Email: I have kept the faith

Hello family,
Well I do not have much to write because soon enough I can just tell you everything in person. I do have one thing to say though, which pretty much sums up all of what I have to say. Please look up 2 Timothy 4:7.

I love you and May God bless you all.

Love, Elder Hunter Payne

2 Timothy 4:7

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

Email: Departing Testimony

Hello Family,
Well sorry that this email is coming so late. We left first thing this morning to go and do something fun for P-Day. We went out to the Harts because down below their house they have these little water falls. We wanted to go see them but mostly we wanted to pan for gold. Apparently their is still a fair amount of gold in the hills around their place. We spent a good 4 hours just hiking around and panning for gold and stuff, it was a ton fun. They also made us lunch which was very, very nice of them. I really love that family, I am going to miss them so much.

So let me tell you a bit about our week, this email wont be super long because there wasn't a whole lot that went on. So the reason I didn't email last week was because I actually forgot my iPad at the
house so I wasn't able to email you, sorry about that. Anyways, we had quite a few good lessons and quite a few fall through. Things are going very well though and so I know everything will be ok.

Tuesday we started out by doing a lot of service. We helped this LAlady prune back a whole ton of her rose bushes. We literally cleared out a wall of them. It was a lot of hard work but I really enjoyed it. Actually before we did all that we had already spent 2 hours laying concrete for a car port. We were helping a man with the foundation part of it. That was fun because I havent been able to do a whole lot of work with concrete so it was a whole new experience. So anyways we
had a good lessons on Tuesday night with the montanez family. We went over the parable of the Good Samaritan.

On Wednesday we did more service. We kept with the construction side of things and actually helped a man in our ward, with Joe Hart, put up trusses for a barn. That was a blast once again I learned a lot of good new skills The rest of wednesday we basically just spent going around and trying to see people. We were able to have a few lessons here and there.

Thursday was a crazy day! We began by having our zone conference. I did quite a bit in it. Mom, you will be proud of this. I actually sang a solo of come thou fount, with an accompaniment from the piano and the violin. It was a really pretty song and I think I did ok. I also had to give my departing testimony in front of everyone. I spoke mainly of how I gained a testimony and just how much my mission has taught me. I spoke of humility and love and how pivotal they are in
the work. It was a really neat experience.

Friday we did more service in the morning. We cleared and hauled the rose bushes away from that ladies yard. We also did some planning and then had quite a few lessons that day. We were absolutely packed that day. We got to eat at the Harts and the Labordas that night. They feed us about once a week now. Once again, I love that family! Saturday we had a few lessons cancel so we helped the Labordas work on their house some more. We also got to lead their horses to a place which was pretty neat.

Then came Sunday, church was amazing. I think that has been one of the things I have learned the most out here, that is just how much i love going to church. Strange the things you are able to learn while you are on a mission. Anyways we had a few appointments and dinner and that was pretty much the day. Nothing too crazy or special. In most regards this was a pretty average week. Nothing to crazy happened, we stayed busy which was good so i loved that. Anyways I love you all. Next week I probably wont have much of email for you. You will probably just get a short little something. Well I hope you all have a great week. Good luck you two girls with Seminary graduation and also the dance revue. I love you all and hope all goes well.

Love Elder Payne

Email: I know why I'm in Oroville

Hello to you all,
Well once again another week has gone by. It is so crazy to me that I will only be writing a few more of these to you guys. Anywho things out here this past week went very well. I have many a grand tale to tell you this week. I have also had it confirmed to me why it is that i am in here in Oroville. So I guess I will just have to begin at the start of the week.

For p-day we did something that was a lot of fun. We went on this hike up to this place called Feather Falls. It is about an 8.2 mile roundtrip hike, for a bunch of out of shape missionaries that was quite the feat. You hike for about 3.5 miles to get to these look out point that is just across this ravine from the falls. it definitely gives you the best viewpoint of the falls. The falls are about 160
feet tall, so yes it is pretty amazing. So we hiked there and back and then headed back into town for dinner.

Tuesday was overall a good day. We started off with District meeting. The topic was Revelation through Church attendance. I have been taught this topic about a millions times because they pretty much cycle through the topics for District meeting and when you have been out 23 months you can pretty much just recite exactly how it is going to be taught, so I decided to switch things up a bit. I allowed everyone to come up and teach a little bit, something about the Sacrament or Church attendance that they have taught in a lesson before and then after everyone had gone through we went into the chapel and in my eyes we had a very spiritual experience. We started talking about the Sacrament and how at some point in time each one of us has had a very spiritual or cleansing experience with the Sacrament. We took turns reading from Moroni 4 and 5, the sacramental prayers. We then discussed how the sacrament can bless our inv. and people we bring to church. After that for our practice teaching we practice taught doing a chapel tour. It was a lot of fun because there are only 6 of us but we were able to teach for about 1 or 2 minutes then we would switch and another companionship would take over the teaching. We just went around and around like that until we had gone through the whole church building. I don't know what everyone else thought but I thought that it went pretty well. The rest of Tuesday wasn't too eventful we spent
a lot of time just simply going around and visiting people and trying to set things up. We did have one set lesson in the evening. It was with a family that we meet with every tuesday. We taught them the restoration as a refresher and it went quite well.

Wednesday was a lot like Tuesday, in that we didn't have a whole lot of appointments. We had our Presidents interviews in the morning and they actually went really well. he just told me that he is proud of the way that I have handled myself here in Oroville that last few weeks. He told me that he didn't expect me to be where I am now, but this was just where I was needed. It was really nice this time because I was able to break through a little bit and get things a little more personal out of him. We talked about the fact that he his going home soon as well. (He leaves the 1st of July) He said that it is pretty strange that it is here already. Apparently his kids arent doing too good with it either.

Wednesday we were able to do a bit of service, we mowed a ladies lawn and then we helped someone people burn some stuff on a burn pile, it was pretty great.

Thursday was a a lot better day as far as lessons go. We were able to meet with quite a few people. We headed out to the Harts pretty early on in the day, around 11, and then we started by doing some service for them. We picked rocks and things and basically just did some random things around their place. After that we had a quick lesson on baptism. We were pretty much just prepping him for Sunday. In the evening on Thursday we had a couple of really good lessons with inv. We taught the Jones family by going over and reading scriputres with them. After that lesson we went and read a conference talk with another one of our inv. that we have been teaching for a while, we have been really trying to get him to quit smoking for a long time. We read a talk from this last conference called "Your Four Minutes" It is about basically now is the time to change your life and become your best self. If you don't remember that one from conference it would be a good one to go back and watch or read.

Friday was a pretty crazy day we did a lot of running around and saw a lot of people. We started out, as usual, with our weekly planning. We had a lot to plan for, especially with the upcoming baptism. After we were done with planning everything we headed to a man named Paul. Him and his family have been inv. for quite a while now. His daughter just recently turned 8 and so we went over to talk to him because she had expressed an interest in being baptized, we wanted to go and talk to him before bringing it up in front of everyone else. We had a good talk with him and we were able to figure out how best to proceed with the family. Later on in the day we met with Robert, the man that came to church and we have met with on a few occasions. Well we were able
to go over the Plan of Salvation with him and he seemed to take it all very well. We talked with him a lot about his parents who had passed away and he actually got quite emotional when we covered that. Then later on we had a lesson with our the young man who got baptized about a month ago, Wyatt Murphree. We taught him the Restoration using the childrens books.

That evening we got to go and have dinner with the Harts and the Labordas. They bought us a rotisserie chicken and we ate it out at their house. Once again I love that family, they are all so
humble and nice and caring towards everyone.

Saturday morning we went out and helped the Harts some more. We have been spending a lot of time with theme lately, which I am totally fine with. Elder Stein used the mower and mowed a bunch of stuff while I helped Joe take down an electric fence. After we were done working
they were nice enough to feed us lunch. So the real adventure of the week began on our way back from seeing them. So about two days prior as we were driving back down this dirt road from the Harts I saw a big rattlesnake in the middle of the road it was probably 4 to 5 feet long. I swerved and hit it but it was able to crawl off into the bushes. Well on Saturday we were driving back and I saw another one. I thought there is no way I am letting this one get away. I lined it up and hit it just perfectly. I slammed on the brakes and backed up to see it. We got out and saw that the tire had popped out part of its guts! by the look of it, it was definitely dead. Just for good measure, and because I am petrified of snakes I used our bike rack and smashed its head just to be sure. Well i claimed the rattle and Elder Stein decided he wanted to try and skin it. We tossed in a box and
then put that in the back of the car and headed back into town. We put it into the fridge so it wouldn't go bad while we went out and kept working. Neither Elder Stein of I have ever skinned a snake before so we weren't sure how to go about it, luckily for us there is an Elder in our zone who knows exactly how to do it, also he know how to tan it. So we did what he what he said and well to make a long story short we now have a snake skin drying on our window sill. So yes it was an
eventful day.

When Sunday came it was a great relief. I will save you all the details of the day and hop right to the baptism. To start off Joes baptism went amazing! We had so much support from the ward we actually had to move it into the chapel. Joe was able to bring his mom and Joes wife, Marcy, was able to bring her mom. i dont think the whole thing could have gone much better, the spirit was strong, the talks were great, and just everything was so fitting for how great of a man Joe
is. As I said earlier I had confirmed to me why it is that I am here in Oroville. During the time when the people are changing we teach everyone that came the message of the restoration. While teaching it I just had this overwhelming feeling that He is why I came here, he is the reason that I had to go through all of the stress of moving and changing and getting switched around and you know what it was worth it. I am so grateful that I was able to meet that family. That are right up there at the top of the list of people that have changed my outlook on life. After the baptism I was able to talk to his mom and , with tears in her eyes, she thanked me for bringing her son back.
That was such a sweet experience for me. To feel that love from another person for my service as a missionary, there is a reason that Joseph Smith said "After all that has been said the greatest and most important thing is to preach the Gospel." Wow what an amazing experience. After the baptismal service we went to a park down by the Sacramento River and ate dinner. It was a fantastic day.

Well I am sure you have a few questions as to when I will be skyping home this coming week.(I cant believe that is already here) We are planning on doing it in the evening. Probably about 7 my time and then just finishing out the evening that way. Will that work ok for you guys? Just let me know and we can make sure that things work out. I love you guys, just know that I am enjoying every moment of these last few weeks. Thank you so much for all of the love and encouragement.

love Elder Hunter Payne

Elder Payne's Homecoming

A note from Mom about Elder Payne's Homecoming:

Hi there everyone,

   Well we got some very exciting news in this email and also in the mail today:  Elder Payne's official release instructions!!!!  To say I'm excited would be the understatement of the year:)  It has gone by pretty fast, but it definitely has been 2 long years without him home.  I wouldn't trade it for anything, but there is a time and a season for everything and now we are ready to move onto the next season.  He will be arriving on Tuesday, May 27 at 12:56 in the Delta terminal.  We would love to invite anyone who would like to be there to come.  The more the merrier!!  I think I already told you this, but his Homecoming report will be on June 8 at 3:00 in the Tremonton Stake Center. Our sacrament meeting is last so we will go right over to the house after and have a luncheon celebration.  We would love to have everyone be there if you can.  Thank you so much for your continued support and prayers for him.  I know he feels them and so do we!!  We will get to talk to him on his birthday which happens to be Mothers Day this year!!  So if anything changes I will keep you all informed.  Love to all of you and thanks again for everything!!

Sheri

Email: Joe Hart

Dear Family,
Well here is another installment into the life of Elder Payne. It is crazy to think I will only be writing three more of these after this. WEIRD! Anywho things out here in good ole' California are great. We had a fantastic week this past week and were able to see a lot of miracles.

I will try and answer some of the questions that you had. So things with Elder Stein are great. He is a great comp and definitely knows his stuff very well. We have been wondering why it is that they
downsized the ward and I think it is because we only had about 5 Elders come into the mission and a pretty good size group go home. So they just didn't have the personnel to fill back in. We are pretty sure that they will push it back out again sometime soon. With the organizing thing if you want to you can go through some of my stuff. You don't have to do the whole thing though I can do that when I get back. A question I have for you is do you want me to try and bring the mattress pad back, it is getting pretty old, same thing with the pillow. I have talked with Lindsay and she is going to pick up some of my stuff at the mission office sometime in the coming weeks. Also Linds if you can get my bike and one other little box plus a grey tote that would be great, thank you!

I guess I will start out with the good news because I usually save that for later on in the email but I guess I can do that now. So I dont know what you guys were praying for back there or how you were praying or if you were really doing anything differently because Joe Hart is getting baptized this coming Sunday. Let me tell you about the chain of events that took place for that to happen. Alrighty, so Tuesday evening the Harts invited us out to have dinner with them. They live clear out about 15 to 20 minutes outside of town in a little place called Bangor. So we went out there and we had an awesome dinner. It wasn't anything crazy or special, it was just burgers cooked over a wood fire. All the while we are just chilling outside on a beautiful day. It was my kind of night. We actually stayed out there for quite some time just talking and getting to know them on more of a
personal level. Eventually it came time for us to leave and so we shared a spiritual thought on having faith in Christ. We asked Joe if he had been thinking about a baptismal date and he said that he had. I then told him, Joe we have been thinking a lot about you and when it might be good to have your baptism. I then asked him if he would like to get baptized on the 10th of May. He said he didnt see any problem with that other than he might be out of town. So we said ok lets move
it to the 11th, and he said he would think about it. On Thursday we went over again for our lesson that we have with them. What we have been doing for about the past 2 weeks is we go out have a
lesson and then do some service because they have about 16 acres of land and so it takes quite a bit of work to maintain it all. So during the lesson we started off talking about the baptism. He said that he wanted to get baptized then and he felt he was ready! I don't know what it is but for some reason our Heavenly Father has seen fit to bless me with the opportunity to teach people who are very prepared. I do not feel worthy of being able to meet and teach them but I am so grateful for the opportunities that have been presented to me. Anyways we talked about studying the scriptures as well as Modern Prophets and then finished it off with tithing and fast offerings. Then we were
able to do a bunch of stuff for them. I got to mow the lawn while Elder Stein helped with taking somethings apart for them. What a great day!

So the story doesn't end there. On Saturday we headed out there again and like I have told you in past emails we have been helping the, build the Harts daughters house, which is just down the road from them. We spent the morning and a bit into the evening putting their roof on. It was a lot of fun, i really miss being able to get out and work hard and put in a good days work. Anyways we enjoyed being out there with them. They are all just such nice and humble people, grateful for what they have and firm in what they believe. Later that same evening we had a pie and ice cream social. It was a lot of fun especially because I got to be one of the judges, in fact Joe Hart and I were the judges for the event. There were a lot of really good pies there, so it is a good thing that I have learned to like pies out here. That evening a member that is good friends with Joe talked with him and they all decided that because it was Mother's Day was on the 11th they decided to move the baptism to the 4th. We were completely fine with that so we started putting things into place for the whole baptism and stuff.

Sunday was a great day we had a decent amount of inv. come to church. We had Joe Harts baptismal interview which went very well. The Elder that did the interview said that Joe is definitely very ready to get baptized. I sat there with just Joe and his wife for a moment later and asked him what it is that has made the difference, because he has been coming to church for about a year now and his wife has been a member for quite a few years as well. He told me that it is the way that the Gospel has helped his family and his daughter. He also mentioned that us missionaries had made a big difference in helping him feel comfortable. That really helped me feel like he is probably someone that I needed to come here to find and to teach. Anyways the baptism will be this coming Sunday so we are all excited about that. A few other things I wanted to mention were a few other lessons that took place. We met with Robert again and it went really well. He accepted an invitation to be baptized, if he came to know that church is true. We covered the Restoration and he had a few questions about the priesthood and prophets but we were able to explain it all for him. He also came to church with us yesterday, he is a really outgoing guy so it wasn't too hard for him to start finding common ground with people around him. It was really neat because he was making comments and asking questions in Elders quorum and usually new inv. that come to church just sit there. At one point the teacher started getting emotional because he was talking about the Plan of Salvation and hisdad who had passed away. I looked over at Robert and he was getting emotional as well, so i could tell he was really feeling the spirit. Hopefully we will be able to set a baptismal date with him soon and be able to start getting progressing towards baptism.

Well there is a little snippet from my week. As I said things here are going really well. We are seeing success and are constantly busy. I am really grateful that I am able to have the experiences that I am having here at this time. So I got my travel plans. I am sure that you have gotten them as well, or at least you will be getting them soon. From what they say it sounds like I am going to be getting into SLC about 1 or so. Well I love you all and hope everything is going well for you all.

Have a great week! Love Elder Payne

Email: Happy Easter!

Hello family,
          Well I am sending this a little later because I typed up a big message and then it got deleted! Frustrating so now I am retyping the whole thing. So sorry it is taking so long for it to get to you
all. Anyways so we had a pretty great week. Things are really moving a long here. As you can imagine it was a somewhat stressful week with the whole combining of the two areas but it will be keeping us very busy. It sounds like you guys had a great weekend, busy as ever, but still really good. I'm glad that all of the talks went so well. I'm sure you did a great job.
            So Tuesday E. Vaughan took off, the other elder in the other area took off around the same time as well, so Elder Stein and I joined up around 10:30. Elder Stein is a good guy. As you know from my last weeks email I served around him up Redding when he first came into the mission. He is VERY different from me. He has a lot of very different interests and is what you might consider sort of "hipster" but we get a long pretty well.
            Anyways we had a pretty decent day on Tuesday, it was spent mostly moving over all my stuff. This is the fourth different place that I have lived in the past 4 transfers. I am pretty much done with moving. We love with a member which is actually pretty fun. His name is Bro. Carter and he lives by himself. It is pretty nice because we pretty much have the run of the house. Tuesday evening we had a lesson with some inv. from the other area. We taught the plan of salvation and he was throwing a lot of interesting questions at us about Adam and Eve. I was really glad that we had a member who has a great knowledge of the scriptures and also just a great knowledge of the gospel. He was able to help answer a lot of the more difficult questions.
             So Wednesday morning we started out by planning and preparing for the coming week. It wasn't necessarily easy because we are having to combine his full schedule and my full schedule. Anyways that took most of he morning then in the afternoon we went shopping. While shopping we actually ran into a man who started talking to us. He told us that he had met with missionaries when he lived down in San Diego. He gave us his info and told us to come by his place. Talk
about being in the right place at the right time. I will follow up with more about him in a moment.
             Thursday was a good day as well we had a few lessons and spent some time doing service. We met with Joe Hart and had a good lesson on the Ten Commandments. If you remember that about 3 or 4 weeks ago we committed him to live the 10 commandments and how easily he agreed, well his wife told us that since we committed him to do that he hasn't taken a sip of coffee. That was amazing to hear. We are going to be extending a baptismal date to him this week so be praying for him! Ah I also forgot to tell you that we had district meeting on Thursday as well and it went great. It was actually a lot of fun being able to get up in front and teach it. I really do enjoy teaching those lessons. I taught on the doctrine of Christ and how it relates to our missionary purpose. I thought it went really well.
                Friday we spent a lot of time planning and prepping again.  We then were able to go and help a lady move. She is a less active so we spent some good time moving and helping her out. We
actually had quite a few lessons on Friday which was a big surprise because Friday is usually one of our slower days.
              Saturday was a lot of fun because we were able to go out and help Joe Hart and his family build their house, again. We then had a few lessons and actually were able to go and find that man who we met shopping. He was very excited to see us. In fact we were able to sit down and have a great conversation with him. He has gone through a lot of struggles in his life and it seems like the gospel is exactly what he needs.
              Sunday was a great day as well. In church we had sort of an interesting schedule. Sacrament meeting went extra long and then they skipped 2nd hour completely and then priesthood and stuff went short. So we ended up getting out at about 11:30. Sacrament was really neat, they had a lot of great speakers. In fact one of them was that dr. Stutzenneger who, mom, you spoke to on the phone. They all did a great job.
              We had dinner with the bishop and his family and they stuffed us with food. We spent most of the day going around and visiting people that wouldn't mind us coming by on an Easter Sunday. Overall it was a great Easter Day. There was a very nice family that dropped us by some homemade bread and a basket of goodies. We were very appreciative.
                     So this morning I actually got to talk to chellcee jones, but then again you already know that. It was really funny. I just said who I was and she was like wait, like Whitney sandals cousin and I was like yes then she informed who it was. It was a great surprise. So I spoke with an academic advisor this morning and got all signed up for my classes. I am taking English 1010 to make up for when I took it before, as well as Spanish 1010 for a general credit and then I am taking a photography class for a fine arts credit. It isn't a crazy busy schedule so I am going to consider getting a part-time job down there. What do you think? Anyways that was nice to get all of that stress off my shoulders. The lady that I spoke to was very nice and actually grew up near Rocklin.
        Anyways I better get this off to you. I love you all and hope that you have a great week. Sorry I didn't answer all of your questions. The ones about coming home I will answer on Mother's Day when I talk to you. Love you,

Love Elder Hunter Payne

New Address

Elder Hunter Payne

31 Las Plumas Way

Oroville, CA 95966

 

(just moving apartments)

Email: New Comp

Happy Monday,
Well I sure hope that this past week has been a great week for you all. I know for me things were pretty good. We had quite a few cancelled appointments but hey that is ok we keep in trying. We have been working hard with a few of the people we have to get them to a baptismal date and I think that we are really close with them.

 

So I said things are good. Monday we had a good time. We actually headed about 15 minutes away to Gridley. We went over there and played like football and baseball and stuff like that. We had a great time doing it and we are probably going to be doing stuff like that again today. The weather here has been perfect. In the low 80's and nice and sunny. We have to make sure and do as much stuff outside as we can before the real bad heat hits.

 

Tuesday through like Thursday were all pretty boring. There wasn't too much really that went on. We had a few lessons on each of those days but not a whole lot to write home about. Saturday was a really fun day. It was one of the better days that I have had in a while. We spent the morning with the ZL's doing service with Joe Hart and his family. He is building a house with his daughter and son-in-law. We went out and helped them for about 2and a half hours or so. We just did a lot of little stuff because quite honestly none of us had any building experience. It was a blast though. I miss being able to get out and get dirty and get things done. We had a lot of fun doing that kind of stuff. Anyways later on in the day we headed around visiting some people. We dropped back by Mandy and Permas house again. Mandy was really excited to see us. I can tell that she is really opening up
and that she is wanting to share more and more with us each visit. She shared with us how her mother isn't doing all that well and that they don't really know how much time she has left. We shared with her a lot about the Plan of Salvation and how much our Heavenly Father loves her. I shared Alma 40: 11-12, and she loved it. After speaking with her for a moment she asked us to go in and talk with her Mom and see if we couldn't get her to open up, and boy did we. She shared with us a lot about what she believes. We talked with her mainly about the Plan of Salvation and she also really loved our concept of what happens after we die. It was a really neat moment we were able to share with her. When we were about to leave she just kept telling us how grateful she was that we came and talked to her and how much she enjoyed speaking with us. She was like make sure and come back I want to keep talking to you cute boys. Well after we were done talking with her we headed back outside and Mandy was across the street talking to her friend. Her friend apparently was like, "uh there are those
mormons!" then Mandy did something that amazed me, she defended us! She told us how much she enjoyed speaking with us, how we weren't pushy or anything and that we are just normal, good people. That really made me feel good because that is something I have really tried to do throughout my mission is just be a real person. No gimmicks or fake personalities, just real. I was just happy that she noticed that. Anyways we are going to go back this coming Saturday for another lesson.

SoI am sure that you are all curious what is going on with transfers. Well here ya go. Elder Vaughan is leaving. Which to be honest I am pretty grateful for, he has been one of my tougher companions. He is headed down to Antelope. I am staying here and becoming companions with Elder Stein. It is really funny because we have served around each other for all but 1 transfer of his whole mission. I was his ZL up in Redding and now I have been double covering the ward here with him. So they are no longer going to be double covering the ward. His comp. is heading out and so is mine and so we are just going to be combining. It is going to be a crazy last 6 weeks, because we have a ton of work going on and so do they. We are most likely going to be absolutely swamped with work.

Well that is about it for me. i haven't been able to register for classes yet, I am trying to get in contact with my advisor so i can. Mom, have you been able to look into housing for me yet. If not could you please do that for me, thank you so much. Well I love you all and hope that all is well.

 

Love Elder Hunter Payne

Email: Will Lockwood's Funeral & A Baptism

Happy Monday everyone,
Well I sure hope that this weekend hasn't left you all too tired.  It sounds like it was an extremely crazy and busy week for you all. All of the pics from the trip made it look like you had a lot of fun
and the weather looked like it was great. I cant believe how big the little kids are getting. It seems like every single picture drake is taller, and the two little ones are bigger and cuter.

Anyways so things out here have been going pretty well. This past week was extremely stressful. There was a lot going on and it seemed to all hit within a day or two. So we started out the week pretty normally. As I told you last P-Day President Weston said I would not be allowed to go to the funeral. Well I had a really good talk with him about the whole situation and told him why I really felt like I needed to be there. He told me that with funerals generally the answer is no, which i didn't really understand. He said that with the things that I had told him that he was beginning to feel a little differently about it though. I told him that to be honest I wanted to go for me and that I really could use the closure. That family is by far one of the biggest miracles that I have seen on my mission, I couldn't imagine not being there in their time of need. We probably talked for 20 or 30 minutes about it and about how I have been a little stressed out lately, with school and
just the prospect of coming home. It is such an odd feeling. It is so hard to imagine being home and not being a missionary. i have been doing this for so long that I don't know anything else. I thought it was weird how Elder McMurray was stressing a bit when he was getting ready to go home but now I know what it is like. It is so strange. Anyways so like I said I had a good talk with him about a bunch of stuff that has been weighing on my mind.

So Wednesday was a pretty average day. We spent most of it either in lessons or out trying to
find more people. Thursday was a good day, we had the baptismal interview for the young man that got baptized. He is a rambunctious little kid so he was a little distracted during the interview but he did just fine. We had a couple of lessons cancel that day but we stayed busy despite that.

Friday was the day we headed to Redding. I say we because Elder Andersen is actually serving here in Oroville so he was able to go up with me. There was a viewing at 10 o'clock so we made sure to make it for that part. When we first walked in it was just Tara and her 3 boys. As soon as she saw us she just broke down crying and told us how grateful she was that we were there. The boys,as you can imagine, were having a really hard time. Will had lost a ton of weight in his
closing weeks. It is such a bittersweet thing, sort of like with Grandma Payne. You hate to see them go because you will miss them so much, but they get to leave their mortal, diseased, and afflicted body and return to our father in heaven. Tara asked us if we could sit the boys down and talk with them about everything. So we took the oldest boy, Alex, and sat him down and taught him all about the Plan of Salvation and where his Dad was. We explained to him that soon he will
be able to hold the priesthood and be the priesthood holder in the home. He will have to be the big example for his two younger brothers. We told him to take everything that his father had taught him, all of the good, and share it with others. It was a really good talk and I hope that it helped him a little bit. The funeral itself went really well. It was a great tribute to a great man. A couple of the members of the ward spoke and a couple of his non-member friends spoke as well. There was a great spirit in the room when everyone was done. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of the Plan of Salvation. I am so happy that I was able to share just a little bit of it with that wonderful family.

Saturday was a very eventful day as well. We went to the morning session of conference. I absolutely loved Elder Hollands talk from that session. He definitely came out swinging. After the session was over we got picked up by a couple of members from another ward and helped them by going clear up into the hills and moving a little love seat thing. After that we watched the Afternoon session. While watching it we started filling the font because it takes almost 2 hours to fill to the point that you need it. We had the baptism at 3:30, so almost right after the second session. We had a pretty small turnout but that is ok because it is the ordinance that matters in the end. It was quite funny right before the baptism started a lady that was supposed to be giving a talk came up to me. She pointed at the program and was like you have me down giving the talk on baptism but I prepared the one on the Holy Ghost. So there we were with two ladies that had prepared talks on the Holy Ghost and none on baptism. I didn't want to make her pull a talk on baptism out of nowhere so I was like its ok I can do it. So i just sort of pulled a talk out of nowhere. I read a few scriptures (2 Nephi 31:5-10; Mosiah 18:8-10) and then bore my testimony. It ended up not being to bad. Anyways the baptism went great and the family was all really happy. The priesthood session of conference was fantastic as well. Elder Oaks talk was fantastic, I definitely recommend reading it. it explains a lot the role of the priesthood in our lives. Sundays sessions of conference went really well too. I loved the general theme of being courageous and standing up for what we believe in. We cant just sit back and let the world pound us into the concrete we have to stand up and show that we represent something. That is something i really want to be better at, no more sitting on the
sidelines. It is time for all of us to get into the game.

We had a great lesson with Joe Hart after the second session of conference. We talked with him about his feelings on baptism and he told us he is still waiting for a few things to be confirmed. We then moved to pray, this was probably the third time the lesson was led that way. Not necessarily on purpose but that is where the spirit led it. He has a hard time praying for himself because of some things that happened in the past. We assured him that God does answer prayers and we don't always understand what God is trying to do. I love the Scripture Isaiah 55: 8-9, it just talks about that our Heavenly Father knows so much better than us and so we should trust in his judgement.

The rest of Sunday was pretty normal. So there was my week. All of that plus finding out that I got
reaccepted into SUU was a huge blessing. I have been praying so hard lately for The Lord to lead me where I need to go. I just hope and pray that I am going and doing what he wants me to do.

Well I love you all so very much. I am grateful for the wonderful example that you all are to me. Stay strong and keep on keepin on. I love you all!

Love, Elder Hunter Payne

Email: Tough Week

Hello to you all,
I sure hope that all of you had a wonderful week last week. Things here have been great as ever. It was a little tougher of a week because we had a lot of appointments fall through. That didn't come
without its fair share of good and great things though. So this email is probably going to be pretty short. I am apologizing in advance.
The week overall was pretty good. As I said we had a lot of appointments fall through. I am sure you are curious about Joe, well we weren't able to meet with him. We rescheduled for this coming Sunday. We do have a baptism coming up this Saturday. His name is Wyatt, I think I talked about him a little last week. The baptism is Saturday at 3:30 in between the 2nd Saturday session and the priesthood session. It should go pretty well. Anyways overall it was a pretty uneventful week. It
rained quite a bit, which was a major blessing for sure. It sounds like your week was pretty crazy with moving people around and cheer tryouts and such. I am glad that everything is good for you.
Please keep praying for me I surely need it. Also any advice with the whole Will situation would be appreciated. I love you all and hope your week goes well.

Love Elder Payne

Email: Teaching Like Crazy & Fishing Too

Hey guys so this is coming a little later because we went fishing this morning. I caught two one little baby bass and a bigger one that we are gonna cook up soon. Dad any good bass cooking ideas?

Hello family,
Well once again another week has passed. It seems like they are just melting away now. Things out here are steadily improving. The Lord is continuing to bless this area, we were able to have quite a
bit of success this past week which was awesome! So I will start by telling you about the week then I will answer all your questions.

So we started out the week by going to place called bald rock for P-Day. It was actually a pretty cool place. It actually reminded me a lot of the area where we going hunting when we come up the backside. There were a lot of big rock outcroppings and things like that. I kept on expecting big buck to jump out or something. haha Anyways that was a pretty easy hike compared with the ones that I have done in the past, but it was still pretty fun. After that we had to run back to Oroville and I had to quickly email you guys, that is why it was so short and choppy sorry about that, and then we finished out the day. It was overall a pretty good P-day.

Then Tuesday came, we had a lesson with a man named Merlin, besides him having an awesome name he also has a great beard. It literally makes him look like Abraham Lincoln. Anyways we taught him about the Word of Wisdom, because we know he has a smoking problem. He mentioned to us that he didn't really think that the WoW is a commandment but just a good idea. So we went back to Joseph Smith and whether he was a prophet. He said that he does believe that he is a prophet but that when he asked God about the WoW it was just because Emma was tired of cleaning all of it up. So anyways that is sort of where we are with him. He is a super nice guy and comes to church consistently but he just has a few things to work through first.

Anyways the rest of the day was pretty interesting as well. We met with another lady that has been investigating for a while and we had to really throw down on authority. She has been through a lot of religions in her life and so she doesn't really know what to believe, so we are just helping her weed everything else out. After that we had a really neat experience to go to ARP with a couple of our investigators. (ARP is addiction recovery program). Anyways it was really neat because they just teach all of these people to overcome there addictions basically just using the Gospel of Jesus Christ,mixed with some self help activities. I was actually able to learn a lot from it. By the end of this day I was like man it is only Tuesday!

Wednesday was a little less exciting day, we had our district meeting and a couple of appointments, and that was about it. Thursday was a really great day. We started out by going and helping the Stake Patriarch with some service. We helped him dig a ditch for the footing of a parking garage. It was great because I may not be too great at construction stuff but I definitely know how to run a shovel with the best of them! I mainly used the big digging bar, that you will see in the picture that is included. It is sad because we don't get quite as much service as I would like so my hands have
gotten a little soft. I actually got a stinking blister from the digging bar. oh well it is just toughening me up I guess.

Anyways after all of that we got to go do more service for this less active guy in our ward. We helped pull cactus. Yes that is right cactus. Some guy that was taking care of his yard and planted all of these cactus pieces around the yard and the member didn't like that, so he asked us to come take them all out. They were mainly free of spikes but I did get jabbed a few times here and there. After that was the biggest adventure of the day. That same guy who had been taking care of his yard had left a big coop full of pigeons when he left. The member was tired of taking care of them so he had us get up inside the coop and catch about 16 of these pigeons and release them. What was funny was after we had let them all go we saw these 2 big hawks circling the area. They were probably thinking oh good a free meal. haha

Friday was probably the best day we had this past week. We started out with weekly planning, which took quite a while. Then we headed out to a place called Palermo, which is this smaller town about 10 minutes south of us here in Oroville. It is about like how like Bear River city is from Tremonton. We met with one of our investigators named Joe. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he loved it all. He doesnt really feel like he has a connections with God right
now, so we are trying to help him develop that. After his lesson we had a lesson with a 10 year old boy named Wyatt. We taught him about the WoW and then set a baptismal date with him for the 5th of April.

Like I said things are really starting to pick up here. Saturday was a pretty decent day. We had a lesson with some recent converts and pretty much just went around contacting other people. We
were able to meet with a couple of new investigators that we had picked up from the week before, to it was really good to have a follow up visit.

Sunday wasn't a bad day either. My allergies have been the worst I have ever had them and I think I might be coming down with a little bit of a cold. So Sacrament was a little difficult to sit through
because I felt terrible. We got a new councilor in the Bishopric which was kind of neat. Then after church we had another lesson with Joe where we talked with him about the Word of Wisdom. He said that he drinks a little bit of coffee but when we challenged him to stop he was just like, "Yeah I can do that it just depends on whether or not my wife can deal with me.", without any reservations. He truly is an awesome man. He is still waiting for that answer on whether or not this is right, I am confident that he will.

Anyways it was a pretty good week. Things with the companion are alright. He is very different from me and gets angry easily so I am doing my best to keep him calm. Hopefully this next week proves to be as fruitful as this last one. I realized that there were a few things that I didn't answer from the week previous mainly about my tooth. So I got the root canal on Thursday and it really wasn't bad at all. I have actually had fillings hurt worse and be more uncomfortable than that was. He just numbed it up and that was pretty much all I felt. I did do a lot of praying that it wouldn't hurt so maybe that is what did it, but yeah it was pretty simple. I will be going to get my permanent crown put on this Friday. Hopefully that goes as smoothly as the first procedure.

Well I sure love you all and hope that this coming week is a great one for you guys. It is kind of hard to deny that the time is winding down but I am still pushing and working hard. I actually finished the Book of Mormon today for the 7th time on my mission. It is amazing the power that is in those pages. One of my favorite verses is Moroni 10:32, Where he tell us to come unto Christ and be perfected in him. It is only through Christ that we can have that hope and peace. I am just grateful that I get to be here doing this each and everyday. No Regrets that is what I am striving for. I love all of you so much and I am grateful for all you do. Have a great week

Love Elder Hunter Payne

Email: Oroville

Well hello to all of you,

Well we had a pretty good week this past week. We were able to pick up quite a few food new  investigators. We were also able to do some other great stuff. It sounds like you all had another
eventful week, full of adventures and what not. Well this past week I got to know the area a whole lot better. I was able to get out into some of the further parts of my area and visit people there. So let me tell you about the investigators We were able to find. So one of them was just a potential investigator that they had stopped by quite a few time just trying to set something up with them. Well we finally found him home and we were able to chat with him for a bit. The other ones we were just walking around a trailer park and we talked to these 3 ladies and they were super nice. We talked with them for a while and they want us to come back.

Things with elder Vaughan are ok. He is just a lot different from me so sometimes it makes it a little difficult. So I am sorry that this is so short but I will write you a letter this week updating you more. I love you all so much also thank you so much for that package it was awesome! Dad I love the book already. I love you and hope you have a great week

Love, Elder Payne

New Address

Elder Hunter Payne

2995 Lower Wyandotte #8

Oroville, CA 95966

Email: Arrived in Oroville

Good morning,
        Well I sure hope this past week has been a good one for you all. Things here have been pretty crazy as I am sure you can imagine. It was actually a pretty long week for me. It seems like the first week in the new area is always a long one. We spent most of the week just going around and trying to get to know the area. This is a pretty big area so there is a lot to cover.

  Last Monday was a pretty crazy day. We spent most of the day just running around and trying to say goodbye to a few people. I obviously didn't have a whole lot of people to say goodbye to because I wasn't there very long. There was one family that I got pretty close to, the Brown family. They are actually moving out to Utah in April so I told the one guy that we had been working with there, that we would have to go do some stuff together when I got home. His name is Cody and he isa nice guy. Currently a little Less active but he is coming back. Anyways that is pretty much what my P-day consisted of. Oh also a lot of packing. You know you never realize how much stuff you have until you have to pack it.

   Then came Tuesday, and that was an extremely long day. I started by actually going and getting some pants! So yes I did get pants finally. I knew that there wouldn't be very many places in Oroville to buy pants so I went and got some there. It was nice I got two nice pairs for only like 35 bucks. Anyways my ward mission leader down in Antelope. He is a really nice guy and good company on the drive up. Anyways when I got here we hurried and threw all my stuff into the apartment and had to go meet up with some other Elders. It was and extremely long and busy day.  I went back and unpacked and got all settled in later that day. The rest of the week was spent meeting people and getting to know the area. I have really been focusing on staying positive and trying to understand why I am here and what it is I need to do. I really feel there is a lot I have to do here and so hopefully I can get it all accomplished in the time I have left.

   So the area I am serving in is actually really nice. It reminds me some of like Logan but a lot more ghetto and a lot more poor. This time of year it is really green and pretty. All of the people are super nice and humble. So it is sort of like a combination of Logan and Redding and South Ogden. haha Anyways my comp is a pretty good kid. You can tell he is very young and has a lot to learn still. He has only been out for 5 months or so, so he is still unsure of his teaching and things of that nature so I am doing my best to help him out. He is from Bountiful Utah so just another Utah boy. Anyways I am getting used to the fact that I am here and this is hopefully where I
am going to finish here.

     We are teaching a few good people so hopefully we can get them to baptism soon.  I will definitely be letting you know more about all of those people. Well I love you all very much and I am grateful that I have such a great support system back home. It definitely makes things so much easier for me. I am glad that you are all doing well and that Savannah is doing ok as well. Thank you for all of the updates, know that I love you all very much. Have a great day.

Love, Elder Payne

Email: Pro Table and Chair Putter Upper

Hello Family,
Well I sure hope that all of you are doing great! I cant believe just how fast this past week has gone. It really feels like the weeks are just flying by now. We are now entering the 6th and final week of the transfer. This honestly has been the fastest transfer that I have ever experienced. I think it is really because I have a good companion, the ward and work and going good, and I am happy. You know what they say time flies when you are having fun! Anyways so this week has once again been a good one. Like i said it went very fast but I really enjoyed it.

So it sounds as if things are still going really well back home. It sounds like dad you are really starting to have the heat out on with his time of year. It is funny I have talked with a few of the accountants out here and I have been asking them if they are getting ready for the busy season. Most of them just look at me and shrug their shoulders and say well as ready as I can be. I remember just how crazy this time of year gets for the family so just remember to take it one day at a time. It sounds like that basketball game was pretty intense! I would have loved to have been there for that one, I am just glad they finally got that monkey off there back and beat those guys.
That is really awesome that there are so many people that have served out here. It is really funny all of the little connections that can be made in one area. I will let you know if I need anything from
Charlotte but I right now I am doing well. I wasn't able to go and get a new pair of pants yet but I will soon. Well I hope I answered all of your questions, if I didn't just let me know. In also I almost forgot I went online and started looking into school again and my registration doesn't begin until like April 9th so I have a little time before things need to start happening. As it gets closer I will
let you know what more needs to be done.

For starters we began the week Tuesday morning with our zone conference. We had three of the zones with us, those being Roseville, Citrus Heights, and of course us. There were around 55 missionaries there. We were actually the host zone leaders, which sounds cool but it really just means we set up and took down tables and chairs and stuff. I have realized something lately. The main thing that the church trains us men to do is take down and set up chairs. Think about it when we are deacons one of the most common things we do is set up chairs and tables, by the time you leave on a mission you are a stinking pro at it! haha There is the priesthood in action right there
my friends! haha ;) Anyways so the meeting started at about 9 in the morning and ended at about a quarter to 4. So yes it was a very long meeting. We did have a break for lunch of course. It was a really good zone meeting though. They basically went over making sure that we are all focusing on the importance of missionary work. There was a lot of different training and teaching and different people that spoke to us. We had a few safety presentations for us. In fact there was an Elder out here that actually got hit by a car about like August or Septemberish. He was riding his bike and went through an intersection when the light was red and got nailed by a car. He is doing fine now
but he showed us al pictures from when it happened and just stressed to us all the importance of wearing helmets and following the laws. So overall it was a pretty good meeting. Of course it was a lot of sitting and studying but i survived.

I am sure you are all wondering about how the teaching is going and about the few new investigators that we picked up the week previous so I will fill you in on them. So the two boys that I know from Van Maren, Chris and Nick, both had to cancel their appointment with us. We were both pretty sad about that but we will reschedule soon with them. Actually we had a lot of cancelled appointments now that I think more about it. We had a few cancel almost everyday, but hey thats ok because we were ready and willing to teach them and I think that shows The Lord a lot. I have found that, that is a big part of this work is your attitude. Are you ready and willing to go out there and teach when you receive the opportunity or are you going to shrink from it. I am really trying to prepare myself more and more because I have been out for a while and when you have been out for a while there is the tendency to think, "oh i got this I have this all figures out." Well
that is usually not the case because when you develop that attitude The Lord will show just how much you actually do not know everything and how much you do need to rely on him.

Anyways I wont bore you anymore with my mindless ramblings. So something interesting that happened today is we received a new bishop in the singles ward. The past one got called to be the stake patriarch, so they had to call a new one. He seems like a really nice guy and I am excited to get to know him.

Well thats about all that I have for you all this week. I am sure this following week will bring plenty of adventures for me to report on next Monday, and hey by next Monday I will be able to tell you
whether or not Elder Harman and I are staying together. So until next Monday I bid you all Adieu.
Love Elder Hunter Payne

Plans for Elder Payne's Return!

Hi everyone,

   Just wanted to add some info to Hunter's email for this week.  He will be coming home Tuesday, May 27.  We don't have the time yet but will let you know when we do.  The Sunday after he gets home will be fast Sunday, so we will be having his Homecoming on June 8, @3:00. I know it's still a little ways away but wanted you all to know in case you needed to get work off or need to travel to get here.  We are getting so excited!!!! There's 98 days left, but who's counting:)  Thanks for all of your continued prayers. Love and prayers to all of you and have a wonderful week!!

Love,

Sheri

Email: "Superman"ed Out!

Hello to you all out there,

Well I sure hope that this email finds you all doing well. From what mom told me it sounds like it was another busy week having Drake out there with you all. I sure cant wait to see him and Savannah and little Sara just to see how much they have grown. Anyways I know that busy weeks are pretty much normal for you all back home. I loved the pics of Drake and all that he was doing, he looked like he was having a lot of fun. With the blown out tire story I am just curious did that
happen right there in Willard? Because if so that area is just deadly for our family. I think that is like the 3rd or 4th thing that has happened there. Beware of the Willard exit bad place haha

So I want to make sure and answer the questions that mom had for me before i move on at all. So, first thank you very much for the packages, they were awesome. I really loved them and they had a bunch of stuff that was great. The shirt was a bit big seeing as it was a xxl and I wear an xl but I can make it work. Also all of the hearts and other things in there were fantastic as well so thank you very much. I will be watching for the other packages when they come and thank you in advance for them. I did get the cuff link and in fact I wore them yesterday! It was fun because we had stake conference so I got all supermaned out. I had the cuff links and the ring you sent me and someone out here gave me a tie bar. So ya you could say I was pretty styling.

Alright so let me tell you a little bit about my week. As you know we have been working really hard to find new investigators lately and guess what this past week we were successful. One of the new
investigators that we found his name is Darius. He is the son of one of our investigators. We were supposed to start teaching him last week but it didn't work out so this week is when it is taking place. He is a really neat kid, he is about 14 years old and a really nice kid. He, hopefully will be coming to P-day today to place basketball with us. Also the other two new investigators that we picked up are named Chris and Nick. They are actually two of the kids from the family that I
taught at the beginning of my mission in Van Maren ward. We are going to begin teaching them and then if everything works out they will get baptized! I am super excited to teach them because the family is a great family and they are all a lot of fun. They will also hopefully be coming to P-day as well.

So this last Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference. It went pretty well, I mean it wasn't as good as the stake conference up in Redding with Elder Baxter but it still went ok. President Weston spoke and talked a lot about members and missionaries working together. He did a pretty good job. After having been out this long and having heard a lot of his talks I can almost predict what he is going to say. Overall it was a pretty good weekend. This coming week should be an interesting one because we have zone conference tomorrow which last from about 9 in the morning until like 3 or 4 in the afternoon, so that should be fun.

Well I love you all and hope that you all have a great week! Love Elder Payne

The Antelope "Temple"

In other words this is our humungous stake center. It actually has 12 chapels in it and can accommodate up to 8 wards!

 The weather has been great here. It has been in the 60's and 70's lately and as you can see some of the trees are beginning to bloom. 

Hello February! haha

Email: Prayers answered for Rain

Dear family,

Well I sure hope you all had as good of a week as me. Things out here are still going great. We have been seeing miracles and great things out here. Anyways so let me get into the week a little bit for you.

So last Sunday all of California was authorized by the first presidency to fast for rain. Everyone was very strongly encouraged to do that because we are witnessing one of the worst droughts in California's history. It went almost 60 days without any rain! All of this in the middle of what is supposed to be the wet season. A lot of the smaller communities were getting really scared because many of them were going to be out of water in approximately 60 days or so. So as you can see things were getting pretty bad. Then we fasted and prayed for what we needed. The weather forecast for the week on Sunday showed nothing just sun and a few clouds, then Monday what was the forecast...rain! And rain it did. It drizzled just a little the first part of the week then about Thursday it really opened up. It was amazing to see the miracle that was taking place. It pretty much rained from Thursday to Sunday evening. Everyone was just so ecstatic with what was taking place. Sunday was really fun because of all of the prayers and gratitude that everyone was giving to our Heavenly Father for the moisture that we were receiving. This past weeks fast and the rain we got will forever be a great testimony builder to me. It is amazing to see how much our Heavenly Father cares for all of his children. A lot of the parents out here were saying how much this meant for their kids and how that now their kids can see that prayer really does work.

Anyways so as far as working with people recently we are still really working on getting more people to teach and finding more new investigators. We were able to pick up one new investigator last night. We have been working with this lady named Sandina Rice. We usually just talk with her outside her house but then she started telling us how she wants us to come in and teach her son, Darius. He is 13 years old and a real good kid. She was telling us how that a lot of her kids have kind of chosen the wrong paths in life and that she
wants him to go down a better path. So we are going to do our best to help him.

We are still working with a lot of returning members. One of them is a guy named Cody. He is really cool, he likes guns and sports and stuff so Elder Harman and I have a lot of stuff to talk with him about. He has come to church for the last 2 weeks in a row. I will make sure and keep you updated.

Well I love you all so very much. It looks like everyone back home changing so much it is crazy. I don't know what to think about it all. Well you are all in my prayers.

Love Elder Payne

Email: Happy February!

Dear family,
Well I sure hope that this email finds you all doing well. I am sure you all had a busy week as always. I know things out here have been really great! I am finally getting a little used to the area and all of the people I have to know. It is always really crazy and stressful the first couple of weeks. I am really starting to love this area a lot. I do from time to time really miss Redding but that is ok there are a lot of really good people here that I am learning to love a lot.

So basically we have been extremely busy lately. We had 2 baptisms this past Saturday, which was phenomenal. One was in the YSA ward and the other was in the family ward. I am covering both wards now just like in Redding. I actually really enjoy working with two different wards. Especially when one of them is YSA. There is just a lot different feeling when you are working with YSA because you are able to relate with them a whole lot better than older people. So the girl who was baptized in the YSA was one they had been working with for quite some time now. She was referred to the missionaries about 4 or 5 months ago and now she finally got baptized! The one who got baptized in the family ward was a young man who is about 10 years old. His mother is a less active member that they have been trying to reactivate for a while. Anyways that baptism went really well as well. I didn't know either of the people super well because I only went to
like 2 or 3 lessons with them but it was a great event none the less.

Lately we have been working with a lot of less active members. We had a great turnout yesterday for church. There were about 9 less active members that came, it was great. These are all people that we have
been working a lot with lately too. It is a lot different working here than in Redding. The members are a little different, they are all really nice but just different. Here we have been working with a lot more of the less actives, and helping them to get active again. Which I don't mind at all, I figure that reactivating someone is right up there with baptizing them. I will have to keep you updated with all of the people as well, as soon as I get to know them a little better.

So I guess I will fill you in a little more about my comp. I think I told you a lot last week about him. I am really enjoying serving with him. We get a long really well. I probably get a long with him better than just about any of my companions. We have a lot of the same interests which is nice because it gives us quite a bit to talk about.

So that is about all I have for all of you today, Hopefully this next week will be a little more exciting. In answer to you mom, I know it is crazy how close you are to me. I will keep a watch behind me just in case I do see you following me. It wont be too long though , I realized yesterday that I only have 16 weeks left. It is amazing just how fast time goes. I am so grateful to be out here though. It has been such a blessing to me to see the gospel work in people in so many amazing ways. Well I hope you all have a great week.

Love Elder Payne

Email: Hello from Antelope

Hello family,

Well I am sure that you have a ton of questions for me because well I am in a whole new place and stuff. Well I might as well get right to it. The ward I am serving in is the Citrus Heights 4th ward and Antelope 3rd ward. There are a ton of really great people here. It has been just an absolute whirlwind trying to meet everyone and learn everyone's names and all of that info. It is pretty much the same in every new ward you move into. The first two or so weeks are always just insane and a little difficult. It is really nice having a
really good companion. He is a great guy and a great missionary too. He has been out almost a year now, in fact he has been out the same amount of time as Elder Andersen was. He is originally from Maryland,
but did go to school at UVU for a little while.

So a little more about the area and he people here. I found out that my area here actually borders my first area, Van Maren ward. Something that is really neat is that I found out that a family that I worked with a lot
in my first ward is actually living here in this ward but they are less active, so I am going to go kick them into gear and get them active again. Anyways I am sure there are going to be plenty of adventures for me to share with you all in the coming weeks and months, I definitely look forward to serving here and getting to know
all the people here so well.

So one amazing thing that happened this past week was I got the opportunity to go to the temple. I got to go with one of the recent converts from up in Redding. His name is Cody Ohlau and he has been a member for just about a year and a half. He is going to be serving a mission in Tampa Florida. So Elder Harman myself and another elder he is close with all went to the temple with him for his first time. It was such an amazing experience being able to go to the temple after having been so long since I have gone. I love that place it is
such an amazing place to be. He was one of the most prepared people I have ever met to go through the temple. He is going to be a great missionary.

Well that is about it from me I will have a lot more next week once I get settled in more and have more for you all. Oh my address here is:

4116 Pima Way, Antelope, CA 95843

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love Elder Payne

Email: Happy Transfer Monday!

Hello to my wonderful family,
I hope you are having a wonderful day, and that this email finds you all safe and sound. It sounds like you all had a great week and that there were a lot of good things going on with you all. I am glad that you mom and dad made it home ok. Also Katey you looked very pretty in your senior ball gown . You had to have been the most beautiful one there.

Anyways this probably wont be the longest email in the world because it it transfer Monday. So the big news for you all is that i am being transferred. I am being moved to Antelope which is all the way down at the bottom of the mission again. It is actually right next to Citrus Heights which, if you remember is my first area. I am going to be companions with Elder Harman he is actually my first Trainees, trainee. He actually served up here in this zone for a while. He is a great Elder and I am very excited to serve with him. I am super sad to be leaving Redding. This place definitely holds a very special place in my heart. i feel like i have been able to get to know the people here so very well. I am really going to miss everyone and all that they have done for me.I cant wait to bring you all up here and let you meet everyone.

Well just to let you know about my week. Well mainly just Saturday and Sunday. We had Elder David S. Baxter of the 70 come and talk to us. We went to the adult session on Saturday night and it was phenomenal. He had my ward council be sort of the example for everyone else. He was interviewing us and asking us questions. At one point i had to stand up in front of the entire stake and explain our role in the ward council. He was a fantastic speaker though. Everything he said was super bold and he spoke with so much authority. I remembered about half way through that he was the one that Uncle Brent knew so I went up and spoke with him after and he totally remembered him. He told me that Uncle Brent is supposed to be taking him to a rodeo sometime soon so he still remembers.

Well that is pretty much it for now. I will let you know more about everything next week I love you all and about the school and registering and all you dont need to worry I will take care of all of that in a little bit I need to talk with President Weston about it. Thank you and once again I love you all.

Love Elder Payne

Email: Filled 2 rows of the chapel with investigators!

Hello there family,
Well I sure hope that you all had a great week. I know out here it has definitely been a great week for us. I will keep my email relatively short but I will make it informative. We started out the week,as you know, by going to mt Shasta for p day. Tuesday we had our zone meeting and also had a couple of really good lessons with some of our investigators. That was fun because that is the meeting that my companion and I get to teach once a week. We had a great meeting with everyone. We talked about the goals in this upcoming year
and also about increasing our faith and vision. We have been trying to do a lot of finding recently because a lot of the people we have been working with have gotten baptized. I don't know what you guys think but I think that is a pretty good problem to have.

On Thursday we had exchanges with the APs , it was great because I got to go down to Rocklin again. I really enjoyed being down around 2 of my past areas again. While down there we attended the Rocklin zone meeting. I really enjoyed that because one of the zone leaders down there is one of my really good friends form up here in Redding.

So the biggest thing I wanted to tell you about was Sunday. At church we probably had one of the best days at church that we have ever had. We literally filled up the first two rows of the chapel with recent converts and investigators, on top of that we had all kinds of recent converts throughout the chapel. It was such a.
Spiritual meeting and really helped me to take in the last few weeks. This coming week is the very last week of the transfer. I have been in this area for a very long time so I figure I have a good chance of leaving. If I do get transferred I will be very sad because I have really come to love the people here and all this area has to offer. So with it being so close to transfers be careful sending mail. I don't want to end up getting transferred and have all my mail end up int he wrong spot so just a heads up.

Well I love you and hope you all have a wonderful week. Be safe wherever you are. And be for I end I want to send a big birthday shout out to Lindsay. Happy birthday! I hope your birthday is as wonderful as you are. Well I love you and hope all goes well in this next week.

Love elder payne.

Email: Mt. Shasta P-day

Dear family,
First off I want to apologize so very much that this email isn't coming until today and secondly I want to apologize that I didn't let you know like I have in times past, I'm sure that it didn't help your particularly difficult week, mom I apologize and hope you will forgive me. I know it must have been very frustrating not
hearing any word and for that I am very sorry. We just had a very crazy day which I will explain in a moment. I will try and make this an extra long email to make up for not emailing yesterday.

Well I sure hope that all of you have a had a great week. From moms email it sounds like there has been a lot going on with all of you. That must have been really tough having to basically close the holidays off. That is never fun, especially because rob and linds and their fam all had to head back home. You definitely know it is the end when school starts up again. I am really surprised that they didn't just have them start this coming Monday. The kids out here had a huge break they got out like the 21st and they don't go back until tomorrow. In fact we were able to take some of those kids up to mt Shasta with us for our p-day.

So I am sure you are curious what exactly it is that we did, well let me tell you. So first we went out to those caves that are on the north end of my Shasta. They are actually the same caves that we went to last time. We went there again because there are a lot of new people in the zone that haven't been able to go there. We had a good time hiking up in there. It only took us about an hour or so this time because we didn't stop for as long in the back. After that we had planned to go ice skating! Well unfortunately it didn't work out exactly like we had planned. We showed expecting to be able to rent skates and stuff but when we got there there was nobody there at the booth that we could rent from. It was really weird because the sign said open and everything but nobody was there. Well you don't think that is going to stop a bunch of rambunctious
missionaries now do you?! Of course not! We just made the best of it and slid around on our shoes. It was an outdoor rink so we were able to just walk right on. We played all kinds of games and did a bunch of
fun things. Then we headed back and did some reports and that was pretty much it.

Now because we were so busy running around all day that is why I was unable to email until today. Which I am once again very sorry for. So now I will tell you a little about what happened this past week. Alrighty so let me tell you a little about my New Years week. It started off pretty normal, last p-day that is. We were just at the gym playing basketball and other games. Then Monday night, so Tuesday morning, I woke up at about 3 in the morning with a terrible sore throat. It honestly felt like I was being stabbed in the throat with a screwdriver. I was finally able to fall asleep after a while but I still woke up with the same problem. I started right then and there just downing as much vitamin c as possible. I know that I should have been drinking that in the first place but I wasn't being the smartest with my eating for a bit, but I am definitely trying a lot harder now.( I was thinking it might be good for you guys to maybe send me out some like multi vitamins or something. I have been getting sick a lot lately and I bet that would help.) Anyways Tuesday was sort of a slow day. We saw a few people around the area but not to many. It was a little difficult with it being New Year's Eve and all but we made the best of it. We had dinner with some members which was pretty fun. They definitely don't do New Year's Eve out here as well as we do back home. We just sort of ate and then left. We were able to go out to our branch New Year's Eve party for a little bit though that was pretty fun, we were able to play some games and chat with a bunch of good people and there were even a few non-members there. Then came 2014! The year that so much will change. I have been thinking about that a lot lately just how much 2014 will bring. There are going to be so many big milestones hit for me in this year. I mean first off I will turn 21 this year! Crazy right?! I can't believe that, things have been moving so quickly. Then of course this is the year I will get off my mission. Talk about a milestone right there. After these past 19 months of being a missionary I don't even think I can imagine not being a missionary any more and returning to real life. Weird! Anyways then after that I return to college and life will just continue on from there. So as you already know there is a lot to look forward too this coming year. However I know that it is hear and now that needs my attention, so that is what will have my immediate focus.

Alright so then came Thursday, this was the day my cold was in full swing. It hit hard and fast with a sore throat and runny nose and headaches! Yay what a good way to spend my week. Luckily for my sake we had a ton of reports that we had to do this day. We spent most of the time on the computer preparing for our 2 big meeting that we had that week. Let me tell you that is one thing that I have gotten really good at and that is being able to sit at a computer for hours on end compiling numbers and reports and making sure things are clear and concise and free from error. I hope that those skills will prove to be useful in the future.

Friday was such an amazing day and I am very excited to tell you about it. So our day started out with us
heading down to Gridley for our zone leader meeting. It lasted for about 5 hours from about 9 to 2. That is another skill I feel will prove helpful eventually, the ability to sit in a meeting for hours upon hours and pay attention for the majority of the time. Also to be able to retain massive loads of info in short periods of time. Anyways at the meeting they talked a lot about setting goals and making plans for the coming year. This past year we set a goal of 600 baptisms and we hit 420 for the year of 2013. In 2014 we upped the goal a lot we
upped it to 1200 or roughly 2 a week per zone. We have been challenged to double our baptisms so we are going to be trying our very best to do that. It most definitely won't be easy and you better believe that we have our work cut out for us but I truly believe it can happen.

So after the meeting was over we headed back home for an event of major importance. That would be the baptism for the Lockwood family. This is something that I have been looking forward too and have been working so very hard for for over 6 months here in this area. We have worked and worked and worked with this family. Overcoming trials and concerns, strengthening testimonies and building faith. However even
with all of those difficulties that it took to get them here let me tell you it was all worth it just to see that whole family standing in front of the font in white. Words cannot describe the joy I felt as a husband was able to take his wife by the hand, lead her down into the water, and with his recently conferred Aaronic priesthood baptize one he loves so much into the kingdom of God. Then on top of that to see a father lead not one but two of his sons down into the water to make those same covenants. It was almost surreal the feeling that was
present. To feel the love that our Heavenly Father feels for them each individually and as a family is enough to hang an entire mission on. Let me tell you that was most assuredly a life changing experience. Never again will I question whether or not the priesthood is real, why? Because I have seen it first hand in actions and I have seen it change one if the most amazing families I know and let them open that gate, to start that path to eternal life as an eternal family.

On Sunday we were able to witness all three of them get confirmed and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Now the next step for them is the temple and oh what a glorious day that will be. Let me tell you I love this gospel. I love what it does to people how it changes the very people that they are and only proves to make them better. The restored gospel is such a blessing to all of us. It is something that I know that I took for
granted growing up but now that I know what I know all I want to do is help others find that as well. Thank heavens I am a missionary. Well everyone I love you all very much and hope all is well. I hope you all have a great week and know how much I love you.

Love Elder Payne

P.s. I don't have the pics of the baptism to send right now but I will
in a bit.