12 People on Date

This was a good week. Whenever I answer the phone I say "hello, this is elder Paxman" or "hello, this is the missionaries". I don't know if those sentences make sense after I think about them... Maybe they do. Another thing I used to say but have since stopped it "could we say a prayer before we left". And that just makes no sense. But I didn't think about it until it was pointed out to me, because when you say it quickly then it sounds normal. But of course it should be "leave" not "left". Silly grammar. I don't not hate it.

In my email from Mother this week she reminded me of the 100 push-ups that I was doing every day in the MTC. That faded quickly. But in the MTC I was mostly doing that with Elder Wakefield. And just recently Elder Wakefield was transferred to Pasco and something went wrong with the housing he was in so they had to move in with the Zone Leaders. They have been living there for over a month now. And the Zone Leaders live two seconds away from us. So I get to see Elder Wakefield a lot again! And we reminisce of our MTC days and the things we used to do. And one of those was our exercise regimen. So we started it back up!... For a few days ha ha. We were doing different things every day for our morning exercise. But it faded again. OH WELL! Now we just go outside for exercise and try to wake up by wandering aimlessly around our parking lot.

Back to the work! We now have 12 people on date. I have never heard of this many people on date for one companionship. It's really amazing... The names of the people on date are... Jyheam, Jaysean, A'mi, D'vonte, Sandra, Alex Siharath, Olivia, Marina, Shane, Mikey, Michael and Victoria. Not all of those are all solid... but I believe that they will all be baptized someday. It is so hard to keep track of all these people. Even as I write them down in this email I worry about them and making sure we make the time for each of them. We really need to see Michael and Victoria......... I just texted them. Hopefully they respond.

We'll probably put two more on date this week. I hope. The Lord is really blessing us. I just hope we are doing the right things. I feel like we're spreading ourselves pretty thin. Victoria just texted back. We're going to see her on Thursday. Yay.

Sandra is a cool story. She has been going through the lessons for a couple months now. Two of her grandkids (Jyheam and Jaysean) have been taking the lessons for like 7 months. Jyheam and Jaysean and their cousins (A'mi and D'vonte) are getting baptized on the 22nd. D'vonte turns 8 on the 20th. So thats why we waited until that day. Their Grandma and Aunt have been taking the lessons along with them. But their grandma, Sandra, has been having a hard time with her faith. She has been baptized multiple times and has never really felt like she has received the Holy Ghost the way she wants. And she was hesitant to get baptized again just to be let down. We were really struggling with her. She was waiting for a sign to come her way to tell her she needed to get baptized. We were afraid that she had already missed her answer. But this Sunday during Gospel Principles she came up to us afterward and told us she had made the decision to be baptized with her grandkids! It was so good to hear. We gave her hugs. I'm so excited for her. Sister Pierce is the greatest fellowshipper in the world. We always teach lessons over at her house. It makes life so much easier. We are just the teachers. I love it.

Victoria just texted again. They have been reading!!! Yes! They are reading in the book of Moroni, I don't know why they started there but that's okay! That makes me feel a lot better

We talked to a guy named Eddie Valdez this week. He is a less-active member. He is 19 years old and just spent a lot of time off the coast of Alaska on a big fishing boat. He was a good story teller and he made it sound way fun ha ha. Despite the cold... And you make really good money! Maybe I'll do that someday. Maybe not... But maybe.

Olivia. We were going by one of our former investigators places to see if he still lived there. We knocked on the door and found out that he has moved but Olivia and her family are living there now. Olivia has three kids. Aryssa- 15 Michael- 9 Nova- 4. Aryssa is a member. Olivia's husband is in jail and is a member. And now Olivia is on date for baptism for October 13th. Super cool. She was crying in the lesson and she really wants this in her life. I hope we can get her some fellowship so that things are easier for her as she transitions and prepares for baptism. I hope that for all of our investigators.

Well. There are plenty of other things that we have been doing that I could talk about but I never have enough time. I hope I wrote all the good stuff and didn't forget anything.

Love,

Elder Paxman