Christmas Week

Dear family,

How are you doing? I am doing fine. I have a slight cold right now and I really hope that it will go away quickly. As far as Christmas goes. I know that I have a package in Lisburn and that I will get it tomorrow. For skyping, I know Michelle might now like this, but I will call at 10:30 am your time. I hope that I will also remember my account. I should be good though and everything will be fine. It is getting really excited now as it is less than a week to Christmas. I am really excited for zone conference tomorrow and the opportunity to go to the Dublin again. This past week we have been blessed weather wise as it hasn't snowed and stuck really (knock on wood). I am very glad of that. It is funny that Drew's voice just stayed the same because that is the opposite of how people speak here. Many go up and down and many people's statements end with their voice going up which can be confusing, but I am used to it now and just last week a missionary from London said that I sound a bit English.

As far as missionary work goes, Eddie is doing well. He came to church and is really enjoying himself and preparing himself for baptism next week so long as he can quit smoking. We did a fast with him and he is so close to quitting. He came to the ward's Christmas dinner on Friday with two of his children and they enjoyed themselves. His children say that he is so much happier now than before. Rakesh came to church as well for the first time in a long time. He is going to cook us Chinese on Friday for Christmas celebration that we are going to have with him. Also at the Christmas dinner was a man named Richard that we have been teaching. We set it up so that he would sit with some people his age (between 20 and 30), and he enjoyed himself and was able to discuss with them about the Book of Mormon. It really goes to show that we things are carefully planned that great things happen. This week we also started teaching this man named Paul. He wonders if God is there or not and why those that do wickedly sometimes appear to be better off than those that do good. We were able to explain a bit about that and we will see him again this week and hope that we can get his whole family involved. Another great miracle happened this week. We received a referral from a member. He was over at his grandson's mother's home and her friend started asking him some questions. So he got some pamphlets from us and brought her to the Christmas dinner as well. Then on Sunday we were over at this member's home for dinner and they came by to get their grandson and take him home. While there we were able to answer some of her questions and she is quite interested to learn more. So we will see her this week with the member. Her name is Madi. On Friday we went and did some service for this place called Tools for Solidarity. They refurbish old tools and sewing machines and send them to 3rd world countries. I just cut up some wood for them so they can build some boxes to send the stuff. It was fun and we enjoyed ourselves. On Sunday evening we were able to go to the stake carol service. It was kinda like a concert and many wards had choirs that sang. There was some narration in between from the stake presidency and others. It was really good. We will be doing more singing later this week as we are going carolling with the ward at an elderly care home and Christmas eve we have a fireside that we are singing at as well.

I love you all and look forward to speaking with you on Christmas at 10:30 am.

 

Love,

Elder Buxton

 

P.S. the photo is of Elder James and I with the man that trained my trainer. His name is Patrick Brophy.