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
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