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

Skyping on Mother's Day!

Hunter's view-

 Payne Family view-

Email: Update on Investigators

Well Hello to everyone,

Wow what an amazing week that we have had out here. There have been a few low points, but hey that  happens. So lets get the lows out of the way. First off I thank you all very much for all of the prayers that you have said on Cece's behalf. Unfortunately this past week she dropped us and is no longer going to
be taking the lessons. It was really quite a shock how it happened. As you know from the last email that i sent about her the lesson that we had with her went very well. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and how it can bring us strength and peace in times of trial. At times it seemed as if she was about in tears. Well after that we could not get a hold of her at all. We tried relentlessly with no results. Finally we went over one day and she was home. We met her at the doorway and she did not seem that happy to see us. She  mentioned to us that either her Sister or sister-in-law had just passed away. We did our best to show her we cared and asked if there was anything that we could do to help. We asked if we could come back and talk with her more and help her out and she told us that she did not want us to come back. Oh man that kind of sucked mainly because i know how much this message could help her if she would only accept it. I guess at this time she just isnt ready for it. We are going to try back in a few weeks and see if there is any renewed interest on her behalf.

So there is kind of the downer part of the week but let me tell you about what else has been going on here. Mikayla is doing awesome! She is so excited for her baptism this coming Saturday. We have been going over the lessons with her, just to review for her baptismal interview. She is a very smart girl and has remembered basically everything that the other missionaries have taught her. We have been busy setting up the program and so that has kept things interesting. What is awesome is she actually asked me to be one of the witnesses! I am so excited and yes it is going to be a wonderful birthday present. I just want to reiterate what i have already said in past emails. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to be apart of helping her in her path to baptism. There have been so many missionaries that have taught her and there have been so many prayers said specifically for her to get adopted, and some how i have been lucky and blessed enough to be here and be apart of the actual ordinance. Wow what an amazing experience.

Well Keriann and Tyler are still doing great. We have gone over the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a few of the
commandments. They are taking it all in very well and are learning so much. i love when I get to be able to see the change that the Gospel not only makes in an individual but in an entire family. Each one of them seems to be coming closer together. i know that is because of the importance our Heavenly Father puts on the family. He wants the family unit to be our main focus and is one of the most important things to him. We are going to be putting a big focus on getting young women to their lessons this week. Mainly for fellowship for Keriann. We want her to really feel like she is welcome and want to be their at church and mutual and even at school. Please be praying for her.

So i just wanted to share with you one of the testimonies that was given on this past Sunday. Their was a lady and she was talking about an uncle that she had that found out he had terminal brain cancer. The doctors told him that he only had 3 months to live. So the very first thing he did was go to his bishop. His
bishop asked so why is it you wanted to me with me? The man explained the situation and then asked "Bishop I have a firm testimony of the Plan of Salvation, but I just want to know, Am I good enough?" Wow the second that woman uttered that phrase a wave of emotion past over me. It really made me think and made me ask the same question, Am i good enough? I truly think, that is something that we need to ask ourselves every now and then. Am I living up to the standard that our Heavenly Father has set for us? Or is there more that i can be doing? I want you all to keep that in mind this coming week, because that is what I
am going to be doing.

Well I want to thank you for the package you sent me. That was such a great surprise and thank you so much for the wallet. You know just how much i love Superman and when i saw that i was just giddy with joy. Thank youall for all that you do for me. I really do appreciate the love that i feel coming from back home. I truly have the best family on earth. So a little info about skypng, plan on about 5 oclock your time. If I have to adjust things i will just calls you guys and figure it out. I should have pretty much as much time as i
need because we are eating dinner the same family that we are skyping with so it will work out perfectly.

Thanks again and I love you all.
Love Elder Payne

Pictures from Elder Payne!

My new tracting approach- haha

 This is Brother Allan's mountain man stuff-

 Chili cook-off

Thank you for the package 

I loved this! 

Email: Christmas Week

Hello Family,
                 Well it sure sounds like if there was any one year to be away from home for Christmas it was this year. I cant believe that basically all of you got sick, that is horrible. To answer your question, no I have not gotten sick out here. There has been a bug going around but I have been blessed and haven't caught anything yet. It was really great getting to see you all and talk to you for so long. I am glad that you all were feeling well enough to be able to talk to me. That also really sucks that there is no Perry New Years Eve party. We haven't skipped that party in a long time. So I guess a little about what I did after skyping with you all. Elder Holbrook and I just headed back to our apartment and cleaned a bit.(I know sounds like an awesome Christmas day activity)ha ha anyways we headed to dinner at a member of the ward about 5. They had a ton of family over, which was a little awkward because we didn't really know anyone that well. They had us play some games with them, which was really fun. Then we ate and took off for the church. There we played basketball for about 4 or 5 hours. It was a blast! We had a whole bunch of missionaries and so there always a game going. So that was basically what we did all Christmas day. A lot of food, a lot of basketball, and a lot of fun. Also to answer your other question, no neither of us were all that homesick. We didn't really have much time to be homesick. So don't worry we were doing just fine.
                     The rest of the week was pretty lame. It was really hard to meet with anyone. Mainly because, basically no one could meet up with us. We spent one day out for about 4 hours  and even with all of the doors that we knocked only like 2 people answered. As you can imagine that was a very long day. Things should start to improve soon though, especially with everyone getting back onto more of a set schedule. There were a few good things that came out of this past week. We were able to start meeting with Juanita and Mario again. They are doing really well and have really recommitted to reading the Book of Mormon and searching out the truth. We are going to be taking them on a chapel tour this week. We also met a new couple, Jerry and Jolene. They are a part member family, Jolene is a member and Jerry is not. We are going to begin teaching them very soon. We were also able to reset Rodney's baptism date for the 19th of January. We are extremely excited for that, and really praying hard that it will go through. Other than that nothing else has really been going on. I guess the only other thing is I hit my 7 month mark yesterday. Pretty weird stuff , it feels like I hit 6 months just last week.
                        I'm sorry that this email is so boring but that kind of how this week has gone. Anyways everything is going great my suits are holding up well, my shoes are still holding in there, and my shirts are great too. Oh and to answer your other question, no we do not ride our bikes in the rain. We actually do not ride our bikes very much at all. Mainly because our area is quite small so we don't really have to, plus it really really sucks riding bikes in the rain. Well that's all for this week I love you all so very much. I think I have noticed that more this past week than I have in a long time. Also thank you for all of the love you have been sending my way. In all of the various forms. Once again I love you all and I hope you have a Happy New Year! Love Elder Payne

Skyping with Elder Payne

Email: Skype Tomorrow!

Hello Family,
                    Well its a little crazy to think that in just a few short hours I get to talk to you all. I was reading your email and it sounds like there are going to be quite a few people there. So I am officially going to be skyping at 9 o'clock my time so 10 o'clock your time. I can probably Skype for about 2-3 hours. we are just at our Ward mission leaders house and there is nothing else going on for the rest of the day. They are giving us a full P-day. Today however is only a half P-day, so we have to be out doing stuff at 2. What is funny though is that they said they don't want us proselyting or doing anything like that, which brings up the question, What are we supposed to do? haha so I guess we will figure something out. I got the big package you sent me but I haven't gotten the little one that is supposed to be for today yet. I hope it shows up soon. Anyways I wont tell you too much about what has been going on so I can talk about it tomorrow. I love you all and cant wait to see and talk to you all tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh ya and aren't you glad the world didn't end this past week haha
        Love Elder Payne

Email: "Ask the Missionaries! They can Help You!"

Hi Family,
              Well I sure hope you all are having a great week. From the email that mom sent me it sounds like everyone is doing very well and that you all are keeping busy. So I will fill you in on everything that has been going on in just a sec but I have to answer questions before I go on so I don't forget. So being Senior companion is great. I really like being able to lead and be that kind of missionary rather than one that follows. i am just one that likes to lead rather than have to be lead around not knowing where i am going, so I feel a lot more comfortable as Senior companion. Elder Holbrook is great. We have been getting along very well. He is starting to feel a lot more comfortable around me and other missionaries, so he is opening up quite a bit more. He isn't afraid to call me out on stuff now and I am not afraid to do the same. We argue a bit but it is all in fun and it makes it so we don't hold anything in. So yes things are going well.
                                 Yes we did find some new investigators, unfortunately they cant really meet until the first of the year. That's OK though it gives us something to look forward to. We also were able to get a referral for a family that we picked up just last night, and let me tell you they look very promising. The mother is actually a less active member. She hasn't come to church for a very long time, close to 12 years. She just randomly started coming to church last week and saw an immediate increase in blessings. They were having severe financial difficulties and about to go under when they came to church. The week after she was able to get a job and get a bunch of legal stuff worked out. It was amazing to hear her story and how our Heavenly Father had blessed her so abundantly. Her daughter who is 12 and son who is 17 are very interested in being baptized. The daughter literally asked one of the members of the ward,"How do I get prepared to get baptized?" My immediate thought went to Russel M. Nelsons talk, "Ask the missionaries they can help you!" So we are meeting with them this week and hopefully we can get the two kids baptized by the end of the year!
                             So about skyping. We will be at our Ward mission leaders house to skype around 9 o'clock, hopefully. Which would be about 10 where you guys are.I will probably have about as much time as I want. That will be really cool to have it up on the big screen. That way everyone can see. Whats going on. So I am sorry I don't have any more information about it, that's all I know.
                           So yes i did get your package and thank you so much for it. It was much needed. I was having an absolutely horrible week. The man who was supposed to be baptized called Thursday morning and told us that he wasn't ready to become a Mormon. Man that hit hard. It was very disheartening because we have been working with him for quite a while. We went over Friday to talk with him and we found out that a bunch of anti-Mormon people that came and basically talked him out of it. That pretty much sucked, but we will keep working with him and hopefully get him another date soon. So like I said that package was much needed and yes I have been following the rules. It is much more fun that way, because now i get to open one everyday and spread the fun throughout the days. Anyways that has pretty much been my week.
                            It sounds like there is a lot of great stuff going on back home. That's exciting that Rob, linds and drake all get to be there for Christmas. I sent Drake a package for his birthday I hope it got there before they left. If not it will be there when you return. haha

Well I love you all and I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Love Elder Payne