Email: Departing Testimony

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Payne

Email: I know why I'm in Oroville

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

love Elder Hunter Payne

Elder Payne's Homecoming

A note from Mom about Elder Payne's Homecoming:

Hi there everyone,

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

Sheri

Email: Joe Hart

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a great week! Love Elder Payne

Email: Teaching Like Crazy & Fishing Too

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Elder Hunter Payne

Email: "Superman"ed Out!

Hello to you all out there,

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

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

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

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

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

The Antelope "Temple"

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

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

Hello February! haha

Email: Merry Christmas!

Hello to you all back home,

Well I sure hope all is going well for you all back in Utah. From what we have been hearing here it sounds like you are getting a good amount of snow. That is awesome! I'll bet the little kids are having a blast with that. Well my email today isn't going to be super long or in depth because I want to save at least something's to talk about on Wednesday. Speaking of Wednesday I can't believe that it is already here! This month is just absolutely flying by. I didn't think a month could go so fast. I am sure that you are curious as to what the plans are for Christmas and skyping and such. Well as of right now the plan is to start at around 8:30. There
is a member who is feeding us breakfast and letting us Skype there. From the sounds of your email you already know all of that. It is weird that you know a lot of the members here better than I do. Haha you have like a play-by-play of what is going on in my life. Anyways so like is said it will probably be around 8:30 my time so 9:30 your time. Oh also I got your big package and holy smokes yes it was big. Haha I loved it though. I haven't opened any of those gifts those because I am a good boy and can wait. I have loved the 12 days of Christmas. It has been a lot of fun getting to feel a little bit of love every day. So thank you again of thinking of me it means a lot.

So here is a little look into my week. It has been a crazy and irregular week which has sort of thrown me for a whirl. So we started off with a pretty normal week. Nothing to special going on. We had a really neat experience on Tuesday though. We had been planning on doing a few other things that day but seldom do those things ever work out. What I mean by that is somehow we ended up having 3 lunches on Tuesday. The first lunch was our normal one at its normal time. Nothing to special about that one. The second one  however was different. We went and did a baptismal interview for this man in another ward. After we were all finished up and about to leave his wife brought out a huge platter of sandwiches and pumpkin pie. We didn't want to be rude so we accepted and ate with the other two missionaries. We were doing ok at this point then all of sudden we get a text from this guy we have been trying to get ahold of for quite some time now. He asked if we wanted to go get some lunch with him. Of course we said yes because we wanted to get any kind of contact with him that we could. So we met at Panda Express and got something to eat ( side note I like Panda Express now. Weird huh?! Haha ) anyways we met up and had a great conversation about his beliefs and things that have led him to where he is today. He is a bethel student, which is a big mega-church here in redding. We set up an appt. with him on Saturday after we were all done.

So then came Thursday. Now for all of us missionaries in Redding this was a pretty big day. Why? You
might ask, well that is because Thursday was the day we got our iPads! We learned all about the new features and all that we can do with them. Now I am sure that you are a little curious as to what those all
are but I am going to make you wait and not tell you until Christmas. Sorry there is just way to much to cover, and like I said it will give us something to talk about on Christmas. So a lot of Thursday was taken up by that. Then on Friday we drove all the way down to Chico, which is about an hour or so drive, and had our big half-mission conference for Christmas. We had a whole bunch of musical numbers and a few comments from President Weston. Overall it was a pretty good meeting. Then we had to rush back to Redding because we were having our ward Christmas party. The zone all got to sing at that as well. So that was a pretty great day as well.

Now Saturday. We had such an amazing thing happen Saturday morning. 3 little girls were baptized Saturday morning at 11. I was given the honor of getting to baptize all 3'of them. It was such a special experience and one I know that I will never forget. On Sunday I had the opportunity to confirm the 2
younger girls and Elder Andersen confirmed the older girl. What a sweet experience that was. To feel the love that our Heavenly Father feels for them while working as a conduit for the spirit. In the font I had such an overwhelming feeling that overcame me. While I was reciting the baptismal prayer, I had the impression, wow what a blessing it is that I am so blessed to be "commissioned of Jesus Christ" and be able to perform that beautiful ordinance. I am so grateful that I have that in my life, and also that I am able to hold that holy and sacred priesthood. Anyways that has been a lot of our week. It just flew by and was jam packed with all kinds of great stuff. Know that I love you all so very much and I am so grateful for the wonderful family that you all are to me. I love you and pray for you all the time.

Love Elder Payne

Email: I'm Famous!

Hello  family,
                      Well it sounds like you all are just wrapping up a crazy, hectic week back home. Pretty much that just sounds like a normal holiday week back at the Payne household. I am sure that this coming week is going to be just as crazy and insane as ever, but then again it wouldn't be the holidays without it right?! So before I go on with what happened this past week I will answer a few of the questions that were asked. So first off with the packages, I have only received the one so far, that one being the package with the sweaters and some goodies. I am still waiting for the other two to come. Hopefully nobody has stolen them because I don't exactly live in the safest part of town. I will keep my eye out for them though. Second question was about Christmas and what will be going on there. So currently we have 2 places lined up to go, the one is in the morning to skype and have breakfast. That will be at a family called the Dunns. We will most likely skype starting at sometime between 8:30 and 9 our time, so like 9:30-10:00 your time. That is the plan at least or right now. I will be sure to fill you in more for next week. I most likely wont have much of a time constraint, just however much time we need to talk with everyone.  After that we will be going to a really fun family in the ward named the Crosbys for dinner and games and stuff. So it should be a really fun Christmas day.
                           Alright so about my week. Let me tell you how that all went. This has been such a crazy week for me as well but very great at the same time. So starting out on Monday evening after I had already emailed you something amazing happened. So  we met with a young man that we have been working with for a while, his mother and sister were the ones that I got to baptize the weekend before.  Anyways we met with him just briefly because the sister missionaries mentioned that we needed to go over there and see him. We just sat down and started talking with him and his friend Dylan,( Dylan got baptized a few weeks ago), and he said "Dom dotn you have something to tell the Elders?" Then Dom proceeded to tell us that he wanted to get baptized. This was such amazing news because week or two previously Dom had told us that he didn't want to get baptized because of issues with his father. However over the past few weeks he has had a change of heart. What an amazing thing that has happened in that house. So far there have been 4 people get baptized that are living in that house. Talk about a house full of miracles! So we then started preparations for him to get baptized Saturday. Let me tell you i have gotten really good at throwing together a baptismal service. You give us a week and we will give you a great service that is filled with the spirit! Anyways lets continue through the week.
Then Tuesday we had our transfer day. That was a crazy day for us. It was just filled with running people around and getting people where they needed to be, one of the perks of being a zone leader is you are pretty much a free taxi service for missionaries.
Thursday was a great day for us we had our zone meeting which was a lot of fun. That is the meeting that my comp. and I get to teach once a month. After that we had a few lessons as well as Dom's baptismal interview. We also talked with the Lockwood family, the ones that are going to be baptized by their dad, and they told us that they are going to have to push their date back to January 3rd. There is just a lot of stuff going on at there house. They are almost as busy as our family is.
Saturday came as a very busy day for us. We had the baptism for Dom, which went amazing. It was a pretty small service but went very great! I love having baptisms, the spirit is always so strong at services like that. So that evening we had a great opportunity. This will explain the subject line a little better. The Redding Zone had the opportunity to sing on Redding channel 9 news. They had a special Christmas presentation and we got to sing a bunch of Christmas songs. I absolutely loved it. The whole thing was pretty mediocre but I enjoyed singing and stuff. Anyways as you see we had a great week. The weather has been so nice here. All of the snow is gone and it is in like the 60's everyday. I am still loving this place. Well I love you all so very much and hope you all have a great week.

 Love Elder Payne

Email: SNOW, baptism, and staying in Redding!

Hello to my most amazing family it is crazy to think that another week has just flown by! It seems like the weeks are just constantly speeding by. This past week was a very interesting but great one. We were able to see, once again, a lot of really amazing things happen.
                The week of course started out pretty normal not too many things going on. We had our District meeting and  Tuesday and then on Wednesday as well. We have to go to both sometimes because we are zone leaders and had to check up with everyone before the end of the transfer.
                  On Friday we headed down to Gridley for our Monthly meeting for the Missionary leadership. It was kind of weird this time around because it usually starts at 9 in the morning so that means we have to leave at like 7 in order to get down there in time. This time it didn't start until 12 for a couple of odd reasons, it was really nice though because we didn't have to wake up really early. Anyways the meeting went really well. We talked a lot about continuing to build our faith in missionary work and using that faith to continue building the lords kingdom here on earth. Also one of the other big topics that we discussed was the goals that we are going to be shooting for in 2014. We have been challenged by Elder M Russel Ballard to double our convert baptisms in 6 months. That is a pretty tall order but I truly believe that it can be done. It is something that we have actually been able to accomplish up here in Redding. Last year in Redding we had 21 convert baptisms, this year as of last Saturday we have 42 convert baptisms in the zone! It has been such an amazing thing that has taken place. President Weston was very happy with us, in fact he had us give a little presentation during our meeting of what some of the factors were that helped us to accomplish that. We talked mainly about how close we are as a zone, how everyone loves and respects each other. Also one other big thing has been the love that each of the missionaries has for their investigators and all those that they are working with. I have really found while I have been out here how much of a motivator that love is. It is definitely  something that can change the perspective that someone has on doing missionary work. Anyways like I said overall the meeting went really great. After the meeting was over we headed back to Redding. We didn't get back into town until about 7 and by that time the snow was really coming down. We started to go to dinner but unfortunately we couldn't make it up a hill by our house! There were cars sliding down the hill and tons of people getting in wrecks and stuff. Silly California drivers don't know how to drive in the snow and there ended up being like 60 wrecks around town. We took it as a great opportunity to go out and help people. We spent the rest of the night just pushing peoples cars out of the snow. It was an absolute blast!
                   Then on Saturday we had a great thing happen, two women that the sisters have been teaching asked Elder Andersen and i to baptize them. It was such a neat experience, There is nothing quite like being in the water and being able to participate in that amazing ordinance.
                 Sunday was one of the best days on my mission so far. The man who got baptized a few weeks ago got the priesthood and so now he is going to be able to baptize his two sons and his wife. I am so excited for that. It is going to be taking place this weekend. What an amazing event that will be.
                 Well that is about it for this week. Oh before I forget to tell you, we got our transfer call and I am staying in Redding! I was so happy to hear that because we have so many amazing things going on in our ward and I just did not want to miss any of it. Well I love you all and hope everything is still going good.  Stay warm out there. Also mom thank you very much for calling Bro. Miles. He said he really enjoyed your phone call.

Thanks again, Love Elder Payne

Email: 18 month mark!

Hello to you all,
                      Well I sure hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving. From what mom emailed me it sounds like it was a very interesting one for sure. At least you had one good one earlier on in the week. Also I just have to tell you I cant believe that you all went and did the Black Friday thing. I thought you had to be insane to do that. Anyways this past week was pretty great! We were able to see a lot of really good things despite it being the Holidays. Earlier in the week nothing to crazy happened, just pretty much the normal stuff. The normal stuff being we went around a lot trying to visit people but unfortunately a lot of them weren't home. We also spent a large portion of the week compiling reports for our big stake meeting on Sunday. So I'm sure you are wondering what it is we did on Thanksgiving, I know that you do know a little bit already. Sis Schaub and you are in pretty good contact. So in the morning we just kind of bummed around a bit. Did a few things then we went to dinner at 2, well I guess it was more like lunch, but anyways that was a lot of fun. I ate a ton of food! They definitely fed us very well. They had the greatest array of pies I have ever seen. There was everything from pumpkin to cherry to apple, and a few in between, and of course they had my favorite, a homemade banana cream pie! It was pretty darn amazing. Anyways they have this really fun tradition where they do this candy advent calender for the countdown to Christmas. It apparently is a tradition that has been going on in their family for like 25 years. So after that dinner we headed to our second dinner at 5. This one was quite interesting, because it was with a bunch of people from a local church. So I will explain a little better. There is a girl that attends the singles branch with us and she lives with a bunch of girls who go to this place called Bethel. It is this big mega church that is quite strange. They have this college where they teach people how to heal people and stuff. Anyways we went to a thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of them because a lot of them have never had thanksgiving because they are from out of the country. We were able to meet people from all over the world. Over all it was a pretty awesome thanksgiving and one I will never forget. Saturday was an interesting day. That was the day I hit 18 months. It is so weird to think that I have been out for that long. I really hope these last 6 months go as well as the first 18. I am really trying my best to be as good as I can and just be better for all those around me. I want to make these last 6 months very memorable. Oh and of course on Saturday I did my burning of something, so this time I got to burn a  pair of pants. It was pretty great. On Sunday Will Lockwood was confirmed which was fantastic, we also talked to his wife and she wants to get baptized with her boys now. It will be amazing because now Will can baptize all three of them. So things are still going great. Well just a reminder transfers are coming up soon. Next week to be exact so be careful sending things towards the end of the week. I love you all and hope everything is still going great!

Love Elder Payne

Burning pants for 18 months out!

Email: AMAZING week!

Hello to my great family,
                                  Well let me just start out by telling you that we had an amazing week! I don't know what it is that all of you were praying for or what you did differently with your prayers but it definitely worked. So I'm sure you remember the family I told you about that the parents decided last Sunday that they wanted to get baptized Thursday. Well let me tell you what took place with them. So Monday we got a text from Tara the wife, know let me tell you why that was big news. Usually whenever she would text us it was to cancel things with us, but this time she was just confirming the baptism but just moving it to 7:30. Phew that was an exciting moment. Anyways Tuesday we were in a bit of contact with them just confirming a few plans with them. Then on Wednesday we were planning on going over to their house for their interview, well like I said whenever Tara texts us it is usually to cancel. Well that is what happened she said that is was their sons birthday party that night so we would have to reschedule for another time. Well we weren't just going to let a text stop us. Knowing that it was their oldest sons birthday we took that as a perfect opportunity to go over there with a gift. We bought him this little remote control car that was pretty cheap. Then we wrapped it up in a proselyting pamphlet and took it to him. We were able to go over a few things and plan the interview for the next day. So now we were coming down to the wire. We usually like to have the baptismal interviews done about 2 or 3 days before the baptism, this time we didn't have that luxury. So here comes Thursday. We had a missionary correlation meeting in the morning with our Ward Mission Leader and went over a few things with him concerning the baptism. We were all freaking out a bit because of how close the interview was to the baptism. So here comes 3 O'clock ( which was the time of the interview). We headed over to there house all ready for the interview. We show up and what do you know things were in our favor that day. We found them all home and ready for us. The interview went great and Will was super excited. The only curve ball that got thrown at us was the wife, Tara. She told us that she wasn't quite ready to get baptized yet. We respected that and didn't push it, knowing that she would definitely feel something at the baptism. Then came the baptism. It was a very small baptism because they had only invited 3 families. They wanted to keep it very small and sacred for their family. If they had opened it up to the whole ward it for sure would have filled up the chapel. Anyways the program went amazingly, the talks that were given were amazing and definitely invited the spirit so strong. Then the baptism took place. I had one of the most overwhelming feelings from the spirit as he was baptized. All baptisms are fantastic but this one was very special because of what it means to this family. The husband has terminal cancer and has been battling it for a long time now. Now because he was baptized, will get confirmed on Sunday, receive the priesthood the same day and then baptize his boys and hopefully his wife as well on the 6th of December. I am just overcome with joy for this family. They have so much love and support from the ward and all those around them and since this took place it will only increase. Oh also the mother/ wife was overheard saying she feels like she should have gotten baptized that night. Didn't I tell you that I knew she would feel something. Now the worse case scenario is that the husband will be able to baptize his whole family practically. What a special experience that will be. So that is what took place with them. It was by far one of the defining moments on my mission so far.
                                  On Friday we drove about an hour south to a place called Chico. We had the opportunity to meet with Elder Stanley G. Ellis of the Seventy. We had a great discussion with him and with President Weston as well. After the main meeting, which included 3 zones, we met as a leadership council. So all of the zone leaders and district leader and trainers as well as a few select others. He talked with us a lot about being a leader and setting the example. Overall that was a great meeting as well.
                                 So as you see it was a great week. There was a lot that kept us busy.  I love you all very much and hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Have fun down in St. George!

I love you  Love Elder Payne

1st Pic is of the baptism

 2nd Pic are all Elders who claim me as either a father, grandfather, or great grandfather in the mission.

Baptism

Last night this young man entered into the waters of baptism. It was an amazing event that took place. I am grateful for the restoration of the Priesthood that allows for these saving ordinances to take place.

Email: New Companion & Halloween

Hello to my family,
                           It was really good to hear from you all. It seems like their has been and there is a lot going on back there. So I guess somehow I changes the font to type in italics and I am not sure how to switch it back, sorry. Anyways I am really glad that all of you had a great Halloween even though it was a little low key. I had a crazy Halloween night. I was up until like midnight out and about with another Elder in the big building. No joke that is all true we had a crazy night! Now let me tell you the full story so that you don't all think I am just super disobedient and actually went out partying that night. So on Halloween night we were supposed to be in at about 7 so that no one got caught in all of the Halloween hype. Well we were inside when we got a call from Pres. Weston saying that there was an Elder that had just been pretty seriously injured, and he was trying to see if we knew anything about it. We had not heard anything so after we got off the phone with him we called around trying to see if anyone had heard anything. Unfortunately everyone that we called didn't know anything about what had happened. A little later we got a call back from Pres. Weston and he told us that an Elder in our zone we lives up in a place called Weaverville, which is about an hour drive away from Redding, had just been smashed by a tree! He told us that he was being flown by helicopter to the hospital in Redding. We headed over there to see him and make sure he was OK. We found him in the emergency room at the hospital. He looked like he was doing OK but was just in a lot of pain. After x-rays and ct scans and all they found out that he had a broken pelvis! We got the full story form him when we got there. Apparently they were helping a guy trim a tree. They were clearing the branches out and putting them in the truck. The guy was starting to section the tree down from the top when he got about 3 sections down. He cut a piece that was about 10-12 feet long and 18-24 inches in diameter that fell off. Well this particular piece fell and unfortunately bounced and flung his way. It smacked him and crushed him to the tailgate of the truck that they were by. One of the guys who saw the log said it had to weigh close to a thousand pounds. That didnt help especially considering the Elder that it hit only weighs about 130 pounds. We spent that night with him in the ER until about 12 when they finally took him to the ICU. It is amazing because we have 2 members of our stake presidency that are both very, very good surgeon/doctors that were checking him out. He was definitely being watched over and protected because considering what took place it could have been a lot worse. He is still int the hospital right now and should be getting out either today or tomorrow. So that was our weekend. I told you it was pretty wild.
                              So my new comp. is Elder Andersen, he is from Meadow, Utah. You may remember it as the tiny little settlement you pass right after going through Fillmore. He has been out for 9 months now and this is his first post as Zone leader. What is actually really cool is that he went to SUU the same time that I was down there. We have been talking and we actually know a lot of the same people. He is a great guy and I am sure things are going to continue to go great!
                                 As far as the work right now, things are going great right now! We picked up 2 really good investigators this past week. They are friends of the young man who is getting really close to getting baptized. The Lockwood family is doing pretty well. We will be meeting with them this coming Thursday to go over a few things. We are hoping and praying that we will be able to set a baptismal date with them, so please keep them in your prayers. Then the family that just had the son get baptized they are doing pretty well right now. We are still working with them and with the father to quit smoking. It has been a tough road for them but their faith is strong and that is helping them a long.
                               I just want to wish my wonderful Aunt Christie a very Happy Birthday! I love you and am so grateful to have you as such a great person in my life. I love you all and hope that things are going well for you all. It sounds like there a lot of getting sick back home, I am sorry and hope that you will all start feeling better. Well I love you all and hope you all have a great week.

Love Elder Payne

My pumpkin that I carved

 My new comp

 The Elder that got hurt

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