Arriving Home !!

Tanner arrived at Seattle-Tacoma International airport on March 7, 2013  at 10:50 AM (even though the camera date was off by one day  :-)   We were so happy to welcome him home.  Enjoy this last post with some pictures of his coming home welcome:

 



Thus Ends the journey of Elder Tanner Ross Paxman in the Brasil São Paulo North Mission

 Baptism of Aloisio !  Yay !!

 Elder Allan, Aloisio and I !  Baptism !!

 A family in the ward that is really cool.  They are way nice to us.

Returning from Conference on the bridge 

  ...  another bridge shot ...

 My "Family" and me:  It's my two sons, my two grandson's, and my great grandson ....  and me !!

 

 Missionary comics apply to Elder Allan and I.  Ha!  (the greenie and the old missionary)

 Mashed potatoes and gravy!  Yay!

My piggy bank ...  that it was finally time to open!

"Thus Ends the journey of Elder Tanner Ross Paxman in the Brasil São Paulo North Mission."

Holy cow, its over. Well ... almost. This is the last email, and that's super weird. I cant believe it. I'm trying to convince myself that its true, but I think I will realize it only after I get in the plane. wow. Its super weird to think next week Ill be home, Ill be in my normal ward. Strange. Anyways, The work went pretty well this week, we were able to baptise Aloisio on Sunday after church meetings. He is super elect. We had a "Multirão do Ramo" which is were the members come, and go handing out and inviting people to go to the branch conference, and both him, and also Stefanie (another recent convert) came and helped out. It went pretty well. We also had another amazing conference with Elder Jairo Mazzagardi of the Seventy. It was really good. We were able to work with several people, and I hope that the new Elder finds this area in good shape and takes good care of it. I will miss my Ramo of Jaguaré. I'm really going to miss Brasil and all the friends that I have made here. I am so thankful for technology so that Brasil wont be too far ...     I am really excited to go home, and am looking forward to seeing all the people from back home. Its like a torn heart. Between a country and people that I've grown to love so much, and all those that I love that I will return too. But my time has come, so home, here I come. But I would like to leave a scripture as well. Its in Psalms 37:4-5. If we delight in the Lord, He will give us our hearts desires, and if we trust in Him, He will do anything for us. I am so grateful for the Lord, and for my great opportunity to serve as an Elder in the Brasil São Paulo North Mission. I love all you guys, and one last scripture that's in 2nd John 1:12. I'll be back in a couple of Days, I love you all, and wish you the best. Until we next meet.

Abraço,

Elder Tanner Ross Paxman

February 25, 2013

 Elder Allan and his umbrella.  Good times!

Us and our pesquisador friend, Aloisio!

Wow, times flies. Its super weird. This will be my last full week in the mission. Where did all that time go? That's so weird. We already had our exit interviews with President, and that was super weird. It was like, "why is president talking about all this stuff? am I really going home?" It still hasn't fully hit yet. So, I guess you all heard about the new missions, and yes our mission will be affected. Our mission will be divided, but more details will come later. Its super exciting. Oh, and before I forget, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY! I can hardly believe its been a year. It'll be so good to see all my nieces and nephews when I get back. Anyways, the work is going great here in Brazil. We have several people that we are working with, and our hope is that this week we will have a baptism. I am feeling so strange at the end of the mission, it not feeling real at all, but we are ready to work hard this week. "Lets work until the water!" (Vamos Trabalhar até a agua! ou, Pia Batismal!). We are working with a pesquisador called Aloisio that is an awesome guy. And we have been working with several of the recent converts as well. Its been going great here. I am so thankful to be on the mission. I just wanted to leave a message in Alma 37:16. Its when Alma tells his son about the plates, but I believe it applies to all of us. If we keep the commandments, we will prosper, and Satan will have no power over us. God will fulfill all His promises if we but keep our part. God truly is all powerful, and will bless us, all we need to do is keep the commandments. We need to always move forward, always counseling with the Lord for the best way to move forward. I hope that all you guys have a great week, and I love you all.

Abraço,

Elder Tanner Ross Paxman

PS: We have had some huge thunderstorms here recently. Not always with rain, though we have been soaked a few times. They are crazy cool storms with lots of lightning and really loud rumbling thunder. They have been occurring quite a bit recently.

February 18, 2013

 Lots of rain ... and only one Guarda Chuva for Elder Long and I! (division)

 Here comes the thunder!

 Baptism of Sarah!

Baptism of Sarah (2)!

Wow, so this week went by really fast. I can hardly believe it. But, it happened, so I guess I have to. Ha. (Sorry for the lame humor). This last week, Elder Allan was feeling pretty sick, and I wasn't doing to great myself ...  so it wasn't the best week ... but we are anxious to work this week. I also did a division with Elder Long, where it poured rain a dang lot!  There were lots of huge puddles, and even waterfalls coming down stairs. Its pretty cool stuff. I do love a good thunder and lightning storm. This week, Sarah was baptised, and she asked me to baptise her, so that was cool. It went great, and we are excited for her. As for Bruno, we talked to him quickly on the street, and looks like he had family in town, and also that he traveled a little. We have some great leaders here in the branch, and the work seems to be going well. We have some people that are progressing, and we are trying to help people be ready for baptism. I would like to leave a thought from Alma 44:3-4. We need to exercise true faith, and righteous faith in our lives. The Lord will help us in all that we do, and we can receive all the blessings that God wants for us, and we can "prosper in the Land," if we but keep the commandments of God. We may not be in a literal fight, but everyday we have to fight against the servants of the Devil. I hope that all of you have the strength and power this week to overcome your "enemies," and exercise your faith. The Lord blesses the Righteous!  Its as simple as that. I love you all, and wish you all a great week.

Abraço,

Elder Tanner Ross Paxman

February 11, 2013

 Filling up the Branch "baptismal pool"  -  by buckets and a small hose ...

 Baptism of Stephanie!

 another one ...

Cliff and I ...   ha.

Times flies when your a missionary. And I can hardly believe that its already been a week. Its weird that my time is running out as a missionary. Lets do this! As for couple missionaries in our mission, I don't even know...  There was a couple at the beginning of my mission, but I haven't seen any since then. I've seen some that serve "here," but I don't know if they are part of our mission. This past week was a pretty good week as we had the Baptism of Stefanie. She came to the Branch one week, after several months of being invited by Elder Wolfe while he was on a division. Then she travelled, and now everything calmed back down, and she was finally able to be baptised. It was the first baptism at our Branch building. All the rest have been at the Chapel in another area. It was in a type of pool that we set up, and we filled it up with a slow going hose, and a lot of Buckets. That was pretty cool. It also was leaking the whole time as well, so we had to fill it up enough so it wouldn't lower to much. The leak wasn't too much though ...  In the end, she was Baptised and all went well, so that was way cool. We also have another Baptism planned for this week that is the daughter of a member that was inactive for some time. She came back when she moved here, and asked us to teach her daughter. Sara is her Daughter and is about 10 years old. We also are working with several Rapazes (Young men, + or -) about our age. One of them is ready to be baptised, and just needs to go to church. His name is Henrique, and he is pretty cool. The other is Aloisio, and we found him the other day when a drunk called us over and talked to us. Then he called Aloisio over to pray with us, and we went to his house and taught him. He seems like a cool guy. We hope that he also progresses to be baptised. We haven't seen Bruno since the day he was confirmed, but we are planning to go there tonight. I am doing great here, and am loving the mission. I also wanted to send home a scripture that is in Ether 12:6. It is indeed a scripture mastery, but I hope that we always decide to take the step of Faith in our lives. The Lord loves all of us, and wants us all to be happy, but happiness doesn't come on a silver platter. True happiness comes through our work and devotion to eternal things and keeping the commandments of God. That involves us taking our first steps of faith, and getting up every time that we fall. We will never really understand the ways of God in this life, but what we can understand is that He is our Loving Father in Heaven, and will bless us according to our faith. I hope that we all can focus on our faith, do God's will. Blessings appear to come to those that do wrong things, but the so called "blessing" is but a small moment that will be drown out by the great misery that comes from sin. The Righteous will always be blessed, and the Lord blesses us so that all things are possible through our faith. I love you all, and hope that you all can have a great week this week.

Abraço,

Elder Tanner Ross Paxman

February 4, 2013

Me and Bruno ! 

 Baptism!  Yeah!  All of the family and a friend, and us!

 Me and Elder Crandall !!

 Bowling!  That was Sweet!

 My Brownie Birthday cake!

 Yup ... I'm painted on a wall ...

 Going away party!  We'll miss you Elder Hendrixson!

 The new Elder, Elder Long, who now lives with us!  (Poor him, ha) 

Look at them shoes!  Ha.

Wow, the weeks are just flying by ... Its crazy. Its weird to think I only have a few more weeks left. Oh well, its time to go out with a bang. So, I am still here in Jaguaré with Elder Allan, though Elder Hendrixson was transferred and now Elder Long (Utah) is living with us too with his companion Elder Vazquez. Sounds crazy with all the people getting back from missions, and it'll be great to see them. So this past week we had a going away party Tuesday night for Elder Hendrixson, and then started our next transfer. This past week was great as we were able to baptise a young boy of 13 years of age (Bruno) that is the cousin of Léo.   He is an awesome guy, and it is great getting to work with him, and all their families. We also are working with several other people ...  and aside from getting avoided by some ...  others are progressing and have great potential. We hopefully have some baptisms on the way too. I am happy, and having a great time preaching and testify of our Savior and Redeemer. I am so grateful to be a part of this great and marvelous work. Its strange to think it will end some day, but I will do my part until I am released from my duties as a full time missionary. The great part about the Gospel, is that it applies to all. Its sad at times, that the world grows so far away from the paths of God. I was reading in the scriptures today, and came across a scripture in Alma 41:11. Truly people only think they are happy when they follow the natural or carnal man, but really they are far from it. What is one small moment of false and indignant happiness compared to an eternal happiness without end? The path that we need to take is here, and once we know it, we need to continue until we reach our destination. The path does not move itself, it is us ourselves that move from the path. But just as much as we move away, we can return. And we can only return through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer, and that he loves us, and that through His atonement we can overcome the natural man and have no reason to fear. The Gospel is a message of Joy, and it will bring all those that follow it a greater joy and happiness. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's church, and the Kingdom of God, on this earth. I love you all, and hope that this week is amazing for all of you.

 

Abraço,

Elder Tanner Ross Paxman

PS:  There are some great foods here like Pão de Queijo which is amazing. Its bread with cheese in the batter. Basically a roll made of cheese. Its good stuff. Most the stuff here - they have there. Or at least I could make it. Like Puddim. Its really good stuff too. Its like pudding, but its more solid and is in a round form. The chocolate is different here so that it doesn't melt at such a low temperature ...  I think the American is better ...   As for fruits; some are seasonal.  Some trees give fruit two or more times in the year normally. Some give fruit all year round too. It depends on the fruit.

January 28, 2013

NO fotos, there is no adapter today. sorry.

Wow, its almost February...   Time flies super fast ...  that is super weird. This week I will start my last transfer here in the mission. I think that I will be staying with Elder Allan here in Jaguaré, but I'll find out for sure tonight. So, this last week has been full of stuff happening. On my Birthday we went bowling which was super fun. I got in last place by a long shot ... but it was still fun. Ha. We also had brownies and a huge "firework like" candle. It was sweet. Then on Tuesday I got my package at a mission conference. The mission conference was amazing. All of São Paulo North, and São Paulo Interlagos were there. Around 360 missionaries together, that was way cool. Elder Christensen from the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elder Mazzagardi from the Seventy were both there, and it was an amazing meeting. Also, an Elder Cragun came up to me, and apparently he is good friends with Brenton (Elder Paxman currently) since he is from Corona. Small world. Then, I had a division with Elder Hendrixson, and he worked with me for a day, which went great. He made amazing Fajitas for Almoço since we got money to buy food. They were delicious. Then, the Zone leaders came to do some interviews, and yet another time, the person that would be baptised couldn't be baptised this past week. This time it was because her Mom doesn't think that she is ready. Its weird how people progress ... and get almost to baptism ...  and then start to avoid us  --  but it makes up part of this work. The plan is to have a baptism this coming week of a young boy that is called Bruno. He is the cousin of Léo, who was baptised recently. The work continues to move forward. Today, I would like to mention a scripture in Mosiah 4:2-3.  We all can be cleansed from sin through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the most important thing that has happened since the creation of the world. Everything in the Gospel has a connection with the Atonement of Christ. I know that Jesus Christ suffered for our sins, and that through His Atonement, we can be saved. The Atonement is of much greater significance than we can image, and I know that through it, we can be saved.  I love you all, and hope that you all have a great week.

Abraço,

Elder Tanner Ross Paxman

fyi:  My plan for when I get home is to go back to BYU-I, which starts about a month or so after I get back.   The bad part of "Carnival" here is only on TV  --  which we don't watch  --  so we are good. Its not too huge here in our area.  Last year was super tranquil since I was in the interior (out in the country - smaller city). The end of the mission is the same as it has been my whole mission  --  just working hard here with all the great Brazilians that need to be baptised.