September 10, 2012

hola familia
Okay so umm I honestly dont even know where to start.. okay so this week was the weirdest craziest week ever. So our numbers this week were horrible cause of the temple stuff but thats okay. So first of all on friday we went to san fernando (the mission office chapel) and we got to get mail and stuff waiting for everyone to get there. I only had one letter.. hahaha thats okay. So I got to finally talk to people and see people like elder harrison and everyone else from my mtc district. I talked to elder jorquera and elder dewsnup and my brother elder barnwell and just all of my friends. Its so sweet meeting the whole mission together cause then you get to see everyone. So then we went to a different chapel like 2 hours away and had the special fireside with President Eyring, Elder Ballard, and Elder Christoffersen. Man it was so sweet!! It was so good! Elder Ballard and President Eyring had translators all weekend so it was sweet to listen in english. Elder Christoffersen speaks way good spanish and I understand everything so thats good too. and yeah I didnt get to see shawn that day. Then the next day we met with everyone again and went to the stadium of independiente and participated in the practice of the program and just chilled and stuff til the actually program. It was sweet I got to chill and talk with friends and I sat and talked with elder harrison and elder alder for a couple hours. elder harrisons in the south haha elder brown is too. And then I saw shawn and talked to him for a sec too!! :) It was so great to see him! un freakin capo! I really miss that kid. Its been so long. Then the whole program was way way sweet and President Eyring and them were there and said a few words and then sat in the box and watched. It was cool. It was honestly like a mormon stadium of fire. All we did was walk on the field and line up in different spots singing called to serve haha but dont worry I got grass from the stadium :) but yeah we watched a ton of different dances from different cultures and stuff. Then Sunday was the rededication and we attended the morning session which was way cool and good. I loved all the talks all weekend. Then we were going to go back to the session at 3 so ana and cecilia could go cause they had their interviews and got the pass to go and everything so we called them at like 11 and they said they weren't going to go so we were kinda sad. We went to the gonzalezs house to talk to them and stuff for a little bit cause ayelen is in the hospital with some really bad problems with intestines. Today is her birthday and I think shes coming home today so we will go see her which will be good. We've been talking to her and helping her through it all week. And while we were talking at their house I decided to have faith and act. My companion said ana and cecilia werent gonna go and started making plans to what we were going to do that day but I told him no and that they both are going to go. So we decided to just go to the villa and try to get them to go cause we dont have credit to call right now. So it was way crazy. We went and got our lunch that a member gave us to go which was way far and then we got lost and didnt know how to get to the villa. It was 1:30 at this point and the villa is far and the temple dedication chapel is farther the other direction. So then my companion said theres no way we are going to make it. I told him we have to try. So we took a taxi to the villa. Somehow convinced ana and cecilia to go, waited for them to change, took another taxi to pick up luz Gonzalez. At this point it was 2:30 and its a 25 minute bus ride to the chapel.. so we sent the 3 girls in the taxi and we literally sprinted to a bus stop, got on the bus, got there at 2:50 and sprinted to the chaple and entered with the girls and it went great! We only could have done all that cause of our prayers and faith and the Lord. He made it possible because we decided to act and exercise our faith instead of say alright well its too late. I knew that ana and cecilia had to see the apostles and they liked it and it was great. I'll tell you what happened on the way back to the villa when I get home haha. It was weird. So yeah that was a small recap of the weekend. Oh yeah and yesterday we went to go find the house of our investigator mabel thats doing way way good and is gonna get baptised this weekend. We found it... and its half a block out of our area.... so we cant baptise her. We are going to talk to her tomorrow but its really sad. But its okay as long as she gets baptised somewhere. We dont care if its ours. We just want her to enter into the Lords kingdom and change her life. So yeah. Something that Elder Eyring talked about on friday and then all his talks the whole weekend were similar was he said "the day that you really know and understand that god knows each and everyone of us and loves us will change your life." He talked a lot about how we all say we know and love the Savior but that most of the time we dont really act like we do cause we dont really understand. All the talks were so good! I wish you guys could have heard them! You can read some of my notes when I get home. So yeah and then also this next monday is transfers already. This transfer went by so so fast! so yeah I think thats it for the weekend. oh and also we are working with ulises' sister johana to get her bapised this weekend too. So hopefully we can do that.




Oh good I'm glad cass passed her test! luz showed me some pics from cassidees facebook. She looks like shes having a ton of fun in high school and at the football games. pero ojo mama, ojo con esos chicos ;) no you never did send me the picture of me and austin at the mtc so I havent seen it. But yeah I really love it cause I know that the decision I made to come here and the decisions I make everyday will affect each and every one of you as my family. The decisions all of us make affect all of us cause thats how a family works. I made the paragraph into a book mark in my scriptures and its marking the scripture where ammon is talking and he sees his brethren again and he is really happy but not only cause he saw them again but because they were still his brethren in the Lord. great scripture! and dont worry. As long as austin comes out to the mission field he will learn all that stuff your talking about. Not sure if I told you this quote before but I found it awhile ago and have loved it ever since. "we cant be happy if we dont want to do the things that bring happiness. even if we do those very things." I really like that and a lot of times we dont like doing certain things but we know its right. So basically only with doing it and praying to the Lord for help can we begin to like those things. Don't know why I thought of that but I like it. haha bananas? weird.. no I'm good with just pills. bueno, les amo a todos mucho!!

Elder Buxton