April 7, 2014

my main peeps,

(not maine peeps)

hi :) tis, tis indeed transfer week. i am glad to say that i will be staying in yarmouth for this next transfer :)

speaking of yarmouth. the other day  i was at a missionary meeting. during lunch, while i was eating carrots, a fellow missionary asked me "how's yarmouth?" i replied "its good. full of carrots." he didnt get it. he didnt even realize i was making a joke. i asked s davis about it later and she didnt get it until i explained it. man. i thought it was more obvious than that. i hope YOU get it. my fellow funny family. oh. but dont get me wrong. s davis is hilarious! she is so fun and funny and she also thinks i am funny, which.. could be a bad thing but it sure keeps us sane and happy :)

i got the box! thank you thank you. you always send the perfect thing. the perfect amount and the perfect missionary pick me up :) i love it. thank you. and s davis does, too :) oh. get this. her dad's name is david! its funny. and then you realize his name is david davis. then its even funnier! i always tell my companions that the boxes you send are for both of us, but i dont know if they really believe it, ya know?

hahaha! sadie!!!! that family is just so funny. unfortunately, i got some bad news. they are not moving to utah anymore. they are moving in quite a different direction. the reason being monika has a crazy x and he found out she was moving to utah and was making it.. unpleasant/unsafe for her. so sad. :(

i truly loved conference. oh my goodness it really is like christmas for missionaries. and hey, it really was jesus' birthday! how appropriate. we had to watch it at the church. it is a mission rule for us. but i brought a blanket and i was happy and comfortable. it is nice to watch conference  without a care or distraction in the world.

sorry about the milk. i am so relieved the letters and all that made it safe. i hope nothing else broke or anything. the things in the box are really special to me. i will have to explain stuff later. thank you for taking care of it. i hope the shirt isnt stained.

i do want to hike the places you are planning! count me in!

it really is going well over here. i am enjoying every day. i am realizing that i have refined my dog whispering skills as a missionary. you see, most people have pets. it is really great. but it is sometimes crucial that the dogs behave themselves so that the spirit is not interrupted by barks, gags, sniffed bums and begs for attention. i was able to demonstrate my whisperings very well recently. we were knocking on a door and there was a big, ferocious dog tied to a chain that was barking, yanking on the chain and his hackles were up. he was a good guard dog. i barked back at him of course and we talked for a while. after a few minutes of this, followed with some ignoring on my part, i turned to the still barking dog and asked him if he wanted to be friends. he immediately stopped barking. i asked him again. he wagged his tail. i started to walk towards him. he layed down on the ground- still not a peep! i approached him, he stiffed my hand, and we became instant friends. it was a joy. what a good dog.

back to the business of salvation as it relates to people. we are teaching a man who has been investigating for years. he says he knows the church is true, he is just taking his time. he is basically a member. he has his own scriptures with the tabs and all. he comes to church on his own accord every week. he has a calling. he is really great. it is a blessing to know him. this week we had a wonderful meeting. we talked about how he wants to quit smoking but that it is very difficult for him to stop, especially with the time he has on his hands, as he is on disability right now. he told us about some things he wants to start doing more so that he can occupy his hands and such. i kept on thinking about crocheting and how that kept be from being bored and getting into trouble, and i also accomplished something, but i kept pushing it out of my mind. c'mon sister buxton, this is a full grown man! we need to get... a chainsaw in his hands! but i decided to just ask if he has ever considered it. he smiled real big and said "yeah!! i have actually been thinking about that! but i dont know how to do it." so. we will be teaching him. :)

so good. never delay a prompting. even if you dont know its a prompting.

we talked about ways heavenly father answers prayers. he shared some really great experiences. i am so thankful that he trusts us. we talked about how general conference is a great time to receive answers. its so true. i mean, these are the lords servants. they would just be wasting our time if they werent speaking for him. so this weekend i went to conference with a prayerful question in mind. wouldnt you know it was answered. i hope your prayers have been answered this weekend. i love conference so much. it is just unfathomable how much we have to be thankful for.

thank you for all you do for me. i love you all so much! i hope you know that!

love, sister lani buxton :)

March 31, 2014

ahhh... :) how is everyone? i hope all is well in the hood.

i am glad sam ended it with the girl. i know i dont really know what is going on and what has been going on, but i just want him to be free. it is so interesting that words can have such an affect on people. it is so important with anything to focus on how it makes you feel. we all have the light of christ in us. if we have a bad, confused, angry or negative feeling, it is either from the devil, or we dont understand it. even if things make sense, if it gives us a bad feeling, we need to not just take it. that goes for  information, relationships, situations, anything really. we just have to be careful and only let in what motivates us and helps us to be better.

things are going pretty well over here.

this week was a crazy one. in a good way, ya know? on monday right when pday was over, i spent the rest of the evening traveling so that we could go on exchanges. then more traveling the next night. wednesday night we traveled again to go on exchanges with..... AUGUSTA!! oh it was such a delight, i cant even tell you. i got to see wonderful people, i got to sleep in my old bed, it was all just great stuff. thursday night we traveled to bethel, maine and slept there with some sisters. the next day one of the sisters and i traveled to cumberland. saturday morning.. more traveling so that i could get my companion back!! sigh... it was a crazy crazy week. it was fun though. we enjoyed it and hopefully the sisters involved enjoyed it too. they are all pretty much lovable and great.

something really cool happened this week. we have been working slowly with a less active man. bro c. also we have picked up a family that is investigating. the v fam. we had an appointment to see the v fam. so we went. they were just about to eat, so we said we would be back in an hour. during that hour, we visited bro c. he taught us how to play the ukelele. we mosly talked about music, i sang with him as he played and sang a beatles song. (dont tell the mission president!) haha :) he briefly talked about how he used to go out with the missionaries when he was younger and that it was fun. he very quietly mentioned that he wants to come back to church. then he quickly moved on to other topics, as to say he didnt want to talk about it. we respected that. after we visited with him, we went back to the v fam. they asked what we did for an hour. we told them we learned how to play the uke. the dad started shooting lots of questions. told him it was his neighbor down the street, that he is awesome, in a band and he is a member. "so he goes to your church?" "no, not right now, but he doesnt mind the church." "well maybe he just needs a ride! we can carpool!" we-he-heh-elll! dont mind if i do! so we talked about that stuff. oh, the v fam are all rockers. they have guages and piercings and the grandma (who we have not met) and the dad and the son all play the drums. i think they are afraid of not fitting in, but they still want it, its just unknown and a little scary. but i agreed to get bro c over there and they can jam, we can pray and everything will be lovely. and i really hope they carpool!! that would be the coolest thing!!

i am just so happy about everything that is going on over here. missionary work is just so great. called to know the richness of his blessings. so. true.

well. i love you all! have a happy week!

love, sister aunt wanay buxton!!

March 24, 2014

good morning... i'm here!

thank you as always for letters, emails, pictures, prayers and love :) thank you thank you!

the story of matt and his family is sad. i hope they are doing alright. i am so thankful their testimonies are strong so that they can deal with this and deal with it together. there is a woman in our ward and her dad just passed. she is a member but her family isnt. she wants them to have the assurance that comes with the gospel. she wants them to understand, but its in the process. she is amazing.

this week was a really good one. i got to spend a day in portland!! i got to see so many people i love. i got to spend a day with s berg as well! man. sounds like a vacation. hahaha :) but we worked hard and we did many good things. last night we got to teach our wonderful investigator and her daughter. they are so precious. we taught them at their friends house (who are awesome members of the ward). we got to teach them a magic trick, which, of course, we related to the gospel. we had so much fun and hopefully they learned things about jesus.

the member family is just so great. all of them are excellent. their younger girls (9 and.. 6?) are so crazy. they were yankin me around and tooting on me "mom!!! bella's bum is chasing sister buxton!" hahahhahahaha and at the end, the 9 year old came up with a plan for me to be her babysitter after my mission. but until then,!!! .. she has decided that i cant leave the area. (i havent told any of them when i am going home) :) haha she is hilarious. she is always playing tricks on me. its fun :)

i recently started the book of mormon over. remember the challenge grandpa gave me to read the book of mormon and mark every time christ was mentioned or that he spoke? well i am doing something similar. i got a clean (no markings/highlights) and i am marking everything that has to do with our hearts: soul, being filled with the spirit, heart, center, etc.. hope that makes sense. but it is so great. it is really opening my eyes that the gospel really does involve our hearts. just from doing this study, i can see so clearly that when we give our heart to the lord, we find peace, we find answers, we feel calm. but when we have a hard heart, blessings are withheld, opportunities are passed up, and ultimately, we dont allow the lord in, so he cant help us, so we lose. i really hope i can give my heart to the lord. as with anyone, it is my own disbelief and my own stubbornness that keeps me from the blessings of heaven. if i can just surrender my will and my thoughts and my doubts, the lord really will be my shephard and i really will be able to do or witness "many mighty miracles"! i love that the lord doesnt want us to fail. he wants to help us and he wants to see us happy. we are that we might have joy right?

just to let you know, i made the best veg  fajitas the other day. i am so cooking for you some day. oh! and i made sweet and sour veg for the first time! it turned out alright! of course it wasnt mom's, but it was still good.

well. i love you and all that good stuff! 

love, sister wani buxton

March 17, 2014

that thing was YOU!

happy saint patties!! 

yes i notice and care about saint patties. i am wearing the green scarf erin made for me :) today i told me companion "happy saint p day". get it? cuz its our p day? and its saint p-atties day?

i am so happy to hear sam is having so much fun. that truly sounds like a blast :):)

the play you went to sounds really great. and that should mean a lot coming from me considering i really really dont like huck finn. you and the moonshine.. hahahaha :)

i will go to wicked if you want me to. i am sure i wont hate it. but the pop u U lar was indeed... in mocking. :) but let me tell you bob, its not like i have been impressed daily by media and dancing and all that jazz. i know this is not really an answer. i will go if you want me to. :)

well. in all honesty, i was rather stressed this week. i was still happy. i was just very nervous. have i always been terrified of public speaking? i feel like i wasnt always scared of it. i sure am now. my goodness. i am so thankful to have an stl companion. especially s davis. she is so great to me. she lets me know every day that she loves me. she is so supportive and patient and smart and she really helps with the load. anyway, the reason i was stressed is because we had to do 4 trainings (in front of groups of missionaries) and i also was asked to speak in stake conference. guh. i was thankful for it all and i feel blessed to be trusted with it. it just makes me very nervous. but it is all over now and i feel much lighter and better.

both sets of zone leaders asked us to present a training on finding and attitude. yes! my favorite thing! seriously though. i feel like i could talk for days about those subjects. i love it. tracting is getting more and more of a bad rep. but it still works and it is still alive! so we were sure to tell the missionaries that. but to make sure this truth hadnt changed, me and s davis put it to the test the day before the training. we did a little something called "boxing out" basically it is just tracting a few houses. i love that business. in the process, we were only able to talk to 2 people. one said we could come back (after we read a passage from the book of mormon), and the other was this awesome girl who was in high school. we talked with her for just a few minutes. we told her about the book of mormon and that god loves her. she felt she couldnt take a book of mormon for free, but we convinced her to ;) she was so sweet and said the words "i am interested!" she is basically a new investigator now and we are pretty happy :)

stake conference was pretty much a reunion of people from portland and augusta! it was the best thing. i felt like my ribs were going to break because my heart was just so big and full. oh there are just no words.

remember the pinkalicous story? well. we went over to their place again this week to teach them. sigh.. they are just so great. we prayed together (holding hands! its so precious!) they fed us. we taught them about the savior. we sang "he sent his son" and taught them what all the lyrics meant. they asked a lot of wonderful questions. we all sang the song together. it was just so sweet. at the end, both of the girls wanted to say the closing prayer. (not going to argue with that!) so we said two. the younger went first. a short, simple, sweet prayer. then the older sister. i had never heard her pray before. she first prayed for me and my companion. then for her little sister. then for her mom. then her mom whispered to her to pray for her self. so she prayed that the cat would stop peeing in her room but that the cat would still know that she loves her. it was one of the most sincere prayers i have ever heard. the cat part was kinda funny, but that is what she needed and she knows that heavenly father cares about her needs, even if they seem silly to other people. she is such an amazing example to me of putting others first and giving a personal, heart felt prayer. oh it was just so great. i love that family so much. i hope they will keep progressing.

well i best be off! i love all of you! 

love, me! sisterlani buxton

March 10, 2014

hello all of you :)

i am so glad you loved the pinkalicious story! such a good time.

oh bob i love the story of the court of honor. it got me all teary. i love the story so much though. thank you thank you thank you for telling me :):) i love that boy.

the package came this week!!! i love it so much! it all made me smile and i am so happy to have this stuff from you. the rhuberry is perfect as usual. the salad fixins are prime and the letter was perfect! thank you thank you! i couldnt stop talking about it i just love it so much. yesterday as i sat in sacrament meeting, i got a strong impression to share the story about your interaction with the missionaries at the ward party with missionaries here so that they could really understand that we have to be kind and that member trust is crucial. i am going to find a way to share it!! i am going to two zone interviews this week so possibly i could do it then. i dont know for sure.

i am sad about bonnie. that poor old woman. i love her! so great.

as you should expect... this week has been top notch. s keigley told me that kim wants to be baptized! kim is the girlfriend of the member that was interested in sam telling him about computron. man. this stl business is crazy. i spent last monday doing pday stuff and then traveling to bedford, nh. tuesday at the meeting and then traveling home. wednesday i went to district meeting and then went to topsham for an exchange that lasted until the next night (thursday) friday we had to stay indoors and plan and study for 5 hours!! ahhhhh! then i finally got to be in my own area and do some work. it is great though. i am so busy!! busy is the best thing for a missionary to experience though. truly it is a blessing. not even a blessing in disguise. just straight up blessing.

i must tell you about yesterday. me and s davis and a girl from the branch (did i tell you i am in a branch? its my first) sang in sacrament meeting. it was terrifying. and we practiced for less than 5 minutes before the meeting. ah! who am i?? what am i doing???? ooohhhhhhhhh.....

last night we were invited over to do an fhe with a family from the branch. they are so great and so much fun. it was just the parents and 2 of their teenage kids and their white lab named sam.. hahhaa :) aside from the fact they live on the water, it reminded me of home. we played book of mormon charades. it was a blast! so funny! at the end, we all shared a hero we have/someone we would like to be like from the book of mormon. the spirit was so strong and i think we could all feel that we were in the mortal side of god's army. it was so wonderful!

well i had best be off. thank you all for being the best family ever! i love you!!

love, sister buxton :)):)

March 3, 2014

you!

happy birthday scott!

man the whole bonnie thing sounds so frustrating. good thing she is so fun, funny and wonderful.

 mom you always go the extra mile or ten. thats how i describe you to people.

scott's birthday sounds fun :) i am glad he understood the box i sent him. i knew he would like it and think it was cool.

i am so glad you spent some time with monica and sadie. i love those people so much. me and sadie both have nightmare before christmas at the top of our favorite movie list. we both love creepy things and we just have so much fun together. she licked me a few times and chewed on my back. monica is so wonderful. i love her and i knew you would too. she probs told you she is moving to utah in august. i am happy about that :)

no you didnt tell me my bum is going to arizona!! wowie!!!! that is great :) and the perfect time of year to go, too! 

sister keigley is from utah. yeah her family lives like 20 minutes away from you. crazy huh? not really. haha :) my new companion is from Tallahassee florida. her name is sister davis. she went to ucf. oh my. she is so great. she came out one transfer after me. i got to pick her up from the mission home on her first day in the field so that she could spend the night at my apt with me and s caffall. we have so much fun together. she thinks i am so funny, so it is great for me. i hope it doesnt feed my pride too much. haha :) she is so lovely. she loves music and art and she is really smart. it is so fun to be her companion. the only downfall is that she hates utah.. anyway, we are over the augusta north and augusta south zones, which make up the augusta  stake. i am over s keigley (which means portland!!!!!) and s berg and a bunch of other sisters that i have worked with before and all that good stuff. i am just so happy. it is an amazing place for me to be. i am also over augusta!!! remember?? i served there!! i am so excited!! this is going to be such a splendid transfer.

the ward i am in is so fun. actually it is a branch! i have never served in a branch before. it is good. i like it so far. its not tiny or anything. the people here are so loving and sweet and welcoming. it is amazing to see. right now we are trying to get every active family committed to do their own family mission plan! we want to have them all committed before march is over. it will be so good. so i have been on exchanges with yarmouth a few times because i used to be stl over yarmouth. so i already met some of the people that live here. it is so much fun. this week we went to visit an investigator named julia. i remembered her but i wasnt sure if she would remember me or not. right when she opened the door she put her hands in the air and started cheering! hahaha she was so happy to see me and i was very happy to see her as well. all these people are just so easy to love!

she asked us if we would help her out with some snow removal. it hasnt snowed in over a week, but thats all ok! her 10 yeah old daughter came out and dressed me up in her pink snow stuff. she could NOT stop laughing!! she thought it was the funniest thing to see me in pink and that her stuff fit me. hahahahhaha it was great :) she called me pinkalicious. julia gave us an ice smasher thing and a snow shovel and took us to her back deck. there we saw our project. her whole deck was covered in snow. it was as tall as me. and it was solid ice. haha. we both climbed up it. we didnt sink in at all. just stood right on top. i smashed the ice the best i could and s davis tried to shovel it out of the way. she said she felt like a retarded plow truck. hahaha. pinkalicious and the retarded plow truck. hahahaha so funny! hoohoohoo hehe heh heh oh it was good. then we stacked wood for her. after we were done with that, her daughter invited us into her room and she read a book to us. it was called....   pinkalicious! its aaaallll coming together now. it was a good book.

we shared with her a scripture about being a child of god. we got to teach her how to pray! her mom gave her testimony of prayer. man that girl is so teachable. i got to help her say her first ever prayer. gosh. i could do that all day. prayer is so excellent. god is so reachable. i am so thankful that of all free things, a relationship with him is one. oh! that reminds me. i watched the coolest mormon.org video this week. its at mormon.org/youth. its called origin. oh man i love it! please go watch it! i gave me goose flesh. mmm! 

thank you for the love, i could never get tired of hearing from you and reading what is going on back home. i love all of you!

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

February 24, 2014

you!!

that thing was you!

yes i am going to yarmouth maine!! it is the next area north from me!! i will still be the stl over portland! and augusta! my old area! oh it is so exciting! so my new adderss is 5 farwell ave apt 2 cumberland, me 04021

so good!! my companion is going to be sister davis. i truly love that sister. she came out one transfer after me. she is an amazing sister. i am so excited to be with her. before stl's existed, we went on exchanges together. we were our first exchange!! haha can you believe that? it was over a year ago. so cool :)

so the beach thing. the orange sweater guy. can you believe he just came up to us and talked to us? we talked about god and the beauty of the earth. he just got back from serving in the forces. he got home like 2 days prior and he had been gone for 3 years. he was so amazing. we are going to be meeting with him. but he is actually in the elders area so really, they will be meeting with him. he is just so great though. i am so glad we met him. but yes we are safe. no one hurts us or scares us. i fear no man!!

oh i feel so happy and fuzzy about the krystal taylor thing. i dont even remember saying that. how sweet of her!! gosh :)

oh. my GOODNESS!! bob i laughed for 5 minutes and cried when i read the dig to china thing!! hahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahha bob!!!!!

oh bob i love you.

ok i must tell you about this last thursday. it was like... the epitome of a missionary day. ok. so we got up, did our usual thing- exercise, (were we on the beach that day? i hope so.) eat, shower, get ready, study, leave to go to teach english. on our way, the bridge that we were about to drive over decides to let some boats go by, so the draw bridge draws, and we are stuck. we sit for a minute, play rock-paper-scissors with the couple that are in the car behind us, and then realize that the elders are in the car in front of us! so they call us, we talk for a minute, play some rock-paper-scissors with them, and then we realize that we have a car inspection due, and our district leader is one of the elders in front of us. what better time to have your district leader inspect your car than when you are stuck on a bridge with him? so he did. the people behind us asked what we were doing. we told them. they thought we were funny, so they blasted some music for us to dance to. it was funny :)

then we taught english and that was a blast all by itself. then we went to an appointment, but the woman forgot she made the appointment, so we just stayed for a couple minutes before she had to leave. then we visited this wonderful sister who is paralyzed. we didnt have an appointment, but she had no where and no way to leave, so we read with her and had a blast. oh. she is the one that likes the crazy massages. we massaged her shoulders, too. all of our other plans fell through quickly and so did our backups. we were running out of ideas fast. but i felt really good. there was one point when i was waiting for my companion to get in the car. i was looking at my planner and i had a very clear thought that it was a good thing that our plans and backups were falling through, because someone needed us and we were going to find them. we tried a few more people, to no avail. eventually, we ended up visiting a less active named tim back too. haha just kidding its just tim bach :) he was so happy to see us. we have only ever had brief visits with him, no longer than a few minutes. he has told us in the past that he really wants his girlfriend to find interest in the church and that he is trying hard to help her come to the gospel. this time when we gave him a surprise visit, he invited us in! we sat down, talked with him and his girlfriend and had an amazing conversation about gods love. we all shared how we have seen his love in our lives, and at the end, we all committed to show our love to god in a specific way. the spirit spoke to each of us and told us how we needed to show our love. we shared our thoughts with each other and made a pact together that we would work on what the spirit told us to work on. they told us they want to come to church. they said that they were having a terrible day and that it had been a long time since they had felt as peaceful as they did that night. brother bach told us he knew we were coming. he could feel it and he was looking forward to it. he is so great.

then we went and knitted with a sweet old woman in the ward. she is so cute! after that, we went home, had an 8:00 dinner, planned and went to bed. what a lovely day :) oh i love it so much!

also. sam. listen up. brother bach is looking for a job and i told him about the job you used to have. i told them they are always hiring and that sort of stuff. he really wants you to email him to let him know what is up. this guy is awesome! he is... 26 and he is just so cool. he is expecting you, so please email him :)timbach14@gmail.com :):):)

well i gotta go :) i love you! thank you endlessly for your endless love!! thank you thank you thank you!! i love you!!!

love, sister lani buxton :)

February 17, 2014

 dear everyone,

so i have some  news for you. there is a house.. two doors up from me? and the mailbox says higginsbeachwebcam.com. and i know i have seen a camera on one of the houses that is by the beach. i dont know if it is that one. but. it might be. so hey, maybe you can check it out and tell me what it is all about! if it is the one i am thinking of, i will try to run by it during exercise time. i exercise from 6:30-7:00. so. that is like.. 4:30 for you! yikes. you can try to see me if you want, but noworries. lets be real, you forgot how to sleep anyway, bob :) i made a deal with my companion that will allow me to go out there more often. so look forward to that hopefully :) i will wave at you tomorrow morning!

ooh that is cool that fotis might be getting a new place. you are so cool bob!

yes i did get the small box! you know me so well. it is a perfect little salad box! thank you for being kind and everything about sending me stuff. it is so wonderful that you remember me and send me stuff but also great that you dont send me giant boxes of stuff i cant use and cant take with me. you are a genius! thank you thank you thank you!

i am so glad you talked to monica pardon. she is such an amazing woman. she is a super mom and a champion at dealing with challenges of life. she is also hilarious and just awesome! you will love her so much. i did tell her after she talked to you that i am leaving. she was so sweet and sad and yeah she cant take anything to me from you.

i am so glad the good ole peeps from  utah valley are still friends of sam. everyone has always loved him so much!

i am also sad to leave this area. it is sad and i think the part i hate the most is telling people. i just dont like saying goodbye and all that. i feel like i will never get used to it. guh. 

ooh. so this week we went to visit a less active member named monarae. she is so great. she had a serious rough patch a while back. she was pretty bitter towards a lot of things. then she got in an accident and she is now paralyzed from the chest down. we have been visiting her for a while. she is so fun. i really love her. this last time we found out that she wanted a massage on her upper back and shoulders. so i started. good googly boogly she was so stiff. SO STIFF! i couldnt even feel the bones in her back because she was so tight. but we helped a little. i literally had to put my elbow in her muscle and put all my weight on it for her to be satisfied. my goodness. it was insanity. wooowie! 

here is a better story;

so this last week the elders we are serving with took us to contact an investigator they want to give to us. there was a big snow mound we had to cross. i got up, i started down, my leg sank into the crunchy ice and snow, which got stuck, but the rest of me kept going. so i face planted in the snow. but my leg was stuck behind me. it was very uncomfortable, a little immodest and SO FUNNAY! man oh man :)

good stuff family and friends. good. stuff.

can i share something with you? this morning i was reading in the book of mormon. poor ole moroni is taking over writing in the book. he says in mormon 8:5 that he is alone, his dad got killed, he has no where to go and he also has no "friends". oh it is so sad. gosh. my heart always goes out to moroni. it would be so sad to be in his position. and for some reason those words no "friends" is just so sad. but it reminded me of a scripture in john. 15:14,15 christ says "ye are my friends... i have called you friends.." sigh. it is just so great to read those words from the savior. 

well i should probs be off. i love you all and i owe all of you big big hugs! i love you!

love, sister lani buxton :)

February 10, 2014

allla ya,

so. i am wearing a leotard.

bob! i am so happy you love the beach box. i loved it and i am so happy you do too :) you are so welcome! i hope your burfdurf was great :) happy happy birthday :)

bob you are so fancy with your iphone and your ipad! hahha you silly woman. i am so glad you have them. they seem super nifty. 

so my mission president just emailed me. he told me i am going to be transferred in a couple of weeks. i am so sad :( i honestly just really really really dont want to leave. he said i am going to stay stl also. sigh. it will be good though. i will have an stl companion. that will be nice. i really just dont want to leave this area. its ok though. i trust him.

oh the story of bonnie is so sad and sweet and silly and i am so glad she has you. you save so many days bob. gee whiz. you are a super hero.

idriss really is such a champ. he is amazing. i cant even explain him or give him justice. the africans are very much not vegetarian! hahaha :) there was no pumpkin in the dishes they have given us. it was good stuff though. they know how to eat. they dont make me eat meat but they think i am crazy for not eating it.

what you said about being at the lake and feeling gods love was so great. i definitely feel the same way. i feel so close to god when i am outside. i love nature and the weather and everything else. last week in church we were actually talking about that stuff. an elder in my district said something really interesting. he brought up the scripture "by their fruits ye shall know them" and that the earth is literally the fruits from god. so by his fruit we shall know him. by being in nature, we can get to know god. hm. no wonder i love nature so much. :)

this week was a good one. i felt like a missionary. like a good one. it was just one of those random weeks where a lot is going on. i slept at the mission home on monday night. went to mlc on tuesday. i did a training at zone conference on thursday. gave a talk on sunday. man. i hope i get over my fear of public speaking soon. it has been so scary for me.

zone conference was so good. have you ever heard of the fourth missionary? it is so inspiring amazing wonderful mission changing. i love it!! zone conference was focused on that. also at zone conference i got to see s berg, s cloward, s mayle!! also i got to see s bickel who is a sister i used to be over. i really love her. i also got to see ken!!! s cloward and i found him tracting and he got baptized a couple months later! wow wow wow it was good! man. i wish you knew these people! they are just so grand.

but it has also been a good week. we are doing lots of good things. we love being missionaries and we love the lord.

thank you for everything sorry i must be on my way. i love you! thank you!

love, WANAY!! sister buxton 

February 3, 2014

dear everyone,

thank you for the email. it sounds like there is a lot going on around there. bonnie is so funny! that woman!! hahahaha

oh what a week! we taught idriss as much as we could this week. we went over the night before his baptism to boost him and see how he was. he was sooooo excited! he couldnt stop talking. he just was so happy. talking about his studies and how he likens the scriptures to his life. he is so great. then aziza (a recent convert) made dinner for us and he taught us how to eat african food. it was lovely. the baptism was amazing. i think i will cry every time i fully re-live it. it was just so good.

did i tell you i am stl over s berg? my first daughter! so i went on exchange with her this week. she is amazing. i really love her. she taught me so much and even sent me back to my area with a reading assignment. she is wonderful. i really loved spending a day with her. i want to do that again. she is in a trio right now and both of her companions are great as well. i really just love those sisters.

there is an elder in my district named elder pruett. he is funny. he reminds me so much of scott. i will give you an example. yesterday s keigley and i were waiting for someone to come to church. we were sitting by the doors of the church. he comes over and looks out the window. there were some horses with little jackets on to keep them warm. he said "oh look, the horses are wearing clothes!     silly horses..     oh look that one has a pink jacket.   .. thats how you know she's a girl." i looked at him and he was just standing there with this big smirk on his face. hahahaha gee whiz he is always saying and doing things like that. the other day he said to me "sister buxton what did you DO?!" haha it was just like scott. hahahaha it is just so funny.

hey mom, happy birthday! are you excited? yay! woop woop! root root!

oh hey. so the mail man has been very kind to me. but i must say, i must have given you the wrong address before. it is 15 a pearl street scarborough, me. 04074 

sorry i gave the wrong one before. but i think i still got all the mail you sent me. thank you so much!

ive gotta go but know that i still love you and i still love being a missionary. the lords work is so good and so sweet. i love it!

love, sister lani buxton

January 27, 2014

hello all!

sigh.. what a week :)

hey the vacation sounds awesome!! helicoptering in canyons? visiting with lisa and matt? what more could you ask for? that is so cool!! great job on eating moldy cake! hahaha you... people :) i am glad you got a good grandma story before you left.

this week was a pretty good one. s keigley was sick so we didnt do as much as we usually would. thursday was so crazy though. we went to a lunch appointment and my poor companion just started bawling. she hadnt been telling me how she was feeling so i was pretty surprised. but they let her lay down and rest and sleep all day. meanwhile i had a very short time to figure out who was going to be with me all day because we had appointments until 8:30. so i scrambled and i did it! the lord was so good to me that day. i found someone to be with me all day. it was crazy, but very fun. i didnt have enough time to eat and it was also the day our gps broke, but with the lord, all things are possible right? :)  plus we got double fed last night, so it evened out :) 

this week we got to meet with idriss (our african golden investigator) a bunch. we are helping him prepare for baptism. really though, he is so prepared. he is an amazing man. he teaches us more than we teach him. we taught him about tithing this week. he already knew about it and was totally willing and ready to live it. when i committed him to live it he explained that he doesnt have an income right now, so he would like to give back in some other way like cleaning the church. he wants to help so bad! man he is just awesome. his interview was on saturday. he lives 3 or 4 miles away from the church. his ride forgot to pick him up. i called him and told him we would find him a different ride. he suggested he could just walk. i refused! he doesnt have boots and it was dark and well below freezing. hahaha that silly man. but he is SO excited for baptism. he passed his interview of course. he is just so excited for it. on sunday he was telling me all about the book of mormon and what he has been reading. he said he was reading in 1 nephi when nephi sees his fathers dream and the angel is telling him about the meaning of the dream and helping him and all that. he said that it reminded him of us. he told me that he feels like nephi and like i am the angel helping him. oh my goodness i cant tell you how lovely that was to hear. he is so great. he is getting baptized this saturday at 10:00 :)

ok so i wont say where i heard this, but someone told me the other day that paul says in the bible that the letter of the law killeth and that the spirit of the law maketh alive. therefore, we dont need to worry so much about the letter of the law. i found the scripture. its 2 corinthians 3:6. i studied it and all. i understand it differently than that person was explaining. but i want to know from the wise ones. mom? dad? will you help me out here?

man. i love being a missionary. i feel like my letters are getting shorter. sorry. i will try to make up for it later or something. i love you all!!

love, sister buxton

January 20, 2014

aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!

ok.

ok ok!

i am so very very happy to be staying here, too! i want to stay here for the rest of my life. (mission life) it is just so delightful and fun and great and all that stuff.

my new companion is named morgan keigley. she is excellent. i am so so thankful that i am her companion. we teach well together, we are both silly, we both love s caffall. it is just fun. we are having a good time together. and i am pretty sure i dreamed about her too! the first night we were comps, i dreamed about her explaining the book of mormon and she did an excellent job. it is so funny! hahahaha bob you are so great to give the boys the food that they like. they love you so much!

so we got here a little late, so i am going to print your email and read it after i go home. i hope you dont mind. i am sure you would be ok with me reading it later so that i can write more to you :)

this week really was great. last weekend i got the news that me and s beus were supposed to go to the portland chapel (our chapel) at 7:00 so that she could get a ride to transfer meeting and i could meet my new companion who i would be able to take right back to our apt and go to work. well. we get up at 6:30 and exercise. so i decided i would go in my exercise clothes because i did not want to wake up earlier to shower and stuff when i was coming right back to my place and i could do it then. so thats what i did. went to the church right out of bed with my frumpiness and that sort of stuff. well. we got there. we were the first ones. right on time. hm.... some missionaries showed up. the assistants showed up. not her ride. not my comp. more missionaries. more. it was like 2 hours before my new companion showed up! hahaha! the missionaries thought i was a member ride at first cuz i was not in missionary clothes. they all laughed when they realized "sister BUXTON!?... HAhahahhahha!" hah. it was pretty funny :) sigh.. but s keigley and i have gotten along quite well. the ward likes her, too which is lovely.

on wednesday we were teaching a recent convert english. we were teaching her how to go do the drug store or something. does anyone want to know what the translation of "prescription" into french is? its "ordonnance". wowie! this has opened my eyes so much to what an ordinance is. in the gospel, and ordinance is a prescription for sins! is that the most enlightening thing you have heard all week? it is for me! wow! i love it!

also "cat" in swahili is " paka". i am so naming my cat paka someday.

hey bob. did you ever think i had a stonge testimony of family history? cuz i didnt. i always knew it was important, but before my mission, i never had a big desire or testimony for it. well over the last while, it has been strengthened. and this last thursday, the zone elders asked me to do a presentation on family history for our zone. good thing that testimony has been growing, because that would have been tough if it hadnt. it went alright. i hope they liked it.

hey. did i tell you i went to buxton maine the other day? well i did.

oh my goodness oh my!! i forgot to say. so this transfer i am only over me, my comp and one other.... trio!! wow! i am over a trio. i hope they do well. one of the sisters is sister berg!! oh man!! when i went to zone meeting, i saw her coat hanging up. i didnt know i was over her at that point. so i dropped my stuff and ran down the hall to find her. i squeezed that sister so good! oh i love her! so i am over her, sister dixon and sister jackman. they are getting along well so far. i hope they keep the peace. i know the trio i was in was..... not lollipops and sparkles.. :)

well i best be off. i am always so jumbled. hope you dont mind. :)

i love you all :) i really do!

love, sister wanay buxton :)

January 13, 2014

ahoy a hoy!

bob i am happy to hear about everything. you are just so cool! its so cool that you work right though a sickness. thats probs where i get my stubborn side. eh eh eh :) whos wedding are you doing?

hahahahah oh man! the stories of my nephews are just so funny and cute :) thank you

ok i forgot to tell you. you might possible know already. sky son sent me a box!! isnt that precious?! a box of candy and chocolate (the good kind) and a glass laser art thing of jesus and a hawaiian necklace thing. oh it is just so adorable. and the note he wrote was so sweet and asian! i just love it!

so i found out that i am staying!! woohooo! i am very happy about it! s beus is ver sad to leave. indeed she is. sigh. but once she loves her new area, she will be fine. i really did want another transfer with her, but its ok. i actually know who my new companion is going to be! isnt that strange? i have never known before the meeting. her name is sister keigley. i think that is how you spell her name. i am ver happy to be her companion. a few months ago there was a sister that really warped my view of s keigley. i didnt like it and i have been really wanting to get my own opinion about her. she seems sweet to me! but i dont even know her. so i am very happy for this chance. i am looking forward to it.

man oh man. this week was mission leadership council. president delivered some great news to us. he said that in the next 2 transfers, all stls will have an stl companion!!!! aaahhhh! it is so exciting! he also said that he doesnt want us to "die" as stls!! wooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its just so good! i am pretty sure s keigley is not going to be an stl, so i still dont have an stl companion, and then i will get released (probs) next transfer or the transfer after that. so if i ever do have one, it will most likely only be for one transfer. but hey, that is ok. i am happy that future stls dont have to do it alone. its definitely the most difficult part for me. alright enough of this boring stuff.

this week was so good :) have i ever told you that lots of people use wood stoves to heat their houses? ahhhhh :) so basically every day it smells like camp fire and the beach. what a dream. and my hair always smells smokey. like i have been camping.

oh! so when i was going to the mlc, some missionaries picked me up monday night and they wanted to eat. so we went to the mall. i wasnt hungry, so i went to buy a lovely peach lemonade. as i was buying it from this cute girl, a guy that worked there asked me where our church was, because he really wants to find a church! what time is it at? where is it? man oh man! so i told him and i gave him a book of mormon. he took it and said "oh hey, my mom used to read this!" he said he would call us. i really hope he does! it is so exciting :)

so our african investigator is great. this week he told us how he decided to be baptized. he said he had a dream that he was trying to cross a busy street. he was struggling to get across for a while and wasnt having any luck. then he heard some voices calling his name. he looked around. it was coming from a taxi. he went over to it. it was me and s beus inside the car calling his name. we asked him to get in so that we could help him cross the street. so he decided to and he got across safely! when he woke up, he knew it was an answer to his prayer! this week i told him that god has a body. he was so enlightened and happy about that! he just kept on thanking me and thanking me for teaching him. so sweet!

this week a youth group from a unitarian universalist church came to our church! some brought their parents and their leaders were there, too. a man from the mission presidency, president hawkes, had given us a heads up about this, so we got the ward to help us out by writing their testimonies in copies of the bom for us to give them. they were so sweet and wonderful! some of them stayed for the whole 3 hours. pres hawkes asked s beus and i to be with them and to help out with a question and answer session that they requested. he asked me to talk about joseph smith. it was such a joy to do that and oh! i was just so happy! they had so many sincere questions. it was a total blast. we gave each of them a bom and a mormon.org card with our phone number on it and a for the strength of youth book. that group is great. they are searching for truth and they have so many great values. i hope they find what they are looking for in the church of jesus christ. sigh. :)

well family. i best be off. i hope you know i love you and i love the gospel. its amazing that through christ we can become so wonderful, but still be unique and individual. god wants us to magnify the good things about us and recognize that he can help us magnify those things! i love you!!

love, sister lani buxton!

its WANAY!

January 6, 2014

bob!! oh yeah, and the rest a yas,

yes it is a bit chilly here these days. this week we had a nice storm that grounded us. we had a drift in our driveway that we had to shovel. part of it was about 5 feet high. luckily that wasnt the part we had to shovel. the highest part was like up to our hips. it was a fun time. it was quite chilly on a couple of the days. i dont actually know what the temperature was, but it was bone chilling!!!!!!! ah! and there was wind!! at one point, i took my hand out of my glove to take a picture and my hand instantly went completely freezing! i put it back in my glove, but until we got in the house, it didnt make a difference at all. oh man it was cold! but it was also quite fun. i love it! my boots and my coat are doing me wonders. i really love them and they treat me well.

hahahah bob!!! your story about the APF is so funny! you rib tickler!! hahahahah i love it even though it is a frustrating story.

.

hahaha oh bob you really are so funny. you always get me and the other missionaries laughing. i am glad you are cooking at telos. those boys love you and i am sure it is a fun time for you.

yes i hope i stay this transfer. i really do. i hope i get to be with s beus for another transfer. i really like her. we like each other. we get along really well.

i do love being here. i love the ward. i love the people. i love the location.

i am sure you would like an update on our lovely african golden investigator. this week when we taught him, s beus invited him to be baptized. he told us that he is not sure because he does not want to do it for us. he wants to do it for god. he has already been baptized before. he told us that it is easy to serve god, but it is harder to figure out exactly where god wants you to be serving, and that he needs to figure that out before he makes a commitment.  we supported him %100 on that one! of course! so the next day, 9:30 he called us and told us that he would like to be baptized! wowie!! it is just so exciting for us! oh he is just so great! he came to church on sunday and he contributed and everything.

so this week we have been teaching repentance because of the jew years. eh hem i mean new years.. and. well. it was wonderful. we have been using helaman 13:6,7. the glad tidings are that because of christ, we can repent! it is so cool that new years is right after christmas. because christ was born, we can return to god. christ made it possible for us to gain exaltation. he made it possible for us to receive forgiveness for anything we are willing to repent of. how appropriate that the next week we celebrate and decide how we are going to change so that we can be worthy of forgiveness and so that we can become more fit for the kingdom of heaven! i just love it! so in the bible dictionary it says that repentance is forming a "fresh view about god, about oneself, and about the world" when we understand god better, when we understand ourselves, when we learn to love ourselves, when we see ourselves the way christ does, we are repenting. yesterday i was able to teach a 12 year old girl (she was a member, dont get too excited) that reading her scriptures, which she does faithfully, is a form of repentance. she told me that when she reads, she always sees something in life that parallels to the scriptures she read. she said it helps her understand the world. i helped her see that that is forming a fresh view of the world, which is what the bible dictionary says repentance is. she thought that was pretty great. i think i thought it was even greater. i got to teach her! it was a lovely time. i love the ward!

thank you so much family! your pictures are all around the mirror i use to get ready. i love all of you! thank you thank you thank you!! i love your faces, your words, and the prayers you say for me. thank you!! i love you!!

love, aunt sister wanay buxton!

December 30, 2013

dear jew,

how are jew?

eh eh :)

yes yes skyping really was a joy. i did have fun and i love all of you! it was a blast! everyone looked good and cute and handsome and pretty and all that. thank you so much for gathering the mass of family so that i could see and talk to you. thank you thank you thank you!! i love you!

o the kitties. i have not heard of thai until now. what a silly story. this isnt mayonnaise is it? i am guessing not. crazy lunk. does she know we saved her from a ferocious fiendish wild life? gee whizz! hahaha oh bob you are so loving to all creatures. i laughed though the whole paragraph about the cats. you are so funny!

i am so happy to hear about cousin walker coming home from the philippines. i feel like i have never really known him, so i am excited to re-meet him someday. he sounds great :)

hahahah oh you snikkety tippety mother of mine with the theater tickets and the bonus beverage at every performance. you silly woman! you crack me so!

poop

that poop was from elder jessee.. haha

i am so happy to hear about the wedding. i am glad that boy got married. bob, you are just such a wonderful woman always giving and caring and doing and lifting. thank you!

thank you for thinking of me so much. i love being loved by all of you.

the gifts you sent me are so wonderful. i am SO HAPPY to have one of those blasted dog toothbrushes! they are the best source of scrubbing teeth. i love it! the tights are perfect and SO cool! the sweater is top notch! i feel like i am totally fab now.  the skirt i really like a lot. it is a little short for the mission though, so i am not totally sure what to do about it because i like it.

the hats are great! s beus wears her hat nearly daily. you are so talented bob! thank you so much! thank you thank you! all the gifts are wonderful. the scarfs erin made are really cool, too!

well i have had a marvelous week. christmas really was wonderful. the members are good to us and we are happy and working hard. the africans dont all speak english. we teach some of them english and sometimes we have someone translate for us. i dont know how they get here. they all so wonderful though.

so i have a wonderful story for you. so erry once in a while missionaries get a referral from media headquarters. it is exciting when we get one, but there is always a chance that it is a prank. so we got one recently. we called and sure enough, the person wanted an appointment! so we set it up. we had to meet in the library because he lives in a group home and we couldnt meet there because of confidential issues or something. he is a wonderful man! he is probs in his late teens. he told us that his grandparents are members, his parents arent. it sounded like his family is perhaps a little broken. good thing the gospel fixes broken things. his dad doesnt approve of the church. he said he decided to seek out and study for himself. he was so kind and so sincere. he looked me right in the eyes when i talked to him. he listened to everything. he wanted to have a book of mormon. he wanted to read. he wanted to pray. he wanted to know!! at the end of the appointment, he prayed!! right in front of us! it was so wonderful!! then he said he had one more question before we left. he asked if we could meet up again sometime! what!! ah! it was just such an excellent time. ah! i am just so happy! so happy for him! he even said we could call him brother :)

i love you and thank you so much! i am a very very happy missionary!

love, sister lani buxton

December 23, 2013

ok more stuff.

hahahaha thank you for all the silly updates. paige had better not get married before i get home!! gah!

we get to skype!! i think i will be calling or perhaps you need to call me (i dont know this stuff) at 6:45-7:00 eastern time. that is when i am planning to call or whatever. i hope that works. i really do.

ok. this week has been so good! so good!

i will start with a lovely story from wednesday. there is a woman from africa that was baptized a short time ago. she speaks some english but she really wants to get better. so we teach her on a weekly basis. when we went over this week, there was a man at her apt that i had never seen. initially i didnt think much of it because everyone is new to me because i am new in the area. plus the africans have lots of friends and it is hard for me to keep track of who is who and all that. he asked me what my name was and what organization i am from and if it is a good organization. turns out he went from africa to ny 4 months ago and he just got to maine the day before! he knows the people we were visiting through mutual friends. they are letting him stay with them until he gets things figured out. s beus started teaching english and i sat with the new friend. he told me that he had a rough past and he used to be a not so great man. but one day he woke up and knew that what he was doing was wrong, that he needed to change, and so he did. it was like an alma the younger story. he kept saying things like 'i am not a good man, only god is good' and 'god has chosen me do be like this' all these great things. he started telling me all these great things about the nature of god and prophets and how god works the same yesterday today and forever. i taught him the restoration. i told him that god came to joseph smith just like he had done with other prophets. i had barely brought it up and showed him the picture in the resto pamphlet when he snatched it out of my hands, held it up in the air and showed the other people in the room. he started telling THEM that god works the same always just like with "this man" (joseph smith). it was so cool! he just ate it all up! he loved the message of the restoration. he committed to reading the bom, praying to know, and coming to church. and sure enough, he came with our recent converts to church on sunday. he even had a brand new hard cover journal with him and he took notes all though church. it was amazing to see. i am so excited for that man. such good things are going to happen. ah!

one more good story. the other day our appointment with someone fell through and our back-up plans didnt work. then, by a stoke of inspiration on s beus' part, we stopped by a warm member who we didnt know and didnt know anything about. when we knocked on the door, he was happy to see us. he was also shocked. he said he really wants to come back to church! he grew up in wyoming. missionaries found his family when he was 8. he stayed active for most his life, but hasnt been active for the last few years, even though he really loves the values of the church. he has a girlfriend and wants to get her involved in the church. he is so stoked to come back to church, he said he wants to attend before the new year comes. he was so shocked to see us! ah! so good!

ok. i have WICKED GOOD story for you on christmas! you will love it.

man. the more i study the gospel and live the gospel, the more i know it is true. its not only true, it is so worth it! its so real and so good. its also unexplainable. like in helaman 5:44. so good!!

i love you family and i cant wait to talk to you. thank you for your love and the good things you send to me electronically, usps-ly, and energy of the universe-ly :) i love you! talk to you soon!

love, sister wanay buxton