Email: Hard Times last week, Miracles this week

Hello everyone,
                    How is the family doing? It sounds like things have been going pretty well back home. I really loved all of the pictures of mom and drake and Linds and Rob. It looks like you all had quite a bit of fun out there. oh by the way mom thank you very much for everything you said it definitely helped a lot. Dad i hope things haven't been to stressful for you. I know that this time of year is definitely your busiest but hopefully the taxes didn't overwhelm you to bad this year. I hope the rest of the family is doing well too.

So this week we definitely saw a few miracles happen. The first of which was that we were able to set a baptismal date with a new investigator! So we met this lady named Cece the first week that Elder Hyde got here. She has one young son who is only 6 years old. He is a cute little kid and isn't afraid of anything. In fact the week we met them he had just broken his arm and the next time we went by he was out riding his bike and scooter. He is a funny little kid. Anyways Cece's husband died about 3 years ago in a car wreck and that really hit them really hard. We even asked them do you believe you will see your husband again? She responded well I hope I will, I'm not entirely sure though. That really struck me and made me want to help this lady even more. So this past Thursday we went by and found her home again. She invited us in and we were able to have a really amazing Restoration lesson with her. She was absolutely loving the lesson and the things that we were teaching her. it was really neat to see someone who is as prepared as her accepting the things that we were teaching her. So at the end we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how it is here to help us in our lives and she was so happy to hear about that. Anyways we invited her to be baptized on May 18th and she accepted saying if I come to know that it is true by then yes I will be baptized. Oh wow that was such a neat lesson, she is a wonderful lady who I know can really benefit from having the Gospel in her life.

We were also able to have another lesson with Marian. This one went a lot better than the first one we had with her when she was drunk. ha ha We taught her the message of the Restoration and she took it very well. She has family that are members of the church and so she already had somewhat of a base on our beliefs. We also committed her to be baptized and she said that she would pray about it. So things are picking up a little bit. i have really been working on being more and more bold. I am trying to get to the point where I can just walk up and talk to anyone about anything. I think i am making some improvement but I know I need to keep going.

I don't remember if I told you last week but our investigator Paulette Faulkner passed away, she was only 65 years old. It was really sad mainly because she was the last of her family that was still alive. Some of her family died about 10 years ago in a car wreck and then her parents died about 2 years ago of some complications. It really shocked a lot of people how quickly it happened to her. Anyways we had a little memorial service for her at the care center. One of her family friends asked us just to speak for about 5 minutes on the Plan of Salvation. I spoke mainly on the things that we had taught her and how she was going to be able to live with her family again. I shared with them Alma 40:11-12. I really love that one it talks mainly on the spirit world.

Well that was pretty much our week. Things have been improving and I have been trying to be more positive and recognize the good I am doing.  I love you all and hope everything continues to go well.

Love Elder Payne

P.s. Hey dad thank you very much for what you said in your email it really made me think a lot.Thanks for being such a great father! HAve fun out golfing you deserve it

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: Easter & Video: Missionary Work & The Atonement

Well oh my goodness it has been a crazy week! I forgot to tell you in my last weeks email that this week is transfer week. So I will start out by telling you what the results of the transfer call is. So I found out that I am training again! How crazy is that, I just barely got done training and I am doing it again. I cant believe how soon they are having me train again. I am pretty excited to train again the only problem is that this area doesn't have to much work going on. So that only leaves room for improvement. I am very excited to find out who I am training and really help out the beginning of someones mission.
       
So this past week we got to go to the temple! I was so grateful that I was able to go and partake of the blessings of the temple. It is truly such an amazing place where the veil is so this. I was able to go with quite a few of my really close friends around here. We went Thursday and did the 12o'clock session. Did you guys know how amazing the temple is? It is so great there. I just absolutely love that place.

So the rest of the week went pretty well. It was crazy hitting my 10 month mark. I am in double digits now, how crazy is that? It doesn't seem like I have been out nearly that long. Wasn't it just yesterday that I hit 6 months now I am closing in on a year.

So we were able to have a few pretty good lessons this week. Our ward council has been having us visit and teach a lot of Less active members. It has been pretty neat just getting to teach again. We had one strange lesson again this week. We were teaching this guy the Restoration and it was going really well and he was taking it in, then we started talking about Joseph Smith and Prophets and he just freaked out and ran inside, because we were having the lesson outside. It was kind of weird just the way he took off and wouldn't talk to us anymore. Well that is about the most of the week. Like I said we have been visiting a lot of Less Active members.

Easter was OK we have church until 3:30 so we didn't really have much time to do much. Dinner was OK but it was pretty much like any other day. The talks in Sacrament meeting were pretty amazing. One lady talked about taking the sting out of death, it was absolutely amazing. We also got to paint eggs with the McGhies which was a lot of fun.
       
Thank you for all of the pictures, everyone seems to be doing great. Great job Kate on making cheer again, that is so exciting. Keep up the good work. It kind of sounds like I need to come back there and liven up the Holidays a little bit. ha ha I am glad everything is going so well. I miss you all very much, but I am grateful that I am able to be out here serving the lord.

Well someone showed me this amazing quote and video and I really think you will enjoy. There is a quote by Jeffrey R. Holland that I think you guys will really like. It says,"Missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation was never easy. We are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, this is the truth! He is our Great eternal head. Why would we think, why would we ever believe that is would be easy for us when it was never easy for Him!"

The video is absolutely riveting. Please check it out, please share. It really helps me to feel the true meaning of the Easter holiday. It is only through Jesus Christ that we can receive our everlasting Salvation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6FKiNVbw3Y

If you can watch that video without feeling the spirit resonating from it you are deceived and not truly prepared to feel the spirit in your life. I don't mean to be overbearing only bold! We must tell people and help them to find the way, to know the truth, to feel the light of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I love you all and I am so very grateful for the great blessing I have of having you in my life. Good luck in this coming week and may God bless you continually.

With Love Elder Payne

Email: Some Funny, Weird Lessons

Hello my wonderful family,
          How is everyone doing this week? Well I sure hope everyone is doing well. I know that this past week was going to be a really busy one so hopefully things turned out well. So things actually went really well this week. I also got my new bike which is awesome. It is actually a really nice bike, I really like it a lot. Thanks again to everyone who helped me out with that. It was extremely stressful as you can imagine but thanks to all of you everything turned out alright. I will have to send you guys pictures of it as soon as I have one.

So a little bit about this week, it turned out to be a very successful week. I also had a few really strange lessons which i will talk about in a bit. We hit a  whole bunch of less active and potential investigators. It turned up a few pretty good leads. So with the weird lessons, The first of 3 of the weird lessons started on Thursday night. We had a lesson with this lady from our apartment complex. Now we had talked to her about an hour and a half before the lesson, just right before we went to dinner. So we arrive with our fellowshipper and she comes stumbling out of this taxi. I mean she can hardly stand up. Come to find out she was extremely wasted! We tried teaching her but she just kept repeating herself and repeating herself. It was absolutely hilarious. So as you can imagine it was pretty strange. What was really funny though is she called us the next day and apologized for missing the appointment. She didn't even remember that we had come over! So that was the first of the weird lessons.

Next was the very next morning, we met with a new investigator of ours. Come to find out he is Schizophrenic, he was saying some pretty strange stuff. One of those things was all I asked was do you believe that God loves us? He just went off for like fifteen minutes. At one point he mentioned Thor and Asgard and one day being able to be telepathic. That was just a very, very strange lesson.

Then to the third one, this happened the next day, so Saturday. We were checking on a less active member who wasn't there and this guy came out thinking we were robbing his garage. We were like no we aren't stealing we are actually missionaries. So we started talking with him about the gospel, unfortunately he was very high. He even told us that he was smoking medicinal marijuana. He eventually was like I want to have the discovery channel come out and have them follow you around. We were just like we probably cant do that I really don't think our mission president will allow us to do that. but we are going back there in a couple of days, so we will see how that goes. Well as you can see it was a strange but pretty good week. Well I love you all and hope things are going well for you all.

Love Elder Payne

P.S. Hey there I just got your email about the same time I finished this. I am so glad things went so well with Kate at prom. Thanks so much for all of the support you guys are all so amazing. Also thee is a family out here the McGhies that are really amazing. They are wanting some of dads organic flour and sugar and stuff they are really into organic stuff. So give them a call because I am sure they would love to buy some of his stuff. McGhies.

Email: Stolen Bike!

Dear Family,
                 How is every ones week been going? It sounds like it has been quite crazy back there with everything going on. I sure hope you can even find time to get everything done. At least you are all nice and relaxed from your cruise so that should make things a little easier for you. So a little about the bike situation, so we had them under our stairs, unfortunately because i was being stupid and lazy we did not lock them up. Anyways we went to bed that night woke up went down and helped some other Elders with some service and then came back. Some time between when we went to bed and came back they got stolen. We called the police, management and a few others that needed to be informed. What is crazy is that when Elder Peek and my bikes were stolen they were the sixth stolen in the past 7 days throughout the mission! Crazy right? So right now we are borrowing some of the bikes that the mission has. We ordered some from a member who owns a bike shop so they should be pretty good bikes. We are still keeping an eye out for our bikes so hopefully we can spot them soon.
                So as you can imagine with our bikes being stolen it was a little slower of a week. We spent a lot of time dealing with that. We were able to do a little bit though. On Monday evening we got a call from this old lady in our apartment and she needed help with something. So we went over and helped her out. We started talking about how she had come in contact with the missionaries and some of her views on religion and then we talked a bit about the Plan of Salvation. It was really neat just really connecting with someone and helping her to know a bit more about our beliefs. Anyways we are going to start teaching her now and her name is Mariam. So this week we spent a lot of time working with less actives and just trying to get in contact with people. Friday evening we had a ward talent show. I got dragged into performing in it with Elder Peek and another guy in our ward. i will have to send you the video soon. It was a lot of fun and absolutely hilarious. Also on Sunday I got to speak in church. I spoke on the talk given my Elder L. Tom Perry in the April 2009 conference. It is an amazing talking and you guys should definitely look it up and read it. I was a little nervous speaking because it was a homecoming for a guy in the ward but as soon as I got into it I was totally at ease. It ended up going really well and I hope that I was able to spark the members from the talk. In fact there was a less active lady who called us last night, who was in church this Sunday, and she said that she was very grateful for our talks and that they really inspired her to start changing her life and try to become better. I was so happy to hear that i was able to touch someones life like that, what a special experience. Well things are still going well here. I really like this area, it is heating up quite a bit. It has been up in the 70's almost every day. I am so grateful for each one of you. I am so grateful for the inspiration and support that i receive from you all. Please keep me in your prayers. I love you all and I am praying for you all as well.

Love Elder Payne

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: Baby Savannah

Dear Family,
                 Well I cannot express just how happy I am to have received the news that little Savannah was born and now be able to see some pictures. She is an absolutely beautiful baby, and in the words of the great Michael Scott,(While smoking a cigar)"Ya, its a baby see!"
                            Random nurse: "Sir put that out, put it out!"
                            Michael Scott: " Man you cant smoke anywhere these days!"

               It is so amazing to have a brand new addition to our family. How is everyone feeling now? Have things slowed down any or is it still crazy there? Well I am really happy that everything went well. Keep me updated on everything that is going on with her.

                 So a little about this past week, I will also try to answer all of your questions. So I am in the Rocklin 2nd ward and things are going OK. It is definitely a lot slower than Lincoln, but we are trying to change that around. We were able to pick up two new investigators this past week. One of which isn't too solid but hopefully the one man we met will work out well. We have been working a lot with less active people so we were going around trying to meet more people that we don't know that are not currently active. We had a little success in finding people home but not too much. The bike riding is getting better, my rear end is still a little sore after longer rides but it is a little better now. My bike is holding up OK. I had to take it in and have about 3 spokes replaced and a new chain put on, it is hanging in there though. This past week we had my 2nd district meeting, it went a lot better than the first and I was a lot more relaxed. We covered the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a great lesson to teach. What i did was I had each companionship take one point in the Gospel, study it for about 5-10 minutes and then present it to everyone else. It went really well and I think everyone really enjoyed it. I am trying to get everyone involved rather than just stand up there and drone on, I think that approach is helping a lot. I am really enjoying being district leader though. It isn't too much more responsibility. Basically the only extra work I have to do is teaching district meeting and going on exchanges. It isn't too bad and I like being able to interact with everyone.

                  This coming week is actually going be an interesting week. This Saturday we are having an apostle come and talk to us. I am really excited to get to see an apostle in such a close quarter situation. It should be a really amazing experience. Well that is pretty much it for me. My clothes are holding up fine. I am just trying to have them make it to my year mark. It should all be just fine though. I love you all and I hope everything is going well.

Love Elder Payne

Email: About Rocklin & New Address

Dear Family,

                 Well hello to one of the busiest families around. haha So let me just start out by telling you a bit about the area. So Rocklin is only like 15 to 20 minutes away from Lincoln. In fact it is right between Lincoln and Citrus Heights. There are quite a few apartment complexes around here and it is mostly city. It reminds me a little bit of like Draper area. There are a few kind of older neighborhoods and then one or two neighborhoods with really nice houses. Our area is pretty big which kind of sucks being on a bike. Also there are a few hills here that have just about kicked my butt. Other than it isn't too different from my last area. It is a little like my first area and my last area combined. As far as people we are teaching, the work around here is going pretty slow. We currently only have one investigator who cant meet with us very often because she gets sick a lot. So that gives us plenty of work to do. We are really working right now to get the members involved, and get them out helping us because it is really hard to pick an area up when there is nothing going, especially if it is all by ourselves. So that is what is going on currently. My companions name is Elder Peek, he is from South Weber, so not to far from us. He has been out about 3 months now. So far things have been going really great with him. He is a really soft spoken guy which really allows the spirit to come in.

               So this past week I had to teach my very first District meeting, as you can imagine I was pretty nervous. I wasn't sure how it was going to go or what to expect but everything turned out really well. I am really blessed because I am in a district with a lot of really great guys. All of them are relatively young. Actually i came out with two of them. I really excited to be able to serve around all of these guys. My apartment here is pretty nice. It is a bit nicer than my last one and in a much better neighborhood.

               Well it sounds like things are a bit crazy back home. That is really sad to hear about grandma but it is good to hear that she is doing a little bit better. Give her my best and tell her I love her. That is also sad to hear about the boys basketball team. too bad they couldn't pull that out. Staci i cant believe that Savannah hasn't come yet, you look like you are about ready to pop. make sure you don't go around any sharp objects we don't want anything bad happening. Well i love you all and I hope I have answered most of your questions. before I go my address is 5780 Springview Dr. Apt. 57 Rocklin, CA 95677. Also I have not gotten the cuff links yet but they did arrive back in Lincoln and the Zone leaders are going to get them for me. Thanks a ton  I love You all and hope you have a great week and good luck with everything. 

Love Elder Payne

Email: Getting transferred to Rocklin

Dear Family,

Well from reading all of your emails it sounds like the cat is out of the bag. Yes the news is true I am being transferred. I am going to a place that is only like 20 minutes away from where I am now. That part kind of sucks because I was really hoping I would go further North but oh well where I am going will still be great. I am going to Rocklin which is known as kind of the rich part of the mission. I am also going to be the District Leader there. That part is pretty nerve racking. I'm not really sure what to expect but I am really excited to find out what it is like. I was kind of surprised when I found out that I was going to be the District Leader, like I said I'm not sure what to expect but I am very happy that President Weston has put that much trust in me. I am going to be serving with an Elder named Elder Peek. I don't know too much about him yet but I will be sure to let you know. I do know that he is just getting done being trained. He came out with Elder Holbrook.

Speaking of Elder Holbrook he has been selected as a trainer. Every single person in the Lincoln District is training. That is absolutely amazing! There are so many new missionaries coming out that it is just phenomenal. I am sure we are going to see a huge jump in the amount of work being done. Something really neat coming up, I'm not sure if I have mentioned this or not, but we are actually having an Apostle come here. He is coming out on March 9th and is having a special meeting with our mission. No one knows who or why he is coming but it should be a pretty amazing experience.

So this past week was a strange one again. We started out just fine, we had a bit zone conference on Wednesday where three Zones met. That went just fine, but on the way back one of the Elders we drove there with started not feeling very good. He had a really bad stomach ache and some other bad stuff going on. Anyways when we got back we gave him a blessing and Elder Holbrook and I had to go to a lesson. During the lesson we got a call from them but we had to silence it because we were in a lesson. Anyways after we called them back like 3 or 4 times. When they answered the other Elder told us that the sick one had passed out had like a mini seizure and threw up everywhere, so he called an ambulance and they took him to the Hospital. The doctors thought he had appendicitis but fortunately for him it ended up being a lot more minor than they thought. He just had the flew on top of some intestinal inflammation and he was super dehydrated. So he was able to come back like a day later. We were all very worried but it all turned out fine. Unfortunately I was quite sick this week as well. I got hit by a horrible cold. It put me out of commission for a good two days. I am feeling much better now though and am back on my feet.

We were able to have one or two really good lessons this week. One was with the Plauts which went very well! They are coming along slowly but surely and with them I feel like it is only a matter of time. We also had a member just walk up to us in church yesterday and introduce us to someone who is interested in joining the church. That was such a shock and such a blessing. There is so much great work going on here and I am really going to miss this ward. There have been so many great people that I have met and been able to be around I really hope that my next ward will be able to match up with this one. I know that if i go in with the right attitude no matter what that ward can be a great one for me.

Well it sounds like everyone had a great Valentines day which was great. I had a great one as well. It wasn't anything too different. I got a lot of candy and I feel about 15 pounds heavier because of it haha. I cant believe that there is a possibility by the next time i email you guys that there could be a new addition to our family. That is crazy the time has absolutely flown by. Good luck Staci, I'm sure everything will go just great. Well everyone I love you very much and appreciate all of the support that you are sending me. I Love you all and have a great week.

Love Elder Payne

Email: Baptismal Date Set

Hi everyone,
                 Well let me tell you about a very interesting week I had. Things were quite slow here, perhaps one of the slowest weeks that I have had thus far. I was able to witness my fair share of miracles thought that is for sure. So as far as lessons that we were able to teach, they were few and far between. Both Elder Holbrook and myself came into this week extremely excited because we had set up the week very well. We had multiple lessons set up and lots of people to visit. Well starting Monday evening a trend started to emerge. Cancellation after cancellation started happening. It seemed like our appointments were just dropping like flies. Even those investigators who are super solid and never drop there appointments had to cancel. It was just an extremely weird week. Definitely the greatest miracle we saw this week was we were able to set a baptismal date with one of our new investigators. His name is Chris, it was really neat because we went over to a friend of his that is a member and he ended up bringing his friend as well who is not a member and guess what?  We ended up setting a baptismal date with him as well. That was so amazing seeing two people who were so prepared to hear the gospel really accepting the invitation to follow Christ. The date is set for the 9th of March. Transfers are coming up this next week, and I have a good chance of being transferred this time. It will be very interesting to see what happens though because there are so many new missionaries that are coming out it could really put a kink in how things are usually run out here.  Also this past Friday both Elder Holbrook and I got really sick. I am pretty sure it is because we both ate something bad and it made us both very nauseous and sick. We recovered by the next day though. Something that we got to do on Saturday was a lot of fun. We offered service to a less active lady and her family about a week previous and they said they are building an add on to their house and could use a little help with the construction. So I got to try my hand at a little construction work. I was helping do the flooring like laying boards and putting in stuff like that. It was pretty fun and I think I did alright, if not the family will know in a couple of weeks when they step on a weak spot in the floor and fall right through. haha  Even though this hasn't been the best week in the world I was able to keep my hopes up the whole week. I am very grateful for my Heavenly Father giving my strength when I was in need.
                                              SO it sounds like things are going well back home, busy but good. Staci I am praying for you especially in these next few weeks. Good luck with everything. To answer your question mom I have been putting that address just so if they want to send it there they can. Yes I did get dads letter and I sent one to mom just today so be looking for that.You probably shouldn't send anything to me until I find out what is going on with transfers so just letting you know. Thank you for all that you all do for me. I hope things continue to go well for all of you. I love you all.

Love Elder Payne

Email: 5 new investigators! 31 new missionaries!

Dear Family,
                    Well I apologize in advance but this email is going to be short. Things are kinda crazy today for some reason so we don't have very much time to email. This week has been really, really amazing. We were able to pick up 5 new investigators this past week and at least 2 of them are very solid. It is very apparent that the Lord is preparing this area for something very great. I think it has something to do with them fact that there are 31 new missionaries coming out in two and a half weeks. With all those new missionaries there is going to be a much needed increase in people to teach. Definitely the best lesson we had this week was with a couple named Sherry and David. They have kids who are 6 and 3. It is crazy like basically all of their friends are LDS and they basically live an LDS lifestyle. We went over and just basically got to know them. They were super nice and open with us. We should be able to set a baptismal date in this next appointment. I am very excited about those two and the potential that they have in the Gospel. One crazy thing that happened this week was we were headed to an appointment and we had about 15 minutes to kill. On the way we saw a sign that was pointing to a yard sale, so we decided to check it out. We were talking to the guy running it and started talking about missionary work and what we do. He told us that he was trying to come to a church for his two boys and that he just didn't know where to go. So of course we told him well we can help you with that. We set up a return appointment and so we are excited for him as well. Well sorry this is so short. Um but Lindsay yes I did get your letter. Staci that is extremely exciting new about the baby! Tyler I hope everything is going well in school and congrats about the calling. Katelyn I am excited to see you in your dress. Hannah I hope everything is going really well for you. Mom and Dad I love you both very much. Robert i want to send a very special b-day shout out. Happy Birthday man I love ya. I hope everyone has a great week. Love Elder Payne

Email: Feeling the Savior Guiding Me

Dear everyone,
                         How is everyone doing back in freezing Utah? Are the computers even still working with how cold and snowy it is? haha  It sounds like there has been a lot going on back home, just like every week I guess. That was a really sweet story about Hannah. I really appreciate you sharing that with me it helps me to know and feel how blessed and loved I am. Hannah I hope you know that I love you as well. Also that is a huge bummer that the bears lost. It sounds like it was a real heart breaker. I'm sure they will bounce back though and turn out just fine. I am really glad that dad liked my card i definitely put a lot of thought into that one and gave it my own personal touch if you couldn't tell. When I saw it in the store I was just like man that is definitely right up dads alley. Oh yeah make sure you aren't wrecking that truck, haha I still really like that thing and I would like to return with it still in one piece, however that sounds just like dad though gotta push  it to the limit. So as far as Staci goes wow I cant believe there are only like 4 weeks left. That is insane! Don't fret too much Staci, you are going to be an excellent mother.
                              So a little bit about what has been going on out here in good ole' California. As I'm sure you know it has been a chilly 65 degrees out here. Some days it is so chilly I even have to think about putting on a jacket. Whew Life is tough! haha So this past week has been a great improvement from the week previous. It started out kind of slow, with not finding many people home and a few cancelled appointments but towards the end it definitely took off. So this past Wednesday was an amazing day. We had a lesson with Juanita and Mario where we went over the Plan of Salvation and their Book of Mormon reading and they were taking it in so well. Everyone about the Plan of Salvation just rang so well in their ears. She was a little worried that she wasn't really going to be able to know who her mother was in heaven so we shared Alma 34: 32-34 with her and she was absolutely amazed. Just simply that we are the same people on the other side of the veil as we are here, and if we do our best and live correctly we can live with our families forever. She was so happy to hear all of that, and wow the Spirit was so strong in that meeting. We also talked about both of their Book of Mormon reading so far and in a week and a half she had read 70 pages. I was absolutely shocked when she told us that, the reason being is that we have had such a hard time getting her to read. We set a goal with both of them to finish 2nd Nephi and then come to church. Well they both agreed and so hopefully they will be coming very soon.  So later that night we had a little scheduling conflict, we had to decide between dinner and a lesson with our recent converts or dinner and a lesson with one of our investigators, so we did what any missionary would do and went to both. So we had a lesson at 5:30 and dinner at 6:30 at our recent converts, where we taught them the Plan of Salvation. Then at 7:30 we walked about 4 houses down and had dinner about 10 minutes later. As you can all imagine I was quite stuffed because of course I don't want to be rude and not take very much at one house. So I ended up stuffing myself to the point I thought I was going to pop, no joke my belly had to have been as big as Staci's! Only the problem is, mine was only a food baby, not a real baby. We had a really good Restoration with our investigator. Everything went well and he is progressing slowly. The rest of the week was pretty slow, nothing to special ever. As soon as Saturday hit, however, things just exploded! We went on exchanges, elder Holbrook in the other area and me in mine, and we absolutely tore up the town. We were able to find 3 new investigators before noon. One through potentials, one through a referral, and one through just plain tracting. It was such an amazing morning and I could definitely see the lords hand in it. Two of the three that morning were people that we had tried multiple times as well but could never get an answer. Oh but wait there is more later on in the day I just really felt like we should go try this couple, who we had tried multiple times, but had never been home. Well guess what? We found them home, and they were extremely open to learning more. That day was such a blessing to be able to to really feel the Savior next to me guiding me and helping me a long. So that was pretty much our week. There were many miracles and many blessing pour out upon us here in which I am so very grateful.
                               I was able to read this scripture this past week and I just really want to share it with you all. It is Romans 5:19 "For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."  I just loved how well this stated things. It constantly amazes me how powerful an example is. Just like this scripture states examples are so important. No matter who we are or where we come from people are always watching us, so be the example that our Heavenly Father would be proud of. Thank you all for all you do and all of the support you give me. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Love Elder Payne

Email: Work Progresses

Hello family, friends, and all you other people,
               Well I sure hope every ones week has gone well. It sounds like from moms email things are starting to get very busy with preparing for Staci's shower. Its crazy how close she is to being due. Time goes so fast, It seems like just yesterday that I was getting an email saying that Staci was pregnant and now she is very close. That's pretty exciting stuff. That's also so cool that Kate got asked to Prom. Was she excited? I don't think I have ever heard of the kid so hopefully he isn't a weirdo. ha ha Also I better not forget but Happy Birthday dad! In just a couple of days at least. I hope you get my card. I just want to thank you for the amazing example that you have been to me and always helping me to set the bar high for myself. I was having a little bit of a hard time this week just with stuff that has been going on and the phrase that you and Kurt Rees have told me multiple times kept popping in my head, "Don't worry about all of that other stuff going on out there, You are Superman!". So thank you for all of the encouragement and support that you have shown me. I hope you have a great birthday. Oh and also I cont believe that Calvin and Nancy have already finished their mission, that seemed like it went by pretty quickly.
                 So a little about what has been going on this week. It has been kind of a rough week. First off we had to drop one of our investigators, Rodney. He is someone that has been taught for a very long time. In my time here i have set 4 different baptismal dates with him and he has not kept one of them. He hasn't been keeping any of the commitments we give him and just is really stuck in his ways. So for the time being he has been dropped from our teaching pool. Also we had quite a few set appointments throughout the week and most of them fell through to we ended up having to just go out and do finding. We were able to find about 3 new investigators, so that was awesome. Probably the coolest one that we picked up was this big, huge black guy who is in the air force. We had helped his roommate move a few weeks ago and so we were just going over to see him again and see if he would be interested in hearing more about the gospel. Well we knocked on the door, it was pretty dark outside, and he opened it looking super wary like, "What are you guys doing here?" Well we told him who we are and that we had helped them move and he just opened right up to us and invited us in. It was pretty cool we got to talk to him a little bit about what he believed. We mentioned to him that we had noticed his standard works while we were helping them move and we were just curious how he got it. So now we are going to be having a lesson with him tomorrow which should be awesome. Unfortunately he might fall under the age range of the singles ward, so we would have to pass him off to other missionaries. We will just have to see how it goes though. Another interesting guy we met as well was a former investigator that we just dropped by and visited again. His name is Dale, and no dad it wasn't Dale Carter. He is a 7th day Adventist and is kinda strange, he was sorta the male equivalent of the crazy cat lady. He was a nice guy though and we were able to talk to him for a little while. He is pretty stuck in his ways though and we are having a hard time getting through to him. Well that has pretty much been the highlights of the week. Nothing else too crazy has happened. Sorry this email was kinda boring but this week we basically just did a lot of finding. Have a great week everyone and I love you all.

Love Elder Payne

Email: Most Wonderful Day on My Mission

Dear Family,
                  Well this past week has been crazy and extremely busy but amazing as well. This past Saturday I had probably one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I was able to step down into a baptismal font and assist someone in one of the most important saving ordinances that we can perform. I had the opportunity to baptize a young man named Tyler. His sister, Hailey, was able to do the same as well. That was the most wonderful day that I have had out on my mission so far, to not only witness it but to be able to participate in it.  It was such a beautiful and sacred experience. Then Sunday I was able to do one of the confirmations. I was able to confirm Hailey a member of the church and give her the gift of the Holy Ghost. That was extremely nerve racking. I was really quite nervous going into it, but right before the confirmations i said a little prayer for comfort and counsel and every little nerve and fear just washed away. Wow it just amazes me how much our Heavenly Father loves us. He wants to assist us, all we have to do is ask Him. Something kind of funny but kind of bad at the same time, I accidentally locked my knees during the blessing. So while i was speaking all of a sudden I started to get light headed. I just kind of figured it was the spirit effecting me really, really strong. haha Then I realized what I was doing and unlocked them. It definitely made giving the rest of the blessing much easier. So I guess on a less great note, Rodney dropped his baptismal date again. What is even worse is he has been attending a few other churches, so we are going to take a step back with him and reassess where he is at. However i do have more good news. We have started teaching a mother and daughter who are like 74 and 45 and they have been taking everything in very well. We should be able to set a baptismal date with them very soon. They both are just so happy all the time. I love teaching them because of the truths we are able to bring to them. The mother has suffered a lot of hardships in her life, so I know that the things we can teach her specifically concerning the Plan of Salvation can be such a comfort in her life. 
                       So we got our transfer calls yesterday and I am staying put. There wasn't too much change in my zone, a few guys that I am really close to are heading places. Like Elder McMurray is heading clear up to the top of the mission. It kinda sucks because me and him got to be pretty close. Oh also we found out recently that this coming transfer is only 5 weeks long, so that  means I come home a week earlier than previously planned. That's pretty crazy right? Also at the end of this coming transfer we are getting 31 new missionaries. That will be a huge bump in missionaries! I am very excited for all of the new guys coming out, they will give a huge boost to the work. 
                      Well I want to give a huge birthday shout out to Lindsay so HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  I hope you have a wonderful B-day and I really hope you get my card. Make sure and do something fun/relaxing for your birthday. Well I hope everything is going well for everyone back home. Things are great out here. I love you all and have a great week. 

Love Elder Payne

Email: Updates on Investigators/ Slow Week

Hello family,
                   Well I hope that things are starting to slow down for you all. It sounded like there has been a ton of stuff going on back home. Lots of craziness. sickness, and fun. I cant believe that both Staci and Drake went so long with a pretty serious illness without getting it checked out. I hope that you are all sort of on the mend.
                 Well things have been a little slow this past week. It has still been a little difficult to get in a talk to anyone because they are all still really busy with vacation stuff. Hopefully the coming weeks will be better now that everyone is kind of getting into more of a regular schedule. So this past week I actually havent been feeling the best. I have been feeling kind of dizzy and have had some headaches and kinda nauseous. I dont n=really know what it is but I am feeling much better lately. So we were not able to meet with Jerry and Jolene this week. He was kind of sick so we didnt go over. We are hoping we can meet with them some time this week. Rodney has been doing alright. We found out recently that he has been talking to some other people from other churches, like this Pastor guy at a church that his brother attends. We are still working with him, so hopefully things begin to improve there. Hailey and Tyler the two that are getting baptized are doing great. Everything is on track for this Saturday. We haave one more lesson with them on Tuesday and then  they have a baptismal interview on Thrusday. On Tuesday we will be teaching them the Word of Wisdom The law of Chastity, and The law of the Tithe. It shouldnt be too difficult because they are very smart kids and take everything in very well. I am so happy to see someone that I have been able to teach from start to almost finish preparing to get baptized. Those kids carry an amazing spirit about them and I can feel it everytime we are with them. The other Hailey is going through a bit of a rough patch. She is having to decide whether or not she should move in with her mom or stay with her dad. The only problem is her dads is not the safest envirnoment for a 14 year old girl. We have really been trying to get her to seek counsel from her Heavenly Father. It just makes me more and more grateful that i was able to grow up in a family that is so amazing and for that i thank you all.
                Lastly I sure hope you have all been keeping up with your Book of Mormon reading. I know that it has definitely been such a blessing being able to go through the Book of Mormon knowing that there are many others that are right there with me. So i encourage you all to continue on. It can and will bless your life. I love the Book of Mormon with all my Heart. I love you all and I hope you all have a great week.

Love Elder Payne

Who says it doesn't snow in California?

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