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 :)