Happy September

Hola Familia,

Wow its weird that its already september.. time flies when your helping others :) So this week was very very crazy and good! First of all us as a district we had 4 baptisms this weekend :) It was great! they were all stretches and miracles but it was awesome. So basically on wednesday we had interviews which went really good. I was worried cause the night before I woke up with an aching body and everything else and was not doing so good. So I got a blessing from elder solum and them and I was able to be okay for interviews. It was really great to be able to talk to president for a while. Hes so awesome!! I love him!! He talked to all of us about our goals. We had to answer him 4 questions. What we want to have accomplished by the end of our mission, in 5 years, in 10 years, and in 20 years. It was really good. After that we went and ate lots of stuff at yamilas for her birthday. I didnt eat too much cause I wasnt feeling so good at that point. So pretty much I got out of bed on thursday at about 4 o clock in the afternoon. I was just hurting everywhere and felt like I had a fever and just everything else. It wasnt fun.. so then we had basically a day to teach facundo the commandments cause saturday would have to be his interview and so we did that and on friday I did divisions with elder solum. Oh and friday morning we moved back to maschwitz. We werent excited about that but its a good thing in many ways so its okay. So with elder solum we went to matheu to do an interview for the hermanas and they had their baptism on saturday. Saturday was just nuts.. We went to go do savios baptisms interview but also we needed the zone leaders to do facundos and we had to get baptismal clothes from another ward since we didnt have any and we wanted to make it back for our asado with flia cubilla. So it was nuts. We came up with a good plan and it all worked out in the end. Elder solum and my comp elder goodwin went and met the zone leaders and did facundos interview and I went and did savios interview and then it was a huge thing about knowing who the legal guardian of the kid was so it was very confusing and I had to talk to president and everything and it was just nuts. And then we went and met matheu in escobar (just pretend that you guys knows all the places I'm saying) and get baptimal clothing and then we went to cubillas.. and this whole time I was deciding what to do about the legal guardian thing cause president said he trusts my judgment so he basically gave all the authority to me to make the decision. It was crazy. We prayed and everything and we decided to wait it out. Sunday came and facundo showed up with his aunt at the end of sacrament meeting and the kid with the issue (osmar) showed up by himself halfway through and so I decided that it was ok for him to get baptised with the grandpas signature that we got the day before. Then during the priesthood meeting elder solum and elder arostica and elder caballero had a lesson with their investigator that also had a baptismal date for yesterday but was too scared and everything and in the end she decided to so right before the baptism I did her interview and we had 3 baptisms :) then we had lunch with peñaloza and leila and a lesson with another family and dinner with flia huerta and leila again haha and yeah it was a beautiful day :) I'm sure some of that did not make sense to some of you but you just had to be there ;) well now we gotta find new investigators. Thats always been one of my problems.. we baptise faster than we find.. haha. 

Yes it has been warmer lately and its so great! I'm so sick of winter. So glad its almost over! :)  dang I wanted to meet the sanders... miquell tingey had a baby??? what the thing.... thats weird!! thats awesome kyler is a priest! and thats great austin went to sacrament meeting!!! :) sounds like you guys are all keeping busy since school has started. Thats good! Oh and yes mom thanks for the package! :) les amo a todos!

Elder Buxton

How was this week?

hola familia! 
como estan todos? espero que esten bien! So this week was pretty good. I did divisions last week with elder peacock who is in my group (meaning he came and goes home with me) and we went to a less active members house and we found out that their recently turned 9 cousin lives with them and that the less active parents are his legal guardians now and so basically he can get baptised easily. He already has 2 asistencia and so he has a fecha for this sunday. He wasnt able to come to church yesterday since the less active moms brother takes him for the weekends so we will arrange that so he can come and get baptised this sunday. On friday I was gonna do divisions with the zone leaders but my companion was pretty sick and then elder solum wasnt feeling to great either so they stayed inside and I went out with elder caballero and arostica. Also yesterday my comp wasnt feeling too great so we didnt get a whole lot of work done yesterday either. He is still hangin in there but we will see how he does this week. Right now we are still living in savio. We were going to leave last week and go back to the other pench but my comp got sick so we didnt. Then on saturday I did a baptismal interview for savio who got baptised on sunday. Its a 13 year old kid who on sunday paid his tithing! what a capo!! I had a good interview with him and I could see and feel his desires to be better and get baptised. Also yesterday in church there was an area 70 who came and he gave a talk which I really loved. He talked about how a lot of us as members we have done pretty much all the ordinances like baptism and recieve the holy ghost and the things in the temple and everything and so we just kinda think we are done and thats it. So he kinda asked us what ordinance we have left besides doing family history. He said "the next ordinance is what we just partook of and do partake of every sunday." I liked that a lot and it helped strengethen my testimony of the importance of the sacrament and how badly we need it. We cant afford to not go to church and not partake of it.. besides that its been pretty cold this week and with lots of wind which is pretty killer but were still alive! Well most of us.. I think I might be getting a tiny bit sick too. thats not good. This week I think we have our first interviews with president so that will be fun! Also this wednesday is yamilas birthday and she invited the 5 of us over for lunch and she is making a ton of food and treats and stuff. It will be great :)

When we play soccer here we usually play with the young men cause they are cool and like to come play. But we play with missioanries too obvisously. We are gonna play again today and I think the hermanas and the other elders in my district are goona come so that will be fun :) like when someone goes up to DL they are usually just in charge of their own area and another area (2 other elders) just to start out so they arent in charge of a lot of areas and have to do more. But they put me in charge of my area (obvisouly) and 3 other areas. So yeah. Sandy I guess isnt going cause she likes a return missionary. I know there are other reasons too but I wont explain on here. haha sounds like a fun week with the tiring walk to the temple and everything ;) mom now you can comprehend a little bit more of just one day here in the mish when all our appointments fail us and we are just walking around all day long.. those arent the funnest days. But we find ways to stay happy and have encouragement (man its so hard to think of these words in english!) wow thats awesome for brother dickson! He was definitely one of my favorite leaders and I do miss him a lot. And thats awesome about caitlin. So weird that shes going on a mish. Where is she going again? mom sounds like your missing me and my ability to fix things without having any idea what I'm doing ;) dont worry I will fix it all for ya soon. les amo mucho! todos vayan a la capilla! necesitamos la santa cena en nuestras vidas!! :)

Elder Buxton

How are you?

Hola Familia,

So this last week has been very interesting. The first half was really good and then the last few days has been pretty rough but I keep moving forward :) so things with my comp are going pretty good. He was kinda sick last week but he is feeling a lot better. And its so much more fun and happy with 5 of us in a pench instead of 2 so I'm not really looking forward to moving back when we do. And being leader is going pretty good too. It's pretty crazy since I don't get much time to do stuff at night when we get home cause I have to plan and then I have to call my district and then the zone leaders and all that fun stuff. But yeah so they split the zone so now its a little bit smaller but there is only 2 district leaders in our zone now so pretty much I have half the zone in my district. I am over (including my comp) 8 missionaries. 2 hermanas and 6 elders. Normally when someone goes up to DL they get 2 missionaries in their district. I guess I just got lucky or something haha. Well we had zone meeting last week which was good to get to know the zone and my district a little bit and we learned a bit and put some goals as a district and as a zone. We struggled this week with finding new investigators so we are kinda short on those and really trying to find through the members and stuff. Something really sad that happened this week was that now sandy isnt going on a mission... :( I still havent talked to her in detail since we didnt have time in church but I told her we need to talk so we will see the reasons why. Pretty much besides that hopefully we can find those people that are prepared to find the gospel this week cause I have no doubt that they are there.

yeah as DL I have to talk to my district everyday and I have to do the baptismal interviews and divisions and I do district meetings (which my first one will be tomorrow so that should be interesting). And yeah my toe was pretty bruised and stuff last week but I'm still alive and I'm still going to play soccer today no matter what :) elder solum was supposed to go home last week but is staying for the sealing of flia cubilla cause he helped baptised them. Thats on sep 7th. What projects did you want to get done before I got home? My comp is from utah and he likes sports. He can at least speak a little bit but he still struggles especially with the people that talk fast so I help him out quite a bit. Its going much much better with him than with my last companions :) oh austin... tell him to get his butt to church!! And you never update me on ward things. I always have to read them from georgias dads email to him haha. But I'm very glad mom that you learned from all your experiences and that you are a better person because of them. Thats what heavenly father wants :) real quick some scrips that I love that I will probably talk about in district meeting tomorrow. jacob 5:70-75. les amo a todos! :)
Elder Buxton

Transfers???

hola familia,
Okay where to start.. this has been such a long crazy week. So I first of all last wednesday I went on divisions with elder whitsitt in his area and while we were eating lunch we got a call from the assitants saying that I was gonna get a new companion that night. I wasnt very happy about it at all cause we loved being in a trio and everything. So that night they brought me elder atencio who has been here in this mission for like 3 months and had a year in brazil before. It was very interesting and not the most fun with him but it was ok cause we stayed in the pench in savio with my best friends. Then we had transfer calls last night... so basically elder atencio got transfered and now I am with elder goodwinn who has now 2 weeks in argentina and was waiting for his visa for 3 months. I'm excited to get a greengo again cause its been a while and he is normal! :) So I'm very happy about that. Oh yeah and also now I'm district leader.. weird huh? haha guess we will see how this goes. I'm excited for the opportunity to serve others and help others. Elder arostica and elder solum stayed together again and have a new companion cause elder solum dies in 4 weeks. And for about another week we are gonna be living with them still since its easier for right now so thats good. And also elder walker came back! :) He is now zone leader and so since I'm DL we will get to go on divisions :) Its gonna be great! Should be an interesting transfer. Also our zone was pretty big so it got split in half so now its a little smaller. There are also a lot of trios cause we have so many missionaries now like elder walker and the other zone leader have a trio and there are a lot of areas opening in the whole mission. Its pretty exciting and crazy. Besides that last week was good. Elder whitsitt came and did divisions with us so it was us 4 best friends on his birthday. Then on sunday we went to the despedida with like sandy and yamila and tons of the savio and maschwitz kids since it was elder solums despedida. That was tons of fun! I dont have time to explain everything or send pics this time but I will next time. We just played soccer and I scraped up my toe pretty bad cause my shoe ripped which was fun haha but yeah and we had like 2 asados last week with familia cubilla and acuña :) Besides that we havent been able to work with maria since she got a job and always works and her daughter doesnt want much unless the mom is in it so we are kinda in a hole right now.. but that is okay cause heavenly father is gonna throw us down a ladder as we are obedient and work hard :)


Wow thats awesome that theres a new temple video and that austin is going to school and everything! Good luck everyone with school! Is landon gonna get a new calling and stuff or how is that gonna work? I guess thats about it for this week! les amo mucho! :)


Elder Buxton

One more week in this transfer....

Hola Familia!

Thank you everyone for all the birthday wishes and everything. I wont lie it was a very good birthday :) I really cant complain. So basically on wednesday we ate at familia peñalozas house which is always fun and great! Then on thursday we ate dinner at familia huertas house and I seriously had the best dinner I've ever had on my whole mission. It was arroz chaufa with like this chicken in a chines sauce. It was basically like real chinese food. .like better than panda express. Amazing!!! And then arroz con leche for dessert. But real made by a real peruvian. Then on friday we did divisions with elder whitsitt so he came over with me and elder solum and we made barbecue chicken and it was so good. You cant find american stuff like that here so it was amazing. We had a good time and good day and then on my birthday we made pancakes with whip cream and maple syrup and stuff. Super good!! And the bishop came over to get his key back and found out it was my birthday so he gave me 50 pesos to go buy ice cream :) so we are gonna do that later today I think since we didnt have time on saturday. Then we went and ate at yamilas house (as you can see in the pics on facebook from yamila) and the empanadas and pizza were super super good! Oh and thanks so much for the video guys :) you guys are so great I love you guys!! Then that night we ate at diosques house more empandas and stuff and cake number 2. Then yesterday we ate lunch at familia peñalozas with another cake and then we went to familia acuñas house to eat another cake :) haha so much food and cake! I feel so fat! So yeah that was the jist of it. Its been so great to be in a trio with elder solum and elder arostica :) oh and saturday afternoon elder whitsitt called me and told me I had to call president and so I was pretty scared.. haha but he just wished me a happy birthday and told me to do something fun. Such a great mission president! So besides that maria couldnt make it to church yesterday and she didnt get baptised cause she hasnt stopped smoking yet.. so we are gonna work with her more but florencia her daughter came and I put a date with her for next sunday so we will see how that goes. We also had the most asistencia that we or any other ward in our stake has ever had or in a really long time. We had 145. Thats so much for wards here in argentina! Me and savio together had 10 investigators which was awesome! It was a good weekend :) So yeah this is the last week of transfers so I will for sure get a new companion next week and next week I will email on tuesday as you all know. And also we got the news that since we have been getting in so many new missionaries, in a week 2 new zones will open and 14 new areas. Thats nuts!! 

yeah elder whitsitt was with us until we switched back after lunch on saturday. Our friend that hurt his ankle is doing alright. Hes bedridden for weeks. But he is coming over here today to watch us play soccer. Oh yeah we made some new friends in the supermarket the other day and they are like white and they wanted to play soccer so they are gonna come play today :) It'll be sick! haha mom I try not to think about that day but obviously no elder can help not thinking about it at least a little bit. Thats good that uvu soccer camp went good. Is austin gonna go full time in the fall? And what do you guys do about cars and getting to school? Wait so logan came up just to hang out for the weekend? how did he get there? well les amo a todos! otra vez gracias todos por todo lo hacen por mi! :)

Elder Buxton

oh we also have a missionary work activity in our ward this saturday so it should be good!

Happy Happy Birthday!

hola familia,

hmm where to begin. So much has happened this week. Okay from the beginning. So we found out on monday that my comp was leaving on friday and then on wednesday we had zone conference which was really cool and really good. And after it we went over to a park thats in palermo (my old area in capitol) and we read a story about how in that very park was where they dedicated the prediction of the gospel in latin america. That was pretty cool. such a sick park! So then my comp had his end of mission interview and since he was going home early and wouldnt get to participate in the despedida and all the normal end of mission things president took me and my comp and the assistents and his son to get mccdonalds and ice cream :) It was awesome! We ate ice cream at a place where they put it on a cone and then stretch it out and then dip it in chocolate and freeze it and then its seriously a long sword. So sweet! Sounds like a great day right? Yeah then it got worse.. it was a very rough day and crazy week. Some stuff happened and then we went home on the colectivo and then had to go get my stuff in the pention in elder whitsitts area from divions the day before and we missed dinner and just lots of stuff. We got home at like 9:40. So nuts.. but yeah and then elder behotas last few days were alright. I'm glad I was blessed with lots and lots of patience when I was with him. But he left on friday and I was afraid I would get a new companion or train which I didnt want to do cause I wanted to be in a trio with elder arostica and elder solum. And now in the end... we are a trio! :) Its awesome!! We have kinda been back and forth in maschwitz and savio but we sleep and stuff in savio but its so sweet! I feel happier and a bit more relaxed. But yeah so we are still working with maria. She is still struggling stopping smoking but we are on that. She and her daughter have a baptism date next sunday so we hope they make it! They both came to church yesterday and liked it again. So we are gonna work a lot with her. Besides that it was sad that yesterday there was a ward baptism of a girl that was almost 9 years old (the daughter of our ward mission leader) and this was her second try to get baptised.. the last time she got to the water and everything but got too scared and wouldnt go under the water so yeah and.. the same thing happened this time.. it was really sad :( and then today just barely we were playing basketball and elder garcia may have broke his ankle. We will find out. My comps with him and his comp to the hospital and I'm with 2 other elders and we are going to go play soccer in a bit. should be fun :) But yeah a lot happened this week.. but anyway. Should be a good week this week with maria and florencia getting baptised and I have dinner like 4 days this week and an asado on my birthday and like at least 2 or 3 or maybe 4 cakes coming my way :) I guess thats about it for now sorry this is kinda brief details wise. And 2 last things. President is so cool! haha hes just like another one of us almost. It was cool to get to know him a little better. And last monday we found out that elder whitsitt is supposed to go home in october but someone in the church offices decided that since he was in his house for 2 months it would be better for  him to stay longer. So he is now coming home with me and elder walker in december! :) haha he has mixed feelings about it but hes excited to go with me and elder walker.

So here its still pretty cold but the last few days have actually been really warm in the afternoon. Today is pretty hot! It feels good though! The pention in savio is really warm cause they have a good heater so we are fine there. The one in my area not so much.. that would be super cool if austin could get playing soccer again. Do they not play much anymore? and it sounds like it would be a fun birthday! He didnt write me much at all... :( well thats it for this week. les amo a todos!

Elder Buxton

Happy Pioneer Day!

Hola familia, 

So basically its freakin freezing here!! Me and elder whitsitt last week when we did divisions we did some service painting and we were in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. It was so warm! And now ever since then its been super super cold and will be til about wednesday then its supposed to warm up a little bit more but it is really just an unbearable cold because of the humidity and stuff.. but we are still alive! :) So besides that this last week felt really fast.. we went to hermana alomos house to see if we could see how maria is doing and stuff since we hadnt talked to her since the first time over a week before and we got there when maria was finishing moving in haha so she lives with the flia alomo now which is great! So we had a couple lessons with her last week and she now has a baptismal date for the 4th of august and she came to church with her 8 year old daughter so we can baptise her that day too and she is super super excited!! Looks like ill have a white birthday :) her only problem is she needs to stop smoking and we are gonna help her with that so she is gonna overcome it!! It was cool how we found out how she got the interest to talk to us (not sure if that sentence made sense..) so I guess like hermana alomo had talked to maria a little bit about the church'various times in the past but she didnt want anything. And one day a couple months ago I guess we went and had a lesson with hermana alomo cause shes a recent convert and I gave her a ummm I cant think of the word in english.. oh pamphlet! haha yeah I gave her a pamphlet about the gospel and committed her to give it to someone and she gave it to maria and maria read the whole thing and then 2 sundays ago when hermana alomo invited her to come to the lesson she was willing cause she liked what she read in the pamphlet. I thought that was pretty cool! The small and simple things confuse the wise :) hmm besides that we had ward conference yesterday which was really good and we had a ward counsel meeting but with the stake leaders and that was really good too. I learned a lot and felt the spirit there. Our stake president is awesome! The other day I also passed on the street gabi nieve who is a returned missionary that lives in tortuguitas that is marrying a girl from here in maschwitz and I was good friends with. It was so great to see him! Hes gonna invite me to his legal wedding when they sign the papers and stuff here haha and its kinda funny cause the girl just recently got called as a ward missionary so we will be working with her hopefully quite a bit now. Besides that I'm pretty sure we set a record for most times calling the police in the past 10 days... haha but everythings all good. The police here in argentina are really lazy.. but anyway! We have our first zone conference with president ayre on wednesday in palermo so that should be good! Oh and also I'm pretty sure my companion is leaving soon.. either this week or next week he leaves cause he has to do some tramites at home and stuff. Hopefully I will get to be a trio with elder solum and elder arostica! :) and last thing HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN ON WEDNESDAY!!!! :) :) 19 years old!! how fast time goes... your a capo bro!! I love you!!! Keep up all the good work!!

Brents already home???? wow that was so fast!!! Yeah mom I think that a lot of times people do feel appreciative and grateful inside but they just have a hard way of showing it. I'm excited to show you how much I appreciate you not just in words but in action too. Because faith without works is dead! That works in loving and being grateful towards people too. hahaha yeah mom that quote was pretty cool huh? :) I came up with it on the spot! Actually thats not true. The spirit gave it to me on the spot :) haha bueno les amo a todos ustedes! que sigan adelante firmes en la fe de cristo! amo esta iglesia! :)

Elder Buxton

(The quote that he is referring to is from his email last week that I loved that said ""these trials have been the hardest blessings I've ever received". I thought it was very profound and inspired and I love it!)

(I also asked him if him and Elder Whitsitt, who is from here, speak English or Spanish and if English will be hard when he gets home and this was his reply:)

Yes english will be difficult haha.. We speak in spanglish. All of us greegos here we just like speak in spanglish cause we cant remember all of english. IF you guys heard us talk to each other it would probably sound super wrong and funny haha but it makes sense to us! I know right!? :) thanks mom!