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
Showing posts with label Elder McMurray. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Elder McMurray. Show all posts
Monday, April 7, 2014
Monday, October 28, 2013
Pictures Galore & Email: Goodbye Elder McMurray
Hello to you all,
How are all of you doing this fine week? It has been absolutely crazy out here! A ton of this past week was devoted to getting Elder McMurray ready to leave. We had a lot to do. On top of that we were visiting people and having lessons and things of that sort. So as you can imagine it was good but pretty stressful and crazy. It was really neat though because we were able to see quite a few miracles and tender mercies from the Lord.
I will tell you a little about what happened this week. On Friday, Elder McMurray went down to the temple with all of the departing missionaries. I stayed with some Elders from another ward. We got asked from a Bishop to come and sing at some guys funeral that we didn't even know. We got to sing Abide with Me Tis Eventide. It was a really neat experience because a lot of the people that were at the funeral were not members. It was at this Veterans Memorial cemetery that is just outside of Redding. They did the whole military honors with the Rifle salute and taps and everything. It was a really,really cool experience. Then on Saturday there was a lot that went on as well. Basically we started out the day with a lesson with one of our new investigators that is a 12 year old boy. We were able to teach him the Restoration and commit him to be baptized on the 9th of November. He is very solid and very bright for his age. Later that night on Saturday we had our ward trunk or treat /chili cook off party. It was a blast, there were quite a few of our investigators who came and enjoyed the fun and festivities. Overall it was a fantastic day. Then Sunday, I had the opportunity to confirm Anthony a member of the church. I love being able to participate in Priesthood ordinances, it is a blessing to be able to do that. We spent basically the rest of Sunday running around seeing people. Then transfers came, I will be getting a new guy, name is Elder Andersen. He has been out about 9 months. I don't know much more about him so I will tell you more about that next week. Well I love you all. I am including a few pics from our last weeks adventures. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
Love Elder Payne
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How are all of you doing this fine week? It has been absolutely crazy out here! A ton of this past week was devoted to getting Elder McMurray ready to leave. We had a lot to do. On top of that we were visiting people and having lessons and things of that sort. So as you can imagine it was good but pretty stressful and crazy. It was really neat though because we were able to see quite a few miracles and tender mercies from the Lord.
I will tell you a little about what happened this week. On Friday, Elder McMurray went down to the temple with all of the departing missionaries. I stayed with some Elders from another ward. We got asked from a Bishop to come and sing at some guys funeral that we didn't even know. We got to sing Abide with Me Tis Eventide. It was a really neat experience because a lot of the people that were at the funeral were not members. It was at this Veterans Memorial cemetery that is just outside of Redding. They did the whole military honors with the Rifle salute and taps and everything. It was a really,really cool experience. Then on Saturday there was a lot that went on as well. Basically we started out the day with a lesson with one of our new investigators that is a 12 year old boy. We were able to teach him the Restoration and commit him to be baptized on the 9th of November. He is very solid and very bright for his age. Later that night on Saturday we had our ward trunk or treat /chili cook off party. It was a blast, there were quite a few of our investigators who came and enjoyed the fun and festivities. Overall it was a fantastic day. Then Sunday, I had the opportunity to confirm Anthony a member of the church. I love being able to participate in Priesthood ordinances, it is a blessing to be able to do that. We spent basically the rest of Sunday running around seeing people. Then transfers came, I will be getting a new guy, name is Elder Andersen. He has been out about 9 months. I don't know much more about him so I will tell you more about that next week. Well I love you all. I am including a few pics from our last weeks adventures. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!
Love Elder Payne
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Monday, October 21, 2013
Email: 15 mile bike ride and a baptism
Hi everyone,
I am just going to start off by apologizing now because this email might be kinda short. I am extremely exhausted. I guess I will start off the email by telling you why. This morning our ward mission leader took us on a very long bike ride. It was something that we have been planning for quite a while now but I wasn't really too prepared for. It was about a 15 mile bike ride up and down a mountain. It was a really pretty ride but tiring. I'm glad we did it but once again I am tired!
So about this last week. Oh boy this was a doosy of a week. It started out like any other week. Nothing to crazy or special, then came Wednesday. One of the young men from the Windom family decided he wanted to get baptized on Saturday. That means we only had from Wednesday to Saturday to plan and prepared for a full baptism. Let me tell you we saw some miracles. Everyone in the ward stepped up big, especially the young men. The baptism went amazing. He was so happy and his mother started crying when he got baptized it was such a neat experience. Also on Wednesday a family, the Lockwood's decided they wanted to get baptized as well. They are such a great family and so ready that we were so happy to hear that. Like I said Saturday the baptism went great and it was a great day, then came Sunday! On Sunday everything just seemed to fall apart. The young man that got baptized didn't show up to church to get confirmed because his mom was really sick. Also the family who was super ready completely backed out of their baptism. it was just a lot of really tough stuff at once. Hopefully this coming week will be better.
it is crazy Elder McMurray goes home next Tuesday. He is so close. It has been great being able to serve with him and I am grateful that i had that opportunity.
i am glad you all have been having a good time at Disneyland. I loved the pics. It looked like you guys had a lot of fun and made the most of your time. Well i love you all and hope you have a great week. I love you all and God Bless.
Love Elder Payne
I am just going to start off by apologizing now because this email might be kinda short. I am extremely exhausted. I guess I will start off the email by telling you why. This morning our ward mission leader took us on a very long bike ride. It was something that we have been planning for quite a while now but I wasn't really too prepared for. It was about a 15 mile bike ride up and down a mountain. It was a really pretty ride but tiring. I'm glad we did it but once again I am tired!
So about this last week. Oh boy this was a doosy of a week. It started out like any other week. Nothing to crazy or special, then came Wednesday. One of the young men from the Windom family decided he wanted to get baptized on Saturday. That means we only had from Wednesday to Saturday to plan and prepared for a full baptism. Let me tell you we saw some miracles. Everyone in the ward stepped up big, especially the young men. The baptism went amazing. He was so happy and his mother started crying when he got baptized it was such a neat experience. Also on Wednesday a family, the Lockwood's decided they wanted to get baptized as well. They are such a great family and so ready that we were so happy to hear that. Like I said Saturday the baptism went great and it was a great day, then came Sunday! On Sunday everything just seemed to fall apart. The young man that got baptized didn't show up to church to get confirmed because his mom was really sick. Also the family who was super ready completely backed out of their baptism. it was just a lot of really tough stuff at once. Hopefully this coming week will be better.
it is crazy Elder McMurray goes home next Tuesday. He is so close. It has been great being able to serve with him and I am grateful that i had that opportunity.
i am glad you all have been having a good time at Disneyland. I loved the pics. It looked like you guys had a lot of fun and made the most of your time. Well i love you all and hope you have a great week. I love you all and God Bless.
Love Elder Payne
Monday, September 2, 2013
Email: The Future is Now!
Hello to my wonderful Family,
Well I have some very big news to share with all of you. You may have noticed some activity on my account on a certain social networking site over the past few days. No, you don't need to worry I have not just gone super disobedient and started breaking all of the rules. My mission is now one of 12 missions in the World that are piloting, you guessed it, Facebook! We found out on Friday that we are going to be using Facebook as a proselyting tool. It is crazy, I never in a million years would have thought that I would be adding people on Facebook and sharing videos and stuff on there while on my mission. The past few days have been very strange trying to figure out how we are going to be doing this. We found out that it is just going to be starting with the Zone Leaders and some select Sisters and then eventually filter out to the rest of the mission. One of the things we have to do is make our Facebook pages much more professional. That involves going through and hiding all of the pictures that are not in line with our calling, as you can imagine that means there are quite a few that I have to go through and hide. We also have to clean up all of the posts that we have been tagged in or have posted ourselves. So if you have seen that I have untagged myself there is a reason for that.
I am very sure that this new tool that has just opened up to us will definitely help to further the work. This is most assuredly the generation that can use these resources for what they were meant to be used for. Like I said on Friday I learned a little of how we can use Facebook to teach lessons and do things like that. This is going to be a huge learning experience for me and I am excited to see where it will lead the work.
So other than the announcement about Facebook the rest of the week has been pretty dull. haha So on Wednesday I was on exchanges up in a little place called Weaverville. It is this little tiny city of only about 3,000. I got to meet some really neat people and have a lot of really great lessons. One of which was with this Less Active family. They are older and just kind of one day stopped coming to church. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how we need to continually be reading it. There are so many teachings in there and so many things that can help us that we really can be blessed by it. The woman at one point said," I have already read it why do I need to read it again?" At the point I was able to bear my testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon and how it has blessed my life by continually reading it. I sure hope something that I said will help them. Anyways then on Friday we had our Zone conference. That is where I found out about Facebook. Then Elder McMurray and I got to give a training on the Doctrine of Love. It was a really neat experience teaching about love and how important it is to have it in our zones, districts, and companionship's. We read from Matthew 22:36-40 that talked about the first great commandment. Then we read a little from Jeffrey R. Hollands talk "The First Great Commandment". It went really well, we got to talk for about 25-30 minutes.
In our zone we had 4 baptisms this past week. It was amazing to see the miracles that are taking place out here. Well I believe that is all I have for the week. Like I said it was a crazy one but it was great. I love you all and I am so grateful for the amazing family that I have. I hope you all have a wonderful week.
Love Elder Payne
Well I have some very big news to share with all of you. You may have noticed some activity on my account on a certain social networking site over the past few days. No, you don't need to worry I have not just gone super disobedient and started breaking all of the rules. My mission is now one of 12 missions in the World that are piloting, you guessed it, Facebook! We found out on Friday that we are going to be using Facebook as a proselyting tool. It is crazy, I never in a million years would have thought that I would be adding people on Facebook and sharing videos and stuff on there while on my mission. The past few days have been very strange trying to figure out how we are going to be doing this. We found out that it is just going to be starting with the Zone Leaders and some select Sisters and then eventually filter out to the rest of the mission. One of the things we have to do is make our Facebook pages much more professional. That involves going through and hiding all of the pictures that are not in line with our calling, as you can imagine that means there are quite a few that I have to go through and hide. We also have to clean up all of the posts that we have been tagged in or have posted ourselves. So if you have seen that I have untagged myself there is a reason for that.
I am very sure that this new tool that has just opened up to us will definitely help to further the work. This is most assuredly the generation that can use these resources for what they were meant to be used for. Like I said on Friday I learned a little of how we can use Facebook to teach lessons and do things like that. This is going to be a huge learning experience for me and I am excited to see where it will lead the work.
So other than the announcement about Facebook the rest of the week has been pretty dull. haha So on Wednesday I was on exchanges up in a little place called Weaverville. It is this little tiny city of only about 3,000. I got to meet some really neat people and have a lot of really great lessons. One of which was with this Less Active family. They are older and just kind of one day stopped coming to church. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how we need to continually be reading it. There are so many teachings in there and so many things that can help us that we really can be blessed by it. The woman at one point said," I have already read it why do I need to read it again?" At the point I was able to bear my testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon and how it has blessed my life by continually reading it. I sure hope something that I said will help them. Anyways then on Friday we had our Zone conference. That is where I found out about Facebook. Then Elder McMurray and I got to give a training on the Doctrine of Love. It was a really neat experience teaching about love and how important it is to have it in our zones, districts, and companionship's. We read from Matthew 22:36-40 that talked about the first great commandment. Then we read a little from Jeffrey R. Hollands talk "The First Great Commandment". It went really well, we got to talk for about 25-30 minutes.
In our zone we had 4 baptisms this past week. It was amazing to see the miracles that are taking place out here. Well I believe that is all I have for the week. Like I said it was a crazy one but it was great. I love you all and I am so grateful for the amazing family that I have. I hope you all have a wonderful week.
Love Elder Payne
Monday, August 19, 2013
Email: Baby Sara and Beautiful Hike
Hello Payne Family,
Holy Smokes only one week goes by and the whole world back home changes. First off I want to congratulate Linds and Rob with their new little baby Sara. That is so awesome that she is finally here. It seems like just yesterday that Drake was telling me over Skype that she was pregnant and now she is already here. I am really sad that i wasn't able to be there to meet her but i know i am where i should be.
So mom i did hear about Hailey getting baptized. That was such a miracle to hear that. It has definitely been a very long road for her and i am so sure that her getting baptized is going to help her so much. I did call President to find out if I could go down to it and for some reason he said no. I don't really understand why. Him telling me that was really upsetting. I mean someone that i had worked so much with and poured so much time and energy into and I am not allowed to go and witness it. I didn't really get it. It especially sucks because i talked to her and congratulated her on getting baptized and she told Elder McMurray and I that we had to be there. Now I have to tell her that we aren't going to be able to go really sucks. I am sure everything will work out fine though I just wish it had gone a little different.
So this past week was really quite slow. We were able to see a few miracles though. Unfortunately the week started out with both Elder McMurray and I getting sick. It really was a bummer because getting sick really sucks but even worse getting sick out here on your mission is even worse. We did our best to push through it though. On Tuesday we had this great service project. We along with the whole young men's quorum went to a less active guys house that we work with a lot. He had a whole lot of yard work that he needed to be taken care of, so everyone brought their weed whackers and went to town on all of the weeds. They had everything cleaned up and ready to go in a matter of about 45 minutes. It was really impressive. Then after we had sort of a impromptu lesson with all of the young men and even better our investigators that came and helped as well. The Bishop said some very powerful things about cleansing ourselves and preparing for missionary service. It was great because both I and Elder McMurray got to bear our testimonies of missionary service. That was a wonderful night. On Thursday we had a lesson with those same investigators and set baptismal dates with them. Oh by the way they are the son and husband of the lady we baptized a few weeks ago. Anyways they accepted the date of Sept 7 for baptism. We are so excited for them both and are working very closely with them to help them get there. So now comes the highlight of the week. So all of the youth in the ward have been planning on going and doing a big hike up a mountain near here called Mt. Lassen. We thought hey this would be a great opportunity to take our investigator to get to know the youth, so we got to go on an awesome hike. We hike from about 8,500 feet to about 10,500 feet elevation. It was a beautiful hike and very spiritual as well. We got to say a prayer on the top of the mountain and wow that was amazing. I am very grateful that i got to go on that hike and see all of that. It was definitely an experience I will never forget.
Well there is pretty much my week, it was definitely a great week but it was a very interesting one as well. I love you all very much and I hope your week goes great
Love Elder Payne
Holy Smokes only one week goes by and the whole world back home changes. First off I want to congratulate Linds and Rob with their new little baby Sara. That is so awesome that she is finally here. It seems like just yesterday that Drake was telling me over Skype that she was pregnant and now she is already here. I am really sad that i wasn't able to be there to meet her but i know i am where i should be.
So this past week was really quite slow. We were able to see a few miracles though. Unfortunately the week started out with both Elder McMurray and I getting sick. It really was a bummer because getting sick really sucks but even worse getting sick out here on your mission is even worse. We did our best to push through it though. On Tuesday we had this great service project. We along with the whole young men's quorum went to a less active guys house that we work with a lot. He had a whole lot of yard work that he needed to be taken care of, so everyone brought their weed whackers and went to town on all of the weeds. They had everything cleaned up and ready to go in a matter of about 45 minutes. It was really impressive. Then after we had sort of a impromptu lesson with all of the young men and even better our investigators that came and helped as well. The Bishop said some very powerful things about cleansing ourselves and preparing for missionary service. It was great because both I and Elder McMurray got to bear our testimonies of missionary service. That was a wonderful night. On Thursday we had a lesson with those same investigators and set baptismal dates with them. Oh by the way they are the son and husband of the lady we baptized a few weeks ago. Anyways they accepted the date of Sept 7 for baptism. We are so excited for them both and are working very closely with them to help them get there. So now comes the highlight of the week. So all of the youth in the ward have been planning on going and doing a big hike up a mountain near here called Mt. Lassen. We thought hey this would be a great opportunity to take our investigator to get to know the youth, so we got to go on an awesome hike. We hike from about 8,500 feet to about 10,500 feet elevation. It was a beautiful hike and very spiritual as well. We got to say a prayer on the top of the mountain and wow that was amazing. I am very grateful that i got to go on that hike and see all of that. It was definitely an experience I will never forget.
Well there is pretty much my week, it was definitely a great week but it was a very interesting one as well. I love you all very much and I hope your week goes great
Love Elder Payne
Monday, August 12, 2013
Email: 2 Baptisms! And a McDonalds Stand-Off
Hello Family,
Holy Smokes where do I begin? This has been such an amazing week. We have seen a ton of miracles a ton of craziness and a ton of change. So I guess we will just start at the beginning. So Tuesday we began our day by doing a lot of running around, because we are the zone leaders we had to go and babysit a lot of missionaries because a lot were leaving. So we had to go out about 10 minutes North of where we live to pick up an Elder. Well come to find out that didn't happen he just ended up doing some other thing to get his new comp. Anyways back to the story, so we are heading back home to do some things and I was like man i would really like some McDonald's breakfast right now, and Elder McMurray was like ya me too. So we head to McDonald's. Well we pull into the parking lot and what do we find? Oh nothing much just a parking lot full of cop cars with their guns drawn and pointed at this car that was between us and them. So basically we were looking down the barrels of about 3 glocks, and of course the first words out of my mouth were, " oh man now we cant use the drive through!" ha ha ya no joke i am brilliant. So we wheel around and get out of there as quick as we can. We decided to park a ways away from the action and observe. Of course I snapped a few photos and I wont explain to much because i am pretty sure they speak for themselves. So after they get the guy in cuffs and start searching the car we go into the other side of McDonald's. It was awesome because while we were in there i got talking to a guy. He was super excited to learn that we were church people, so of course we picked him up as a new investigator.
So enough with that action, on Thursday we had our zone meeting. That is the one that Elder McMurray and I teach. We had a great time teaching it. We talked mainly about strengthening the faith of the missionaries and strengthening the faith of the members. It was great because we had out Ward Mission leader come in and talk about what missonary work is like from the members point of view. i thought it went very well and we all learned a lot. At the end we challenged everybody to go through and read Ether 12, because that is the whole theme of that chapter is faith. So of course that is my challenge to all of you. Go read Ether 12 and tell me what you think. Better yet tell Lindsay and she can put your responses on the blog.
Now we continue, Later that day we had the baptismal interview for Tracey and her son Demitris. They both did awesome and are so ready to be baptized. Continuing on through the week, we had a great lesson with Shane Toro. We went over the Restoration with him. It was so amazing when we were going over the lesson. We were talking about some things and I was explaining the Apostasy when i stopped and wanted to ask a few more questions to make sure he understood but he was just sitting on the edge of his seat and when i stopped he just blurted out, " Well then what happened?" It was so cool because I have never had an investigator that was that excited to hear the message of the Restoration. When we recited Joseph Smiths vision he was just about in tears. He told us that he got chills when it was being recited. What an amazing person. We explained that those feeling were form the Holy Ghost and they were confirmation that the message is true. We invited him to be baptized on the 31st of this month and he said he would pray about it!
Alright shall we continue with the miracles? i believe we shall! So Saturday we had one of the most amazing baptisms of my mission. Tracey and her son Demitris got baptized and what was even more amazing was that i got to baptize Demitris! What was also pretty neat was that because Tracey had brain surgery and isn't very strong I got to be in the water with them Tracey while Elder McMurray baptized her. It was such a neat experience. Then Sunday I got to confirm Demitris as well. It was amazing seeing someone as prepared as them both completing all of those ordinances. Later that night we visited them and I personally witnessed scripture being fulfilled.
2 Nephi 32:2-3 "Do ye not remember that I said unto you that after ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tongue of angels? And now, how could ye speak with the tongue of angels save it were by the Holy Ghost?
3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."
So she usually has trouble speaking but she said a prayer that was absolutely amazing. I will stop there because this is a long post. Well I love you all and hope all is going well. Good luck to Lindsay this week because she definitely needs it. I love you all.
Love Elder Payne
Holy Smokes where do I begin? This has been such an amazing week. We have seen a ton of miracles a ton of craziness and a ton of change. So I guess we will just start at the beginning. So Tuesday we began our day by doing a lot of running around, because we are the zone leaders we had to go and babysit a lot of missionaries because a lot were leaving. So we had to go out about 10 minutes North of where we live to pick up an Elder. Well come to find out that didn't happen he just ended up doing some other thing to get his new comp. Anyways back to the story, so we are heading back home to do some things and I was like man i would really like some McDonald's breakfast right now, and Elder McMurray was like ya me too. So we head to McDonald's. Well we pull into the parking lot and what do we find? Oh nothing much just a parking lot full of cop cars with their guns drawn and pointed at this car that was between us and them. So basically we were looking down the barrels of about 3 glocks, and of course the first words out of my mouth were, " oh man now we cant use the drive through!" ha ha ya no joke i am brilliant. So we wheel around and get out of there as quick as we can. We decided to park a ways away from the action and observe. Of course I snapped a few photos and I wont explain to much because i am pretty sure they speak for themselves. So after they get the guy in cuffs and start searching the car we go into the other side of McDonald's. It was awesome because while we were in there i got talking to a guy. He was super excited to learn that we were church people, so of course we picked him up as a new investigator.
So enough with that action, on Thursday we had our zone meeting. That is the one that Elder McMurray and I teach. We had a great time teaching it. We talked mainly about strengthening the faith of the missionaries and strengthening the faith of the members. It was great because we had out Ward Mission leader come in and talk about what missonary work is like from the members point of view. i thought it went very well and we all learned a lot. At the end we challenged everybody to go through and read Ether 12, because that is the whole theme of that chapter is faith. So of course that is my challenge to all of you. Go read Ether 12 and tell me what you think. Better yet tell Lindsay and she can put your responses on the blog.
Now we continue, Later that day we had the baptismal interview for Tracey and her son Demitris. They both did awesome and are so ready to be baptized. Continuing on through the week, we had a great lesson with Shane Toro. We went over the Restoration with him. It was so amazing when we were going over the lesson. We were talking about some things and I was explaining the Apostasy when i stopped and wanted to ask a few more questions to make sure he understood but he was just sitting on the edge of his seat and when i stopped he just blurted out, " Well then what happened?" It was so cool because I have never had an investigator that was that excited to hear the message of the Restoration. When we recited Joseph Smiths vision he was just about in tears. He told us that he got chills when it was being recited. What an amazing person. We explained that those feeling were form the Holy Ghost and they were confirmation that the message is true. We invited him to be baptized on the 31st of this month and he said he would pray about it!
Alright shall we continue with the miracles? i believe we shall! So Saturday we had one of the most amazing baptisms of my mission. Tracey and her son Demitris got baptized and what was even more amazing was that i got to baptize Demitris! What was also pretty neat was that because Tracey had brain surgery and isn't very strong I got to be in the water with them Tracey while Elder McMurray baptized her. It was such a neat experience. Then Sunday I got to confirm Demitris as well. It was amazing seeing someone as prepared as them both completing all of those ordinances. Later that night we visited them and I personally witnessed scripture being fulfilled.
2 Nephi 32:2-3 "Do ye not remember that I said unto you that after ye had received the Holy Ghost ye could speak with the tongue of angels? And now, how could ye speak with the tongue of angels save it were by the Holy Ghost?
3 Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."
So she usually has trouble speaking but she said a prayer that was absolutely amazing. I will stop there because this is a long post. Well I love you all and hope all is going well. Good luck to Lindsay this week because she definitely needs it. I love you all.
Love Elder Payne
Monday, August 5, 2013
Email: Paperwork and a Miracle
Dear Family,
Hello to you all. I want to apologize first off because this email will most likely be somewhat short. The reason being it was a crazy last week with mainly just reports and a lot of paper work stuff. So starting out with you all. I am so happy that everything is OK with Drake. I was so stinking nervous and I have been praying a lot for him. I am so glad that he is doing better. Also I am so happy about Hannah and her play. I am really glad that it all went so well, she looked beautiful in all of the pictures.
Well let me tell you a little about the week. Like I said earlier the week was insane. It was mostly just doing reports and being in meetings. We had a big stake meeting that we had about a 40 page packet that we had to compile. Wow tell me about boring and stressful. What we had to put together was all of the numbers from the past month for the whole zone. We also had a thing which is called the Ward Mission leader process report. It is basically where you say whether or not your Ward mission leader is doing a good job. It was whole lot of fun let me tell you. Anyways we also had a big Mission leadership council. It was actually a lot of fun getting together with a bunch of really great missionaries that I have met and gotten to know. I also really like to sit and counsel with our mission president.
So as far as the baptisms go, well they didn't unfortunately. They all fell through for various reasons but we just pushed back two of them to this next week. We are excited for them because one of them, Tracey, has been waiting a very long time to get baptized. We weren't able to get to much other stuff done except for one amazing miracle that happened. So a member of our ward called us on Thursday and told us that they had someone that they would like us to meet and teach. Come to find out that it is the son of one of the members of our ward. He was going up to Oregon on Saturday to get baptized into some random community church up there. Well we met on Friday evening with him and had an amazing lesson. He told us how he didn't want to get baptized by some random person. So basically he was explaining the priesthood. We soft committed him to be baptized and he accepted. We are going to continue to work with him closely. He was definitely a miracle and a major boost to our work.
Ok well here is the news with transfers. Elder McMurray is actually staying! Crazy right ? He has been here for 7 and a half months and will be here for about 9. Exciting stuff!
Well I love you all so much and I am so grateful for all that you do for me and on my behalf. I love you all.
Love Elder Payne
Hello to you all. I want to apologize first off because this email will most likely be somewhat short. The reason being it was a crazy last week with mainly just reports and a lot of paper work stuff. So starting out with you all. I am so happy that everything is OK with Drake. I was so stinking nervous and I have been praying a lot for him. I am so glad that he is doing better. Also I am so happy about Hannah and her play. I am really glad that it all went so well, she looked beautiful in all of the pictures.
Well let me tell you a little about the week. Like I said earlier the week was insane. It was mostly just doing reports and being in meetings. We had a big stake meeting that we had about a 40 page packet that we had to compile. Wow tell me about boring and stressful. What we had to put together was all of the numbers from the past month for the whole zone. We also had a thing which is called the Ward Mission leader process report. It is basically where you say whether or not your Ward mission leader is doing a good job. It was whole lot of fun let me tell you. Anyways we also had a big Mission leadership council. It was actually a lot of fun getting together with a bunch of really great missionaries that I have met and gotten to know. I also really like to sit and counsel with our mission president.
So as far as the baptisms go, well they didn't unfortunately. They all fell through for various reasons but we just pushed back two of them to this next week. We are excited for them because one of them, Tracey, has been waiting a very long time to get baptized. We weren't able to get to much other stuff done except for one amazing miracle that happened. So a member of our ward called us on Thursday and told us that they had someone that they would like us to meet and teach. Come to find out that it is the son of one of the members of our ward. He was going up to Oregon on Saturday to get baptized into some random community church up there. Well we met on Friday evening with him and had an amazing lesson. He told us how he didn't want to get baptized by some random person. So basically he was explaining the priesthood. We soft committed him to be baptized and he accepted. We are going to continue to work with him closely. He was definitely a miracle and a major boost to our work.
Ok well here is the news with transfers. Elder McMurray is actually staying! Crazy right ? He has been here for 7 and a half months and will be here for about 9. Exciting stuff!
Well I love you all so much and I am so grateful for all that you do for me and on my behalf. I love you all.
Love Elder Payne
Monday, July 29, 2013
Email: Happy Monday!
Well hello to you all
It was so good to here from you all and be able to hear a little about what has been going on back home. It sounds like everyone has been extremely busy with parties and trips and other crazy things so I am sure many of you are exhausted. I guess it is getting to be that part of the summer when you need to start fitting in all of those extra vacations, just make sure you don't wear yourselves out too much. Thank you all so very much for all of the pictures that you sent me, it is always good to see all of your faces. Per request of Staci i need to answer a question for her. I would love for you to print off pics and send them to me because it would be a lot easier for me to get good prints of them, thank you. I am glad that the fireworks went over so well, that is great. Ya, you better expect next years show to be the biggest ever.
so let me tell you a bit of how my week went. Compared to most weeks this has been a relatively slow week. ha ha only because we didn't have a million and one things to get done just a million. This coming week is going to be insane! i don't quite know how to put this but it is by far going to be the busiest week of my mission. We have 2 baptismal services to schedule this week, then we also have a meeting on Friday that is for the mission leadership (Zone Leaders) that goes pretty much all day, and we also have a huge stake meeting on Sunday that we have to prepare for. On top of those few things we have to meet with all of our investigators and do many other things. So if you wouldn't mind praying for me, especially that we will be able to accomplish it all that would be wonderful! We are continuing to a lot of miracles happen though so of course I am not complaining and being busy is definitely a huge blessing. things around here are just exploding and I love it. We are getting close to the end of the transfer and i am pretty sure Elder McMurray is leaving. It will be sad to see him go but I know that i have learned a lot from him. I don't know if you heard about the Elder that died in Guatemala in a car wreck, but that was actually one of Elder McMurrays close friends back home. So please also keep him in your prayers.
I am sure you are wondering why i am emailing to late as well. Well that is because for P-day today we did something a little out of the ordinary. We decide to go do an awesome hike. There are so many beautiful hikes and mountains around here that it is crazy. We hiked up to this place called Whiskeytown falls. It was only like a 2 mile hike but it was amazing. i will include some pictures at the end.
I want to send a HUGE shout out to the girl that is a play this evening. Yes i am talking about the magnificent and talented Hannah Rose Payne! I want to wish you good luck, and you know like they say "break a leg" but not really at least not like Drake almost did but in the way that means you are going to awesome in the play. :) I hope everything goes well and know that i will be praying for you.
Well everyone i love you all so much and once again i will close my email with a "I love you" and a " Cant wait to hear from yall" Hope all goes well this week.
Love Elder Payne
It was so good to here from you all and be able to hear a little about what has been going on back home. It sounds like everyone has been extremely busy with parties and trips and other crazy things so I am sure many of you are exhausted. I guess it is getting to be that part of the summer when you need to start fitting in all of those extra vacations, just make sure you don't wear yourselves out too much. Thank you all so very much for all of the pictures that you sent me, it is always good to see all of your faces. Per request of Staci i need to answer a question for her. I would love for you to print off pics and send them to me because it would be a lot easier for me to get good prints of them, thank you. I am glad that the fireworks went over so well, that is great. Ya, you better expect next years show to be the biggest ever.
so let me tell you a bit of how my week went. Compared to most weeks this has been a relatively slow week. ha ha only because we didn't have a million and one things to get done just a million. This coming week is going to be insane! i don't quite know how to put this but it is by far going to be the busiest week of my mission. We have 2 baptismal services to schedule this week, then we also have a meeting on Friday that is for the mission leadership (Zone Leaders) that goes pretty much all day, and we also have a huge stake meeting on Sunday that we have to prepare for. On top of those few things we have to meet with all of our investigators and do many other things. So if you wouldn't mind praying for me, especially that we will be able to accomplish it all that would be wonderful! We are continuing to a lot of miracles happen though so of course I am not complaining and being busy is definitely a huge blessing. things around here are just exploding and I love it. We are getting close to the end of the transfer and i am pretty sure Elder McMurray is leaving. It will be sad to see him go but I know that i have learned a lot from him. I don't know if you heard about the Elder that died in Guatemala in a car wreck, but that was actually one of Elder McMurrays close friends back home. So please also keep him in your prayers.
I am sure you are wondering why i am emailing to late as well. Well that is because for P-day today we did something a little out of the ordinary. We decide to go do an awesome hike. There are so many beautiful hikes and mountains around here that it is crazy. We hiked up to this place called Whiskeytown falls. It was only like a 2 mile hike but it was amazing. i will include some pictures at the end.
I want to send a HUGE shout out to the girl that is a play this evening. Yes i am talking about the magnificent and talented Hannah Rose Payne! I want to wish you good luck, and you know like they say "break a leg" but not really at least not like Drake almost did but in the way that means you are going to awesome in the play. :) I hope everything goes well and know that i will be praying for you.
Well everyone i love you all so much and once again i will close my email with a "I love you" and a " Cant wait to hear from yall" Hope all goes well this week.
Love Elder Payne
Monday, July 8, 2013
Email: Following the counsel of the Prophet
Hello to you all,
How are you all doing? I sure hope that you have all made it back home safely or if you are currently driving I hope you are driving safely. It sounds like your trip out here to California went really well. Of course you have the normal craziness that is included in a Payne trip anywhere. I cant believe everything that you all were able to fit into a week trip that is amazing. So I have to ask what was your favorite part of the whole thing? The elephant ride looked and sounded like it was a pretty fun part. I cant believe that Lind's Ipad got stolen that is crazy! Did they have that insured? I hope so, if not that is really, really sucky. I cant believe all of the dishonest people that there are out there. Just makes you realize you're not in Tremonton anymore, now are you Dorothy! haha
So this past week has been pretty crazy. We are seeing so many miracles up here in Redding that it is absolutely amazing. I think a huge part of the reason that we are seeing so many great miracles is because we are taking and following the counsel of the Prophet. We are really applying what we have learned about working through the members, and I can tell you that it is amazing the difference that it is making. The miracles are just crazy too, like this week we received about 5 referrals and most of them were for other Elders. We were able to pick up quite a few new investigators as well. Our days are being filled and the Lord is maximizing our time. For example this past Wednesday was not very full. We planned the night before and we were just planning on doing some finding and contacting Less Actives. Well next thing we know some one wanted to meet, then another, then another, then next thing you know we were completely booked throughout the whole day. One man called us up out of the blue and was like hey I have someone that wants to meet you right now. So we headed over and found out the he had given her a Book of Mormon and she had already read through the 12th chapter of 1st Nephi. She was extremely interested and excited to learn more. In our first meeting with her we committed her to be baptized and she accepted. That is definitely a miracle if you ask me. Also the ward is really starting to get behind us. The Bishop is fired up, the Ward Mission Leader is fired up, and so is the entire Ward council. It is such a blessing to have a great ward behind us. I want to tell you about a great lesson we had this past Saturday, We met with this Recent Convert from the singles branch that was having some trouble. She was feeling very alone and unloved. The initial feeling of excitement and fire from being baptize was starting to wear off. She was just having a real rough time. I shared with her D&C 121: 7-9. It was such an amazing feeling as she read that. In fact she could not make it all the way through before she burst into tears. She told us the next day that, that is exactly what she needed to hear. I was so grateful for the spirit at that moment and moving me to share that with her. I was then able to testify to her how the lord is here for us and how he cares very much for us but sometimes we have to go through trials to learn and grow.
Things with Elder McMurray are going great he is such a great companion and I am learning so much from him. He has been out about 20 months now. Things are all going well and all of your prayers are definitely being felt.
Well I love you all, I don't think you noticed that my address was in last weeks email so here it is again 2148 Placer st. Redding, CA 96001. I love you all and hope that all is going well. Keep up those prayers. I love you all.
Love Elder Payne
How are you all doing? I sure hope that you have all made it back home safely or if you are currently driving I hope you are driving safely. It sounds like your trip out here to California went really well. Of course you have the normal craziness that is included in a Payne trip anywhere. I cant believe everything that you all were able to fit into a week trip that is amazing. So I have to ask what was your favorite part of the whole thing? The elephant ride looked and sounded like it was a pretty fun part. I cant believe that Lind's Ipad got stolen that is crazy! Did they have that insured? I hope so, if not that is really, really sucky. I cant believe all of the dishonest people that there are out there. Just makes you realize you're not in Tremonton anymore, now are you Dorothy! haha
So this past week has been pretty crazy. We are seeing so many miracles up here in Redding that it is absolutely amazing. I think a huge part of the reason that we are seeing so many great miracles is because we are taking and following the counsel of the Prophet. We are really applying what we have learned about working through the members, and I can tell you that it is amazing the difference that it is making. The miracles are just crazy too, like this week we received about 5 referrals and most of them were for other Elders. We were able to pick up quite a few new investigators as well. Our days are being filled and the Lord is maximizing our time. For example this past Wednesday was not very full. We planned the night before and we were just planning on doing some finding and contacting Less Actives. Well next thing we know some one wanted to meet, then another, then another, then next thing you know we were completely booked throughout the whole day. One man called us up out of the blue and was like hey I have someone that wants to meet you right now. So we headed over and found out the he had given her a Book of Mormon and she had already read through the 12th chapter of 1st Nephi. She was extremely interested and excited to learn more. In our first meeting with her we committed her to be baptized and she accepted. That is definitely a miracle if you ask me. Also the ward is really starting to get behind us. The Bishop is fired up, the Ward Mission Leader is fired up, and so is the entire Ward council. It is such a blessing to have a great ward behind us. I want to tell you about a great lesson we had this past Saturday, We met with this Recent Convert from the singles branch that was having some trouble. She was feeling very alone and unloved. The initial feeling of excitement and fire from being baptize was starting to wear off. She was just having a real rough time. I shared with her D&C 121: 7-9. It was such an amazing feeling as she read that. In fact she could not make it all the way through before she burst into tears. She told us the next day that, that is exactly what she needed to hear. I was so grateful for the spirit at that moment and moving me to share that with her. I was then able to testify to her how the lord is here for us and how he cares very much for us but sometimes we have to go through trials to learn and grow.
Things with Elder McMurray are going great he is such a great companion and I am learning so much from him. He has been out about 20 months now. Things are all going well and all of your prayers are definitely being felt.
Well I love you all, I don't think you noticed that my address was in last weeks email so here it is again 2148 Placer st. Redding, CA 96001. I love you all and hope that all is going well. Keep up those prayers. I love you all.
Love Elder Payne
Elder Payne and his new companion Elder McMurray
Hot! Hot! HOT!
Monday, July 1, 2013
Email: Hello From Redding!
Well hello to all of the members of my marvelous and wonderful family.
I send my regards from Redding. Well I will tell you more about my area and all of the new stuff in a little bit.
It sounds like you are all doing really good. I am glad that you all made it out to Cali safely. I am happy that I am finally more than two hours away from a member of my family. haha Hannah looks really really cute in her dress. She is going to do so well in her play. I cant wait to hear more about it. It was pretty funny i have to tell you, this is mostly for Katelyn. So I pulled up the pic of her and all of the cheerleaders that you sent me and next thing I know there are 5 other Elders hovering over my computer checking out that picture. It was pretty funny, I had too exit out pretty fast just to make sure that they are all staying focused. Anyways like I said everything out here is going great.
Now what you are all waiting info on the new area. So we will start out with the negative stuff then move to the great stuff. So as you have heard yes it is extremely hot here. In fact it is so hot that at some points I fell like my shoes are melting. On Tuesday when I got here it was raining, so that was nice because it to ok the temp. down a bit. Then on Wednesday it started to really heat up. Unfortunately because of the rain it was really humid. Since then it has not come down from the 100's, in fact it has been over 110 most days. The problem is as well that it does not cool down at nights. Last night at 9:00 it was still 93 degrees. It is a lot like St. George weather around here. Now to continue my little pity party the very best part, we do not have A/C in our apt. That makes for some fun times sleeping. Luckily at least we have a swamp cooler. It doesn't do much but at least it does something.
OK enough with the negative stuff on to the great things. Elder McMurray is a freaking stud. I absolutely love being companions with him. We have been talking and we are sure this is just a sign that we need to be brother-in-laws now. So Katelyn you better start writing him more consistently so that our plans can work out. Anyways things are going great. Right now we are covering two different wards. The main one is the Redding 5th ward and the second one is the Shasta student branch. it is a lot of fun working with people my age and getting to know them. We actually split those wards with a set of Sister missionaries. it makes the work definitely very different but a lot of fun as well. We have a few really solid inv. right now. One family is the Windums, they are such a great family and one that is very prepared. The only thing holding them back right now is that the father smokes and he is really trying hard to quit. As soon as he quits they can get baptized. The other really good inv. we have is Mitch. He just committed to be baptized yesterday. He is going to be baptized on the 20th of July. i really love it here because of the trees and all of the mountains. It is really beautiful here. From where i am I can see a good portion of Mt. Shasta. You should look up pictures of it because it is a really pretty mountain.
Well that is about it for now I love you all and hope all is well.
Love Elder Payne
P.S. My address is 2148 Placer Street Redding, CA 96001
I send my regards from Redding. Well I will tell you more about my area and all of the new stuff in a little bit.
It sounds like you are all doing really good. I am glad that you all made it out to Cali safely. I am happy that I am finally more than two hours away from a member of my family. haha Hannah looks really really cute in her dress. She is going to do so well in her play. I cant wait to hear more about it. It was pretty funny i have to tell you, this is mostly for Katelyn. So I pulled up the pic of her and all of the cheerleaders that you sent me and next thing I know there are 5 other Elders hovering over my computer checking out that picture. It was pretty funny, I had too exit out pretty fast just to make sure that they are all staying focused. Anyways like I said everything out here is going great.
Now what you are all waiting info on the new area. So we will start out with the negative stuff then move to the great stuff. So as you have heard yes it is extremely hot here. In fact it is so hot that at some points I fell like my shoes are melting. On Tuesday when I got here it was raining, so that was nice because it to ok the temp. down a bit. Then on Wednesday it started to really heat up. Unfortunately because of the rain it was really humid. Since then it has not come down from the 100's, in fact it has been over 110 most days. The problem is as well that it does not cool down at nights. Last night at 9:00 it was still 93 degrees. It is a lot like St. George weather around here. Now to continue my little pity party the very best part, we do not have A/C in our apt. That makes for some fun times sleeping. Luckily at least we have a swamp cooler. It doesn't do much but at least it does something.
OK enough with the negative stuff on to the great things. Elder McMurray is a freaking stud. I absolutely love being companions with him. We have been talking and we are sure this is just a sign that we need to be brother-in-laws now. So Katelyn you better start writing him more consistently so that our plans can work out. Anyways things are going great. Right now we are covering two different wards. The main one is the Redding 5th ward and the second one is the Shasta student branch. it is a lot of fun working with people my age and getting to know them. We actually split those wards with a set of Sister missionaries. it makes the work definitely very different but a lot of fun as well. We have a few really solid inv. right now. One family is the Windums, they are such a great family and one that is very prepared. The only thing holding them back right now is that the father smokes and he is really trying hard to quit. As soon as he quits they can get baptized. The other really good inv. we have is Mitch. He just committed to be baptized yesterday. He is going to be baptized on the 20th of July. i really love it here because of the trees and all of the mountains. It is really beautiful here. From where i am I can see a good portion of Mt. Shasta. You should look up pictures of it because it is a really pretty mountain.
Well that is about it for now I love you all and hope all is well.
Love Elder Payne
P.S. My address is 2148 Placer Street Redding, CA 96001
Monday, June 24, 2013
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
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
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