October 14, 2013

fam,

bob dont worry about the email. i can ALWAYS give you the benefit of the doubt with writing and emailing. and i got the email just before i got off and i was able to print it off. it was a lovely one, too! for pday we went with my wonderful friend cynthia (sister creed's daughter) to a little nature walk with the elders along a river. we visited an abandoned mill, too! it was great!!

the fall out here is so beautiful! really, everywhere we go is grand! we dont really have much of any city type stuff in our area, which i dont mind. but all of it is great. most places we drive feels like we are driving the alpine loop, except maybe a bit less steep. oh it is wonderful!!!

thank you so much for taking care of fotis. i love that little man. i can just see him doing the swimming around and then freeze- float to the bottom thing. hahaha what a guy. :)

i can just see you and bum working together with the spook business. so cute! you guys are wonderful. i do know what you mean with the whole team work thing. i think as missionaries we call that kind of stuff being "equally yoked". it really is wonderful when you can be honestly equally yoked with someone. not just moving at the same pace in the same direction, but equal. 

i am so happy about my bums employment!! everything you said about it sounds great! i hope they treat him well and that he enjoys it :) go sayum!!

the nice long paragraph about milo, ray-gun, me and scott was pretty precious. thank you for that :)

that made me laugh to read about me and jade. that woman is so funny! she wrote me a few weeks ago and the whole thing was a hoot!

this week was a good one. there is one story that i must tell you about right away. on wedensday, s mayle and i were walking around penacook doing some missionary work. we talked about the exchange that we just got back from and how  we can help the ward and all this different stuff. she expressed that she wanted to practice talking to me as if i was a stranger so that she felt more prepared in real life. i was happy about that, so i ran ahead of her and started walking back in her direction as if i was a stranger passing her on the street. haha, it was a bit of a fail because she didnt get it right away, so i ended up running back and forth a few times :) but we did start talking. it was pretty fun. i tried real hard to act the way i would imagine myself to act if i didnt have the gospel. we talked for a few minutes and we got on the topic of prayer and she taught me how to pray. it was nice :) at this point it was dark and i could see a man walking towards us. so i yelled "hello sir" to him. as we got closer, he stopped and talked to us! it was great :) we talked for a while and it was great when the conversation provided s mayle to teach him how to pray!! oh it was great. she taught him indeed, and later in the same conversation, i was able to recite joseph smith's first vision. oh man! the spirit was there and we were all happy.

he was getting a little chilly, so i suggested we start walking. he lived close by, so he stopped into his place to grab his wallet and we went to mcdonalds to get some hot chocolate. can you believe it he payed for all of us! as we sat in mcdonals, we had a really warm and respectful conversation. my favorite part was when he asked both of us to share something we believe and why it is meaningful to us. as we walked back towards his neighborhood, we noticed it was just about 9:00 and we were probs 45-1 hour walking distance away from our home. luckily he lives right by a member of the church, so we called them. brother melby and his mom came out, met our new friend (who we call brother matt) and gave s mayle and i a ride home. as we parted ways with bro matt, he said he would see us at church on sunday! me and s mayle were so happy! we just witnessed a miracle and it was sweet! i love divine intervention.

on the way home, bro melby's mom was so sweet. she couldnt believe we were out so late and that we didnt have a car. (we have a car, we just didnt need it that day.) i am worried about you! be careful! hahaha oh she was a loving mom indeed. really though, we careful and we are safe.. or so we thought!!! as we came up to the street we live on, we saw 3 bears run from our yard to our neighbors!! oh man it was great!! bro melby drove up and shined his lights on them. they were so cute! one ran off pretty fast but the other two were like... teenage cubs! ah!!!! it was adorable. they climbed on the trees and romped around and went back in the bushes. oh i loved it. sigh. a perfect day.

oh hey, so speaking of exchanges. i love them!! i was with s bowns this time and she is just a gem. her and her companion, s bickel, work so hard and love so much! they are always striving to be obedient. i hope their parents know how wonderful those sisters are. they are such a blessing to the mission and to everyone they know. s bowns and i taught early morning seminary (emphasis on the early) this week. we taught 1 nephi 18. at one point laman and lemuel make some bad decisions. we wanted to emphasize to the class that because of their decisions, everyone suffered through the storm and being lost in verse 13. i have been thinking about that a lot. it really is true that when we make decisions, it effects others around us, even if we dont realize it. we can effect others (maybe even unknowingly) in a negative way, but it is also important to remember that our good choices can and will and do effect others (sometimes without us knowing) in a positive way. it is hard to always remember that, but we really do need to keep in mind that our actions arent just for ourselves. man. no wonder jesus taught us to be examples.

last night we went to visit our friend up the road who is a quaker. he is a good guy. very articulate. we read from the book of mormon with him, anyway, when we were done, it was 9:00. as we walked out the door, there it was!!! the 3 bears!! and they were angry!! hahaha just kidding :) but really, there was a skunk! oh he was such a cute skink, too! mosly white with a black tail and black markings. how to i know he had a black tail? because it was sticking straight up!! man oh man! we startled a skunk. and yes i thought he was cute, and i still do, and yes i am curious what it takes to get a skunk to spray, but i am NOT curious enough to find out first hand. so i immediately pushed s mayle back into the door that was about to close and i said "let me in, let me in!" hahaha it was pretty funny really. :) but everything turned out well and as far as i know, no one got sprayed. 

well, it has been lovely chatting with your for this little while. i hope you all continue to be happy and wonderful. i love all of you and i hope you continue to do cool things like find tarantulas and raise cute kids and make train cars spooky.

i love you!

love, sister lani buxton :)

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