He's home!

As you all know, Cody made it home safely on Tuesday morning. He looks great and is still glowing. It seems to be a harder adjustment than any of us could have expected but we understand that it is normal. Thanks so much to everyone for your prayers, love and support for him and our family for the past two years. What a blessing it has been for each of us to have him serve and I know he will be greatly missed by the people of Argentina who dearly love him.
He will be speaking in our ward this Sunday , December 22 at 11:00 am. We would love to have all of you there to hear his amazing testimony.  It is kind of sad to be posting my last post but I love having him home and seeing his amazing growth. We are so blessed at this Christmas season. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to each of you!

Last email...

Hola Familia!!

Finally I got logged in after 40 minutes.... but wow. So I feel very humble to be writing you guys my very last email of my mission. That seems so very strange to me.. I really dont know where all the time went. I feel.... I cant describe it. Its the most bitter sweet strange crazy feeling ever. So this last week we had interviews with president which went good but they were very short. We talked just for a sec and then he said "well elder buxton I dont have anything else so I'll see you in 2 weeks and we will talk about lots of stuff." hahaha referring to my final end of mission interview of course. I'm excited for it :) So I wont lie this last week was very very hard. For lots of reasons.. We really struggled with finding this week. We didnt find any solid investigators. We worked with melisa and jessica a bunch and yesterday melisa couldnt come.. But jessica finally did! Which was great! We will talk with her tomorrow to see how it all went and everything. Besides that on wednesday I did divisions with elder garrett in his area since I hadnt ever done that before. That also went pretty good. We ate ice cream after saving souls :) yesterday church was just super good. Not sure why but I just really felt peace and it didnt leave. In the second hour the bishop pulled us out of class and told us the font overflowed into the primary room and in the hall so we hurried and did what we could to clean that up fast. But nobody had a baptism so we dont know who turned it on.. it was weird. Then sunday after church was just not the best.. At lunch a girl was playing with my camera and she was trying to delete some pics of her that I blocked so she couldnt and she accdientally erased all the rest of the pics on that memory card.... which included all the pics from the boca stadium and making tacos with flia moron and all that stuff. About 100 pics or a little more. So I'm sorry you guys wont get to see those.. :( hopefully I'll be able to get some from my comp and stuff. We will see. but yeah.. also all week my arm was not doing the best. Its still bruised half way up my arm. Hermana moron whos a nurse said that she didnt just stick me wrong but she like ruptured or broke the vain or something also. So thats not fun... but anyway. We still try to stay happy and focused and the lord helps us so thats always good. This week is going to much better! I hope! I think thursday we might have a lider capacitacion for trainers or something. And then friday we get to go to the temple!! :) stoked to see the new movie!! Then on saturday we get to do a little bit of last packing. Then on sunday I have a talk in church and then my despedida in san fernando that evening :) Then on monday we go to the mission home by ourselves and have our last interviews with president and eat and chill with president and then we go to the airport and fly out that night. So it sounds like its gonna be a good and crazy week! This last week has also been really hot and sunny and the past couple days just super super humid. Today we are in once and I'm with elder walker and I think elder alder is coming and we are gonna buy stuff and take pics and everything. Should be fun! Its just going to be so hard to say bye to these people and this country... :( not looking forward to that at all. I'm so very grateful for all these members and the love and support they have given and shown to me these past 2 years. Obviously I'll tell you guys all about my mission and my testimony and everything when I get back in a week but just everyone know that coming on the mission was the best decision I have ever made and I will never regret it. I dont know who I would be today if I didnt come out here. I know that I would not be even close to the person my heavenly father wants me to be. We gotta have faith and trust in god. Its something I learn so much every single day and hope to keep learning. Thanks so much to all of you for your emails and love and support. You guys are the ones that helped so much to keep me happy and with the desire to keep going and never give up. I love you all so much and I'll see you all next week :)

the despedida is just the testimonies of the missionaries that are going home. And some other stuff but yeah just our testimony. Then we get like an hour to say bye and talk to all the members and missionaries that come :) I'm excited to see some old members and friends! Well thats about it. I'm excited to see and spend time with all of you next week. It will definitley be hard to adjust so just know everyone that I probably wont be all that "normal" when I get home haha and yes mom the time change will definiltey affect me. les amo todos con todo mi corazon! gracias por todo! nos vemos la semana que viene!! :)

Elder Buxton

p.s. its going to be so hard to take the plack (name tag) off... :(

Happy December!

Hola Familia,
Fuah! I cant believe its already december!! It doesnt feel like christmas time at all here because of the heat... but anyway so this last week was a pretty difficult week but as missionaries somehow we always make it good! We really struggled to find new investigators this week which made it hard.. but wednesday we had zone meeting which is always good and we put new goals and learned about loving your mission or just like getting through your mission. Its a very key this as missionaries. If we dont love the mission then we arent going to do gods will. But if we do, thats when we become instruments and help gods children come to him. So we found out that valentina and gabriel were moving... :( they moved on saturday but were going to come to church cause valentina hasnt received the holy ghost but we dont know what happened but they didnt show up.. it was sad to see them go and know that I might not ever see them again. I'll miss them alot :( we continued teaching melisa the 13 year old girl that lives in the same house as they did whose mom doesnt like us a whole ton but she is a freakin capa and always reads and prays and the last couple days she really had some good questions so that was really good. We finally talked to her mom on saturday and she said she couldnt come to church but we asked if melisa could come with us and she was doubting until I said that we would come get her with other girls like her age and stuff. Then she accepted. So on saturday night we called a way cool girl named wanda that just turned 14 and it took like 20 min on the phone to convince her but we finally did and so we went and picked her up early sundry morning and then went and got anabela and gabi (diferent gabi) and then went and got melisa and then some other people. So she was finally able to come to church :) It was great and she was with the young women the whole time so she really liked it. We just gotta work on her mom now. She has yet to come sit down and listen to our message.. so yeah we worked a little with jessica last week too but she didnt come to church.. and she is now living in melisas house but a different room with her boyfriend.. so yeah she isnt really reading either so we are basically dropping her. We had to drop quite a few investigators this last week so that has left us with very little.. on thursday it was hermana luisas (the lady that lives in the insane hospital) birthday so she took us to a restaurant for lunch and stuff and we ate ice cream and all that good stuff. So on saturday we donated blood!! It was a mormon helping hands activity and this time they wanted all the missionaries that wanted to in capital to donate. I wanted to but was not very excited.. never donated before. And lets just say it wasnt the best experience haha. I got super light headed and en cima the lady stuck me wrong! So it hurt in the beginning and then got a little bit better but still hurt when I would clench my fist but I didnt want to say anything cause I didnt want her to stick me again.. so yeah that wasnt the funnest.. and because of her sticking me wrong my whole arm killed to move the whole day and today it is still bruised pretty bad and I cant extend it completely.. but I'm alive! Yesterday was my last fast and testimony meeting in argentina.. so I bore my testimony. I was the last one haha it was funny. But it was good. Then we had ward counsel again and kept planning the ward end of year dinner. It was fun and funny again like last time haha and it was fun to just put random input in since I wont be there anyway :) haha. I had fun. After the meeting the bishop asked me what day I'm leaving and I told him and so now I have a talk on the 15th haha that should be fun. A talk on the 15th, my despedida later that evening and then another talk on the 22nd.. weird! 2 in spanish and 1 in english. oh man my one in english is going to be a disaster.. haha. Also after that they called about 6 new ward missionaries. They called basically most of the priests and a couple laurels. So now we have a missionary team/army here in constitucion :) It's sick! um besides that tomorrow we finally have interviews with president which will be good. Even though mine will be 5 seconds long cause he'll just tell me that we will talk in my last interview before I leave haha. So yeah thats pretty much it for now that I can think of. Today we are going to play soccer and basketball and stuff as a zone at the church and then we are going to the boca stadium :) should be way fun!


Next week is my last p day and pretty sure last day to email. So weird this is my 2nd to last email! I talked to elder harrison at the blood thing and he knew some stuff I didnt so he said that we might be going to the temple not this week but the next week. I hope so cause I wanna see the new temple video. And then he said the monday that we leave is when we will have our last interviews and then the rest of the afternoon I have no idea what we are going to be doing before the airport. but I highly doubt we will email. So nobody send me emails after the 9th!! When do you all finish school? Well I guess thats it for this week. I feel very weird and different that I will only email you guys one last time.. kinda sad and crazy. These last couple weeks will definitely very very crazy and stressful haha but I've got the lord on my side :) les amo mucho!!


Elder Buxton

Happy Thanksgiving

Hola familia!
So this last week was all pretty good until the weekend.. it definitely was not my weekend or day today. But anyway. So first of all Happy Thanksgiving this week everyone! I hope its a good one! :) cause it doesnt exist here... so last week me and elder cruz did divisions on tuesday which went really good. He is definitely my favorite mexican on this planet :) besides that we worked really hard to teach jessica and melisa along with valentina and gabi to help them progress and come to church and to get valentina confirmed on sunday. We did everything. We made plans with them and everything but then after the cita on saturday with them everything was good and then they went and talked to their parents and they came back and told us they couldnt go cause they were leaving sunday morning as a family and friends.. I wont lie I was very very frustrated and stressed.. We spent a lot of time there doing everything to get them to come and in they end they didnt.. :( so yesterday we didnt bring anyone to church except anabela. Oh if you didnt know we go to the villa every sunday morning to look for everyone. All our investigators and a bunch of recent converts and stuff. Most of them know each other and stuff but every sunday its a different result of who comes with us. Only anabela whos 17 and her baby pilar came with us this time.. :( and in the morning on sunday we had a meeting with the stake. The stake president and pres ayre and the bishops and everything like last time. That was really good like always. Then after church we had ward councel. Thats something that like I would have hated to go to before the mission, like meetings like that. But I have learned in the mish to love meetings and stuff like that. Its super weird. But I love being there and listening in and throwing in comments and its always funny and we laugh quite a bit. The whole time they were just planning the end of the year dinner which I wont be here for :( but it was fun to laugh and help out. Then we went with enzo and edu and javier (the bishops son) to go visit the kid I told you guys about who is an investigator but cant get baptised named benjamin. He is in the hostpital so we went to go visit him but we got there too late.. the visiting hours finished so we couldnt go.. so with enzo and edu we went and tried to work. We went to the villa and just everywhere we went everything failed us... and the past few days its been super super hot and humid. We just live and work in sweat all the time pretty much. But I like the heat right now cause I'm sick of the winter and the cold.. and of course today it started out raining. Its not raining much right now but its cloudy and ugly and super super humid.. so yeah this last weekend and today was just not the best. But we still keep the good attitude and the faith that this week will be better :) so yeah um so so much happened but I cant think of it all.. today we are gonna play some soccer (like always) but with some elders from another zone. I'm hoping one is elder arostica :) I got to see him yesterday so that was good! Last week we went and played soccer and some basketball in the church at 6 in the morning which was fun. Its hard to sleep and study and then stay awake with this heat.. our air conditioning isnt working right so I didnt sleep much last night. But the bishop is coming to fix it tomorrow so that will be good! umm I think thats it. My mind always goes blank on mondays.. jaja and as a missionary thats training, DL, and finishing his mission I have way way way too much stuff on my mind. Its pretty ridiculous.. haha I always thought the end of my mission would be so much easier! Boy was I wrong... this week will be better though. I know it! :) this week we have lunch with the lady that lives in a mental hospital (just like we do every week) and she is obsessed with gringos! haha its funny but we are eating with her in a restaurant the day before her birthday. So that will be interesting.


Wow thats super sick that kyler won state! Tell him congradulations!! I am so glad that grandmas biopsy went good and that she is okay :) I guess thats pretty much it for this week. I dunno why I cant remember or think of anything today.. weird. bueno les amo!! hasta la semana que viene! :)


Elder Buxton

How was this week?

Hola Familia,
So this last week was a good week :) so on tuesday we had a liders meeting in san fernando which went pretty good and it was cool to see all my friends and stuff. Then on wednesday we had to get up at like 5 and be in san fernando at 8 to do tramites (visa stuff) for my companion. We had to do some stuff and then we had an appointment to do another part a couple train stations away so we went and we were like 2 hours early... so us and the 4 other elders with us decided to go contact in a park haha It was kinda cool. We didnt talk to a ton of people but me and my comp talked to a group of americans that were there for a conference later that night. They are from boston. So that was pretty cool. And then we talked to a group of high school kids. But yeah so that was that. umm I feel like so much happened this last week.. on saturday we had to get up at 4:30 in the morning to go to a different church and take a big 2 story bus to the church in the west mission for the conference with elder holland. So about the conference.. I dont even know where to start! elder gonzalez who is the area president and his wife spoke. Then elder soares from the seventy, who spoke in the last general conference, and his wife spoke. And then elder hollands wife and elder holland spoke. We were the 3 buenos aires missions and the MTC here also. It was super fun cause I was sitting with elder walker and elder whitsitt the whole time and hanging out with elder whitsitt and arostica on our bus :) and all the talks were so freakin good!! elder hollands talk was amazing!! He talked about so many different things so I dont even know how to explain what he talked about. Those are literally the most notes I've ever taken on one talk in my whole life! literally!! It was just so awesome to be there and feel the spirit that was there as he spoke to us. At some points he was actually like yelling like he does in most of his talks but its sooo much different when your actually there. So so powerful. A couple points real quick (but remember this was less than half his talk) was he talked about how much he loves us and how us as missionaries are the most prayed for people in the world. literally. and how we for 2 years are apostolic. He explained to us how what he does and what we do are the same thing. Us and him each day from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to sleep is spent acting and thinking about how we can save souls. And he also talked a quite a bit about how who we are is much much more important than what we say in a lesson. and also about why they chose the words "preach my gospel" for the manual preach my gospel and what each of the 3 words mean. tI was crazy good! I'll explain a lot more in a few weeks dont worry! but yeah then yesterday we didnt end up getting people to church.. :( well any investigators I mean. They all fodged.. but we took like 6 recent converts haha. and gabi got confirmed! I ended up confirming him. valentina was super sick so she couldnt come.. and we also have started teaching another girl named melisa whos 13 and lives in the same house but different room as gabi and valentina. Besides that it was hard to find escogidos last week. We found some investigators but they arent escogidos. Yesterday after church we had a kid named enzo whos just a capo (his brother edu who is waiting for his papers is also a straight up capo) come with us and in one of our visits we were teaching a recent convert and her mom whos not a member but we dont focus on her cause she doesnt want to be baptised or anything. But before the lesson we saw the recent converts, isabel, grandson named emmanuel. so we asked them if they wanted to invite him and isabels mom said no emmanuel wont want anything. So we invited him and we taught him for a while and he in the beginning didnt really believe in much and stuff but in the end accepted a book of mormon and a baptismal date for the 8th of dec :) it was awesome to see the change in him as we explained why we focus so much on jesus christ cause he doesnt really believe much in jesus christ. So we taught that and led it into joseph smith and the book of mormon and we really saw a change in him and it was perfect to have a really good kid like enzo with us :) so we will see what happens with that this week. that was kinda some of the stuff that happened. It's impossible to explain everything that happens.. oh and the other day we went to go contact a referal who was enzos old friend and he gave us the referal. So we went and talked to him and his dad and they are athiest.. but we asked for another referal and showed us a door and told us a name so we went and knocked, first door no one. second door no one. third door no one. I decided to go one more just to ask where this kid lived and have an excuse to contact the person that answers and to show elder johnson what its like to contact and the guy answer and in the middle of the sentence we got the door slammed in our face. It was awesome! ;) haha sorry if you were all waiting for a cool miracle happy ending with that story. Just thought I would tell you cause we dont get the door slammed in our face very much at all here cause we dont ever knock doors. But I guess it had to happen sooner or later :) it wasnt the first time but one of the first times haha.


Oh and elder christofferson wasnt there cause he was in mar del plata. Different part of buenos aires. wow snow already? thats so weird to me.. last week most of the days it was super super hot and humid. I like it though! I'm sick of cold and winter. I want summer! :) even if that means its a billion degrees here haha. Thats crazy with all the farewells and everything! and thats crazy about grandma! :( I hope everything is okay and she can still have a good birthday. Tell her happy birthday for me! cause I dont know if she reads my emails home.. well thats it for this week. les amo mucho! :)


Elder Buxton

5 weeks left....

Hola Familia,

haha okay first of all mom your not supposed to put the subject of your email how little time I have left.. hahaha. So this week was a pretty crazy! So basically as you all know I'm a dad :) my hijito is elder johnson which is really funny cause hes from provo and went to provo high haha. So monday was super fun we played soccer and just chilled and everything and then we went to the mission home and we just waited in the backyard on the tramp and stuff until the newbies were done inside doing whatever they were doing. We were like 25 trainers. It was kinda crazy. But then we all walked into the house in the living room in a line singing called to serve super loud cause they didnt even know we were there. And then president read off one by one each new missionaries name and then their trainer and everyone like cheered and everything haha and it was just super fun and funny. I was chillin with my friend elder kaimicaua. Don't know how to spell his name. Hes from hawaii. But yeah so the wait wasnt that bad. But then we ate some pizza and stuff and went back to our areas in a remis which is like a taxi. So yeah its been super weird to have a comp that doesnt just automatically know how to do things here in argentina and in the field. But yeah so me and elder johnson get along pretty good so I am greatful for that :) He struggles with spanish but he is improving every day so thats good. So besides that we had gabriel and valentinas baptism! :) It went super good! I totally spaced everything during the week.. not sure if its from being a trainer or what but I had forgotten to get the signature and when we went to get gabi y vale the mom was super sick so she couldnt come and the paper to sign was in the church. So finally we convinced the step dad to just come at 12 for a sec to sign and so he did and then he left. Then after stake conference I forgot completely about baptismal clothing so we were scramblin around looking for that and yeah it was just nuts. But it turned out good in the end :) Today is valentinas birthday so we are going to go see her today also. What a birthday present :) And their friend nestor came with us too. But he left before the baptism.. dont know why. So yeah stake conference was super good! The saturday session was good and then sunday was super super packed! So many people there! We barely found seats. And the whole stake conference was just completely about missionary work and the work of salvation. It was super cool! The last song was called to serve and we as missionaries all walked up in a line during the song and sang the rest of it in a line in front of everyone. It was super cool! So yeah um friday night we had our talent show again which turned out pretty good this time. umm besides that we are still working on not just finding new investigator but finding the escogidos. umm yeah I will explain all the details and everything when I get home so dont worry. Sorry if I'm being brief and not explaining much. I gotta take advantage of my last p days to make sure I get everything done that I need to. Oh and justin bieber was here the last weekend. He was staying at a hotel maybe like 10 min in bus from our area. We heard that he had parties and his fans were so loud that he got kicked out and had to go to tigre which is close to the mission offices. haha super funny. Tomorrow we get to go to a capacitación de lideres so that should be fun. Oh and so elder holland and elder christoferson are coming down here this week. So.... saturday we are having a special meeting with them! :) So sick!!! So yeah thats pretty much all for now. I'm leaving so much out but I can explain better later.

At stake conference the temple president and his wife were there. And obviously pres ayre. Its been like cold hot. Its super weird weather. When its cloudy its super humid and then cools off sometimes at night or with rain. But yeah its weird. Yeah so my zone is now us and elder cruz and elder garrett and the zone leaders. Everyone in the zone got a new companion except elder cruz and elder garrett but yeah. Oh and last friday we went at 6 in the morrning to play soccer us 8 missionaries and then we listened in to the last 10 min of seminary and then ate cake and breakfast with them since it was the last seminary for the year. that was fun! Wow thats terrible about osmerh! :( his mom that lives in mexico? I'll for sure be praying for them! Wait how do you know what day is elder whitsitts homecoming? and what day is kirstens farewell? and what day is mine?? haha. and landons? yeah thanks for the pics mom! :) les amo mucho! hasta la semana que viene!

Elder Buxton

Last Transfer!

Hola Familia!

So I bet your anxious to know whats going to be happening with this new transfer. So a few days ago I was pretty sure that we would just stay together me and elder cutipa. And then on saturday we got a text inviting us to a meeting on monday morning for people that can possibly be trainers. And so then we had no idea what to think.. so whats happening is elder cutipa left.. he went up to district leader which he was pretty happy about. He went far away though so that was kinda sad. And I am now going to be a dad :) haha for my last transfer I am training a newbie. So went came to san fernando this morning for transfers and I just stay here all day with the other trainers and then we go to the mission house at 6:30 tonight to pick up our new missionaries. Elder brown stayed in his area here in san fernando so he is with some of us right now writing home and then we are going to go play some soccer in church clothes since us trainers didnt bring clothes to play in. haha should be a lot of fun. I honestly didnt think I would train so I was very surprised. But when I heard elder cutipa was leaving I was pretty scared and nervous cause I didnt just want some other companion. So yeah next week I will let you know who it is and if hes a latin or gringo. So last week was a pretty good week. On friday we had zone meeting which went really good and then it literally literally rained all day. We were pretty wet and it was hard to have lessons with members present but thats okay it all worked out in the end. halloween on thursday was just a normal day haha but a bunch of little kids did dress up and did some stuff with candy and stuff in the villa so that was kinda cool to see. It didnt make me homesick at all so it was okay ;) on sunday gabriel and valentina who are getting baptised came to church with us! The parents didnt but thats okay. Also benjamin and his mom came again also. And all weekend we were looking for someone to take to the despedida and it wasnt looking to good.. but in the end benjamin and his mom came and it was great! There were so many people there and I got to see so many friends and I saw karina and them from flia cubilla in savio and I got to see yamila. Also jared and antonela came and yeah I will send pics next week. It was so weird to be at my last despedida not being up on the stand.. cause next time it will be us up there speaking. So weird! So yeah I'm starting my last transfer. Weirdest feeling ever! But I'm not very homesick or anything. I just have the desire to work hard and finish my mission strong :) so I'm greatful that heavenly father has blessed me with that desire. Elder cruz and elder garrett are staying so thats really good. There are alot of changes in the zone and the district will be completely different so we will see what happens. This morning before we went to san fernando we went and ate breakfast with eduardo moron, an 18 year old kid waiting his mission call whos just a straight up capo and his little bro enzo whos I think 16 whos also a capo so that was fun. fuah so much has happened I dont know how to tell all of it. This sunday we have stake conference :) so I will see elder arostica and some other friends and right after will be gabi and valentinas baptism :) also from now on the missionaries are supposed to go to the adult session on saturday so we will go to that too. Oh and I dont know if you guys remember that a long time ago I told you about a kid that wrote me cause he found my blog before the mish and wrote me and told me that it like inspired him or whatever. yeah well I met him today! He's with me right now he talked to me and told me he was the one that wrote me. And a couple weeks ago an hermana missionary came and told me she found my blog and everything. They are all very impressed with how up to date you keep it mom ;) good work and thank you! Well I guess thats it for now. I'm excited to find out who my son will be :) It wont be easy being a trainer but it will be good and I'll learn alot. So yeah and tomorrow is the last day that we will go to seminary at 6 in the morning to help the kids learn (not sure if i mentioned that we do that..) And there will now be hermanas in the boca so we will be 10 missionaries in seminary tomorrow. Should be fun! Even more fun cause tomorrow will be the 4th day in a row that I have got up early. oh and like last night I went to bed at like 12:30 cause my comp was packing and sunday night we got home from the despedida at 11 haha. It was a lot of fun! definitely the best despedida by far! :)

This last transfer about like 8 or 10 left I think. Not very many. So yes many new areas opened up today and a new zone too. osmerh lives with us now?? what the thing... haha. thats cool! Why is that though exactly? Wheres daniel living now? Well I guess thats it for this week. So much work to do, things to buy, things to see, people to save, and not enough time! This is going to be a crazy 6 weeks!! les amo mucho! :)

Elder Buxton