Chance Really Did Make It Home From England

 So Chance made it home from England. He loved so many things about living and loving the people he met in that great country.

He made many friends for life, and part of his heart will forever belong to the people he served as a missionary.

Chance returned with an extra glow about him, a mantle of growth, independence and wisdom. 

As a line from one of his favorite movies, "The Man From Snowy River," says: 

"He's not a lad, brother, he's a man."   Spur

Elder Paxton did indeed return home a man. He had lived over seas for two years, lived through a pandemic where he was locked in a flat for 23 hours a day at times, learned to plan out meals, when the grocery stores were getting low on food, spent time being isolated in his flat with companions he had only just met, prepared flats for other owners when moving out, and lived for several months surrounded by people wearing masks, which is NOT the most optimal environment for a deaf person to hear in.  He had grown from a lad to a man.

We were sure excited to see and hug him after a two year separation.

Due to COVID, we were not able to go into the airport to meet him, but instead waited out in part of an empty airport parking lot waiting for him to exit outside.

We all were wearing masks, which made the reunion even more suspenseful after being apart for two years since everyone had grown a foot or two in that period of time.

Chance had been on a plane for a loooooong time with a couple of lay overs by the time he got home to us......and he looked just perfect!

I got the first hug.......just as it should be. 

Chance and his dad

]                                                     Chance and his brother held each other for a bit....they 

                                                        have been best friends since they were little sharing a bed.

                                                        And just like his brother, Chance returned home with a guitar 

                                                        he bought during his mission. 

                                                        And his English substitute for a cowboy hat that he 

                                                        wore through out his mission to help protect his 

                                                        implants from the elements.

Chance hugs his littlest sister who changed the most out of all of us while he was gone.

Chance and his younger brother, both in hats naturally, enjoy a sweet reunion.

Chance has another sister too, and her picture will be added

soon.

                                              Chance in the parking lot of the airport...looking quite

                                                                         dapper in his suit.

                                                Notice that although he didn't have a cowboy hat on, Chance's

                                               brother provided one for him as soon as they made contact.

What a joyous reunion we had with our boy!

We are excited to have him home and be in his presence again.

We would not have traded his time on a mission though for having him home.

He was where the Lord needed him to be and he flourished while growing and stretching

in ways that had him return home even better than when he left.

He just lights up when ever he talks about the people he met that are so dear to his heart now,

and he made life long friends.

He grew in his relationship with Jesus Christ as he learned to rely on God and saw first hand

the personal love that God and Christ have for each of us.

Our family is complete again and all together!

Last Days in England

 Elder Paxton's time as a missionary is almost complete.

He has been enjoying his last days before he comes home and working

on the video he has been filming

about his deafness.

These are some pictures he took of things around his flat.

Elder Paxton had some fun activities this week as he mentioned in his 

email home:

Hello everyone! Some of you may know and some of you may not know. This week is my last full week in the mission. It is a humbling experience. Lot's of thoughts on my mission and what I gained from it. I will save some of those things that I learned and the person I have been able to become for next week. 

Last week was a good one. I got to work a pretty good amount on editing my video and this week I will be going into the mission office to work with our technology specialist to get things finalized. It is exciting! I am so stoked to get this video done! 

We were also able to meet with mostly recent converts which is amazing because I am able to see them grow and to see their testimonies continue to be strengthened. It was totally awesome! I love being able to strengthen and help the people here in England whether they are members or nonmembers. I love meeting with, getting to know, teaching, and learning from the people of England and China. It has been an incredible experience. 

Our mission president has asked us to get outside every single day and to do some form of exercise whether it be a walk, running, or sports of some kind. This past week we decided to go play some frisbee and so we went to a field to do that. The thing about the fields here is they are always wet and muddy. For this particular experience, it was exciting, so after we finished playing frisbee, we decided to run through mud puddles and it was super super fun! 

The other elders in our flat have someone who is getting baptized this coming Saturday and it is super exciting! I got to meet her and talk with her and she has a very strong faith and belief in this church. Covid might be halting a lot of things, but it sure ain't halting the work of the Lord. The Lord will go forward no matter what Satan does to try to stop it! I have had a front row seat in this work continue to move forward during these times and it has been thrilling! 

Keep drawing closer to God. Keep doing your prayers, scripture study, going to church (where and when you can) and keeping God's commandments. Times may be hard, but the best thing we can do now is to draw closer to him. He loves you. The way that we show our love to him, is to become more like him. 

I love y'all! Hope you have a great week!

                                                   Muddy feet from playing frisbee/American football/soccer     

            

                                                  Making Chocolate Chip Pancakes

An Apartment Break-In

 Elder Paxton got to experience more snow while away in

England.

He also got to enjoy the sight of a charming English church.

Elder Paxton experienced a little break in across the pond!

His email home explains what happened:

This past week has been a good one! We have finished all of the filming for the video about my Deafness and we are now editing it! We still have a lot of work ahead of us in the editing but it is going to be so worth it!! 

We were able to meet with loads of members, start working on some musical pieces, and also work on and finish a video about how faith compares to bunnies in Mandarin and it is awesome! I have a lot of work ahead of me this week. We have a lot of lessons and a lot of videos that we are working on which I ain't gonna complain about because it keeps me busy and it keeps me going!

This past week we actually had an incident occur. We went shopping and came back to the flat and our window was open and we were all like, "uh oh." We went inside and there was nothing that had been taken and so we were curious as to what someone had broken into our flat for. Fast forward to that evening, the other Elders were making some deep fried Oreo's and they were joking about needing the fire extinguisher because it was getting smoky, so they looked at the wall where the fire extinguisher is supposed to be and it was gone! So we came to the conclusion that perhaps someone had a fire and needed an extinguisher real quick. Who knows haha. We ended up buying some locks for our windows so no one can get in now. 

This past week I learned a really valuable lesson. I learned the principle of doing our best then letting go. I had been talking to my older brother last week about some challenges I was facing and he reminded me to do my best and then let go of the rest. That really stood out to me. I was able to feel a burden lifted off my shoulders and the presence of the spirit more as I applied that teaching. 

There will be times when despite all that we do, things will not go how we want them to, or how we hoped they would. When we do all that we can, and sometimes fall a little short, or someone chooses contrary to that which is right, that is where the Savior's atonement comes in. After we do all that we can do, with a prayer in our hearts, the Savior takes care of the rest. We can do everything we can to help souls come unto Christ, to invite them to better themselves, and walk in righteousness, but in the end we are just an instrument in the hands of God, Jesus Christ is the one that does the work. This is his work, not ours. He is the one that changes the hearts of people, not us. 

My dear friends, do what you can do. Keep trying, keep giving it your best, and once you have done all you can do, give it over to the Savior. Completely. If we don't let it go, the Savior cannot take it, even if we hold on to one itty bitty piece. Do your best, then let Christ take care of the rest. 

I love you all! You are amazing!

Love, 

Elder Paxton

Gold Phone Booths

Many people have heard about the red phone booths in England.

But GOLD phone booths?

Elder Paxton (aka Chance)

has lived in a city where the phone booths are gold.

Elder Paxton has also spent a lot of extra time in various

stages of lock down due to COVID  19, so his

sight seeing options have been a bit curtailed at times.

He has however, still managed to take some pictures that give us 

and idea of where he lives and some of the sights around him.

It is sort of a custom for missionaries to take pictures of their name tags

in various locations on their missions.

Here is one that Elder Paxton took:

Chance also had this to say in the email he sent to us with the pictures:

Last week I also read a talk about China by President Oaks and it was so inspiring. As I listened it struck me that, my calling as a missionary to teach and help the Chinese people does not end when my mission is over. The Lord did not call me to teach, help, and connect with the Mandarin Chinese people only on my mission. This is a LIFETIME calling. The Lord has much in store for the Chinese people, and I'm meant to help with a little piece in helping the Chinese people learn more about God and Jesus Christ. I am grateful to the Lord with entrusting me with this calling. I hope that I may be a servant and instrument in the hands of the Lord throughout the remainder of my mission and life.

Now, for the spiritual thought.
The story of the Brother of Jared has really intrigued me these past couple of weeks of the faith and humily of these people. One part that I really liked was Ether 6:9 which says:

9 - "And they did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he did thank and praise the Lord all the day long; and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord."

They were in the middle of their travel to the promised land on the sea and they did continue to "thank and praise the Lord". This scripture goes right in line with President Nelson's video that he released on Gratitude.https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/president-nelson-gratitude-message It is so important to be grateful for the things that we have. He said that being grateful is one of the easiest ways to be happy and I agree! Continue to be grateful my dear friends no matter what you are going through. Remember to recognize the Lord for all the blessings you have received and give your thanks and praises. It will bless you forever. 

I love all of y'all so much! I hope you have a great week and a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Love,

Elder Paxton

 

What Has Chance Been Doing?

So you may be asking what it is that Chance has been doing on his mission in England this past while.

He has experienced another lock down due to COVID 19 and has been getting a good view of the inside of his flat.

He  lives with three other missionaries in the flat and though one traditionally does

a bit of sight seeing when living abroad, Chance or Elder Paxton as he is called on his mission

has not seen much of the country the last few weeks as only essential stores are open.

BUT, he is in good spirits and is working on a project that is close to his heart.

We are excited to see the finished project at home, and will be adding a bit of our

insights to Chance's story.

Elder Paxton talks about the project in his email home this week:

Hello Everyone!

This past week has been a good one! We've been pretty busy! To explain Miracle of Deafness, I am doing a video that is about my deafness and my story of how I went deaf. I am explaining a little in depth about some of the personal experiences and feelings that I have had. We have a lot of really good equipment and this video is going to turn out SO GOOD!!! I hope y'all are excited! In preparation for it, I would ask that y'all think of people that you could perhaps share this video with. 

We have been trying to set up more stuff with our members here so that we can help them learn more about how they can do missionary work. It has been so good and I have been able to get to know more of the members here in the ward. 

I don't have too much else to report on because we spent a lot of our time filming and working on the video that we are making. I hope y'all had a good week, let me know how it went! 

A thought that we have been sharing this past week with members is from the Book of Mormon in  Mosiah 2:17. It is a fairly common scripture that is shared in the church and it says:

"17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn ^awisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the ^bservice of your ^cfellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." 

The thought we shared with this scripture is that when we serve others we are in the service of our God and one of the biggest ways that we can serve others is by doing missionary work. Missionary work is simple! A lot of people think that missionary work is hard, but it really isn't! It just takes a simple conversation, or a simple smile, or even just having your Book of Mormon in the windshield of your car! God loves us and he loves his children. He wants them to learn the gospel too. Let us be the instruments in the Lord's hand to spread this gospel to others! 

I love y'all! I will send pictures later. 

Love, 

Elder Paxton