District Leader Council

Family,

 

Another positive week in the mission field.

It is quite sad to hear of the passing of Cherie... I got a call from President Greer last night about it and I figured I would hear more today. My prayers are with the family. I wish I could be there.

Hermiston is doing well. We got 32 new investigators this week as a zone. That is amazing. Last week we got 36. As I have said before these numbers are incredible. We have 14 missionaries in our zone which is half the size as some other zones yet we are finding just as much and often more than most zones in the mission right now. We hope to keep it up! We have some really good missionaries right now.

We had a recent District Leader Council with Elder Babbitt and Elder Hundley and Elder Hutchens and I did a mini-training for them. I prepared a few Old Testament stories in Daniel 3 and 6 for the training and linked it all to leadership and how to be better leaders. Something that I learned as I taught was this: Shadrach Meshach and Abednego were commanded to worship a golden image that king Nebuchadnezzar created. They refused and they were brought before the king. In Daniel 3:16 it says something along the lines of "they were not careful with their words". I thought that was really cool. Sometimes other missionaries will try to influence us to not follow the rules completely and as leaders we shouldn't be "careful with our words" we shouldn't tip-toe around their feelings. We should be bold and loving and firm in obedience like Shadrach Meshach and Abednego.

The second story is about Daniel and the lion's den. and that is found in Daniel 6. I think it's in verse 5 where the presidents and princes realized that Daniel was way too righteous for them to find any fault in him so they had to make a law against obedience to catch him. Sometimes that happens in the mission field too. Missionaries can make it seem unpopular to follow a particular rule in the mission field and they almost create this "law against obedience". Just like in Daniel 6 when the law was made that you couldn't pray. Daniel stood firm and did it anyway and was cast into a den of lions as punishment. But by his faith he was delivered out of danger. And then the Lord caused the Presidents and Preists and their women and children to be cast into the den and they were ripped into pieces and eaten up!!! Isn't the old testament great???

Anyway. This is less of an email and more of a lecture at this point but I thought that was cool. And isn't it funny how we learn more when we teach rather than when we're being taught? So bear your testimony! It will do more for you than it will do for anyone else.

Speaking of that. I got to bear my testimony twice again yesterday. I think that's 8 times in the last three months...

We had another 'Hasten the Work' meeting last night. This one was much larger than the one in Yakima. It was in tri-cities (about 40 minutes from Hermiston) and Elder Risenmay, President Greer and Elder Maynes of the Presidency of the Seventy were there. It was pretty much identical to the meeting we had in Yakima. I was blessed to be at two of them. Elder Maynes part was completely new though. But, About 6 months ago Elder Maynes came to our mission and I got to hear him speak and he used a lot of the same material again haha. So it was a lot of repeating but it was all good.

Elder Maynes mad the comparison that Joseph Smith was essentially the first investigator in this last dispensation. And he is the best example of any investigator ever. He had a question and he did his best to find the truth. And in this instance Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ represent the first missionary companionship of the final dispensation and every missionary companionship to follow them was following their lead. I though that was pretty weighty. I really do represent the Savior as a missionary for this church. And I may be the closest thing to the Savior that some of these people will ever experience. That gives a whole new meaning to my mission.

Elder Maynes also discusses that we need to change from the theoretical to the application. Everyone is excited about all the new missionaries and we've been making plans for years to be better member missionaries and full-time missionaries but now is the time to put those plans to action! Exciting times to be a member of the church :).

Elder Hutchens and I are doing great. He has a ton of really great ideas to find. Very creative. It will be a good transfer. We have a baptism lined up for the next two weeks. Kinley Neely (13) and Natalie Trotter (46). We have been working with these two families for a long time now and it will be wonderful to see them enter the waters of baptism. Natalie will be a wonderful member. She has been living the commandments for years now. It just took a little bit to get her to see the truth.

Busy busy week ahead. And a busy month too! I hope we can keep everything straight... I hope I'm not forgetting anything!!! There's so much to keep track of recently.

Well. This was a good email. Sorry for preaching at you.

Love,
Elder Paxman

Elder Butler Going Home

Elder Butler is going home. He leaves in a few short hours. Therefore, I am receiving a new companion. His name is Elder Hutchins (sp). This will be his first time being a Zone Leader so I will get to train him on that. It should be fun. He's been out about 16 months. I've never served around him before but I've heard good things. Although it doesn't really matter who I get as a companion at this point I'd be happy with anyone. Elder Hutchins will be great.

Hey! I don't know if you heard. The church announced 58 new missions worldwide. 3 of those are the Washington Federal Way Mission (Seattle area), Oregon Salem Mission, and the Washington Vancouver Mission! That means that our mission is splitting in the near future. Around July. So for the last month of my mission I will either be serving in the Washington Kennewick mission or the Washington Vancouver mission. They have already announced the new mission president that will replace President Greer and the new one that will open up the WVM. We just had a new Assistant to the President called too and he is a really young missionary to be called as AP. I am assuming that is because he will need to help the new Mission president with all the changes. We also had some traveling Zone Leaders called to help with the training of new missionaries. That might be in preparation for the split too. Exciting times! We'll learn more with time.

This last week was a good one. I wanted to make sure that Elder Butler went out with a bang! I didn't want him to get lazy in the last few days. So we set a goal at the beginning of this week to get 100 OYM's (street contacts) and 10 New Investigators. I've never had over 85 OYM's my whole mission So we were going to have to knock a lot of doors (and we did). and the 10 new investigators would be a lot for the current area that we are serving in. Long story short, we did it! We ended with 102 OYM's and 12 New investigators.

The Lord definitely blessed us in both goals. We made the necessary plans to achieve them and the Lord made up the rest. The very first night of the week we went to Rebecca's home. She is a potential investigator who's door we knocked on a few weeks ago. She let us right in and we met her four kids. Ages 13, 15 ,16, and 17. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment. 5 new investigators on day one! It's not a common occurrence to find a whole family to teach. And then on Saturday evening. We tried back by Kim. She let us in and we met her Husband and one of her boys. We taught about The Book of Mormon and prophets and set a return appointment. 3 more new investigators! And two new families to teach! All in one week. This week was a definite confirmation for me that the Lord will make all good things possible (1 Ne 3:7).

Ummm. I think that's all. The whole family is in my prayers. Especially the St. Johns.

Love,

Elder Paxman

Elder butler in front. Elder Nance bottom right. Elder Babbitt top left. This is who I lived with this last transfer

Mondor Family

Laura Larsen's baptism in Yakima in December

Lillie Harmon's baptism

Monument Oregon - where the kid threw up

Branch in Monument, Oregon

It was another good week. Of course!

We had Zone Conference on Wednesday. We got to meet as Hermiston, Walla Walla, and Pasco Zones. It was fun to see old friends and the conference was in Pasco so I got to go back there for a little bit! It is always great to see President.

I have little time to email today. My computer time was taken up with putting together some reports.

Quick story: We cover a branch of the church in Monument, Oregon. Population: Less than Cathlamet. Much less. And missionaries never go down there. But, we did yesterday. We decided it would be good to make an appearance in a branch that we cover so we hitched a ride with the High Councilman assigned to go there to speak this month. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive one way from Hermiston. They meet in a double wide trailer converted into a church building. There were 13 of us there for church. and that included the high councilman and elder butler and I. We gave talks and in the middle of my talk a 10 year old boy in the back started throwing up hahaha. He threw up four times before he was done. His 5 year old brother said afterward "he had two things for breakfast this morning. Cereal and cereal!" hahahaha. His cereal was all over the ground. They quickly cleaned it up and I promptly closed my talk and we carried on.

After sacrament meeting they had a meal prepared for us. Apparently they do that every third Sunday when they have a high councilor come. That's the best Sunday of the month for them! They cooked us coconut shrimp and a roast among other things. It was very good.

Lovely week.

I love you all.

Elder Paxman

Lots of Baptisms

I was recently asked by someone back home if Hermiston is pretty like Cathlamet. Short answer: no.

It's the ugliest place with a river ever. Maybe it's better in the spring when everything is green. But right now everything is yellow and grey. But what it lacks in aesthetics it makes up for in the character of the people. When anyone moves into Hermiston, the Mayor comes and greets you personally and gives you gift cards and other presents and welcomes you to the town. They were doing that as of about 3 years ago. Maybe it's grown too much since then, but I thought that was pretty cool. Everyone is very nice here. Even though a lot of them dont want to hear our message.

 

Also, another question. Do I get a car. Yes. Lucky for me, I've had a car for the last year. My first area was a walking area and I was there for 6 months, but since then I have been driving.

This weekend 6 people that I taught got baptized. Trina Mears, Brandon Chace and Gage Mondor, Angela Coombs and Lillie Harmon. Those were in 4 different wards. Yakima YSA, Yakima 6th ward, Yakima 2nd ward, and Sandstone ward (here in Hermiston).

 

I think I was most excited to hear about Trina. That was a really good one. I like her a lot. I just hope she stays active.

 

Apparently at the Mondor's baptism Chace (8) and Gage (9) got up after they were baptized and recited a memorized scripture and stated the Doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, enduring to the end). That was so cool to hear. I really wish I could have been there. It sounded like a great baptism.

Angela was the one who threw out all of her alcohol, tea, etc. a couple weeks ago. She's great :). I am very proud of her.

Lillie's baptism was a success. The Greer's got to come. It is always a treat to see them. Lillie is, again, 96 years old. And as far as President knew that was the oldest baptism this mission has ever seen with him as President. It's never too late! The Doctrine of Christ is for both "old and young" She moves quite slow but she did it. We had planned to sit her down in a chair in the water and then just to tip it back but her feet would have come up so we just decided to let her do it the "normal" way. She was kinda nervous. Her nephew was the one to baptize her and he was holding her there in the water and whispered to her "do you trust me" She kinda just nodded her head and then they went through with the ordinance. She did great. Bent her knees and everything! And she came up out of the water laughing. haha. It was a sweet experience. Her other nephew was also in the water with her to assist with the baptism. His name is Tom. He is a convert of about a year and a half. President Greer interviewed him for baptism and this is the first time since then that they got to see him. They were very surprised to see him there and it was a good reunion. Especially to see him exercising his Priesthood and baptizing his Aunt.

That was pretty much our week. We have nothing to do in the YSA... Everyone is moving out of Hermiston. They young people don't like it here haha. There isn't really anything to keep them here. No College. No mall. No people. No fun. So they move to Portland or Seattle or anywhere else where things are happening. So YSA work is hard. But we have been getting a lot of OYM's (street contacts) recently. So good things are on the horizon. Hopefully the YSA picks up.

24 new investigators this week! So good Hermiston. These missionaries are great :).

Thats all.

Love love,

Elder Paxman

We Will Live Again

Wow. I had a lot of emails to read today. I seemed to read slower than usual too.

I've left my self pretty much no time to write an email. So I apologize for the shortness of this email.

Yesterday I had the privilege of bearing my testimony 2 times. It seems like recently there has been a lot of death and other tragedies going around. So I talked about that in my testimony.

 

My last companion, Elder Manning, has been going through a rough time. His dad has cancer. He was notified of that about a month ago. It was a shock to him and he has been trying to deal with that. It was worse than the family thought and he had to start Chemo. Elder Manning told me that last week through email. I called President because I was worried about Elder Manning. Then we had ZLC on Friday and President kinda addressed that topic in the meeting. He tried to teach us that there are warm and cuddly doctrines and there are wintery doctrines. Trials aren't fun but they are there for a purpose. And then of course with all the news about Cherie I shared a little of my feelings there. Also, recently some of my dad's friends have seen similar trials in their lives.

But with all this sad and suffering I am still very peaceful. It seems like over the past few weeks my testimony has been strengthened in the Plan of Salvation and in Eternal Families. Even last night, we got to teach someone who didn't want to believe in an afterlife. I don't think we were able to help her very much... But in having the opportunity to teach about the Plan of Salvation, I was given added strength to my testimony.

This life is not it. We will live again. Perfection does not come in this life, but it can in the next. All that is unfair about life is made fair through the atonement. But a lot of that doesn't come until after we die. Death is a necessary step in being transformed from mortality to immortality. It is a blessing to know that going through death isn't the end. That's what I bore my testimony on.

On a different note. The Zone did really well this week! We have a zone goal of getting 12 new investigators a week. Which I though was a high but achievable goal. The record in Hermiston zone for the recent past is 16 new investigators in one week. This week we got 35! And one day we got 13!!! It was the day where Elder Butler and I were in Tri-cities for ZLC so we weren't even there to help. It was amazing to see. We crushed the old record. I was very very proud of our zone for doing that. We also got more OYM's in the zone than ever before. We saw some amazing things. It should turn into baptisms pretty soon. We can only hope.

Elder Butler and I are getting along great and I love being able to live with Elder Babbitt and Elder Nance too. It's fun to have four of us in one place because we get to come home and hear about the miracles that they saw that day too.

Well. Short. But I have to go.

I love you all.

 

Hopefully I will get to report a successful baptism next Monday for Lilly Harmon.

Love,

Elder Paxman

Hermiston

Well I'm here.

Hermiston is a small town. There isn't too much going on here. Just a lot of crime apparently. We don't ever see it but for a small town people say there is a lot of crime.

 

There are about 15,000 people in Hermiston. And all the outskirts are farm country. That makes for good people :).

We cover the Sandstone Ward, Buttercreek YSA, Willow Creek Branch, and The Monument Branch. The Willow Creek and Monument Branches are small branches in the southern area of our mission. They cover a huge area but have very small attendance. We don't usually make it down to the Monument Branch because it's just too far. But every Thursday we drive to Heppner, which is the main city in the Willow Creek Branch. They meet in a small church building much like the one in Cathlamet. And the Monument Branch meets in a double wide trailer... Not very big.

 

We went to Heppner on Thursday and I got to meet everyone there. We had some extra time and ended up getting two new investigators while tracting. We also saw an investigator named Linda Tefft who is on date for baptism but has some work to do before she can get baptized. It's tough to work with her because we can only go down there once a week and we don't get to go to their sacrament meeting. She has some issues with LDS doctrine but has read through Alma in only a month of meeting with us. Another big thing is that she smokes. A lot. And drinks coffee. So. She is supposed to get baptized on February 23rd. It would be quite the miracle if that actually happened... She has a lot of work to do.

We set a baptismal date with a 96 year old woman. Her name is Lilly She's getting baptized on February 9th. She is really old. But sweet. She has come to church the past 4 weeks with her caregiver, Sister Pearson. Sister Pearson moved from New Mexico to take care of her and has introduced her to the gospel. Lilly has a lot of family and friends who are LDS. I don't quite know what took her so long to find the gospel but she seems excited now! But the rest of her family is more excited than she is. She is very sharp for a 96 year old. Has good hearing. Doesn't talk much. Sort of answers our questions when we teach her... Everyone needs baptism! We're just getting Lilly before the missionaries in the Spirit World do hahaha. That's mean. I'm sorry.

We found 6 new investigators this week in our area. But only 9 in the zone... Things have kinda been dead in Hermiston for awhile. Things were really booming in 2011, but 2012 was a down year. We are trying to take things back to where they were in 2011.

 

We just got Sister Missionaries in Hermiston for the first time in a very very long time. They got doubled in because we had so many Sisters come out this past transfer. It's the first time Sisters have served anywhere in Oregon in awhile. It's exciting to have them here and it means we have one more companionship to work with.

 

Actually. Sister Smith is being trained by Sister Hovorka there and Sister Smith is best friends with David Robertson's fiance. I think... Trisha is her name? I dunno how accurate all of that is. And it probably doesn't mean much to most of you. Maybe Kristen can confirm that for me sometime.

Oh by the way. We are living in "the plex". A famed apartment in the WKM. It's a pretty nice place. Just an apartment though. There are four of us living there. Us and the sisters. Kidding. Its us, Elder Babbitt and Elder Nance.

Out of time.

Love love

Elder Paxman

Hermiston, Oregon Here I Come

Hey family. IM GETTING TRANSFERRED. I didn't see that coming... This is probably the hardest part of being a missionary. And it's not about the new area or the new companion. I am just sad to leave all the people here. The area was really starting to get going. We have 9 people on date for baptism and a few more that are close. I'm sad to leave the wards and Elder Manning too. But that's enough lamenting.

I'm going to Hermiston Oregon. It's about an hour south east of tri-cities and about 2 1/2 hours from Yakima. I'll be serving with Elder Butler. I was his district leader in Pasco. We both got called to be a Zone Leader at the same time. This is his last transfer. I will be killing him. And this transfer is a week shorter than all other transfers. It will just be 5 weeks. Elder Butler is a great guy. It was fun to work with him in Pasco. I'm excited to go to Hermiston with him. The area will be a lot different than where I am now. We will cover 1 ward, a YSA branch and two family branches in the middle of nowhere. Maybe it will be a little like Cathlamet in that sense. We will live in an apartment with plenty of space in it. It usually houses 4 missionaries but right now there are just two of us there so we will have plenty of space. At least for this transfer. Next transfer we will be getting near 30 missionaries so there will be a few areas opening up. Its going to be crazy.

Anyways. Transfers... psh.

Trina didn't get baptized. She smoked! She doesn't even smoke, but she decided to smoke. She took two puffs of a cigarette then felt bad and threw it away. THAT'S IT! But that disqualifies her from baptism for a couple of weeks... So. Hopefully she will get baptized on February 2nd. But I wont be there... That is sad. I really like Trina. It was tons of fun to teach her.

 

I'll also miss Brandon, Gage, and Chace's baptism on the 9th... and Jimmie and Kaysie's on the 16th... and Jonothan Pearson's on the 2nd... and Angela Coombs on the 9th... DANGIT! Oh well. I guess thats how you're supposed to leave an area anyways... The only baptisms I got to be here for were Richard's and Laura's and they are both pretty dang awesome.

 

When all is said and done, this area has been good to me. I just wish I could have stayed longer to finish some things. I guess Elder Manning will finish them with Elder Larue instead. The important thing is that they get baptized and stay active. It's not about me.

Yesterday was a pretty crazy day. We were in church from 7:30 am to 8:00 pm. In order: we had ward council in 6th ward, 6th ward sacrament meeting and gospel principles, 1st ward sacrament meeting/YSA branch council (we split up), YSA sacrament meeting (Elder Manning and I both spoke), YSA gospel principles, then at 4 we had a two hour meeting for Bishops and Ward Mission Leaders in the Yakima and Selah Stakes, the AP's were there and they invited us too, Elder Risenmay spoke and so did President Greer. It was a really really good meeting, after that we went to a fireside for youth that Elder Manning and I both spoke at, It was to get the youth pumped for a mission. We had to speak there because Sister Thomas was sick and she was supposed to speak but we filled in for her. We finally got out at 8 then went to an appointment with Angela Coombs. It was a ridiculous day full of meetings and speaking.

The meeting with Elder Risenmay (an area seventy) was amazing. I think one of my favorite things that he said was "President Monson has turned priesthood keys in lowering the age for missionary work". What a cool thing to say huh? We know that Priesthood leaders hold keys but I've never really heard it put that way "Keys have been turned". He also talked about how this church is the only true and living church on the earth. D&C 1:30. we're living because of continued revelation. We shouldn't forget or disregard the word "living" when speaking of the only true and living church. In essence, Elder Risenmay and President Greer pumped everyone up to do missionary work. The Lord is "hastening the work" I think it says that in D&C 88:73. That is what Elder Risenmay was focused on. That is what the Prophet, and thus, the Lord, is focused on. Sustain your priesthood leaders! Emulate them and you will be emulating the Savior.

The meeting with Angela last night went phenomenally. We got there and she was crying because her dad didn't want anything to do with her and her mom was angry because she is getting baptized. She still wants to get baptized though because it is what is right. And at the end of the lesson she filled a whole garbage bag with alcohol, tea, coffee and cigarets. She had an inordinate amount of tea. And she dumped her wine and liquor down the sink. Alcohol smells bad. It reminded me of a baseball game ha ha. She probably ended up throwing away like $400 worth of sin ha ha. We took out her garbage for her after it was all done. I've never had an experience quite like that. I've seen people give up substances, but never to that level. That was quite impressive. And it seemed really empowering for Angela. She struggles with depression, and I think she really helped herself last night by shedding the chains that were binding her down in the form of alcohol, coffee, tea and tobacco. WOO!

Hermiston, here I come! I'm pumped to share the gospel!!!!

You should all be pumped too.

Love,

Elder Paxman