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.