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
Monday, January 27, 2014
Monday, January 20, 2014
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
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
Monday, January 13, 2014
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
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.
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.
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