January 14, 2013

Hola familia,
So this week was a pretty good and rough week. So a couple interesting things I thought were cool was that I talked to the companion of elder lemo (with me in the picture) and he was waiting for his visa in california somewhere and his mission president was Larry Gelwix. Ya know the coach from forever strong? Yeah I thought that was sick! Also last monday my comps mom said to my comp that she got her hair done or something last week and it was done by starlee hopkin from our stake. And apparently they talked about me for a while. haha I thought it was funny cause I didnt know she remembered who I was even though we've been in the same class since like 1st grade. And then I guess the same thing happened that week with marisa singson who is friends with my comps family and she was at the house one day and they were talking about me too. Just kinda funny. Mom ask austin who marisa is. I dont think you know her though. She used to be good friends with amy when I would hang out with her. But anyway. So this last week we had interviews that went pretty good. Its always good to see and feel of the love that president has for each one of us and he always helps out. Then we went to capital and finally finished my comps tramites! He is officially legal now haha its about time.. but yeah so when we were there there were like 5 missionaries from the west mission doing theirs too and so we talked to them for a while and a couple are good friends with shawn so I told them to say hi for me and we also learned about all the little rules they have. I feel really grateful to be in my mission with president gulbrandsen but its interesting how close our missions are and how different they are too. This last week we have been asking for a lot more refferals from everybody and we actually found some investigators. We are still working with celso but now we are starting to teach a 19 year old girl named dania. She is way cool and way nice and so we are for sure gonna baptize her! We also found a family through jazmin (my recent convert). She is such a capa!! She introduces us to all her friends and everything! We taught this family the restoration the other day which went good but they work a ton during the week so we will see how that goes. Sunday morning we went and passed by every single one of them but something went wrong with all of them and none came to church.. :( me and my comp were really frustrated but we are going to do everything this week to get them to church. Especially since its already the last week of the term so I could very well be leaving but we will see on sunday. Something that I have noticed about myself recently as we've been teaching, and I have no idea how or when it happened, but like the whole beginning of my mission when I would teach with my companion I would be like scared and just not looking forward to my turn to talk ya know? And now well I dont know when but now I just like cant shut up! haha its great but so weird! Now I'm not getting frustrated in lessons cause of my spanish or that I might screw up, I get frustrated if my investigators don't understand something or keep failing commitments haha. Its been a great change to see and I'm so glad that I'm becoming a lot more out going and bold. But yeah On saturday we ate with the familia toñanez and after they had like a world book so I looked through it and the pages of honduras and el salvador and guatemala and belize were all right next to each other. Its from about 10 years ago but I read a lot about all sorts of stuff like population and weather and religion and stuff like that and then compared it to argentina to see how your guys missions will be. Its interesting! You guys just might die of heat but it will be a sick mission haha. Yesterday we also had a really good lunch with our ex-bishop and heard a lot of his stories about his mission in texas which was cool too. But yeah besides that this last week I have started the book of mormon over again and I am studying it more in depth and so far I have learned and noticed like the smallest things that I never did before. Its interesting that we dont know so much about what happened in their lives. For example when nephi and his brothers went back to jerusalem to get the plates that was a 3 day journey. We have no idea about all the little experiences and frustrations and trials of faith and stuff that they went through between the verses. Kinda of interesting but I hope to be able to learn that stuff in the life after. Also our ex-bishop explained a lot of things about family history that I didnt know cause he works in the temple so that was all way cool.



Yeah I will have to go do tramites again like next transfer I think. And actually yesterday and today looking at my toe it isnt looking too good.. :( its not really healing and I think its getting worse now. Where it was cut I mean. The ingrown toenail is gone obviously but yeah.. I'm glad to hear that austins farewell went good. I really wish I could have been there! and I really wish I could see how he is changing but I guess I will see it in 2 years. I'm so so excited for him and cant wait til he starts learning what I'm learning! ben britt comes home already?? wow thats crazy how its still so cold. Yeah here its been really hot still. It hasnt rained in a while so I think the heat is finally here to stay for a while.. it really makes it so hard to sleep sometimes though. Be gratetful for snow! I would love to see some snow! haha. well I'm glad that you all had a pretty good week and looks like this one will be a busy one with school and with it being austins last full week! les amo mucho!


Love, Elder Buxton