December 16, 2013

dear bob, oh and the rest o' ya's

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. :)

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.

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. :)

this week. this WEEK! so good.

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.

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! 

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)

i am the oldest mission age wise in my district.

there is only 1 sister in the mission that is older mission age wise than me.

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!!!!

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 :)

ok. enough of that.

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"!

i must tell you a story!!

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 :)

i am afraid i must be on my way now.

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!!

love, sister buxton!

December 9, 2013

hey!

My new address is

14 a pearl st.

scarborough, maine
04074

:)

the living nativity you went to sounds so cool. i have never heard of such a thing until you.

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!

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.

the ward here is wonderful. i love it so much already and i know it will be a holly jolly christmas.

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!

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. 

 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.

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.

well. i will write more next week. i love you all! i hope you got the boxes i sent home.

love you!!

love, sister lani buxton!

December 2, 2013

ahoy-a-hoy!

hello wonderful family!

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.

ok. yes i got a transfer call.

yes i am being transferred.

in my mission they dont tell you where you are going until transfer meeting, which is on tuesday morning. 

that means i dont know where i am going.

they told me i am going to stay senior and stl.
they told me i am not opening a new area and that the companion i will have will have already been there.

considering last time, that might not be the case! haha nah it probs is.

my prediction is that i will go to exeter, new hampshire. that is where s caffall is, and she is going home this week :(

s mayle is staying and receiving a new companion.

s vanderhoef, who is a sister that i was over this last transfer, is the new sister training leader of the zone.

thanksgibbing was great! i got to see like 30 live, in the wild, happy turkeys on the thankful day, so i was happy.

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 :)

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 :)

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 :)

the living nativity sounds great!

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!

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.

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. :)

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!!

in the name of jesus christ, i love all of you! amen!

gotta go! much love!
love, sister buxton

November 25, 2013

dear humans, and people, too,

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.

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.

i hope that made sense.

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 :)

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.

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..

isnt the gospel great? its like its true or something? sigh. just had to throw that in there.

have fun this week! eat stuff! be happy, be thankful and remember that we are all eternally indebted!!

i love you! i really do!

love, sister buxton :)

November 18, 2013

dear people,

wowie!! what a story!! the story of the missionaries in the philippines... wow. it sounds so.. unreal. i cant imagine being them. yikes.

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 :)

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.

ok i am ready to tell you an amazing story from this week.

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 mormon.org. 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 :)

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!!

talk to you next week :)

love, sister lani buxton

November 11, 2013

hello bob and all!

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 :)

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)

 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!

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!

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 :)

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.

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.

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!!

hey bob :) thank you for the news about dear cousin in the philippines. i was sweating about walker. glad to know he is ok.

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!!

lots of love, sister lani buxton!!!!!!!

November 4, 2013

ahoya-hoy!

thank you of course! i always love the love! i appreciate it all!

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 :)

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.

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!!

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.

ok. ok. make sure you have recently used the bathroom.

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,,,..      

whaaaat?...

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!!

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.

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!

ok can i just rant for a minute? i will keep it spiritual. ok thank you. 

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.

thank you for letting me rant :)

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)

thank you again! i love you!

love, sister lani buxton

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 :)

September 9, 2013

well hello hello!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

   

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

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

i love you all!!!

love, sister lani buxton

September 2, 2013

bob and fam,

thanks a bundle for everything! my 22nd was wonderful and perfect! a woman wanted to meet us at 10:00 at dunkin doughnuts, so we went and waited and my lovely companion sister herrick bought me my favorite one. :) then our friend craig wanted to meet up with us for lunch, so that was great. he brought popsicles for us. it was pretty sad, he has been reading a lot of anti, so he doesnt trust the book of mormon. but we bore our testimony and all that and tried to help him understand. by the end of the visit, he agreed to read the book of mormon, which was a pleasant surprise for us. he has a lot of faith in the bible and in the lord, i just pray that he will take council from the lord on this one instead of trying to give council to him. for dinner, sister creed, a less active member we have been working with had us over. i requested mashed potatoes with lentil soup on top. she did a wonderful job. after dinner, i used the bathroom. exciting eh? so when i came out, she was walking into the room with a beautiful personalized cake with 22 lit candles on it! then all 3 of them started singing to me. it was adorable! she even gave me a card and a gift. i love that woman so much. she really made me birthday special. :) she got a calling a couple weeks ago and i was able to sit in when they set her apart. that was the first time i have experienced that with a member i have been working with on my mission. it really was such a sweet moment. 

so back to you. i got the box the day before my birthday. i was so excited to open it. i woke up 5 minutes early so i could start into it. i really love it! thank you so much. i wore the skirt 2 days in a row and i am going to wear it again tomorrow. hahaha :) the cardigan is wonderful. i love it. oooh its so soft and lovely. the shoes i definitely love! wowie! and the shirt is even cool. i dont know how often i will wear it just because most of my skirts are patterned, so it gets a little crazy. but everything fits and i love it all. i am surprised with how perfect it all is. thank you so much! i really so appreciate it. i love you all :) thank you thank you thank you! and i will have you know i was legitimately surprised. i mean, i couldnt think of anything i wanted for my day, so you did a great job. just know this- i love it all!

tell erin that the consequences for not having the baby on my birthday is to either wait for me to get home, or to wait until my 23 birthday.

oh man oh man. a couple months ago, we met a man named devin outside a tattoo shop. it was great and all that. this week, we found him and his friends! it was so much fun to talk to them. we talked for like... i dont know. 40 minutes maybe. it was such a fun time. by the end of it, devin committed to read some of the book of mormon, and we are going to try to see him this week again. that guy was so cool. we talked about the tower of babel, native americans, all that cool stuff.

another cool story- a couple weeks ago, this guy called to us from across the street to talk to him. we go over there. he is totally wasted. it was so silly. he was out of it. he had a friend with him who explained to us that he worships the devil and all this silly business. he had 666 tattoed on the back of his neck. he told us he knew we were god's angels. i tried to share a scripture with him, but he ran away. he wouldnt touch us. wouldnt shake our hands. it was sad. i looked into his eyes and said "god remembers you, brother." this week we went to stop by a less active. the 666 guy was there!!! ah! he was trying to hide in place. he was so embarrassed. there were other people around and we had a great, but short gospel conversation. i got to read the scripture to him. at the end, he shook our hands :)

i love you!!!!!!

love, sister wanay buxton

August 26, 2013

hello hello family!!

thank you very much for the email! and the letters! after we went shopping, we stopped at our apartment for about 3 minutes. there was a letter from you bob!

this week was great again. i have been thinking a lot about the significance of christ being compared to light. i always understood that, but it just gets cooler the more i think about it. light shows you where you are going, light gives direction, light reveals truth. if you are in a dark room with a someone, they can give you a crayon and tell you it is orange. why wouldnt you believe them if you cant see it? but if you are outside in the sunlight and someone gives you a blue crayon and tells you it is orange, well. you know they are lying to you, because the light reveals truth. light gives warmth. when you are in the light, you can feel it. with darkness comes coldness. physically, the colder an environment is, the slower it is. if it is really cold, things can freeze, which prevents anything from happening. i think this is a significant metaphor. i think the farther from the light of christ we get, the colder we get, and the less productive we are, (in an eternal perspective) and progress towards salvation can even come to a stand still. 

in sacrament meeting yesterday, a man from the bedford ward talked. (yes, where i used to serve!) he talked about fear vs. faith. it was an amazing talk! i wont talk about it too much, but some funny things he said concerning negativity that i really enjoyed were "thank goodness for my pessimism, because ever since i have lost hope, i have been a lot happier" and "depression has really put a spring in my step!" it was funny, everyone laughed. but really! it was so funny the way he made it so obvious why fear is opposed to faith. hah. i loved it.

speaking of bedford, i was able to go there this week for exchanges. i saw nancy!!! remember nancy, the woman who let us in after shoveling her drive way? oh man! i was so happy to see her. she was so nice to us. she fed us lunch and desert and gave me a little candle. she said she wants to be baptized in december. i am just so happy :) i love her!

while we were on exchanges, we were teaching a man named david in the common area of his apartment building. about 3 minutes into our meeting, a woman walked by, but quickly stopped to ask us where we were from. we asked if she wanted to join us, to which she quickly responded "yes!" and ran to get something, then ran back to sit with us. ner name was rayna. she was... from somewhere spanish speaking, but she was fluent is english. we taught the restoration. her EYES!! they were so focused, so sincere. she wanted to hear and understand everything we were saying. about half way through the lesson, she told us that the night before, she was praying and she asked god for something, someone to help her and show her the way she needed to go. .... WOW!  it was so cool to hear. before we left, she said "i know god heard me.. i know god heard my prayer!" she hugged us and we went on our way. wow. it is just so amazing when prayers are answered. that was an answer to her prayers and also to our prayers. it was such a testimony builder for me. i love the lord and i am so appreciative that he hears us! 

there is another man named dave that is an investigator here in boscawen. he is great. he is always telling us that he wants to do what the lord wants him to do. he wants to follow the lord and all that. he is great. heart of gold. but it is so sad that he doesnt see his prayers being answered. we always ask him to read the book of mormon and pray about it and all that stuff. he always responds with "only if the lord asks me to. i will pray about if i should read it." yeah yeah thats great. what do you think we are here for? if we are the lord's servants, then maybe we are an answer to that prayer. unfortunately, he is only expecting the answer to his prayer to come in the form of a dream. so basically, his eyes to revelation are closed all day. it is sad to see. life would be so much easier for everyone if they could just recognize answers to prayers. i think that is something i will be working on for the rest of my life. everyone should.

ah! sorry i have to go. i love you all! thank you for everything!

love, sister buxton!

thank you for the birthday love!

August 19, 2013

oh hey family :)

thank you for the email. i definitely enjoyed this weeks update :) i am happy to hear erin will probs pop sooner than september 25. just make it august 30th to let me know you still love me, even though you are having a baby long before i come home! august 30th sounds perfect :)

so in the little town of penacook, which is where i live, there is a wonderful man with some tattoos on one arm, a nice round mid section, evenly tapered hair, and a small black chihuahua that sits on his shoulder. i see him occasionally as we drive by, but i hadnt been lucky enough to see him while walking by. he is great.

on tuesday we went to contact a less active member of the ward who we had never met before. his name is jeffrey bowe. as we are walking to his house, a small black chihuahua comes out to bark at us and show us how tough he was. then a man came out who said hi to us. he introduced himself as brother bowe. hey thats a great sign! he then picked up the little dog and put him on his shoulder. oh HEY!! its you!! you are that guy we see from time to time! hows it going?! hahaha! it was such a delight to finally get to meet this man. he is so cool. he told us that he used to be into some pretty heavy drugs and he was even a drug dealer in l.a., but then he found missionaries, who taught him the gospel. he gave up his lifestyle and got baptized. this was just four years ago! as we talked more with him, he obviously had a strong testimony and a desire to be better, as he has not been active as of recent. he told us of some of his troubles and told us how difficult things are for him without making it a pity party. i told him i had just watched a video on mormon.org that said "we should not demand something unreasonable from ourselves, but we should demand progress from ourselves." (or something to that effect) he gave me a high-five and told me that made his day. we talked for just a few minutes with him, shared a scripture, had a prayer and left. i saw a little tear making its way down his cheek. its amazing how 4 people can come in contact with each other for just 5-10 minutes, and during that time feel the spirit, love each other and have more motivation afterwards. man! i love it!

did i ever tell you about the morning we went for a run and a woman put her head out her window and yelled to us that there was a bear in the hood? man oh man. i love that woman. i want to BE her some day. she has a beautiful home with lots of hand made decorations. she has 10 projects of different mediums going on all the time. she wears a bandana on her head. she tames wild cats. she is so gentle and kind and she loved her savior so much. she has a heart of gold!! i love her!! but anyway. this week we finally had an actual lesson with her. we taught her about the plan of salvation. she was so sweet and receptive. i love teaching the atonement! i mostly just wanted to tell you about how amazing she is. :)

ok. get ready for this. a miracle is about to be told. we were on our way to a lesson with a member from the ward who's name is brother shepard. he is an amazing man who has had a crazy crazy past but converted at 25, got married, has a beautiful family, and his wife passed away a couple years ago. he is just 51 now. he is top notch. so anyway, we were walking with him when suddenly we hear someone yell "hello" to us followed by a "where are you going?" we look around to find a man on a ladder painting a house. we walk over and talk to him. his name was craig. he was friendly but then told us he didnt want to talk too much about religion because we have such different theology. he then explains that he believes christ is the savior and that he is god. yes, we do to :) he was a little confused as he saw that our view of christ was the same  "latter day saints are jehova's witnesses, right?" doh! hahaha another person confusing us for jws. hahahaha i told him we get confused with them all the time. he said "yeah, me too!" hahahahaha! meaning they confuse him!

hahah  that little exchange cracked me and my comps up. oh it was funny :) but anyway,  we talked for a couple minutes longer, but he still didnt want to agree to a return appointment. so we went on our way and about 45 minutes later, we were making our way back the same way. he called us over again and asked to it with him during his lunch break the next day. happily we agreed, and met him the next day. he is a wonderful man who basically is part of a bible study group, so he loves the bible. he still thought we had drastically different views, so a lot of the meeting was him explaining how we are different and us explaining that we have the same beliefs as him. i think he was pleasantly surprised to know of our similarities. he ended up showing us a bible verse asking us to pray to know the truth. he basically pulled a moroni's promise on us! hahahaha! so s herrick layed down some sweet, sweet testimony about how she will continue to seek truth by praying and she invited him to do the same. we then showed him moroni's promise in moroni 10:3-5. after we read it he said "well that sounds familiar! hhahaha!" it was great :) i think we are making progress with him, but we still need to really teach him a pmg lesson. i believe that will help big time.

i think you must be praying for me a lot, because i have been so blessed for my whole mission. we are always so busy. we always have people to see, places to go. thank you so much for your prayers and support. i am the happiest and most blessed missionary in the field. 

ok. do you want proof? get a load of this miracle- we were going to contact another less active. we usually park in her dooa yahd (driveway). but hey, a little something very softly told me to park over by the beach of the lake. so i did. on our way over to the house, a sweet middle aged couple was loading their canoe into their vehicle. they called us  over- "hey what are the name tags for? what message are you trying to get out?" wow! a request to state our purpose? i will take it! so we go over and we didnt even say 2 sentences before the woman interrupted us by saying "do you have any literature you could give me?" to which sister mayle gladly gave her a book of mormon. she was so happy to receive it. i asked her why she wanted it. she told me "i have been doing some soul searching. i need something" wow!!! we talked for a few minutes and she told us about some reasons she is searching and some trials she is facing. much of it was about relatives passing. i shared 2 nephi 9 :3,4 with her and marked alma 40 for her. she was so thankful and so sweet to us. she gave us her number and we went on our way.

family. its a mission of miracles! it is a gospel that gives hope! it is a knowledge that brings us back to life! i love this gospel so much! i love it! thank you for everything! keep being wonderful and happy!

 i love you so much! have a wonderful week and be sure to give birth on august 30th!

love, sister wanay buxton who will share the birthday of her first niece!