WEEK #67

Opa!

I hope you all had a wonderful week! We had a good week here, it was super crazy because of the World Cup, no surprise there. Brazil played Chili on Saturday, it was super intense. The city was like erupting and shooting guns and fireworks everywhere. But the next game is this Friday, so it will be interesting. If Brazil beats Columbia they will advance to the semi finals, so its getting intense now! The United States plays tomorrow, and if they win the Americans might have to stay indoors haha. But its awesome to be here during the world cup! Everybody things we are tourists or something. Elder Moody is tall and really white with blonde hair, so everyone thinks he is German or Australian. The other week when Australia played against Chile here in Cuiaba, everybody was yelling to us Oi Australianos!!! or Vai para casa Alemão! Which means go back home German. but then we tell them we are American and they still tell us to go home haha.

So this week everyone in our house has been sick at least once! I only have a cold luckily, which is really weird. But a lot of missionaries have gotten sick lately in the mission because the air is really dry right now and it has started to cool down a little bit. Plus our house isn't very sanitary and who knows if we are drinking clean water when we are at other peoples houses! 

But we only had 2 investigators at church yesterday, but its alright we have a solid week booked with visits with our investigators so we will be able to make some progress for sure. We are going to mark a date of baptism with our investigator Alexandre, he has been coming to church for a while now with his girlfriend who is a member. Also we have been teaching a young man named Eder, he has 16 years. Technically he lives in the area of the Sister missionaries in the other ward, but he is attending our ward with his girlfriend Amanda because she is in our ward. He said he wants to be baptized in our ward and will attend our ward with her. So we will mark a baptismal date with him this week as well.

We are still working with Mirian, we marked her baptism for last Saturday, but we forgot that the game was on Saturday and we couldn't leave our houses. So we had to schedule it for this coming Saturday. Hopefully she can do what she needs to be worthy to be baptized. But we are working and encouraging her so we are doing all we can.

Also last week we had Zone Training, so all of the missionaries in the zone came to the chapel here in Varzea Grande. We had some changes in the zone during transfers, so now our zone only has 22 missionaries instead of 28 or whatever it was. But we had a really good conference, I gave a training on Helping Investigators Keep Commitments, and my companion gave a training on Having Faith to Baptize. It was good and the sisters made us brownies afterwards so it was sweet! Its been a long time since I had brownies.

This week we will focus on making contacts and finding new investigators, but sometimes its hard to work in our area because we are going to be working with all of the other companionship's in the zone. This week we will be doing divisions with the Elders in the other ward here in Varzea Grande, but then the next week we will be doing it with the Elders in Cáceres, which is like a two hour bus ride from here. Normally just one of us leaves our area and swaps companions with the other area, but since Caceres is so far and since it needs more attention me and Elder Nere will both be going. So me and Elder Nere will both be leaving our area and will stay in Caceres for a few nights. Then the next week we will be going to Cuiaba and doing divisions with the Elders there. So we have everything planned out this transfer to do divisions and work side by side with all the elders in the zone, so it will be fun and I know we will all learn a lot!

Anyways, things are going great, we are working hard and little miracles every day. I love this Gospel and I'm grateful to be a missionary for our Lord and Savior. Today I was informed that my sweet Great Grandma Jennie passed away this morning, and it just makes me realize again how grateful I am for my family and for the knowledge that we can all be together again, even after death. I want my family to know how much I love and appreciate them.

I love and miss you all, hope you have a great week! Hopefully you can all watch some world cup games! :)

Tenha uma boa semana!

Love,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #66

Friends and Family,

So this letter is going to be a little bit short! Today is the Brazil game so we have to be back at the house soon and stay at home all day. 

But this week was actually really boring! haha. The new Elders got here, Elder Nere and Elder Moody. My companion Elder Nere was really sick all week, so he had to stay inside. Also, Elder Andrade who lives with us was also really sick, so him and Elder Nere stayed together while me and Elder Moody made visits to our investigators in our two different areas a few times. But we were told by Sister Reber to stay and care for our companions and get them medicine and stuff, so basically the whole week was spent at home. I think they both had an intestinal infection or something. But we just sat around talking and drinking Tereré and reading the whole week, so it passed by really slow haha. But we had a few investigators at church though so it was good. I am about halfway through the Book of Mormon in Portuguese, my goal is to finish it by the end of this transfer :)

Oh I also learned how to solve a Rubik´s cube! I feel so proud of myself haha. Elder Moody and I had nothing to do after we finished cleaning and organizing the whole house, so we just sat down for a couple hours and he taught me how to do the rubiks cube. We also made chocolate chip cookies last night! It was a pain in the butt to find all the ingredients and it was pretty expensive, but it was so worth it! I haven't had homemade cookies like that for so long. Also this week I have been making lots of juices, especially Suco de Limão (basically limade) and Suco de Maracujá (passion fruit juice). I'm pretty much a pro at making them now! Super good.

Mirian will be baptized this Saturday, so we will be working with her this week. So hopefully she can keep all of her commitments to be baptized on that date. This next week we will be trying to find lots of new investigators as well. Also, a member of the Area Seventy just moved into our ward, and he is really excited about missionary work so we will be working with him this transfer as well. He is in one of the Quorums of the Seventy in the area of Brazil. His name is Elder Capelete. 

Anyways, not much else to report this week, we spent lots of time with our sick companions so we couldn't get a ton of work done! But this week we will accomplish a lot more. I hope you all have a wonderful week, I love and miss you! 

Abraço,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #65

Opa!

I hope you all had a great week! Just wanted to wish my dad, grandpas, and uncles all a Happy Fathers Day!

So this week was crazy with the World Cup and all, we had to stay inside during the Brazil game on Thursday. But it was sweet, whenever Brazil scored a goal the whole city just erupted and there were fireworks going off, it was awesome! This is a really exciting time to be in Brazil right now, everyone is super patriotic and there are flags everywhere. We all have Brazil jerseys and shirts now, so its been pretty fun.

We didn't end up having the baptism on Saturday, we moved it to this Saturday instead. It worked out better for Mirian and her family because of work and the cup and everything. So hopefully this Saturday she will be baptized. Also, an area Seventy just moved into our ward, so the ward is really excited and he is all about missionary work, so some pretty sweet things are going to be happening. 

So we didn't teach as many lessons this week because of the cup, but we still got a lot of work done. Unfortunately I think we are going to drop a couple of our investigators that just aren't progressing. But we will be working hard this next transfer.

Speaking of transfers, we got calls last night, I will be staying here in the Mapim ward in Várzea Grande, but my companion Elder Baughan is getting transferred to Rondonopolis. I'm pretty sad though, he is way cool guy we had lots of fun. Also, Elder Anderson who lives with us is going to Campo Grande in the south, I will miss him too! We all had tons of fun. But I am getting a new companion named Elder Nere, he is a Brazilian. I have never met him but I have heard good things about him. We will see. Another American named Elder Moody is coming to be companions with Elder Andrade, so he will live with us as well. So now our ward will have two Brazilians and two Americans. I'm excited to be with a Brazilian again so I can keep improving my Portuguese!

So this week was pretty crazy though, there were lots and lots of drunk people, so we had to be pretty careful. On Friday Elder Baughan and I were working in an part on the outskirts of our area by the airport, but what we didn't know was that the area we were in is like prostitute central! We were walking at like 4 in the afternoon, but literally there were hookers all down the streets in front of motels and stuff calling us over and whistling at us. It was crazy though, it looked like something out of a movie! But we just looked at each other and were like where in the heck are we?! so we got out of there as soon as we could haha. Afterwards we talked to some members and other missionaries and they were like yeah dude didn't you know you should never go to that part of town! Well NOW we know never to go back there haha. 

But we have lots to do today with transfers so I don't have any more time, but we will be working hard this week finding new investigators and teaching all our investigators. I hope you all have a wonderful week and are able to watch some futebol!!! Go Brazil! and USA! haha :)

Abração,

Elder Kyle Payne

Pictures!

EXCITED FOR THE WORLD CUP!

Elder Payne and Elder Anderson's Terere (Herb drink)  collection!

WEEK #64

Hello everyone!

Well first off, I hope you are all getting ready for The World Cup!!! It is going to be absolutely insane here. People are already going crazy haha. The first game will be on Wednesday in São Paulo, Brazil vs. Croatia. Also, there will be 4 games played here in Cuiabá during the world cup, the first game is on Thursday, it will be Chile vs. Australia. They said it is expected that 30,000 people from Chile are coming to Cuiaba to watch the game. So it is going to be crazy. President has already told us that we cant go out and work during the games and that we cant work at night because everyone will be drunk. All the members here are telling us to be careful because crazy things happen during the world cup here in Brazil. So this should be a very interesting week for us!

So last week was a good one, we had 6 investigators at church with us so it was awesome. I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting, and so did Gabrielly! I was so proud of her, she is so awesome and is a huge blessing to her family.

We are still teaching Elaine and Tatiani, who both need to get married before they can get baptized because they are living with their spouses. It is really hard to find couples that are legally married. Everybody just moves in together and calls each other husband and wife, but they never got married. So it is kind of frustrating but we will keep working!

Solange and Ricardo didn't come to church, Ricardo is traveling to Minas Gerais (another state) to visit his dad for a few weeks. So we are going to have to reschedule their baptismal dates for when he gets back. But when he comes back we will keep working with him. In the meantime we will still visit Solange but she wants to get baptized with her son so we will have to wait.

We also marked a baptismal date with Mirian, she is Gabriellys and Kevin's grandma! She is so awesome and has been coming to church and meeting with us a lot, and she finally feels ready to be baptized. So we marked it for this Saturday! It is so awesome to visit her and her family, because there are lots of kids and whenever we go over there we all just sit in a big circle and play games and eat food and share messages and stuff. It is so fun with that family!

But pretty much I am absolutely exhausted right now, we walked a ton this past week and worked hard, I don't think I have ever been this worn out in my life! haha the mission is hard work but I love it. We scheduled family nights with several members this week and we will be bringing our investigators so it will be great to help them get to know more members. So this week we will be teaching Alexandre, the boyfriend of a member here. We taught him last week and he shows a lot of interest and is reading the Book of Mormon. So we are going to try to mark a baptismal date with him on our next visit.

Anyways, the work is going great and we are loving it here! We have lots to do and are staying busy, time is passing too fast. Its already the last week of the transfer, so we are going to be working hard and getting things ready for transfers. I am pretty sure I will stay, but I'm not sure about Elder Baughan. He only has two transfers left in his mission so he might be transferred and finish up somewhere else. But we will see.

Anyways, I love and miss you all so much! Hope you guys have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Kyle Payne

Pictures!

Kyle and Elder Costa drinking Terere

Kevin's Baptism

WEEK #63

Hello Everyone!

So this week was pretty crazy! I cant believe its Monday again. Time is flying by. I will try to include everything that happened! But it was a great week full of miracles and laughs.

So first off, Kevin got baptized yesterday, it was awesome! It was a really stressful and funny experience though. Originally he was going to get baptized on Saturday at 7pm. But at 5:30 pm his aunt called and wanted to reschedule it for Sunday after sacrament meeting, that way more people could come and it would be better organized. So we reorganized everything and got it set up for after church, then it all started to go wrong! haha. So pretty much everyone that we had asked to participate in the baptismal program couldn't do it Sunday after church, so we spent a lot of time running around asking people if they could give messages and testimonies and stuff. Also at the same time, we had to track down the keys to open the doors to the baptismal font. We finally got those and opened it up and turned on the water to start filling up the font, then we went to the meetings. We went back about an hour later to check on the water, but the only problem was during that time the water at the church got cut! So there was only like 3 inches of water and no way to fill up the font. And we only had a little over an hour until the baptism, and you need at least that much time to fill it up with enough water. So the ward mission leader Adam had an idea to use the Fire Hose! There is a big fire hose and valve inside the church, so we got that out and hooked it up and started filling up the font with a gigantic fire hose. It started filling up faster and it was going great, until all of the sudden it made a weird sucking noise and a bunch of brownish/green water started pouring out of the hose! So we freaked out and ran down the hall to shut off the water, but by the time it was turned off the water went back to normal. Who knows where that filthy water came from. Anyways, at this time church was almost over, so we either had to have the baptism in the dirty water or just reschedule it. We didn't want to reschedule it because we have been trying to baptize Kevin for like 4 weeks now, so we all decided to just go ahead and do it anyways! Haha I feel like everything that could have gone wrong went wrong! But long story short, Kevin got dunked in brown/green water. It was super stressful but funny as well. Everything worked out fine and he will be confirmed next week in Sacrament Meeting.

Also, Gabrielle, who we baptized at the beginning of this transfer, will be giving a talk in Sacrament Meeting next Sunday! It will be awesome! She is super firm and excited about the Gospel. It is amazing to see. I will be speaking next week as well, so it will be a good experience.

Solange and her son Ricardo are still preparing to be baptized on the 14th, so we are super excited for them. They weren't able to come to church because Solange was really sick. We visited her on Saturday night and she had really bad sinus congestion so its all good. But we have been teaching them and they are progressing very well.

We are still working with Elaine and Tatiani, who both still need to get married before they can get baptized. But they are awesome and are reading the scriptures and attending church as well. They only problem is their husbands both don't want to make the commitment of getting legally married, so who knows when it will happen.

We met a guy named Alexandre, he is the boyfriend of a member, he came to church with her and we also had a churrasco with her parents and family after church yesterday. He accepted the invitation to be baptized once he knows its true. We had this huge Churrasco with tons of food, then afterwards taught the restoration to him. We were there with all 4 missionaries in the ward, so there were 4 missionaries teaching it, it was awesome! It was a great lesson and he seemed really interested. So we will be working with him as well.

We also have been teaching another couple named Christine and William, they are both reading the book of Mormon and are going to come to church with us on Sunday.

Overall, the work is going very well here in Várzea Grande! We had 8 investigators at church yesterday and marked times to visit them throughout this week, so we are going to be very busy. We are trying to work as smart and effective as we can.

Last week we also did exchanges with the district leaders in the zone. We were able to do it with all of them except for one, because their area is pretty far. So on Tuesday, Elder Costa came with me to my area and Elder Baughan went with Elder Rios in his area. It was awesome, we taught some good lessons. Also on Thursday, I went on exchanges with one of the Assistants in Cuiabá. It was good and I learned some new teaching techniques. But it was really busy and it was good to get back in my own area to work.

We are having a ping pong tournament today at the church, there is a less active member in our ward who moved here from Japan two years ago, so we are going to play ping pong witih him this afternoon! We played last week as well, it was super fun! Everyone in the district is actually really good at ping pong, so the games were intense.

Anyways, that about sums up the week! I love and miss you all. Take care!

Boa Semana,

Elder Kyle Payne

Alma 32