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