WEEK #28

Hello everybody!

Another great week here in the Big Sky. I'm getting pretty settled in to my new area, and things are going great. We just had a baptism on Saturday, that was great. His name is Mike, he's been receiving discussions for about 3 years now but he finally decided to get baptized! :) We have another baptism next Saturday, her name is Dell and she's from Saipan and Guam. She's awesome! Her husband is a member but he has only been active since Dell has received lessons, so he is coming closer to the savior as well.

Part of my responsibility as a District Leader is watching out for all the missionaries in the District and making sure their needs are met and their areas are doing good. I also get to train newer missionaries and help them, so I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with another Elder in my district in Whitehall for a few days. It's a small town of about 1000, so it kind of reminded me of Lincoln, just more houses and less trailers haha. The work has been really slow there for a long time but we were able to set a  baptismal date with an older couple! They are so awesome, I'm so excited for them. There are so many good people here in Montana. Their names are Mike and Jan, and they love having the Elders come over. Jan called me this morning and invited us to come up for another lesson because she said they love the feeling their home has when we come, and they say they can feel God's spirit present. I'm so glad people can feel that and realize the difference in our church and that they realize what the Gospel can do for them! It really isn't the missionaries at all. It's the spirit talking to them. It is great that Whitehall now has two people on date for baptism, I'm really excited for the area and hopefully things pick up even more.

Kind of funny though, most towns in Montana are really spread out, so you have to drive a ways sometimes to go teach people. But the Elders in Whitehall got their truck taken away because they were way over their allotted miles. This happened right before I got there, so we walked in the freezing rain almost the whole time! I packed for Brazil and I only have a rain jacket, so I was dang cold. I really hope I get to Brazil before the snow comes. Everyone tells me "oh you're from Utah, you have no idea what winter is until you get to Montana!" So apparently I'm going to freeze. And my companion is from Arizona so he doesn't like the cold either! haha.

A member was going to take Elder Tayrien and I golfing today, but the weather is bad so we are going another time. But my guess is that the weather will be bad then too. So I probably will not get to go golfing! :(

We have zone conference on Wednesday with a couple of the other zones, so I'm really excited because I'll be able to see Elder Manufekai again and my last zone in Bozeman so that will be good. Tomorrow we have to drive to Butte for Leadership Council, so we will be discussing a lot of new changes  made to the mission and new rules. So that will be interesting. President Mecham is really making a lot of changes to help missionaries be more obedient. Some of the rules are frustrating but you just have to realize that it's all for a good purpose and to help us missionaries have the spirit with us.

Anyways, things are going great! I love you all very much and I hope to hear from you! Have a great week! :)

Com amor,

Elder Kyle Payne

Picture!

Kyle with the Williams dog Sheila.  "Probably the cutest dog ever!  She's a corgi."

WEEK #27

Hello everyone,


A lot has happened this week! My new companion is Elder Tayrien, he is
so awesome! He's from Queen Creek, Arizona, and we have so much in
common! Seriously he's like the funniest kid. This is going to be a
great transfer.

Dillon is a great little town, it's seems about half the size of
Belgrade. But we have a baptism coming up this Saturday, and we
committed a girl to Baptism for next Saturday after conference, so
hopefully she will stop smoking before then! They are awesome.

I have a bit to learn as a District Leader now, but I'm really looking
forward to working with the District. They are awesome. Right now I'm
in Bozeman though, we had to drive up to swap vehicles. We live clear
outside of town so they got us a truck instead of a car because of all
the dirt roads. So Bozeman is right by Belgrade, so after this we are
going shopping then stopping to visit everyone in Belgrade! I can't
wait to see everyone again even though I just left haha.

We live with some awesome members in Dillon, their name is the
Williams. They are so funny! Our house is pretty cool, it's part of
their garage that they turned into a little apartment, it's a sweet
setup. We have a fridge from like the 50s it's cool. Oh we also get
free milk from the neighbors, they have a ranch and a cow named Lucy,
so they give us free milk every week! It's so good! It's fresh and you
have to shake up the cream that sits on top. We call the milk Lucy
Juice.

I don't have a ton to report this week, I'm just getting settled in to
the new area. Things are going great though. I hit my 6 month mark on
Friday. I can't believe it's been that long! Time has gone by so fast
it's crazy. I am not looking forward to going home yet, even though I
miss everybody. Good thing I've got some time left :) Yesterday was my
Uncle Brian's memorial of when he passed away. I can't believe it's
been 10 years! I am so grateful for the example he set to me by
serving a mission. I am so glad I'm a missionary right now doing the
same work he did, except in Montana and soon Brazil! (Hopefully)

I love you all very much and you all better be reading your
scriptures! Haha. They are so important and we can learn so much from
them. Have a wonderful week and I hope to hear from you soon! Keep the
faith!

Com amor,
Elder Payne

Pictures!

Tiny garbage can 

Riding bikes in the middle of nowhere.

Getting in a airplane after eating dinner in an airplane hanger!

Lesson by the pond.

Kelly's Baptism!

WEEK #26

Hey guys!

Holy smokes this past week has been crazy! Well, actually the past two
weeks. We have been sooooo freaking busy with everything, we've been
working our butts off and I am so tired haha. I should be on the
5-hour energy commercials as the person that gets the "2:30" feeling,
except I have that feeling all day! anyways..

We had a baptism on Saturday, his name is Kelly. He is so awesome!
He's such a solid guy and his testimony is getting stronger every day.
I'm so excited for him and for the example he is setting for his kids!
He will be a great addition to the ward here in Belgrade.

So we found out about transfers today, and I'm leaving Belgrade!!! I'm
so sad! I feel like I just got here. I absolutely love the members
here, the wards are so great. The work was really starting to pick up
and I feel like we were just getting started! We have a lot of good
things going right now and a big teaching pool, so I'm just glad I can
leave Belgrade with no regrets. I worked my hardest in this area and
the Lord was blessing us for our efforts. I know it.

So I'm getting transferred to a place called Dillon, it is a little
college town. I don't know much about it or even where it is haha. But
President Mecham called me to be District Leader there, so that is
awesome! I'm excited but also a little nervous, I've never been
district leader or anything before so this will be a good learning
experience for me I think. My new companion will be Elder Tayrien or
something like that, he is pretty new he's been out for 3 months I
believe. I'm excited to meet him. Oh my gosh I'm just so sad to leave
Belgrade! And I'm also sad I'm not in Brazil! haha. Stupid visas

This friday I hit my 6 month mark. I can't believe it! Time has gone
so fast. I'm already 1/4 through my mission, and it feels like I just
came out! Crazy. Oh and I also can't believe my little sister Jennie
went to homecoming!!! It seems like just yesterday I was doing the
same thing! Jennie, you looked so beautiful! And your date isn't as
ugly as I pictured he would be so that's good I guess haha. Hope you
had a good time.

Well everyone, things are going so good. Missionary work is so hard
and fun and exciting. As tired as I am, I can't imagine myself doing
anything else right now. I love it!!! I also love you all very much
and hope you have a great week. Ate mais, ti amo!!!

Love,
Elder Payne

Pictures!

HAPPY STREET!

From bike wipeout.

"I love hot wheels!"

Companions

Going to the Temple.

Week #25

Hey everyone!

This week has been pretty crazy! We have had a lot of success the past couple weeks, things are really starting to pick up in Belgrade. The members here are AWESOME and they are a huge help to us. Good thing we're all on the same team :)

Kelly is still getting baptized this Saturday, we are so excited for him. He's setting a great example for his kids. We have a few other solid investigators as well, we will be teaching another guy within two weeks when he gets back from North Dakota. His wife is a member and they just got married, but he wants to get baptized so that they can be sealed in the Temple next year. Way cool. We will see how that turns out in a few weeks.

Transfers are next week, I can't believe it. Time is going by way too fast. It has been pretty rainy here, we've had some really cool lightning storms though.

We went on an awesome hike this morning. Montana is seriously so beautiful! I can't wait to come back and visit here after my mission.

I LOVE the people here. They're great. 

As usual, still no word on the Visa. There are still 3 of us from the MTC District still in Montana. One of them, Elder Jackson, is in my District right now so we see each other pretty often. So that's good.

Watchman said Brazil is just awesome and he said I will love it when i get down there. So we'll see! :) 

I can't really think of anything crazy that happened this week, it has been pretty routine I guess you could say. We have worked really hard.

We spoke in 2nd ward yesterday and it went really well, the members seem to trust us so that's good. We had 6 Less-active families come to church and 2 investigators. It's always great to see them walk in the door to the chapel :)

Anyways, things are going good here in Big Sky country. I hope you all have a great week! I love you very much. Keep the faith!

Elder Payne

Week #24

Hey everybody! 

This has been a pretty good week for Elder Greenwall and I, we see the Lord's hand every day. We have had some solid lessons with our investigators and things are going really well. We have been teaching an investigator named Kelly, he is doing awesome! He already accepted our invitation to be baptized so he is on track for next Saturday the 14th.

We had 3 other investigators come to church on Sunday, so that was awesome! We have been working hard with the ward to help the work move forward and help people feel welcome and missed. We are also working with a lot of Less-active families as well. Hopefully more will start coming to church again.

We met a lady named Kay, her daughter is a member but not very active, but we have been teaching them both lately and they are both doing great. They are reading the Book of Mormon. The only problem is that Kay is going out of town this whole week so we can't see her until next week. Oh well hopefully she will still progress when she gets back.

I can't believe it is already week 5 of the transfer! Time is going by too fast. I feel like there isn't enough time in the day to get everything done! My MTC companion (Elder Watchman) got his Visa and he left for Brazil yesterday, as well as Elder Bonaro from my MTC district and Sister Kimball. So half of us are still in the states! I can't believe it. Hopefully Visas start coming soon. The MTC district always has a pretty tight bond with each other because we spent a lot of time in the MTC together and became friends, and we came out at the same time so we all still keep in contact which is really cool. I email the missionaries in Brazil and learn more about what's going on down there, I can't wait to get there! it seems so cool.

But here in Montana, I'm seriously meeting the most amazing people. We do our best to help people in any way I can, but I feel like I'm the one being helped and uplifted. These people have touched my heart and I love so many people here. The members are awesome. So are the investigators. This week has been a little rough with some scary things happening at home and since I'm out of the loop I haven't really known what's going on, but I've received answers to my prayers as well as comfort. Heavenly Father really does watch out for us and takes care of us.

This week has also been pretty funny, apparently I have been sleep talking a lot lately, my companion tells me in the morning all the weird things I say, I guess I have been talking about graduating a lot? I don't remember a thing. Anyways, there are also a lot of crazy people that yell at us from their cars as they drive by, yelling things like "I love Jesus" or whatever. But one person yelled "Science and Satan!" at us from their car while we were riding bikes, and I just flipped around and started following them on my bike. I wanted to go talk to them because I was tired of getting yelled at by random people haha but anyways they finally pulled into a store and I walked up to the guy and said I'm sorry I think you tried to talk to me earlier but i didn't hear exactly what you said (I was kind of being a smart-alec) but the guy was really short and had long hair and was just like "uuuhh....ummmm.. yeah.... i was just kidding man... umm....." haha so I just told him we were LDS missionaries and asked if he believed in Science and Satan like he said, but he said no he was Catholic and I offered him a pamphlet but he said he didn't want it. We meet so many weird people.

Anyways, things are going good, the work is really starting to pick up here in Belgrade. It's awesome. I hope you all have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you later!

Love you much,

Elder Kyle Payne

Week #23

Hey everyone!!!!

This week has been pretty good. We had stake conference yesterday and we had Elder Ward of the Seventy come and speak. It was great. We've been really busy working with the Less Actives and trying to get new investigators. So far so good. We have a new investigator so that's really exciting. Hopefully he comes to church this Sunday.

We went on a hike this morning up by Big Sky Ski Resort, it was so beautiful. It's called Beehive Basin, it's this little pond clear up in the mountains by these huge rock cliffs, I'll send photos as well.

It was awesome. We went with Joel he's a lot of fun. Oh also, right at the beginning of the hike, we saw a dang moose and her calf!!!! It was way creepy, because we were walking up the trail and we hadn't been hiking for more than 2 minutes, when I looked down and I saw the two moose walking right across the trail where we had just walked over moments earlier. I can't imagine what would have happened if we ran right into the mother moose with her cub!  I'm glad we were a little ways away. I took pictures though. Also, about 5 minutes after that, we ran into another moose, like 50 yards from us! It wasn't full grown though but still it's pretty exciting. I guess that's what we get for hiking really early in the morning!

I can't believe It's almost September! time is flying by so fast. I just hope I get to Brazil soon so I don't have to endure the Montana winters! haha I packed for Brazil and I only have one long sleeve shirt! crazy

The work is still going forward, one thing my companion and I have been working on is exact obedience. We receive more blessings when we are exactly obedient and I know the work will pick up even more when we're doing our best to follow all the rules. It's really hard though, there are so many rules and sometimes you're just going along and you don't even realize you're breaking one! but oh well it's all a learning experience.

We've met a lot of new people this week so we will see how everything pans out. We helped a family move on Saturday and yesterday, they're moving to Missoula so we talked to the Elders over there to see if they can help unload the U-Haul and get to know them. This family was awesome, they'd be perfect Mormons, they just don't know it! haha.

Well everyone, I hope you all have a wonderful week. I don't have a ton of time today, we have a lot to do still and a lot of people to see tonight. But I love you all and I'm grateful for everything I've learned from each of you!

Much Love,

Elder Payne