Monday, February 18, 2013

hi! :)

so

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

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

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

hey, my hair is growing. pretty cool eh?

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

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

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

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

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

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

well, gotta blast!

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

until next week!

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

Monday, February 11, 2013

hey bob!

thank you for the email!

yes there was a "blizzard"...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, February 4, 2013

bob!

thank you for the email :)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

anyway.

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

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

love you bye