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

Email: Will Lockwood's Funeral & A Baptism

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

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: 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: 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.

Email: Miracles!

Hello to my wonderful family,
                Well things here are going absolutely fantastic right now, but before I tell you about that I have to talk to  you about a few other things. So to answer a few of your questions that were posed. So my comp. and I are still getting a long very well. He is a little like me in the sense that he gets a long with pretty much everybody. It is nice because it is a lot easier to work with someone if you get a long with them. Ah yes and Sister Huskey did come tell me hi for you mom so thank you very much. I shrugged it off because that is just like you to find somebody in my area through facebook and then some how get to know them better than I do. Anyways it was good to hear from you through her though. Sis. Huskey and Sis. Schaub are both awesome. We are in a lot of contact with Sis. Huskey because she is the building schedular and so we talk to her quite a bit because of that. Then Sis. Schaub is also fantastic they feed us all the time. We probably eat there once a week at least. They are a great family too. So um I think that was most of the questions.
                 Alright let me tell you a bit of the week we had. I really wish that I could tell you all about it, especially the last few days because they were just awesome. So earlier in the week we had our zone meeting on Wednesday. We taught a lot about higher expectations because Pres. Weston  met with Elder M. Russel Ballard and Elder Ballard said that he wants us to double the number of convert baptisms that we have in 6 months! That is not because we aren't doing well either. We have been doing really well. So we discussed a lot of what needs to happen in order for that to take place. That meeting went really well so I was very happy with that. On Thursday we had exchanges with the APs. I got to go down to Rocklin which was a lot of great. It was great to see a bit of my old area again. I also got to see the family that I love down there, the McGhies. I stopped in and said hello and had to pick up something from them. I wasn't with the best Elder in the world but things went just fine. On Friday we had the baptism for Dylan. For those of you who saw the pic on facebook than you already know of this event. It was a great baptism and the spirit was definitely there very strong. I was very happy about how well things went. We had a few of his family members in the program and it went very well. Then came Sunday, this had to be one of the most miraculous days of my life. first off we started with the confirmation of Dylan. His Uncle was able to come from out of town to do that. Then we met with that family the Lockwoods that I have told you about. The ones that we have been working with for a very long time. We asked the parents how they felt about baptism and they both just looked at us and told us that there is nothing that is holding them back anymore. They are ready to do it. What an amazing feeling it was to hear that. We talked about them getting baptized on December 7th than the member brought up the possibility of the father baptizing his sons. His face just lit up when he heard that. He asked " Wait I could do that?" We explained yes you can receive the priesthood and then baptized your boys. So then out of the blue they were just like OK we want to do it this Thursday. I thought that they just wanted to meet but then they were like no we want to get baptized! WOW! that was so cool to hear. So the wheels are turning and we are going to have a baptism this Thursday. It will be such a wonderful experience because this family is seriously such an amazing family and they are going to be benefited so much from the Gospel. Well that was our week and the miracles contained therein. I love you guys and hope all is going well. Oh by the way you might want to know the reason that I am emailing so late today is because we went golfing this morning. We just went to this cool driving range where you drive balls into the water. It was a great time. Well once again I love you all and hope your weeks go great! Love Elder Payne

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

Email: Meetings and Lineage

Hello to all of my wonderful family,
                                I sure hope that my email finds you all doing well and that everything is going great! Boy it sounds like you guys had quite the week this past week. I swear every time I get an email from you guys that you all have been of on some new crazy adventure. haha I'll bet having everybody back at the house kept you all very busy. It is weird that, that was the norm not to long ago, now it is a huge event whenever everybody shows up. I loved the pics of the baby blessing, little Sara looked extremely cute in it.I cant believe how much she has been growing. It is the same with each one of the little kids. Drake is getting so big I cant even believe it. Savannah! Holy smokes she is changing so much as well. I cant believe how quickly she is growing. Make sure and keep sending me all of those great pics of them, thanks.
                               So we had an extremely busy week this past week. Most of the time I felt like I was a chicken running around with my head cut off. What happened was on Monday we found out that we had a big meeting on Sunday that we had to have a bunch of info for. We thought it was supposed to be like 2 weeks later but that didn't end up happening. So we had to get a paper out to all of the companionship's and then get it back, then we had to type it all up, compile all of the numbers and such, print it all out and get it all together. And so you see the glory of being a zone leader. You get all the perks of a regular missionary plus a whole ton of reports. On top of that we went down to Chico for a leadership meeting on Friday. It was actually a really great meeting! We met with all of the trainers, District leaders, and zone leaders in the Northern part of the mission. We met with President Weston and his Assistants. We talked about quite a few things with them. We talked a lot about how we can increase the amount of investigators that we have coming to church. We also talked a lot about utilizing the members more and using them as a great resource for help. Then lastly we talked about the doctrine of Repentance and how key that is. It was a great meeting where I learned a lot about those subjects. It was really strange though because at that meeting I did not recognize like half of the Elder or Sisters there. Usually I know quite a few of the people but there are so many new missionaries in the mission that it is hard to keep up.
                             So just a little update on our investigators. Both of the families that we are involved with right now are doing pretty well. First the Lockwood's, they are doing great. Unfortunately they had to cancel both of our appointments this past week. They did, however, come to church which was awesome. We are going to be meeting with them on Thursday at a dinner with some of our members. We are going to be setting a baptismal date with them for the 19th of October, so please be praying for them. Next Dean and Tracey's family are doing well. We were able to meet with them a few times to check up on things. We are going to be doing a big push with Dean to quit smoking. We are going to be fasting with him soon so we will see how that goes. So there is your little update haha. Things are great here I am still loving it. I was on exchanges last week with the APs and also saw President Weston. They both said they are very happy with what is going on up here. It has been a while since the Redding zone has been this good. I am grateful that the fruits of my labors are paying off and being noticed. We have been working very hard to make this the best zone in the mission and a place where everyone wants to serve. Hopefully it is getting there.
                            Well I love you all so much. I am sending a picture of me and a few people. It is what is called my posterity picture. It has the Elder I trained (Holbrook), Then both of his "Sons" and then one of their "sons". So all of them came from my lineage. The only one missing is Elder Hyde so hopefully I can get one with him sometime. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.

Love Elder Payne

Email: Crazy, Busy Week!

Hello to my wonderful family,
                    So did I mention last week that this was going to be a busy week, why yes I believe I did. Well that definitely came to pass. Holy smokes let me tell you this past week has been insane! It has been so stressful and yet at the same time there have been so many amazing things that have happened.
                    Let us start at the beginning of the week. How about Tuesday? So Tuesday we had interviews with President Weston. They went really well. He didn't have to much to say to me in fact it only took like five minutes. I think a big part of it was that I told him in my last interview before this that I just want to be one of those missionaries that he doesn't have to worry about. That he knows that I am always doing what I am supposed to do and being diligent. We talked a little about me being a zone leader and how I was liking that. We talked about the work a little bit, so ya it went well. So after that the miracles really started to happen. We had a lesson with Nike one of our investigators in the singles branch and we committed her to quit smoking and then right after that we committed her to be baptized. She accepted both so we are currently working with her on that. Well then later that evening we had a lesson with Dean and Tracey, and before I go on I am just going to tell you that they could really use your prayers. Anyways so we have been working with them for a long time now. Especially with Dean because he is trying to quit smoking and it has been really hard for him and that is the only thing holding them back from being baptized. Well we committed him right then and there to quit smoking and for both of them to be baptized. I then asked him for his cigarettes, it was extremely hard for him but he gave them to us. So for all three people we are working towards the 3rd of August for baptism. After that we went on exchanges the Assistants to the President. Well let me tell you that was an interesting day. I was with one of the assistants who is known as one of those missionaries that likes to brown noes President. Anyways it was a pretty good day. Apart from him partially offending one of the members of our ward.
                         Well the rest of the week was pretty great but stressful none the less. On Friday we had to do a ton of reports so yes mom there are a few things different about being zone leader. I feel like I am adjusting pretty well to all of the new work load though. So then came the craziest day yet, Saturday. So in the morning we had to drive about an hour and a half South to a baptism in a place called Chico. Someone that Elder McMurray taught about a year ago was getting baptized and he asked McMurray to come baptize him. So that was an amazing thing getting to see someone that went through so much get baptized. Then later on , on Saturday we had another baptism, this one was for Mitch who was an investigator in our ward. It went so well, he was just absolutely glowing. I love seeing someone who is so prepared get to enter into the waters of baptism. That is something that I have really seen out here so far. That there really are people that are so ready to be baptized. I love being able to feel the spirit in those lessons. I know for a fact that the lord is mindful of his children, he knows what we need and he loves us all so much. I also know that repentance is such a real thing. Repentance is available for everyone, no matter what we have done as long as we come with that truly repentant heart the Lord will forgive us.
                        So Sunday Mitch received the Holy Ghost. One of the members of the Ward was able to give him that. He told us that he just felt so much of a difference now. Well like I said there was a ton of stress this week but it was so worth it. It is a great feeling at the end of the day when you are able to lay your head down on the pillow and know you put in a hard days work. Well I love you all so much. Good luck to all of you especially Hannah and Katelyn. I know that you have a ton of stuff going on and just know that I am praying for you all. I love you and hope you all have a great week.

Love Elder Payne

Email: Conference Weekend

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

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

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

Love Elder Payne

With Elder Peek and other missionaries-

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

Email: Meeting Elder Neil L. Anderson

Hello family,
                 Well how is everyone doing this week? It sounds like things have slowed down a little bit but not to much yet. So I was asked to tell you all about the meeting with the apostle in good detail, well I don't know how well I can do that so I will have to do my best. So the meeting was this past Saturday down in Roseville. It was really great because the whole mission came together, and President Weston said that, that was the first time that they had ever done that. I got to see a lot of the guys who I have served around. It was great to see so many familiar faces and guys that I admire. So Elder Anderson came in and he asked us all to line up so that we could all shake his hand. That was such a cool experience and something I will never forget. Even with just the brief interaction that we had I could just fell the love that he had for each one of us. After we all went down and shook his hand we started the meeting. Sister Weston spoke first, then President Weston. He spoke on Alma 13:4 and it was amazing. He talked about how each one of us have a Holy calling to perform and how we must live up to that. After him Craig C. Christensen of the seventy spoke, he spoke on the conversion process. The best thing that he said for me was,"Conversion is not an event it is a process." that was a very inspiring quote and really helped me to understand not only for my investigators but for ourselves as well. After him Sis. Anderson bore her testimony, then Elder Neil L. Anderson spoke. He talked mainly on the atonement and how through the Grace Mercy and merits of Christ we can all be cleansed. It was phenomenal how he laid it out for each one of us. It was so amazing to be so close to an Apostle of the Lord and receive instruction that is focused right to us. I was very grateful for the opportunity I had to hear him speak.
                  So the rest of the week wasn't too eventful. I didn't have to teach District meeting because we had zone meeting instead. We had one great lesson with our investigator. We talked about the Word of Wisdom and how it can be such a blessing in her life. We really recommitted to trying to quit drinking coffee. I received some very great news this past week as well. I found out that Will Greenshield, Honey Greenshields husband, got baptized. That was such amazing news. They are both doing great and they are both really feeling the happiness from being members of this Gospel. As soon as I heard I got her phone number and called her up and got to have a great talk with her. They are both very happy! So that was kinda the highlights from this week. i am doing great and so is Elder Peek. Thank you so much for the package it was much appreciated and yes I baked them all and they tasted great. Well everyone thank you so much for the emails you sent me and all that you have done I love you all so much and cant wait to hear back from you. I love you all very much. Love Elder Payne

Email: Senior Companion

Well hello to all,
                         Well this has been an absolutely insane week filled with a lot of change. Just to start things off, Tuesday Elder Newcomb packed up everything and headed down south a little ways to what is called Antelope. He was sad to leave this area but I was definitely ready to see him go. It is kind of strange that now I am going to be senior companion all of the time. Especially with only having been in this area for 6 weeks, but I am up for the challenge. So Tuesday afternoon me and another Elder that is training headed down to Antelope to a meeting with President Weston. All of the trainers got together and President Weston gave us some instruction on everything that will be going on as far as training goes and what he expects of us. He told us that the elders that are 6 weeks out right now and the ones that are just getting here are the two most important groups to come out, because they are going to be the ones to train the brand new influx of missionaries this coming spring. So that was really neat to hear. So Wednesday morning was the day that we actually got paired up with our companions. My new companions name is Elder Holbrook. He is from Meridian, ID so I give him a hard time about being from Idaho all the time. haha He is 19 years old and graduated in 2012. He is really smart and knows his stuff really well. He has great greeney fire so he likes to work really hard. I really believe that we are going to be able to get some really great things done in this area.

                        So as far as the people in this area that we are currently teaching. Hailey is still doing really well. She has been going through a bit of a rough patch as far as transitioning from old ways and old friends and old habits to doing positive and good things. She is a strong girl though and I know she is going to do just fine. The couple with the twins, well that is kind of a sad spot right now. They have split up. It doesn't look like there is much hope for them to get back together either. It is so sad to see a family torn apart like that, but that just shows you how easy it is to walk away when you are not married. We are still teaching him and hopefully things will improve in his life. The man being baptized his name is Rodney. He is in his 50's. We are really excited for it because he has been taught for quite a while. There has been a huge change in his life and in his countenance over the past month and a half. So very exciting news Elder Holbrook and I found 3 new investigators this past week. One is a guy named Manny, the other two are a mother and daughter who are about 77 and 40 something. They seem really interested and I know that the things we teach them will bless their lives. They have both gone through many hard times with loss of family and many trials so I know that they will be comforted by what we have to say. This past Friday we had this really awesome program go on. It was called the Holy Night. It was a big program that was all just singing and musical parts praising Christ's birth. It was such an amazing experience to go and feel the spirit there. Just like you were saying mom, there is a special spirit in the air with music. Anyways what it was, was a big stake choir that sang for about 45 minutes. We were able to get about 4 investigators there, which was great. It was so neat to hear the choir and see the love that they were proclaiming through song. This coming week should be a busy one. We have a lot of people to visit and a lot to do.

                            For all of you that don't know my family sent me and awesome Christmas package, filled with all kinds of goodies and decorations of every sort. I love the Christmas season so it was fun to decorate the apartment up a bit. My pride and joy is the tree that they sent me. I personally think it looks fantastic and definitely gets me in the Christmas spirit. I also got to help a family in my ward decorate their tree it was a lot of fun and made me feel like I was back home decorating the tree their. Unfortunately the tree was a little tall for one of the guys to put the star on top so I helped him out by letting him sit on my shoulders and then climbing the ladder. haha oh what fun!

                             So that is about all I have for this week. Things are going great and I am loving it out here. I love you all and I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

 Love Elder Payne

Email: Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello to everyone back home......and out here in California,

I hope that everyone is doing well this week. Hopefully things have slowed down a little bit since the past few weeks. It sounds like the move went well and everything has gotten unpacked and put away just fine. Also, Mom, I am SOOOO sorry I wasn't able to help you put up your Christmas decorations. I'm sure you know just how much I missed doing that. haha

So just a little bit about what has been going on out here. We have been really busy lately teaching people. It is really nice to actually have people wanting to learn about the Gospel. I'm sure you are wondering how the couple with the twins is doing. Well they are doing just great. We have taught them the whole restoration lesson and now we are moving on to the Plan of Salvation. He is definitely a big searcher of truth, which is fantastic because that makes our job a lot easier. They haven't been able to come to church yet because he is just starting out at a new job and is afraid to ask for Sundays off already, so I will continue to let you know how things are going there. Also we are hoping to be able to get them married pretty soon. We are working with the bishop to get that done. They are going to be a such a great asset to the ward and I know that the Gospel is going to bless their lives so much.

Hailey is still doing well. Pretty much same old, same old. We just continue to work with her and strengthen her faith. She is a very smart girl and has a lot of questions. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to teach someone like her. We were actually finally able to find her mom home. We just went over and talked to her a little bit and resolved any concerns she has. Unfortunately she is still very hard in her heart and is still not open at all to what her daughter is learning. It is so tough because we want to help them both but the mother just wont let us. So we are just going to keep trying and hope that things will work out.

This past week we had our Zone conference. We had the mission president and the AP's come and speak to us. We were there from 9 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon, so yes it was a very long meeting. It was absolutely amazing though and I learned so much. President Weston talked to us a lot about the importance of the Book of Mormon. He then challenged us to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days or less. So from Thursday to the 15th to February we will be reading the Book of Mormon. Which is awesome because we will be reading it as well, starting the 30th of this month.

So, you asked for a bit more info. So I just think, just to go at your own pace.If you go by pages it is about 3 pages a day. So that isn't to bad at all. I think it would be really cool if you all got like new paper back copies (they are only like $3) and marked anything referring to family and any Christlike attributes. I found this site that has a reading progress chart on it. Tell me if you like it or if you can think of any other way to track our progress. http://lds.about.com/od/ldsscriptures/a/scripturecharts.htm

So let me know if you like that one. If you can find one that you like better let me know we will use that.

Anyways so things have been going really well here. I'm excited for Thanksgiving coming up this week. I can't believe that it is already here. IT has come up really fast. We are going to a members house for it. It is also a full P-day so that means we can do pretty much anything. There is a pretty big tradition our here. All of the missionaries get together and have a big flag football game. It is called the Turkey bowl, because it is on thanksgiving. So as you can imagine I am really excited for that. Well I love you all and I hope you all have a great week.

Love, Elder Payne

Email: I Made It!

June 19, 2012 (2:55pm)

Hello family,
               Well I made it! I am officially exhausted though. Today has been a whirlwind of emotions, and we are barely half way through the day. It was so great to get to talk to you all. You all sounded so great. I was so happy that I got to talk to you all for so long. It is weird that I am finally in the area that I will be living in for the nex two years.
                So a little bit about how this morning went. We got off the plane and went to get our bags. It was great because president Weston his wife and little girl were there waiting for us. They took us to get our bags and we took a few pictures. President Weston is an extreely nice man. He welcomed us with open arms. His wife is very nice as well. She reminds me a lot of Gaylyn White. She loves to sing and play the piano. You would get along really well with her mom. Then we went to the mission office. Had some orientation stuff and then had lunch. I so far have had one interview with President Weston and he was highly complimentary of me. Dont worry I am well taken care of. I will find out who my new companion is tomorrow morning.
                   The area we have seen is very beautiful and i am happy to be here. The only thing is i miss the mountains because it is very flat. Well i love you all very much take care and i look forward to hearing from you. I love you all so much.
                                                                                                                            Love Elder Payne