Email: So Much Great News!

Hello to you all,
                     Well from moms email it sure sounds like you are all having a pretty busy summer. That sounds pretty normal for the Payne household. Katey congrats on making All-American that is awesome. I am so proud of you. Hannah I am so happy for you as well. It sounds like you are staying extremely busy as well. How is the play practices going? Are you working hard? I sure hope so because the harder that you work the more it will be worth it.
                      So I am not going to tell you about transfers yet because I want to keep you on the edge of your seat. Let me tell you a bit about this past week. This week we were on exchanges quite a bit. That is one of my responsibilities as District Leader is to go on exchanges with everyone in my district. Well just with scheduling two of those exchanges happened on the same week. It made it feel like I basically wasn't in my area at all this week. ha ha Elder Hyde did a great job of taking over the area. He is really filling in very well. On Wednesday we had Kris Conrad's baptismal interview. That went very well. He was a little surprised when he showed up to the church and there were 6 Elders there. Everything was going well, or so we thought, until the Elder who was interviewing him asked me to come in for a moment. He told us that he felt that we should postpone the baptism for a little bit because he didn't get a clear answer on whether or not President Monson was a Prophet. Kris was like hang on a second I didn't say that I said that all the Prophets are Prophets and that the Priesthood authority was handed down. It was really neat seeing him really stand up for his beliefs like that. Anyways the interviewer was like alright sounds great we will proceed then. So then came the baptism on Saturday. Kris came and picked us up on Saturday at about 11:20 because the baptism was scheduled for 12:00. When we showed up it was great because we had to hand him off to other elders they had to take care of setting everything up. Kris was so amazed at the support that he got . There were quite a few people that showed up for the baptism, people from both our ward and from there ward. The baptism went very smoothly. I was so grateful that i was able to step down into the water with someone as prepared and amazing as him. When he came up out of the water he was just absolutely glowing he just couldn't contain himself. The sister of the other ward were very nice and prepared a great lunch after the baptism. On Sunday Elder Hyde confirmed Kris and he did a great job. He gave him a great blessing as well. I know for sure that Kris is going to go very far. I am so grateful that I have had this opportunity to teach him. I know that there are going to be a lot of other people I teach, but I know that Kris is definitely one that I was sent here to teach.
                        I did get to watch the Broadcast at our church building. I didn't realize that Derek was on it I am going to have to try and find it again so that I can try and see him. So as far as facebook and stuff like that, we have not received and info on that yet. I am sure that we are going to be hearing more about that soon. I will keep you updated.
                              Alright so here is the big news. I am being transferred, I am actually going to be a zone leader now. I am also going to the very furthest North zone in the mission, Redding. I get to go be companions with Elder McMurray, who is one of my very good friends out here. I am so pumped for a variety of reasons, great area, great, comp, and many others. So that is all for now I love you all and you are all in my prayers. Thank you for all of the prayers on my behalf as well. I love you all.

Love Elder Payne

Email: Happy Father's Day!

Hi guys,
            Happy Fathers day!!! Dad i hope you had a wonderful Fathers day because you definitely
deserve it. Did you all do anything fun for Fathers day? I saw the pic of dad in his new shirt. He was looking pretty good. haha
             So a little problem from this past week, So Kris our investigator is doing great. The only problem is that he is no longer our investigator. I will explain. So this whole time we have been meeting with him we did not know exactly where he lived. We had a general idea but didnt know his exact address. Anyways the reason behind that was he had some elders try to come by his house when he had asked them not too. They thought that he had gotten really mad at them so that is why they never followed up with him. So for some reason we got a media referral for him. So that is why we started teaching him. Anyways after all that we found out he actually lives in the other area. We called president trying to figure out what he wanted us to do. He told us that we should have him baptized in the other ward. We had a lesson on Friday with Kris and the other Elders. We had a big lesson on Priesthood keys and the reason that the church is so organized. When we told him that we had to pass him off to the other Elders he started to get really emotional. I felt really bad but i stuck to my guns. After we explained it for a while he seemed to understand it a lot better. He asked if I would baptize him and if Hyde could confirm him. We also went to church in that ward with him. So hopefully everything is still going to go well for him. We are really working hard to make him feel more comfortable. Everything is still on track for his baptism though so that should all work out well.
           We were able to pick up a new investigator this week. She has a ton of friends that are members so it is great because we have a ton of built in fellowship. We are going to be trying to work a lot with Less actives this coming week so that should be great.
            I was thinking there is a good chance I might be getting transferred this next week. So if you were going to send me a letter or anything just make sure you send it before like Wednesday so i will get it before transfers. Thank you all for all the love and support. Yes I did get the package and the G's fit fine. Thank you so much. If you could send me a pic of the fence that is crazy! Love you guys  Love Elder Payne

Email: Investigator Feels the Spirit

Hello there family,
                         How is the always busy and crazy Payne clan doing? It sounds like there is finally actually a chance for things to slow down, at least maybe a little bit. I am glad that last week went smoothly for all of you. I know that the last week is a lot of times the most stressful time of the year. I cant believe that dads car got broken into. That is crazy. You guys might be a little to trusting of our neighborhood. It is sad to see the evil of the world even creeping into our little area of the world.
                        Well let me tell you a little bit about my week. This past week has been a pretty decent week. We had Zone conference on Wednesday here in Rocklin. We got together with one other zone. I didn't have too many buddies in that zone but I was able to see a few guys. A lot of the zone conference was based on not shrinking. He based that part off of a talk given by Elder Bednar. I will send that talk to you.Anyways then we went over a lot about Repentance and how best to teach it. It was a very powerful meeting where I learned a lot.
                         On Friday I went on exchanges with an Elder in my district. His name is elder Edwards. He is a great guy. It has been heating up a lot here so Friday and Saturday were both just blazing hot. So during basically that whole exchange we were doing our best to stay cool. I forgot to tell you that on Thursday night I did burn a shirt. I sent you guys my memory card in the mail so you will get to see that. It was pretty awesome. Anyways the exchange went really well. We talked to some less active guy in there ward and he is a California highway patrolman so we got to talk about guns a lot which was  great.
                          So Friday E. Hyde and the other elder he was with taught Kris the Plan of Salvation lesson. He apparently was just ecstatic about it and was loving that Plan that we have. He wanted to meet again with us which was great. We met again the next day so on Saturday. We went over the Gospel of Jesus Christ and covered a lot about Repentance and how we can be cleansed from sin through Christ. He was about in tears at some parts of the lesson. Then after the lesson I asked him if he felt like he knew that this church was true and if he needed to get baptized. He responded that yes he did and that he really felt it when we asked him to be baptized. When he said that it felt like an electric shock when from the top of my head all the way through my body and out the tips of my toes. It was such a neat experience and to feel the spirit that strong at that moment was such a confirmation to me that he truly is prepared. He came to church again on Sunday and he brought fast offerings and he was even parInvticipating in class. He is such an amazing individual and he truly has a testimony of all of this.
                      I just wanted to tell you all thank you so much for the package you sent me. It is so crazy that I already hit my year. I really feel like I have grown so much and that I still have a lot of growth to come. I am still trying to work hard and fulfill my duty out here. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for you all. May God continue to watch over you and protect you.

Love Elder Payne

Link to Elder Bednar's talk that Elder Payne refers to- http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2013/01/that-we-might-not-shrink-d-c-19-18?lang=eng

Email: Baptism of Keriann and Tyler

Hello to my great family,
                                  How have you all been doing this past week. It sounds like things there are crazy as ever. I hope you all are at least finding sometime to sleep in all of your busy schedules. I know there are a ton of the families out here that are going crazy this time of year and I just kind of chuckle to myself and think ya I remember what that was like back home.
                                    So just a little update on how I am doing. I am officially feeling a ton better. I thought I had kicked on Wednesday because I was feeling much better and we were able to go out and work some more and get some things done. Then on Thursday we went on exchanges and something hit me again Thursday. I woke up and I was really sick again. Mainly just my stomach. The worst part was having to go and teach District meeting. I was able to work through it and we ended up having a pretty good meeting. Later on that day I was feeling much better and we were still able to go out.  I think I am completely recovered from my little spell of whatever it was that hit me now. Hopefully I scared it off because i definitely do not want that coming back again. It was not fun at all.
                                      As you all know we had a baptism on Saturday, that went absolutely amazing. There was so much support from the ward and I am sure that Keriann and Tyler both felt so welcome there. We were able to get a lot of the young women from the ward to come and help with the program. I think that is great because they will both really be able to feel just how much they are cared for. Elder Hyde was able to baptize Tyler and i got the opportunity to baptize Keriann. When they both came up out of the water they just seemed ecstatic. After I was talking to Tyler and he just kept telling me that was so great, and that was so fun, and i loved that. ha ha He is such a great kid. Then on Sunday I got to confirm Tyler and Elder Hyde confirmed Keriann. So we just switched. That went great as well and the spirit was very strong there. They are going to do so well and I know that their family will be very blessed for all that they did.
                                    Now a little bit about Kris. Mom you asked why we don't meet at his house. So that is because the lady that he is renting from is extremely anti-Mormon. He is scared that she might get kicked out if she knew that he was interested in the church. He is still doing great as well. We met again last Friday and he committed to be baptized on the 22nd of June. We covered, in our lesson, the rest of the Restoration lesson that we did not cover last time. He once again loved the concept of the Priesthood and that we have Apostles and Prophets on the Earth today. He came to church with us on Sunday and there were some great messages that were given. There was a lot on missionary work and finding answers for ourselves There were also some that were about conversion. It was such a great time for him to be there. He is also wanting to meet with us more!
                                       i just wanted to write quickly on my year mark. Wow isn't it crazy that i have been out a whole year! For me it has just flown by. I just finished the Book of Mormon from the challenge that we did. It just struck me when I finished oh man this is the goal I have been working for, for so long. It was so amazing to look back and see just how far I have come in what seems at times like an extremely short amount of time. I only pray and hope that I will continue to grow and learn as much I have in these past 12 months. Thank you for supporting me so well and I ask that you will continue to help me over these next 12.
                                    Well that is about our week. There wasn't too much that has been going on, mainly because I was sick. I love you all and I am so grateful for all of the support and love that you have sent my way. I hope you all had a great memorial day weekend and good luck with the rest of you week.

Love Elder Payne
                   

Email: No transfer and Pictures

Hi guys,
            I'm sorry but this email is going to be very short. It is just basically to inform you that I am not being transferred. Elder Hyde and I am staying together for another 6 weeks. There are three of the Elders that are being transferred out. I am excited to get to know some new Elders and get to know new people.
            It was so good to get to talk to you all Yesterday. You don't really know how much you miss someone until you get to talk to them again. I just want to thank you all for all that you have done for me. I truly have the best family in the world. i don't know what I would do without you all. So thanks again for being such a wonderful family. Hey dad I was just wondering if you could send me out my "toolbox" binder out to me. I would really love to have it. Well family you are all great and I promise that next weeks email will be much longer ha ha love you

Love Elder Payne

I hope you enjoy my pictures.

Brother Allan's mountain man stuff-

 For Whitney-

 A member called my Mom for Elder Payne's favorite cake and made her famous chocolate cake for him!

 Birthday packages!

 Mikayla was baptized on Elder Payne's birthday! Hunter was a witness.

 Making goop with Mikayla-

 Birthday celebrations for Hunter!

 Letter from Drake! Drake loves to cut little pieces of paper, scribble on them, and put them in an envelope for his uncle. He also drew him a picture of himself and wrote his name! This all came in one envelope. :)

Email: Do miracles cease? No!!!!

Dear Family,
                 Wow what an amazing week I have just been through. So starting out the week on Tuesday, I was on exchanges. I was with one of the zone leaders in my ward and Elder hyde went with the other zone leader to the other ward. Well we had a wonderful day that day. We had a lesson with Cece and that lesson was absolutely amazing. We started out talking mainly that we lived with our Heavenly Father before and then went through the lesson. There were parts of the lesson that she was almost in tears, especially when we started talking about how she would one day be able to live with her husband again. It was so amazing being able to convey the importance of the Plan of Salvation to her. She is still doing really well and progressing very well towards her baptismal date of May 18th. The next big step with her is just getting her to come to church. We are going to be working with her a lot this week on coming to church.
                 OK so that was miracle number one, you may not say that it was necessarily a miracle but hey it was a miracle to me. So miracle number two, lately we have been working very closely with a less active family. The husband in the family wasn't able to come to church for a long time because he is a truck driver so he is gone a lot. Well recently he had a medical emergency which made it so he has to be off work for about 3 or 4 months. Well that gives them plenty of time to come to church now doesn't it. ha ha SO we have been going over there a lot and keeping pretty close contact with them. On Friday we went over and started sharing a message with them about realizing the blessings in our life. I was planning on asking the parents if they would like to have there kids. who are both 14 and not baptized, to have the lessons. Well before i could even start talking she cut me off and said We would really like to have our two kids take the lessons and get baptized! Oh my goodness that was so amazing to hear and know that they are so ready and willing to open themselves to the Gospel. We are going to be meeting with them twice a week and we are shooting for a baptism for them on May 18th or 25th.
                Alright so there are two great miracles for you, how about one more. So the McGhies have a little girl that is 11 years old. They have been trying for about the last year and a half to fully adopt her. Well I am pleased to announce that there waiting is over. She will be fully adopted on Tuesday the 23rd of April. We are also going to overview and finish the lessons with her and try for a baptism on May 11th. This has been a long wait for the McGhies so as you can imagine this is a huge miracle. I am very grateful that i am going to be able to be a part of her learning and growing in the gospel. She is such a sweet little girl and she is so blessed to be adopted into a wonderful family that will help her to learn and grow not only in life but in the gospel as well.
               Well this has been a crazy week and very full as well. We have been working hard and trying to get things done. A few other updates, our ward mission leader in our ward just got released, also the former Elder Halle now just Matthew halle came out and visited us. He came by yesterday and so i got to talk with him for a while. It was great to see an old familiar face from the beginning days of my mission.
              So about my B-day, I had a feeling you were going to ask about that. I am pretty sure I got a new bike for that so I think I am OK. ha ha maybe some new garments or socks would be great ha ha. Those thicker gold toe socks that you sent me are really nice so I wouldn't mind some more of those. but hey if you are really asking I guess I kind of like this watch. http://www.gshock.com/watches/Classic/GA100A-7A I know I already got a watch for Christmas but that is pretty much the only thing I can use out here. Anyways like I said I feel like I already got my B-day present so if you don't get it that is just fine.
               About skyping, I am not entirely sure of the time yet. I will have to let you know, we have church at 12:30 so it may be before or after church i am not sure right now I will get you more info next week. Are Lindsay and Rob coming home for that because if not I know that there is a way to skype multiple people at one time =. Anyways just let me know. I love you all so very much and hope all continues to go well.

Love Elder Payne

Email: Hard Times last week, Miracles this week

Hello everyone,
                    How is the family doing? It sounds like things have been going pretty well back home. I really loved all of the pictures of mom and drake and Linds and Rob. It looks like you all had quite a bit of fun out there. oh by the way mom thank you very much for everything you said it definitely helped a lot. Dad i hope things haven't been to stressful for you. I know that this time of year is definitely your busiest but hopefully the taxes didn't overwhelm you to bad this year. I hope the rest of the family is doing well too.

So this week we definitely saw a few miracles happen. The first of which was that we were able to set a baptismal date with a new investigator! So we met this lady named Cece the first week that Elder Hyde got here. She has one young son who is only 6 years old. He is a cute little kid and isn't afraid of anything. In fact the week we met them he had just broken his arm and the next time we went by he was out riding his bike and scooter. He is a funny little kid. Anyways Cece's husband died about 3 years ago in a car wreck and that really hit them really hard. We even asked them do you believe you will see your husband again? She responded well I hope I will, I'm not entirely sure though. That really struck me and made me want to help this lady even more. So this past Thursday we went by and found her home again. She invited us in and we were able to have a really amazing Restoration lesson with her. She was absolutely loving the lesson and the things that we were teaching her. it was really neat to see someone who is as prepared as her accepting the things that we were teaching her. So at the end we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how it is here to help us in our lives and she was so happy to hear about that. Anyways we invited her to be baptized on May 18th and she accepted saying if I come to know that it is true by then yes I will be baptized. Oh wow that was such a neat lesson, she is a wonderful lady who I know can really benefit from having the Gospel in her life.

We were also able to have another lesson with Marian. This one went a lot better than the first one we had with her when she was drunk. ha ha We taught her the message of the Restoration and she took it very well. She has family that are members of the church and so she already had somewhat of a base on our beliefs. We also committed her to be baptized and she said that she would pray about it. So things are picking up a little bit. i have really been working on being more and more bold. I am trying to get to the point where I can just walk up and talk to anyone about anything. I think i am making some improvement but I know I need to keep going.

I don't remember if I told you last week but our investigator Paulette Faulkner passed away, she was only 65 years old. It was really sad mainly because she was the last of her family that was still alive. Some of her family died about 10 years ago in a car wreck and then her parents died about 2 years ago of some complications. It really shocked a lot of people how quickly it happened to her. Anyways we had a little memorial service for her at the care center. One of her family friends asked us just to speak for about 5 minutes on the Plan of Salvation. I spoke mainly on the things that we had taught her and how she was going to be able to live with her family again. I shared with them Alma 40:11-12. I really love that one it talks mainly on the spirit world.

Well that was pretty much our week. Things have been improving and I have been trying to be more positive and recognize the good I am doing.  I love you all and hope everything continues to go well.

Love Elder Payne

P.s. Hey dad thank you very much for what you said in your email it really made me think a lot.Thanks for being such a great father! HAve fun out golfing you deserve it

Email: Conference Weekend

Well hello there family,
                       
       How was every ones conference weekend? Well mine out here was absolutely phenomenal. Who woulda thought that I would love to sit there for 10 hours of meetings in two days? Quite honestly I probably wouldn't think I could do it but man did I love it. One of the things that really struck me was how direct the talks all were. there was very little beating around the bush. They were all just absolutely laying down the law. One of my favorite talks was definitely L.Tom Perry's, he was really speaking about how badly the views of the world have become skewed. Also no matter  how bad the world gets and how far off their perception of things are the Church will remain constant. That is where we should look for stability. Wow those were some powerful words. I honestly cannot just pick out one favorite talk they were all just so great. The priesthood session was particularly amazing, and yes mom I did get to watch it, I am only in California not in like Nigeria or something. haha Anyways when the first presidency all spoke they were speaking with such clarity and vision that it would be hard to not know what it is they want us to do. Can you imagine not being able to have that guidance from our Prophet? It is hard to think about. I am just so grateful that we have a living Prophet on earth today, one with the Priesthood authority of God to govern and guide his people. Also how blessed are we as a people to be able to simply flip on a TV or jump on the computer and receive his word.
        Things here in Rocklin are going very well. The work is slowing picking up and for that I am grateful. We are really working on finding new investigators. Last week we were able to pick one up. A single mother with a young son. We stopped by there house because other missionaries had tracted there and she had seemed somewhat interested. So we stopped by and she was very kind to us we talked with her for about 10 to 15 minutes on her door step about the Plan of Salvation, because we found out her husband passed away. She was happy to hear a little about the Plan of Salvation and was interested in hearing more. We set up a return appointment and now we are going back this week. Other than that extremely bright spot the rest of the week was pretty dull. Mostly it was filled with getting Elder Hyde more familiar with the area and helping him figure things out.

                   Ah I forgot to talk about picking him up and how that went. So I went on Wednesday morning and met with all of the other trainers and trainees. It was crazy in this group there were 8 new sisters coming in and only 6 new Elders. In 3 more months we are going to double the number of sisters that are in this mission. Absolutely insane! Anyways we all met together and had a brief meeting and a little breakfast. After that we separated from trainers and trainees. We then had individual training for the two groups. After that we all came back together and were finally assigned our companions. I was assigned Elder Hyde. He is from Saratoga Springs,UT. He likes playing the drums and reading. He is a nice kid and coolest of all he is 18. haha Anyways after about 4 hours of meetings we finally got out and went back to Rocklin. So that is how that all went. I am excited to be training again, it brings an added level of difficulty to the work because I am still district leader on top of that. I am excited for it though and I am hoping I am up to the test.

         Oh one cool thing,Linds this is mostly for you, but one of the new Elders came up to me and was like hey I know you. I was like really where from. Then he proceeded to tell me how him and his mom had been checking out my blog to figure out what the area was like and what to expect. So keep up the good work because others are benefiting from what you are doing. Well everyone I love you all so much and I hope you all are continuing to do well. I love you once again.

Love Elder Payne

With Elder Peek and other missionaries-

With new companion and trainee, Elder Hyde, & President and Sister Weston