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

WEEK #93

Friends and Family,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! My Christmas was really good, it was super hot and then rained a bunch, a little different than the snow I'm used to but it was still good haha. I was able to skype my family so it was awesome. 

It was a bit difficult to find our investigators at home, most of people are traveling right now. But we did have a good branch activity for Christmas. Also we had a huge Christmas eve dinner with Paulo and Marlene (our investigators who are going to get married and baptized soon) It was us missionaries with their family, it was really nice.

This week will be pretty crazy as well because of New Years, we are expecting a lot of drunk people so we just have to be careful haha. But also for my birthday tomorrow we are having a big churrasco at Rafaels house, so it should be really good! 

I'm still doing the six month to sexy program, Ive been doing the Insanity Dvds for a couple weeks now, still going strong. We are also eating healthy and lifting a little with the weights we have at the house. I have mostly cut out Coca cola from my diet but occasionally I cant resist! ;) haha

This week we are planning on marking a few baptismal dates and getting people to come to church with us on Sunday, hopefully we will be able to encounter our investigators at home, most people are pretty busy this time of year but we will see. We are still working with Katia, she hasn't come to church for a long time but we are going to see if she is still interested or not. Also we have had a few recent converts who have become less actives unfortunately, so we are going to be visiting them and trying to rekindle their testimonies and get them to church. 

That about sums up things here, I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed week! I love and miss you all. Tchau 2014, FELIZ ANO NOVO! :)

Love,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #92

FELIZ NATAL EVERYONE!

I hope you are all as excited as I am for Christmas! I love this time of year, even when I am on the other side of the world and there is no snow ;) 

We had a really good week, we have been working with less actives and our goal for the week was to invite everybody to the branch Christmas activity on Saturday, we had a really good turnout! there were a lot of people that showed up. Also the church attendance on Sunday was almost 100 people so it was great! 

We are also working with Paulo and Marlene, they are such an awesome couple and are planning on getting married at the first of the year then they want to get baptized. We have also gotten a lot of the references from the sisters, they have been doing a ton of street contacting and getting lots of peoples addresses and pass them over to us. Most of the people haven't been interested when we teach them but they are usually pretty nice to us haha. But we have gotten a few new investigators, none of them came to church though which is a bummer. We will keep trying though.

We have been focusing our lessons on Christ though since it is Christmas time, it has been a really cool experience for me. I feel like while we teach we end up learning just as much, it is hard to explain. I am so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and for his love, example, and sacrifice. I am grateful for my opportunity to share His gospel with others. I am grateful for my family and friends, and for the wonderful life I have been blessed with. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, I love and miss you all so much. 

FELIZ NATAL! :)

Love,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #91

Friends and Family,

Sorry I wasn't able to email on Monday, we had to travel 8 hours by bus because we had the Christmas Conference yesterday. It was a lot of fun but I am pretty worn out from traveling, we got home at like 1 this morning, but it was good to see everyone again. Our zone performed a song that we wrote for the mission at the talent show, we ate some good food, recited memorized scriptures, all that fun stuff haha. It is still crazy to me that it is almost Christmas, it is so hot here so it doesn't feel like Christmas time but its all good :)

But last week was a good week, our investigators Paulo and Marlene started filling out their papers for marriage, so they are going to get married at the beginning of January I think. so then we will be able to baptize them. I'm super excited for them, I really feel like I have known them for a long time, plus they have a food delivery business so they always make us great food haha :)

Last we also did divisions with the zone leaders, they came to our area and visited our investigators with us, we had a good time. We taught a good amount of lessons, we also had our zone meeting which was pretty cool. Elder Veccho, my old companion, is going home this transfer so I said goodbye to him at the Christmas conference, its crazy that everyone is going home. After this transfer my group will be the oldest group in the mission, super crazy! 

We spent a lot of time last week visiting less actives as well, we are trying to get church attendance up. It used to be over 100 people at church every week but now its usually around 75, there were a lot of things that happened and some drama and gossip between families a little bit ago so the attendance fell, but it is slowly going back up and we are trying to bring as many people as we can to church. 

But overall things are going really well, I am so excited for Christmas! I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy the holiday season. I pray that we can all keep Christ in our hearts during this special time of year and remember the true meaning of Christmas. I love you all so much, have a good week!

Love,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #90

Friends and Family,

I hope you all had an amazing week! So this week was pretty crazy, Elder Marstella foi embora and I got a new companion named Elder Rueda, he is from Curitiba, Paraná. He is super cool and we get along great. He started his mission in Cáceres which is in the Cuiabá Zone, so I met him at a zone meeting when I was still in Cuiabá. He has about 8 months on his mission. But my English has gone downhill really fast again haha since I have a Brazilian companion again, but its all good because my Portuguese will get better.

This week we have been taking care of some stuff around the house, we were faulting a lot of supplies and stuff so we have been buying them this week. I have been showing the area to Elder Rueda and we have been teaching all our investigators, it has been a good week so far! 

We got a new investigator with a lot of potential, she is the girlfriend of a member that lives in our area and he brought her to church, so we are going to teach her this week. Also we tried marking some baptismal dates but they didn't come to church or still don't have a testimony, so we will keep working with them. Our investigator named Eliete is progressing and believes in everything we teach her, but she has to work for a couple Sundays so she can take a break for Christmas, so she hasn't been able to come to church. Her daughter Vitória also ran away from home so it has been a really hard time for her so we have been doing our best to help her out. 

But this next week we will be visiting lots of less actives and marking dates, trying to get things going for this transfer. It should be really good, I'm excited. Its crazy to think that this is my second to last transfer! Time has flown by its insane! 

Also the zone leaders are coming to do divisions with us for a couple days so I'm excited for that, the zone leaders are my two good friends Elder Weeks and Elder Stevens, I'm excited! :) 

Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful week, I love and miss you all so much. Talk to you soon!

Abraço,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #89

Friends and Family,

Happy December everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was just a normal hot day for us here, it was pretty good though. We ate some pizza with a member so it was alright haha :) We had a good week here, we had the baptism of an investigator named Charles, he just moved here to Lucas do Rio Verde recently and is super awesome! Elder Marstella was able to perform the ordinance. Charles is also married and his wife wants to be baptized. So the goal is for him to get the priesthood soon so he can baptize her in a couple weeks! I'm super excited for them. They have a little blonde daughter named Natasha that is like the cutest thing on the planet as well haha :) Oh also I heard Philadelphia beat Dallas last week, so that's also awesome :)

So today is transfer day, hard to believe another transfer has flown by! We got calls at 11:30 last night... and I am staying here in Lucas! :) President said I will most likely finish my mission here so I'm happy about that, I really like it here. But Elder Marstella is getting transferred to Cáceres in the Cuiabá zone again! When I was a zone leader there he was serving in Cáceres, and now hes going back there again! haha pretty crazy. He is pretty excited though so that's good. Elder Watchman is going down to Campo Grande again, that lucky dog, it is a lot cooler down there in Mato Grosso do Sul than it is here. My new comp is Elder Rueda, he was in my zone a couple months ago when he started his mission so I already know who he is! he is super cool and I think he is from Curitiba but I cant remember. I'm excited though, he will probably be my last comp on the mission so we are gonna tear it up together! 

Katia still wasn't baptized, we are still going to visit her but she hasn't really been progressing as an investigator so we dropped her. She will get baptized one day but right now doesn't seem like the right time for her. We are still teaching Marlene though and they want to get married soon so we are still helping her get ready for baptism.

We also met a family last week and we taught them with the sisters because the wife really likes the sister missionaries. They are an awesome family and seem super interested, but we found out that they aren't married either. they say they are planning on getting married soon but who knows! They have a daughter who has 12 years though so hopefully they can get married and all get baptized together.

We visited a lot of less actives throughout the week as well, we are trying to increase church attendance in the branch. There are so many people that live kinda far from the church and don't have a car or a motorcycle so its hard for them to go, but we are doing our best to help them. We have a couple ideas, like with some of them we will give them our bus passes so they can go or we can set up a ride with a member, but we can only do that for so long before they need to start getting themselves to church. It has been frustrating though because sooo many people have to work on Sundays, so its tough. We will keep trying though :)

Today I start doing the Insanity DVDs as well, and I will stop drinking coke! I made one change though, I decided I will let myself drink coke only on p-days haha. other than that its just water for me! :)

But things are going really well here, I'm excited for the new transfer and for Christmas! I hope you all have a good week and remember our Savior during this special time of year. I love and miss you all, talk to you soon! 

Love,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #88

Friends and Family,

I hope you all had a wonderful week! We had a good week here in Lucas do Rio Verde, it was really hot but it also rained almost every day during the afternoon so it helped cool off for a little bit... then it heated up again and got really muggy haha. Our area is just small enough that we don't need to take the buses everywhere because it wouldn't be worth the 3 bucks each pass, but it is still big enough that we have to walk a ton. But its all good! When its super hot outside and we have to walk far to appointments I seriously just daydream about diving into a huge pool of Gatorade...

But anyways we weren't able to mark a date with Katia, she also didn't come to church yesterday which is a bummer. Everybody says they will come to church on Sunday but only like 1 in 10 actually come here in Brazil. It is hard when they don't have rides and stuff, so we are trying to get people rides and friends to help them get their butts to church. 

We were able to reactivate a guy named Anderson, he is 17 and was baptized a while ago but hasn't come to church since and has had some hard times recently, but he has shown a lot of faith and humility and he came to family night last week and came to church on Sunday it was awesome!

Yesterday we had a family night again at a members house, there was a really good turnout, almost the whole branch came and there were several less actives and investigators. We then ate Salgadinhos (fried dough ball things with meat inside) and cake :D 

We visited a lot of less actives this week, trying to get them to come to church. We also talked with Paulo and Marlene, the couple who want to get married so that Marlene can get baptized, and they have plans to do it at the end of this year or first of next year, so I think I will be here when they finally get married! I am super excited for them though, they are an awesome couple. We also got a few references this week from some members, so we will be visiting them and teaching about the restoration, it will be good.

The 6 month to sexy program is still coming along, I will start doing the Insanity workout program on the 1st of December so I'm taking it pretty serious! haha. Also I will stop drinking soda as well, which is super hard here because everybody drinks so much Coke. But I just have to resist :) 

But overall things have been going really well, just a normal week as a missionary :) This is the last week of the transfer already so we are gonna finish strong! I think Elder Marstella might be transferred, he has been here for about 4 months already but we will see. Anyways, I love you all so much, and I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving. I heard the Eagles and the Cowboys are playing on thanksgiving day, I love the Eagles and my companion is from Dallas and a die hard Cowboys fan so it will be exciting! haha. Boa semana, abraço! 

Love,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #87

Hey everyone!

I hope you all had a great week, we had a good week here in Lucas do Rio Verde! We didn't end up having Katias baptism, although she came to church on Sunday. Last Thursday we marked a date with her for next week and she came to church, but She left right before sacrament meeting because she had to go prepare lunch for her family. Before she left she told Elder Marstella that she wasn't sure about getting baptized anymore, so we will visit with her tomorrow and see what's up. 

Also, we went to a city that is about an hour from Lucas to spend the night with a member family that lives out there. The city is called Novo Mutum, it doesn't have a ward or a branch, just that family but they don't have the means to come to church here in Lucas every week. So once a transfer we are allowed to go there. We stayed the night there at their house on Friday and had a family night with them and another family that they invited. We had a churrasco with lots of meat and good food, it was super fun. We will be going back next month as well. We taught about the restoration and it went well. There were a bunch of kids though so me and my companion were kept really busy doing magic tricks and translating things into English haha. 

The sisters here had a baptism though of a 17 year old girl, it was really cool. After the baptism we had a branch activity at the chapel and had a decent turnout. Also last night we had family night with the whole branch at a members house, we do it every Sunday night. But we made visits with the young men during the afternoon on Sunday and brought some less actives with us to the family night, it was a lot of fun! We also played this game where you have to switch and compete for chairs a lot and run around, and I ended up basically tackling two people by accident haha everyone was laughing super hard! I felt bad though but its a dangerous game! haha.

Also our investigator Marlene came to church with Paulo who is a member, they are planning on getting married soon so we can get her baptized, hopefully before I go home in February! Marriage here is pretty expensive and takes a while so we have to see what we can do to help them. 

That about sums up the week, we just worked as usual and tried to strengthen the branch. but it was a good and fun week. I hope you all have a great week, I love and miss you all! 

Com muito amor,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #86

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

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

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