WEEK #100 LAST LETTER!!!

Friends and Family,

I hope you all had an amazing week! This will be my last newsletter, next week I will be in trainings/meetings on Monday in Cuiabá then next week I fly home. This week should be awesome though, we have a lot planned, Paulo and Marlene will be getting married and baptized on Friday if everything goes right, and we might have another baptism on Saturday or Sunday as well, we are super excited! Also we have an awesome churrasco planned, cant forget that! haha :)

It is hard to describe my feelings as my mission comes to an end. It has been by far the most challenging and intimidating thing I have ever done, yet it has been the most rewarding, fulfilling, and fun experience of my entire life. Every single person I have met has had an impact on my life, be it big or small. I am so grateful for the opportunities I have had as a missionary.

I am especially grateful for my companions, my brothers, who have done so much for me over these past two years, and for all of the things they have taught me. Each and every one of them has taught me something and I am grateful for the opportunity I had to serve alongside them. 

I am grateful for my Mission Presidents, both in Montana and here in Brazil, for giving me opportunities to grow and become a more dedicated servant of the Lord, as well as helping me understand what it means to be a Disciple of Christ. 

I am grateful for the members in each of the areas I have served, for doing so much to help the missionaries and helping this work move forward. I am also grateful for the investigators and members I have been able to teach, who I feel have taught me more than I have taught them. Seeing them make changes in their lives and choosing to follow Christ has had such a huge impact on me personally, it builds my faith to see the gospel working in their lives and seeing the blessings that come from being obedient to the commandments and making covenants with The Lord. 

I am grateful for the opportunity God has given me to serve in Brazil, and in Montana while I waited for my Visa. I have absolutely loved my time here in Brazil, the people, the culture, the language, and I will never forget my experiences or the people I have met. 

I am grateful for my friends, who have been such great examples to me and have supported me so much throughout my mission.

I am grateful for my family, who have also given me so much support and shown so much love for me. I have often felt that I didn't treat my family well and didn't spend as much time with them before my mission as I should have. But being on a mission has really helped me understand the importance of families and spending time together. I know that through the sealing ordinances of the temple that families truly can be together forever. I know that no matter what happens, as long as we keep our baptismal and temple covenants that we can be together for eternity. I love my family and I want them to know how much I love and appreciate them. 

I am grateful for old and modern-day prophets, for the scriptures, and for the inspired men and women in the church who dedicate their lives to serving The Lord. 

Most of all, I am grateful for God and my savior Jesus Christ, who have made all of this possible. I am so grateful for the sacrifice of our Savior and Redeemer, that allows all of us to be forgiven of our sins and return to live with our Heavenly Father. I know that no matter what happens to us in this life, we can always turn to Him, he understands our pains and sorrows and will always give us comfort and strength when we need it. I am grateful for the wonderful life that God has given me. 

I know that this is Christ's church. I know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, and that the Book of Mormon is truly the word of God. I know that by living the Gospel, that through Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End we can receive eternal life and live with our Heavenly Father and Savior once again. 

I know that God lives, that He is my Father, and that I am his son.

No Regrets.

Elder Kyle Scott Payne

WEEK #99

Friends and Family,

Welllllllll how was your guys' week? Elder Rueda and I had a good week, we are still working with Paulo and Marlene, so far things are looking good for the 20th for their wedding and baptism. We will be the two testimonies at their wedding at the civil place so it will be pretty cool. They are just waiting for a few more things to get processed then it will be good to go! 

We found a couple new investigators this week, and have received quite a few referrals from the members here so we are excited! We will be contacting them this week. We are going to Sorriso today to do divisions with the zone leaders until tomorrow, and then on Friday will be going to Novo Mutum to have family night at a members house there and stay the night there then come home Saturday. We should have a pretty busy week but that's how I like it! :)

I'm trying to remember what else happened throughout the week, nothing too crazy happened it was pretty normal. We have been super blessed though, it rained and was cloudy for most of the week so it was super nice to have a break from being roasted in the sun for a change! haha.

But overall things are going great, I'm a happy missionary and I cant complain! I am so grateful for this gospel and for what it has done for me in my life, as well as for the lives of my family and friends. I am grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that he lives. He knows and loves us, he understands our troubles and sorrows, and he is always there for us to comfort and guide us. No matter how bad we may mess up or how slowly we may think we are progressing, the Lord is with us each step of the way and helping us. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week, I love and miss you so much! 

Abraços,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #98

Friends and Family,

I hope you all had a wonderful week! We had a great week here in Lucas do Rio Verde, we have been working with a lot of less actives to help bring them back to church. Also we found a new investigator that seems to have a lot of potential, she wasn't able to come to church because she worked on Sunday but hopefully she will come next week. She has a lot of friends in the church so we will see. 

Also, we worked things out with Paulo and Marlene and the baptism and wedding is now scheduled for the 20th of this month, which is right before I come home so hopefully everything works out! I think it will :) 

We had some pretty funny experiences though this week, I did divisions with Elder Jeronymo while Elder Rueda was in Cuiabá, it was pretty fun. But also on Friday me and Elder Rueda went to a restaurant to get pizza, normally it is a good restaurant but on the very first piece that Elder Rueda ate he found a cockroach in it, Yes that's right a COCKROACH! We couldn't believe it, so we told the waiter and he brought us a new one, then while I was eating I found a piece of wood in my pizza, i just cracked up haha but I didn't say anything, it wasn't as bad as the cockroach at least. Then I found a hair on the next piece, it was just one thing after another. But when we went to pay we asked for a discount or just not to pay at all because it was nasty, and the lady said she would give us a discount. It cost 46.90 originally but with the discount it was cut down to R$45 instead. So we got a whopping discount of R$1.90! haha i didn't want to pay at all but she said we still had to pay. The joys...

Also Anderson Silva fought on Saturday in his return to the UFC and won, pretty much everyone in the whole city was talking about it over the weekend and yesterday haha. Brazilians love MMA so it has been fun. They kept rubbing it in my face though that a Brazilian beat an American. I was routing for Anderson Silva anyways so it didn't hurt my American pride too bad haha.

The Sisters had a baptism of an investigator on Saturday as well, they have been working with her for the past 3 months so it was good to see her baptized. Her name is Rose and she comes to our English classes on Friday nights. I will send pictures when I get to a better computer :) It is getting harder and harder to teach English though, my English is getting pretty bad haha. Every once in a while I talk to an American missionary on the phone in English but we both struggle to speak in our own language. Its hard to explain but it just happens haha.

As of now though we are hoping to have 3 baptisms before the end of this transfer, so we will keep working hard to make that happen. I know this gospel is true and I'm so grateful to be a representative of our Savior Jesus Christ at this time in my life. I am forever grateful for His sacrifice and for his love and mercy for me. I hope you all have a wonderful week (and valentines day) I love and miss you all, boa semana para todos! :)

Com muito amor,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #97

Friends and Family,

This will be a shorter letter as well, today I'm doing divisions with Elder Jeronymo, he is serving in Sorriso but both my companion and his companion are headed to Cuiabá today for a training and will come back tomorrow. So I am short on time today, I have to go to the bus station and get him.

But we had a really good week, We had some solid investigators at church, so it was good. The Caravan that went to the temple came back so the chapel was full again.

Also, we marked a date with Paulo and Marlene, the goal is February 13. They will be married and will have the service at the chapel, then right after that have their baptisms! We are so excited! They already registered at the civil place and just have to wait the 14 day waiting period to process the files and all that, then they will be married and baptized! I am super excited for the both of them, they have become my very good friends since I have been here in Lucas.

This week we also might be going to Sorriso to do divisions with the zone leaders there, but it all depends on how things work out, we will see.

But we had a great week, the branch here in Lucas is growing and I'm happy to be a part of it in this exciting time! 

Anyways, I love you all so much, I know this gospel is true and is truly a blessing in our lives. I know that part of the gospel is constant repentance and self improvement. The more we learn and progress and continue to better ourselves, God will bless our efforts and we will become more mature, confident, developed, and spiritual sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. 

"God helps those who help themselves"

Boa semana para todos!

Love,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #96

Bom dia! 

I hope you all had a great week! This week was super hot and didn't rain very much which was weird! But it was a good week for us. There was hardly anybody at church yesterday though because there was a caravan that went to the temple over the weekend, so many members from the whole district went. It was pretty weird to have the church so empty haha. Right now they are remodeling the chapel and adding a few rooms, also they are installing AIR CONDITIONING, so we are all super excited. :)

We had a good week though, we had a missionary activity at the church on Saturday again, we watched The Other Side of Heaven and made popcorn and drank lots of Tereré. It was pretty fun and had a good turnout. There were a few investigators that showed up so it was good.

We weren't able to meet with Paulo and Marlene this week, Paulo started working at nighttime and Marlene was busy running their business as well but they are still really excited to get married and be baptized. 

We have received more references as well so we will be contacting them this week. Most of the people we have contacted haven't really progressed or come to church. Most people receive us very well but have a hard time coming to church and keeping commitments. We will keep working though, we have a few investigators right now that are progressing and everything, they just need to come to church :)

Also did you guys know that Moths poop all over the place?! Apparently this time of year there are tons of moths everywhere, our house is full of them and they like to poop all over our clothes and beds! i kept finding little brownish red spots on my shirts and sheets, but finally we figured out it is the moths that are crapping everywhere haha. Learn something new every day I guess! 

We have zone training tomorrow, so the zone leaders are coming here, it should be good. Things are going really well though, we are staying busy and working hard. I hope you have a wonderful week, I love you all! 

Saudades!

Love,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #95

Familia e amigos, 

Bom dia! This letter will be pretty brief, we had transfer calls last night and I am staying here in Lucas with Elder Rueda to finish my mission! Two sisters are getting transferred though :( so we have to go encounter them and help them get their things to the bus station in a few minutes.

I'm super excited though to finish my mission here, hard to believe this is my last transfer but its part of the experience I guess. We had a good week, we had 3 investigators show up for church and two less actives so it was really good! We set a goal with Paulo and Marlene for the first week in February to get baptized, they are planning on getting married at the final of this month so things are going great! 

Overall we had a good week, I cant complain! Things are going really well here, I'm a happy missionary :) I feel with all my heart that this gospel is true and that we have a Heavenly Father who knows and loves us. I'm so glad to have the gospel in my life and I'm grateful for my opportunity to share what I know with others. I love and miss you all, BOA SEMANA PARA TODOS! 

Love,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #94

Feliz Ano Novo gente! 

I hope you all had a wonderful week, this week was great for us, we got a lot of references and met some great people! also we had several good meals and churrascos :) Its crazy to think that 2014 is already over! It was probably the hardest year of my life, but also the most fulfilling. I'm super excited for 2015 though! We have some good goals as a district and also as a companionship now, this is the last week of the transfer already but I think me and my comp will both stay here. We will see next week. 

We are still really trying to help Paulo and Marlene get married, the place where they needed to register and stuff has been closed for the holidays but it has opened back up, so now they can register and get married, hopefully this month. we just have to stay on top of it. 

We are still working to bring all of the less actives back to church, we have had little success but we are still trying. There is an awesome member named Valdir who was baptized a few months ago but only came to church one time after that, but we have finally met with him and he wants to go to church again. He just got a little discouraged because of some choices he had made and didn't feel good enough to go to church, but he is starting to realize again that it is the best place for him to be. 

This week we might be going to a city called Novo Mutum again, there is a family out there so we are going to try to go have family night with them like we did in November. It takes about an hour and a half to get there so we will see. 

I am really trying to better my Portuguese as much as I can my last two months, I have been asking a lot of questions and have been learning new words every day. Its nice when you have a Brazilian companion to help haha.

Also we are going to try to visit a lot of members this week and share messages about the restoration and the temple, because there is a caravan of people going to the temple in Campinas (São Paulo) pretty soon. It takes over a day to get there by bus, it is a big trip for everyone in the branch to get to go each year. I'm way excited for them. I think there are a couple families who are going to get sealed as well, pretty exciting. 

Last week my fan caught on fire, so we had to go buy a new one, which took forever to find a cheap one haha. The cheapest one we found that was good quality was R$130, but we talked the guy into selling it to us for 100 so it worked out okay. But it is impossible to sleep without a fan next to our beds because we don't have AC! 

Also for new years I think we went to bed at like 5 in the morning, it was pretty crazy here! We had a party and stuff and at midnight the whole city lights off fireworks, its pretty cool. But the fireworks start on like the 30th of December and go until like the 2nd of January, and all day and night on new years it just sounds like a bunch of bombs going off throughout the whole city so it was hard to sleep. But no worries it was fun, Elder Rueda and I played like 300 games of Uno haha.

Anyways, I love and miss you all! Talk to you soon, boa semana :)

Love,

Elder Kyle Payne