WEEK #48

Beleza gente!

Oh man I don't even know where to begin!!! This past week was super crazy, so many things happened haha. Hopefully I will be able to remember everything!

So first off, we got transfer calls last night. I will be staying here in 3rd ward in Ponta Porã, and I will be training a new missionary! Also I was called to be a District Leader here. I'm a little nervous because I cant speak Portuguese as well as I want to yet but I will get there eventually! But Ive heard a little bit about my new companion, his name is Elder Rocha and he is from Rio Grande do Sul (the most southern state in Brazil). That's all i know about him! haha he will arrive here in Wednesday so we will see! I'm excited for this next transfer, we have a lot of good things going on here as far as the work goes. I'm pretty sad though I will miss Elder Vecchio, he is going to Campo Grande. But we are getting another American in our ward named Elder Dodson, he arrived last transfer. In the city of Ponta Porã, there are 3 wards and 12 missionaries. There are 4 missionaries in each ward.

Sonaira still wants to be baptized, and she said that her mom will let her be baptized on her birthday which is the 3rd of March. So we are going to be working with her mom and Sonaira to prepare for that date. I'm excited! Hopefully everything will work out.

So it has gotten harder for me to speak in English and form sentences, when I speak in English I feel dumb because I feel like the things I am trying to say don't make sense haha. Also it is hard to explain things and tell stories in English! But I had tons of crazy experiences this week, I will try to explain them hopefully everything makes sense haha. 

So we have an investigator named Cecilio, we have been teaching him. On Wednesday we taught him and his wife a lesson, and they both said that they are sick and feeling unhappy, so we offered to give them a blessing. I gave one and Elder Vecchio gave one. The blessing was great and the spirit was there, when all of the sudden a crazy drunk guy came and started yelling random things about Jesus and sinners and stuff. Turns out he is a friend of Cecilo and is a heavy alcoholic, his name is Antonio. But he said we could come over to his house and teach him and his family. He lives with his sister. We asked when we could come over and he said right now! Come with me! So after the lesson with Cecilio we went to Antonio's house and taught him and his sister and her family. Antonio was really drunk but he said he truly wants to change his life because he wants to be happy again. But after that, we taught him another time and his family. Its just funny how we met him and started teaching him! He didn't come to church because he had to go to Paraguay, but he said he will come next week. 

On Wednesday night we had a Churrasco for Elder Vecchio, he reached his year mark on his mission. That was really fun and we had lots of meat and stuff. 

Thursday, I had probably the coolest experience of my entire mission! So we are teaching this woman named Suni, she is from Paraguay and doesn't speak Portuguese hardly at all. Her husband is a Brazilian and he is a member but Suni is not. Suni was really sick and asked for a blessing, and I had the opportunity to give her one. I was a little worried that she wouldn't be able to understand the blessing because she cant understand Portuguese very well. But I had a little prayer in my heart that she would be able to understand. But once I started giving her the blessing, I was speaking in Spanish! SPANISH! I don't really remember what I said, I probably didn't say everything right but she said she understood every word. I know without a doubt that the Spirit helped me give her a blessing so that she could understand and be comforted. The Gift of Tongues is real! It was a really cool experience and I will never forget it.

On Friday morning we got a microwave and a toaster! It felt like Christmas Morning! haha I'm so excited, now we can cook more things! Our house doesn't have any pans or anything, just one pot. So the other week I bought a frying pan that I will take with me throughout my mission here so that i can eat breakfast! haha. Later that day, I had a crazy experience, I got hit by a car! Its not as bad as it sounds, but it was legit! Me and Elder Vecchio were walking uphill on this road. Here in Brazil there are lots of speed bumps randomly in the roads to keep people from going too fast. But lots of people go around the speed bumps and just keep driving fast. Anyways, I was in front and Elder Vecchio was walking behind me. I was right by the speed bump, and some idiot in a car went around the speed bump and he hit my left arm and hip! It was funny though, I didn't fall down or anything, all I did was spin around in a 180 and I was looking at Elder Vecchio! Both of us just froze out of shock of what just happened haha but then we both started laughing! It was crazy though and we are both super lucky. All I have is a little bruise on my wrist!

Later Friday night we had a Rodizio at a restaurant with a member. It was a Pizza Rodizio and I ended up eating 15 slices of pizza... i about threw up haha. The pizza here is thinner than it is in the States but still i ate a ton that night! 

Last night we had another Churrasco at a members house while we were waiting for transfer calls. But we taught a lot of lessons this week and have lots of good things going on here in Ponta Porã! I think that pretty much sums up the week, it was definitely crazy but lots of fun at the same time! 

Anyways, I love you all so much, I hope you have a wonderful week! Fica firme!

Tchau,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #46

Hey everyone, 

Is it really February already? Dang! I hope you all had a good week! So I hear Seattle won?! That's exciting I feel so out of the loop with sports and music and... life haha. Oh well haha.

Well this was probably the most frustrating week of my entire mission! Me and Elder Vecchio are about to go crazy. I cant really go into all the details, but there is a huge problem here in Ponta Pora with gossip and rumors and drama in the wards. I feel like I'm back in High School again! It is frustrating, because we are adults trying to do the lords work and help people. But transfers are on the 15th so we will see what happens. We have a mission conference this Thursday so that will be good. I am going to talk to the mission president to see if we can try to better the situation here. It has been really frustrating for me, because right now I don't have a leadership position and I cant communicate in Portuguese as effectively as Id like to, so I feel like I cant really make a difference right now I just have to go with the flow. 

But last night we had family home evening with some members, and they had the Superbowl on TV before we started. There were 6 missionaries there and a bunch of members. The game hadn't started yet and everybody was talking and yelling, but before the National Anthem started we asked for people to be silent during it and be respectful. But then some missionaries were like dude you're in Brazil not America! But some of the members were nice and asked people to be quiet too. Then the lady started to sing the National Anthem, and some members and missionaries started yelling and making fun of the national anthem. It was really frustrating for me, I explained that there were many many people who gave their lives for our country and for our freedom, and that the National Anthem symbolizes our love and honor for our country and for those who died. But still, they continued to crack jokes and sing during it. I couldn't believe it. I feel like I'm in high school again with a bunch of kids! haha. 

But anyways we only had one investigator at church yesterday, it was Sonaira. Her mom still wont let her get baptized. But Sonaira got up and bore her testimony in Sacrament Meeting, it was so beautiful and I am praying that she will be able to be baptized here soon! We are going to fast this week again and hopefully things will work out. But we also have to remember the Lord knows everything and things will work out how they're supposed to! 

We went on exchanges with some of the young men in the ward two days during the week, so we taught a lot of new people and we got 16 new investigators this week. We will be really busy again this next week making return visits to see if people read and prayed about the Book of Mormon. Fingers crossed! There are so many good and humble people here that would be baptized, we just have to work hard and find them.

It was super hot this week and we didn't have very much rain, so that was nice! i hate the rain during a mission because we don't have a car, so when we get stuck in the rain it is awful! haha. 

I have had Red Red Wine by UB40 stuck in my head for like 4 days! Hopefully i can get a hymn or something stuck in my head instead! We will see! 

But anyways I love you all so much! I know the Lord has a plan for us all and that everything will work out according to what He wants. The Lord is always with us and is always willing to help us! I'm so grateful for this gospel and for my family and friends. I hope you have a good week! 

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #45

Hey everyone!

I don't have a ton of time today so this letter will be a little short! Sorry!

But this week has been pretty good. We didn't have any baptisms, our family didn't come to church because they had to work and take care of kids. But they are still super interested and I know they will get baptized. 

Oh also BIG NEWS! We got our first male investigator! His name is Junior, he is 14 and hes waycool. He loves to play soccer so we will be playing soccer with him this evening. All of the people we have been teaching have practically been women and girls so it is really great to get a male investigator. We had some changes in the mission a while back, any investigator under 16 has to attend church 3 times before getting baptized. This is really hard for some people but its all good, it is just a little harder to baptize now. But hopefully he will come next Sunday to church! We got a lot of new investigators and taught a lot of lessons this week but we just need our investigators to keep commitments and come to church!

Oh also I had a pretty embarrassing moment this week... So in Portuguese there are two words that are really similar: Peito (chest) and Peido (fart). So we were in a lesson and I was explaining that when the Holy Ghost testifies to you what is true, most people describe the feeling as a warm feeling or a burning feeling in the chest. HOWEVER, I confused the word Peito with Peido, and so what I said was most people feel a burning feeling in their fart! Haha I didn't understand why they were laughing at first but then they told me and then i explained it right! It was super funny

Anyways, things are going really good, we will be working hard this week to try to set some baptismal dates! its about time we have some baptisms here! 

I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Falou!

Love,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #44

Beleza!

Esta semana passado fui muito loco! Well its been really hot here, and it has rained every day. And when it rains here, it POURS! The streets turn into rivers. its pretty crazy. But it has been a really really good week for us! 

We have been teaching a lot of people and we had some of our investigators come to church in Sunday! It was awesome. So we have been teaching a family that lives in our area, Auvira and her granddaughter Jessica. they all live together and Jessica has 3 little girls all under the age of 3. Anyways, we had arranged for a ride to pick them up on Sunday with us. The plan was he was to pick us up first, then swing by our investigators house to pick them up before church. But he never showed and he wouldn't answer his phone, so it was kinda crazy, because we didn't have our investigators phone number. so we were really worried that things would turn out really bad. After like half an hour of waiting for the guy to pick us up (church had already started by this time) we called a taxi, which took another 20 minutes to come get us. But we were able to pick up our investigators and all  7 of us were able to cram into the taxi. We got to the church an hour late, but our investigators said they loved it!  Luckily Sacrament meeting is the last hour of church, so They were able to go to gospel principles class and sacrament meeting. Also, we went to visit them later Sunday evening to talk to them about baptism, and Jessica told us something crazy. She said that about a month ago she had a dream that two men who weren´t from Brazil came to her house to talk to her about God and Jesus. Then she said that she thinks it was a sign that this is the true church, because she said the exact same thing she dreamed about came true in real life. It is so crazy to hear that! I am very excited for this family, Auvira´s husband passed away about 2 months ago, and she is really interested in learning about eternal families and temple work. They are on date to be baptized this Saturday so hopefully things will work out! We also had another investigator at church named Erica, she has almost 12 years and she is really cool.

Unfortunately, Sonaira wasn't able to attend church. Her mom wont let her be baptized or come to church anymore until she is 18 and has responsibility. it is suuuuper frustrating because she knows the church is true and she wants to be baptized. But we will keep working and praying that things will work out with her!

We have worked really hard this transfer and we are finally starting to see the fruits of our labors here in Ponta Porã. we have taught a lot of lessons and talked to lots of people so I'm really excited for this area! We have a great ward and the people here are awesome to help us out with missionary work. They feed us really well too! ;)

This week was kinda strange as far as missionary work goes, we met some weird people and had some weird experiences. But we had some miracles as well. Normally the rain hinders the work really bad, but we have been trying to use the rain to our advantage. So we start walking when it looks like its about to rain, and once it starts raining we hurry and run to a persons house and ask to stand under their cabana and wait for the rain to stop. And while we are waiting we talk with the people and we have taught a few lessons that way. Its been pretty fun!

Oh also, me and elder Vecchio play a game when we are out making contacts with people. We choose 3 words that the other person has to say in the next contact. So for example, Elder Vecchio would choose the words Watch, Shoes, and Tree, and I would have to fit those words in the next conversation I have with somebody. Its tough to fit random words in a conversation sometimes haha but people here are really chill and they still let us talk to them about religion haha.

We played American Football as a zone today, it was awesome! We had the whole zone there plus like 6 nonmembers, it was pretty crazy. Not everybody here knows the rules to American football, so it was pretty funny to watch what some people did! but we taught everybody and it was really fun.

Oh also, we will be moving into a new house at the beginning of next month! The house we live in right now is pretty small and we have 4 missionaries living there. it only has one bedroom and bathroom so it has been pretty hectic. But our new house is pretty sweet, it has 3 bedrooms and two bathrooms and a Churrascoria so I'm really excited! 

My Portuguese is coming along better, I am understand a lot more now and I can speak better, but it is still hard sometimes. I just have to keep studying every day. But the whole language-learning process is really weird! I pretty much think in Portuguese throughout the day and some of my dreams are in Portuguese. Its really weird when I talk to other Americans in English, I feel really weird when I talk in English, like I am pronouncing things wrong. also sentences are structured differently in Latin languages, so when I speak English I feel like it just comes out really weird! haha but its all good.

Tonight we have family home evening at a members house and hopefully our investigators will be able to make it. We will see.

Anyways, I love you all and I am so grateful for you! Have a great week, stay warm up there! ;)

Love you much,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #41- KYLE'S BIRTHDAY!

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a great Christmas!!! Mine was awesome, I got to Skype my family. That was definitely the highlight of my week. But it was definitely the craziest Christmas of my life! So after dinner, we were walking to a members house, and we saw a dog get hit by a motorcycle. It was really gross. Then when we were walking home a couple hours later, my companion got hit by a car!!!! It was so crazy! The guy was drunk and he wasn't even watching where he was going. We were walking the side of the road, and all of the sudden I heard a car that sounded like it was really close, and I looked back and BOOM! Elder Vecchio got hit from behind. He is okay and isn't hurt too bad, he just has a bruised hip and a few scratches. It all happened really fast. Elder Vecchio is a champ though, he was in the hospital last week, and got hit by a car on Christmas, haha it's crazy. 

Anyways, it has been a great week. Our investigator didn't end up getting baptized but we are working on it. We worked hard this week and made tons of contacts, so we have like 15 new investigators to teach this week. We set a date with one of our investigators Sonaira, she is 14. She will get baptized for sure! She really really wants to join the church and she has a lot of friends in the church, but we just have to get her mom to let her. We will be praying and fasting for it to all work out. But Sonaira is such a great girl we are very excited for her! Her date is January 12 so we will work with her this week! :) 

Brazil is really crazy, I love it. It has been really hot this week and it has rained a lot. I don't care for the rain too much but its all good! I ate Capivara (capybara) the other day. If you don't know what Capivara is, it is pretty much a really big rodent that tastes like pork. I thought it was pork when they fed it to us, but I found out afterwards what I was actually eating. haha. What you don't know doesn't hurt you, right?!

Anyways, things are going really well here, Brazil is awesome, the people here are awesome, the food is awesome, I love it haha. The language is coming along  but it is still really frustrating at times. I'll get it down eventually!

Well all, I hope you have a wonderful new year!!! I love and miss you!

Falou,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #40

Tranquilo Gente! 

First off, FELIZ NATAL EVERYONE!!!!

Haha so I can pretty much describe Brazil in one word.... LOCO!!!!! haha i love it though. This week has been really really crazy! So I was supposed to go to Campo Grande, but it got changed so right now I'm in Ponta Porã! It is sweet here. But we kept having problems with our bus tickets, so it was just really hectic and stressful. Things are not very organized here haha. But anyways, after 18 long hours on the bus, I finally made it here. When I got here, nobody was here to pick me up. I couldn't use anybodies cell phone, because everybody buys there phones from Paraguay because it is cheap, so to call out of state to the mission office is really expensive. So there I was by myself with all my bags without a phone and nobody to help me! haha It was alright though. On the bus, I sat next to a guy who played professional soccer in Sao Paulo, and he called his brother to come pick me up to take me to the church in Ponta Porã! Way sweet. I used a payphone to call the mission office and then a couple hours later some elders came and picked me up. It was pretty stressful but it all worked out and everything is good. Tudo Bem!

My companions name is Elder Vecchio, he is from Argentina! He is way cool. We are like exactly the same size, so its pretty funny because we are both pretty tall compared to the people here. He helps me out with the language a lot. He got super super sick at the beginning of the week before I got there and he was in the hospital! But he is better now. Right now we live with two other missionaries, one is from Brazil and the other is from Chile. But they all speak Portuguese well, so I am starting to learn a lot faster! I had to speak in Sacrament on Sunday, that was pretty cool. The ward is great here, the stake is strong in missionary work. Elder Vecchio just had a baptism and we hope to have a baptism this weekend. We taught a lot of lessons this week so it has been good. 

So Ponta Porã... is crazy! It is right by Paraguay, so it is pretty hectic. Apparently it is the most dangerous city in the mission. So we have to be really smart about what we do. But for the most part we are ok. 

My Portuguese is coming along, I have learned a TON this week. It is still hard to understand people though haha. But I just have to be patient with myself! It was kind of funny though, we had a Churrasco yesterday, and one of the members spoke a little bit of English. So he was talking to me in English, and he asked if I was thirsty and I said yes. He asked if I wanted water or orange juice and I said I wanted orange juice. Then he said, Do you like poop in your orange juice? I said no, that's gross. Then he said ok then here is some water. So I said well can I have some orange juice without poop? haha I thought he was joking with me but he was like you can have orange juice, but it has poop in it! It was really weird but I finally figured it out.... He was trying to say PULP instead of poop! haha I busted up laughing once it clicked! Then I explained it to him and everybody thought it was really funny. Then I got my orange juice with PULP :)

Anyways, everything is good here! I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!!!!! It is such a wonderful time of year, to remember the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. I love him and I'm so grateful for his sacrifice! I hope you all have a great Christmas week! I love and miss you all!!!

Atê mais,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #37 BRAZIL

Beleza!!!

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving! :)

I don´t even know where to begin! haha. Things are so crazy in Brazil! I love it already. We had a super long flight here I was way tired when I got here. But I´m just so happy to finally be in Brazil I don't even care haha

Well, the first thing I can say about Cuiabá is that it is suuuuuper hot!!! Like unbelievably hot. When we got off the plane it was like 105 degrees F. It was quite an adjustment coming from 2 degrees when we left Montana! And it is super humid here too. it seriously feels like a sauna. hopefully I´ll get used to it though :)

The food here is really really good, so far I have had rice and beans for every meal but we usually have some sort of meat as well. On Saturday I ate Coracão de Vaca (Cow heart) it was actually really good I liked it. but other than that the food is normal, just rice and beans all the time

The language is really hard!!! People speak so fast and its hard to understand but its all good. I am serving in Industríario which is part of Cuibá. My companion is Elder Kennington, he is way cool we get along great.  He helps me with my Portuguese a lot. he has a mission blog too, so I read it and I already knew who he was before he was my companion! Kinda funny.  We live with two other missionaries, Elder Moraes and Elder Groff, they are both from Brazil near Curitiba. They are so funny we are teaching them English. Elder Groff always says funny things like Hey be quiet you horse! or Elder Payne I am going to ticklish you on beneath your arms! haha 

We have a few progressing investigators right now so that is good, we have taught a few lessons but i don't know what anyone is saying most of the time, i just bear my testimony. i bore my testimony yesterday in sacrament meeting so hopefully the people could understand what I was saying haha. I had a few people come up and thank me for my testimony so I guess it made sense haha

We had a really cool experience this week. So on Friday we had to take the bus to Cuiabá to take care of some paperwork and stuff at the office, but on our way back our bus got a flat tire. it was hot and crowded and we had to wait for another bus. the bad thing is is that we didn't have money left on our card things to pay for another bus trip, so we needed to go get another card. we started walking and a guy stopped us on the street and asked about us, and we taught him the entire first lesson and gave him two pamphlets. he was way cool and he said he would go to church on Sunday.Then awhile after that we got on another bus and a stranger paid for me to get on which was awesome. the people are so nice here. But the Lord put us in the right place at the right time. He knew we needed to teach that guy on the street, even if it meant us having a flat tire and no money! He even took care of us to get back on another bus to get home. 

I love this work so much.

Anyways, I love you all so much and I´m grateful for you! have a great week

Love,

Elder Payne

WEEK #32

Hello everyone!

Wow this has been a crazy week! We have been teaching a lot of solid lessons and our investigators are progressing great. We had two come to church so that was really good. We are working with setting new baptismal dates with them, and setting dates for our other investigators. Today it is like a blizzard outside! It's so cold and there is snow everywhere. I hate it!

So we got iPads last week! They are sooooo helpful! They have are planners and area books on there, and all the gospel library and teaching pamphlets. It will help missionary work so much. They're so useful. The lord really is hastening his work by letting us have the opportunity to use technology like this! It really is amazing.

Well, I got a call from the Mission President on Saturday and he informed me that he is changing my calling. I'm getting transferred to Helena and I'm going to be Zone Leader there! I'm really excited to go back to Helena though, I know a lot of the members there and it will be great to see them again. I'll also be in the same stake as the Lincoln branch, so hopefully I'll get to see the people from Lincoln again. I'm a little nervous to be Zone Leader, there are a lot more responsibilities but I think it will be a great learning experience! Oh and get this... my new companion's name is Elder Payne! He's from Cali I think. So that will be really confusing when we answer the phone and stuff, everyone is going to think we are related haha. We'll see how it goes.

I'm so sad to leave Whitehall! I feel like just when you  get in a groove in an area and the work starts picking up, you get transferred! It's a little frustrating but oh well it's part of the mission experience. I will definitely miss the people here in Whitehall. Well, me and Elder Sumner haven't boxed this week at all so I don't have any more bruises. But I think my finger might be broken, I jammed it playing Volleyball like 4 weeks ago but my finger is still bruised and swollen so the medical director wants me to go get it checked out today. Hopefully it's just jammed.

The weather was nice all week until today! It was in the 60's earlier and bright and sunny. now it's cold and windy and snowy! Hopefully Helena is a little warmer haha. But i doubt it. I have also been trying a lot of different hot sauces, I even made a rating chart and have like 10 different sauces rated and organized haha. Yesterday we ate at a members house, and I tried Dave's Insanity sauce. It's basically pure habanero paste. My face caught on fire! My eyes and nose were running and it burned my lips for like 2 hours. I think I put too much on. That's about the craziest experience of the week.

There have been many good experiences as far as teaching goes. My own testimony has grown and I'm so grateful for the gospel and for all the blessings we receive from Heavenly Father! I know without a doubt this church is true and I'm so grateful to be a missionary. I am seriously so sad to leave Whitehall. I hate leaving areas. I have grown to love the people in each area and they have taught me so much and have seriously changed my life. I am so grateful for everyone I've met and for the experiences I've had thus far!

I hope you all have a wonderful and safe week! You are all in my thoughts and prayers. Love you!

Love,

Elder Payne

WEEK #28

Hello everybody!

Another great week here in the Big Sky. I'm getting pretty settled in to my new area, and things are going great. We just had a baptism on Saturday, that was great. His name is Mike, he's been receiving discussions for about 3 years now but he finally decided to get baptized! :) We have another baptism next Saturday, her name is Dell and she's from Saipan and Guam. She's awesome! Her husband is a member but he has only been active since Dell has received lessons, so he is coming closer to the savior as well.

Part of my responsibility as a District Leader is watching out for all the missionaries in the District and making sure their needs are met and their areas are doing good. I also get to train newer missionaries and help them, so I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with another Elder in my district in Whitehall for a few days. It's a small town of about 1000, so it kind of reminded me of Lincoln, just more houses and less trailers haha. The work has been really slow there for a long time but we were able to set a  baptismal date with an older couple! They are so awesome, I'm so excited for them. There are so many good people here in Montana. Their names are Mike and Jan, and they love having the Elders come over. Jan called me this morning and invited us to come up for another lesson because she said they love the feeling their home has when we come, and they say they can feel God's spirit present. I'm so glad people can feel that and realize the difference in our church and that they realize what the Gospel can do for them! It really isn't the missionaries at all. It's the spirit talking to them. It is great that Whitehall now has two people on date for baptism, I'm really excited for the area and hopefully things pick up even more.

Kind of funny though, most towns in Montana are really spread out, so you have to drive a ways sometimes to go teach people. But the Elders in Whitehall got their truck taken away because they were way over their allotted miles. This happened right before I got there, so we walked in the freezing rain almost the whole time! I packed for Brazil and I only have a rain jacket, so I was dang cold. I really hope I get to Brazil before the snow comes. Everyone tells me "oh you're from Utah, you have no idea what winter is until you get to Montana!" So apparently I'm going to freeze. And my companion is from Arizona so he doesn't like the cold either! haha.

A member was going to take Elder Tayrien and I golfing today, but the weather is bad so we are going another time. But my guess is that the weather will be bad then too. So I probably will not get to go golfing! :(

We have zone conference on Wednesday with a couple of the other zones, so I'm really excited because I'll be able to see Elder Manufekai again and my last zone in Bozeman so that will be good. Tomorrow we have to drive to Butte for Leadership Council, so we will be discussing a lot of new changes  made to the mission and new rules. So that will be interesting. President Mecham is really making a lot of changes to help missionaries be more obedient. Some of the rules are frustrating but you just have to realize that it's all for a good purpose and to help us missionaries have the spirit with us.

Anyways, things are going great! I love you all very much and I hope to hear from you! Have a great week! :)

Com amor,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #8

Hello all!

 

Well, I'm losing track of time but I think I have been out for 8 weeks. CRAZY! Time is flying by. I'm so glad I got to talk to my mom and family yesterday for Mother's day. It was really good to see them. Well, we just got our transfer calls and I am staying in Lincoln. My comp is getting transferred. My new companion is Elder Manufekai, he's Polynesian! I haven't met him yet but I'm excited. We will transfer on Wednesday this week.

Well I will let you know what's been going on in good old Lincoln Montana! I have been on exchanges with my district leader all week. His name is Elder McLeod (pronounced Mcloud) He's so awesome. I have learned a lot from him and we have had so much fun this past week. We also had some crazy cool experiences! I'll start off on Wednesday. So we were driving from his home in Helena to Lincoln, and all of the sudden he pulls off the road and says we need to go up this little dirt road into the mountain. I was like alright this is crazy but let's do it. So we were driving and we ran into this 90 year old couple named the Macdonalds, who own a 4,000 acre dairy farm. We talked to them for over an hour and basically taught the first lesson, so that was a really neat experience. Then after that, we both felt like we should keep driving down the dirt road farther up the canyon. We had gone for about 20 minutes without seeing any signs or people, so we were thinking about turning around, but we both had a strong impression that we need to keep going. So we kept driving and sure enough about 5 minutes later we ran into a tiny town in the middle of nowhere called Marysville! It has a population of about 50 haha. But we started knocking doors and asking where we were, and we met a guy named Eddie. He is about 60 years old and has a big white beard and super leathery skin. He's awesome though. We taught him about the restoration and book of Mormon on his porch and he said he would love to read the book and come to church on Sunday! He is in the Helena area though, so hopefully he went on Sunday. It is crazy how the spirit can lead us to people like that. I would have never thought to turn on that dirt road, but Heavenly Father knew there were people who needed to hear our message that day.

We have been working our butts off this past week! It has been a really hard week but still really good. Funny story though, on Friday we were splitting and hauling logs for Brother Caudill (the member we stay with). I parked the four wheeler by the log pile and put the brake on, and we finished unloading the logs we had into the pile. Elder McLeod said he wanted to drive, so we got on and started heading back on the dusty road. It's habit for me to put the brake on, and I forgot to tell him that I did. He forgot to check for the brake, so it stayed on the entire time we were driving back! I kept asking him if he was flooring it, because the engine was revving really high but we were going slow. But we didn't even realize that we left the it on. All of the sudden, brother Caudill starts chasing after us on his four wheeler yelling "You're on fire you're on fire!" So we hop off and start freaking out because the brakes had melted and caught on fire and the engine was burning up and smoking! So we probably looked like idiots while we were throwing dirt on the four wheeler and smacking it haha. I felt so stupid! But we apologized and he wasn't mad.

A lot has happened this week, we met and taught a bunch of new people, got a bike stuck in a tree (don't ask), caught a four wheeler on fire, got kicked out of a crazy member's house, I got chased by a mother deer because I kept trying to grab the baby deer (whitetail deer are everywhere here), my comp. fell like 10 feet out of a hammock, lots of things haha. But this has been the most rewarding week yet, I have felt guidance from the spirit multiple times, and it is awesome! My testimony is growing stronger every day.  I spoke in Sacrament meeting yesterday about Charity and Service. It was easy to relate those two things to Mother's Day, so it went well. I'm so grateful for my mother and grandmothers! :)

Members are so important in missionary work. They have a huge impact on a missionary's ability to succeed, because they help find people and befriend them before we meet them. The Members find, The Missionaries Teach, and The Spirit Converts. That is so true. My challenge for you all this week is to invite a friend or less active member to spend time with you, whether it be dinner, playing a game, anything. Share your testimony with them and invite them to come to church or read the Book of Mormon. It may seem kind of scary, but I promise that if you are bold and have faith, the Spirit will help you share your message and they will feel it.

I love you all so much! Please pray really hard for my VISA to come so I can go to Brazil too ;) haha just kidding. I know this gospel is true and that the Spirit truly is there to give us direction and comfort. Until next week!

Tchau!

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #6 MONTANA BABY!!

Hello everyone!

Well, I made it to Montana! I got picked up at the airport by my friend and old fellow ward member Elder Luke Olsen. It was really good to see him! We then went and ate at Golden Corral, which was awesome. We went to the mission home and then split up for our new areas. It was sad to leave my district but exciting at the same time. It is so beautiful up here! The mountains are gorgeous. I'm in a little town called Lincoln, it has about 900 people but the church is gaining a presence, we had 3 investigators come to church yesterday and I got to speak in Sacrament Meeting! We taught two lessons yesterday and today is our p-day but we did a bunch of yard work with the people we are staying with. I live with the Caudelle's, they are members me and my companion live in a little cottage up in the woods, it is so awesome. I am excited to get out and teach more! It is so good to be out of the MTC and into the real world! Haha. It was really hot when we got to MT and yesterday was perfect, like 70 degrees, but today it snowed. Go figure. Things are looking good though, we are doing a bunch of service tomorrow and on Wednesday we are teaching an investigator named Doc. I met him at church yesterday and he seems awesome, he's about 55 and single. He has a masters and professional degree in History, so he is really interested in all the Wars and things in the Book of Mormon. He believes it is a true book and everything he just has a lot of questions. It seems promising. I can't wait to teach him.

 

My companion's name is Elder Halversen s about 5'6" and weighs maybe 120, so I've got a good 90 pounds on him haha. He's a solid missionary though and I'm glad he's my trainer. He helps me out with the Language, his last comp. was also waiting on his VISA too.

 

We had a really cool experience yesterday. So one of our investigators didn't come to church and they didn't answer their phone, so after church when we were walking around town and visiting people, I had a really strong feeling that we should go talk to them. I didn't even know their names or anything, I just said hey Elder Halverson, who are those people that didn't come to church today? He said it was the Jone's. I told him i felt like we should go stop by. So we went to their house, and it turns out that Mr. Jones's sister was beaten by her son with a hammer the night before, and she is on life support and they don't know what will happen because her forehead is crushed. So scary. He was so sorry that he didn't come to church and he kept apologizing for being rude, but we talked with him for a good while about how everything will be alright and that we are here to help him with anything he needs. We gave him a DVD about Christ and bore our testimonies. It was a really cool experience, I'm hoping that he will watch the video with his family and come to church next Sunday I'm really glad we went over and talked to him because otherwise we would have had no idea what was going on. It is amazing to see the Lord's hand at work. I know that we were in the exact right place at the right time so that we could go talk to him and leave him with a spiritual message.

 

Today is my Dad's birthday! I really love my dad. I wish I had a birthday present haha but I guess this letter will have to do! Happy birthday dad I hope you have a great day. Hopefully you will at least get to go golfing or something :)

 

I'm so excited to serve! I'm not sure how long I'll be in Montana but I am going to work as hard as i can and make the most of it while I'm here. This is precious time and I want to make the Lord proud. I will send pictures when I figure out how to make this computer work, for some reason it won't read my SD card but I will figure it out.

 

My challenge for all of you this week is to look for ways to serve others around you and take every opportunity you can to help people, even in seemingly insignificant ways. Most of the blessings we receive from the Lord are through other people. You never know when something you do for someone is an answer to their prayers. I love you all so much and can't wait to hear from you. Thank you for all the love and support! Tchau!

 

Elder Kyle Payne