Email: About Rocklin & New Address

Dear Family,

                 Well hello to one of the busiest families around. haha So let me just start out by telling you a bit about the area. So Rocklin is only like 15 to 20 minutes away from Lincoln. In fact it is right between Lincoln and Citrus Heights. There are quite a few apartment complexes around here and it is mostly city. It reminds me a little bit of like Draper area. There are a few kind of older neighborhoods and then one or two neighborhoods with really nice houses. Our area is pretty big which kind of sucks being on a bike. Also there are a few hills here that have just about kicked my butt. Other than it isn't too different from my last area. It is a little like my first area and my last area combined. As far as people we are teaching, the work around here is going pretty slow. We currently only have one investigator who cant meet with us very often because she gets sick a lot. So that gives us plenty of work to do. We are really working right now to get the members involved, and get them out helping us because it is really hard to pick an area up when there is nothing going, especially if it is all by ourselves. So that is what is going on currently. My companions name is Elder Peek, he is from South Weber, so not to far from us. He has been out about 3 months now. So far things have been going really great with him. He is a really soft spoken guy which really allows the spirit to come in.

               So this past week I had to teach my very first District meeting, as you can imagine I was pretty nervous. I wasn't sure how it was going to go or what to expect but everything turned out really well. I am really blessed because I am in a district with a lot of really great guys. All of them are relatively young. Actually i came out with two of them. I really excited to be able to serve around all of these guys. My apartment here is pretty nice. It is a bit nicer than my last one and in a much better neighborhood.

               Well it sounds like things are a bit crazy back home. That is really sad to hear about grandma but it is good to hear that she is doing a little bit better. Give her my best and tell her I love her. That is also sad to hear about the boys basketball team. too bad they couldn't pull that out. Staci i cant believe that Savannah hasn't come yet, you look like you are about ready to pop. make sure you don't go around any sharp objects we don't want anything bad happening. Well i love you all and I hope I have answered most of your questions. before I go my address is 5780 Springview Dr. Apt. 57 Rocklin, CA 95677. Also I have not gotten the cuff links yet but they did arrive back in Lincoln and the Zone leaders are going to get them for me. Thanks a ton  I love You all and hope you have a great week and good luck with everything. 

Love Elder Payne

Email: Getting transferred to Rocklin

Dear Family,

Well from reading all of your emails it sounds like the cat is out of the bag. Yes the news is true I am being transferred. I am going to a place that is only like 20 minutes away from where I am now. That part kind of sucks because I was really hoping I would go further North but oh well where I am going will still be great. I am going to Rocklin which is known as kind of the rich part of the mission. I am also going to be the District Leader there. That part is pretty nerve racking. I'm not really sure what to expect but I am really excited to find out what it is like. I was kind of surprised when I found out that I was going to be the District Leader, like I said I'm not sure what to expect but I am very happy that President Weston has put that much trust in me. I am going to be serving with an Elder named Elder Peek. I don't know too much about him yet but I will be sure to let you know. I do know that he is just getting done being trained. He came out with Elder Holbrook.

Speaking of Elder Holbrook he has been selected as a trainer. Every single person in the Lincoln District is training. That is absolutely amazing! There are so many new missionaries coming out that it is just phenomenal. I am sure we are going to see a huge jump in the amount of work being done. Something really neat coming up, I'm not sure if I have mentioned this or not, but we are actually having an Apostle come here. He is coming out on March 9th and is having a special meeting with our mission. No one knows who or why he is coming but it should be a pretty amazing experience.

So this past week was a strange one again. We started out just fine, we had a bit zone conference on Wednesday where three Zones met. That went just fine, but on the way back one of the Elders we drove there with started not feeling very good. He had a really bad stomach ache and some other bad stuff going on. Anyways when we got back we gave him a blessing and Elder Holbrook and I had to go to a lesson. During the lesson we got a call from them but we had to silence it because we were in a lesson. Anyways after we called them back like 3 or 4 times. When they answered the other Elder told us that the sick one had passed out had like a mini seizure and threw up everywhere, so he called an ambulance and they took him to the Hospital. The doctors thought he had appendicitis but fortunately for him it ended up being a lot more minor than they thought. He just had the flew on top of some intestinal inflammation and he was super dehydrated. So he was able to come back like a day later. We were all very worried but it all turned out fine. Unfortunately I was quite sick this week as well. I got hit by a horrible cold. It put me out of commission for a good two days. I am feeling much better now though and am back on my feet.

We were able to have one or two really good lessons this week. One was with the Plauts which went very well! They are coming along slowly but surely and with them I feel like it is only a matter of time. We also had a member just walk up to us in church yesterday and introduce us to someone who is interested in joining the church. That was such a shock and such a blessing. There is so much great work going on here and I am really going to miss this ward. There have been so many great people that I have met and been able to be around I really hope that my next ward will be able to match up with this one. I know that if i go in with the right attitude no matter what that ward can be a great one for me.

Well it sounds like everyone had a great Valentines day which was great. I had a great one as well. It wasn't anything too different. I got a lot of candy and I feel about 15 pounds heavier because of it haha. I cant believe that there is a possibility by the next time i email you guys that there could be a new addition to our family. That is crazy the time has absolutely flown by. Good luck Staci, I'm sure everything will go just great. Well everyone I love you very much and appreciate all of the support that you are sending me. I Love you all and have a great week.

Love Elder Payne

Email: Baptismal Date Set

Hi everyone,
                 Well let me tell you about a very interesting week I had. Things were quite slow here, perhaps one of the slowest weeks that I have had thus far. I was able to witness my fair share of miracles thought that is for sure. So as far as lessons that we were able to teach, they were few and far between. Both Elder Holbrook and myself came into this week extremely excited because we had set up the week very well. We had multiple lessons set up and lots of people to visit. Well starting Monday evening a trend started to emerge. Cancellation after cancellation started happening. It seemed like our appointments were just dropping like flies. Even those investigators who are super solid and never drop there appointments had to cancel. It was just an extremely weird week. Definitely the greatest miracle we saw this week was we were able to set a baptismal date with one of our new investigators. His name is Chris, it was really neat because we went over to a friend of his that is a member and he ended up bringing his friend as well who is not a member and guess what?  We ended up setting a baptismal date with him as well. That was so amazing seeing two people who were so prepared to hear the gospel really accepting the invitation to follow Christ. The date is set for the 9th of March. Transfers are coming up this next week, and I have a good chance of being transferred this time. It will be very interesting to see what happens though because there are so many new missionaries that are coming out it could really put a kink in how things are usually run out here.  Also this past Friday both Elder Holbrook and I got really sick. I am pretty sure it is because we both ate something bad and it made us both very nauseous and sick. We recovered by the next day though. Something that we got to do on Saturday was a lot of fun. We offered service to a less active lady and her family about a week previous and they said they are building an add on to their house and could use a little help with the construction. So I got to try my hand at a little construction work. I was helping do the flooring like laying boards and putting in stuff like that. It was pretty fun and I think I did alright, if not the family will know in a couple of weeks when they step on a weak spot in the floor and fall right through. haha  Even though this hasn't been the best week in the world I was able to keep my hopes up the whole week. I am very grateful for my Heavenly Father giving my strength when I was in need.
                                              SO it sounds like things are going well back home, busy but good. Staci I am praying for you especially in these next few weeks. Good luck with everything. To answer your question mom I have been putting that address just so if they want to send it there they can. Yes I did get dads letter and I sent one to mom just today so be looking for that.You probably shouldn't send anything to me until I find out what is going on with transfers so just letting you know. Thank you for all that you all do for me. I hope things continue to go well for all of you. I love you all.

Love Elder Payne

Email: 5 new investigators! 31 new missionaries!

Dear Family,
                    Well I apologize in advance but this email is going to be short. Things are kinda crazy today for some reason so we don't have very much time to email. This week has been really, really amazing. We were able to pick up 5 new investigators this past week and at least 2 of them are very solid. It is very apparent that the Lord is preparing this area for something very great. I think it has something to do with them fact that there are 31 new missionaries coming out in two and a half weeks. With all those new missionaries there is going to be a much needed increase in people to teach. Definitely the best lesson we had this week was with a couple named Sherry and David. They have kids who are 6 and 3. It is crazy like basically all of their friends are LDS and they basically live an LDS lifestyle. We went over and just basically got to know them. They were super nice and open with us. We should be able to set a baptismal date in this next appointment. I am very excited about those two and the potential that they have in the Gospel. One crazy thing that happened this week was we were headed to an appointment and we had about 15 minutes to kill. On the way we saw a sign that was pointing to a yard sale, so we decided to check it out. We were talking to the guy running it and started talking about missionary work and what we do. He told us that he was trying to come to a church for his two boys and that he just didn't know where to go. So of course we told him well we can help you with that. We set up a return appointment and so we are excited for him as well. Well sorry this is so short. Um but Lindsay yes I did get your letter. Staci that is extremely exciting new about the baby! Tyler I hope everything is going well in school and congrats about the calling. Katelyn I am excited to see you in your dress. Hannah I hope everything is going really well for you. Mom and Dad I love you both very much. Robert i want to send a very special b-day shout out. Happy Birthday man I love ya. I hope everyone has a great week. Love Elder Payne