Pictures!

WEEK #32

Hello everyone!

Wow this has been a crazy week! We have been teaching a lot of solid lessons and our investigators are progressing great. We had two come to church so that was really good. We are working with setting new baptismal dates with them, and setting dates for our other investigators. Today it is like a blizzard outside! It's so cold and there is snow everywhere. I hate it!

So we got iPads last week! They are sooooo helpful! They have are planners and area books on there, and all the gospel library and teaching pamphlets. It will help missionary work so much. They're so useful. The lord really is hastening his work by letting us have the opportunity to use technology like this! It really is amazing.

Well, I got a call from the Mission President on Saturday and he informed me that he is changing my calling. I'm getting transferred to Helena and I'm going to be Zone Leader there! I'm really excited to go back to Helena though, I know a lot of the members there and it will be great to see them again. I'll also be in the same stake as the Lincoln branch, so hopefully I'll get to see the people from Lincoln again. I'm a little nervous to be Zone Leader, there are a lot more responsibilities but I think it will be a great learning experience! Oh and get this... my new companion's name is Elder Payne! He's from Cali I think. So that will be really confusing when we answer the phone and stuff, everyone is going to think we are related haha. We'll see how it goes.

I'm so sad to leave Whitehall! I feel like just when you  get in a groove in an area and the work starts picking up, you get transferred! It's a little frustrating but oh well it's part of the mission experience. I will definitely miss the people here in Whitehall. Well, me and Elder Sumner haven't boxed this week at all so I don't have any more bruises. But I think my finger might be broken, I jammed it playing Volleyball like 4 weeks ago but my finger is still bruised and swollen so the medical director wants me to go get it checked out today. Hopefully it's just jammed.

The weather was nice all week until today! It was in the 60's earlier and bright and sunny. now it's cold and windy and snowy! Hopefully Helena is a little warmer haha. But i doubt it. I have also been trying a lot of different hot sauces, I even made a rating chart and have like 10 different sauces rated and organized haha. Yesterday we ate at a members house, and I tried Dave's Insanity sauce. It's basically pure habanero paste. My face caught on fire! My eyes and nose were running and it burned my lips for like 2 hours. I think I put too much on. That's about the craziest experience of the week.

There have been many good experiences as far as teaching goes. My own testimony has grown and I'm so grateful for the gospel and for all the blessings we receive from Heavenly Father! I know without a doubt this church is true and I'm so grateful to be a missionary. I am seriously so sad to leave Whitehall. I hate leaving areas. I have grown to love the people in each area and they have taught me so much and have seriously changed my life. I am so grateful for everyone I've met and for the experiences I've had thus far!

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe week! You are all in my thoughts and prayers. Love you!

Love,

Elder Payne

Pictures!



The Lord's Kitchen

I rike dis fo chun kookie!

 

WEEK #31

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a great week! This week has been good for me and Elder Sumner. We had a goal to teach 20 lessons this week but we only taught 16. Oh well, we'll do better next week! Mike and Jan (the couple getting baptized) are going to have to push their date back for baptism. So it won't be this Saturday, I think it will be November 9. Hopefully I don't get transferred again. They are awesome. The reason we are pushing it back is because Mike got in a 4 wheeler accident in South Dakota and he can't see out of one of his eyes because it got hit by something, so he is there until he gets better. But once he comes home we will teach them the rest of the lessons and they can be baptized. Satan works super hard to keep people from getting baptized! It's crazy.

We've been teaching a suuuuuper nice lady named Dee, she is so awesome! She hasn't committed to baptism yet but she said she will think about it. She didn't say no though! I can tell she has felt the spirit. She has read the introduction in the Book of Mormon and the testimony of Joseph Smith and the Three Witnesses, and she said she believes it all. So now we are trying to get her to read 1 Nephi and pray about it. Seriously she is the sweetest lady I've ever met! She is in her 70's but has the energy of a teenager. Oh which reminds me, we've been meeting with her 16 year old granddaughter as well. Her name is Savannah, and she lives in Butte but she drives down to her grandmas house whenever we have an appointment. She said she really likes us and thinks missionaries are cool, so that's good! We play card games with Dee and Savannah then the conversation always moves to the gospel and missionary work. It's great. Savannah reminds me a lot of my sister Jennie! We haven't taught her a lesson yet, but we are planning on it this Thursday.

Other than that, we have been seeing a lot of less active families! We've almost reactivated a couple in the ward, so if they come one more week to church they will be considered active again. Reactivations are great, they're often harder to get than baptisms because people have specific reasons for not going back to church. But we've been working closely with them. Oh, and they have a daughter that is 10 years old and they want her to be baptized, so we are going to teach her this week as well :) I'm amazed at how Heavenly Father moves his gospel forward. I feel inadequate sometimes and I don't understand how we can teach people who know a lot more than us. But the spirit testifies to them and truly converts them. There is a funny saying, "If this gospel wasn't true, two 19 year old boys would have ruined it a long time ago!" haha that is so true.

So we've been doing tons of service! I've mucked horse stalls, tagged cows, and herded cattle this week, and all of them I've showed up in basketball shorts and a tshirt! haha I don't have any warmer clothes so good thing my family is sending me some. The members have been super nice though and have let me borrow jeans and cowboy boots and jackets and stuff. They're great.

Elder Sumner and I found boxing gloves at a thrift store, so we've been doing that every night haha just for fun! We just say we will go half speed but then it always gets competitive and we just start hitting harder haha. Then it somehow turns into kickboxing, so my left thigh has a hugh bruise on it now from Elder Sumner kicking the same spot every time! It's good fun though and nobody has gotten hurt... yet!

Oh also I have some exciting news, the Montana Billings Mission is getting iPad Minis!!! The first presidency of the twelve have selected this mission to be a pilot program for teaching with electronic devices. So the ipads will have our planners on them and also the lessons and scriptures, basically anything that the church publishes we will have access to. Which is suuuper helpful. I think it will help the work progress immensely. Not every missionary is getting one though, we had to get interviewed and only the ones who are obedient get one. But luckily i passed the interview haha so I'm going up to Bozeman tomorrow to get trained on it and get the ipad. Pretty sweet!

Anyways, this gospel is true! I love it! I hope you all are reading the scriptures and praying every day! We need to speak to our Heavenly Father every day! Prayer is such a huge blessing and we need to take advantage of it. I know God has a plan for each and every one of us. I know I'll get to Brazil when I need to be there! There is a reason I'm still in Montana, maybe it's because there are people in Whitehall that I need to be here for. Whatever the reason, I'm willing to serve wherever the lord wants me. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you and look forward to hearing from you.

Proverbs 3: 5-6

 

Love,

Elder Payne

 

 

 

Pictures!

Tiny kitty in his pocket

MEXI BUS!  Best Mexican Food EVER!

WEEK #30

Whats up everyone?! :)

I hope you all had a wonderful week. Things in Whitehall are going really well right now, we are trying to stay busy as it is a small town. But the members and people here are so awesome. I love them. It is so hard leaving an area after you fall in love with the people there! I can tell it is going to be tough leaving Whitehall. It is a ranching community, so everyone has ranches and horses and stuff. We also cover a few small towns outside of Whitehall, so we have people we go see out there, too.

We had stake conference on Sunday in Butte, so it was good to see all the other missionaries there. Every speaker at stake conference spoke on missionary work and the importance of members to help hasten the work. It was great :)

No word on my Visa, and it's driving me nuts haha. I know I'm here in Montana for a reason though, and the Lord needs me, Elder Jackson, and Elder Rasmussen here as well. We're the remaining missionaries in Montana from the MTC district. One day we'll get there! Sometimes I wonder if I am actually going to Brazil or not! I've thought about it so much, it just seems like a dream haha.

Anyways, things have been going good as a district as well. Our Districts numbers have improved each week, and they are finding and teaching more people. I had the district set goals at District Meeting last week, and we are totally kicking butt. Our goals were to 1) Wake up on time every morning, 2) Not gossip or talk bad about previous companions, and 3) Have quality planning time each night. So far, everyone is doing awesome. I have each companionship call me when they wake up at 6:30 each morning, so we are all accountable to ourselves and each other to wake up on time. So far so good.

I have had a lot of time this week to study and ponder the scriptures. they are such a huge blessing in our lives! I wish I would have woken up and realized this when I was younger! Oh well, I have realized now :) I've really started to learn that there are many many things that I can't control, such as my Visa, investigators' decisions or keeping commitments, and other missionaries. So I shouldn't dwell on or worry about what others do. I should just focus on what I can do. I often try to manipulate situations and try to get things to go my way, and in doing so I try to force other people to think like I do or see things like I do. But instead I need to focus in internal things and what I can control and not worry about external things like other people or situations. 

Well, I hope you all have a great week! Pray super hard for my Visa to come ;) haha love you guys! 

Alma 36:3

Com amor,

Elder Kyle Payne

Pictures!

Zone Conference

Cool Cars!

Fly Hunting

Kyle and Elder Tayrien

Whitehall, Montana

Kyle, Elder Tayrien with Dell at her Baptism

WEEK #29

Hello friends and family!

This has been a great week. I hope you all enjoyed general conference
this weekend! I LOVED it and I took a lot from it. It was kind of
weird to not be home sitting on the couch and eating junk food during
conference! haha. But it was still good. Elder Sumner and I drove to
Dillon on Saturday for Dell's Baptism and watched conference and went
to Priesthood session, then spent the night and watched conference on
Sunday with them. It was good to be with the Williams family again.

The work here in Whitehall is going good, we have two investigators on
date for baptism (Mike and Jan.) Elder Sumner and I set the date with
them while I was here on exchanges. So it's good that I can teach them
more now! :)

So apparently there is a huge deal going on with the government and
government employees? That is such great news to hear... I'm sure it
will do wonders for getting my Visa! haha. hopefully it is over soon
and I will be able to get to Brazil without any MORE delay haha.

We have been working with a lady named Dee, we play games with her and
eat meals with her every week, and we just taught the first lesson
with her last week. It was awesome! She loved the lesson and she
started to tear up towards the end. She is strong catholic, so we are
keeping that in mind as we teach, but she says she believes in
everything that Mormons believe pretty much. So I'm really excited to
keep teaching her and see her progress. She's awesome!

I'm not sure what else to report on this week. We had zone conference
on Wednesday, so it was great to see everyone there. All of my past
companions were there, so it was a good reunion! haha. I talked with
Elder Greenwall who I was just with in Belgrade, and 3 more of the
people I was teaching there have committed to baptism now! I'm so sad
I had to leave Belgrade! it was such an awesome area. The area was
dead when Greenwall and I got there, but we worked hard and towards
the end things picked up and now the area is on fire! I'm jealous.

I'm definitely coming to visit Montana after my mission. I can't wait
to see all the great friends I've made here again.

The past few weeks I have been cooking a lot, with Elder Tayrien and
now with Elder Sumner. So that's been fun! I need to get a good
cookbook with simple recipes and stuff. Because with $135 per month we
can't afford to buy much, just simple foods. Plus we hardly have time
to make big meals. So it's been pretty fun and challenging to see what
we can come up with to eat. There have been a ton of flies in
everyone's houses because the weather is getting cold. Which reminds
me, it snowed last Friday!! like crazy! the whole week has been cold,
wet, and muddy. But today is in like the 50's and it's bright and
sunny, so that's awesome :)

Well everyone, this gospel is true! I'm so grateful to be a
missionary. I hope that the things I'm learning will help me be a
better person, husband, and father someday. No matter how hard
missionary work gets sometimes, I always find comfort in the
scriptures and in prayer, and I know I'm in the right place. I can't
remember who said it at conference, but the message really hit me. It
said, "It doesn't matter where you serve, but how." That is very true.
Whether I'm in Montana or Brazil, I can still serve with everything
I've got. The lord looks out for his missionaries and I will serve
wherever I'm called to serve.

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!! Ate lago!

Elder Payne

UPDATE!

Hey everyone,

So I have a little bit of news! Don't get too excited it's not my Visa haha. But anyways this morning while I was in the shower, the assistants to the President called and asked to speak to me, so elder
Tayrien yelled at me and said it's the assistants so i jumped out of the shower with shampoo in my hair and everything haha. He asked to speak to me in private so I thought it must be my visa! But nope... He
asked me how the exchange went with the Elders up in Whitehall, and i told him my thoughts and concerns. Then he asked me how I felt about moving up to Whitehall and being Elder Sumner's permanent companion up there, because it is the beginning of his mission and he needs to be set straight so that he will have a successful mission. I said I don't really know but if you guys need me up there I'm willing to do it. So he said that's what they're going to do. 

So now I'm getting transferred to Whitehall tomorrow after Zone conference and that will be my new area. I'm pretty frustrated, I don't want to leave Dillon and I love the people here, especially the people we live with. They're so cool. And Elder Tayrien is such an awesome companion I am kind of mad we are getting split up. But I will still be district leader, Whitehall is in the District so I'll see Elder Tayrien every week and everything and still have my normal responsibilities. But oh well I guess if this is what President Mecham needs me to do then I'll do it.

So Mom i will let you know my new address once I get it and let you know how things are going. Hopefully I'll get to use a truck up there! Wish me luck!

Love,
Elder Payne

p.s. I did get a letter from the travel office about my visa, I had to get my fingerprints done at the police station and fill out a third-party form for my police record. So I got that done and sent it back to Salt Lake, so hopefully my dang visa should get here pretty soon :)