September 9, 2013

well hello hello!

thank you for the emails and all that business. it sure means a lot that you still care about me, even though i am ya know... over here, not really doing anything for you :) eh eh eh...

man. too bad erin still hasnt had her baby. that little lady needs to make herself known outside of the belly. i so SO enjoyed the coon story!! i cant tell you how much i want one! they are so grand! and they sound so polite (in a way) and tame. adorable!!

ok. ok. that storm sounds great!! i wonder why there was such a good on in utah! i can imagine bum just the way you described. so funny! we recently got a pretty sweet storm. lots of thunder and a little bit of lights flickering. at 6:10 am, there was lightning right by our apartment. it was so close that we heard the thunder at the same time we saw the lightning. it was so bright and loud!! i think it was the loudest i have ever heard. it woke us all up at the same time. s mayle describes it as "it sounded like a full dresser being pushed down the stairs!" but seriously it was great. we could feel the walls shake. man! cant even describe it.
ah a good storm is just so grand.

this week i went to another mission leadership council. it was good to go to. our mission president is doing a great job. after the meeting with everyone, we had a sisters meeting. we talked about the sisters needs and problems we have seen and ways to help and all that stuff.

did i tell you about the man (brother bowe) in our ward who i was able to meet that walks around penacook with a little black dog on his shoulder? oh man it is great!! well. we had a wonderful lesson with him. he talked about fellow-shipping in the gospel and doing personal missionary work. he said "its my calling" RIGHT when he was done saying that, the first loud, nearby thunder made itself known. brother bowe immediately jumped up and got into attack position and then settled back down and started laughing. it scared him so bad! hahaha but it was so good! oh man it was great. but he let me take a picture with his black dog on my shoulder.

oh yeah, transfer news. s mayle and i are staying, s herrick is leaving, but unfortunately, not to brazil. she is going to be somewhere in the mission. i really love s herrick. she definitely has a sense of humor that is the most like mine out of any of my companions. well, maybe. but she is great. but lets be honest. i am stoked about not being in a trio. it is just.. ok. so yeah. that is our news. i will miss her. but i am excited to just love s mayle and be her companion. also i am excited to have a desk :)

so this week we were teaching anthony again. when we got there, we were planning on teaching him the plan of salvation. but before we even sat down he said- " i have some questions for you guys today" ..hold on to your butts.. it wasnt so bad though, he heard about the word of wisdom and he was concerned. he was saying it just isnt realistic for someone today to live that kind of lifestyle. but we went on to talk about it. we had never taught the word of wisdom as a companionship before, but we actually all worked in unity, we independently shared scriptures that supported each other and that helped him understand. at one point he said "well i am about to put my foot in my mouth about up to my knee...." he got all stuttery, then explained that when he gets excited about something, his mouth wants to swear, but that he didnt want to swear in front of us. we gave him a minute to gather himself and settle down. then he explained how AWESOME he thought the word of wisdom is and medical this and scientifically that! he was STOKED about it. hahahahahaha! oh it was great. he committed right there to try to live it. i shook his hand right there for two reasons- 1 i am proud of him. 2 i cant hug him. it was just the coolest! i have never seen such a drastic, immediate change. hahahaha it was a blast. before we left, he said he also found some stuff online about polygamy. so this weeks lesson should be good. hahaha :)

have i ever told you about gloria? she is one of the cutest and sweetest ladies you will ever know. s herrick and i met her on one of our very first days here. she is adorable. she is torn right now because she likes us a lot, she is praying about baptism, but she loves the church  that she has been attending. she is part of a 7th day adventist group. we are trying to help her see that we love everyone and we wont expect her to cut all ties and abandon them. so to help her see that, we went to church with her on saturday (of course is was on a saturday:)  ).  it was good stuff. i dont really know much of anything about them, except the whole 7th day thing. but they were so much fun. they all loved us, even with our little name tags. the sermon was great- they read from and discussed the bible. there was one point when he was talking about how the lord will never forget us, how he will gather us like a hen gathers her chicks, all that kind of stuff. he asked if we though the lord would not prepare us for the second coming. "of course he will!" was his answer to his own question. ah it was just so grand! it reminded me of the last paragraph in the introduction to the book of mormon that says when we gain a witness of the books divinity and all that, we will also know that the church of jesus christ of latter day saints is the lords kingdom once again established upon the earth, preparatory to the second coming of the messiah. aaah! so good! while we were listening to the sermon, i just wanted to teach them. i wanted to teach the preacher. not to prove him wrong or anything, but to show him how right he was and how the gospel that i have is exactly what he needs and how much he is going to love it! they had the equivalent of a pot luck linger longer and the preacher insisted that we went first. it was so cute! no wonder she feels so torn. but she came to church with us yesterday and loved it! she stayed for all 3 hours, didnt want to leave! plus there was lots of fellow-shipping with hardly any work on our (missionaries) part. it was grand. simply grand. i love that woman.

   

ooh! also, yesterday was s mayle's birthday. i made it as special as i could, even though there isnt a whole lot i could do. but i made sure to jump on her bed in the morning and stack the 3 cakes that we recieved this week and put them on her desk and all that good stuff. s herrick and i wished each other and lots of other people a "happy sister mayle's birthday" all day. s herrick told me that for s mayles birthday, i could hold her (s herrick's) hand at any time. what a great gift. hahahaha :)

well i have got to get going. i am excited for my first niece! great job erin! 

i love you all!!!

love, sister lani buxton