Elder Chase 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