WEEK #84

Friends and Family,

I hope you all had a wonderful week! So I guess its getting close to Halloween huh?! haha I completely forgot about Halloween, they don't really celebrate it here but its all good. Candy is too expensive here anyways haha. But Brazil just had their elections for their President, there was a tie a couple weeks ago between two of the candidates so they had to re vote and President Dilma won again for her second term. Some people here are excited but also a lot of people are really angry that she won again haha. I don't really know either of them so who knows.

So my first week in Lucas was awesome!!! The full name is actually Lucas do Rio Verde (Luke of the Green River) The city is pretty good size and its super organized and clean, I love it! Everything here moves at a little slower pace than in Cuiabá so its a lot less hectic! the people are more tranquil and are super nice to us. The branch here is awesome as well, they are super loving and welcoming already, I feel right at home here! I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting yesterday on temples, it went well. At first right when we got to church I was asked to give a 5 minute talk about faith, so I started preparing a little talk and then about 30 minutes before Sacrament meeting started the counselor came up to me again and asked if I could give a 10 minute talk on temples instead, so I got some scriptures and stuff ready and found a Liahona talk about temples so it was all good haha. But here in Lucas there are two sets of sisters and one set of elders, so there are six of us here.

We taught and visited quite a few people this week, we marked a baptismal date for next Sunday with a woman named Katia, she is in her late 30s and is awesome, she and her family love the missionaries. She knows everything we teach is true and is reading the Book of Mormon so things are going really well. The only problem is that sometimes she works on Sundays so she wasn't able to come yesterday :( We will keep working with her though.

Also every Sunday we are going to go on divisions with the young men in the ward, they are all really cool and willing to go teach with us so its awesome. It rained super super hard yesterday though so we weren't able to go with them. When it rains here pretty much everything stops because it rains so hard! We were on the bus when it started raining after lunch and the bus driver had to pull over and wait for a while because he couldn't see ahead of him at all!

This week we are going to have zone meeting, our zone leaders are going to come here to Lucas instead of us going to Sorriso where they are at, so the zone meeting will be done twice in the two areas. But my old companion Elder Nere is the zone leader here, so we are going to do divisions together this week so I'm stoked! haha the other zone leader is Elder Weeks, were in Ponta Porã together so we are good friends already.

Anyways, things are going really well here, I love the area and the people here already so it should be a really good transfer. I love and miss you all, have a great week!

Love,
Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #83

Friends and Family,

So I´ll get right to it today, we got transfer calls last night and I am getting transferred to a place called Lucas, it is in the Sorriso Zone up north. It is about a 6 hour bus ride from Cuiabá. But good news, it is cooler up there than it is here, so I wont die of heat every day! I'm sure it will still be hot but nothing compared to this Cuiabano Heat! Last week one day it got up to 50 degrees C in Cuiaba and 48 degrees here in Varzea Grande which is like 120 degrees Fahrenheit! No lie! They had to shut down some buses and stores and stuff until it cooled down.

But my new companion will be Elder Marstella, I actually know him pretty well already, he was in my zone when I first got here to the north 6 months ago, hes a really cool guy he is from Dallas, TX and has about a year on the mission. He never had to wait in the states for his Visa either, that lucky dog game straight here! haha. But I'm really excited. Also, I was released from being Zone Leader. Since I only have 3 transfers left on my mission I think President Reber is letting me rest a little for the end of my mission haha. When the told me that it was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders haha, now I can just go into a new area and not worry about all the zone leader stuff
Anyways, I have to leave super soon and I still haven't packed all my stuff so I have to go, but things are going good and I'm excited for what this new transfer will bring! I love and miss you all, talk to you soon!

Love,
Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #82

Friends and Family,

Woooooooooowww its hot! I hope you are all enjoying the nice October weather up there, because this is the hottest I have ever been in my whole life! haha. This whole week is supposed to be 40 degrees Celsius or more, which is like 105 Farenheit haha. Oh boy!

But we saw a lot of miracles this week, so about 5 months ago I taught a guy named Valtene when I was with Elder Baughan. He had been coming to church for a while because his sister is a member. But he wasn't ready to be baptized but we still saw him every once in a while and he came to church sometimes. But after coming to church and watching conference this past weekend, he made up his mind that it was time to be baptized. He just came up to us at church and told us, so it was definitely a miracle for us! haha. We are meeting with him this week to mark a baptismal date for hopefully this Saturday.

Things are going good though, everyone in the zone seems to be happy and doing well. This Friday we will have another Mission Leadership Council, except this time it wont just be zone leaders it will be all of the district leaders as well. So it is supposed to be an all day thing in Cuiabá, it should pretty good. We Mormons sure do love our meetings! haha.

It is the last week of the transfer already, its so crazy how fast time has flown by though. I think I will get transferred though, I have been here for almost 6 months now so I'm betting that I will get transferred. We will see next week though!

We weren't able to mark any dates with our investigators this week, but the zone had 4 baptisms this weekend I think so that's awesome!

Alexandre, our recent convert, will get the priesthood this week and will bless the sacrament next week so I'm way excited and happy for him! he is so awesome. It is amazing to see the difference that the gospel makes in peoples lives and how much they change when they choose to follow Christ and his teachings.

Anyways, that about sums up what is going on here, sorry it isn't a very long letter, today we are going to Cuiabá for a big Churrasco with both of the zones combined so it should be pretty fun! But things are going well and we are staying busy trying to keep up with everything that's going on in the zone haha. But I hope you have a wonderful week, I love and miss you all!

Com amor,
Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #81

Friends and Family,

Minha nossa estamos morrendo de tanto calor!!! I hope you all enjoyed conference weekend! I loved it, I seriously loved every single talk. We were able to watch it in English, but it was also super cool to hear some of the speakers giving their talks in their native languages. I cant even pick a favorite talk, I feel like each one of them had something that I needed to hear. I love conference, its crazy to think that it was my last General Conference as a missionary!

This week was a good one for me and Elder Watchman, we worked hard and were able to get some good lessons in. The group in São Mateus had their first baptism yesterday between sessions, it was awesome! She is a young girl named Vitoria, she has 12 years and is super solid. Also on Thursday, we did divisions in Sao Mateus with President Reber and his wife, and the two office Senior Couples, Elder and Sister Harris and Elder and Sister Davis. So we all went to Sao Mateus and worked with the elders there. Elder Watchman and I went with Elder and Sister Harris, they got here about a month ago in the mission but they are assigned to the office, so they loved getting out on the streets and teaching people. We visited a couple families and had some great lessons, they really enjoyed it. We got ice cream at the end of it so it was great! haha.

I feel like we have been walking even more than usual lately, or maybe its just hotter, or both! haha right now is the hottest and driest part of the year so we are suffering a little bit. But everybody knows that the more we work out in the sun and rain, the prettier our wives will be! haha at least thats what we are told! ;)

Anyways, we had two baptismal dates but they both fell through, we are working with them to try to set another date. Also some of our investigators have stopped coming to church because they don't feel welcome in the ward. We have tried really hard to work with the members and help make friendships and everything, but two of our investigators (a mother and daughter who had a baptism date) stopped coming to church because they heard several women talking bad about them before Sacrament meeting started as well as during relief society. It is super sad and frustrating for me and Elder Watchman, we have been working hard and were trying to get them to come watch conference with us but they didn't even want to go into the church because they are worried people will judge them. They love the missionaries and will still meet with us, but we are stumped as far as what to do to help them come back to church. Hopefully we can help them in some way, we will figure it out. We are trying to find as much time as we can to work in our own area but we have been super busy going to the other areas and doing interviews and stuff. But this week should be better and hopefully we can stay in our own area longer.

This next week we will be doing divisions with some of the district leaders in the zone, so it should be fun. This is the start of the 5th week of the transfer already! I cant believe how fast time has gone! But overall things are going really good, we are staying busy and trying not to die of heat. Also we are still going strong in our 6 months to sexy program so no worries there :)

Anyways, I love you all so much and encourage you all to read and re-read the conference talks when they are available. These truly are the words of God coming from inspired men and women and will help strengthen our testimonies and desires to serve Heavenly Father. I hope you all have a wonderful week, abraço!

Love,
Elder Kyle Payne

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