Monday, February 25, 2013

hey bob!

great to hear from you!

lead kindly light is definitely one of my favorite hymns. it has been on my mind this last week. on Wednesday i finally got a dictionary out so i can understand the whole song. look at you! second counselor in the rs! that is sad you have to leave your beams. i remember when we had that calling together. oh. so fun :)

hey. saggy birthday scott! nice job with that. its hard to imagine that kainen is growing. i kinda thought he would be the same when i get home.

man! isnt time going by faster in the last almost 4 months than it ever has?? wowie!!

ok. ok. ok. so this week was great. first item of business. i redeemed my self with the whole dog thing. on tuesday we were walking up this big gravel drive way. when we were half way up, a huge dog came at us. like the size of a saint bernard. i dont know what kind of dog it was. he was barking lots and he was at full speed in our direction. also another dog was coming up even faster behind him. this dog looked like a sheep dog. i slowed down a little but kept walking in their direction as they sprinted in mine. when they came up to me, they sniffed for about 1.3 seconds and then we were instantly friends. that big dog was practically knocking me over just from rubbing up on my legs. they really liked us. the dogs that is. i was filthy for the rest of the day.

also this week good things happened with the dejesus family (carolina's family). carolina told us about some of her spiritual gifts and we talked about the spirit and its influence. the spirit was very strong. all 3 of us cried. now she wants to get baptized. that evening with her was definitely the most powerful experience i have had since being out here. that lady is amazing!

we taught her family later in the week, which went well! ivan (9 years) and oscany (15) want to be baptized! that family is so cute. ivan cant get enough of us and church! he is so great. oscany cant stop smiling when ever we bring up church and the young womens program. i love that girl.

yesterday there was a storm and we had to stay within five miles of our apartment. all of our plans fell through and our backups were further than five miles of our apartment. we still had quite some time before the end of the day. we were struggling to find what it was that we were supposed to be doing. it came to the point where we were going to see 'that one person that we found in our records who met missionaries one time years ago and i think she might live in this apartment but actually i think she just works for someone in this apartment..' sigh.. so we went to the apartment building. this building had 3 floors with 9 apartments on each floor. as we opened the door to the building, we were greeted by a woman with a huge smile on her face and her arms wide open. (this was not the 'one person' we were going to look for.) she immediately grabbed both of our hands and put them around her! she then started talking in a language that we later found out was albanian as she marched us happily down the hall to her apartment. (good thing we werent going to an appointment because we definitely had no choice in this matter.) she brought us in and sat us down, introduced us to her husband and just could not stop talking! hahaha :) she was so happy to see us. i had no idea who this woman was and neither did sister caffall. we had never seen her before. once she settled down a little she started talking slowly in broken english. she if from albania, they moved here in november to live with her daughter who moved here like 12 years ago. they told us about their 2 daughters and how much they love them. the other lives in italy. the womans name is violeta. her husband is ladi. the daughter they live with is named ermira. when we got a book of mormon out they told us that elders taught them a little when they lived in albania. ladi told us that he likes the bom. when ermira got home she told us that she has met with missionaries in the past, that her kids love missionaries and church and that she was happy to see us! by the end of our visit, we set up a time to come back an teach them english and the gospel. violeta hugged and kissed us a few times and sent us lovingly out the door. WOW! i still dont understand how any of that happened. why did violeta know.. did she know.. i dont think... but she.. why was she??? how was she...? oh i just get exhausted when i try to figure it out. it just makes no sense and it is just great. i think the bottom line is that the lord knows them and loves them and we needed to find them and i dont know how we would have if he wasnt aware.

we also found a lady while tracting who was baptized into the church as a kid but has drifted as her parents did. she is VERY spiritual and so sweet. we are so excited to teach her! she isnt even on our ward roster. its a miracle!

how is everything going? good i hope! i love you very much and wish i could tell you more!

i love you

sister lani buxton

Monday, February 18, 2013

hi! :)

so

i am not getting transferred and neither is s caffall. we are here and together for at least another 6 weeks. this will be good. the transfer meeting is tomorrow (they are always on tuesdays. we get news if we are getting transferred on saturday nights.) and we will be going because they always want help and the church they meet at is like 3 miles away from our house. we have 4 sisters coming in this transfer and 2 of them get to spend the night at our place tonight. that will be great :)

i got the valentimes package :) it was such a pleasant surprise! thank you so much for that. i  havent made not spaghetti yet but i am so excited to! you are so sweet to do that for me (and for sister caffall). it is truly wonderful to have you as a bob. i cant thank you enough for the box of goods. :)

we did go see jeremy this week. hahaha :) we have an appointment to see him again on saturday. that is cool eh? i dont know what he is interested in but if it is my cute cardigans that gets him to understand the gospel, then so be it.

hey, my hair is growing. pretty cool eh?

oh bob bob bob. do you ever go onto mormon.org? its a cool place. there is a place you can go to watch videos of other people that are mormon. we watched one recently that i think you would really like. it is of a girl named lindsey sterling, i believe. apparently she is super famous by now. she is from az. (sister caffall knows her) and she is just really cool. i hope you go watch her mormon.org video cuz i think you would like it.

in other news, have i ever mentioned carolina? yes. we walked to her house in the sow to help her paint. well. now her 15 year old daughter, oscany, and 3 younger kids (6-9 or something) are all taking the lessons. oh this makes us so happy. this last weekend carolina said they could only come to church if they didnt go to new jersey that weekend, and they are going to nj unless kaysha (the little girl) was still sick.

well. they didnt go to new jersey :) they came to the ward party on friday night. kaysha was there running around the whole time :) they also came to church on sunday!! i dont think kaysha was sick at all :) i think they just used her "being sick" as an excuse to not go to nj so that they could go to the party and to church. they all had so much fun :) oscany loves young womens so much. she is such a beautiful girl. she has so many great questions. she listens so intently. oh its so great to see.

during the party oscany was talking to me and she told me "my mom loves you and sister caffall. she always talks about you- 'oh my friends are coming over! my friends my friends!' she used to always be sad all the time. but now that you come over she is not so sad and she keeps getting happier. she told me that she is praying to god more and that she feels better" aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!! i just about melted! this is what it is all about! man! that made me so happy :) that family is so great. at the party, carolina made so many friends, even set up a family home evening with another family! and this without any help from us!

we are teaching an 18 year old girl named becca and her mom named robin. oh they are cute. they remind me of hollie galbraith. i love going to see them. this last week becca told us that she had a question that she has never found an answer to, and that she was afraid to ask us. after a little suspense, she basically asked us - 'if christ suffered for everyone's sins, does that mean everyone is saved and goes to heaven no matter what they do in life?' man :) this made me so happy

i was so excited to use the bom to answer a question of the soul. just as we were about to, 3 of her friends came in the door! we got to know them a little and then we answered the question. becca was very happy with the answer :) i hope we explained it clearly. that girl is so great and so sweet. she made me and s caffall bracelets this week! man she is cute!

well, gotta blast!

i love you all and i thank you for the love :)

until next week!

love, sister lani buxton :):):):):):)

Monday, February 11, 2013

hey bob!

thank you for the email!

yes there was a "blizzard"...

i dont even know what qualifies a storm to be a blizzard. it was really great though! it was just a bunch of snow and wind. i dont know how much we really got though. there were snow drifts e'rry where. so in some places you could see the cement and the grass. in other places the snow went up to my waist!

thats funny that my mission pres told you we stayed in for it! hahah. we werent allowed to drive our car, but we were outside when we werent eating or studying! we had planned on  helping an investigator, carolina, paint her walls on saturday, but we couldnt drive. so we walked there. we carried our shovels with us and helped some people along the way. it took us about 4 hours to get there because she lives 3 or 4 miles away from us and we stopped quite a few times to help people. we were exhausted when we got to her place.

we talked to her about the bom for a few minutes, then her daughter, oscany, came into the room. we have never really talked to her before; she is 15 and stays at arms length. oscany said "sorry, i just have a question". i thought she was just coming in to ask her mom where the nutmeg or extra foot cream was or something. but no! she sat down and looked at us and sweetly asked- "what IS the book of mormon? how does it compare to the bible?" wow! we were at a loss for words. we talked about the bom and the bible and the atonement for a while. by the end of our little discussion, she and her mom were both excited about coming to church the next day!

it was dark by now and their drive way was blocked in by snow that was 2 and 3 feet high. so to ensure they could come to church, and because we love them, me, s caffall and oscany went outside and cleared their drive way. then they gave us hot chocolate and crackers and cheese! we thanked them and with happy hearts we went to leave.

then they realized we walked over and they refused to let us walk back! hahaha :) we were so happy to get a ride with them. oh my. we were tired and it was late already. haha :)

the next day, carolina, oscany, and 2 of carolina's kids (6 and 9) all came to church, stayed for the whole thing and loved it!! oscany was beaming at the end and told us that she was going to mutual on wednesday. the 9 year old boy was so excited about church and told us all about primary and sunday school. oh it was a ball. :):)

we havent had a whole lot of contact with jackie (14 years old, was going to be baptized on feb 2) since she got anti-ed. after church we got a text from jackie duran saying "guys, i had a dream". now, jackie has told us in the past that she expects answers to prayers to come in dreams, which has happened for her before. we asked if we could come over and she jumped at the chance to see us! we went over there as soon as we could! on our way into the apartment building, we saw ines (jackies mom) leaving. we were nervous to see her because as of a week ago, she wasnt letting jackie get baptized, she wouldnt talk to us, and she wasnt allowing jackie to talk to us. this was our first communication with her since all that. but she was so happy to see us! i could tell she was pretty embarrassed because she was just making up excused left and right, up and down about what happened. it was really funny :) but finally she just said "go up and see jackie. have a class with jackie. she loves you!"

hahaha :) oh we were so happy and so relieved. hahaha :)

we went up and knocked on the door. jackie opened it and gave us hugs before she even let us in :) gosh :) it was such a tender moment. it had only been a week and a half since seeing her, but it felt like soooooooooooo much longer because we had been seeing or talking to her everyday. plus we have  been worried and we have been in the dark on the whole matter. well. turns out just a couple hours before we came over, a member of the ward, who is good friends with her family visited them and helped them understand the whole matter. we helped jackie with her concerns and taught her more about the bible and the bom. she felt so much better. she told us her dream... oh boy.

she dreams about her grandma who has passed through the eternal realm. her grandma was pretty close to her. she was catholic when she died. its her mom's mom. her mom also dreams about the grandma. anyway. in the dream jackie had, she asked her g-ma if the mormon church is true. grandma said "you really need to be asking jesus". jackie explained that she has, but that the answer isnt clear and she is confused. so grandma looked jackie in the eyes and told her that it is true and that it is the right thing to do. also that she shouldnt choose Catholicism. (hahahahaha) oh wow :) jackie told us that her testimony is so strong now and that she cant deny the church. oh we were so happy :) we talked a little more but didnt really talk about baptism because, well. we just didnt want to push it.

when it was time for us to go, we got out hats and gloves and were just about to go out the door when jackie said "so guys, when is my next baptismal date?" hahahaha we were speechless! haaha it was great. she laughed and said "what? can it be this weekend? i am just so excited! way more excited than last time!"

haha :)  she decided on march 1st. she is pretty happy. wow. what a day. what a week. what a calling. :)

by the way, my back is perfect and has given me no trouble. dont worry, i am being honest! :)

also, sorry about the missing puzzle piece! i didnt leave it out on purpose!

i love you bob! i am so thankful for all that you do for me! i havent got your letter yet but i think the mailmen are back out today!

i love you all! tell me stuff!
love sister buxton

Monday, February 4, 2013

bob!

thank you for the email :)

it always makes me so happy to hear from you. i can always hear your voice in your letters! hahaha :) thank you!

so yes i do remember jeremy. that is very funny that you talked to him! we tried and tried to set up a return appointment with him but he insisted that we would be wasting our time because he isnt religious and he never got into the whole "god thing". well. we will definitely be going back now :) eh eh eh.

this week had its ups and downs! definitely one of the best and without a doubt the hardest week so far!

one miracle we saw this week happened on tuesday. we went to visit a less active member of the ward. he didnt answer the door, so we tracted around his house for a short time. we were about to get into our car and drive to the next destination when s caffall decided we needed to knock on one more door. so we did. a woman opened up the door. through the screen door she asked what we wanted. we asked if we could share a message with her. she replied with a quick "no thanks" and slammed the door. it had snowed the night before and the snow on her drive way was still untouched. so we retrieved our shovels from the car and shoveled her drive way. it didnt take long and we enjoyed it. as we were walking back to the car, we heard her yell from her house- "girls?.... come here." we walked back. she asked if we were with the latter day saints. we replied with a yes. "come in!" she happily said. after we went in, she immediately gave us raspberry lemon-aid and raspberry cheese cake and explained that she thought we were jehova's witnesses, but when she saw us shoveling, she knew we werent. hahahahahaha oh that made us laugh. turns out this woman, named nancy lynch, had parents who joined the church a few years back. (they have both gone the way of all the earth now.) she told us that she was considering joining the church and that us coming must be "divine intervention". wow! we agreed! this was a wonderful day. needless to say, she is now a new investigator.

on friday, ines (jackie's mom) cancelled our appointment to teach her that day. not only that, but she said she didnt want to have any lessons from us any more! we were crushed. she then texted us that jackie "may not be baptized tomorrow, she needs more time." we called jackie who told us that her mom showed her some bible verses that "disprove" joseph smith. her mom also is now denying that she got an answer to the bom and that joseph smith saw what he saw. now jackie is confused. thats all we heard from them. we tried to talk to them over the phone and in person but ines wouldnt let it happen. jackies phone got turned off. we didnt really know what was going on and we were left in the dark about it. we were petty crushed. we had to call off the baptism.

saturday was tough at first, but then we started to receive many blessings. we were able to help an investigator paint her house for a couple hours. that helped get our minds off it. then we were able to help a sick investigator. then we came home for about 15 minutes. when we came home, there was a package from dave. i wasnt expecting it. it really helped a lot. there is stuff for me in there and also a present and a note for s caffall. it was perfect timing really.

also there was a letter from you, bob. it was so great to read and it came with a picture of christ consoling a little girl. you must be in tune with the spirit mom. it was perfect timing and just what i needed. thank you so much bob. it was a huge blessing for me. thank you. i wish i could tell you how much you mean to me!

that night we were able to get in touch with a woman we have been really trying to meet with. she ended up letting us in and really opening up. she is having a really hard time and she is in a terrible situation. we talked to her about how the gospel can help and she seemed really interested. her name is also jackie. this was a tender mercy from heavenly father. this woman, without knowing it, really helped us have a better perspective and she helped us think outside of ourselves. we were able to make a return appointment with her and she is now a new investigator.

i felt a lot better that night because i know that god has not forgotten about jackie duran.  (the younger jackie who was going to get baptized.) turns out ines got anti ed by her pastor. then ines shared it with jackie. jackie has relatives who are lds. things will get better and she will be able to make the covenant of baptism eventually. jackie texted us at 1 am sunday morning telling us that we can still meet with her :).  things will turn out for jackie. i know this because heavenly father has not forgotten her. definitely a bitter-sweet week.

i hope this hasnt been too confusing. i am no good at being coherent, especially when i cant re read what a typed.

anyway.

i love this work and it is going well. today at 8 we are doing exchanges. i am going to be with sister davis, who came out to the field only 4 weeks ago. that means i will have to be the senior companion for the day! yikes! we wont be with our companions for  24 + 13 hours. whatever that equals! i hope i do a good job! sounds like a bad idea but it will be good i am sure :)

well bob, thank you again for all that you do. thank you for the love and support!

love you bye

Monday, January 28, 2013

bob!

i went to my ward mission leaders home for our weekly meeting. there on his counter was a picture of mckenzi edwards. mind=blown. it was so weird. her picture is in the mission office and all over the place over here! it is so strange!!!!! her new husband was the AP before i got here.

so. on saturday morning sister caffall decided we would sing "theres sunshine in my soul" together. so we did. then we went and did missionary stuff. that day included a man talking AT US for over an hour about how evil our religion is. gosh. hopefully we can go teach his wife. she was sweet and calm. then we got chased by a ferocious dog. i ran in hopes of an invisible fence- they are popular out here. there wasnt one. luckily the dog didnt want to eat use once he was close enough to see the name tags :) it was a good day though :) we had a lot of fun. then when we came home, there was a box of sunshine on our porch!! amazing! thank you so much for the box of sunshine! it made both of us so happy! we are so thankful for it :) you truly are too generous and sweet. what inspired this? its wonderful! i cant thank you enough. it sure is good to know i am loved.

oh also. i did see a chiropractor from the ward i am serving in and he insisted that he did it for free. plus he spent like 40 minutes just smoothing out knots and sore muscles! he is a wonderful man!

we are teaching a girl named ryann. she is tristens wife. i cant remember if i told you about either of them. they are great though. have a lot of social anxiety. this week we made a deal with her that if we brought a member to the lesson this week and had the same member pick her up for church, she would come! wow! so exciting! i really hope she comes and brings her boy. her boy is the smart one with all the questions. he needs this so bad. he seems so sad when we see him. i think he is just confused and worried. its so sad. but it will change!

remember  angela? well she is now officially a new investigator, as qualified by preach my gospel. oh my heavens she is so faithful. i love that lady. i cant wait to teach her again. she always teaches us with her sweet spirit when we are over there.

jackie should still be getting baptized this weekend. she told us this week that she wants to be a missionary some day! wow!

i sure am loving this work. i think me and s caffall will only be together for 3 more weeks. transfers are coming and we are getting more sisters!

well i am sorry my letters are always short. i will respond to dad's via snail mail.

love sister lani buxton

Monday, January 14, 2013

bob!!

 i am happy to hear about more and more mission calls! it is so great and crazy to hear about all of it! i hope more come! a mission is such a wonderful thing. i am so glad i am here! i wont get sick! you cant get sick either! i hope everything goes well with erin. 

jackie set her baptismal date for the 2nd of feb! we are so happy for her! she is an amazing girl. she is extremely receptive. she started going to seminary on her own accord and said she loves it so much. she sacrifices seeing her dad (her parents are divorced) so that she can go to church. she says no to hangin out with her friends so that we can come over and teach her. oh she is just an amazing girl. i really love her. 

we finally met with tristen's family! he is so cool! but it was so great. his wife is so sweet to us and wants to learn more. also his little boy named caleb was so sweet! he is like 9 years old and i think he is more interested than anyone. i taught him how to pray a few weeks ago while in their drive way and he just loved it. he is such a sweet and sincere boy. he was so worried when we were there. he couldnt stop asking us questions like "where did i come from? i know my mom and dad made me but where did I COME FROM?     .. what are we supposed to be doing here? what is it for?" all this kind of stuff. oh he was so sweet. i love that boy. that family is just amazing. 

so on friday night s caffall and i went upstairs in our apartment to retrieve some bedding. new england people have a habit of putting rubber on their stairs. these stairs have rubber which has been walked on so much that it is now completely smooth. on our way down, i spose i was just doing too many things at once; carrying my bedding, flossing my teeth, wearing extra soft socks.... and i fell down the stairs! so for the last few days i have not been able to do all the things i used to be able to do. sister caffall has to help me put on my boots as well as take them off. i cant retreive most things from the ground. its really a silly thing. hahahaha :)

but there is a chiropractor in the ward and he felt my spine and he says i should probs come in. i am so excited! i love the chiropractor! oh it will be such a sweet time. i have a bunch of money that people keep sending me, so no worries. i will be able to use that. my only hope is that my fall was funny so that s caffall could get a kick out of it. because if it wasnt funny, it wasnt worth it!

well. thank you for all your love! thank you for the letters! i loved the colored pencils you sent and all that stuff! thank you thank you! i love you a lot! 

love, sister buxton

ps, i love being called sister buxton! it is so great!

January 7, 2013

dad,

thank you for being proud of me with the grump! i really like that guy and it was such a wonderful time to see him laughing and enjoying some company. the lord was definitely blessing me that night with his spirit because i just knew i had to do it. the hardest part was getting my companion to do it. she was scared and really didnt want to. but after he started talking to us and things got lighter, she felt so much love for him. it was really great to see :)

new years wasnt anything great. that night i did wake up multiple times in the middle of dreaming about investigators. we had spent a while that night going through the area book and apparently i just couldnt stop talking about the people that were in there! coincidentally i slept through midnight even though my companion woke up from fireworks and banging pans etc..  kinda funny.

thank you for talking on the phone with me! it was great to hear those familiar voices! the only voices i hear these days that i knew before november 7 is the mo-tab!

thank you for the letter! i will be sending another email in a few minutes to mom and who ever :)

love you!

love, your horrible missionary :)

bob,

hey sorry not much time. your email made me laugh! in the library! haha you are just funny bob.

i did get the new years box from erin. we decided we would celebrate the 14 in russia or something. that way we can celebrate without staying up. neither of us want to stay up. we dont get enough sleep as it is. but i am SO THANKFUL AND SURPRISED erin did that. i am so touched. and did she tell you how she did it? there was tinsel or whatever exploding out of the package. it was great :)

i am glad scott got a job. he should do a good job at his job. (or else).

i cant believe how cold it is over there! we got lots of snow here! it was and is wonderful. my boots have kept me so happy, as has my coat. i love those things. today it is like 56 degrees! it was last time i checked, can youbelieve that? haha

i am happy fotis swims around and stuff. oh that made me happy. i think as long as the water doesnt get below 4 or 5 Celsius he should be ok :)

i did not get transferred, and neither did my companion. another 6 weeks :) did i tell you you can always send mail to the mission office? they are really good about forwarding mail.

sadly there is no news about angela YET! we stopped by pete and he said go away again. we will have o figure out how to get to him! come on pete!

thank you for all those updates. they are so fun to read! one miracle i saw was with a man named gerry. we were excited to have our second appointment with him. our first one didnt go well because the spirit wasnt there. a couple from the ward was going to teach with us. a couple hours before the appointment, he sent us a voicemail, cancelling the appointment and politely explaining that he didnt want us to come over any more, because what we have just isnt right for h im. we tried to contact him, without success. we called the members who were going to come with us. they were sad about it and said they were excited to come teaching with us. that night, 4 more lessons fell through. we had a member named hillary hughes with us. she is preparing for a mission. we decided to go visit gerry, even though he asked us not to. when he answered the door, he immediately invited us in. we happily accepted! (extra happy because we had hillary with us! we couldnt have gone in without her!) the lesson went very well. he had a couple of concerns which were very easy to clear up. (lehi and family sailing safely to america) the spirit was there this time and it was a wonderful lesson. at the end, he said a prayer; he thanked heavenly father for our visit and expressed gratitude for us!!! to the lord!! it was grand. he also set up a return appointment! it was a wonderful evening!

this week has been good! i just need to figure out how to calm down sister caffall! she worries like crazy!! i love you! thank you so much for the love and the emails etc..!!!

love, sister lani buxton