A better week.....

Man this week was so much better. I love you all so much! I realize now how much everything meant to me at home! Yesterday we got to go to the temple dedication just at a stake center with our zone but president uchtdorf and elder holland came so it was amazing! That helped me a ton. They don't know any spanish so it was all in english and someone translated. We didn't get to go to the cultural event though. President said no. But my comp and I got to see some of it in a replay last night. No I don't do my own laundry, yet. Our neighbor does everything but garments, then a member does the garments. We played soccer last p day with our district but today we are going to play with the whole zone. I absolutely love my zone so that should be fun. I love my district leader too. He is amazing. He reminds me exactly of mckay steggell. Except mexican haha. We had one baptism last week and she asked me to do it so I did. It was awesome. My first baptism. I sent a picture so hopefully you get it. The other picture is me and a friend in the mtc that I loved. His neighbor is the prophet. Oh the first day I met an elder named elder colledge and he said he knows ashlee.. hmm. ha I am feeling a lot better though. I just cant wait to be done training. Its annoying. I don't remember if I told you but my first day I was going around meeting members and the last one she needed a blessing so of course my companion made me do it. In spanish. That was scary but I survived. I cant think of what else. Oh mom!! dearelder works here. My friend got 3 of them the other day and it took 5 days to get here. Thats nothing. So tell people to write me when they can. And when you want to send me talks, do it through there mom. Also write me through there so I can get your advice faster. 

We have one baptism this weekend. Then 5 baptismal dates in april so far. We are working hard! I cant wait to be done with training because everyone says it flies by after that. I live in Zambrano. My next transfer is the end of May

If you all are going to send me a package soon then please send me peanut butter m&ms and some pushup bars. Big m&m bag but the pushup bars just simple ones. 

Elder Buxton

Honduras!!!!

Finally I get to write. Its so hard here. They honestly have nothing. Our house is nicer than all of the members and everyone. Its only me and my companion living in our house. His name is elder Herrera and is from mexico. So I have to speak Spanish all day which is good for me. They speak so fast but I am getting used to it and can understand most of it. There were 32 new missionaries the same day as me. That's the most there has ever been. I miss all of you guys so much. This week was the hardest week of my life. But we have 2 baptisms set for this Friday. Both of them didn't want to get baptized but then when I came they both said yes. I don't know why. Its nothing that I did. I have no idea. But that's good. I live 40 minutes outside of Tegucigalpa. I don't like living in a pueblo. I want to live in the city. My district thinks I will be training a new missionary in 11 weeks but I don't. We'll see. I don't know what to say other than this is so much harder than I expected. We have a huge area so we walk a ton. In 5 weeks we get two more missionaries in our area so that's less work for us which is good. The members are great. I love them. Not gonna lie, I hated church yesterday. It didn't even feel like church. Its so different. I am going to have to give a talk soon. Oh and the reason why this is so scattered is because our president only allows 30 minutes of email. We don't know why but that's his rule. Also we cant drink coke. No clue why. I don't know what else to say. Except this is so hard.

LATER IN THE DAY:

President changed the rule and now we get 50 minutes so I have 10 extra minutes to be on. My companion is going to give me a blessing when we get back to the house. 

EVERYONE...PLEASE REMEMBER AUSTIN IN YOUR PRAYERS. HE IS HAVING A HARDER TIME ADJUSTING THAN HE EXPECTED OR THAN EVEN I EXPECTED. I KNOW THAT IF HE CAN FEEL SOME COMFORT THEN HE WILL BE ABLE TO ADJUST QUICKLY AND NOT THINK ABOUT HOME. HE ALSO DOESN'T HAVE MUCH TIME TO EMAIL AS YOU CAN SEE. THE EMAIL RULE WAS CHANGED TODAY BY THE CHURCH AND ALLOWS THEM TO NOW EMAIL THEIR FRIENDS AND PRIESTHOOD LEADERS AND ASKS THAT THE MISSION PRESIDENTS ALLOW ENOUGH TIME FOR THEM TO DO THAT. MAYBE HE WILL GET EVEN MORE TIME NEXT WEEK AS I JUST HEARD THIS NEW INFORMATION SO LIKELY MANY OF THE MISSIONARIES HAVE NOT HEARD ABOUT IT YET. LETTERS WOULD BE VERY APPRECIATED WITH LOTS OF ENCOURAGING INFORMATION IN THEM! IT IS FREE ON WWW.DEARELDER.COM AND A LARGE POUCH OF LETTERS IS SENT EVERY TUESDAY FROM THE CHURCH HEADQUARTERS. THE DEADLINE IS SUNDAY NIGHT AT MIDNIGHT FOR IT TO GET MAILED THAT TUESDAY. THANKS FOR YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT.

Happy P Day

Alright I dont have much to say since the weeks here are repetitive. I would just keep telling you the same things happened over and over. So we had room inspection this week and we did absolutely horrible. You know me Mom and I like my room organized. So my part was organized and my roomates side wasnt so we did terrible. I thought it was funny though. Doesn't really matter. We have gotten SOO many new missionaries! It's crazy. Wednesdays are so crazy. Wednesday at dinner all of the new missionaries have the same dinner time as us so it is packed to the max! Its crazy. We are getting another bunk bed in our room soon for 2 new missionaries to room with us next wednesday. But I get to escort new missionaries on Wednesday!! Im so excited. I think Steve Hansen is coming in. Not sure of anyone else but I am so excited. I'm sure it'll be so fun. I keep forgetting to tell you, this girl in my zone is named Hermana Thomas. She is in our stake. Cody saw her in the picture and reminded me. I remembered that she was in our stake and we talk about it all of the time but I just keep forgetting to tell you. She graduated with Cody. Um yeah I got both of your packages this week. Thank you so much!! One of the martinelli's broke in the package and it got all over. Luckily my camera still works. Everything is fine though. So you know I told you about our teacher went to the same mission as cody's and he tells us stories all of the time. His stories are amazing. He spent most of his mission in the southern part of Argentina where it is next to Antarctica. Crazy. But he had us watch this talk by Elder Bednar called Recognizing the Spirit. It helped me so much. You can only access it in the MTC cause he gave it here at a devotional. We also watched an Elder Holland talk and it was amazing. You can only access them in the MTC though so you can't see it. Lets see... We got a new investigator and she is suicidal so we are working on her. It's just our teacher but she is acting as someone that she found on her mission. It caught us by surprise though cause we weren't expecting her to be suicidal. I honestly love it here! My district has become way close and I feel like family with them. I love it. It's so much fun. Oh yeah, so this morning we were instructed to build bunk beds at 6:30 so we had to skip the temple at 5:30 and then they told us it got cancelled. It was a mess and we were so mad we skipped the temple for nothing. But most of us just went back to bed and we woke up at like 9. it was so nice! Anyways, I'll answer your  questions now. I definitely can feel a change. I have already grown so much and have really come to know the importance of the gospel. I dont think a lot of kids in high school actually know the importance of it. I love personal study. I have really gotten into the scriptures so I think that is my favorite part besides gym. Most of our day is just with our district. About 6 hours a day we are with our teachers. Our district leader only leads our devotionals, goes to meetings, and gets mail. So he doesnt really lead us. We get a new DL tomorrow though. I dont have time to read codys email but copy and paste it into dearelder and send it to me for sure! Yes I got the bishop's letter. I haven't met missionaries going to my mission yet. I met and Elder Youngblood (sweet last name) going to Honduras but not my mission. I think about being in the field constantly. I am so excited. I can't wait. I dont know what oil she gave me but it was disgusting. haha I hated it but it worked.  We have only had people from the 70. No general authorities yet. But maybe soon! Anyways, send me cody's email. I love you mom! You all are in my prayers! Thank you for everything you do!

Elder Buxton

How was this week?

Alright so this week was different than any other in the MTC. It was absolutely amazing. But first we had to say goodbye to some close friends in our zone that I have become really close to. I have pictures with them and stuff but can't send them from here. Hopefully I can once I get into the field. So on Tuesday night we have devotionals and I just so happened to get 5th row front and center. We had no idea who was speaking until they walked in and guess who it was?? Elder M. Russell Ballard!!! I am so lucky! I was like 10 feet from him. It was an amazing experience. We always sing a prelude before the devotionals and as we were singing he walked in and everyone stood up and kept singing. It was awesome! I am so glad I got to experience that the week before I leave. Then on wednesday we got to host again! It was awesome because I got to host Connor and I got to see Mason the week before I leave. It made me so happy. Connor's dad recorded me and said he'll show you it next time he sees you so hopefully soon. Then while I was hosting Connor I was taking him to his room and he just so happened to be 3 doors down from me so we hang out at nights. It's pretty sweet. I'm not really sure why he's on our floor because we were all spanish speaking but now we have some Portugese speaking. But it's awesome! Other than those things, my week was pretty similar. I had to say goodbye to one of the teachers that helped us yesterday. Um, my last gym day is tomorrow. I hate not having gym. The Thursday or Friday before you leave the MTC we have an In-Field Orientation from 8am until 6pm. It was really good and helped me a lot. I am so glad they do that. One of the Elders from the District came and stuff. It was sweet. I don't really know what else to say other than I am so excited to get out! So I was looking up facts about the Tegucigalpa Temple and it's in my mission! It was announced like 7 years ago and it just so happens to be dedicated 2 weeks after I arrive there on my mission. That hit me hard because the Lord really needs me for something there. I am not sure what yet but I will find out. I am hoping I get to go to the dedication or help out or something. I don't want to get my hopes up though because then if I dont get to go then I will be sad. Tomorrow is my last day with one of my teachers so I will have to say goodbye to her. Oh yeah I ran into a mission president who is training here who is going to be the new mission president in the old San Pedro Honduras mission. That was pretty cool. He told us the story of how he got to be a mission president. Pretty crazy.

Now to answer your questions. No new missionaries in our room! I am so glad. I hope you all enjoyed the pictures that Connor's family took. Carson told me that Connor was coming in so I was looking for him. My district has talked to the missionaries I am flying with but I wasnt there so I have yet to meet them. I doubt I will until we are leaving. I am so excited to get to call you guys! I am sure you will be the only one to wake up Mom hahah. My companion is great. He leaves Monday morning and he is the first to leave. So he has to say goodbye to everyone earlier. My companion and I arent teaching that girl anymore, my teacher wanted to give others a chance so different people are teaching her each week. I have gotten 2 emails from my Mission president while I am here but one of them I haven't read yet. I will after this. I am sure the pants will work. I haven't tried them on yet but they look like they will work. I am going to send one or two packages home before I leave so be aware. Can you include like a hoodie in the package tomorrow so that I have something at nights? The mail room closes on Saturday's at 2 so you'll have to hurry that package so I can get it. I think I am going to start packing today some after I go do laundry. Crazy! I heard about osmerh that's awesome! And jeremy already has his call?? WOW! That's awesome! I love you Mom!! Hope you had a great birthday!

Love, Elder Buxton