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 #34

Hello everyone!

Man this week has been crazy. It has probably been the busiest week on my mission so far! As Zone leaders we have had so much going on and I'm super tired. It kinda stinks though because since we have so much to do for the zone we don't get to work in our own area as much. But there are still some great things going on and we're excited. We have 2 investigators on date and I can't wait for them! It will be awesome. But in the past two weeks as a zone, we have gone from 5 investigators on date to 22!!! It's amazing!!! We have really worked with the elders and sisters here to commit their investigators to baptism and things are going great. The Stake and wards are helping so much too. But 22 investigators on date is a record high for the Helena Stake! I am totally bragging about it haha but I don't care I'm just so excited for the missionary work here!!!!

Me and Elder Payne had to speak at Stake Conference this weekend. That went really well! We talked about missionary work of course ;) and at the Adult Session we did a training model to demonstrate how we teach and how the members can be more effective and open to their friends about the gospel. It was awesome.

But we spent a lot of time preparing for that, as well as for the other things we had to do this week. Today we had to give discussions at both of the district meetings, tomorrow we have a New Missionary Training Conference, and next week me and Elder Payne are training the zone at Zone Training and then we have Leadership Council, so we are really busy preparing for all of that plus we are working with all of our investigators here so between everything we've been pretty busy. I'm sleeping really well at night though haha ;)

Me and Elder Payne get a lot of crap for our last names though! Everybody thinks they're suuuuper clever for coming up with nicknames haha. Like whenever we walk in somewhere people are like oh watch out here comes the Payne, or double the Payne, Payne squared, Paynes in the butt, it never ends. But it's all good. But the Temple President calls us Elder Payne the Great and Elder Payne the Wonderful. I guess that's better than being big and little payne.

Anyways, we're really working with our investigators read the book of Mormon and gain their own testimony. It's very important that they do it for themselves and not for us or for another person. We're also helping one of our investigators stop smoking and chewing tobacco! Man it's super hard for them to give it up but the Lord really is providing a way for them! We've seen many miracles so far.

Well, now I have actually heard something about my Visa! At this point we are just waiting for it to be mailed to the Mission Home, then at the next Brazilian transfer I will leave (if everything goes according to plan). I am going to have a hard time leaving Montana though. I love it here so much.

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

Love,

Elder Payne