June 25, 2012

hola familia,

okay well we didnt get a call last night and neither did del viso so we are all the same and together again. I'm bummed cause I was ready to get a new companion and be done with my first area but oh well I guess. 6 more weeks here.. I will have been here for almost 6 months in 6 weeks so I will probably for sure be transfered cause you never stay in an area for more than 6 or 7 months in this mission so we will see. but yeah so this was a prety good week. I baptised alejo yesterday which is the other brother in the familia silva. they are doing awesome but the parents are still having problems with getting married. we had the despedida last night. which is the farewell meeting thing for the missionaries that are leaving today and they give their testimonies and president talks and stuff and any missionaries can go but only if you bring an investigator or a recent convert that was baptised that transfer so we invited all of familia silva but just the parents were able to go but thats okay cause everyone else is baptised except them so it was a good spiritual experience for them and us. I got to see elder barnwell (my brother) and elder curbela (my dad) haha so that was good. and I saw elder walker and elder alder. elder walker told me that him and his companion got robbed bad the other night. they were riding on bikes at about 8:30 and 4 guys with guns stopped them and took everything. their phone, bikes, bags and scriptures, and just everything. luckily they didnt feel his camera in his suit though so thats good but they took everything else and had guns to their heads and everything. It sounded so crazy! I feel so bad for him though.. argentina is a dangerous place. I actually almost got in like a fight the other day cause it was game day for river and it was the last game of the season and if they won then they would move up to the highest division where boca is and so it was river crazy day and we were waiting in the train station for the elders in del viso and I just bought some boca soccer socks (in the picture. the other ones are liver pool ones I bought) and the train pulled up and there was a bunch of river guys and they saw my boca socks and were all yelling at me to leave and stuff haha and then we were talking to the elders from del viso and one of them came up and pushed me and yeah it could have maybe been worse. honestly here futbol is not a sports. Its way way more than that no joke. Its so crazy and can be cool at the same time. Oh and something to tell austin! ya know sergio aguero? well of course austin does. but we have a less active member and his wife with the last name aguero in the ward here and we just found out that this hermano aguero is sergio agueros cousin. thats so sick!!!! we heard he's way good at soccer too. but yeah anyway besides that this last week we starting teaching a little older guy named eufebio whos son is the secretary in another stake and so he came to church yesterday and is progressing good. We had a few new investigators in church yesterday that we are going to try to teach this week cause it was ward conference. so yeah I took some pictuers with a couple peple as you can see in the pictures just in case I was leaving and had them write in a journal I have and stuff but yeah the first pictures are of the family gutierrez and a couple more. But I honestly love them so much. We have been visting them quite a bit lately and I'm hermano gutierrez favorite missionary now :) haha I love them. they are so fun. um the other picutres, the ones with the boy and hermano is the familia soria. well minus their 2 girls and their mom but franco is the boy and is way good at soccer and hes so tight! I love him and the hermano. hes preparing for his mission and his dad is such a strong member and way funny. I will get pictures with the 2 daughters later now that I will be here for 6 more weeks haha so dont worry. then the other pictures are the baptism and family silva. I will get pictures with some more familys later on though. oh and a couple are with familia cruz who we eat with every friday. I introduced one of the daughters to chris brown and now she likes chris brown haha. so yeah I think thats pretty much it for this last week. someone stole our bike helmets the other day too so we havent been using the bikes so we gotta get new helmets if we want to use them. kinda dumb but oh well. yeah I was mad about the jacket. oh well I guess.. yeah I'm still kinda sick but better than I was last week. you got the pictures I sent last week of the baptism of the 14 year old right? 'Ive been sending pics every week for the past few weeks so I hope your getting them. um I think the scripture I used last week was I wana say helaman 13:1-2 about trials and afflictions. way good scripture. and hermano soria wrote a scripture for me to look up and apply to the rest of my life in my journal which is a freakin awesome scripture! It's D&C 122: I think 9? oh yeah did ashlee and matt have fun? I bet they did. so lucky! yeah cassidee will be awesome with her calling. I really am excited to get home and be an awesome big brother returned missionary and help her with everything. haha kinda weird but I really am. I know she will do awesome though. the lord always provides a way that we can do what he commands. If he didnt then it wouldnt make any sense for him to command us. wow thats pretty crazy with the trek and stuff. that was definitely a sign that he needs to go. they both need to go him and tanner. It will be good for them. so hopefully they really do go. It'll be so awesome if he can get his eagle too. Its way cool to get that. speaking of which I was wondering if you could send me some hard copies of some random pictures from home of me in the past like 2 years. cause something people do a lot is give families a picutre and write on the back of it to them but I dont really have many pictures to give so it'd be awesome if you could send me some and some duplicates of good ones like from my eagle and just other pictures you like of me from the past couple years. maybe from facebook if thats possible? but yeah thatd be awesome. but yeah no sleep for you the next 4 weeks ;) but at least your not like me where I dont get to sleep for the next year and a half haha. wow!! I'm 1/4 of the way done. thats so crazy... but anyway. yeah here we teach people about the OLA. which means a wave in spanish. but you draw a picture and theres a surfer guy and theres an island but he needs a wave (OLA) to get to the island. you can apply the island to anything in the gospel you want. but OLA stands for orar, leer, asistir. which is pray, read, and attend church. we have to do those every week and day to get to the island or our goal. Its really critical in being completely converted to the lord. I know for a fact that as soon as austin gets on his mission he will be fine and change and grow as a person as am I right now a lot more than I ever thought I would. but just make sure hes always planning on going on a mission. Its ridiculous how much it changes you for the better. even though I feel like I've been struggling for a lot of mine it still has changed me in so many ways that will change my future and my life for the better. wow georgia is an elder? fuah!! que rapido!! wait he already put his papers in or what? his birthday is in november. hahaha yeah yeah old people and their complaints ;) haha glad you finished cassidees room and everything. and thank you I love the quotes and thoughts and articles and talks you send me! I guess thats it for now. les amo muchisimo!!!!!! chow! Love Elder Buxton




From another short email mostly referring to Austin:

If you get good at doing whats right and doing lots of things without friends then that will help prepare you for your mission. sounds kinda stupid but its true. Its by small and simple things that great things come to pass. and one step in the wrong direction could lead you far far away from where you want to be. so, watch your step. and also if he knows he should go then that is the spirit telling him to go. and something we learn out here is never never ever not listen to the spirit. if its telling you to do something then you do it. the spirit will never leave you astray.

June 18, 2012

hola familia,




okay so first of all hahaha those pictures are awesome! the cardboard cut out of me looks really funny hahaha but thats sweet!! did you take pictures of the reception and stuff? I wanna see those too. man I'm mad I missed it... okay so this week has been a hard crazy week! okay so where to begin.. so last week after I finished writing you guys my power blanket jacket that brad gave me got stolen... so mad about that. It would be sweet if you could get me another one cause I really loved it :) um so this past week I have been pretty sick again.. which really sucks. okay so earlier this week we had a problem with the familia silva that we have been teaching and we baptised the little boy last week. we almost basically "lost" them cause of a problem that I dont really have time to explain but everything is fine now and I baptised the 14 year old yesterday and the 12 year old will get baptised next week. It was pretty awesome though! they are such an awesome family. the only problem is they arent married and they are having a real problem with that cause the moms birthdate was february 29 in 1974 I think. but apparently there wasnt a february 29 that year. It was in 72 and 76. so thats a real problem for them and its sad cause they mom is progressing so good and knows she is sinning by not being married and wants to get married really soon so she can be baptised. so we are working with that. It was sweet on friday the familia cruz that we always eat with on friday was the mom and the 2 daughters and their 2 non member friends. we ate and everything and then started to share something and then the one daughter left and so we continued and then it turned into a huge discussion and almost an argument between the mom and the daughter that stayed. okay well the 2 girls arent her daughters they are her nieces and their mom is in peru. but yeah so it was really crazy and it was about parents forcing their kids to go to church and how everyone has to gain the desire to go on their own and everything. but it was awesome cause I was able to kinda bring the spirit into the discussion I guess and helped them out and used a scripture that I read and loved that morning in my study and then that night I used that same scripture with another family that I know really needed to hear it. It was awesome to be able to do that. okay and so juan lost the charger to his phone so it was dead and we couldnt call him last week and he was gone the whole weekend and so we couldnt teach him and he didnt get baptised cause he wasnt there. we found him yesterday finally and reset his date for this next sunday so we will see. we still have to teach him the law of chastity, profet, and tithing but we will see how it goes. we had a really funny experience the other night with 2 drunk guys that recognized us as mormons by our bikes. not really sure how but he took us to his house and met his little kids and wife and it was really funny and really sad. their house inside is literally the size of our bathroom at home in utah. yeah I will explain that experience more in a year and a half haha ;) the other day also we met a bunch of young teenage kids and went to visit them the next day and ended up playing soccer with them right there and after like 10 minutes of playing we got to talk to the dad and older brother and so we will see what will happen with that. I earned their respect cause I'm a greengo that knows how to play soccer and my companion kinda got their respect from whiffing the ball a couple times pretty bad hahaha. It was kinda funny. so by sunday we were and are running low on investigators and stuff so the zone leaders told us and everyone in our zone that we need to go out on sunday and set 4 baptismal dates. I literally said yeah right... but what do ya know. somehow we were blessed and found juan and reput his date and then we found 2 new investigators that live by a recent convert and we put dates with them and then we visited familia gutierez and put a date with their friend. I think I have told you about familia gutierez before. they are so funny and fun and awesome!! but yeah so we put 4 new dates yesterday which was awesome! and yeah also this is the last week of the transfer so I may or may not be leaving on monday but we will see. I will for sure take pictures with some of my favorite families this week and send you pics next week. but yeah I'm ready for a new area and a new companion so I'm kinda really hoping that I will get transferred. I guess we will see though. hmm also a couple more things. a quote thing that was in our letter from the president last week I really liked and thought you would like it mom. "the past is to be learned from, not lived in. faith is always pointed toward the future. faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet occur." yeah not sure why but just thought I'd share that haha. also were you going to send that missionary picture to me that I asked you for either last week or the week before? and also it would probabaly be a good thing if you could send me my white temple pants and tie cause I dont have baptism clothes of my own haha.. so yeah hmm I think thats the main stuff that happened last week. it was definitely one of the weirdest and craziest weeks of my mission and I wish I could explain everything but obviously I cant. today we played soccer again but it was all wet and so it was way slippery and hard to play but a member in our ward thats 18 thats preparing for his mission finally came and played with us and that was pretty fun. we have a noche de hogar with them tonight and they are making me a cake :) so that will be awesome! they are way way cool! they also have a daughter thats 20 and a daughter thats 17. so yeah they really help me with my castellano too. so hmm I think thats about it for now.




haha yep see I knew you would get accepted to both of them! que capa que sos!! :) wow!! sounds like the wedding and everything went way way awesome and crazy and everything! thats way cool! repiola!! I really wish I could have been there for all that.. thats way awesome about austin and stuff. the byu allstar game is a lot of fun! anyone else from timpanogos play in that? and thats way awesome for cassidee too. she will definitely learn a lot from that and she will be great at it. she just needs to have faith. but remember also that faith is action. and I know for sure you will get things organized again and get some relaxation soon. I can tell you really need that haha. but yeah I'm halfway through 3 nephi now so its going good! wow thats way cool about brother reynolds. I never knew he thought that haha thats nice of him. wait what about the 3 missions? we werent ever told anything about that. I think we will just get to go to our stake center for the rededication. hmm that would be so awesome if I got to see shawn! haha thats funny about the me being the greeter in the park haha. well I guess thats it for this week. hope everything is going good with everything else. los quiero mucho!!




Con Amor, Elder Buxton

June 11, 2012

Hola familia! so this last week was pretty good I guess. we have been workin a lot with our investigators and everything. and juan came to church yesterday which was great! and last week I forgot to tell you about familia silva that we found through a recent convert. she invited her friend over to talk to us about 2 and a half weeks ago and so we taught her a little bit and then the next day we taught her and her family and they are all freakin awesome! at first the dad liked the stuff and then the next day he heard some stuff about mormons from other friends so he didnt want to talk to us anymore but we did our best to talk to him and we have been teaching him and the mom and they have 5 kids. boy thats 14 boy thats 12 boy thats 8 girl thats like 5 and then another little boy. we have been teaching them a lot for the past couple weeks and at first the little 8 year old boy and the girl wouldnt really talk to us and were really shy and stuff and then sometime last week they really opened up a ton and the boy prays on his own with us now and we baptised him yesterday. It was awesome! the parents arent married but the mom recently has learned that living together and not being married is a sin even though they have been together for like 20 or more years but yeah so she has been really trying with her husband to get married so hopefully that happens this week so they can get baptised soon. the 14 year old came to church yesterday with the 8 year old and the mom and so he is getting baptised next sunday and the 12 year old didnt come yesterday so he will get baptised the next sunday after this one cause he needs at least 3 attendances in church. It's so awesome to see them progress so fast cause they really have been praying and reading and everything on their own especially the mom and she is really seeing the blessings from it already. yesterday before church she woke up with a little bit of a fever and really sick and the 8 year old who we baptised was up before everyone and woke everyone up for his baptism and then his mom told him we will go next week cause she has a fever and stuff and she told us that the little boy said "no mom im prepared right now." it was so cool when we heard that! so yeah and juan has his baptismal date for this coming sunday too so hopefully hes keeps progressing and gets baptised. he just really needs to pray. hes been reading but not praying but yeah. we played soccer today which really felt really great to play cause its been a little while. wow do I miss soccer everyday.. so yeah with jairo it hasnt been good cause he lives kinda with a friend or something and he always works and never answers his phone so we still havent been able to teach him or anything. but yeah I think thats pretty much been it to tell this week. I really love that now I'm really just getting used to talking to people and getting better at speaking and understanding castellano so I dont have to always have my companion right by me translating for me haha but yeah its crazy there is only 2 more weeks left in this transfer.   Im not sure if boca and river are going to play but I know that argentina beat brasil the other day and I watched a little bit of the river game last night too which was cool. It was at the same persons house we are going to tonight which is familia gutierez and we are making something and having a dinner and noche de hogar with them. they are a pretty poor family and less active but they are so cool and so funny! yeah I have never eaten at brick oven either but oh well I guess. nobody else has emailed me so itd be cool if they would. when is jacob moving for the summer? and what is everyone gonna do all summer? oh sweet austin and carson coaching together will be way fun.. that really is a thing I regret though is respecting you more and thats something thats important to do obviously cause its one of the 10 commandments. has he been hanging out with trent and cade and david and them very much? the wedding is this week?? man I want to be there so bad! :( I'm excited to see the pictures. oh and this computer really sucks and so it wouldnt let me watch the videos. maybe next week I can watch them. but the pictures I'm sending work I hope. the first 2 soccer ones were today and the baptism yesterday. I really wish landon would go on a mission. it seriously changes you. I see every single thing in my life so different now. like really I kinda laugh and its pretty crazy about how oblivious I was to some things the past years haha but yeah oh well Im really trying to not look at my past anymore. just repent of everything and look to the future. the past is over and theres nothing we can do about it anymore. but yeah. oh man i love kirst! i wish i could talk to her more but oh well I guess. thats cool about ali haha. wow thats awesome you got accepted mom! I bet you will get accepted to both haha thats just how great you are. yeah definitely just keep praying about it and have faith and youll know what is right. fuah thats awesome you got a bunch of help! Im really glad cause you could really use a break from all of that. thats way cool though! oh Im definitely getting an ipad for school when I get home. that will be so nice. san diego?! fuah! thats sick!! they are way lucky! in my study I am just finishing alma and Im caught up with the reading it in 60 days now so were good haha so we will be finishing it pretty soon which will be sweet. and my companion knows the stories really good so he helps explain them to me when I get confused so thats good. okay thanks mom your the best!! always remember that! your the greatest mom that anyone could ever ask for!!! I love you tons!! :) I cant wait to give you a huge hug again! so yeah I think thats all for now. les amo a todos!! siempre confien en el Señor y El estara aca para nosotros siempre!   Con Amor, Elder Buxton  

June 4, 2012

hola familia
so this week was pretty good. we have been doing a lot to try to get our investigators to church cause thats whats really important cause they cant be baptised if they dont come to church but yeah its been a struggle since all our members work and so its hard to get lessons with a member present and our investigators work a lot too so its hard to even get lessons with them. I guess we will see though. so we had this kid named jairo who is 21 years old and he showed up to church one day a few weeks ago but we havent taught him yet or anything its been reallty hard since he works and never answers his phone. but on friday night we went to visit someone but they werent home and I had to go to the bathroom so we went to a members house (whos house I talked to you guys at on the phone) and jairo was just sitting there on the ground in front of their house so we talked to him for a bit and familia ceron let us in so we talked in their house and had a short lesson and gave him a book of mormon and then towards the end he told us that before he was at familia cerons house he got home from work (he works with hermano ceron) and then went home and then after a bit he had the feeling he should go to cerons house. so he started to and his front door wouldnt open so after a minute he had to force it open and then he was walking down the stairs and something like grabbed his shirt and pulled him back but there was nothing there so he kept going and his front gate wouldnt open either so he had to force that open too and then he walked to familia cerons house. and then he just sat there on the ground cause he didnt know why he was there and then sure enough a little bit after that we showed up and talked to him and had a lesson with him. It was awesome! the spirit was way strong when we talked to him and everything. obviously satan is working very hard on our investigators but we just gotta work even harder. pretty crazy though! hmm lets see what else happened. on saturday argentina played ecuador and killed them 4-0 which was sweet I guess. And then on sunday yesterday boca played in the semifinals of a tournament and they won in a pk shootout which we got to watch cause they were watching it at an investigators house. It was sick! and then river played after them in the other semifinals. I'm not sure who won that one but if river won that means river and boca play in the finals like next Sunday I think. which means all of argentina is going to be going crazy!! like the boca and river staduim are in our mission and my friend told me that when they play that the missionaries that are in that area like can't go out that day. thats how crazy it is. I wish I could be there!! soccer is life here. It's pretty insane and awesome! oh yeah I guess we also had our zone conference and stuff earlier last week which was good too but yeah. things are just going a long. but yeah I think thats all for last week. dont worry when I get home I will tell you everything in great detail haha. oh yeah and today just barely well we are in pilar with elder jorqera and elder black from delviso (elder black reminds me a lot of matt) and yeah we are shopping and chillin here in pilar which is a bigger city and where our stake center is but yeah just barely I bought a skinny tie and its 4 ties in one. each half and each side is a different color so 4 colors. It's so sick!!! :)

yeah things have gotten better with my companion but still they arent as fun or good as they could be but oh well for now. maybe I will get transfered in 3 weeks. this transfer is already halfway over. pretty crazy! but we never know until we get the call that sunday night. but yeah I finished my training a week ago which is really nice and feels good to be done haha. yeah the pictures from graduation look awesome. looks like it was a lot of fun! where did you go eat? and now that graduation is over whats going to happen with everyone now? could you tell austin and cade and jacob and trent to email maybe too and just tell me whats happenin and how they are and stuff? but yeah it really is so crazy how things change so much as you grow up. its so weird! but its just a part of life even if a lot of them time its sad. wow your lucky on the weather. It's been cold here the past while and will be during the winter too. haha if you couldnt tell by my boca scarf in the picture. when is the wedding exactly? and where? parker brown is home? haha not sure if I knew that. definitely tell me whos dating who haha I'm curious. jamie is dating parker brown????????? what?!?! no way! hahahaha thats really funny and cool I guess. haha its really funny cause my friend elder jorquera cut out a page from one of the liahonas (which is like the ensign if you didnt know) and gave it to me haha cause theres a girl on it thats good looking haha and I told him it looked like my friend (jamie) so its funny that I was just telling him about jamie like 2 hours ago and then read your email haha. but yeah I think thats it for now. talk to you next week. ¡¡¡les amo muchisimo!!!

Love Elder Buxton
p.s. tell logan happy birthday on wednesday and that I love him to death!!! and also do you remember that missionary picture I sent you in the mtc? the one of the 2 getting ready and in the mirrors hes putting the armor of god on. do you think you could scan that and email it to me and have it be about 7 1/2 cm wide and 11 1/4 cm long? that would be great! :)