Email: Knocking Doors

Monday, July 27, 2012

Hello Everyone,
                     Well this past week has been an interesting one. It started out really well and then kind of dropped off at the end. First I will tell you about  Alyssa and how things went with her. So I told you about the great lesson we had with her on Sunday. So we had another great one on Monday night and then again on Thursday night. She is finally finding the drive to learn more and learn for herself. We have been mostly reading through the Book of Mormon with her. It has been so great to see her faith growing. SO Thursday we invited her to come to a baptism that was going on Saturday. We had planned with her to have a lesson about an hour before and then attend the baptism with her. In the lesson we were going to invite her to be baptized. Well when we went to pick her up. Guess what? she wasn't home. Well that was probably one of the most disappointing moments of my mission thus far. I think it hit so hard because things have been progressing so well with her. As far as finding new investigators we have been unsuccessful in finding anyone yet. That is definitely not from lack of trying. We have been knocking so many doors and talking to so many people with little to no success, but we keep going. I can feel the spirit whispering to me just keep going. So that is what I do I just keep going.   However good news some of the other elders in our zone are finally starting to see some success. So the prayers are definitely helping.
                Last Thursday was awesome. We had a half-mission conference. Elder Cardon of the 70 came and spoke to us. It was such a great experience because both Elder Cardon and President Weston spoke. It was fantastic. I learned a lot about sacrifice and really focusing on what I am doing here.I was so happy I was able to go to that and really gave me a boost for the day.
                 Mom I really liked the package you sent me there was a lot of random stuff in there but it was great. I especially loved the banana bread. It tasted absolutely delicious. So keep that coming. As far as things with my bike. I actually broke a spoke on it, so I am going to have to get that fixed sometime. It probably wont be for a little while because it isn't to bad right now and I can deal with it for now. Anyways some new shirts wouldn't be bad either. As you can imagine with how sweaty i am they get kinda nasty. haha Well I love you all so much and I hope you all had fun at the fair. I miss you a lot.
                                                                             Love Elder Payne

Email: Chilly 85 degrees!

Monday, August 20, 2012


Hello to everyone,
                     Well this week was definitely one of the most interesting weeks so far. It was a ton better than the week previous. I dont know if it was just my mindset or if it really was better haha. So lets start at last Monday. After P-day activity Elder Woolley headed back to apartment. When we walked inside it was surprisingly hot inside. When we looked at the thermostat it read 90 degrees inside. Well it wasnt lying. It was absolutely blazing in there.We did everything we could think of to fix it but we couldn't get it working.  Luckily we didnt have to spend much time in there because we had a dinner appointment.  When we returned it was just as hot in there. We kept trying stuff to fix it but nothing worked. Plus the front office was closed by this time so there was nobody we could call. So we just endured it. Through opening windows and turning on fans, we got it down to a chilly 85 inside. It was a very interesting night to say the least. We probably only got about 4 hours of sleep that night. We decided that next morning just to go study at  the church to just so we could get out of the heat for a bit. We went to the front office later that day to get somebody to come fix it. Luckily it was a quick fix. All they had to do was change out something and it worked perfectly. So everything turned out just fine there. Some other stuff that was kinda interesting was , we were visiting Alfred and his mother was there. i guess they saw my bike tire and didn't think it was acceptable for me to be riding on. In all fairness it was just a little bald. So we got a text from him the next day saying that they had a surprise for me. We went over and they had bought me two brand new tires for my bike. It was pretty awesome, and I thought it was pretty funny that they were so concerned with my tire. I think the biggest news from this week came just last night. We had a lesson with Alyssa on Adam and Eve. We were reading in 2 Nephi chapter 2. Things just were not making sense to her. So finally she was just like can we just start at the beginning and go from there. We explained more about what is in the Book of Mormon and what it is about. Then we started into 1st Nephi. We read through it explaining stuff along the way and by the time we got through the chapter it was time for us to go. She was just like "No you cant go now this is finally making sense to me." Wow hearing that just completely blew our minds. Elder Woolley has been trying to get her to read and help her understand the Book of Mormon for about 5 months, and finally last night it just clicked. She told us we have to come back today too. We are so excited because things are finally progressing with her.
                    It sounds like things are going pretty well back home. i wish I could be there for the temple open house and dedication. I hope all goes well there make sure and let me know how it goes. Hopefully things turn out okay with Celestial. I will be praying for her. Have Derek and Tevan gone out into the field yet? if they have can you get me their addresses. Well i love you all so much and hope everyone has a great week.
                                                                                  Love Elder Payne
P.S. Staci I am so happy that things are going so well with the baby. I hope you start feeling better soon.

Email: Tough

Monday, August 13, 2012

Hello to my wonderful family,
                                    Well this past week has been one tough week. It has been tough for a variety of reasons. 1. One of our most progressing investigators moved suddenly on Saturday. It was Makayla, the little girl that was so close to baptism when I first got out here. She is moving somewhere like south Sacramento. That was such bad news because we were so close with her. 2. We have not been having very much success lately. We have been working so hard trying to find new people to teach, mainly because our investigator pool is dwindling. We have been trying multiple ways to move the work along in this area with little to no success. and 3. It has been absolutely blazing out here. I dont know if you have been checking the weather for this area but it has been just a little steamy. I think the past 4 or 5 days have been above 100 every day. It is supposed to continue like that later into this week too. As you can imagine with how much I sweat I have been just a little gross.haha I basically am just dripping all the time. One perk of being getting as sweaty as I do is that a few people take pity on me and give us water. We try our best to stay cool but it is hard when it is as hot as it is out here.
                                   So i would tell you more about people we are teaching but like i said we dont have that many people to teach right now. That is why we are trying to find so much right now. We did have a few people that seemed a little bit interested that we tracted in to. Two of those people accepted pamphlets and the other jsut said we could come back. That was such a blessing to finally have somebody that didnt just slam the door in my face (which actually happens a lot more than I thought it would). Those couple of people that would actually talk to us was such a moral boost. It made things so much better and even made it seem a little less hot. I was so disheartened until then. With the week we had things just seemed like everything was against us, but finally a little glimmer of hope made things not seem so bad anymore. Other than that we are just basically working as hard as  we can with the time that we have.
                           So it is good to hear that things are going pretty well for everyone back there. That was exciting to hear that Staci's baby is doing well. i feel bad that she still isnt feeling well.  When does the sickness usually go away? Speaking of babies how is baby claire doing? i would love to see some pictures of her and baby jeter as well. I am really jealous that you all got to go to wicked. That  must have been really fun to go see again. Oh yeah I got a letter from Derek and Tevan. They both sounded like they were doing really well. So I know that Tevan still has a little while but how much longer does Derek have. I think he might be leaving this week but I am not sure. With Whit when does she go back to down to school? I got a pretty hilarious letter from her only is sucks because my companion doesnt really get the inside jokes that me and her have. haha. Anyways I love you all and cant wait to hear back from you. I love you
                                                                  Love Elder Payne

Email: Progressing...

Monday, August 6, 2012


Hello to everyone,
                Well I sure hope everyone back home is doing well. Things here are going pretty well. We have been working really hard out here and things have been progressing slowly. Not to much has changed with Makayla. We did finally get to meet her mom but only briefly. I have really been praying specifically for the Lord to soften her heart, so hopefully things will begin to to progress quicker with her. The other girl we are teaching, Alyssa, She is doing a lot better we have been able to have quite a few lessons with her and she is finally praying. Hopefully she will begin to see the importance of prayer and the difference it makes in her life. We got to meet with Helen again, she we really happy to see us. We were able to teach her a bit about the restoration and about the Book of Mormon. She said she would love to read it and discuss it with us a bit. The only problem there is that she can't really set a firm appointment ever because, her husband has really bad health issues so she never knows when she might have to run him somewhere. Other than those three the work has been kinda slow. It gets really frustrating sometimes because we are working so hard and not really seeing that much success. We are trying to get the ward a little more involved in the work so I'm hoping that will begin to help.<-------I just found that emoticon and thought it was really cool so enjoy......
                 Anyways so it sounds like things are going pretty well back home. The girls trip sounded like it was pretty fun. I am just really glad I didnt have to be in that car with you all. That sounded pretty insane. It was good to hear from Rob sent me an email telling me a little about what is going on with him so that is great. Hopefully things keep progressing well for them. How is staci's morning sickness?  make sure and let me know how the doctors appointment goes.So how is Derek doing now? any new news from him. That is awesome that Tevan is enjoying the MTC. It can be such a great place, it just takes a bit of getting used to. Anyways I am so glad that you are all doing so well.
             I was able to talk to both Renton and the Adams family. It was awesome that they were both able to make contact with you. Renton is awesome he loves going out with us and helping us do our work. Plus he is Katelyns age, so Kate think about it maybe even friend him on facebook he is pretty cool. The Adams family also showed me the text that Lindsay sent to them so that it pretty great. So there is a lady here that wants the recipe for monkey bread and Roll up pancakes so mom if you could send those to me that would be awesome. Thanks so much.
            Well i love you all very much and I hope you all have a great week.
                                                                          Love Elder Payne

Video Letters

Our family has recently discovered that Hunter isn't a huge fan of writing letters. :) Instead, he found out that he can send videos home! We recently received his memory card for his camera and found several video letters. We won't complain! It's great to see him!

For some reason, I can't get these videos embedded into the post. So you are going to have to go to the website to view them. Sorry for the inconvenience!
Here are the links-

Video Letter on 7/20/12

Video Letter on 7/22/12

Video Letter on 7/24/12