WEEK #15

Dear Family and Friends,

Another great week here in Montana! Things are going really well. We have been teaching Logan and the Jones, as well as Roxy and Doc. We have fellowshipped an awesome kid named Ryan, he is the same age as me and he works in town at the gas station. We play basketball and work out throughout the week with him and he really likes us! He says he's pretty comfortable where he's at religiously, but he said he wouldn't mind learning a little more about what we believe because he has a friend on a mission in Arizona.

 

Anyways, I have suuuuuper good news, I'm going golfing today!!!!! :) I'm so excited! Haha I've been dying to play the weather has been so nice. A family is taking us. It's pretty crazy how we met this family! So there is this Lodge really close to where we live. It's like a vacation lodge thing and people come from everywhere during the summer and rent it out for family reunions and stuff. But Judy (our neighbor) runs the lodge, and she told us that there was a family reunion going on there, so on Saturday we thought we would go and introduce ourselves and meet the family (and hopefully get some food) haha. Turns out, the family is Mormon! haha. They are awesome. Some of them are from St George and Kanab area. The parents are awesome, there is a senior couple, and all their kids and grand kids staying there. They remind me a lot of my family! We really enjoy spending time and playing games with them at the lodge. Anyways, we met them on Saturday and invited them to church on Sunday, and they gave us a ride on Sunday to church. There were tons of them! The branch president, instead of giving talks and stuff, just made it a fast and testimony meeting and all the adults that came went up and bore there testimonies. It was so cool to have them all there, it was the most people I've ever seen at the Lincoln Branch. The spirit was so strong they are such a great family. Also it's pretty cool, Bro. and Sis. France (the senior couple) just returned home from a mission in Finland, and we started talking about their mission and I told them that I had a good friend named Greg Waite serving there and they actually knew him! They worked in the office in Helsinki and they said they knew Elder Waite. Small world huh?

 

Still no word on the Visa, but I just made up my mind I'm not even going to worry about it anymore haha. The worst thing I can do is worry about things and worry how things will turn out. But over time I have realized that there is no point in worrying. As long as we are doing what we should, the Lord will take care of us in his own time.

 

Anyways, Elder Manufekai and I are working super hard and things are going good. There is no AC in our cottage so it gets really hot in the day but it's all good! I like the heat :) My challenge for you all this week is to serve one another. Service is such a huge blessing. When we serve others, we are blessed just as much as the people we are serving. I noticed something in the Book of Mormon a little bit ago. When Ammon and his brethren go and start preaching to the Lamanites, Aaron first goes and preaches but he is thrown into Jail for a long time. However, Ammon tells the king that he just wants to be his servant and help him. Well, after Ammon defends the king's sheep, he immediately goes back to working and doing his duties as a servant. The king is astonished by Ammon's loyalty, and trust him a lot. Then Ammon had the opportunity to preach to the King and teach him the Gospel. The key thing is that he served the king first and was his friend. Only after he served and was loyal, the opportunity came to share the gospel. We can learn a lot from this story. It is so important to serve people. We can't just go and make people change, or do what we want right away, but we CAN serve them and be their friend. It is so important to befriend people as missionaries and serve them and love them. I know as you all serve one another the Lord will bless you and you will also feel the satisfaction and happiness that comes from lending a helping hand.

 

Well, I love you all so very much and I can't wait to hear from you. I hope you all have a wonderful week!!!!

 

Com muito amor,

Elder Kyle Payne