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