WEEK #62

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Memorial Day! It is just a normal day here, but you all better eat some burgers and hotdogs for me!

We had a really good week here, we marked two baptismal dates with a woman named Solange and her son Ricardo, they are so awesome and they came to church on Sunday! We set her baptismal date for this Saturday, but we are probably going to push it back for next Saturday, we need her to come to church one more time. She has been to church once in the past a few years ago with a friend though. She is way awesome, and the members are doing a great job of visiting her with us and fellowshipping her in Relief Society, so she is already feeling very welcome in the ward. I'm telling you, ever since we have been really focusing on working with members and involving them in missionary work, amazing things have been happening! 

We are also teaching a woman named Elaine, she is awesome as well and really wants to get baptized, the only problem is that she has to get married first. She lives with her fiance and her two boys, but they aren't legally married on paper. So she just needs to do that then she can get baptized. But she has a lot of faith and has come to church as well. She is the neighbor of Gabrielle, who we baptized at the beginning of this transfer. 

Elder Baughan and I are going to be doing divisions with all of the District Leaders in our zone pretty soon, we are starting tomorrow. So we will be working with them in their areas and doing some trainings, as well as trying to work with members in their areas to help them get involved. I always like doing divisions, because it is always mutually beneficial! We go to work with other elders and teach them some techniques we know, and at the same time learn from them and get more ideas. Its great.

We are having quite a bit of success working with less-actives as well, we have been able to find lots of new investigators through them. We taught a girl named Jessica who is starting to come back to church after 10 years. She was baptized when she was 8 but then never went back to church very much after that. But we visited her and met her sisters boyfriend named Valdir, who shows a lot of interest as well. He is awesome and we will be teaching him this week. The only problem is, he lives with his girlfriend but they aren't married so it will be a little tough. But he technically lives with her whole family, so maybe the situation is a bit different and he can still be baptized. We will see.

Me and Elder Anderson who lives with us have been making lots of sweet foods and juices still, trying to live it up as much as we can while we are here in Brazil! We are getting pretty good and finding all the right combinations of ingredients to make the ultimate fresh juices and smoothies. Fruit here in our mission is actually pretty expensive, which surprised me. There is a ton of fresh fruit and stuff but it is expensive. Food here in general is a lot more expensive than I thought it would be. But its worth it! Also we have been drinking tons of Tereré as usual, every morning and night we drink it. Me and Anderson are addicted!

Oh also the world cup starts in like 2 weeks! I'm super excited! Its about to get super crazy and dangerous here, I cant wait! haha

Anyways, that about sums up the week here, I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love and am praying for you all.

Love,

Elder Kyle Payne

Pictures!

Always HUNGRY!

Slug we found on the road

Whatever THIS is... Luckily it was already dead when we found it in our house!

Baptism of Gabrielle

WEEK #61

Hello everyone!

Man what a great week in Várzea Grande! We worked hard this week, and were able to get several new investigators. We shifted our focus to working with members, less actives, and recent converts to obtain new people to teach, and so far it has been extremely effective! We have found that it is far more efficient and effective to work with members and ask for references as to who we can teach, rather than to spend a ton of time tracting. We are still making contacts and tracting and talking to anybody we can, but our focus now is working with members, especially recent converts and less-active members. Also it has been very rewarding in another sense, because we feel like we are strengthening members and getting them more involved in missionary work, so it has just been a very great experience so far!

We met a man named Anderson this week, he lives across the street from a member, and she has invited him and his sister in law to have family night at the members house this week. It should be good, he has a lot of potential and seems to be really interested. Hopefully we can start teaching him later this week as well.

So we were scheduled to have a baptism last Saturday at 7pm, and literally at 4pm it fell through and we rescheduled it for this coming Saturday! His name is Kevin, he is 11 years old and we have been teaching him and his family. His aunt is a less active, so we are kind of killing two birds with one stone, because every time we go there to teach him, we are helping her as well. Also, there are always non members there that listen to our lesson as well so we have been involving them and giving out lots of pamphlets and Book of Mormons! The only problem is, they live in a neighborhood called Ouro Verde (Green Gold) and it is like an hours walk from our house. So we are pretty tired after going there but its worth it!

This past week was suuuuuper hot, it rained a few times as well. But we have been coping with the heat by making lots of juice! We have made Suco de Maracujá (Passion fruit juice) as well as Suco de Limão (basically limeade). It has been awesome. Also this week my goal is to buy a hammock, that way I can study in it in the mornings while it is cool and breezy :)

Tonight we are going to be teaching an English class at an English School called Wizard, it should be pretty fun! We are going to see if we can score some new investigators as well. We have a couple ideas as to how we can get people interested :)

Anyways, that about sums up last week. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love and miss you all very much! 

Abraço,

Elder Kyle Payne

Pictures!

CAT

Kyle, Emili, and Elder Dodson

Something was funny

Green Ties

Mateus and Laura with Kyle

Bishop Baratella, Vera, and Kyle

Another Victim! (Kyle hit it with a broom)

WEEK #60

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful week! Happy Mothers Day to everyone! I was able to talk to my family via Skype yesterday, it was awesome! It made all of us missionaries a little homesick for a bit but all is well now! haha.

So the first week here in Várzea Grande was awesome, we taught some awesome people. It was a fun week. It is suuuuuper hot here compared to Ponta Porã, I feel like I'm being cooked alive here! haha. But we had a baptism on Saturday, it was so great! Her name is Gabrielle, she is 14. She was confirmed yesterday in Sacrament meeting. Also, she told us that she wants to serve a mission when she is 19, it made me and Elder Baughan super happy. It is amazing to see someone with that much faith and love for the gospel, and to see the difference it can make in their lives and the lives of their families.

On Thursday we had Mission Leadership Council, so all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders here in the North part of the mission got together with President Reber to talk about the work and resolve issues of the mission. We got a lot accomplished and made some changes, so I am confident that the work will continue to progress.

So pretty much the house we live in is a BLAST! haha we all get along great it is so fun. I have laughed so hard the past few days! Today we are planning on playing basketball at the church, I'm stoked! It has been like 6 months since Ive played. Should be good :)

Also, the World Cup is coming up here in a few weeks, and there are going to be 4 matches here in Cuiabá! Plus, the Stadium is in mine and Elder Baughans area! it is going to be super crazy. I think we are going to have to stay indoors during the matches, because people get crazy for soccer. No joke.

But we haven't had any problems with rats in this house, just big bugs! haha. Also we have an air conditioner in our bedroom, so it is super awesome.

This week we will be doing divisions with other Elders in our zone, so I will get to travel a bit this week. But anyways, all is well in Brazil, things are going great I love it here. I hope you have a wonderful week, love and miss you all!

Até mais,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #59

Friends and Family,

So we had transfers this week! I got transferred back to Cuiabá! So I wasn't able to email yesterday, because our bus left at noon and I only had a few hours to get everything ready and get to the bus station. But pretty much half of the missionaries in Ponta Porã got transferred, and most of us were on the same bus up to Cuiabá so it was pretty fun. But we took a bus from Ponta Porã to Campo Grande the Capital, a 6 hour bus ride. And the whole time the air conditioner was dripping water on my lap and my had, so finally after a few hours I got sick of it and tied up the headrest covers to the bars above me to catch the water. Problem solved! :) Then we got to Campo Grande and switched buses, then headed out for Cuiabá, another 12 hour bus ride. We traveled through the night, and I was able to sleep for about 4 hours. So after traveling and layovers at the bus stations, we finally made it to Cuiabá after about 22 hours. 

It is much hotter here than it was in Ponta, I noticed that right when I got off the bus haha. Also it was a pain to travel, because I bought some dumbbells in Ponta and brought them with me, so my suitcases were super heavy! haha. But my companions name is Elder Baughan, he is from North Carolina. He is freaking awesome, I'm excited for this transfer, it will be a lot of work but it will be lots of fun. We live with two other missionaries, Elder Anderson and Elder Andrade. So there are 3 Americans in our house. They are super cool guys as well so it will be lots of fun. 

So technically I'm not actually in Cuiabá, I am in Varzia Grande, which is the city right next to Cuiaba. There is a river that divides the two cities, and all you have to do is cross the bridge and you're in the other city. But it pretty much all blends together into one big city. Our ward is called the Mapim Ward, so far it seems awesome. Our zone is the biggest zone in the mission, and includes all the missionaries in Varzia Grande and in the center of Cuiaba. I think there are 28 missionaries.

Our house is pretty interesting, we only receive water every 3 days, and that water has to last for all of our showers and stuff. So we will be taking lots of short showers because here it is AWFUL to be without water! haha. 

So my last week in Ponta Porã was really good, it was super hard to say goodbye to everyone though. I was there for 5 months and I absolutely loved everyone there. I will admit I shed some tears on the bus! haha. But from what I hear, there are some solid elders arriving in mine and Elder Dodson's places in 3rd Ward, so the work should continue just fine. 

So I guess that sums up transfer week, I will attach photos. I love this work and I'm so excited to be here in a new area and to have some new great experiences! I have kind of learned throughout my mission that once we start getting comfortable or used to a certain calling, position, situation, or place in our lives, the Lord gives us higher callings or different challenges, to push us further and help us learn and grow. I know that by being humble and having faith in him, we will be able to reach our potential and become who Heavenly Father wants us to become.  It has really become apparent to me the past few months that there is a reason for EVERYTHING. Every experience, trial, and person we encounter in our lives are put there for us to learn, apply, grow, and to be blessed. Heavenly Father knows us and loves us, and is helping us become closer to reaching our full potential. 

I love you all so much, I hope you have a great week as always! 

Boa semana,

Elder Kyle Payne