tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11315598848931562992024-03-04T23:33:22.918-07:00........ The Tales of Lani as Sister Buxton........Erinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05927482390259816766noreply@blogger.comBlogger74125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-37026184947542418992014-04-13T21:13:00.003-06:002014-04-13T21:13:53.410-06:00April 7, 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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my main peeps,</div>
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(not maine peeps)</div>
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hi :) tis, tis indeed transfer week. i am glad to say that i
will be staying in yarmouth for this next transfer :)</div>
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speaking of yarmouth. the
other day i was at a missionary meeting. during lunch, while i was eating
carrots, a fellow missionary asked me "how's yarmouth?" i replied
"its good. full of carrots." he didnt get it. he didnt even realize i
was making a joke. i asked s davis about it later and she didnt get it until i
explained it. man. i thought it was more obvious than that. i hope YOU get it.
my fellow funny family. oh. but dont get me wrong. s davis is hilarious! she is
so fun and funny and she also thinks i am funny, which.. could be a bad thing
but it sure keeps us sane and happy :)</div>
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i got the box! thank you thank you. you always send the
perfect thing. the perfect amount and the perfect missionary pick me up :) i
love it. thank you. and s davis does, too :) oh. get this. her dad's name is
david! its funny. and then you realize his name is david davis. then its even
funnier! i always tell my companions that the boxes you send are for both of
us, but i dont know if they really believe it, ya know?</div>
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hahaha! sadie!!!! that family is just so funny.
unfortunately, i got some bad news. they are not moving to utah anymore. they
are moving in quite a different direction. the reason being monika has a crazy
x and he found out she was moving to utah and was making it.. unpleasant/unsafe
for her. so sad. :(</div>
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i truly loved conference. oh my goodness it really is like
christmas for missionaries. and hey, it really was jesus' birthday! how
appropriate. we had to watch it at the church. it is a mission rule for us. but
i brought a blanket and i was happy and comfortable. it is nice to watch
conference without a care or distraction in the world.</div>
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sorry about the milk. i am so relieved the letters and all
that made it safe. i hope nothing else broke or anything. the things in the box
are really special to me. i will have to explain stuff later. thank you for
taking care of it. i hope the shirt isnt stained.</div>
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i do want to hike the places you are planning! count me in!</div>
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it really is going well over here. i am enjoying every day.
i am realizing that i have refined my dog whispering skills as a missionary.
you see, most people have pets. it is really great. but it is sometimes crucial
that the dogs behave themselves so that the spirit is not interrupted by barks,
gags, sniffed bums and begs for attention. i was able to demonstrate my
whisperings very well recently. we were knocking on a door and there was a big,
ferocious dog tied to a chain that was barking, yanking on the chain and his
hackles were up. he was a good guard dog. i barked back at him of course and we
talked for a while. after a few minutes of this, followed with some ignoring on
my part, i turned to the still barking dog and asked him if he wanted to be
friends. he immediately stopped barking. i asked him again. he wagged his tail.
i started to walk towards him. he layed down on the ground- still not a peep! i
approached him, he stiffed my hand, and we became instant friends. it was a
joy. what a good dog.</div>
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back to the business of salvation as it relates to people.
we are teaching a man who has been investigating for years. he says he knows
the church is true, he is just taking his time. he is basically a member. he
has his own scriptures with the tabs and all. he comes to church on his own
accord every week. he has a calling. he is really great. it is a blessing to
know him. this week we had a wonderful meeting. we talked about how he wants to
quit smoking but that it is very difficult for him to stop, especially with the
time he has on his hands, as he is on disability right now. he told us about
some things he wants to start doing more so that he can occupy his hands and
such. i kept on thinking about crocheting and how that kept be from being bored
and getting into trouble, and i also accomplished something, but i kept pushing
it out of my mind. c'mon sister buxton, this is a full grown man! we need to
get... a chainsaw in his hands! but i decided to just ask if he has ever
considered it. he smiled real big and said "yeah!! i have actually been
thinking about that! but i dont know how to do it." so. we will be
teaching him. :)</div>
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so good. never delay a prompting. even if you dont know its a
prompting.</div>
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we talked about ways heavenly father answers prayers. he shared
some really great experiences. i am so thankful that he trusts us. we talked
about how general conference is a great time to receive answers. its so true. i
mean, these are the lords servants. they would just be wasting our time if they
werent speaking for him. so this weekend i went to conference with a prayerful
question in mind. wouldnt you know it was answered. i hope your prayers have
been answered this weekend. i love conference so much. it is just unfathomable
how much we have to be thankful for.</div>
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thank you for all you do for me. i love you all so much! i
hope you know that!</div>
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love, sister lani buxton :)</div>
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Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-31394656329898265272014-04-13T21:08:00.001-06:002014-04-13T21:08:12.133-06:00March 31, 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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ahhh... :) how is everyone? i hope all is well in the hood.</div>
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i am glad sam ended it with the girl. i know i dont really
know what is going on and what has been going on, but i just want him to be
free. it is so interesting that words can have such an affect on people. it is
so important with anything to focus on how it makes you feel. we all have the
light of christ in us. if we have a bad, confused, angry or negative feeling,
it is either from the devil, or we dont understand it. even if things make
sense, if it gives us a bad feeling, we need to not just take it. that goes
for information, relationships, situations, anything really. we just have
to be careful and only let in what motivates us and helps us to be better.</div>
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things are going pretty well over here.</div>
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this week was a crazy one. in a good way, ya know? on monday
right when pday was over, i spent the rest of the evening traveling so that we
could go on exchanges. then more traveling the next night. wednesday night we
traveled again to go on exchanges with..... AUGUSTA!! oh it was such a delight,
i cant even tell you. i got to see wonderful people, i got to sleep in my old
bed, it was all just great stuff. thursday night we traveled to bethel, maine
and slept there with some sisters. the next day one of the sisters and i traveled to cumberland. saturday morning.. more traveling so that i could get
my companion back!! sigh... it was a crazy crazy week. it was fun though. we
enjoyed it and hopefully the sisters involved enjoyed it too. they are all
pretty much lovable and great.</div>
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something really cool happened this week. we have been
working slowly with a less active man. bro c. also we have picked up a family
that is investigating. the v fam. we had an appointment to see the v fam. so we
went. they were just about to eat, so we said we would be back in an hour.
during that hour, we visited bro c. he taught us how to play the ukelele. we mosly
talked about music, i sang with him as he played and sang a beatles song. (dont
tell the mission president!) haha :) he briefly talked about how he used to go
out with the missionaries when he was younger and that it was fun. he very
quietly mentioned that he wants to come back to church. then he quickly moved
on to other topics, as to say he didnt want to talk about it. we respected
that. after we visited with him, we went back to the v fam. they asked what we
did for an hour. we told them we learned how to play the uke. the dad started
shooting lots of questions. told him it was his neighbor down the street, that
he is awesome, in a band and he is a member. "so he goes to your
church?" "no, not right now, but he doesnt mind the church."
"well maybe he just needs a ride! we can carpool!" we-he-heh-elll!
dont mind if i do! so we talked about that stuff. oh, the v fam are all
rockers. they have guages and piercings and the grandma (who we have not met)
and the dad and the son all play the drums. i think they are afraid of not
fitting in, but they still want it, its just unknown and a little scary. but i
agreed to get bro c over there and they can jam, we can pray and everything
will be lovely. and i really hope they carpool!! that would be the coolest thing!!</div>
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i am just so happy about everything that is going on over here. missionary work
is just so great. called to know the richness of his blessings. so. true.</div>
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well. i love you all! have a happy week!</div>
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love, sister aunt wanay buxton!!</div>
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Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-71787292251398743312014-03-28T09:03:00.004-06:002014-03-28T09:03:44.613-06:00March 24, 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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good morning... i'm here!</div>
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thank you as always for letters, emails, pictures, prayers
and love :) thank you thank you!</div>
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the story of matt and his family is sad. i hope they are
doing alright. i am so thankful their testimonies are strong so that they can
deal with this and deal with it together. there is a woman in our ward and her
dad just passed. she is a member but her family isnt. she wants them to have
the assurance that comes with the gospel. she wants them to understand, but its
in the process. she is amazing.</div>
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this week was a really good one. i got to spend a day in
portland!! i got to see so many people i love. i got to spend a day with s berg
as well! man. sounds like a vacation. hahaha :) but we worked hard and we did
many good things. last night we got to teach our wonderful investigator and her
daughter. they are so precious. we taught them at their friends house (who are
awesome members of the ward). we got to teach them a magic trick, which, of
course, we related to the gospel. we had so much fun and hopefully they learned
things about jesus.</div>
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the member family is just so great. all of them are
excellent. their younger girls (9 and.. 6?) are so crazy. they were yankin me
around and tooting on me "mom!!! bella's bum is chasing sister
buxton!" hahahhahahaha and at the end, the 9 year old came up with a plan
for me to be her babysitter after my mission. but until then,!!! .. she has
decided that i cant leave the area. (i havent told any of them when i am going
home) :) haha she is hilarious. she is always playing tricks on me. its fun :)</div>
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i recently started the book of mormon over. remember the
challenge grandpa gave me to read the book of mormon and mark every time christ
was mentioned or that he spoke? well i am doing something similar. i got a
clean (no markings/highlights) and i am marking everything that has to do with
our hearts: soul, being filled with the spirit, heart, center, etc.. hope that
makes sense. but it is so great. it is really opening my eyes that the gospel
really does involve our hearts. just from doing this study, i can see so
clearly that when we give our heart to the lord, we find peace, we find
answers, we feel calm. but when we have a hard heart, blessings are withheld,
opportunities are passed up, and ultimately, we dont allow the lord in, so he
cant help us, so we lose. i really hope i can give my heart to the lord. as with
anyone, it is my own disbelief and my own stubbornness that keeps me from the
blessings of heaven. if i can just surrender my will and my thoughts and my
doubts, the lord really will be my shephard and i really will be able to do or
witness "many mighty miracles"! i love that the lord doesnt want us
to fail. he wants to help us and he wants to see us happy. we are that we might
have joy right?</div>
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just to let you know, i made the best veg fajitas the other day.
i am so cooking for you some day. oh! and i made sweet and sour veg for the first
time! it turned out alright! of course it wasnt mom's, but it was still good.</div>
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well. i love you and all that good stuff! </div>
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love, sister wani buxton</div>
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Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-5136880774169798752014-03-28T09:00:00.000-06:002014-03-28T09:00:00.200-06:00March 17, 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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that thing was YOU!</div>
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happy saint patties!! </div>
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yes i notice and care about saint patties. i am wearing the
green scarf erin made for me :) today i told me companion "happy saint p
day". get it? cuz its our p day? and its saint p-atties day?</div>
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i am so happy to hear sam is having so much fun. that truly
sounds like a blast :):)</div>
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the play you went to sounds really great. and that should
mean a lot coming from me considering i really really dont like huck finn. you
and the moonshine.. hahahaha :)</div>
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i will go to wicked if you want me to. i am sure i wont hate
it. but the pop u U lar was indeed... in mocking. :) but let me tell you bob,
its not like i have been impressed daily by media and dancing and all that
jazz. i know this is not really an answer. i will go if you want me to. :)</div>
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well. in all honesty, i was rather stressed this week. i was
still happy. i was just very nervous. have i always been terrified of public
speaking? i feel like i wasnt always scared of it. i sure am now. my goodness.
i am so thankful to have an stl companion. especially s davis. she is so great
to me. she lets me know every day that she loves me. she is so supportive and
patient and smart and she really helps with the load. anyway, the reason i was
stressed is because we had to do 4 trainings (in front of groups of
missionaries) and i also was asked to speak in stake conference. guh. i was
thankful for it all and i feel blessed to be trusted with it. it just makes me
very nervous. but it is all over now and i feel much lighter and better.</div>
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both sets of zone leaders asked us to present a training on
finding and attitude. yes! my favorite thing! seriously though. i feel like i
could talk for days about those subjects. i love it. tracting is getting more
and more of a bad rep. but it still works and it is still alive! so we were
sure to tell the missionaries that. but to make sure this truth hadnt changed,
me and s davis put it to the test the day before the training. we did a little
something called "boxing out" basically it is just tracting a few
houses. i love that business. in the process, we were only able to talk to 2
people. one said we could come back (after we read a passage from the book of
mormon), and the other was this awesome girl who was in high school. we talked
with her for just a few minutes. we told her about the book of mormon and that
god loves her. she felt she couldnt take a book of mormon for free, but we
convinced her to ;) she was so sweet and said the words "i am
interested!" she is basically a new investigator now and we are pretty
happy :)</div>
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stake conference was pretty much a reunion of people from
portland and augusta! it was the best thing. i felt like my ribs were going to
break because my heart was just so big and full. oh there are just no words.</div>
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remember the pinkalicous story? well. we went over to their
place again this week to teach them. sigh.. they are just so great. we prayed
together (holding hands! its so precious!) they fed us. we taught them about
the savior. we sang "he sent his son" and taught them what all the
lyrics meant. they asked a lot of wonderful questions. we all sang the song
together. it was just so sweet. at the end, both of the girls wanted to say the
closing prayer. (not going to argue with that!) so we said two. the younger
went first. a short, simple, sweet prayer. then the older sister. i had never
heard her pray before. she first prayed for me and my companion. then for her
little sister. then for her mom. then her mom whispered to her to pray for her
self. so she prayed that the cat would stop peeing in her room but that the cat
would still know that she loves her. it was one of the most sincere prayers i
have ever heard. the cat part was kinda funny, but that is what she needed and
she knows that heavenly father cares about her needs, even if they seem silly
to other people. she is such an amazing example to me of putting others first
and giving a personal, heart felt prayer. oh it was just so great. i love that
family so much. i hope they will keep progressing.</div>
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well i best be off! i love all of you! </div>
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love, me! sisterlani buxton</div>
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Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-48685153260809885072014-03-28T08:56:00.002-06:002014-03-28T08:56:22.360-06:00March 10, 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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hello all of you :)</div>
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i am so glad you loved the pinkalicious story! such a good
time.</div>
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oh bob i love the story of the court of honor. it got me all
teary. i love the story
so much though. thank you thank you thank you for telling me :):) i love that
boy.</div>
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the package came this week!!! i love it so much! it all made
me smile and i am so happy to have this stuff from you. the rhuberry is perfect
as usual. the salad fixins are prime and the letter was perfect! thank you
thank you! i couldnt stop talking about it i just love it so much. yesterday as
i sat in sacrament meeting, i got a strong impression to share the story about
your interaction with the missionaries at the ward party with missionaries here
so that they could really understand that we have to be kind and that member
trust is crucial. i am going to find a way to share it!! i am going to two zone
interviews this week so possibly i could do it then. i dont know for sure.</div>
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i am sad about bonnie. that poor old woman. i love her! so
great.</div>
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as you should expect... this week has been top notch. s
keigley told me that kim wants to be baptized! kim is the girlfriend of the
member that was interested in sam telling him about computron. man. this stl
business is crazy. i spent last monday doing pday stuff and then traveling to
bedford, nh. tuesday at the meeting and then traveling home. wednesday i went
to district meeting and then went to topsham for an exchange that lasted until
the next night (thursday) friday we had to stay indoors and plan and study for
5 hours!! ahhhhh! then i finally got to be in my own area and do some work. it
is great though. i am so busy!! busy is the best thing for a missionary to
experience though. truly it is a blessing. not even a blessing in disguise.
just straight up blessing.</div>
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i must tell you about yesterday. me and s davis and
a girl from the branch (did i tell you i am in a branch? its my first) sang in
sacrament meeting. it was terrifying. and we practiced for less than 5 minutes
before the meeting. ah! who am i?? what am i doing???? ooohhhhhhhhh.....</div>
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last night we were invited over to do an fhe with a family
from the branch. they are so great and so much fun. it was just the parents and
2 of their teenage kids and their white lab named sam.. hahhaa :) aside from the
fact they live on the water, it reminded me of home. we played book of mormon
charades. it was a blast! so funny! at the end, we all shared a hero we
have/someone we would like to be like from the book of mormon. the spirit was
so strong and i think we could all feel that we were in the mortal side of
god's army. it was so wonderful!</div>
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well i had best be off. thank you all for being the best
family ever! i love you!!</div>
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love, sister buxton :)):)</div>
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Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-27187441135223472662014-03-28T08:51:00.003-06:002014-03-28T08:51:58.752-06:00March 3, 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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you!</div>
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happy birthday scott!</div>
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man the whole bonnie thing sounds so frustrating. good thing
she is so fun, funny and wonderful.</div>
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mom you always go the extra mile or ten. thats how i
describe you to people.</div>
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scott's birthday sounds fun :) i am glad he understood the
box i sent him. i knew he would like it and think it was cool.</div>
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i am so glad you spent some time with monica and sadie. i
love those people so much. me and sadie both have nightmare before christmas at
the top of our favorite movie list. we both love creepy things and we just have
so much fun together. she licked me a few times and chewed on my back. monica
is so wonderful. i love her and i knew you would too. she probs told you she is
moving to utah in august. i am happy about that :)</div>
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no you didnt tell me my bum is going to arizona!! wowie!!!!
that is great :) and the perfect time of year to go, too! </div>
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sister keigley is from utah. yeah
her family lives like 20 minutes away from you. crazy huh? not really. haha :)
my new companion is from Tallahassee florida. her name is sister davis. she
went to ucf. oh my. she is so great. she came out one transfer after me. i got
to pick her up from the mission home on her first day in the field so that she
could spend the night at my apt with me and s caffall. we have so much fun
together. she thinks i am so funny, so it is great for me. i hope it doesnt
feed my pride too much. haha :) she is so lovely. she loves music and art and
she is really smart. it is so fun to be her companion. the only downfall is
that she hates utah.. anyway, we are over the augusta north and augusta south
zones, which make up the augusta stake. i am over s keigley (which means
portland!!!!!) and s berg and a bunch of other sisters that i have worked with
before and all that good stuff. i am just so happy. it is an amazing place for
me to be. i am also over augusta!!! remember?? i served there!! i am so
excited!! this is going to be such a splendid transfer.</div>
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the ward i am in is so fun. actually it is a branch! i have
never served in a branch before. it is good. i like it so far. its not tiny or
anything. the people here are so loving and sweet and welcoming. it is amazing
to see. right now we are trying to get every active family committed to do
their own family mission plan! we want to have them all committed before march
is over. it will be so good. so i have been on exchanges with yarmouth a few
times because i used to be stl over yarmouth. so i already met some of the
people that live here. it is so much fun. this week we went to visit an
investigator named julia. i remembered her but i wasnt sure if she would remember
me or not. right when she opened the door she put her hands in the air and
started cheering! hahaha she was so happy to see me and i was very happy to see
her as well. all these people are just so easy to love!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
she asked us if we
would help her out with some snow removal. it hasnt snowed in over a week, but
thats all ok! her 10 yeah old daughter came out and dressed me up in her pink
snow stuff. she could NOT stop laughing!! she thought it was the funniest thing
to see me in pink and that her stuff fit me. hahahahhaha it was great :) she
called me pinkalicious. julia gave us an ice smasher thing and a snow shovel
and took us to her back deck. there we saw our project. her whole deck was
covered in snow. it was as tall as me. and it was solid ice. haha. we both
climbed up it. we didnt sink in at all. just stood right on top. i smashed the
ice the best i could and s davis tried to shovel it out of the way. she said
she felt like a retarded plow truck. hahaha. pinkalicious and the retarded plow
truck. hahahaha so funny! hoohoohoo hehe heh heh oh it was good. then we
stacked wood for her. after we were done with that, her daughter invited us
into her room and she read a book to us. it was called....
pinkalicious! its aaaallll coming together now. it was a good book.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
we shared
with her a scripture about being a child of god. we got to teach her how to
pray! her mom gave her testimony of prayer. man that girl is so teachable. i
got to help her say her first ever prayer. gosh. i could do that all day.
prayer is so excellent. god is so reachable. i am so thankful that of all free
things, a relationship with him is one. oh! that reminds me. i watched the
coolest <a href="http://mormon.org/" target="_blank">mormon.org</a> video
this week. its at <a href="http://mormon.org/youth" target="_blank">mormon.org/youth</a>.
its called origin. oh man i love it! please go watch it! i gave me goose flesh.
mmm! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
thank you for the love, i could never get tired of hearing
from you and reading what is going on back home. i love all of you!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
love, sister lani buxton :):):):):)</div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-33392465300818674762014-03-28T08:41:00.003-06:002014-03-28T08:41:52.022-06:00February 24, 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
you!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that thing was you!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
yes i am going to yarmouth maine!! it is the next area north
from me!! i will still be the stl over portland! and augusta! my old area! oh
it is so exciting! so my new adderss is 5 farwell ave apt 2 cumberland, me
04021</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so good!! my companion is going to be sister davis. i truly
love that sister. she came out one transfer after me. she is an amazing sister.
i am so excited to be with her. before stl's existed, we went on exchanges
together. we were our first exchange!! haha can you believe that? it was over a
year ago. so cool :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so the beach thing. the orange sweater guy. can you believe
he just came up to us and talked to us? we talked about god and the beauty of
the earth. he just got back from serving in the forces. he got home like 2 days
prior and he had been gone for 3 years. he was so amazing. we are going to be
meeting with him. but he is actually in the elders area so really, they will be
meeting with him. he is just so great though. i am so glad we met him. but yes
we are safe. no one hurts us or scares us. i fear no man!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
oh i feel so happy and fuzzy about the krystal taylor thing.
i dont even remember saying that. how sweet of her!! gosh :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
oh. my GOODNESS!! bob i laughed for 5 minutes and cried when
i read the dig to china thing!! hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahha bob!!!!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
oh bob i love you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ok i must tell you about this last thursday. it was like...
the epitome of a missionary day. ok. so we got up, did our usual thing-
exercise, (were we on the beach that day? i hope so.) eat, shower, get ready,
study, leave to go to teach english. on our way, the bridge that we were about
to drive over decides to let some boats go by, so the draw bridge draws, and we
are stuck. we sit for a minute, play rock-paper-scissors with the couple that
are in the car behind us, and then realize that the elders are in the car in
front of us! so they call us, we talk for a minute, play some
rock-paper-scissors with them, and then we realize that we have a car inspection
due, and our district leader is one of the elders in front of us. what better
time to have your district leader inspect your car than when you are stuck on a
bridge with him? so he did. the people behind us asked what we were doing. we
told them. they thought we were funny, so they blasted some music for us to
dance to. it was funny :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
then we taught english and that was a blast all by
itself. then we went to an appointment, but the woman forgot she made the
appointment, so we just stayed for a couple minutes before she had to leave.
then we visited this wonderful sister who is paralyzed. we didnt have an
appointment, but she had no where and no way to leave, so we read with her and
had a blast. oh. she is the one that likes the crazy massages. we massaged her
shoulders, too. all of our other plans fell through quickly and so did our
backups. we were running out of ideas fast. but i felt really good. there was
one point when i was waiting for my companion to get in the car. i was looking
at my planner and i had a very clear thought that it was a good thing that our
plans and backups were falling through, because someone needed us and we were
going to find them. we tried a few more people, to no avail. eventually, we
ended up visiting a less active named tim back too. haha just kidding its just
tim bach :) he was so happy to see us. we have only ever had brief visits with
him, no longer than a few minutes. he has told us in the past that he really
wants his girlfriend to find interest in the church and that he is trying hard
to help her come to the gospel. this time when we gave him a surprise visit, he
invited us in! we sat down, talked with him and his girlfriend and had an
amazing conversation about gods love. we all shared how we have seen his love
in our lives, and at the end, we all committed to show our love to god in a
specific way. the spirit spoke to each of us and told us how we needed to show
our love. we shared our thoughts with each other and made a pact together that
we would work on what the spirit told us to work on. they told us they want to
come to church. they said that they were having a terrible day and that it had
been a long time since they had felt as peaceful as they did that night.
brother bach told us he knew we were coming. he could feel it and he was
looking forward to it. he is so great.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
then we went and knitted with a sweet
old woman in the ward. she is so cute! after that, we went home, had an 8:00
dinner, planned and went to bed. what a lovely day :) oh i love it so much!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
also. sam. listen up. brother bach is looking for a job and
i told him about the job you used to have. i told them they are always hiring
and that sort of stuff. he really wants you to email him to let him know what
is up. this guy is awesome! he is... 26 and he is just so cool. he is expecting
you, so please email him :)<a href="mailto:timbach14@gmail.com" target="_blank">timbach14@gmail.com</a> :):):)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
well i gotta go :) i love you! thank you endlessly for your
endless love!! thank you thank you thank you!! i love you!!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
love, sister lani buxton :)</div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-39678601587771226232014-02-18T21:49:00.000-07:002014-02-18T21:49:04.294-07:00February 17, 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
dear everyone,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;">so i have some news for you. there is a house.. two doors up from me? and the mailbox says </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 17px;"><a href="http://higginsbeachwebcam.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none;">higginsbeachwebcam</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;">.com</span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;">. and i know i have seen a camera on one of the houses that is by the beach. i dont know if it is that one. but. it might be. so hey, maybe you can check it out and tell me what it is all about! if it is the one i am thinking of, i will try to run by it during exercise time. i exercise from 6:30-7:00. so. that is like.. 4:30 for you! yikes. you can try to see me if you want, but noworries. lets be real, you forgot how to sleep anyway, bob :)</span></o:p> i made a
deal with my companion that will allow me to go out there more often. so look
forward to that hopefully :) i will wave at you tomorrow morning!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ooh that is cool that fotis might be getting a new place.
you are so cool bob!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
yes i did get the small box! you know me so well. it is a
perfect little salad box! thank you for being kind and everything about sending
me stuff. it is so wonderful that you remember me and send me stuff but also
great that you dont send me giant boxes of stuff i cant use and cant take with
me. you are a genius! thank you thank you thank you!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i am so glad you talked to monica pardon. she is such an
amazing woman. she is a super mom and a champion at dealing with challenges of
life. she is also hilarious and just awesome! you will love her so much. i did
tell her after she talked to you that i am leaving. she was so sweet and sad
and yeah she cant take anything to me from you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i am so glad the good ole peeps from utah valley are
still friends of sam. everyone has always loved him so much!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i am also sad to leave this area. it is sad and i think the
part i hate the most is telling people. i just dont like saying goodbye and all
that. i feel like i will never get used to it. guh. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ooh. so this week we went to visit a less active member
named monarae. she is so great. she had a serious rough patch a while back. she
was pretty bitter towards a lot of things. then she got in an accident and she
is now paralyzed from the chest down. we have been visiting her for a while.
she is so fun. i really love her. this last time we found out that she wanted a
massage on her upper back and shoulders. so i started. good googly boogly she
was so stiff. SO STIFF! i couldnt even feel the bones in her back because she
was so tight. but we helped a little. i literally had to put my elbow in her
muscle and put all my weight on it for her to be satisfied. my goodness. it was
insanity. wooowie! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
here is a better story;</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so this last week the elders we are serving with took us to
contact an investigator they want to give to us. there was a big snow mound we
had to cross. i got up, i started down, my leg sank into the crunchy ice and
snow, which got stuck, but the rest of me kept going. so i face planted in the
snow. but my leg was stuck behind me. it was very uncomfortable, a little
immodest and SO FUNNAY! man oh man :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
good stuff family and friends. good. stuff.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
can i share something with you? this morning i was reading
in the book of mormon. poor ole moroni is taking over writing in the book. he
says in mormon 8:5 that he is alone, his dad got killed, he has no where to go and
he also has no "friends". oh it is so sad. gosh. my heart always goes
out to moroni. it would be so sad to be in his position. and for some reason
those words no "friends" is just so sad. but it reminded me of a
scripture in john. 15:14,15 christ says "ye are my friends... i have
called you friends.." sigh. it is just so great to read those words from
the savior. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
well i should probs be off. i love you all and i owe all of
you big big hugs! i love you!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
love, sister lani buxton :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-45332766178144708722014-02-13T15:40:00.003-07:002014-02-13T15:40:39.176-07:00February 10, 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
allla ya,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so. i am wearing a leotard.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
bob! i am so happy you love the beach box. i loved it and i am so
happy you do too :) you are so welcome! i hope your burfdurf was great :) happy
happy birthday :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
bob you are so fancy with your iphone and your ipad! hahha
you silly woman. i am so glad you have them. they seem super nifty. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so my mission president just emailed me. he told me i am
going to be transferred in a couple of weeks. i am so sad :( i honestly just
really really really dont want to leave. he said i am going to stay stl also.
sigh. it will be good though. i will have an stl companion. that will be nice.
i really just dont want to leave this area. its ok though. i trust him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
oh the story of bonnie is so sad and sweet and silly and i
am so glad she has you. you save so many days bob. gee whiz. you are a super
hero.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
idriss really is such a champ. he is amazing. i cant even
explain him or give him justice. the africans are very much not vegetarian! hahaha
:) there was no pumpkin in the dishes they have given us. it was good stuff
though. they know how to eat. they dont make me eat meat but they think i am
crazy for not eating it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
what you said about being at the lake and feeling gods love
was so great. i definitely feel the same way. i feel so close to god when i am
outside. i love nature and the weather and everything else. last week in church
we were actually talking about that stuff. an elder in my district said
something really interesting. he brought up the scripture "by their fruits
ye shall know them" and that the earth is literally the fruits from god.
so by his fruit we shall know him. by being in nature, we can get to know god.
hm. no wonder i love nature so much. :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this week was a good one. i felt like a missionary. like a
good one. it was just one of those random weeks where a lot is going on. i
slept at the mission home on monday night. went to mlc on tuesday. i did a
training at zone conference on thursday. gave a talk on sunday. man. i hope i
get over my fear of public speaking soon. it has been so scary for me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
zone conference was so good. have you ever heard of the
fourth missionary? it is so inspiring amazing wonderful mission changing. i
love it!! zone conference was focused on that. also at zone conference i got to
see s berg, s cloward, s mayle!! also i got to see s bickel who is a sister i
used to be over. i really love her. i also got to see ken!!! s cloward and i found him tracting and he got baptized a couple months later! wow wow wow it
was good! man. i wish you knew these people! they are just so grand.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
but it has also been a good week. we are doing lots of good
things. we love being missionaries and we love the lord.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
thank you for everything sorry i must be on my way. i love
you! thank you!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
love, WANAY!! sister buxton </div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-77767440383655700152014-02-13T15:34:00.001-07:002014-02-13T15:34:25.311-07:00February 3, 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
dear everyone,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
thank you for the email. it sounds like there is a lot going
on around there. bonnie is so funny! that
woman!! hahahaha</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
oh what a week! we taught idriss as much as we could this
week. we went over the night before his baptism to boost him and see how he
was. he was sooooo excited! he couldnt stop talking. he just was so happy.
talking about his studies and how he likens the scriptures to his life. he is so
great. then aziza (a recent convert) made dinner for us and he taught us how to
eat african food. it was lovely. the baptism was amazing. i think i will cry
every time i fully re-live it. it was just so good.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
did i tell you i am stl over s berg? my first daughter! so i
went on exchange with her this week. she is amazing. i really love her. she
taught me so much and even sent me back to my area with a reading assignment.
she is wonderful. i really loved spending a day with her. i want to do that
again. she is in a trio right now and both of her companions are great as well.
i really just love those sisters.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
there is an elder in my district named elder pruett. he is
funny. he reminds me so much of scott. i will give you an example. yesterday s keigley and i were waiting for someone to come to church. we were sitting by
the doors of the church. he comes over and looks out the window. there were
some horses with little jackets on to keep them warm. he said "oh look,
the horses are wearing clothes! silly horses..
oh look that one has a pink jacket. .. thats how you know she's a
girl." i looked at him and he was just standing there with this big smirk
on his face. hahahaha gee whiz he is always saying and doing things like that.
the other day he said to me "sister buxton what did you DO?!" haha it
was just like scott. hahahaha it is just so funny.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hey mom, happy birthday! are you excited? yay! woop woop!
root root!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
oh hey. so the mail man has been very kind to me. but i must
say, i must have given you the wrong address before. it is 15 a pearl street
scarborough, me. 04074 </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
sorry i gave the wrong one before. but i think i still got
all the mail you sent me. thank you so much!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
ive gotta go but know that i still
love you and i still love being a missionary. the lords work is so good and so
sweet. i love it!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
love, sister lani buxton</div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-38580579082951909252014-02-13T15:29:00.003-07:002014-02-13T15:29:30.639-07:00January 27, 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
hello all!<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
sigh.. what a week :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hey the vacation sounds awesome!! helicoptering in canyons? visiting with lisa and matt? what more could you ask for? that is so cool!! great job on eating
moldy cake! hahaha you... people :) i am glad you got a good grandma story
before you left.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this week was a pretty good one. s keigley was sick so we
didnt do as much as we usually would. thursday was so crazy though. we went to
a lunch appointment and my poor companion just started bawling. she hadnt been
telling me how she was feeling so i was pretty surprised. but they let her lay
down and rest and sleep all day. meanwhile i had a very short time to figure
out who was going to be with me all day because we had appointments until 8:30.
so i scrambled and i did it! the lord was so good to me that day. i found
someone to be with me all day. it was crazy, but very fun. i didnt have enough
time to eat and it was also the day our gps broke, but with the lord, all
things are possible right? :) plus we got double fed last night, so it
evened out :) </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this week we got to meet with idriss (our african golden
investigator) a bunch. we are helping him prepare for baptism. really though, he is so prepared. he is an amazing man. he teaches
us more than we teach him. we taught him about tithing this week. he already
knew about it and was totally willing and ready to live it. when i committed
him to live it he explained that he doesnt have an income right now, so he
would like to give back in some other way like cleaning the church. he wants to
help so bad! man he is just awesome. his interview was on saturday. he lives 3
or 4 miles away from the church. his ride forgot to pick him up. i called him
and told him we would find him a different ride. he suggested he could just
walk. i refused! he doesnt have boots and it was dark and well below freezing.
hahaha that silly man. but he is SO excited for baptism. he passed his
interview of course. he is just so excited for it. on sunday he was telling me
all about the book of mormon and what he has been reading. he said he was
reading in 1 nephi when nephi sees his fathers dream and the angel is telling
him about the meaning of the dream and helping him and all that. he said that
it reminded him of us. he told me that he feels like nephi and like i am the
angel helping him. oh my goodness i cant tell you how lovely that was to
hear. he is so great. he is getting baptized this saturday at 10:00 :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ok so i wont say where i heard this, but someone told me the
other day that paul says in the bible that the letter of the law killeth and
that the spirit of the law maketh alive. therefore, we dont need to worry so
much about the letter of the law. i found the scripture. its 2 corinthians 3:6.
i studied it and all. i understand it differently than that person was
explaining. but i want to know from the wise ones. mom? dad? will you help me
out here?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
man. i love being a missionary. i feel like my letters are
getting shorter. sorry. i will try to make up for it later or something. i love
you all!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
love, sister buxton</div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-8961255795946850452014-02-13T15:25:00.001-07:002014-02-13T15:25:03.377-07:00January 20, 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ok.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ok ok!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i am so very very happy to be staying here, too! i want to
stay here for the rest of my life. (mission life) it is just so delightful and
fun and great and all that stuff.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
my new companion is named morgan keigley. she is excellent.
i am so so thankful that i am her companion. we teach well together, we are
both silly, we both love s caffall. it is just fun. we are having a good time
together. and i am pretty sure i dreamed about her too! the first night we
were comps, i dreamed about her explaining the book of mormon and she did an
excellent job. it is so funny! hahahaha bob you are so great to give the boys
the food that they like. they love you so much!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so we got here a little late, so i am going to print your
email and read it after i go home. i hope you dont mind. i am sure you would be
ok with me reading it later so that i can write more to you :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this week really was great. last weekend i got the news that
me and s beus were supposed to go to the portland chapel (our chapel) at 7:00
so that she could get a ride to transfer meeting and i could meet my new
companion who i would be able to take right back to our apt and go to work.
well. we get up at 6:30 and exercise. so i decided i would go in my exercise
clothes because i did not want to wake up earlier to shower and stuff when i
was coming right back to my place and i could do it then. so thats what i did.
went to the church right out of bed with my frumpiness and that sort of stuff.
well. we got there. we were the first ones. right on time. hm.... some
missionaries showed up. the assistants showed up. not her ride. not my comp.
more missionaries. more. it was like 2 hours before my new companion showed up!
hahaha! the missionaries thought i was a member ride at first cuz i was not in
missionary clothes. they all laughed when they realized "sister
BUXTON!?... HAhahahhahha!" hah. it was pretty funny :) sigh.. but s
keigley and i have gotten along quite well. the ward likes her, too which is lovely.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
on wednesday we were teaching a recent convert english. we
were teaching her how to go do the drug store or something. does anyone want to
know what the translation of "prescription" into french is? its
"ordonnance". wowie! this has opened my eyes so much to what an
ordinance is. in the gospel, and ordinance is a prescription for sins! is that
the most enlightening thing you have heard all week? it is for me! wow! i love
it!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
also "cat" in swahili is " paka". i am
so naming my cat paka someday.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hey bob. did you ever think i had a stonge testimony of family
history? cuz i didnt. i always knew it was important, but before my mission, i
never had a big desire or testimony for it. well over the last while, it has
been strengthened. and this last thursday, the zone elders asked me to do a
presentation on family history for our zone. good thing that testimony has been
growing, because that would have been tough if it hadnt. it went alright. i
hope they liked it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hey. did i tell you i went to buxton maine the other day?
well i did.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
oh my goodness oh my!! i forgot to say. so this transfer i
am only over me, my comp and one other.... trio!! wow! i am over a trio. i hope
they do well. one of the sisters is sister berg!! oh man!! when i went to zone
meeting, i saw her coat hanging up. i didnt know i was over her at that point.
so i dropped my stuff and ran down the hall to find her. i squeezed that sister
so good! oh i love her! so i am over her, sister dixon and sister jackman. they
are getting along well so far. i hope they keep the peace. i know the trio i
was in was..... not lollipops and sparkles.. :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
well i best be off. i am always so jumbled. hope you dont
mind. :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i love you all :) i really do!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
love, sister wanay buxton :)</div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-47997201087688526302014-02-04T22:30:00.003-07:002014-02-04T22:45:07.741-07:00January 13, 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
ahoy a hoy!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
bob i am happy to hear about everything. you are just so cool!
its so cool that you work right though a sickness. thats probs where i get my
stubborn side. eh eh eh :) whos wedding are you doing?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hahahahah oh man! the stories of my nephews are just so
funny and cute :) thank you</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ok i forgot to tell you. you might possible know already.
sky son sent me a box!! isnt that precious?! a box of candy and chocolate (the
good kind) and a glass laser art thing of jesus and a hawaiian necklace thing.
oh it is just so adorable. and the note he wrote was so sweet and asian! i just
love it!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so i found out that i am staying!! woohooo! i am very happy
about it! s beus is ver sad to leave. indeed she is. sigh. but once she loves her
new area, she will be fine. i really did want another transfer with her, but
its ok. i actually know who my new companion is going to be! isnt that strange?
i have never known before the meeting. her name is sister keigley. i think that
is how you spell her name. i am ver happy to be her companion. a few months ago
there was a sister that really warped my view of s keigley. i didnt like it and
i have been really wanting to get my own opinion about her. she seems sweet to
me! but i dont even know her. so i am very happy for this chance. i am looking
forward to it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
man oh man. this week was mission leadership council.
president delivered some great news to us. he said that in the next 2
transfers, all stls will have an stl companion!!!! aaahhhh! it is so exciting!
he also said that he doesnt want us to "die" as stls!!
wooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its just so good! i am pretty sure s keigley is not
going to be an stl, so i still dont have an stl companion, and then i will get
released (probs) next transfer or the transfer after that. so if i ever do have
one, it will most likely only be for one transfer. but hey, that is ok. i am
happy that future stls dont have to do it alone. its definitely the most
difficult part for me. alright enough of this boring stuff.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this week was so good :) have i ever told you that lots of
people use wood stoves to heat their houses? ahhhhh :) so basically every day
it smells like camp fire and the beach. what a dream. and my hair always smells
smokey. like i have been camping.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
oh! so when i was going to the mlc, some missionaries picked
me up monday night and they wanted to eat. so we went to the mall. i wasnt
hungry, so i went to buy a lovely peach lemonade. as i was buying it from this
cute girl, a guy that worked there asked me where our church was, because he
really wants to find a church! what time is it at? where is it? man oh man! so
i told him and i gave him a book of mormon. he took it and said "oh hey,
my mom used to read this!" he said he would call us. i really hope he does!
it is so exciting :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so our african investigator is great. this week he told us
how he decided to be baptized. he said he had a dream that he was trying to
cross a busy street. he was struggling to get across for a while and wasnt
having any luck. then he heard some voices calling his name. he looked around.
it was coming from a taxi. he went over to it. it was me and s beus inside the
car calling his name. we asked him to get in so that we could help him cross
the street. so he decided to and he got across safely! when he woke up, he knew
it was an answer to his prayer! this week i told him that god has a body. he
was so enlightened and happy about that! he just kept on thanking me and
thanking me for teaching him. so sweet!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this week a youth group from a unitarian universalist church
came to our church! some brought their parents and their leaders were there,
too. a man from the mission presidency, president hawkes, had given us a heads
up about this, so we got the ward to help us out by writing their testimonies
in copies of the bom for us to give them. they were so sweet and wonderful!
some of them stayed for the whole 3 hours. pres hawkes asked s beus and i to be
with them and to help out with a question and answer session that they
requested. he asked me to talk about joseph smith. it was such a joy to do that
and oh! i was just so happy! they had so many sincere questions. it was a total
blast. we gave each of them a bom and a <a href="http://mormon.org/" target="_blank">mormon.org</a> card with our phone number on it and a for
the strength of youth book. that group is great. they are searching for truth
and they have so many great values. i hope they find what they are looking for
in the church of jesus christ. sigh. :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
well family. i best be off. i hope you know i love you and i
love the gospel. its amazing that through christ we can become so wonderful,
but still be unique and individual. god wants us to magnify the good things
about us and recognize that he can help us magnify those things! i love you!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
love, sister lani buxton!</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
its WANAY!</div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-53845609896261960612014-02-04T22:26:00.001-07:002014-02-04T22:26:20.602-07:00January 6, 2014<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
bob!! oh yeah, and the rest a yas,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
yes it is a bit chilly here these days. this week we had a
nice storm that grounded us. we had a drift in our driveway that we had to
shovel. part of it was about 5 feet high. luckily that wasnt the part we had to
shovel. the highest part was like up to our hips. it was a fun time. it was
quite chilly on a couple of the days. i dont actually know what the temperature
was, but it was bone chilling!!!!!!! ah! and there was wind!! at one point, i
took my hand out of my glove to take a picture and my hand instantly went
completely freezing! i put it back in my glove, but until we got in the house, it
didnt make a difference at all. oh man it was cold! but it was also quite fun.
i love it! my boots and my coat are doing me wonders. i really love them and
they treat me well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hahahah bob!!! your story about the APF is so funny! you rib
tickler!! hahahahah i love it even though it is a frustrating story.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hahaha oh bob you really are so funny. you always get me and
the other missionaries laughing. i am glad you are cooking at telos. those boys
love you and i am sure it is a fun time for you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
yes i hope i stay this transfer. i really do. i hope i get
to be with s beus for another transfer. i really like her. we like each other. we get
along really well.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i do love being here. i love the ward. i love the people. i love
the location.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i am sure you would like an update on our lovely african
golden investigator. this week when we taught him, s beus invited him to be
baptized. he told us that he is not sure because he does not want to do it for
us. he wants to do it for god. he has already been baptized before. he told us
that it is easy to serve god, but it is harder to figure out exactly where god
wants you to be serving, and that he needs to figure that out before he makes a
commitment. we supported him %100 on that one! of course! so the next
day, 9:30 he called us and told us that he would like to be baptized! wowie!!
it is just so exciting for us! oh he is just so great! he came to church on
sunday and he contributed and everything.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so this week we have been teaching repentance because of the
jew years. eh hem i mean new years.. and. well. it was wonderful. we have been
using helaman 13:6,7. the glad tidings are that because of christ, we can
repent! it is so cool that new years is right after christmas. because christ
was born, we can return to god. christ made it possible for us to gain
exaltation. he made it possible for us to receive forgiveness for anything we
are willing to repent of. how appropriate that the next week we celebrate and
decide how we are going to change so that we can be worthy of forgiveness and
so that we can become more fit for the kingdom of heaven! i just love it! so in
the bible dictionary it says that repentance is forming a "fresh view
about god, about oneself, and about the world" when we understand god
better, when we understand ourselves, when we learn to love ourselves, when we
see ourselves the way christ does, we are repenting. yesterday i was able to
teach a 12 year old girl (she was a member, dont get too excited) that reading
her scriptures, which she does faithfully, is a form of repentance. she told me
that when she reads, she always sees something in life that parallels to the
scriptures she read. she said it helps her understand the world. i helped her
see that that is forming a fresh view of the world, which is what the bible
dictionary says repentance is. she thought that was pretty great. i think i
thought it was even greater. i got to teach her! it was a lovely time. i love
the ward!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
thank you so much family! your pictures are all
around the mirror i use to get ready. i love all of you! thank you thank you
thank you!! i love your faces, your words, and the prayers you say for me.
thank you!! i love you!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
love, aunt sister wanay buxton!</div>
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Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-70119264256898420302014-02-04T22:21:00.001-07:002014-02-04T22:21:42.321-07:00December 30, 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
dear jew,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
how are jew?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
eh eh :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
yes yes skyping really was a joy. i did have fun
and i love all of you! it was a blast! everyone looked good and cute and handsome
and pretty and all that. thank you so much for gathering the mass of family so that i could see and talk to you. thank you thank you thank you!! i
love you!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
o the kitties. i have not heard of thai until now. what a silly story. this
isnt mayonnaise is it? i am guessing not. crazy lunk. does she know we saved
her from a ferocious fiendish wild life? gee whizz! hahaha oh bob you are so
loving to all creatures. i laughed though the whole paragraph about the cats.
you are so funny!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i am so happy to hear about cousin walker coming home from the philippines. i feel like i have never
really known him, so i am excited to re-meet him someday. he sounds great :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hahahah oh you snikkety tippety mother of mine with the
theater tickets and the bonus beverage at every performance. you silly woman! you
crack me so!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
poop</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that poop was from elder jessee.. haha</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i am so happy to hear about the wedding. i am glad that boy
got married. bob, you are just such a wonderful woman always giving and caring
and doing and lifting. thank you!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
thank you for thinking of me so much. i love being loved by
all of you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the gifts you sent me are so wonderful. i am SO HAPPY to
have one of those blasted dog toothbrushes! they are the best source of scrubbing
teeth. i love it! the tights are perfect and SO cool! the sweater is top notch!
i feel like i am totally fab now. the skirt i really like a lot. it is a
little short for the mission though, so i am not totally sure what to do about
it because i like it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the hats are great! s beus wears her hat nearly daily. you
are so talented bob! thank you so much! thank you thank you! all the gifts are
wonderful. the scarfs erin made are really cool, too!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
well i have had a marvelous week. christmas really was
wonderful. the members are good to us and we are happy and working hard. the
africans dont all speak english. we teach some of them english and sometimes we
have someone translate for us. i dont know how they get here. they all so
wonderful though.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so i have a wonderful story for you. so erry once in a while
missionaries get a referral from media headquarters. it is exciting when we get
one, but there is always a chance that it is a prank. so we got one recently.
we called and sure enough, the person wanted an appointment! so we set it up.
we had to meet in the library because he lives in a group home and we couldnt
meet there because of confidential issues or something. he is a wonderful man!
he is probs in his late teens. he told us that his grandparents are members,
his parents arent. it sounded like his family is perhaps a little broken. good
thing the gospel fixes broken things. his dad doesnt approve of the church. he
said he decided to seek out and study for himself. he was so kind and so
sincere. he looked me right in the eyes when i talked to him. he listened to
everything. he wanted to have a book of mormon. he wanted to read. he wanted to
pray. he wanted to know!! at the end of the appointment, he prayed!! right in
front of us! it was so wonderful!! then he said he had one more question before
we left. he asked if we could meet up again sometime! what!! ah! it was just
such an excellent time. ah! i am just so happy! so happy for him! he even said
we could call him brother :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
i love you and thank you so
much! i am a very very happy missionary!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
love, sister lani buxton</div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-85957126907123154492014-02-04T22:14:00.000-07:002014-02-04T22:14:08.757-07:00December 23, 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
ok more stuff.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hahahaha thank you for all the silly updates. paige had
better not get married before i get home!! gah!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
we get to skype!! i think i will be calling or perhaps you need to call me (i dont know
this stuff) at 6:45-7:00 eastern time. that is when i am planning to call or
whatever. i hope that works. i really do.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ok. this week has been so good! so good!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i will start with a lovely story from wednesday. there is a
woman from africa that was baptized a short time ago. she speaks some english
but she really wants to get better. so we teach her on a weekly basis. when we
went over this week, there was a man at her apt that i had never seen.
initially i didnt think much of it because everyone is new to me because i am
new in the area. plus the africans have lots of friends and it is hard for me
to keep track of who is who and all that. he asked me what my name was and what
organization i am from and if it is a good organization. turns out he went from
africa to ny 4 months ago and he just got to maine the day before! he knows the
people we were visiting through mutual friends. they are letting him stay with
them until he gets things figured out. s beus started teaching english and i
sat with the new friend. he told me that he had a rough past and he used to be
a not so great man. but one day he woke up and knew that what he was doing was
wrong, that he needed to change, and so he did. it was like an alma the younger
story. he kept saying things like 'i am not a good man, only god is good' and
'god has chosen me do be like this' all these great things. he started telling me
all these great things about the nature of god and prophets and how god works
the same yesterday today and forever. i taught him the restoration. i told him
that god came to joseph smith just like he had done with other prophets. i had
barely brought it up and showed him the picture in the resto pamphlet when he
snatched it out of my hands, held it up in the air and showed the other people
in the room. he started telling THEM that god works the same always just like
with "this man" (joseph smith). it was so cool! he just ate it all
up! he loved the message of the restoration. he committed to reading the bom,
praying to know, and coming to church. and sure enough, he came with our recent
converts to church on sunday. he even had a brand new hard cover journal with
him and he took notes all though church. it was amazing to see. i am so excited
for that man. such good things are going to happen. ah!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
one more good story. the other day our appointment with
someone fell through and our back-up plans didnt work. then, by a stoke of
inspiration on s beus' part, we stopped by a warm member who we didnt know and
didnt know anything about. when we knocked on the door, he was happy to see us.
he was also shocked. he said he really wants to come back to church! he grew up
in wyoming. missionaries found his family when he was 8. he stayed active for
most his life, but hasnt been active for the last few years, even though he
really loves the values of the church. he has a girlfriend and wants to get her
involved in the church. he is so stoked to come back to church, he said he
wants to attend before the new year comes. he was so shocked to see us! ah! so
good!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ok. i have WICKED GOOD story for you on christmas! you will love it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
man. the more i study the gospel and live the gospel, the
more i know it is true. its not only true, it is so worth it! its so real and
so good. its also unexplainable. like in helaman 5:44. so good!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i love you family and i cant wait to talk to you. thank you
for your love and the good things you send to me electronically, usps-ly, and
energy of the universe-ly :) i love you! talk to you soon!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
love, sister wanay buxton</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-88442420670591883072013-12-18T21:28:00.003-07:002013-12-18T21:28:49.608-07:00December 16, 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
dear bob, oh and the rest o' ya's</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
yes i do get to skype. no i dont know where i will go for
that. yes i am sure i will find a place. no i am not sure what time of day it
will be. :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so. s beus. she really is wonderful. i love her! she is so
sweet and so cool! she is so pretty and sweet and fun and all that good
stuff. she is very shy, but she is doing so well. already she is coming out of her
shell and blossoming. on saturday night we had a ward chrsitmas party with the
methodist church. it was so much fun! i will talk more about it later. what i
am getting at is that s beus taught a man the restoration all by herself!! in
the middle of the cultural hall with people talking and shuffling and eating
all around her, she stood with a methodist man and taught him the restoration
in a respectful, loving way. he even accepted a book of momon and our phone
number! while she was talking to him, an elder in our district came up to me.
he was in the mtc with her, so he has been along side her for the whole ride
(somewhat). he said "look at your companion go!" she has been so amazing since i have been here. bottom line is s beus
is wonderful.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the beach really is wonderful. i got to see snow on the
beach this week! and i got to watch the snow fall on the water and all that. it
was beautiful. it isnt cloudy alla time. its... maybe like it is in utah in the
winter? it gets real cloudy and then it snows and it is a clear beautiful day
the next day. we regularly get sun. regularly get clouds. its all good :) its
all beautiful. :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this week. this WEEK! so good.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this week there were a few things that made me feel... old
as a missionary. and stuff. i usually dont talk about this kind of stuff but
maybe i will share a few examples this week.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
on tuesday i went to a missionary leadership training. that
is when all the leaders go to a big ol meeting. can you believe my whole flight
group minus one was there!? gee whiz! it was amazing to see. there were 11 of
us that came out together and there were 10 of us there. it is so crazy to me! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this week i realized that i am the oldest age wise (i think
i might be 2-4 years older than everyone in my district, but i dont want to
find out for sure)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i am the oldest mission age wise in my district.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
there is only 1 sister in the mission that is older mission
age wise than me.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this week i found out that president stoker decided sister
korman (my mtc companion) and i are the 2 "go-to" sisters of the
mission. we dont have a title or anything, but i guess... we... might be
getting more phone calls?? i dont even know what it means! ahhhhhh!!!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this week i got to do an activity with the missionaries at
zone interviews. we played "down by the banks of the hankie pankie"
you know that game? know what i am talking about? we played that and at the end
i related it to being obedient (because that is what zone interviews were all
about ). i showed them that if even one person doesnt do their part of slapping
the next person's hand, the game stops because they ruined it. it is like the
rules that god gives us. the rules of the mission. if we neglect one or dont
obey one, then there is the chance that blessings will stop, revelation will
stop and miracles will stop. i dont know if this is making sense, but it made
sense when i explained it. and it was really fun :) oh man i loved it. everyone
was laughing and having a good time :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ok. enough of that.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so the christmas party this weekend. it was fun. we got to
help make the food and serve it, so that was great. the methodist people were
so gracious and kind to us. we all loved it. it was a music program and dessert
after. there was one man who played a really cool chopin piece. dad must learn
it! it was so cool. i will figure out what it is called so that you can perfect
it by the time i get home. me, s beus and sister good-simpson sang go tell it
on the mountain. it was so much fun :) we were all quite nervous and i think
everyone quickly found out that singing probs isnt any of our strong points,
but it was fun and i think some people liked it. it was just so perfect to have
the missionaries and a black woman sing "go tell it on the mountain"!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i must tell you a story!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so we had a nice storm this weekend. bishop cancelled church
and everything! it wasnt huge, but it was still a good one. i think s
beus was a little hesitant about going out, but she was willing! i shared with
her a few stories from last winter that got her faith going. it was fun. so she
shoveled and shoveled and shoveled. we were tired and hurting but happy. a woman
gave us warm brownies and we got some good potential investigators. towards
4:30 the spirit gently guided us down a certain street. we found a home with a
van and lots and lots of untouched snow. they were definitely stuck. we started
shoveling. oh man. i thought it would take hours because of how much there was
in that drive way. after a few minutes, 2 cute little girls came out of the
house. the way they made their way over to us was pretty much what it is like
to try to get your way through a foam pit. they were so cute and little and the
snow was so deep for them. they were so happy to see us! their mom sent them
out to give us fudge! haha :) so cute. luckily a guy with a plow on his truck
saw us and helped us. so then we just had to dig out the car and make a path to
the side door and to the front door. it still took a while but we were so
happy! the girls kept us company and then invited us in! when we went inside,
their mom had two chairs by the fire along with some hot chocolate waiting for
consumption. she was in her robe and so was her son. we immediately felt like
family. not only because of those things, but the way the mom interacted with
us. she was so kind and warm and causal. it was amazing. the kids made us
christmas cards, we held the bunny, we told stories! we all told our own story
of how we found god. ah it was beautiful! she told us that her husband hasnt
found god yet but that she knows he will. i could tell she was very patient and
loving towards him. towards the end, we all decided we needed to come back
sometime. i said we would share a christmas message. she said she would make
dinner. the son said we should play a game!! and thats all it took! we set it
up and it will happen on friday. sounds like family home evening to me!! the kids kept trying to find excuses for us to stay. it was so adorable! after
we left, we were practically floating!! it was such an amazing night! the kind
of night you read about! how can missionary life get any better!? oh i am just
so happy :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i am afraid i must be on my way now.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
thank you for the love and the goodness and the way you brought me up. thank
you for the kindness and all that other good stuff. i love you all! thank you
thank you!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
love, sister buxton!</div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-19095285679576648972013-12-09T19:06:00.000-07:002013-12-11T10:25:51.796-07:00December 9, 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
hey!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My new address is</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
14 a pearl st.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
scarborough, maine<br />
04074<br />
<br />
:)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the living nativity you went to sounds so cool. i have never heard of such a
thing until you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so i am living in a beach house. think i am kidding? i
wouldnt be surprised if you thought i was. i am still totally shocked. we live
just up the street from the beach. we run on the beach in the morning. i listen
to and watch the waves in the morning as the sun lights my face so that i can
put on make up. wowie!!! can you believe it? i truly am so blessed!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
my companion is named s beus. she is like our friend hillary. she even has the same singing voice!! oh
it is wonderful and i love her so much. we have much in common and i am just so happy. her last companion was her trainer. i really love her and i hope i
do things right with her.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the ward here is wonderful. i love it so much
already and i know it will be a holly jolly christmas.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
it is a pretty interesting area. there are a lot of african
refugees here, so they fill a lot of the teaching pool of the other
missionaries. our area was opened 4 months ago, and it is still in the....
tilling stage. it needs a lot of care at this point. but hey, it will be good
and if we are obedient, we will see blessings. if we are striving for exact
obedience, we will see miracles. so bring it on!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the lord has been so good to me. i can see that i am going
to be doing a lot of growing this transfer. i am going to be an amazing
missionary someday!! the africans are really fun to be with. they are
sweet and fun and silly and loving. if i can get enough sass and soul in my
voice, i will be able to sing with one of them and s beus this weekend at the
christmas party. i hope i can do it... then again, i am pretty dang white. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
it really was sad to leave the old area. i love the
people there and i loved being there. the good thing is that it wasnt a
surprise and luckily the lord has asked me to be in this new area, so that
softens the blow. but really, missionary work is the best.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
bob! you know how i am always telling you that you need to meet s
creed? ok. listen here. she did something you would do. so on sunday we were at
s creeds house. i finally told her that i was being transferred. she flipped.
she didnt want it to happen. she convinced us to come back the next day. when
we went, she bought a tree so that we could help her and cynthia decorate it.
when i walked in the door, she said "oh look! santa came!" she got a
stocking for me and she loaded it good. she gave me to much good stuff. it was
a joy and it was so sweet. well, i mean, santa did. it was so sweet. it was
like you, bob.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
well. i will write more next week. i love you all! i hope
you got the boxes i sent home.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
love you!!</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
love, sister lani buxton!</div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-77468003137898950472013-12-02T19:09:00.000-07:002013-12-02T19:09:21.137-07:00December 2, 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
ahoy-a-hoy!<br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hello wonderful family!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so i am sending home 2 boxes this week. one is my stuff that
i dont need as a missionary, but still want it. so sorry that one will be
boring for you. but the other one should be fun for you. it is for the family
so i hope you all like it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ok. yes i got a transfer call.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
yes i am being transferred.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
in my mission they dont tell you where you are going until
transfer meeting, which is on tuesday morning. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that means i dont know where i am going.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
they told me i am going to stay senior and stl.<br />
they told me i am not opening a new area and that the companion i will have
will have already been there.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
considering last time, that might not be the case! haha nah
it probs is.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
my prediction is that i will go to exeter, new hampshire.
that is where s caffall is, and she is going home this week :(</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
s mayle is staying and receiving a new
companion.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
s vanderhoef, who is a sister that i was over this last
transfer, is the new sister training leader of the zone.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
thanksgibbing was great! i got to see like 30 live, in the
wild, happy turkeys on the thankful day, so i was happy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i was with with many people i love. we went to 4 members
homes, but luckily we only had one dinner, and the rest were dessert. so it was
lovely. we really had lots of fun :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i think i am "all set" with winter stuff. i am
cool ya know? if i get sent to northern maine, i might change my mind, but i
dont really know! we will see :) thank you for loving me and caring about me :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i am so glad matt james hung out with sam! he really is a
great friend. i tried to email him a few times on my mission, but i must have
guessed the wrong address every time. tell him i say hi :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
the living nativity sounds great!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this week our friend kevin and his mom cheryl and kevins son
connor took us to the joseph smith memorial to see the sights, which included a
live nativity. it was real good :) i was so so SO happy that night! i loved
being with those three and i loved being there. kevin and his family are so
cool. i just want to take them home with me. they would love our family and
they would be so happy. i got to see some old missionary friends
including sister berg!!!!! oh my goodness! it was so good! i was not expecting
to see her there because i didnt know where she was serving. we screamed and
hugged each other so tight and i cried. it was silly but so sweet and
wonderful. ah. it was so grand. truly a top notch day. i love these people!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this week was a good one. it was sad to find out that i am
leaving, really sad to tell everyone. this ward has been
so good to me. i am glad i served here for so long. sigh.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hey did i ever tell you i met a scott buxton in this area? i
saw a mailbox that said buxton so i stopped and talked to the guy. that was
him. he wasnt too impressed that we were probs related and wasnt too
interested, but he will get there eventually. :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this morning s mayle and i were studying the sprit. we
studied the holy ghost in the bible dictionary. it was wonderful, really. then
we went to study "the light of christ" in the bible dictionary. as we
were about to read it i thought to myself "ya know, the light of christ is
great, but i still get it mixed up with the spirit sometimes and it seems like
it would be a little easier if it was all just the spirit." then i thought
"hey, sounds like you need to appreciate the light of christ a little
more!" so i really studied and opened my heart and my mind. as we read it,
it said the light of christ is "the law by which all things are
governed" i thought that was great. it reminded me that einstein said
something to the effect that there is something, some kind of force that is
motivating all life to grow and to live. i cant remember the real quote but it
was something like that. so i flipped to one of my favorite scriptures- d&c
88 41-45 as i read that, i noticed that it also said "he hath given a law
unto all things, by which they move in their times and their seasons" wow!
it hit me right then that this scripture is talking about what einstein said. i
mean, i know i have a motivation to live. as in my gut drops when i almost get
hit by a car or i feel like i am about to get hurt and i like to avoid things
like starvation and hypothermia. but what about my reproducing cells? what
about my liver? what about the glands that make my eyes wet so that my eyes
dont dry up? what is motivating them? because i sure dont decide to make more
white bood cells and digest my food. what about the plants outside? what about
the photosynthesis? what is motivating them? its the light of christ! the light
of christ "comprehendeth all things. and all things are before him and all
things are round about him and he is above all things and in all things and is
thought all things and is round about all things and all things are by him and
of him even god, forever and ever" d&c 88:41. christ gave all living
things a law to do what is needed for them to grow and for the earth to
continue to have life on it. what is the light of christ? among other things,
it is a law to LIVE! what are the commandments? they are laws to be happy and
to live! to live not just right now, but to live eternally! when god gives
commandments, he is commanding us to have eternal life! i love the gospel and i
love living!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
in the name of jesus christ, i love all of you! amen!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
gotta go! much love!<br />
love, sister buxton</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-36787250213032136002013-12-02T19:05:00.001-07:002013-12-02T19:05:11.787-07:00November 25, 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
dear humans, and people, too,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i am so happy that s mayle and i could help you with your
lesson without even trying. i do have an experience about prayer that i would
love to share with you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
when i was about 6 months out on my mission, i was troubled
by a certain something. it seemed like the people i met, the companion i had,
the situations around me kept reminding me of the troubling thought. i got the
thought during a sacrament meeting that i should read my patriarchal blessing.
i thought"yeah ok, when i get home though, because i dont have it with
me". later that day i forgot and i went to bed. over the next couple of
days, similar promptings followed with forgetfulness followed. finally one
night, my companion went to bed early. as i sat on my bed and worried about the
certain something, i had the prompting again to read my blessing. i got it out,
but decided to pray first. i decided i would pray that i would have my thoughts
on the specific matter resolved. as i knelt down and started my prayer, i was
led by the spirit not to ask for an answer to my specific problem, but to be
thankful for my ability to receive revelation at all, and ask for
humility to learn whatever it is i need to learn while reading my blessing.
when i was done i sat back down on my bed and read. prayers and questions that
i had never offered, but that were inside of me were answered. they were
answered with so much clarity that i felt like joseph smith "i knew it,
and i knew that god knew it, and i could not deny it." i felt it hard to
breathe as the spirit filled every part of my body. i had never felt that way
before, and i have not felt quite that way since. it was the most powerful and
clear spiritual experience that heavenly father has blessed me with. i said
another prayer of gratitude and went to bed feeling better than ever. the
original question that i had was not answered, i still didnt know what to do.
but my question was only the tip of the iceberg. heavenly father knew what the
whole iceberg was and he helped with the whole iceberg, not just what was
showing, or what i was paying attention to. if i hadnt allowed the spirit to guide
me with what to do AND what to pray for, i would have had no answer. i know he
loves me and he wants me to be happy. if i can trust him the way i did that
night, he will guide me to his kingdom.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i hope that made sense.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so yes, i do have a place to go for thanksgibbing. actually
i think we have like 5 places. since we have been here for nearly 6 months, the
people love us and all that good stuff. it is so wonderful. we have a favorite member family that invited us to come over for thanksgibbing. but we had to cancel
on them because non members and less actives are our priority, and we have been
invited. and i am totally fine with that :) our new mission president lets us
have as many member meals as we want/the members want. with no effort of ours,
we get fed very frequently. i hope i dont gain any. i think i may have gained
5-10 lbs on my mission so far and i am not happy about that. but i hear it is
going to be a snowy winter (how would anyone know anyway?) an i hope it is.
then i can work it off. but anyway it is so nice to be loved. speaking of
which, thank you for loving me :) i thought you might have forgotten about me
by now ;) i still get so happy when i get an email or a letter or anything like
it :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
oh my goodness oh my goodness. so. it is a rare occasion
that a tear of joy seeps out of my face. but it happened on saturday night. so
all the missionaries got invited to the adult session of stake conference. can
you believe there were 39 of us there?! 39 missionaries. wow it was good stuff.
but thats not why the joy tear came. well its part of it. but listen listen!
the bedford ward was there! i was so happy to see them! plus missionaries i
love!! plus nancy the investigator from bedford! plus 3 of our investigators
came to it! i got to sit by ray, the old man we are teaching. oh it was a joy!
so much goodness in one room! and get a load of this- ALL the talks were on
missionary work. it was amazing! wow it was good stuff! i cant even explain it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
there is a woman in our ward who is a
sweet old woman. we helped her move a few weeks ago. she is so cool and fun and
independent. an a little lonely. her husband is in a nursing home. he has alzheimers.
we went to visit him for the first time this week, just s mayle and i. he was
pretty confused who we were and why we were visiting him. once we got past
that, he looked me right in the eye and asked "do you believe the
things they say i did?" i hadnt heard anything, so i said "i dont
know, what are they saying?" i dont even know who "they "are. he
explained that the reason he is in prison is because he got falsely accused of
stealing and killing in the process. wait, wait, whaaaat? poor guy thought he
was in prison, but he was really in a nursing home. we tried to tell him the
truth, but apparently s mayle and i have very limited experience with this kind
of stuff, so we ended up just going along with it. it was so sad. but i think
it would be fun to go back and if he is still thinking that silly stuff, we
will just tell him the bad guys got caught and that he is free! that would be
fun. i would like that. but it sure made me thankful to have my mind (as far as
i know). even if i have lost my mind, i still feel pretty happy, so its ok! at
least i'm safe inside my head..</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
isnt the gospel great? its like its true or something? sigh.
just had to throw that in there.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
have fun this week! eat stuff! be happy, be thankful and
remember that we are all eternally indebted!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i love you! i really do!</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
love, sister buxton :)</div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-7034294819593775912013-11-22T21:07:00.002-07:002013-11-22T21:07:59.791-07:00November 18, 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
dear people,</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
wowie!! what a story!! the story of the missionaries in the
philippines... wow. it sounds so.. unreal. i cant imagine being them. yikes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this week was pretty amazing for us. for pday we went to an
outdoor adventure. s creed's daughter cynthia and her man tyler took us and the
district to a nearby river and such. it was so much fun :) my district is so
wonderful. we all love each other and we all get along. it is just top notch.
:) and i love cynthia. she really reminds me of myself. that girl is just so
cool :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this week we went on exchanges. i stayed in my area and an
amazing sister came to my area. oh i love her. during our dinner hour, she was
looking at s mayles planner (because they traded for the day). as she looked,
she asked me how we have so much going on in our area. i didnt know what to say
to her. i dont feel like there is a secret to it or something special we are
doing. i felt bad that i couldnt give her an answer. i have asked myself that
plenty of times. why are we so blessed? how do we have so much going on? how do
miracles just fall into our laps? enos 1:7. so since then i have been pondering
quite a bit about it. this morning s mayle and i were studying together and we
came across a lovely line in preach my gospel. we were reading together about
the spirit. there was a section that explained that the lord, through the
spirit, will help us, strengthen us, guide us, etc.. at the end of the
paragraph it said that all he asks of us is to strive to be worthy, and to ask,
seek and knock. when i read that i knew that was the answer to my question. i
know i can be honest when i say s mayle and i are equally yoked, we both strive
to be as obedient as we can (obedience), we always seek the spirit (ask), and
we are diligent with what we can do. we work and work and work. (seek and
knock). it is such a blessing to know that we really do what we can. we are not
perfect and i know that heavenly father gets frustrated with us regularly, but
we really are trying to be better and we are doing what we can. i know this is
vital for missionary work, but also for life. if we arent worthy, asking,
seeking and knocking, we just wont receive the blessings that could be ours.
and if we arent being blessed, then we probs arent blessing those around us,
and we arent on gods team anymore.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ok i am ready to tell you an amazing story from this week.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
we visited a referral we got from church headquarters. we
had called and set up an apt and we were pretty excited to go :) when we got
there, it was a younger couple who had recently been married. they had prepared
treats and snacks for us, and they even had what we call church clothes on.
they sat us down, we said a prayer, they got their pen and note book and asked
us questions they had already written down. it was amazing. they have been investigating
independently for a while now and they referred themselves to us on <a href="http://mormon.org/" target="_blank">mormon.org</a>. they have a co worker
that is a member and they have been very helpful. they are both so smart and
happy together and very fast learners. we set up another apt for 2 days later
and when we showed up, they fed us again! they had more questions and we had so
much fun. the husband casually mentioned that he had "only read 30 pages
since the last visit" what?! oh man :) he asked where he could find the
word of wisdom. we showed him, he asked more questions and then admitted that
they had both been living the word of wisdom for 2 months now. what??! oh man.
they are an amazing couple. i am so thankful that the lord has been blessing them.
they are truly blessed. i am also so thankful that heavenly father has allowed
me to be a small part of their journey. being blessed is so good :) seeing
others being blessed is even better :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i love being here, i love the lord, i know he is real and he
is a part of every person's life. i am thankful for all of you and i pray for
you daily. i love you so much! thank you!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
talk to you next week :)</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
love, sister lani buxton</div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-43647677176381415292013-11-12T11:03:00.000-07:002013-11-12T11:03:10.671-07:00November 11, 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
hello bob and all!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
man! do i ever have a bad week? this one was so good! on
monday we were invited to a members house to have fhe. it was the melby family. oh i love that family! the kids even had a non member friend
over and he was involved with the lesson and the activity. it was good stuff. we
used the balloons that sam gave me for my birthday. we (s mayle, me and the
little member boy) taught the tree of life and then we reenacted the scene. s
mayle was the tree and we taped the un-blown up balloons to her arms. they all
went and got their "fruit" and then just for fun, we blew them up and decorated them
with the stickers they came with. it was a joy :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this last tuesday was the monthly missionary leadership
council. sigh... those are always very bittersweet for me. but this was a good
one :) i got to see s korman, caffall, cloward!! plus i got to see s
aeschbacher and sowards, who were some of the first sisters that i was over as
a sister training leader (stl)and now THEY are also stl's! exciting stuff :)
oh. s cloward is not a stl, she is in a trio in bedford now and she works in
the office a lot because of her medical condition. poor sister. i hope she isnt
feeling too bad (physically)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ok but i heard such WONDERFUL news!!!! do you
remember me telling you about shelby and mo johnson? shelby was a less active
and mo was her daughter. i was teaching them in augusta. mo got baptized!!!!
also! remember ajoc joyce apollo? she was the south sudan lady i was teaching
in bedford. her son called me elizabeth. she also got baptized!!!! ah! so much
good stuff. i just love it!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
my district leader, e crockett always tell us to never never
never delay a prompting. i always try to remember that. i dont want to pass up
an opportunity from the lord. so on tuesday we were so busy that we planned our
dinner hour at 8:00. our lessons went over, so we ended up walking to our
apartment at 8:45. s mayle was recounting a funny story to me as we walked. i
looked across the street as we were walking and i saw a man on a door step with
his face in his hands. i wanted to go help him, but i didnt know what was going
on. s mayle was pretty caught up in her story, so she didnt see. we walked
probs 20 more feet and i kept looking back at him. i couldnt take it anymore!!
never delay a prompting! so i interrupted s mayle and told her we needed to
cross and go back to the guy. so we did it! i went and sat down by him and
thankfully the spirit continued to speak to me, because he opened up, listened
up, took a pamphlet and made a return apt. amazing!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
have i talked much about debbie? she is an investigator we
have been teaching. she has taken us on roller coaster over the last 5 months.
she is great though. we really love her. but recently we feel like we are at a
dead end. like we dont know what to teach her. we dont know what message she
needs to hear. she has been taught for a majority of her life and she is now
61. this week as i was thinking about her, i got the impression to teach her
about the temple. usually we teach about the temple after baptism, so i didnt
know for sure if we should, but i told s mayle about the prompting, and she
said ok lets do it! she is such a good companion! so we prepared a lesson and
we taught her about the temple. wowie!!! she absolutely loved it!! we met with
her 3 times this week and she told us that she wants to be baptized! we didnt
even bring it up! she just told us the news and set her own date. it was
wonderful :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
to add to this wonderful story, a few weeks ago i got the
impression that we really needed to take brother george sartorelli to our
lessons with debbie. didnt know why, but we have been doing that. bro
sartorelli loves teaching with us and he thinks debbie is a challenge,
which he enjoys. we have also really been wanting to get bro sartorelli to
"da tempo". it wasnt until after we followed through on the prompting
to teach debbie about the temple that we realized how perfect everything was
lining up. wow! now we are teaching and preparing both of them for the temple,
she is getting a connection in the ward, he is having some excellent missionary
experiences, debbie is stoked about baptism and heavenly father made it all
happen!! isnt he amazing!! wowie!!! he is just so good to us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i hope i always
remember to never delay a prompting. miracles only come when we listen to the
one who really knows what is going on. i love heavenly father so much. he
really does care. usually we only know he cares when we allow him to bless us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ah! thank you for the 365 box! bob it was
beyond perfect!! honestly! i cant thank you enough. thank you thank you thank
you!! i love you! thank you for remembering!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
hey bob :) thank you for the news about dear cousin in the philippines. i was sweating about
walker. glad to know he is ok.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
me and my district are going out to have fun
today. we were planning on leaving at 12:00 my time. i gotta go. i love you so much!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
lots of love, sister lani
buxton!!!!!!!</div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-81608333428646861442013-11-04T13:58:00.003-07:002013-11-04T13:58:33.161-07:00November 4, 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br />
ahoya-hoy!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
thank you of course! i always love the love! i appreciate it
all!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
sorry not too much excitement about the fall activity. i
dont think anyone came from the 7th days. i could be wrong, but i dont think
anyone came. but it was still good! i loved helping out, and i was s mayle for
halloween! it was a great time. also, we have a christmas thing coming up in
december, and i am going to be sure to try to get the 7th days to help out with
it and all that. it will be good stuff :) i do know that the pastor is a good guy though, and i hope he joins our
church :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so the ward council thing.. yeah!! it is soo amazing! this
ward i am in is so great. on my mission i have seen both sides of ward council-
the side where i am not allowed to go, and THIS side where we go erry time, and
we also go to PEC, which is held on the sudnays that ward council is not held.
so.. we go every week! (can you believe i go to PEC???)it is amazing. our
bishop is so kind to us. he loves us, trusts us and brags about us. he is such
an amazing example to me. i really appreciate him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i love the idea of the service swap thing for rs. bob, you
are so cool. when i work with the rs presidency as i am out here, i
think, ooh, i hope bob does that, (and occasionally, ooh, i hope bob never does
that) haha :) i love thinking about you in the rs pres. you are so funny!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
my goodness the story about the shooting in la is scary. did
you notice, that you didnt tell me the ENDING?!! gol-LY! i am on edge over
here. you silly silly mom.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ok. ok. make sure you have recently used the bathroom.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so s creed and our new friend (named s haas) wanted to meet
up again on friday. so on friday we went over to the home of the creed. s creed
was there, s haas was there, and oh, wait,
wait,,,.. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
whaaaat?...</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
another woman was there too! we all sat down, talked
laughed, joked, all that good stuff. other woman was HILARIOUS! she was in her
70's, so sarcastic, blunt, kind, oh man. it was such a good combination. turns
out.. she is a jw! i got to ask her so many questions i have been wanting to
ask a real live jw. it was great. she asked us questions too. we had so much
fun that night. plus s haas basically helped us teach the lesson. it was so
cool! then, they all agreed to meet up with us again! oh man!! so good!!
ok. the story doesnt end there. on saturday night i turned to s mayle and i
told her that we dont even know if s haas was invited to come to church on
sunday. it was a little awkward to invite her on friday because the jw
explained to us that she would get in big trouble if she came to our service.
so we called up s creed and asked if she and s haas would be coming to church.
she said probs not. we asked her to call s haas and invite her because we have
no way to contact her. she hesitated, but agreed. bout 10 minutes later she
calls back and says "the church roof is going to fall in tomorrow!!"
i had no idea what she was talking about, but she was laughing, which made me
laugh while i was trying to understand what on earth was going on. she then
explained that she, s haas AND the woman that s creed takes care of were ALL
coming to church!! ahh! i was so stoked! i couldnt believe it! oh it was just
so good! and they did! they really all came!! so great!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
you should want to meed s creed. you would love her SO much.
oh she is just amazing. and you should want to meet nicole. she is the one from
the mad house that we helped clean. we still teach her. this last week was
amazing. she told us that the book of mormon is her new "thing" her
new "go to" because it helps her when she isnt feeling well. it calms
her down and helps her make sense of things. she loves us so much and we
really, really love her too. time goes by SO fast when we are with her. and
bob, she is like you. she grew up in a really sad family situation and she
decided to get away from it and become something better and not act like her
parents. she is just so amazing. she would probs be your best friend if you
lived close enough. she or s creed would be your best friend.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
oh. the cd. i havent listened to it because s mayle has an
ipod that we leave in the car to listen to and she actually has that album on
her ipod. so we listen to it already so i didnt think to test out the cd! i
will this week though. it is a good cd though. i like the byu mens chorus more
than the men in the mo tab. but shh! :) thank you so much for the cd though.
the new mish pres has the same rules as the old one. - has to be lds artist,
has to be predominantly hymns. he doesnt care how we listen, like, ya know..
cds, ipods. its all good. both good!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ok can i just rant for a minute? i will keep it spiritual. ok
thank you. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so the whole lds women making a big stink about the
priesthood. since i have been out they have done the whole purple pants thing
because all women are forced to wear skirts and dresses.. (yup, its in the
baptismal interview questions: "will you commit to wear a skirt or dress
every sunday for the rest of your earthly years, no matter what?" )
PLEASE! so there was that silly thing, and then during conference they had to
broadcast the priesthood session. why are the women doing this? it is so silly.
i have been thinking about it and i had a very clear thought come to me a
couple sundays ago. the only thing a man can do with the priesthood is bless
other people's lives. there is no way he can use it for himself, he can only
serve others with the priesthood. so if a woman wants the priesthood, why? what
is the reason she would want the priesthood? all she would be able to do is
bless others. does she think she cant already be a blessing to someone else? if
she thinks she needs the priesthood, she needs to humble herself and realize
the gifts, talents and abilities the lord has already trusted her with. we can
always be a blessing to someone else, no matter how much we have or dont have.
he has given everyone what they need.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
thank you for letting me rant :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
something i have been doing recently is finding the
blessings that the lord had promised to us, and finding my responsibility
within the teachings of the gospel. i have found that there are a lot of
responsibilities and a lot of blessings. i have noticed that the more
responsibility i find even more blessings are shortly followed. it is amazing
that the lord blesses us so much when we are already in debt. i love him and i
am in debt to him, but its a god debt, the kind that keeps me humble! and we
all know what humility does for us! (hint- ether 12:27)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
thank you again! i love you!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
love, sister lani buxton</div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-42864423930409362452013-11-03T22:09:00.001-07:002013-11-03T22:09:26.690-07:00October 28, 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
hey! its my favorite family!!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
thank you so much for the love! i did get erins letter and
it did make me laugh! i insisted on reading it out loud to s mayle because it
was so funny. and she liked it too :) so good! hahaha :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i also loved the halloween box you sent me! thank you for
the love! i love to be loved! the whole box was perfect, too. thank you thank
you thank you! it was a wonderful surprise. seriously, i love it!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i am glad erin had a good birthday. i hope she liked the
gifts i gave her. really though, i know the animal print is my thing, which is
why i included the receipt. so do what you want, erin! i love you!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ok. this week was so good. SO GOOD! i think i had a single
tear seep out of my face last night because it was such an amazing week.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so for the last.. month or two, we have been getting on
rather good terms with the local 7th day adventist church. this has happened
because we have an investigator who is a member and we occasionally attend
their services with her. she also comes with us when she can. i think she will
start to come more frequently soon :) so anyway, i have been talking with their
pastor over the phone and in person and he has allowed us to invite their whole
congregation to our ward's fall activity! we went to church with her on
saturday. everyone was happy to see us :) during the announcements, the pastor
made the announcement about the activity and told everyone that they could get
invitations from us. he pointed to us and asked us to wave to eeryone so that
they knew who to go to. it was a lovely time. our investigator grabbed a bunch
of them from us and zipped around handing them all out while we stood
pleasantly and gave them to people that approached us. it was amazing!! the
activity is tomorrow, so i will have to let you know next week how it goes. but
boy am i excited.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that congregation is so sweet and loving. the pastor is
great, too. he was prayerful in his consideration of the party and he talked to
me for a while on the phone telling me about all the things we have in common.
he even got to go to the visitors center in slc! we talked about harry anderson
(mine and his favorite gospel artist) and our health codes, oh it was great. i
am so happy! plus we called the primary president (who is in charge of the
activity) and asked her if we could help in any way with the activity. she was
SO HAPPY that we asked her. she said she really needed help and she was
struggling to find people to help her out with the games. so we told her we
would do it and that the elders would, too. we then called the elders and told
them they were helping :) hahahaha :) oh it is a joy to be a sister.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
last sunday at ward council we mentioned a family who wants
to come to church after not coming for bout 18 years. they are struggling a
little bit and they really dont know anyone from the ward. after the meeting,
the young mens president came up to us and asked us if they could have an fhe with
the said family. AH! of course! so that went down this week. it was amazing! we
had dinner, and fhe. even the 18 year old son came, and participated. this was
amazing because he has recently been telling his mom that he doesnt believe in
god. wow family. it was top diggity DOG!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
on sunday evening, we went over to sister creed's home. we
always have dinner with her on sunday nights. we love her so much. she is less
active because she is a home care provider and the woman that she takes care of
has had some bad experiences with coming to church, so she doesnt want to go to
church buildings, which prevents sister creed from going. we had prepared a
thought to share with her. well. when we showed up, she had a friend over....
eh? a friend? so we sat down and had a lovely dinner and we talked and laughed
and had a good time. her friend told us about some recent trials she has been
experiencing. they are really tough ones, but she is turning to the lord and
that has made it quite possible to face.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
at one point i was washing dishes and
the friend went into the other room for a couple of minutes to look at the
puzzle that s creed's.. person had recently finished. while she was in there, s
mayle and i created and agreed on a new lesson plan. when everyone came back together,
we sat back down and s mayle and i explained the book of mormon and shared some
special passages. we (including s creed) bore testimony. s creed wrote in a
book of mormon and gave it to our new friend. she was so thankful. she kept on
telling us that this was perfect timing, that she is so thankful, she is so
happy to meet us and that we are a blessing to her. we are all meeting up again
for dinner on friday! wow! this was all so unexpected and wonderful. she even
let us hug her at the end. when we left, it was one of those times when we
casually walk away until we are out of sight, then we turn to each other with
huge eyes, jump around in the street, hug, silently scream and just keep asking
each other "what just happened? what was that? what just happened?!"
oh it was great. a great time indeed. wow! missionary life is just so good.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
i love you very much family! keep being wonderful and i hope
halloween is lovely. keep me posted! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
thank you again for everything! i really appreciate all that
you do for me! even the things i am not aware of!</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
love you! bye!</div>
</div>
Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1131559884893156299.post-72996180057322159042013-11-03T22:01:00.003-07:002013-11-03T22:01:42.906-07:00October 21, 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
iluvbob</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
that is a license plate i saw on saturday. i tried to get a
picture, but it was a speedy fail. but i did see it!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
your description of the family being together was perfect. i
love reading about it and imagining it! so much fun. i was unsure if you opened
the box i sent home, so when i saw the pictures, i thought "SOO
CUTE!" and i made s mayle look .. thrice! haha :) and then i thought
"i am so glad it fits her.... wait.. i hope thats the one i sent.. maybe
they already bought that one.. oh well i spose." eh eh eh:) so i am glad
you opened the box. there was really no reason to wait :) but that little lady
is adorable!! i love the pictures so much! thank you thank you! oh! before i
forget- i am staying another transfer and so is s mayle! i am happy about it :)
another 6 month area. i like it! and i will have almost 6 months with her!
sounds great to me!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
your letter made me laugh out loud a few times. you are such
a hoot mom! i can still just hear your voice in the letters. it is so good! i
am very happy to still knows the kee kee is alive. i met a little girl named
kee kee this week and that was a blast. she took probs 300 pictures with my
camera. it was great. oh! that reminds me. have you ever heard of a double
pawed cat? have i asked you this before? it is basically a cat with thumbs. so
many cats are double pawed out here! but anyway, there was a cat that kee kee
and i were taking pictures of and that cat was TRIPLE pawed!!! can you believe
that? oh. my. i have never seen such a set of paws. wowie! </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
we have an investigator who has allowed a lot of sad things to creep
into his life and take over to some extent. he wants to change and he wants to
get better and be happier, but he doesnt see that he can. we teach him and it
seems like he just thinks "yeah that sounds great, but i am not good enough
to have that." it is so sad. but i think he is softening. since the first
time we were able to meet him, he had sincerity in his eyes. it is so sweet.
and i think there is a little bit of hope in those eyes now too. there wasnt
any hope at first. (i had hope, he didnt) so sad. he is a member referral. we
were talking with the member on the phone this morning and we told her that he
committed to pray this week and she was so surprised! i hope it all goes well
and that he finds faith. i know this will change his life if he will let it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
this week was grand as always. first off, before i forget, i
gotta say- last tuesday s mayle and i were walking home. it was.. just after 9.
we were ONE house away from our cute little apartment when we heard a rustle,
looked over and saw MOMMA BEAR AND HER CUBS!! they were literally (for
reals literally) about 15 or 20 feet away from us. s mayle snatched my hand!!
we both froze and stopped our incessant giggling and jabbering with a quick
intake of foggy night air. momma looked over at us. i whispered to s mayle
" sit down" and as we held hands, we slowly became very small. i was
beaming. i was so happy! it was wonderful!! after a moment or two, they all
took off into our neighbors back yard. s mayle and i looked at each other with
huge smiles as we quietly walked to our place. i tear of excitement and joy fell
out of my ducts and i was a happy missionary. we ran into the bathroom and
stuck our heads out the window to see if they would pass by. it was fun :)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
so there is a man in our ward named brother george
sartorelli. he is a great guy. he is less active, so we have been working with
him. a while ago i casually asked him what his favorite hymn was. he told me it
was "how great thou art" i said oh cool i love that one its my moms
favorite and all that stuff. so this last week we were going to meet up for a lesson.
we were able to meet at the top story of the old school house that is now the
town police station, town office, and library (i am in the said library now).
the room they let us use is now a conference room for the town. it was
beautiful with lots of windows an natural light and the acoustics were great.
(yes i noticed, but you will see why in a minute.) bro sartorelli brought his
friend (which was great) and we went over a lesson he was going to help us
teach on investigator later that day (man isnt that the coolest situation? i
love it!) at the end of it, i said "brother sartorelli, we have a surprise
for you! ... well.. its nothing tangible, but we have something for you."
he was happy about that and he even rubbed his hands together haha :) so we stood
up, quietly chose our notes and we sang "how great thou art" for him!
s mayle sang the melody and i sang the harmony. i know, i surprise myself, too.
but it was so great. he just closed his eyes and smiled the whole time. when it
was done, he said it was tangible because it went from us to him heart. he was
so thankful. he said it was one of the best surprises he has ever received. oh
it just warmed my heart :) what a good guy :)</div>
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sorry i must go. but i love you all. thank you for the love
and the smiles. i really love you and you make me happy every day!!</div>
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love, your very favorite current family member missionary, sister buxton :)</div>
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Deannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02001559992750856901noreply@blogger.com0