Monday, September 19, 2011

Ups and Downs

Dear family,



So my foot is a lot better and I'll send you a picture that I recently took of it so you can see the bruise that resulted. I am perfectly fine now. It still hurts to the touch, but I can continue on just normally with my missionary efforts. I just take some Ibuprofen everyday which keeps the pain down and helps with the healing. So it really isn't much of a bother there. Before I forget, did you save the videos I sent you to the computer? I want to know so I can delete them from the jump drive. This week Elder Graves and I had some good experiences, but some downers as well.


I'll start with yesterday. So on Saturday we had a church tour with one of our investigators, Thomas who Elder Ihalmo and i taught, but then lost contact. I called him on Wednesday and that night we saw him. In the past, he was really hesitant to come to church so I thought a tour of it would help along with a member coming with us. So had it and he said it was really powerful and was planning on coming the next day. However he called us and said that he wouldn't be coming for social concerns really. Then Rakesh who wasn't feeling well, couldn't come either. Santosh was busy and another man named Camara from Portugal didn't answer his phone in the morning so he didn't come either. So we were left with nobody coming with us to church. Then after gospel principles, a man we talked to on the street about a week and a half ago showed up at church and stayed for priesthood. His name is Arthur (Art for short). He also knows a member there which he was shocked to see there. So we were really glad that he came. That morning I was actually thinking about what if someone just randomly showed up and bam it happened. So we are looking forward to teaching him later this week.


So about how Rakesh is doing. What happened was that he got sick Saturday night and was vomiting and also something was wrong with his heart, so he went into hospital for 3 days and then his brother looked after him for a couple of days. Then, Thursday night at 10 p.m. he called us and asked what we were doing the next day and invited us over. It was so good to see him again and as usual he fed us some really good Indian food. However his health still isn't good so we shall see how it goes. With that in mind and a few other things, we decided to push his baptism back a couple of weeks.


On Friday we had a zone conference about praying with "all energy of heart." Which means that we need to put in a lot of effort into praying just like if we were to run with all energy of heart. Also we discussed how we should make prayer like "skype sessions" where we fully intend to get answers immediately. That has really helped me pray a lot better along with now I want to start a prayer journal and record thoughts and impressions I get. We also discussed the atonement and how Jesus is the Savior (from death) and Redeemer (from sin). We also discussed what it means to redeem. It means to reconcile that because of the Fall, we need somehow to lift us higher and that is through the atonement of Christ.


About the shoes, that sounds good, but I know that the old ones from the missionary mall won't last much longer, so I would suggest that you send me the new pair as soon as you get them. Hopefully the ones that I have bought will get me through the winter. Thank you for all that you do.+


Lastly, my thoughts on Bishop Young. Well I really liked him as a Bishop and always looked forward to hear him speak. His oratory was beautiful, but always easily understood. What I also liked was how he could delegated and how much trust he had in the ward leaders that he had called. This way he could focus on what mattered most and so that he could still be active in his family. He was a good Bishop and lastly helped me greatly prepare for my mission. He really encouraged us to study from Preach My Gospel that propelled me in my understanding of the lessons. His love for the members of the Durango Ward was stellar.






Love,


Elder Buxton


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