go into fashion design. He is going to open up a clothing store in Richland with one of his buddies. And he has a huge collection of shoes. He loves shoes. At one point he had 200 pairs but he sold 150 pairs of shoes to a company in California for $30,000 to make a down payment on a Lexus. It's a nice Lexus. And he's 18 years old! He brought us upstairs to show us what's left of his collection. He has some really really nice shoes. My favorite pair were probably the Space Jams. They are the same kind of shoe that Michael Jordan wore in the movie Space Jam. He said they were worth $600 brand new. He goes to shoe conventions in Seattle every year to buy sell and trade shoes. Crazy stuff. It was pretty cool. He's my new best friend.

We also saw the Morgans this week. They came to church too! They are very open with us and have told us before that they think church is boring and that they are lazy and don't want to go. But they have been coming nonetheless and are seeming to enjoy themselves more and more each week. They have tons of friends in the church already so that's not a problem. We actually run into the problem of having too many fellowshippers haha. We don't know who to take with us on any given week and we don't want to hurt feelings of their fellowshippers by saying we don't need them. Everything is flowing really well. We are getting there with them. They just need to fully commit to it and get baptized. I think the biggest things is that they need to read the Book of Mormon more consistently. They read it but prefer to read other things like the ensign and other church books that have been given to them. We're trying to focus on the Book of Mormon though because they still aren't certain that it's true. Kelly Morgan has had a lot of problems with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon in the past but hasn't put in the work to get past that yet. She has been coming to church which I'm sure helps, but there's more that she, and we, can do to help build a testimony of the Book of Mormon.

We went through a cleansing of our teaching pool again this week. We dropped a lot of people that weren't going anywhere. We really only have like 10 really good investigators who have real intent. The rest are on our radar but haven't shown much interest past letting us in the first time. Hopefully we will have a lot of time this week to refresh our pool with new investigators.

I've probably said it before but I saw it even more this week. One of my favorite things about missionary work is that it you're having a bad day you know exactly how to turn it around. You just go outside and talk to people! Talking to everyone is the perfect antidote to any missionaries' problems. It was 8:00 last night and we had taught a few lessons but hadn't recorded any OYM's yet and we were all feeling a little sluggish and down so we decided to park and find people to talk to. The first one we talked to was convinced that Joseph Smith was a drunk and a drug addict. So we dismissed him quickly. But even with that experience I felt so much better and excited to do the work again! It's amazing that even (perhaps especially) in the presence of rejection and opposition we still feel the joy of being a successful missionary. You just have to get out and talk to people! So that's what we did for the next 20 minutes and then to finish our night we stopped by Jackie Chan's house and that's when we met him for the first time. The Lord blesses us when we put forth an effort. We will always receive supernatural aid when we exert ourselves.

Well, I think that's all. This was a pretty dang good email compared to last week. So enjoy it :)

Love,

Elder Paxman

K-Zone

Crazy week.

I failed to mention that we got a new missionary on Monday. Elder Cramer came into the MTC a few weeks late. There were changez in transfer dates and apparently he missed the memo and showed up late. So he came in mid-transfer and he has been with Elder Hansen and I. BUT! We just had a mid-transfer transfer and he is being ripped from our loving arms to go up to Oroville Washington. I's sad. I thought he was going to help Elder Hansen kill me... I'm going to miss him. A mission is full of saying goodbye to people you come to love in a short amount of time.

We are receiving Elder Tays though as a replacement for Elder Cramer. He is coming from Pasco. I love Elder Tays! He is pretty awesome. He's been out about 8 months. He's a convert and is 24 years old. His girlfriend is a member and that's how he was introduced to the church. He got baptized and they were going to get married I think but then he got his patriarchal blessing and it said he would serve a mission so that is what he did. And now he's here with us in Kennewick. I'm super excited to serve with him.

This will make 18 companions. That is a ton of companions... I must be a trouble missionary. This will be the 5th tri-panionship I've been in.

Another crazy thing that happened this week is that we got kicked out of our house. It's in the midst of getting painted and carpets cleansed. We had to move everything out of it... 4 recliners a couch 4 tables 7 bunk beds. It was a lot of stuff that is now sitting in our garage. We were going to be sent to live with other missionaries in our zone that live way on the other side of town but we asked if we could live in the mission home with President and Sister Ware for the week and they said yes! So that is where we have been for the past few days and we'll be there all week. It's way fun. I never thought that I would be staying at the mission home... It's super cool to be around President so often. They cooked us dinner yesterday. Fun fun fun fun fun.

Part of training a new missionary includes letting the new missionary invite someone to be baptized in their first week. So we were looking for someone that Elder Cramer could invite. It wasn't too hard, we had an appointment with Claudia and Aiden Leon. He invited them and resolved their concern and badabing, they're on date for August 17th (my two year mark). YAY!

Kelly Morgan came to church all on her own this week! We invited her on Tuesday but weren't able to get a hold of her to follow up on that invite. But she showed up and it was a really awesome meeting.

I got to talk in church this Sunday, then I taught the mia maids/beehive class. then we all taught gospel principles. Lots of teaching yesterday.

Good things are happening. We really hope to see some baptisms soon. Especially for the Morgan family. They're so close!

I don't know what else to say. Kind of a lame email...

Elder Paxman

 

 

4th of July and 21st Birthday!

Not much time to write anything today.

It was a great week!

The 4th:

We had to be in by 7 because people get crazy in tri-cities! Not really... It's not that bad at all. But they wanted us in early. But President Ware called the Assistants and asked for them to come to his home instead that evening and invited us to come with. We put up some pictures and helped unpack some things. When we were finished we played bocce in their backyard! Sister Ware surprised us all and lead their team to victory. We had some brownies and ice cream and talked a lot. It has been really great to get to know the Wares. They sent us off around 9 and we went home. When we got home it was dark and fireworks were starting. So the only logical thing to do in an apartment complex with a blocked view is to climb on our roof. So that's what we did :). It was soooo cool. You could see at least 20 firework shows going on all around tri-cities. They were all pretty distant but it was cool to have a panoramic view of all the fireworks in the city and on the river. There's a big barge that goes out on the Columbia River and shoots off fireworks from out there. So cool. It was a good 4th of July.

The next morning I opened my birthday mail! That was very nice to hear from you. Thank you for your birthday wishes. The Cockerhams called us in the morning and offered to take us out to lunch for my birthday so we went to PF Changs for lunch. We worked a little bit and then were at the church by 4 to prepare for the baptism at 6. Elder Hansen bought me McDonalds (at my request) for dinner. He said he would take me anywhere and I chose McDonalds. Just like last year when I did the same with Elder Camba hahaha. So good.

The baptism was great! Maddy went first. Her dad, Brian, baptized her. He is a convert of only 1 year so he hasn't seen many baptisms and had a rough time getting it right haha. He said the prayer wrong 5 times before he tried to baptize her and then it took 3 tries to actually get her all the way under hahahaha. So bad. But so good. Austin went second and his was perfect. 1st try. Brian just needed some practice.

Afterward there was refreshments. I walked into the relief society room and everyone started singing happy birthday. There was a cake that said "Happy 21st birthday!" Elder Hansen coordinated it all. He talked to Sister Hunter who brought the cake. Very cool surprise.

Other than the baptism Friday was a tough day to catch people at home. The day after the Fourth of July is a tough day to proselyte haha.

There's been a lot of fires here recently. We got a call from an Elder in our Zone, Elder Babers, and he told us that the front of his car had melted haha. There was a fire in the canyon right by their house and it was right next to their car. They were walking in their area and saw the flames and realized that it was close to their house so they ran over and saw that it was about to get their car. He ran across a busy street and almost got hit by a car and jumped in on the passenger side and drove the car off before it caught on fire but the whole front end had started to melt especially their front headlight. Crazy stuff. Someone caught it on video and sent it into the news. They interviewed Elder Babers and he was on the news a few nights ago haha. They say the fire got started by a firework... Silly kids. Setting of fireworks in a canyon.

Like I said earlier. It's been great to get to know the Wares better. Like any new mission president they are way different from the Greers. Night and day. We have spent a bunch of time with them in the past week. It's kinda crazy how much we have seen them. It's great to see them learn and have enthusiasm to work. Great people. I love them a lot.

No more time. Hope you liked the pictures. Sorry I didn't send more. Mason does way better than me as far as pictures go haha.

Love you all!

Elder Paxman

The most interesting man in the world--They keep this cutout in their apartment. Not quite sure why.

Baptism of Austin and Maddy

Mike Munoz's Baptism

Oh De Lollie Lollie

This week was whatever. Just kidding. IT WAS AWESOME! As usual.

Things have really chilled out since transfers. I can finally breathe again. Elder Hansen is picking up on things really fast too so he's helping out a lot. I really enjoy being with him. And the first few days after transfers are over so we're past the awkward stage that you go through with any companions getting to know each other. It's good to be with him.

Because we didn't have so much administrative stuff to do this week we got to proselyte more!

The Stickelys are a go for their baptism. It's going to be on my birthday! 2 baptisms on my birthday! And I was just emailing "elder" Sam Metz and he said he's going to come up for the baptism this Friday! So cool Way exciting. It will be so good to see him again. And I didn't even have to wait that long!

President Greer is home now... and President Ware is here. They are soooo different from each other. It's so fun to be around President Ware and get to know him. Elder Hansen and I got to go down to Hermiston on Saturday for a baptism and President and Sister Ware drove us. We got to talk with them and get to know them a little bit. It was fun.

I knew they were getting in on Thursday around noon and that they were going to the mission home. I wanted to see them so I told Elder Hansen we would do some finding around the mission home haha. We stopped by some potential investigators and then the Greers rolled up with the Wares in the back seat haha. So Elder Hansen and I were the first missionaries to meet them! Yes! We even met them before the AP's. Elder Hansen says I was being sneaky because I didn't tell him why we were finding around the mission home hahahaha. Funny. But it worked. But one of the first things Sister Ware told me is that her maiden name is Paxman. Kinda crazy huh? We haven't been able to identify anyone that we both know or are related to. Probably because I don't know any paxmans other than those in Canada.

The baptism we went to in Hermiston was for Mike Munoz. It was so good to see him. He's come a long way in his progression. The first thing he said to me when we got there was "I go to church now!" hahaha. He went from a non-church goer to a church goer. Good to see. His wife looked way happy too. A lot of his non-member family came to the baptism.

We found 6 new investigators this week. That was really good.

The third hour meeting in Willowbrook was good. It was all on missionary work. We all split up into groups and role-played inviting scenarios. It was really good for the members to practice and discuss different ways to invite their friends and family to participate in church activities and learn more about the gospel. Bishop Mitchell has done an amazing job of getting the ward excited to do missionary work.

Love you all.

Gotta go.

Elder Paxman