Email: Departing Testimony

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Payne

Email: Happy Easter!

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

Love Elder Hunter Payne

Email: New Comp

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

 

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

 

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

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

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

 

Love Elder Hunter Payne

Email: Oroville

Well hello to all of you,

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

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

Love, Elder Payne