Monday, March 25, 2013

Email: Some Funny, Weird Lessons

Hello my wonderful family,
          How is everyone doing this week? Well I sure hope everyone is doing well. I know that this past week was going to be a really busy one so hopefully things turned out well. So things actually went really well this week. I also got my new bike which is awesome. It is actually a really nice bike, I really like it a lot. Thanks again to everyone who helped me out with that. It was extremely stressful as you can imagine but thanks to all of you everything turned out alright. I will have to send you guys pictures of it as soon as I have one.

So a little bit about this week, it turned out to be a very successful week. I also had a few really strange lessons which i will talk about in a bit. We hit a  whole bunch of less active and potential investigators. It turned up a few pretty good leads. So with the weird lessons, The first of 3 of the weird lessons started on Thursday night. We had a lesson with this lady from our apartment complex. Now we had talked to her about an hour and a half before the lesson, just right before we went to dinner. So we arrive with our fellowshipper and she comes stumbling out of this taxi. I mean she can hardly stand up. Come to find out she was extremely wasted! We tried teaching her but she just kept repeating herself and repeating herself. It was absolutely hilarious. So as you can imagine it was pretty strange. What was really funny though is she called us the next day and apologized for missing the appointment. She didn't even remember that we had come over! So that was the first of the weird lessons.

Next was the very next morning, we met with a new investigator of ours. Come to find out he is Schizophrenic, he was saying some pretty strange stuff. One of those things was all I asked was do you believe that God loves us? He just went off for like fifteen minutes. At one point he mentioned Thor and Asgard and one day being able to be telepathic. That was just a very, very strange lesson.

Then to the third one, this happened the next day, so Saturday. We were checking on a less active member who wasn't there and this guy came out thinking we were robbing his garage. We were like no we aren't stealing we are actually missionaries. So we started talking with him about the gospel, unfortunately he was very high. He even told us that he was smoking medicinal marijuana. He eventually was like I want to have the discovery channel come out and have them follow you around. We were just like we probably cant do that I really don't think our mission president will allow us to do that. but we are going back there in a couple of days, so we will see how that goes. Well as you can see it was a strange but pretty good week. Well I love you all and hope things are going well for you all.

Love Elder Payne

P.S. Hey there I just got your email about the same time I finished this. I am so glad things went so well with Kate at prom. Thanks so much for all of the support you guys are all so amazing. Also thee is a family out here the McGhies that are really amazing. They are wanting some of dads organic flour and sugar and stuff they are really into organic stuff. So give them a call because I am sure they would love to buy some of his stuff. McGhies.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Email: Stolen Bike!


Dear Family,
                 How is every ones week been going? It sounds like it has been quite crazy back there with everything going on. I sure hope you can even find time to get everything done. At least you are all nice and relaxed from your cruise so that should make things a little easier for you. So a little about the bike situation, so we had them under our stairs, unfortunately because i was being stupid and lazy we did not lock them up. Anyways we went to bed that night woke up went down and helped some other Elders with some service and then came back. Some time between when we went to bed and came back they got stolen. We called the police, management and a few others that needed to be informed. What is crazy is that when Elder Peek and my bikes were stolen they were the sixth stolen in the past 7 days throughout the mission! Crazy right? So right now we are borrowing some of the bikes that the mission has. We ordered some from a member who owns a bike shop so they should be pretty good bikes. We are still keeping an eye out for our bikes so hopefully we can spot them soon.
                So as you can imagine with our bikes being stolen it was a little slower of a week. We spent a lot of time dealing with that. We were able to do a little bit though. On Monday evening we got a call from this old lady in our apartment and she needed help with something. So we went over and helped her out. We started talking about how she had come in contact with the missionaries and some of her views on religion and then we talked a bit about the Plan of Salvation. It was really neat just really connecting with someone and helping her to know a bit more about our beliefs. Anyways we are going to start teaching her now and her name is Mariam. So this week we spent a lot of time working with less actives and just trying to get in contact with people. Friday evening we had a ward talent show. I got dragged into performing in it with Elder Peek and another guy in our ward. i will have to send you the video soon. It was a lot of fun and absolutely hilarious. Also on Sunday I got to speak in church. I spoke on the talk given my Elder L. Tom Perry in the April 2009 conference. It is an amazing talking and you guys should definitely look it up and read it. I was a little nervous speaking because it was a homecoming for a guy in the ward but as soon as I got into it I was totally at ease. It ended up going really well and I hope that I was able to spark the members from the talk. In fact there was a less active lady who called us last night, who was in church this Sunday, and she said that she was very grateful for our talks and that they really inspired her to start changing her life and try to become better. I was so happy to hear that i was able to touch someones life like that, what a special experience. Well things are still going well here. I really like this area, it is heating up quite a bit. It has been up in the 70's almost every day. I am so grateful for each one of you. I am so grateful for the inspiration and support that i receive from you all. Please keep me in your prayers. I love you all and I am praying for you all as well.

Love Elder Payne

Monday, March 11, 2013

Email: Meeting Elder Neil L. Anderson


Hello family,
                 Well how is everyone doing this week? It sounds like things have slowed down a little bit but not to much yet. So I was asked to tell you all about the meeting with the apostle in good detail, well I don't know how well I can do that so I will have to do my best. So the meeting was this past Saturday down in Roseville. It was really great because the whole mission came together, and President Weston said that, that was the first time that they had ever done that. I got to see a lot of the guys who I have served around. It was great to see so many familiar faces and guys that I admire. So Elder Anderson came in and he asked us all to line up so that we could all shake his hand. That was such a cool experience and something I will never forget. Even with just the brief interaction that we had I could just fell the love that he had for each one of us. After we all went down and shook his hand we started the meeting. Sister Weston spoke first, then President Weston. He spoke on Alma 13:4 and it was amazing. He talked about how each one of us have a Holy calling to perform and how we must live up to that. After him Craig C. Christensen of the seventy spoke, he spoke on the conversion process. The best thing that he said for me was,"Conversion is not an event it is a process." that was a very inspiring quote and really helped me to understand not only for my investigators but for ourselves as well. After him Sis. Anderson bore her testimony, then Elder Neil L. Anderson spoke. He talked mainly on the atonement and how through the Grace Mercy and merits of Christ we can all be cleansed. It was phenomenal how he laid it out for each one of us. It was so amazing to be so close to an Apostle of the Lord and receive instruction that is focused right to us. I was very grateful for the opportunity I had to hear him speak.
                  So the rest of the week wasn't too eventful. I didn't have to teach District meeting because we had zone meeting instead. We had one great lesson with our investigator. We talked about the Word of Wisdom and how it can be such a blessing in her life. We really recommitted to trying to quit drinking coffee. I received some very great news this past week as well. I found out that Will Greenshield, Honey Greenshields husband, got baptized. That was such amazing news. They are both doing great and they are both really feeling the happiness from being members of this Gospel. As soon as I heard I got her phone number and called her up and got to have a great talk with her. They are both very happy! So that was kinda the highlights from this week. i am doing great and so is Elder Peek. Thank you so much for the package it was much appreciated and yes I baked them all and they tasted great. Well everyone thank you so much for the emails you sent me and all that you have done I love you all so much and cant wait to hear back from you. I love you all very much. Love Elder Payne

Monday, March 4, 2013

Email: Baby Savannah

Dear Family,
                 Well I cannot express just how happy I am to have received the news that little Savannah was born and now be able to see some pictures. She is an absolutely beautiful baby, and in the words of the great Michael Scott,(While smoking a cigar)"Ya, its a baby see!"
                            Random nurse: "Sir put that out, put it out!"
                            Michael Scott: " Man you cant smoke anywhere these days!"

               It is so amazing to have a brand new addition to our family. How is everyone feeling now? Have things slowed down any or is it still crazy there? Well I am really happy that everything went well. Keep me updated on everything that is going on with her.

                 So a little about this past week, I will also try to answer all of your questions. So I am in the Rocklin 2nd ward and things are going OK. It is definitely a lot slower than Lincoln, but we are trying to change that around. We were able to pick up two new investigators this past week. One of which isn't too solid but hopefully the one man we met will work out well. We have been working a lot with less active people so we were going around trying to meet more people that we don't know that are not currently active. We had a little success in finding people home but not too much. The bike riding is getting better, my rear end is still a little sore after longer rides but it is a little better now. My bike is holding up OK. I had to take it in and have about 3 spokes replaced and a new chain put on, it is hanging in there though. This past week we had my 2nd district meeting, it went a lot better than the first and I was a lot more relaxed. We covered the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a great lesson to teach. What i did was I had each companionship take one point in the Gospel, study it for about 5-10 minutes and then present it to everyone else. It went really well and I think everyone really enjoyed it. I am trying to get everyone involved rather than just stand up there and drone on, I think that approach is helping a lot. I am really enjoying being district leader though. It isn't too much more responsibility. Basically the only extra work I have to do is teaching district meeting and going on exchanges. It isn't too bad and I like being able to interact with everyone.

                  This coming week is actually going be an interesting week. This Saturday we are having an apostle come and talk to us. I am really excited to get to see an apostle in such a close quarter situation. It should be a really amazing experience. Well that is pretty much it for me. My clothes are holding up fine. I am just trying to have them make it to my year mark. It should all be just fine though. I love you all and I hope everything is going well.

Love Elder Payne