Monday, December 30, 2013

Email: Happy New Year!

Hello to you all,

Hello to my wonderful family back home. I hope you all had a great rest of your week. It was fantastic getting to talk with you all on Christmas. It was definitely the best Christmas present I could have gotten. I can't believe the change there has been in so many of you. I can't believe how big all of the new little babies are! Anyways so from the emails it sounds like you all had a very busy week. I loved the pictures of Hardware ranch it looked like it was a great time there. So the rest of the week for us was pretty lame. It was really hard to meet with anyone this past week. As you can imagine people were busy as can be. We were able to meet with a few people like our recent convert Dylan and the Windoms and the Lockwoods. What is great is that they confirmed their baptismal date for this weekend. The family that is getting baptized is the Lockwoods. Then on top of the baptism we are going to be having like two big meetings this next week. So yes this next week is going to be crazy! So that is pretty much it from me. Sorry I don't have much to say I told you all pretty much everything there was on Christmas. Well I love you all and hope you have a very happy new year.

Love Elder Payne

Monday, December 23, 2013

Email: Merry Christmas!

Hello to you all back home,

Well I sure hope all is going well for you all back in Utah. From what we have been hearing here it sounds like you are getting a good amount of snow. That is awesome! I'll bet the little kids are having a blast with that. Well my email today isn't going to be super long or in depth because I want to save at least something's to talk about on Wednesday. Speaking of Wednesday I can't believe that it is already here! This month is just absolutely flying by. I didn't think a month could go so fast. I am sure that you are curious as to what the plans are for Christmas and skyping and such. Well as of right now the plan is to start at around 8:30. There
is a member who is feeding us breakfast and letting us Skype there. From the sounds of your email you already know all of that. It is weird that you know a lot of the members here better than I do. Haha you have like a play-by-play of what is going on in my life. Anyways so like is said it will probably be around 8:30 my time so 9:30 your time. Oh also I got your big package and holy smokes yes it was big. Haha I loved it though. I haven't opened any of those gifts those because I am a good boy and can wait. I have loved the 12 days of Christmas. It has been a lot of fun getting to feel a little bit of love every day. So thank you again of thinking of me it means a lot.

So here is a little look into my week. It has been a crazy and irregular week which has sort of thrown me for a whirl. So we started off with a pretty normal week. Nothing to special going on. We had a really neat experience on Tuesday though. We had been planning on doing a few other things that day but seldom do those things ever work out. What I mean by that is somehow we ended up having 3 lunches on Tuesday. The first lunch was our normal one at its normal time. Nothing to special about that one. The second one  however was different. We went and did a baptismal interview for this man in another ward. After we were all finished up and about to leave his wife brought out a huge platter of sandwiches and pumpkin pie. We didn't want to be rude so we accepted and ate with the other two missionaries. We were doing ok at this point then all of sudden we get a text from this guy we have been trying to get ahold of for quite some time now. He asked if we wanted to go get some lunch with him. Of course we said yes because we wanted to get any kind of contact with him that we could. So we met at Panda Express and got something to eat ( side note I like Panda Express now. Weird huh?! Haha ) anyways we met up and had a great conversation about his beliefs and things that have led him to where he is today. He is a bethel student, which is a big mega-church here in redding. We set up an appt. with him on Saturday after we were all done.

So then came Thursday. Now for all of us missionaries in Redding this was a pretty big day. Why? You
might ask, well that is because Thursday was the day we got our iPads! We learned all about the new features and all that we can do with them. Now I am sure that you are a little curious as to what those all
are but I am going to make you wait and not tell you until Christmas. Sorry there is just way to much to cover, and like I said it will give us something to talk about on Christmas. So a lot of Thursday was taken up by that. Then on Friday we drove all the way down to Chico, which is about an hour or so drive, and had our big half-mission conference for Christmas. We had a whole bunch of musical numbers and a few comments from President Weston. Overall it was a pretty good meeting. Then we had to rush back to Redding because we were having our ward Christmas party. The zone all got to sing at that as well. So that was a pretty great day as well.

Now Saturday. We had such an amazing thing happen Saturday morning. 3 little girls were baptized Saturday morning at 11. I was given the honor of getting to baptize all 3'of them. It was such a special experience and one I know that I will never forget. On Sunday I had the opportunity to confirm the 2
younger girls and Elder Andersen confirmed the older girl. What a sweet experience that was. To feel the love that our Heavenly Father feels for them while working as a conduit for the spirit. In the font I had such an overwhelming feeling that overcame me. While I was reciting the baptismal prayer, I had the impression, wow what a blessing it is that I am so blessed to be "commissioned of Jesus Christ" and be able to perform that beautiful ordinance. I am so grateful that I have that in my life, and also that I am able to hold that holy and sacred priesthood. Anyways that has been a lot of our week. It just flew by and was jam packed with all kinds of great stuff. Know that I love you all so very much and I am so grateful for the wonderful family that you all are to me. I love you and pray for you all the time.

Love Elder Payne

Monday, December 16, 2013

Email: I'm Famous!

Hello  family,
                      Well it sounds like you all are just wrapping up a crazy, hectic week back home. Pretty much that just sounds like a normal holiday week back at the Payne household. I am sure that this coming week is going to be just as crazy and insane as ever, but then again it wouldn't be the holidays without it right?! So before I go on with what happened this past week I will answer a few of the questions that were asked. So first off with the packages, I have only received the one so far, that one being the package with the sweaters and some goodies. I am still waiting for the other two to come. Hopefully nobody has stolen them because I don't exactly live in the safest part of town. I will keep my eye out for them though. Second question was about Christmas and what will be going on there. So currently we have 2 places lined up to go, the one is in the morning to skype and have breakfast. That will be at a family called the Dunns. We will most likely skype starting at sometime between 8:30 and 9 our time, so like 9:30-10:00 your time. That is the plan at least or right now. I will be sure to fill you in more for next week. I most likely wont have much of a time constraint, just however much time we need to talk with everyone.  After that we will be going to a really fun family in the ward named the Crosbys for dinner and games and stuff. So it should be a really fun Christmas day.
                           Alright so about my week. Let me tell you how that all went. This has been such a crazy week for me as well but very great at the same time. So starting out on Monday evening after I had already emailed you something amazing happened. So  we met with a young man that we have been working with for a while, his mother and sister were the ones that I got to baptize the weekend before.  Anyways we met with him just briefly because the sister missionaries mentioned that we needed to go over there and see him. We just sat down and started talking with him and his friend Dylan,( Dylan got baptized a few weeks ago), and he said "Dom dotn you have something to tell the Elders?" Then Dom proceeded to tell us that he wanted to get baptized. This was such amazing news because week or two previously Dom had told us that he didn't want to get baptized because of issues with his father. However over the past few weeks he has had a change of heart. What an amazing thing that has happened in that house. So far there have been 4 people get baptized that are living in that house. Talk about a house full of miracles! So we then started preparations for him to get baptized Saturday. Let me tell you i have gotten really good at throwing together a baptismal service. You give us a week and we will give you a great service that is filled with the spirit! Anyways lets continue through the week.
Then Tuesday we had our transfer day. That was a crazy day for us. It was just filled with running people around and getting people where they needed to be, one of the perks of being a zone leader is you are pretty much a free taxi service for missionaries.
Thursday was a great day for us we had our zone meeting which was a lot of fun. That is the meeting that my comp. and I get to teach once a month. After that we had a few lessons as well as Dom's baptismal interview. We also talked with the Lockwood family, the ones that are going to be baptized by their dad, and they told us that they are going to have to push their date back to January 3rd. There is just a lot of stuff going on at there house. They are almost as busy as our family is.
Saturday came as a very busy day for us. We had the baptism for Dom, which went amazing. It was a pretty small service but went very great! I love having baptisms, the spirit is always so strong at services like that. So that evening we had a great opportunity. This will explain the subject line a little better. The Redding Zone had the opportunity to sing on Redding channel 9 news. They had a special Christmas presentation and we got to sing a bunch of Christmas songs. I absolutely loved it. The whole thing was pretty mediocre but I enjoyed singing and stuff. Anyways as you see we had a great week. The weather has been so nice here. All of the snow is gone and it is in like the 60's everyday. I am still loving this place. Well I love you all so very much and hope you all have a great week.

 Love Elder Payne

Monday, December 9, 2013

Email: SNOW, baptism, and staying in Redding!

Hello to my most amazing family it is crazy to think that another week has just flown by! It seems like the weeks are just constantly speeding by. This past week was a very interesting but great one. We were able to see, once again, a lot of really amazing things happen.
                The week of course started out pretty normal not too many things going on. We had our District meeting and  Tuesday and then on Wednesday as well. We have to go to both sometimes because we are zone leaders and had to check up with everyone before the end of the transfer.
                  On Friday we headed down to Gridley for our Monthly meeting for the Missionary leadership. It was kind of weird this time around because it usually starts at 9 in the morning so that means we have to leave at like 7 in order to get down there in time. This time it didn't start until 12 for a couple of odd reasons, it was really nice though because we didn't have to wake up really early. Anyways the meeting went really well. We talked a lot about continuing to build our faith in missionary work and using that faith to continue building the lords kingdom here on earth. Also one of the other big topics that we discussed was the goals that we are going to be shooting for in 2014. We have been challenged by Elder M Russel Ballard to double our convert baptisms in 6 months. That is a pretty tall order but I truly believe that it can be done. It is something that we have actually been able to accomplish up here in Redding. Last year in Redding we had 21 convert baptisms, this year as of last Saturday we have 42 convert baptisms in the zone! It has been such an amazing thing that has taken place. President Weston was very happy with us, in fact he had us give a little presentation during our meeting of what some of the factors were that helped us to accomplish that. We talked mainly about how close we are as a zone, how everyone loves and respects each other. Also one other big thing has been the love that each of the missionaries has for their investigators and all those that they are working with. I have really found while I have been out here how much of a motivator that love is. It is definitely  something that can change the perspective that someone has on doing missionary work. Anyways like I said overall the meeting went really great. After the meeting was over we headed back to Redding. We didn't get back into town until about 7 and by that time the snow was really coming down. We started to go to dinner but unfortunately we couldn't make it up a hill by our house! There were cars sliding down the hill and tons of people getting in wrecks and stuff. Silly California drivers don't know how to drive in the snow and there ended up being like 60 wrecks around town. We took it as a great opportunity to go out and help people. We spent the rest of the night just pushing peoples cars out of the snow. It was an absolute blast!
                   Then on Saturday we had a great thing happen, two women that the sisters have been teaching asked Elder Andersen and i to baptize them. It was such a neat experience, There is nothing quite like being in the water and being able to participate in that amazing ordinance.
                 Sunday was one of the best days on my mission so far. The man who got baptized a few weeks ago got the priesthood and so now he is going to be able to baptize his two sons and his wife. I am so excited for that. It is going to be taking place this weekend. What an amazing event that will be.
                 Well that is about it for this week. Oh before I forget to tell you, we got our transfer call and I am staying in Redding! I was so happy to hear that because we have so many amazing things going on in our ward and I just did not want to miss any of it. Well I love you all and hope everything is still going good.  Stay warm out there. Also mom thank you very much for calling Bro. Miles. He said he really enjoyed your phone call.

Thanks again, Love Elder Payne


Monday, December 2, 2013

Email: 18 month mark!

Hello to you all,
                      Well I sure hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving. From what mom emailed me it sounds like it was a very interesting one for sure. At least you had one good one earlier on in the week. Also I just have to tell you I cant believe that you all went and did the Black Friday thing. I thought you had to be insane to do that. Anyways this past week was pretty great! We were able to see a lot of really good things despite it being the Holidays. Earlier in the week nothing to crazy happened, just pretty much the normal stuff. The normal stuff being we went around a lot trying to visit people but unfortunately a lot of them weren't home. We also spent a large portion of the week compiling reports for our big stake meeting on Sunday. So I'm sure you are wondering what it is we did on Thanksgiving, I know that you do know a little bit already. Sis Schaub and you are in pretty good contact. So in the morning we just kind of bummed around a bit. Did a few things then we went to dinner at 2, well I guess it was more like lunch, but anyways that was a lot of fun. I ate a ton of food! They definitely fed us very well. They had the greatest array of pies I have ever seen. There was everything from pumpkin to cherry to apple, and a few in between, and of course they had my favorite, a homemade banana cream pie! It was pretty darn amazing. Anyways they have this really fun tradition where they do this candy advent calender for the countdown to Christmas. It apparently is a tradition that has been going on in their family for like 25 years. So after that dinner we headed to our second dinner at 5. This one was quite interesting, because it was with a bunch of people from a local church. So I will explain a little better. There is a girl that attends the singles branch with us and she lives with a bunch of girls who go to this place called Bethel. It is this big mega church that is quite strange. They have this college where they teach people how to heal people and stuff. Anyways we went to a thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of them because a lot of them have never had thanksgiving because they are from out of the country. We were able to meet people from all over the world. Over all it was a pretty awesome thanksgiving and one I will never forget. Saturday was an interesting day. That was the day I hit 18 months. It is so weird to think that I have been out for that long. I really hope these last 6 months go as well as the first 18. I am really trying my best to be as good as I can and just be better for all those around me. I want to make these last 6 months very memorable. Oh and of course on Saturday I did my burning of something, so this time I got to burn a  pair of pants. It was pretty great. On Sunday Will Lockwood was confirmed which was fantastic, we also talked to his wife and she wants to get baptized with her boys now. It will be amazing because now Will can baptize all three of them. So things are still going great. Well just a reminder transfers are coming up soon. Next week to be exact so be careful sending things towards the end of the week. I love you all and hope everything is still going great!

Love Elder Payne

Burning pants for 18 months out!

Monday, November 25, 2013

Email: AMAZING week!

Hello to my great family,
                                  Well let me just start out by telling you that we had an amazing week! I don't know what it is that all of you were praying for or what you did differently with your prayers but it definitely worked. So I'm sure you remember the family I told you about that the parents decided last Sunday that they wanted to get baptized Thursday. Well let me tell you what took place with them. So Monday we got a text from Tara the wife, know let me tell you why that was big news. Usually whenever she would text us it was to cancel things with us, but this time she was just confirming the baptism but just moving it to 7:30. Phew that was an exciting moment. Anyways Tuesday we were in a bit of contact with them just confirming a few plans with them. Then on Wednesday we were planning on going over to their house for their interview, well like I said whenever Tara texts us it is usually to cancel. Well that is what happened she said that is was their sons birthday party that night so we would have to reschedule for another time. Well we weren't just going to let a text stop us. Knowing that it was their oldest sons birthday we took that as a perfect opportunity to go over there with a gift. We bought him this little remote control car that was pretty cheap. Then we wrapped it up in a proselyting pamphlet and took it to him. We were able to go over a few things and plan the interview for the next day. So now we were coming down to the wire. We usually like to have the baptismal interviews done about 2 or 3 days before the baptism, this time we didn't have that luxury. So here comes Thursday. We had a missionary correlation meeting in the morning with our Ward Mission Leader and went over a few things with him concerning the baptism. We were all freaking out a bit because of how close the interview was to the baptism. So here comes 3 O'clock ( which was the time of the interview). We headed over to there house all ready for the interview. We show up and what do you know things were in our favor that day. We found them all home and ready for us. The interview went great and Will was super excited. The only curve ball that got thrown at us was the wife, Tara. She told us that she wasn't quite ready to get baptized yet. We respected that and didn't push it, knowing that she would definitely feel something at the baptism. Then came the baptism. It was a very small baptism because they had only invited 3 families. They wanted to keep it very small and sacred for their family. If they had opened it up to the whole ward it for sure would have filled up the chapel. Anyways the program went amazingly, the talks that were given were amazing and definitely invited the spirit so strong. Then the baptism took place. I had one of the most overwhelming feelings from the spirit as he was baptized. All baptisms are fantastic but this one was very special because of what it means to this family. The husband has terminal cancer and has been battling it for a long time now. Now because he was baptized, will get confirmed on Sunday, receive the priesthood the same day and then baptize his boys and hopefully his wife as well on the 6th of December. I am just overcome with joy for this family. They have so much love and support from the ward and all those around them and since this took place it will only increase. Oh also the mother/ wife was overheard saying she feels like she should have gotten baptized that night. Didn't I tell you that I knew she would feel something. Now the worse case scenario is that the husband will be able to baptize his whole family practically. What a special experience that will be. So that is what took place with them. It was by far one of the defining moments on my mission so far.
                                  On Friday we drove about an hour south to a place called Chico. We had the opportunity to meet with Elder Stanley G. Ellis of the Seventy. We had a great discussion with him and with President Weston as well. After the main meeting, which included 3 zones, we met as a leadership council. So all of the zone leaders and district leader and trainers as well as a few select others. He talked with us a lot about being a leader and setting the example. Overall that was a great meeting as well.
                                 So as you see it was a great week. There was a lot that kept us busy.  I love you all very much and hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Have fun down in St. George!

I love you  Love Elder Payne

1st Pic is of the baptism
 2nd Pic are all Elders who claim me as either a father, grandfather, or great grandfather in the mission.


Monday, November 18, 2013

Email: Miracles!

Hello to my wonderful family,
                Well things here are going absolutely fantastic right now, but before I tell you about that I have to talk to  you about a few other things. So to answer a few of your questions that were posed. So my comp. and I are still getting a long very well. He is a little like me in the sense that he gets a long with pretty much everybody. It is nice because it is a lot easier to work with someone if you get a long with them. Ah yes and Sister Huskey did come tell me hi for you mom so thank you very much. I shrugged it off because that is just like you to find somebody in my area through facebook and then some how get to know them better than I do. Anyways it was good to hear from you through her though. Sis. Huskey and Sis. Schaub are both awesome. We are in a lot of contact with Sis. Huskey because she is the building schedular and so we talk to her quite a bit because of that. Then Sis. Schaub is also fantastic they feed us all the time. We probably eat there once a week at least. They are a great family too. So um I think that was most of the questions.
                 Alright let me tell you a bit of the week we had. I really wish that I could tell you all about it, especially the last few days because they were just awesome. So earlier in the week we had our zone meeting on Wednesday. We taught a lot about higher expectations because Pres. Weston  met with Elder M. Russel Ballard and Elder Ballard said that he wants us to double the number of convert baptisms that we have in 6 months! That is not because we aren't doing well either. We have been doing really well. So we discussed a lot of what needs to happen in order for that to take place. That meeting went really well so I was very happy with that. On Thursday we had exchanges with the APs. I got to go down to Rocklin which was a lot of great. It was great to see a bit of my old area again. I also got to see the family that I love down there, the McGhies. I stopped in and said hello and had to pick up something from them. I wasn't with the best Elder in the world but things went just fine. On Friday we had the baptism for Dylan. For those of you who saw the pic on facebook than you already know of this event. It was a great baptism and the spirit was definitely there very strong. I was very happy about how well things went. We had a few of his family members in the program and it went very well. Then came Sunday, this had to be one of the most miraculous days of my life. first off we started with the confirmation of Dylan. His Uncle was able to come from out of town to do that. Then we met with that family the Lockwoods that I have told you about. The ones that we have been working with for a very long time. We asked the parents how they felt about baptism and they both just looked at us and told us that there is nothing that is holding them back anymore. They are ready to do it. What an amazing feeling it was to hear that. We talked about them getting baptized on December 7th than the member brought up the possibility of the father baptizing his sons. His face just lit up when he heard that. He asked " Wait I could do that?" We explained yes you can receive the priesthood and then baptized your boys. So then out of the blue they were just like OK we want to do it this Thursday. I thought that they just wanted to meet but then they were like no we want to get baptized! WOW! that was so cool to hear. So the wheels are turning and we are going to have a baptism this Thursday. It will be such a wonderful experience because this family is seriously such an amazing family and they are going to be benefited so much from the Gospel. Well that was our week and the miracles contained therein. I love you guys and hope all is going well. Oh by the way you might want to know the reason that I am emailing so late today is because we went golfing this morning. We just went to this cool driving range where you drive balls into the water. It was a great time. Well once again I love you all and hope your weeks go great! Love Elder Payne

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Baptism

Last night this young man entered into the waters of baptism. It was an amazing event that took place. I am grateful for the restoration of the Priesthood that allows for these saving ordinances to take place.


Monday, November 11, 2013

Email: Hello Family!

Hello to all of you out there,
                          Well I sure hope that you all had a good week. It sounds like it was busy as usual, but hey that is ok. Well things out here this past week were quite crazy and stressful. In a lot of ways it was a very difficult week but in others it was a good one.
                       We will start with the bad and move to the good how does that sound. Well the bad would be is that it was very hard to meet with people this week and we had a lot of appointments fall through. Also on top of that we had meetings like crazy and all sorts of stuff like that. It seemed like everything just kind of collided on the same week. Probably one of the most stressful and frustrating days was on Friday. We went down to Gridley to our Monthly Mission Leadership Council meeting. Usually it is just Zone leaders but they invited all of the district leaders this time as well. The meeting started out OK we discussed a lot of really great things. Then things seemed to just spiral out of control. the assistants were trying to discuss some things that could have been talked about in like 10 minutes but it took like 45. They didn't do a very good job explaining a lot of the points so they just ended up confusing a lot of people. So anyways the meeting ended ok. We figured things out and recovered the meeting. So like i said overall a lot of stress and frustration. Also on top of all of that we had to do our best to figure out how to help the Elder who got hit by a tree. He finally got out of the Hospital and now he is staying in town with some other Elders.
                            So now with the good. The kid who was going to get baptized on Saturday had to get pushed back to the next Saturday but it will work out a lot better because his family will be able to make it. Also we were finally able to get in contact with a family that we have been trying to get in contact with for a very long time. They want to get baptized and so now we just have to finish up the lessons with them. Also a man we have been trying to get to stop smoking quit today. We went over and took his cigarettes from him. So please pray for him. Well that was pretty much our week. We had a lot going on and this next week will probably be a lot the same. i love you all and hope you have a great week.
                         Sorry mom i almost forgot to answers your questions. So it is getting a little colder here. It hasn't gotten to cold. It is generally about 60 to 80 during the day and in the 40 and 50s at night. i have not gotten a raincoat yet I am waiting for it to start raining to get one. I am not sure what I want for Christmas. I will try and let you know as soon as i figure it out. It will be by next  week don't worry. Also I am not sure about other Elders I will try and figure that out as well. Well i love you all and hope you have a wonderful week. i love you all very much.

Love Elder Payne

Halloween cookies from Drake & the Hunsakers

Monday, November 4, 2013

Email: New Companion & Halloween

Hello to my family,
                           It was really good to hear from you all. It seems like their has been and there is a lot going on back there. So I guess somehow I changes the font to type in italics and I am not sure how to switch it back, sorry. Anyways I am really glad that all of you had a great Halloween even though it was a little low key. I had a crazy Halloween night. I was up until like midnight out and about with another Elder in the big building. No joke that is all true we had a crazy night! Now let me tell you the full story so that you don't all think I am just super disobedient and actually went out partying that night. So on Halloween night we were supposed to be in at about 7 so that no one got caught in all of the Halloween hype. Well we were inside when we got a call from Pres. Weston saying that there was an Elder that had just been pretty seriously injured, and he was trying to see if we knew anything about it. We had not heard anything so after we got off the phone with him we called around trying to see if anyone had heard anything. Unfortunately everyone that we called didn't know anything about what had happened. A little later we got a call back from Pres. Weston and he told us that an Elder in our zone we lives up in a place called Weaverville, which is about an hour drive away from Redding, had just been smashed by a tree! He told us that he was being flown by helicopter to the hospital in Redding. We headed over there to see him and make sure he was OK. We found him in the emergency room at the hospital. He looked like he was doing OK but was just in a lot of pain. After x-rays and ct scans and all they found out that he had a broken pelvis! We got the full story form him when we got there. Apparently they were helping a guy trim a tree. They were clearing the branches out and putting them in the truck. The guy was starting to section the tree down from the top when he got about 3 sections down. He cut a piece that was about 10-12 feet long and 18-24 inches in diameter that fell off. Well this particular piece fell and unfortunately bounced and flung his way. It smacked him and crushed him to the tailgate of the truck that they were by. One of the guys who saw the log said it had to weigh close to a thousand pounds. That didnt help especially considering the Elder that it hit only weighs about 130 pounds. We spent that night with him in the ER until about 12 when they finally took him to the ICU. It is amazing because we have 2 members of our stake presidency that are both very, very good surgeon/doctors that were checking him out. He was definitely being watched over and protected because considering what took place it could have been a lot worse. He is still int the hospital right now and should be getting out either today or tomorrow. So that was our weekend. I told you it was pretty wild.
                              So my new comp. is Elder Andersen, he is from Meadow, Utah. You may remember it as the tiny little settlement you pass right after going through Fillmore. He has been out for 9 months now and this is his first post as Zone leader. What is actually really cool is that he went to SUU the same time that I was down there. We have been talking and we actually know a lot of the same people. He is a great guy and I am sure things are going to continue to go great!
                                 As far as the work right now, things are going great right now! We picked up 2 really good investigators this past week. They are friends of the young man who is getting really close to getting baptized. The Lockwood family is doing pretty well. We will be meeting with them this coming Thursday to go over a few things. We are hoping and praying that we will be able to set a baptismal date with them, so please keep them in your prayers. Then the family that just had the son get baptized they are doing pretty well right now. We are still working with them and with the father to quit smoking. It has been a tough road for them but their faith is strong and that is helping them a long.
                               I just want to wish my wonderful Aunt Christie a very Happy Birthday! I love you and am so grateful to have you as such a great person in my life. I love you all and hope that things are going well for you all. It sounds like there a lot of getting sick back home, I am sorry and hope that you will all start feeling better. Well I love you all and hope you all have a great week.

Love Elder Payne

My pumpkin that I carved
 My new comp
 The Elder that got hurt

Monday, October 28, 2013

Pictures Galore & Email: Goodbye Elder McMurray

Hello to you all,
                      How are all of you doing this fine week? It has been absolutely crazy out here! A ton of this past week was devoted to getting Elder McMurray ready to leave. We had a lot to do. On top of that we were visiting people and having lessons and things of that sort. So as you can imagine it was good but pretty stressful and crazy. It was really neat though because we were able to see quite a few miracles and tender mercies from the Lord.
                        I will tell you a little about what happened this week. On Friday, Elder McMurray went down to the temple with all of the departing missionaries. I stayed with some Elders from another ward. We got asked from a Bishop to come and sing at some guys funeral that we didn't even know. We got to sing Abide with Me Tis Eventide. It was a really neat experience because a lot of the people that were at the funeral were not members. It was at this Veterans Memorial cemetery that is just outside of Redding. They did the whole military honors with the Rifle salute and taps and everything. It was a really,really cool experience. Then on Saturday there was a lot that went on as well. Basically we started out the day with a lesson with one of our new investigators that is a 12 year old boy. We were able to teach him the Restoration and commit him to be baptized on the 9th of November. He is very solid and very bright for his age. Later that night on Saturday we had our ward trunk or treat /chili cook off party. It was a blast, there were quite a few of our investigators who came and enjoyed the fun and festivities. Overall it was a fantastic day. Then Sunday, I had the opportunity to confirm Anthony a member of the church. I love being able to participate in Priesthood ordinances, it is a blessing to be able to do that. We spent basically the rest of Sunday running around seeing people. Then transfers came, I will be getting a new guy, name is Elder Andersen. He has been out about 9 months. I don't know much more about him so I will tell you more about that next week. Well I love you all. I am including a few pics from our last weeks adventures. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love Elder Payne

Monday, October 21, 2013

Email: 15 mile bike ride and a baptism

Hi everyone,
                  I am just going to start off by apologizing now because this email might be kinda short. I am extremely exhausted. I guess I will start off the email by telling you why. This morning our ward mission leader took us on a very long bike ride. It was something that we have been planning for quite a while now but I wasn't really too prepared for. It was about a 15 mile bike ride up and down a mountain. It was a really pretty ride but tiring. I'm glad we did it but once again I am tired!
                   So about this last week. Oh boy this was a doosy of a week. It started out like any other week. Nothing to crazy or special, then came Wednesday. One of the young men from the Windom family decided he wanted to get baptized on Saturday. That means we only had from Wednesday to Saturday to plan and prepared for a full baptism. Let me tell you we saw some miracles. Everyone in the ward stepped up big, especially the young men. The baptism went amazing. He was so happy and his mother started crying when he got baptized it was such a neat experience. Also on Wednesday a family, the Lockwood's decided they wanted to get baptized as well. They are such a great family and so ready that we were so happy to hear that. Like I said Saturday the baptism went great and it was a great day, then came Sunday! On Sunday everything just seemed to fall apart. The young man that got baptized didn't show up to church to get confirmed because his mom was really sick. Also the family who was super ready completely backed out of their baptism. it was just a lot of really tough stuff at once. Hopefully this coming week will be better.
                       it is crazy Elder McMurray goes home next Tuesday. He is so close. It has been great being able to serve with him and I am grateful that i had that opportunity.
                        i am glad you all have been having a good time at Disneyland. I loved the pics. It looked like you guys had a lot of fun and made the most of your time. Well i love you all and hope you have a great week. I love you all and God Bless.

Love Elder Payne

Monday, October 14, 2013

Email: Sick..Bummer.

Hello to my family,
                            How is everyone doing this week? I know that last week was a really tough one but I hope you all made it through ok. I know that it definitely was very tough for me at times but I am doing a lot better this week. Unfortunately just yesterday I came down with a really bad cold. It has just killed me the last two days. It has sort of being going through all of us missionaries. First a sister in my zone had it then it spread to my comp. then it went to me. Sometimes as companions we share to much. haha So it sounds like Grandmas funeral and everything went really well last week. That is wonderful, that is exactly what she deserved is a great memorial to her and the wonderful lady that she was. Thank you so much dad for the package that you sent me, it really meant a lot. I was feeling really down that day and it really helped to lift my spirits. Also mom thank you so very much for that story that you sent me about getting sick. It really is amazing the miracles that our Heavenly Fathers works in our lives. Sometimes they are not as prevelant as we would like but occasionaly he works amazing miracles like this. I am so glad that things were able to go so well at the funeral.
                                So a little on what went on here this week. We spent a lot of the week working with this one family, the Windoms. We are working on helping the father quit smoking still. He seems to be getting close to quitting. He really wants to get baptized so it is really sad that he has been able to get baptized up until this point. His son is also really ready to get baptized but he is just waiting for his dad. So that is what is going on with them. Also we picked up a new investigator this past week. We got a voicemail on Monday from a little boy. He said that he is 12 years old and wants to get baptized. He has permission from his mom and is ready to take the lessons. It was pretty awesome and a great miracle. Well that is about all i have to report this week. Like I said I am sick right now and it is not easy to sit here and type I apologize but I promise next weeks will be much better and longer. I love you all so much and hope you are all doing well.

Love Elder Payne

Monday, October 7, 2013

Passing of Grandma Payne

Our sweet Grandma Irene Payne passed away early Monday morning. Mom & Dad were able to talk to Hunter and Hunter was able to say goodbye to Grandma. What a blessing that was!

He didn't have much to say in his email since he'd just talked to the family except that the missionary work is going great and he is very sad about Grandma, but bore his testimony of the plan of salvation.
He did send this picture which applies perfectly to this week...
We are praying for Hunter as I'm sure it's hard to be away from family this week.
So thankful for the gospel!

Monday, September 30, 2013

Email: Meetings and Lineage

Hello to all of my wonderful family,
                                I sure hope that my email finds you all doing well and that everything is going great! Boy it sounds like you guys had quite the week this past week. I swear every time I get an email from you guys that you all have been of on some new crazy adventure. haha I'll bet having everybody back at the house kept you all very busy. It is weird that, that was the norm not to long ago, now it is a huge event whenever everybody shows up. I loved the pics of the baby blessing, little Sara looked extremely cute in it.I cant believe how much she has been growing. It is the same with each one of the little kids. Drake is getting so big I cant even believe it. Savannah! Holy smokes she is changing so much as well. I cant believe how quickly she is growing. Make sure and keep sending me all of those great pics of them, thanks.
                               So we had an extremely busy week this past week. Most of the time I felt like I was a chicken running around with my head cut off. What happened was on Monday we found out that we had a big meeting on Sunday that we had to have a bunch of info for. We thought it was supposed to be like 2 weeks later but that didn't end up happening. So we had to get a paper out to all of the companionship's and then get it back, then we had to type it all up, compile all of the numbers and such, print it all out and get it all together. And so you see the glory of being a zone leader. You get all the perks of a regular missionary plus a whole ton of reports. On top of that we went down to Chico for a leadership meeting on Friday. It was actually a really great meeting! We met with all of the trainers, District leaders, and zone leaders in the Northern part of the mission. We met with President Weston and his Assistants. We talked about quite a few things with them. We talked a lot about how we can increase the amount of investigators that we have coming to church. We also talked a lot about utilizing the members more and using them as a great resource for help. Then lastly we talked about the doctrine of Repentance and how key that is. It was a great meeting where I learned a lot about those subjects. It was really strange though because at that meeting I did not recognize like half of the Elder or Sisters there. Usually I know quite a few of the people but there are so many new missionaries in the mission that it is hard to keep up.
                             So just a little update on our investigators. Both of the families that we are involved with right now are doing pretty well. First the Lockwood's, they are doing great. Unfortunately they had to cancel both of our appointments this past week. They did, however, come to church which was awesome. We are going to be meeting with them on Thursday at a dinner with some of our members. We are going to be setting a baptismal date with them for the 19th of October, so please be praying for them. Next Dean and Tracey's family are doing well. We were able to meet with them a few times to check up on things. We are going to be doing a big push with Dean to quit smoking. We are going to be fasting with him soon so we will see how that goes. So there is your little update haha. Things are great here I am still loving it. I was on exchanges last week with the APs and also saw President Weston. They both said they are very happy with what is going on up here. It has been a while since the Redding zone has been this good. I am grateful that the fruits of my labors are paying off and being noticed. We have been working very hard to make this the best zone in the mission and a place where everyone wants to serve. Hopefully it is getting there.
                            Well I love you all so much. I am sending a picture of me and a few people. It is what is called my posterity picture. It has the Elder I trained (Holbrook), Then both of his "Sons" and then one of their "sons". So all of them came from my lineage. The only one missing is Elder Hyde so hopefully I can get one with him sometime. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.

Love Elder Payne

Monday, September 23, 2013

Email: Update on Investigators

How is the ol' Payne clan doing this week? Well I sure hope everything is going well. It sounds like there has been a lot of craziness that has been taking place recently. I cant believe that the cabinet up above the desk finally got cleaned. That thing has been cluttered since before I can remember. I just wonder how long it will stay that way. Next thing you know the far left closet in the living room will be clean too. ha ha That is great though I am very proud of you all that you got that done. I cant wait to see pictures. I cant believe that you got rid of the couches downstairs. Did you get rid of the big blue one down there as well? I sure hope not because I love that couch. Anyways that is also really good news that Lindsay got the ipad back. She should probably just like duct tape that to her or something like that.
                 So I have had a a very long week our here. I don't really know why it seemed so long but it definitely took a while.  Like I said in last weeks email, we had transfers this past week. We only lost two of the people in our zone but it was sad to see them go. We got two new greenies though so we are very happy about that. They are both great Elders who are going to be a great addition to our zone. Over this past week we had to do a lot of running around because of those new missionaries. We were able to get a lot of good work done though. We mainly met with a lot of our regulars. We saw the Windom family a few times this week. It was great because they are just fired up and really trying hard to make it to baptism. The only problem is the Father is still having a problem with smoking, hopefully he can get past it soon and be able to enter into the waters of baptism. The other great highlight of the week is the Lockwood family. I think I talked a little about them last week but I'm not quite sure. Anyways they are a family we have been trying to work with a lot lately. What we have been doing mainly is just being their friends. At first they weren't really ready to take the lessons because there was a ton of stuff going on in their lives. I am so very grateful that we have stuck with it though. On Sunday we had a great Restoration lesson with them. The spirit was so strong in there. You can just really tell when people are truly open to what you are saying and they are definitely open. They have plenty of friends in the church who have told them a lot of stuff but now being able to hear it first hand from the missionaries I think will really help move them a long. We soft committed them both to baptism and they both accepted. We are so excited for them because I can just see how much it can bless their lives. What was also great was right after the lesson they were just like hey would you guys like to stay for dinner. So of course we weren't going to say no. While they were finishing dinner we got to go out and play football and some games with their boys. I absolutely love that family. So ya that was a few little bits of our week. Overall it was pretty great. This week we have a lot going on we have a bunch of meeting we have to prepare for and that is always great, let me tell you I just love paper work.
                 Anyways I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week. Keep staying strong and trusting in the lord. Proverbs 3:5-6 I love you all

Love Elder Payne

Monday, September 16, 2013

Email: Gratitude for the Book of Mormon & a Baptism

 Wow so this past week has absolutely just flown by. There has been a ton of stuff going on. We had a few big meetings and we also had a baptism! It was a really good week but also very busy.
                                 This past week we had a really great meeting with our whole zone. It was a great meeting where we got to cover a lot of material. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon. Mainly a lot about what the BoM is, why we should use it , and how we should use it. We watched Elder Hollands talk where he talks about the BoM. It was such an amazing talk to watch. Every time I watch it I get chills. Just the way he testifies of the truthfulness of the BoM and how we  can gain a testimony of it. I personally am so grateful for the Book of Mormon. It has definitely made a huge difference for me out here. As I am sure many of you remember I had not read the Book of Mormon all the way through by myself before I came out. I struggled to read it and definitely struggled to get anything out of it, but now i am happy to say that has  changed. I have now read through it almost 5 times and wow what a difference it has made. I am able to see the way that the Book of Mormon can affect people. I can see the relevance of reading and studying from its pages. We also talked a lot about the power and authority of our calling. I love studying how it is the lord has called us to this work and has prepared us to be able to go out and teach to those around us. We read from John Ch.15 V.1-16 which is a lot about how the lord has allowed us to assist in this work. i love it!
                        So as I said we had a baptism this past Saturday. It was of a girl named Julia. For a long time it has really just been very off and on with her. At times it has been very difficult to meet with her and others not so much. Finally she just fully committed and put forth just a little more effort and then was able to get baptized. It was a wonderful meeting and the spirit was so strong there. I was very grateful that I was able to be apart of that ordinance by being a witness. I was so happy for her.
                           So the last thing i wanted to address was transfers. We had transfer calls again yesterday. This one was pretty nerve racking because we weren't quite sure what was going to happen. For all we knew either one of us could have been transferred, but neither of us did. Elder McMurray is staying here. He was very happy about that because if he had been transferred he would have only been there for 6 weeks. It is crazy though because he has been up here for 9 months already and by the end he will have been here for 10 and a half months. I am very happy that he is staying because he is a good comp and we get a long very well.
                          Well that is about it. It was a great week and all is well here. I love you all and I am very grateful for all of the wonderful support that you give me. I miss and love you all. Love Elder Payne

Monday, September 9, 2013

Email: Member Present Lessons

Hello my dear family,
                              How is everything going back at home? It sounds like things are going great back there with everything, except for of course grandma breaking her wrist. That was really unfortunate that, that happened Make sure and give her my best and let her know that I am praying for her.
                              So wow let me tell you a little about my week. Things have been amazing out here. This is definitely one of the happiest times of my life. I am just absolutely so blessed to be where I am right now with all that is going on around me. So to start off the whole Facebook thing is crazy! It is really nice in some ways but sort of weird in others. We are currently working through all of the kinks and things but it seems to be working out ok. i an awesome experience with it on Tuesday. I was on and i saw that one of our investigators was online. she is one that it has been very hard to get a hold of for a very long time. So what I did was start chatting with her and asked how her day was going. She was struggling really bad because of some things with her mother. i was able to share a little bit with her. Then i noticed that our Elders quorum president from out at the branch was on. i connected with them both and boom there you go, an online member present lesson. It was absolutely amazing being able to help her just by sitting at a computer. That girl is actually getting baptized this coming Saturday, we are super excited because it has been a long time coming. That experience right there showed me just how effective this tool can be.
                               Well lets see what else took place this past week. On Friday we headed about an hour and a half away from Redding to a place called Gridley. We had our monthly zone leader meeting. it was a really great meeting with everyone. We discussed a lot about the way things are going in our zones. Like some of my past emails have said Redding is just exploding right now. This past month in August we averaged 36.2 member present lessons, this is huge because back in like May and June we only averaged about 19, so that is a huge jump. This past week we had 41, it is just so awesome to see the work moving forward the way that it is and to see the way that the members are rallying around us missionaries to help is such a blessing. We also talked about our upcoming training meetings, which will take place this Thursday. It was a great meeting where i really feel like i learned a lot.
                               So the reason that i am emailing so late is because we decided to utilize our surroundings and go do something fun outside. We went and did this hike called the Castle Crags hike. It is about 3 miles to the top, it was a ton of fun and great to switch things up and do things a little differently. It was a little tiring and reminded me of how out of shape i am but it was definitely worth it. Also on our way back we saw this huge fire going on. It is a couple miles outside of Redding and moving fast! But luckily not in our direction. it is headed towards two small towns call Igo and Ono which are both in our ward boundaries so hopefully they can knock it down before it gets there.
                           Well that is about it for the week. Dont worry i am still doing great and loving it here. I love you all and hope all is going well. i love you all and hope you have a great week

Love Elder Payne

Monday, September 2, 2013

Email: The Future is Now!

Hello to my wonderful Family,
                                  Well I have some very big news to share with all of you. You may have noticed some activity on my account on a certain social networking site over the past few days. No, you don't need to worry I have not just gone super disobedient and started breaking all of the rules. My mission is now one of 12 missions in the World that are piloting, you guessed it, Facebook! We found out on Friday that we are going to be using Facebook as a proselyting tool. It is crazy, I never in a million years would have thought that I would be adding people on Facebook and sharing videos and stuff on there while on my mission. The past few days have been very strange trying to figure out how we are going to be doing this. We found out that it is just going to be starting with the Zone Leaders and some select Sisters and then eventually filter out to the rest of the mission. One of the things we have to do is make our Facebook pages much more professional. That involves going through and hiding all of the pictures that are not in line with our calling, as you can imagine that means there are quite a few that I have to go through and hide. We also have to clean up all of the posts that we have been tagged in or have posted ourselves. So if you have seen that I have untagged myself there is a reason for that.
                      I am very sure that this new tool that has just opened up to us will definitely help to further the work. This is most assuredly the generation that can use these resources for what they were meant to be used for. Like I said on Friday I learned a little of how we can use Facebook to teach lessons and do things like that. This is going to be a huge learning experience for me and I am excited to see where it will lead the work.
                  So other than the announcement about Facebook the rest of the week has been pretty dull. haha  So on Wednesday I was on exchanges up in a little place called Weaverville. It is this little tiny city of only about 3,000. I got to meet some really neat people and have a lot of really great lessons. One of which was with this Less Active family. They are older and just kind of one day stopped coming to church. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how we need to continually be reading it. There are so many teachings in there and so many things that can help us that we really can be blessed by it. The woman at one point said," I have already read it why do I need to read it again?" At the point I was able to bear my testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon and how it has blessed my life by continually reading it. I sure hope something that I said will help them. Anyways then on Friday we had our Zone conference. That is where I found out about Facebook. Then Elder McMurray and I got to give a training on the Doctrine of Love. It was a really neat experience teaching about love and how important it is to have it in our zones, districts, and companionship's. We read from Matthew 22:36-40 that talked about the first great commandment. Then we read a little from Jeffrey R. Hollands talk "The First Great Commandment". It went really well, we got to talk for about 25-30 minutes.
                                  In our zone we had 4 baptisms this past week. It was amazing to see the miracles that are taking place out here. Well I believe that is all I have for the week. Like I said it was a crazy one but it was great. I love you all and I am so grateful for the amazing family that I have. I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Love Elder Payne

Monday, August 26, 2013

Email: How Blessed I Am

Hello to my wonderful Family,
                     I hope this email finds you all doing very well. From the emails that I have gotten it sounds like this past week was pretty crazy. Well ya know I wouldn't expect anything different from the last few weeks of summer in the Payne household. I am really glad that baby Sara is doing well. I have been thinking a lot about the recent additions to the Payne family and it is just such a miracle that we have two brand new little babies that are doing so well. The miracles seem to just keep coming. I am so grateful to the Lord for blessing me with such a wonderful and supportive family. I have been contemplating that a lot lately, just how truly blessed I am. The reason that it has come up and I have been thinking about it is because I have quite a few investigators that are really struggling right now with their families. One person is a girl who just recently had her two kids taken away from her. Her ex-husband came and took them away because her husband has some custody. The problem is that he took them all the way to Wyoming. She has been really distraught because of it. She started questioning everything that she has been taught and she is just in a really rough spot right now. We went over and talked a lot with her, mainly that we need to look at the eternal perspective of things. That when times get tough, that is the time that we need to really lean on the Lord for help. We seemed to help her feel at least a little bit better towards the end of the lesson. Now second the other family that is going through a rough time. It is the family that just recently had the mother and the Son baptized. They are just going through a really rough time as well. The husband is currently trying to quit smoking a he is having a really rough time of that as well. He is extremely stressed and as you can imagine it is not easy to quit smoking. He has been trying really hard to quit for a long time and it hasn't worked yet. So right now they are having a lot of financial hardship. I feel so bad because I wish there was more that I could do. We are just constantly reassuring them that the Lord is going to help them and just to have faith in him. So like i said I have been expressing a lot of thanks in my prayers to my Heavenly Father because of the wonderful family I have. Along with that i want to wish Mom a very Happy Birthday this week. Thank you so much for always being there for me. I am so blessed to have you. I know that i can always rely on you for help. Thank you again. Well I love you all very much. I apologize that this weeks email was sort of jumbled and crazy but that was sorta like my week. haha i love you all so very much. Also before I forget thank you very much for that package. It pretty much just came up out of the blue and definitely brightened my week, especially the Superman ring. i actually ended up wearing it to church on Sunday. It may just become my new Sunday ring. I love you all  once again.

Love Elder Payne

Monday, August 19, 2013

Email: Baby Sara and Beautiful Hike

Hello Payne Family,
            Holy Smokes only one week goes by and the whole world back home changes. First off I want to congratulate Linds and Rob with their new little baby Sara. That is so awesome that she is finally here. It seems like just yesterday that Drake was telling me over Skype that she was pregnant and now she is already here. I am really sad that i wasn't able to be there to meet her but i know i am where i should be.

         So mom i did hear about Hailey getting baptized. That was such a miracle to hear that. It has definitely been a very long road for her and i am so sure that her getting baptized is going to help her so much. I did call President to find out if I could go down to it and for some reason he said no. I don't really understand why. Him telling me that was really upsetting. I mean someone that i had worked so much with and poured so much time and energy into and I am not allowed to go and witness it. I didn't really get it. It especially sucks because i talked to her and congratulated her on getting baptized and she told Elder McMurray and I that we had to be there. Now I have to tell her that we aren't going to be able to go really sucks. I am sure everything will work out fine though I just wish it had gone a little different.
               
             So this past week was really quite slow. We were able to see  a few miracles though. Unfortunately the week started out with both Elder McMurray and I getting sick. It really was a bummer because getting sick really sucks but even worse getting sick out here on your mission is even worse. We did our best to push through it though. On Tuesday we had this great service project. We along with the whole young men's quorum went to a less active guys house that we work with a lot. He had a whole lot of yard work that he needed to be taken care of, so everyone brought their weed whackers and went to town on all of the weeds. They had everything cleaned up and ready to go in a matter of about 45 minutes. It was really impressive. Then after we had sort of a impromptu lesson with all of the young men and even better our investigators that came and helped as well. The Bishop said some very powerful things about cleansing ourselves and preparing for missionary service. It was great because both I and Elder McMurray got to bear our testimonies of missionary service. That was a wonderful night. On Thursday we had a lesson with those same investigators and set baptismal dates with them. Oh by the way they are the son and husband of the lady we baptized a few weeks ago. Anyways they accepted the date of Sept 7 for baptism. We are so excited for them both and are working very closely with them to help them get there. So now comes the highlight of the week. So all of the youth in the ward have been planning on going and doing a big hike up a mountain near here called Mt. Lassen. We thought hey this would be a great opportunity to take our investigator to get to know the youth, so we got to go on an awesome hike. We hike from about 8,500 feet to about 10,500 feet elevation. It was a beautiful hike and very spiritual as well. We got to say a prayer on the top of the mountain and wow that was amazing. I am very grateful that i got to go on that hike and see all of that. It was definitely an experience I will never forget.
             Well there is pretty much my week, it was definitely a great week but it was a very interesting one as well. I love you all very much and I hope your week goes great

Love Elder Payne

Monday, August 12, 2013

Email: 2 Baptisms! And a McDonalds Stand-Off

Hello Family,
                  Holy Smokes where do I begin? This has been such an amazing week. We have seen a ton of miracles a ton of craziness and a ton of change. So I guess we will just start at the beginning. So Tuesday we began our day by doing a lot of running around, because we are the zone leaders we had to go and babysit a lot of missionaries because a lot were leaving. So we had to go out about 10 minutes North of where we live to pick up an Elder. Well come to find out that didn't happen he just ended up doing some other thing to get his new comp. Anyways back to the story, so we are heading back home to do some things and I was like man i would really like some McDonald's breakfast right now, and Elder McMurray was like ya me too. So we head to McDonald's. Well we pull into the parking lot and what do we find? Oh nothing much just a parking lot full of cop cars with their guns drawn and pointed at this car that was between us and them. So basically we were looking down the barrels of about 3 glocks, and of course the first words out of my mouth were, " oh man now we cant use the drive through!" ha ha ya no joke i am brilliant. So we wheel around and get out of there as quick as we can. We decided to park a ways away from the action and observe. Of course I snapped a few photos and I wont explain to much because i am pretty sure they speak for themselves. So after they get the guy in cuffs and start searching the car we go into the other side of McDonald's. It was awesome because while we were in there i got talking to a guy. He was super excited to learn that we were church people, so of course we picked him up as a new investigator.
                       So enough with that action, on Thursday we had our zone meeting. That is the one that Elder McMurray and I teach. We had a great time teaching it. We talked mainly about strengthening the faith of the missionaries and strengthening the faith of the members. It was great because we had out Ward Mission leader come in and talk about what missonary work is like from the members point of view. i thought it went very well and we all learned a lot. At the end we challenged everybody to go through and read Ether 12, because that is the whole theme of that chapter is faith. So of course that is my challenge to all of you. Go read Ether 12 and tell me what you think. Better yet tell Lindsay and she can put your responses on the blog.
                     Now we continue, Later that day we had the baptismal interview for Tracey and her son Demitris. They both did awesome and are so ready to be baptized. Continuing on through the week, we had a great lesson with Shane Toro. We went over the Restoration with him. It was so amazing when we were going over the lesson. We were talking about some things and I was explaining the Apostasy when i stopped and wanted to ask a few more questions to make sure he understood but he was just sitting on the edge of his seat and when i stopped he just blurted out, " Well then what happened?" It was so cool because I have never had an investigator that was that excited to hear the message of the Restoration. When we recited Joseph Smiths vision he was just about in tears. He told us that he got chills when it was being recited. What an amazing person. We explained that those feeling were form the Holy Ghost and they were confirmation that the message is true. We invited him to be baptized on the 31st of this month and he said he would pray about it!
                        Alright shall we continue with the miracles? i believe we shall! So Saturday we had one of the most amazing baptisms of my mission. Tracey and her son Demitris got baptized and what was even more amazing was that i got to baptize Demitris! What was also pretty neat was that because Tracey had brain surgery and isn't very strong I got to be in the water with them Tracey while Elder McMurray baptized her. It was such a neat experience. Then Sunday I got to confirm Demitris as well. It was amazing seeing someone as prepared as them both completing all of those ordinances. Later that night we visited them and I personally witnessed scripture being fulfilled.
2 Nephi 32:2-3  "Do ye not remember that I said unto you that after ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tongue of angels? And now, how could ye speak with the tongue of angels save it were by the Holy Ghost?
 3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."
                    So she usually has trouble speaking but she said a prayer that was absolutely amazing. I will stop there because this is a long post. Well I love you all and hope all is going well. Good luck to Lindsay this week because she definitely needs it. I love you all.

 Love Elder Payne