Loving Kennewick

So. I am absolutely loving it right now here in Kennewick. I am serving with one of my favorite companions. Elder Metz is the best. And Kennewick is amazing. The only sad thing is that this transfer is a short transfer because of the new mission president coming in. So I will only get to be with Elder Metz for 3 more weeks. Sad. But that's pretty much the only thing getting me down right now. The only sad part about this is that it has to end.

Here's what happened this week.

There were two baptisms in Hermiston on Saturday. I got to go back and see one of them. It was for Chuck Hall. We were teaching Chuck a few weeks ago and asking him if he believed the Book of Mormon to be true. He was already solid for his baptism so we weren't worried but his answer was a little bit surprising. He said that he has known the Book of Mormon was true for years. He has known that the Prophet Joseph Smith was a prophet for years. He has believed that for awhile. Elder Hutchens and I were just blessed to walk into that. We were there at the right time in the right place and Sister Pearson (his fiancee) wasn't afraid to make the invitation. It was the epitome of Alma 13:24. Angels declared it to Chuck before we showed up. We just need to follow the Spirit so we know who's being prepared like that. And we cant be afraid to invite! Otherwise we miss out on helping many of Heavenly Father's children.

Just think of it. Who knows how many people are out there that believe all these things and all they need is an invitation. How sad would it be if they went through their whole life and never was invited to act on the things they believe. They don't know how to act. That's why we're here. Not just missionaries. Everyone who knows! Cool story. We gotta find the prepared people.

As for the work in our area... It's relatively nonexistent. There wasn't a lot going on here at all. They had a total of 4 investigators left for us in the area book and none of them were good. It's a good thing Elder Metz has served in this area before. We are going back to a lot of the people he used to teach. It's so cool to see the people that remember him. They're all so excited to see him. I sure hope it would be the same in any of the areas I've served in.

Because of the lack of things to do here right now we have been doing a lot of finding. Mostly finding people that Metz used to teach. So we got a few new investigators in the few days I've been here. It's also been tiring to try and get the Zone going. It's tough to step into this position and know what to do. We've kinda switched up the Zone vision a little bit. We have four districts and 3 new district leaders. Elder Dutson is our fourth district leader and he helped out a lot on letting us know what was going on last transfer. We've switched things up a lot and trained our new DL's and had a DLC and a few other meetings. There are 28 missionaries in our zone which is the biggest out of any in the mission. It just takes a little bit to catch up on everything. We're getting there though. It will be good to see all the missionaries together today for p-day. We also had a cereal party on saturday to get together and meet everyone.

What else... Ha. We put someone on date I guess... Her name is Carol Eddy. She is definitely not solid. June 22 was her date. We had to invite her 5 times before she would give us a straight answer. And even then it wasn't very straight haha. We'll see if she comes to church!

I'm sure lots of this email didn't make sense and lots was repeated. I've just been trying to collect my thoughts and organize everything here. The main thing: We are trying to find new investigators. All throughout the zone. We are shooting for 85 in these next 3 weeks. Ocho Cinco. That's what we're calling it. It's gonna be big.

I love this Kennewick Zone.

Love love

Elder Paxman

Pictures

Hermiston One Last Time

We got transfer calls. I'm going to Kennewick!

So. The last district meeting of every transfer we do 'transfer predictions'. We write them all up on the board and we take a picture. My prediction for myself was more of a wish. I wanted to go serve in Vancouver with Elder Metz. Mostly because I wanted to serve with Elder Metz. I didn't necessarily want to serve in Vancouver. But I also wanted to serve in Kennewick with Elder Snow mostly because of Kennewick (Elder Snow is great though).

We get two voicemails notifying us of transfers. the first is to let us know who the new AP is if there is one called and who new zone leaders are. Because our mission is splitting on July 1 there were two new AP's called. Elder Snow and Elder Kendrick. They were the zone leaders serving in Kennewick. So they got doubled out and in the 2nd voicemail we received our assignments and Elder Metz and I got doubled in! Dream come true right? Best of both worlds! Like Hannah Montana. Only better.

There are four AP's now. 2 for the Kennewick mission and 2 for the upcoming Vancouver mission. Elder Metz and I will live with the AP's in Kennewick. I am so excited I could throw up. Emotion is spewing out of me! Only one other time was I so excited about transfers and that was when I heard I was going to serve with Elder Manning. And that was tons of fun. Soooooooper excited.

Oh, and because I'll be on the East Side my return date is August 13. I'm not sure what will happen. I need to call President Greer to see what my options on coming home a week or two early are. We'll see. I might just finish it out.

Leaving Hermiston will be sad though. We had a few lessons with Chuck this week. I let him know I would be leaving and he jokingly said "cancel the baptism" haha. I feel really bad because he has been really nervous coming up to his baptism. He is a little overwhelmed with all the new things that are happening. Everything is foreign to him and things are moving pretty fast. seeing him so much this week helped out a lot. I gave him one of my ties. His fiancee, Darlene Pearson, has a pink blouse that matches it so she was excited. When I gave it to him at church Sister Pearson almost hugged me then she realized I was a missionary and recoiled. Funny. Chuck is the coolest guy in Hermiston. He calls himself "the Old Man that Doesn't Know What He's Doing" and Aunt Lillie is 'the Crazy Old Lady" haha. Chuck doesn't act that old, but he's 70. He definitely knows what he's doing though. Aunt Lillie acts old. Not quite like a 96 year old though. And she's not THAT crazy. Just kinda crazy. Good good family. I'll miss them. Chuck gets baptized this Saturday.

Matt Lindberg gets baptized this weekend too. I'll miss both the baptisms. Oh well. Planning out a baptism and making sure it runs smoothly is stressful anyway. I just got to do the teaching :)

Joe Kindle, Tori Sullivan, and Mckenzee Hendrickson all have baptismal dates too. They're all getting there. I think they'll all be baptized. Joe wont be until August. Tori is working out housing situations. Mckenzee needs support from her parents. But they are all getting there.

We had zone conference on Tuesday too. It was all about the Savior. It was a unique Zone Conference. All on the Atonement and Repentance. I liked it a lot. It was President and Sister Greer's last one. Sad. I'm really going to miss them.

Well. There are 8 sisters in the Kennewick zone. That will be fun. Elder Dutson is also there. He finishes his mission in a month so I will watch him die. I'm excited to get to serve around him again! It's been forever. I'll be serving in President Greer's ward, or the mission home's ward I guess. The Temple is in my area too. Fun fun fun.

I'm going to miss Elder Camba. and Elder Hutchens I guess :). But mostly Elder Camba. Elder Knight is getting transferred to Kennewick too. I have been his zone leader for 4 transfers now and after I go home I will have been his zone leader for 6 of his first 7 transfers. I've spent a lot of time around him! Good thing I like him. He's fun :)

ANYWAY! I'm rambling. I probably forgot something too. I always run out of time!

I love you all

Elder Paxman

I Talked to You Yesterday

Well. I talked to you yesterday. So bye

Just kidding.

I have been pondering how to make this more full of emotion and feelings but I'm afraid I used all of my emotion yesterday. I'll do my best.

Yesterday was my favorite call home. It was the most fun. Thank you for being such a cool family. I'm glad I got to see Mom, Dave, Tanner, Zack, Juan, Ciera, Seth, Dad and Pamela. It was good to have small groups. It made it easier to talk more.

I didn't talk much yesterday about the things going on with the work. So that's what I'll do now!

We had a lesson with Deanna Badgely again this week. Elder Camba and I were on exchanges and we went over. She has had concerns about the Priesthood since day one. She doesn't understand it. So we read Acts 19:1-6 and Acts 8:5-24. And Mosiah 25:33-35 or something like that. All illustrate the need for priesthood authority. Then we explained the difference between the Aaronic Priesthood and Melchizedek Priesthood. That went over her head. It was too much for her. But we went to Hebrews 5:4-6 and that helped because it says "after the order of Melchisedec". Anyway! She didn't really get it but I think it helped a little. Then she came to church the next day. It was her first time coming so we were nervous but everything went really well. She wont accept a baptismal date but she does want to work towards it.

Chuck Hall came to church too. He's getting baptized on May 25! We extended that date to him on Saturday. He is so so so solid. He quit smoking in a matter of days and has been coming to church for months now. He's good to go.

Tori Sullivan is a new one. Elder Camba and Elder Knight found her and referred us to her because she wants to go to the YSA. She is in need of a lifestyle change and is trying hard to make it happen. She came to church last week and this week. It was her first time in the YSA yesterday. She is on date for July 18th. There's some things that we need to work out but we're hoping that that can happen. She is way cool.

We saw Joe Kindle in Heppner again. He cooked us dinner.It was sooooo good. He's a professional cook. He went to Culinary school in Eugene, Oregon and it shows. He made some good chicken alfredo pasta for us. We brought the Branch President along. He didn't go to church but things are still going well. He accepted a date for baptism on August 17th (he gets off probation on August 13th).

Matt Lindberg came to church again as usual. Things are progressing nicely. He should be baptized on May 25 as well. I don't see anything getting in the way. He comes to all the activities he can and he fits right in at the branch. He loves it. He is way way cool.

We get transfer calls this week. I'm really going to miss Hermiston. The people here are the best. I've had to leave people on date in every area I've been too. Everyone wants to get baptized after I leave! Things are going great. Life is good. I loooooooovvvvveeee it here. No problems. No bad emotions just good ones. What more do you want from me??

Elder Paxman

Coolest Day at Church Ever

Yesterday was the coolest day at church ever. I hope I can explain it well...

Story:

About 2 weeks ago the Spanish Elders in the area tracked into Matt Lindberg. He is 20 years old and white so they didn't worry about teaching him. They did tell him that the Young Single Adults meet at the church on Tuedsay nights (it was tuesday) at the church to play volleyball. They told him it was at 7:00 and didn't really expect him to show up. He did though. But the Young Single Adults don't show up until 8 so when he got there the stake offices happened to be opened and he talked to some people there. They quickly called the us and let us know he was there. We were in a lesson but the Spanish missionaries were able to make it there while he waited for volleyball to start. We went by after our lesson but volleyball had already started and we didn't recognize anyone new. We thought that it was cool that someone showed up like that out of the blue. We were just planning on showing up to his house in a few days. But then he came to church the next Sunday too. And FHE on monday. It was pretty cool. We met with him on Thursday and he accepted a baptismal date of May 25th. We're working towards that now. He just moved from Georgia about a month ago and we were really the first group of friends that he was able to find. It worked out perfectly.

So yesterday was fast and testimony meeting and there are a lot of people that have come back from school for the summer so attendance has increased in the YSA branch. David Snell went up and bore his testimony about family and his purpose in life. He had talked about why he believes he has been blessed with the wonderful family that he has and so on. It was a good testimony. Then Matt stands up to bear his testimony ha ha. We were kinda nervous. You don't usually see and investigator stand up to bear his testimony. But he got up there and started by saying "for those of you who don't know me, I'm Matt Lindberg and I've only been a member of this church for 2 weeks now." he hasn't even been baptized yet! He also talked about how David's testimony helped him to know what his purpose was in life and why he grew up in a dysfunctional family. He did a little bit of testifying and closed by saying "I've only been here for a few weeks but I don't plan on leaving any time soon. I say this in Jesus' name. Amen." It was such a sweet testimony.

Also, There was a family baptized last week in Umatilla ward. One of the family is Matt Epperson. When he heard that the YSA existed he wanted to come. So he has been a member for a week and he decided to get up and bear his testimony too! And it was in a completely new place too! He hadn't ever been to the YSA branch. But he gave a wonderful testimony. I wish you could have been there... It was amazing.

Best Sacrament meeting ever.

After church we were setting a return appointment with Matt and he said "we cant do friday because we're all going up to the temple to do baptisms for the dead". So we had to explain that you have to be baptized for yourself before you can be baptized for other people ha ha. We promised he could go next month though if everything works out right. He jumped right in to everything. Super cool guy. He sounds like a Georgia Hick. He reminds me of Frances Woods in Cathlamet for that reason :). Do any of you remember me talking about Frances Woods? Granny Franny? That was a long time ago... Man.

So. For many many years now there has been a monthly meeting in most missions called ZLC. But for the first time ever this week there was no longer ZLC but MLC. ZLC was Zone Leader Council. But now it's Missionary Leadership Council because sisters were invited to attend. They will be calling sister leadership in all missions pretty soon. It's crazy to see all the changes! So many sisters! I heard (From Grandma Cable) that a few weeks ago, for the first time ever there were more sisters entering the MTC than Elders. That's something else. Exciting times to be a member of the church. MLC was good. As usual. I love that meeting. And of course, MLC is exactly the same as ZLC just with sisters there. So I'm still happy. Here's a picture!

In other news. We took Deanna Badgely on a church tour. It was really good for her. Really good. She plans on coming next week. She had other obligations this week but will make it next week. Her big hold up in the priesthood and she doesn't understand why she needs to be baptized again. We're confident that that will work itself out as she attends church and she has committed to coming on mother's day. Perfect! We brought Sister Drinkwater with us for the church tour and we brought the Relief Society President, Sister Hartsteen for one of our lessons. So she has some friends. It's really good. We're excited.

Jeremy came to church (Teonna Raymond's brother). We weren't able to meet with Joe down in Heppner this week... He cancelled. Cameron Meade came to church like usual. Mary Lum went to stake conference in Walla Walla... so she kinda went to church. Chuck Hall came to church! That was a good one. Chuck will get baptized soon. He's the one getting married to Aunt Lillie's Niece, Sister Pearson. Just has been smoking for a long long time now but has almost quit and when he does he will be baptized. Things are so good right now.

We had lots of meetings last week. It went Monday- p-day, Tuesday-district meeting, Wednesday-another district meeting, Thursday- MLC, Friday- DLC, Saturday- Zone Meeting, Sunday- Church. Lots of meetings last week. This week will be less busy as far as meetings go. So hopefully we can teach more! I'll probably be transferred in a few weeks to my last area so I'm trying to finish strong in Hermiston. I hate transfer time. I always miss the people so bad... Only two more of these. Sad.

I love you all. Can't wait to talk to some of you on Sunday :)

Elder Paxman