October 28, 2013

hey! its my favorite family!!

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 :)

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

i love you very much family! keep being wonderful and i hope halloween is lovely. keep me posted! 

thank you again for everything! i really appreciate all that you do for me! even the things i am not aware of!

love you! bye!

October 21, 2013

iluvbob

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!

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!

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! 

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.

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 :)

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 :)

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!!

love, your very favorite current family member missionary, sister buxton :)

October 14, 2013

fam,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

i love you!

love, sister lani buxton :)

October 7, 2013

well hey!

i was SO HAPPY to see baby ray-gun!! i love my little guns! thank you thank you!

man, what a wonderful week! i just love ... being alive! this morning i read that i jumped for joy at the opportunity to come to earth and receive a body. i totally believe that! being alive is just so good!

did you watch conference? ah! it blew me away. i have always loved conference, but has it always been this good? i dont remember the talks ever being quite so bold and awesome! i thought they usually just saved the singeing of the eyebrows for priesthood session, but we got a little bit of it! i loved it! last night i felt like i was half way to heaven. i just feel so good! so stoked to do this work! i feel like prayers are waiting to be answered and i am responsible for the answer. i want to do whatever the lord needs me to do and be wherever he needs me to be and answer whatever prayer he needs me to answer. i am just so happy to be doing this work!

so remember anthony? he is the one with the cool word of wisdom lesson. this week we went to visit him and right away he sat us down and started telling us about some information he read online. it seemed valid and he did a bunch of research, and sadly it was swaying him to not believe in jesus as the savior of the world. it was really sad. we let him talk and allowed him to really say what was going on in his mind. i dont know how sister mayle was feeling, but i felt calm. i wasnt worried. it was sad that he was going though this and i am really disappointed that someone else would sway someone (and many others) to not believe, but i wasnt worried about anthony. luckily we had a member named brother merchant with us that day and he actually f\came across some anti the other day that he brought to us. he wasnt worried and he wa confident that it could be explained because he has a testimony. so i asked him to share his experience with anthony. he did and it was good, but anthony wasnt seeing how it applied to him. so i asked anthony- "right now, for you personally, is jesus christ your savior?" he looked right at me and said "yes" "why?" he responded-"because it feels right. i feel it" as he put his hand on his chest. i asked him how he felt when he was researching the things he was talking about. he said "confused and betrayed." we then helped him understand what the holy spirit was confirming to him. we used the scriptures and the holy spirit to know how we needed to talk and what we needed to say. by the end of the lesson, he was back on track and feeling secure again. it was so good to see him go from worry and feeling lost to feeling enlightened and relieved. that man is so great. he is going to do some wonderful things for himself and for his family. when it got to that point he started asking us if he could friend us on facebook just incase we left and he had another concern after we were gone. he said he feels comfortable coming to us because we dont freak out at him and make him feel bad for his questions. he told us that we always find a way to bring it back and help him find his way out of the woods. i was so happy! happy that it happened, and also happy for the compliment. dad, that is how you always helped me to feel. thank you so much! i blame you and the spirit for helping him to feel safe the way you always helped me to feel safe. thank you so much!

hey, did all of you listen to the talk about the 3 things you can do to be a member missionary? it was by elder nelson. if you did, then do the 3 things! if you didnt, then listen and then do them! i love you all! thank you so much for everything! i hope everyone is happy! i hope the baby is doing well and that erin is recovering! i love you!!

love, sister aunt wanay buxton!!

September 30, 2013

well hello hello!

thank you for the email. i love the pictures of my little lady! ah! i talk about her all the time and i havent even seen her. gosh those pictures of the family are cute. milo and logan are so big! they are kids! ah! i am happy that things are going well wuff da baby and all that. i am so glad milo is a happy big brother! so cute! can i just say, thank you for being wonderful grandparents? this week we went to a members house for dinner and they had their 3 grandkids over. they were like... 4, 6 and 8 or something. but the grandpa was so put off by the noise and the play. he is fun grandpa, but he just had such a demand for complete behavior and quietness. while we were eating, the 6 year old was sitting across from me. i watched him as he sat still while his eyes looked around the room an he sadly mumbled "its so clean in here..." hahahaha that poor kid felt so confined. it was pretty funny, really. i really am excited for conference. we get to watch it at the church this weekend. there is a lovely lady in the ward who even made invites for our investigators. i am so thankful to her. conference really is lovely, isnt it? when you really think about who is talking and what a miracle and a blessing it is that we can hear from them, it is just wonderful. ah! i love it.

the lady in salisbury really is great. oh man she just rocks!! she reminds me of you, mom. she grew up in dry soil but she still blossoms and makes everything around her beautiful. she is always the one to volunteer help. always looking to make someone else's life better. she told me this week that one of her favorite books is "the painted house" by john grisham. i told her you love that author and that i would let you know about that book. she said it is unlike his other books and that it is awesome.

ok 2 random things.

1. the other day (when s herrick was still around) s herrick watched me make myself some chocolate milk. i didnt know she was watching me. as i finished up she said "its a very delicate art, making chocolat milk." hahahha i thought it was great. it reminded me of the way you would always tell me that my food wasnt a work of art when i would take forever to put it on my plate. haha :)

2. the other day there were some guys that were looking at s mayle and i with their EYES! later that day i tried to explain the phrase "looking at you with his EYES" to s mayle. we laughed a little (mostly i laughed) and then i asked her if she knew what i was trying to say. she laughed and said "no, i have no idea what you are trying to say!"hahahaha oh man. i couldnt do it. maybe you could have though. either way, it was great. haha :)

 so yesterday i spoke in church. it was only the 2nd talk i have given outisde of youth talks. just in case you are wondering, yes i am still terrified of public speaking. oh it was bad. but. i got it over with an hopefully someone heard something they liked. my talk was on virtue. i tried to make the point that virtue is strength. there are 2 men in the ward that i talk cats with. they love their cats so much. during my talk i made the point that we need to have a default good thought to get negative ones out of our minds. i told them that i sometimes like to think about the day you surprised me with bert and ernie when i was about 5. i mentioned that brother cutter and brother pernaw may or may not have the same good default thoughts. the ward thought that was kinda funny, and so did i, but you kinda had to be there :)

but seriously, they love their cats. brother pernaw has an outdoor cage attached to their house and this last week he got 50 yards of chain ink fence, attached the top  and the bottom together to make a 50 yard length tube, and put it outside, connecting to his office in his house. that way the cats can go outside and run a little, but not get eaten my anything. hahahahahahaha oh it is so funny and so great. his wife thinks its a silly thing and when i told her i liked it she said in her hilarious sassy way "well then i will send you the blue prints." hahahaha oh i love those two people. they are grand. simply grand.

thank you very much family! i love you and i am sorry this wasnt too spiritual or anything. but i am happy and i am loving my mission so much! keep being righteous! if you think beig righteous isnt worth it, then read a couple of my favorite scriptures: mosiah 2:41  helaman 3:35 2 nephi 26:28  jacob 3:1,2   alma 28:14and while you are at it, find a way to make someone happy. oh! speaking of which, thank you everyone for granting me my birthday wish! whether your efforts went noticed or unnoticed, thank you! whether you wrote me or not, THANK YOU!! i love you all and i hope everyone is in tip top shape!

with much love, sister aunt wanay buxton!

September 23, 2013

bob and friends,

thank you thank you :) of course i enjoyed the email and such. i am happy that erin is finally going to pop! i hope everything goes... lively..

i wish i could take her a chocolate shake or something. i would watch the kids n stuff.

i am so happy for jade as well! what a lovely lady, giving her farewell and going off on a mission. i cant believe thats what i was getting ready to do this time last year. i even knew where i was going this time last year! there is so much mission, mtc, rm ing happening these days. its crazy that i am that age goup. sheesh. 

oh also, i am so glad you got to meet brendan ewell! he is a great guy. how do people always know you are my mom? not that there is anything wrong with that! (eh eh eh)

well this week was a lovely one. people are listening, miracles are happening, laughter is spilling, its great.

s mayle and i are so happy as people and as companions these days. we are doing great these days. 

this week we went up to salisbury, which is a place we havent been able to do much work in. in our records, there was a woman who had requested a bible from the church website 3 years ago, and when the elders went to deliver it, they noted that she was not interested anymore. well we decided to go :) salisbury is not tiny, but it is not heavily populated. i dont think there is a single restaurant out there. this house was out in the woods. as we were walking up the long driveway to the house, we noticed that there was a stack of furniture about 7 feet high that had been dumped on the front lawn. i didnt see any cars.. we almost turned around because it looked as though no one would be inside. well we went anyway. you never know, ya know. and i have already learned my lesson on assuming no one is home. the french doors on the front of the house were wide open. looking inside, it didnt seem like anyone was really living there. but we yelled "knock knock!" sure enough we heard a woman start talking and a dog started barking. a huge... mastiff mix? came bounding out the door and onto us. it was great fun :) luckily bhuda (spelling?) the dog knew we were instant best friends, so he just wanted hugs. the woman then came to the door. she had rubber gloves on and a medical mask it wasnt the woman we were looking for, but she was still nice. she explained that there was a family renting there. they trashed it, didnt pay rent and left. the damage was pretty extensive. it is costing them $25,000 to fix it. they had to rip out all the carpet and the stuff underneath the carpet and they bug bombed the house 4 times. all the furniture is unusable. and let me tell you, this was a beautiful house! colonial style, lots of windows, chandeliers, pretty wallpaper, all that stuff. so i dont know how this woman got in the situation, but she is just helping clean up because she felt bad for the actual owners. we immediately asked if we could help. she was surprised, but she readily accepted. we changed into our service clothes (thank goodness we had them in the trunk) and went to work for the rest of the afternoon. it was such a delight! we were able to help with what we could and it was a treat to talk with her. she comes from a pretty rough family, but she has somehow known from an early age to be honest and obey the laws of the land. i am just dazzled by that woman. she was so kind to us. she just couldnt get over the fact that we were helping her. she kept on saying that were were a "god send". (i love it when people say stuff like that!) by the end of our stay, we were able to share the message of the restoration with her and she happily accepted the book of mormon and said she would read it and pray about it. we get to go back and see her this wednesday. i am so happy to go back :) can i just tell you how great it is to work for the lord? i am so happy that he is guiding s mayle and i as we are out here. i know we need his help and i also know that everyone out here needs his divine help as well. it makes me so happy that she wants to read it because i know it will bring goodness into her life. she puts so much good into the world, it is time for her to receive some more good from her heavenly father. i love it when i get to see the way the lord cares about his people down here on the planet earth. it is such a blessing to be here, isnt it?

oh man, speaking of earth. the leaves are starting to change around here. it is lovely! i have been hearing about the fall out here since i first got my call. i am finally going to witness it! oh boy i am stoked :)

thank you for sending pictures of baby niece! i talk about her (and the rest of you beasts) all the time. i cant wait to see pictures of her, and of my bloody brothers as well! thank you thank you :)

i love you family!

love, sister aunt wanay x4 buxton :)

September 16, 2013

hello dear family!

  

thank you for everything, the positive words and encouragement are much appreciated. :) great job on the whole freezing a bunch of stuff thing. i am so glad you got to talk to steve westover. he is the one that always called me "lanican skywalker". we got to talk a little bit when i went to get my stake president interview. it sure was a joy. that guy is great. i hope he is happy these days.

so. the whole normal companionship thing rocks. s mayle talks way more, is much sillier, we get things done faster now, we are both happier, it is just great. 3 is just no good when it comes to missionaries.

so last monday, we were teaching a woman named kathy and a man named jeff. kathy has lots of questions about god and the gospel and all that. i have only seen jeff a few times, but he is sweet and sincere. half way though the lesson, jeff chimes in and starts teaching her! he bore his testimony about the book of mormon. he laid down the law and told her she has to read it every day so that god can answer her prayers. i didnt even know he had a testimony of the book of mormon. but he does! he told us about his prayers being answered after straying from the lord for years and that the book of mormon can change you and help you come out of a slump of a bad day. it was wonderful. the whole time he was talking, i kept thinking "why hasnt he told us all this? he wants to be a member! he really does!" so when there was a pause in the conversation, i stopped him and asked "when do you want to be baptized?" i dont think anyone had ever invited him to be baptized before. he thought for a minute and then decided that november 3rd was the day he wants to work towards. ah! it was grand. i really hope he remembers that lesson we had with him and that he really commits himself to this. i know he wants it and needs it. i know this will be huge for him, and i also know he has a lot of potential to influence a lot of other people around him. he is such a champ!

ok do you remember sister creed? she was the one that made sure i had a birthday party and cake and all that. well she did the same for sister mayle the next week for her birthday. on sunday we told her that s herrick was leaving us. she was so sad. she just kept on saying "no! no! please come over one more time! just one more time! no! when can you come over?! please!" oh it was adorable. i just knew she had something brewing in her mind. so we went over again the next night. we sat down for a few minutes and what do you know! she snuck away for a minute and came back with a lovely personalized cake with 21 candles on it. we sung to s herrick. and had a lovely time. hahahaha s creed just wanted to badly to make sure we all got a good birthday, even though s herricks isnt until february. hahahaha oh it was cute. you had better believe it was cute. oh my :)

on sunday we went to a quaker church meeting with our friends ginny and mark barker. it was a great time. they were all kind and friendly. their meeting was like testimony meeting, but with much more silence. it was interesting. at the end, we all held hands for a minute. then they passed the mic around for everyone to introduce themselves and share something if they wanted to. when it came to me i said my name and then i told them that something that has been on my mind recently is that when we truly trust the lord, that is when he can trust us, whether it is with information, opportunities, or even feelings. i left it at that. but really. that has been on my mind a lot recently. i think a lot of blessings and opportunities are available to us under the condition that we first trust the lord. why would he trust us with something we were going to misuse or neglect? when we really allow him to be our guides, and we truly trust his will, he then steps in and makes life great because he can trust us with his plans. but it is all up to us. he is trustworthy no matter what. are we trustworthy to him? i need to think about that idea a little more and then maybe someday i can write it out or say it in a more eloquent way. but for now, i hope you can understand what i am trying to explain. 

i gotta go. i love you lots! stay righteous!

love, sister buxton :)