Dear Family,How are you? It sounds like you are doing well and that your trip to see grandma and grandpa went well. We are doing well here and had a pretty good week. Then best thing that happened was that on Wednesday we had an appointment with a man who wasn't there so we decided to knock a few doors in the area. As we were approaching the first door, Elder Heidler said, "Look who it is." I turned around and saw Edna who we taught a few weeks ago, but had been at her daughters helping to care for her and her grandchildren. We caught up a bit and set up an appointment for the next day. We brought Brother Sullivan along and we spoke about the first part of the plan of salvation, then as we were about to go, I asked her what she thought about being baptized. She said that she would still like to and had been thinking about it when she was at her daughter's. Then Brother Sullivan said that it would be important for her to set a date. Edna liked the idea and said that that it was she normally does when she sets a goal. We then asked her what date she would want to set. She then thought and said that her birthday would be good which was in July. Brother Sullivan than commented that that was too far away and that the adversary would try and tempt and get her away from this and that she should set it sooner. So she thought for a moment and asked what today was. We said that it was the 24th of May. She then said that why don't set it for a month from now. It was truly amazing to see how the Spirit works when we are unified. Also what was interesting was that we planned to invite her to be baptized on June 24, but weren't really planning on doing it right of way, but I felt inspired to ask just so we can see if we were going anywhere. Then on Sunday while we were at church, I was sitting next to Elizabeth after sacrament meeting and Brother Sullivan and Edna came around and Brother Sullivan was asking Elizabeth how long ago she was baptized. Then Edna said "I'm getting done on the 24th." It was so good to hear that.Other things that happened were that I went to on exchanges to Buchan which is the ward north of Aberdeen. We went to places like Peterhead and Fraserburgh. Also on Wednesday we helped Brother Anupum take down an old shed in his back yard. That was fun to just use a sledge hammer and take it apart. We also started teaching this man named Frank who is from Africa. He really wants to know which of all the churches are true because many testify that theirs is the one, but we hope as we teach him more that he can pray for himself and see. Also on Sunday night we were in an area and we were going by some people that said we could come back. None really wanted to us in though. So we saw this lady out in her front yard eating a chippie with her children. We then learned that she is a member of the church and was baptized when she was 12 and now wants to get back into it again. It just goes to show that the Lord places people in your path.This past week, the weather has been really good and some call it a heat wave even though the temperatures are only between 62 and 77 degrees. It's hot for them, but definitely not for me. I hope that the weather continues, but knowing Scotland, it probably won't. Have a good week and safe travels,Love,Elder Buxton
Dear Family,
I am doing well here. Things have slowed down a bit. Like the missionaries in our ward, we only had 5 lessons to investigators this past week as well. It seems that the things we are doing aren't working and the people we were working with can't meet with us yet (or might not want to at all). Jonathan is doing alright and is still reading the Book of Mormon on his own and finding answers in there. His sister came back from University in Switzerland on Saturday. Hopefully she won't hinder any progress we are making with them. From what we have heard about her, she is a nice girl. Other than that, we taught a few people her and there, but nothing much. Last night we were supposed to see this guy named Kingsley, but he wasn't there so we decided to go and knock a few doors before the end of the night. So we decided to go wherever the Spirit would prompt us to go, so we went to this area and knocked on three doors. Nothing happened, then a man came out of one door that we knocked on. Elder Heilder called after him and he said that he had already spoken to us a couple of times, but we got talking and we were able to answer some of the questions that he had. It was a good conversation we had and he became quite interested to read from the Book of Mormon that he was given earlier.
Other things that we did were go to zone conference which was all about the Book of Mormon we were also given a new dvd that we can pass out that gives an introduction and has Elder Holland's testimony that he gave of it a few conferences ago along with the conversion story of a Bishop in London. We look forward to giving it out to people. There I also saw Elder James and my "grandson" Elder Park who Elder James is training. There is a picture of it that I sent already. On Sunday, the other missionaries had a baptism of a man named Paul. He is the husband of a member. The great thing is that he started investigating mainly because he saw how well his wife was taken care of by the Relief Society. His investigation has also helped him wife be more active now as well. It is so great when a family comes together.
Looks like things are moving on at home. It will be sad to see that the suburban won't be there, but to be honest, I never liked to drive it. Are you planning on getting replacing it?
We will probably having dinner at the Stobbarts when we go on Monday evening.
Does Dad ever go out with the missionaries as he is a ward missionary?
I hope that everything goes well at home.
Love,
Elder Buxton
Dear Family,
I hope that you are all doing well after I last saw you. I really enjoyed to speaking to you and getting some answers to some things that I was pondering about. Thanks once again. So I looked up how long it would take to from Aberdeen to Loch Ness and other things and figured that it would take about 7 hours to do it all. So if that can fit in with the plane ride to London, I would love to see these things.
So on to missionary work though. Elizabeth is still doing well. Jonathan has made some progress though. He has been getting some answers as he continues to read from the Book of Mormon. Sometimes he flips to random pages and reads what it says and many times it answers his questions. We also promised him that if he came to church yesterday-which he did-that he would do well on his Chemistry exam that he has tomorrow. Now I hope and pray that he will. Other than that, many of our investigators haven't been able to meet with us for various reasons. We thought we found a very solid lady from a less-active referral, but she canceled, but still wants to meet sometime. We found a less-active street contacting and she was willing to meet with us and gain her faith back, but she wouldn't return our calls nor could we find her address. However we were able to meet with this man named Kingsley who after watching the Restoration dvd, and discussing it, wanted to meet again. So we hope that as he reads from the Book of Mormon, that he'll see the need to join the Church. We hope though that this week will be better especially since Edna is coming back from her daughter's this week, Sam is feeling better now, and we have a few appointments this week. Also we have started doing this Book of Mormon loan program where we lend out copies of the Book of Mormon for about a week and then go by and see what people think. This first two we gave them to, gave them back, and one other lady nearly gave it back, but after talking a bit more, we found out that one of her grandsons wants to know where it came from so we set up an appointment and gave the book back as a special gift from us to her. We hope that we can teach many of her family.
Thanks for all that you do.
Love,
Elder Buxton
Dear Family,
I am doing very well. We had a good week capped off by the confirmation of Elizabeth on Sunday. She asked me to do it so I did. It was quite the experience and I was glad to be worthy to do it. She is so excited to be a member of the Church now. She tells just about everyone. I hope now that she can be an example to her family and friends. She went to a relief society activity as well and enjoyed herself there.
We talk a lady named Sam a couple of times. She seems good and wants to be baptized and read from the Book of Mormon. Unfortunately, she came down with a throat infection at the end of the week and hasn't been that well. We also started teaching this man named Gary who has come out of a rough patch in his life and wants to turn to God again. He looks forward to meeting with us, but unfortunately he has to look after his father because he isn't doing that well. We have seen Elizabeth and her son Jonathan. Jonathan is making progress, but probably wont' be baptized soon as he struggles gaining a testimony along with studying for school exams. We gave him a For the Strength of Youth pamphlet to read and apply in his life. Hopefully he can gain a testimony that way. We were able to do quite a bit of service as well. We helped one lady move stuff out of her attic and into her new flat. We helped Brother Anupum in his garden putting down some rocks and making it look nice. We helped the Wares in their garden as well to pull some weeds and mow the lawn.
Last Thursday on Preparation Day, we went and played mini golf which was fun. Elder Heidler won and I came 2nd. About phoning home. I will be skyping at the Wares and will probably arrange it for 11:30 a.m. your time. I know this means that you'll have to miss part of church, but it's the latest time that would work. The only questions that I have are of the schedule of our tour around the mission.
Yesterday we had a zone meeting and took the picture that I sent. We also played basketball afterward which was quite fun.
It seems like things are going well at home and I hope that Dad mans up and gets over his soreness.
Love,
Elder Buxton
