Hello Everyone,
I don't have very much time today so I will get right to it! :) This week went really well, although we didn't have our baptism of Katia. Her birthday was Saturday so she traveled with her husband to spend the weekend in Rondonopolis. But we will try for this next week :)
We taught English on Friday night, we only had 2 people show up this week but we got their names and addresses so we will visit them this next week. Right now our focus as far as work goes is increasing the attendance at church on Sundays and helping the branch grow, so we are trying to find new families to baptize, as well as reactive less active members. Also we had interviews with President on Friday night, and he said that he wants Elder Marstella and me to really help the young men in the branch, right now there are about 7 who will be able to go on missions next year, so he wants us to go make visits with them, teach them, and help prepare them to go on missions next year. It should be a lot of fun though, the young men here are awesome! I will be really happy when they all go on missions soon.
We have a couple investigators who want to get baptized they just need to get married first, so we are trying to work things out and help them do that. Also we have been teaching Katia´s son, he is super interested and wants to be baptized as well, he just has a hard time coming to church because he has to work. So we are praying that all of our investigators and less actives and members we are working with will be able to resolve things with their work so that they can attend church on Sundays. We will help them as much as we can and keep encouraging them, but they still have to work and provide for their families so its a tough situation.
I have really been thinking a lot the past few weeks just how important it is for us to show love for our family members, friends, neighbors, coworkers, etc. Little acts of kindness make the biggest difference in the lives of those around us. When members or missionaries or investigators have helped me and shown me love even in the simplest ways, it has made a huge difference in my life and in my mission. I was reading the other day that love is not only a noun, but it is a VERB. If we want to feel more love in our lives we need to show more love for others. I hope this week that we can all take advantage of opportunities to serve, encourage, and most of all love those around us. I know that as we do so, the spirit will be more abundant in our lives and we will truly be blessed. "Do good, feel good!" :)
Anyways, things are going good, we are working with the members here and the work is going great. This branch has grown a lot this past year and I'm excited to be a part of it, hopefully we can make a difference here as well! I hope you all have a wonderful week, I love and miss you!
"Começar é para todos. Continuar é para os valentes. Terminar é para os heróis!"
(To begin is for everyone. Continue is for the brave. Finish is for heroes.)
Love,
Elder Kyle Payne
Monday, November 10, 2014
Monday, November 3, 2014
WEEK #85
Hey Everyone,
I hope you all had a good Halloween! They don't celebrate it here in Brazil, or at least where I'm at, so I didn't even realize it was Halloween until like 6 at night! haha. But its crazy to think about, I received my mission call 2 years ago on Halloween! Time has gone by so dang fast!
This week was really good for me and Elder Marstella. We still have Katia on date to be baptized this Sunday, she didn't come to church yesterday so it was a bummer. She had to work. We only had one of our investigators show up for church, even though we invited like 6 of them! It is so hard to get people off their butts sometimes! haha jk. But church starts at 9 am, and everybody here wants to sleep and relax on Sunday mornings. Most churches here have their Sunday services in the evenings, so some people think its weird to have it Sunday morning. We will keep trying though! We actually got a lot of references from members here though and taught some good lessons. Some members also brought their friends to church so we got some new investigators that seem really cool, we will go visit them this week and invite them to church next Sunday as well.
We had a pretty crazy experience though on Saturday night though, we were walking at night on our way to one of our appointments, and a drunk guy rode past us on his bike and called us over. We went over and he started saying I'm a drunk, I'm a drunk, you guys need to help me. Then he started saying how he is drinking again because his wife doesn't want to be with him anymore and that she has a new boyfriend now. Then he starts getting all mad and saying how he is going to kill her and her new boyfriend and anyone that is at the house! The thing is he was a little drunk, but he wasn't totally wasted either, so we weren't sure how serious he was haha. But then he said he was going to get an axe and kill everyone, so we just told him not to do that and that he needs to cool down a little bit and pray and ask for help. We told him that things would be much worse if he killed somebody so he shouldn't do it. But he kept on saying that he was going to, so we just invited him to church and said it would help him and change his life and we gave him a pamphlet about the Gospel. Then he rode off. he didn't come to church but I wish the best for him haha! We got his address and phone number so we will go visit him this week.
We also got some new beds finally, they are still really crappy beds and are super hard but they are better than the other ones we had. They got delivered on Thursday, we had to wait for 5 and a half hours for them to deliver the beds. They said they would be there at 2 but didn't show up until 7 30, so there wasn't much we could do but everything worked out. On Friday we had a meeting with our zone leaders Elder Nere and Elder Weeks, they slept at our house and had to use our old mattresses! haha. But then we did divisions with them and it was a lot of fun, good to see them again.
6 months to sexy program is still going strong! haha. I'm trying to eat as healthy as I can. I limited myself to only one coke per week, its hard though because we always have soda at members houses for lunch. But I'm trying haha.
Anyways things are going really well though, we should mark some more baptismal dates this week and if everything goes according to plan Katia should be baptized this Sunday. We are super excited! We also have 2 investigators who want to get baptized really bad and come to church every Sunday, they just have to get married first because they live together. But we will still work with them. But I hope you all have a wonderful week, love and miss you guys!
Love,
Elder Kyle Payne
I hope you all had a good Halloween! They don't celebrate it here in Brazil, or at least where I'm at, so I didn't even realize it was Halloween until like 6 at night! haha. But its crazy to think about, I received my mission call 2 years ago on Halloween! Time has gone by so dang fast!
This week was really good for me and Elder Marstella. We still have Katia on date to be baptized this Sunday, she didn't come to church yesterday so it was a bummer. She had to work. We only had one of our investigators show up for church, even though we invited like 6 of them! It is so hard to get people off their butts sometimes! haha jk. But church starts at 9 am, and everybody here wants to sleep and relax on Sunday mornings. Most churches here have their Sunday services in the evenings, so some people think its weird to have it Sunday morning. We will keep trying though! We actually got a lot of references from members here though and taught some good lessons. Some members also brought their friends to church so we got some new investigators that seem really cool, we will go visit them this week and invite them to church next Sunday as well.
We had a pretty crazy experience though on Saturday night though, we were walking at night on our way to one of our appointments, and a drunk guy rode past us on his bike and called us over. We went over and he started saying I'm a drunk, I'm a drunk, you guys need to help me. Then he started saying how he is drinking again because his wife doesn't want to be with him anymore and that she has a new boyfriend now. Then he starts getting all mad and saying how he is going to kill her and her new boyfriend and anyone that is at the house! The thing is he was a little drunk, but he wasn't totally wasted either, so we weren't sure how serious he was haha. But then he said he was going to get an axe and kill everyone, so we just told him not to do that and that he needs to cool down a little bit and pray and ask for help. We told him that things would be much worse if he killed somebody so he shouldn't do it. But he kept on saying that he was going to, so we just invited him to church and said it would help him and change his life and we gave him a pamphlet about the Gospel. Then he rode off. he didn't come to church but I wish the best for him haha! We got his address and phone number so we will go visit him this week.
We also got some new beds finally, they are still really crappy beds and are super hard but they are better than the other ones we had. They got delivered on Thursday, we had to wait for 5 and a half hours for them to deliver the beds. They said they would be there at 2 but didn't show up until 7 30, so there wasn't much we could do but everything worked out. On Friday we had a meeting with our zone leaders Elder Nere and Elder Weeks, they slept at our house and had to use our old mattresses! haha. But then we did divisions with them and it was a lot of fun, good to see them again.
6 months to sexy program is still going strong! haha. I'm trying to eat as healthy as I can. I limited myself to only one coke per week, its hard though because we always have soda at members houses for lunch. But I'm trying haha.
Anyways things are going really well though, we should mark some more baptismal dates this week and if everything goes according to plan Katia should be baptized this Sunday. We are super excited! We also have 2 investigators who want to get baptized really bad and come to church every Sunday, they just have to get married first because they live together. But we will still work with them. But I hope you all have a wonderful week, love and miss you guys!
Love,
Elder Kyle Payne
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
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
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.
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
Monday, October 20, 2014
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
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
Monday, October 13, 2014
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
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.
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
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
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
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
Saturday, October 4, 2014
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