WEEK #4

Hey Everyone!

Holy cow time is just flying! I can't believe it's P-Day again. This week just flew by. Well life at the MTC has pretty much been the same, but I had a couple way cool experiences. The coolest one is that on Tuesday night at the devotional, Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve came and spoke to us!!! It was so cool to hear his voice. We were on the third row so we were way close to him. He made eye contact with me a bunch of times :) haha. He spoke most of the time on prayer, and how important it is to keep that channel open with God. We NEED to communicate with him. He is waiting to pour out blessings on us, we just need to be obedient and talk to him. It was funny, because after he finished his talk we sang a hymn and a Sister missionary was going up to say the closing prayer, but elder Scott jumped out of his seat and told her to sit back down and he went back to the podium and spoke for another few minutes. It was cool though I've never seen an apostle do that. He said he felt prompted to speak more and that he felt like someone needed to hear his last message. That was definitely me! Haha. He gave all of us an Apostolic blessing, that was probably the coolest thing I've ever experienced! I've never felt the spirit so strong in my life. He promised that the burden of learning the language will be eased as we continually pray and work hard. I love the apostles!

I seriously can't explain how much I love learning about the gospel! We have been teaching a lot and 2 of our investigators committed to baptism! They aren't real investigators but still, we have been teaching them for weeks and we have been making progress, now finally we got them to baptism :) Baptism is only the beginning though. Tomorrow we have to teach a real investigator in one of our training exercises. I'm pretty nervous but I think we will do good. We are planning on just getting to know them and talking about the Restoration and a little about the Plan of Salvation, depending on who we teach.

  Also this week I have been learning a lot about Joseph Smith. I love Joseph and I'm so grateful for his sacrifice. He gave his life for the building up of the Kingdom of God. I encourage you all to watch the Joseph Smith restoration movie. I love it. We watched it in Portuguese on Sunday and amazingly I could understand almost everything they were saying! I can understand a lot of Portuguese it just takes me a little longer to put together sentences and build sentences. I'm getting better though. It really is awesome teaching in another language. Because even though our Portuguese isn't the best, the people we teach can still understand our message and feel the spirit. My favorite thing is bearing my testimony in Portuguese. I just let the spirit guide me as to what to say and it almost always goes along perfectly with what our investigators needed to hear at that time. Cool stuff.

Well none of us have gotten our VISA's yet, so we are most likely getting reassigned stateside until they get here. I will find out where my reassignment is next week. I'm excited, it will be cool to serve stateside and get the hang of missionary work in my own language. Everything will work out how it's supposed to.

Well everyone, I love you all so much and I'm so grateful for your love and support! My challenge for you this week is to take a few minutes, when it's quiet and there aren't any distractions, and say a prayer of gratitude to your Heavenly Father. Don't ask for anything this time. Only thank him for everything you have been blessed with. I promise you will feel closer to Him and you will be more grateful for everything you have. I did it, and I can tell you that we all have so much to be grateful for. He has given us so much.

I love this gospel so much and I am so grateful for the influence it has on my life. We can experience true and lasting happiness if we strive to be obedient and live by the standards of the church. The Book of Mormon is truly another testament of Jesus Christ. I know it. Every time I have a question or am worried about something, I say a prayer and read the Book of Mormon. I receive my answer EVERY time. Guys, the gospel is true. God loves each and every one of us and wants us to talk to him.

Well I'm out of time but I hope to hear from you all soon! Ate mais tarde!

Love, Elder Kyle Payne

  "Olhos fitos na Gloria de Deus" (Eyes fixed on the Glory of God)

PICTURES!

 Elder Cloud

 Arm Wrestling Wound

 Kyle and Elder Lott

 Living Quarters

The MTC District (from left to right)

Back row: Elder Mayolo, Elder Rasmussen, Elder Jackson, Elder Bonaro, Kyle, Elder Watchman, Elder Lott, and Elder Cloud 
Front row: Sister Marion, Sister Kimball, Sister Webb, and Sister Puckett

 Trapped Elder Lott in closet

 Name tag

 Kyle and Elder Watchman (Companion)

 Stretching

 Kyle and Elder Watchman (Companion)

Kyle and Elder Watchman (Companion)

WEEK #3

Hey everyone!

I wanted to thank you all for the letters and packages! It's so nice to get mail. I have gotten the half way care package and the salsa! Thank you. It's so crazy to think that I'm over the hump and only have 2 and a half weeks left here! Time at the MTC is so weird. It feels like P-Day was just yesterday. The weeks are flying.

Well this week has been pretty normal, except for General Conference! I hope you all enjoyed watching conference because I sure did! I learned more from this conference than I ever have in my life. It seemed like almost every talk had a message for me and I took a lot out of them. I especially liked President Uchtdorf's talk in Priesthood session. He is such a powerful speaker. They were all good though. I loved when President Monson told the story about him setting the grass on fire! It is funny to hear the prophet tell stories like that because it makes you realize he is a real person and we can just connect with him more. I love the apostles.

We have been working like mad and studying the language constantly! We wake up around 6:00 every morning so we can avoid the shower line haha. We have breakfast at 7 then we head straight to class for 3 hours. I'm getting used to it though. One cool thing is that one of the speakers at a devotional on Tuesday said that here at the MTC and on your mission, you are literally doing more than your body can physically and mentally handle for such a long period of time. But Heavenly Father strengthens his missionaries so that they can accomplish more than they ever could on their own. That's awesome.

My companion and I have  been working on two investigators (they are just members acting the part). One is named Edgar, he's from Angola. He is so difficult to work with because he doesn't follow through with his commitments because he's so busy with school and work. But he said he wants to know more and keep learning about Jesus Christ. We are praying that we will receive some revelation as to what he needs so that we know what to teach him. He doesn't talk too much. Our other investigator is named Maria, she is awesome! Her husband and her kids are members of the church but she isn't. She has trouble with smoking and alcohol. But she said she wants to break her bad habits and make a change in her life. Perfect opportunity for us! haha. We have been teaching her about the Plan of Salvation, The Atonement of Jesus Christ, Repentance, and Baptism (all in Portuguese!) I was really nervous to teach her about the Word of Wisdom, because I didn't want to offend her. But what we felt like we should do is just ask her questions and tell her that we love her and are there to help her with anything. We want to help her come closer to Christ so that she can be happier. Then once she knew that she just completely opened up to us and told us, and now we are helping her. Even though she's not a "real" investigator, I still get super excited and want to help her so bad! We committed her to go to church on Sunday with her family and smoke less and less every day until this Saturday. Saturday will be her last cigarette (hopefully) We shared some great scriptures with her explaining that Heavenly Father promises to bless her if she keeps his commandments.

I got to host new missionaries coming into the MTC on Wednesday, that was really fun! I saw a few buddies from school and met new people. I hosted an elder coming all the way from New Zealand and he had THE coolest accent haha. It was fun to just show them the MTC and encourage them because they just left their families and are pretty overwhelmed, but they're all super excited and ready to get to work.

Some of the elders in our district have gotten sick, and I've been able to give them priesthood blessings. They have been really cool experiences. Can you believe how many missionaries are out in the field now? 65,000 full time missionaries and 20,000 more have their calls. I heard BYU is going to be using their student housing to house some of the missionaries in the next few months because they won't be able to fit here at the MTC. Crazy.

I'm praying super hard for my VISA to come! Only one person in our whole branch has gotten their VISA but they went through the San Francisco Consulate. Nobody from the L.A. consulate has gotten theirs yet. But everything will work out how it's supposed to :)

Well I don't have too much time I have to go finish laundry and get ready for the temple, but this week my challenge to all of you is to pick one talk from this General conference or any other general conference, and look for ways that it applies to you and how you can improve. It will only take 10 minutes, but I promise you that you will find something significant to you and you will be inspired. I know this gospel is true and I know that the power of the Priesthood is very real. God is our LOVING Heavenly Father and has blessed us so much. We all have so much to be thankful for. I know that the gospel blesses and changes lives. It has already changed my life.

I love you all so much and hope to hear from you soon!

Ate mais tarde! Tchaou!

-Elder Payne

Kyle's District at Provo Temple

Kyle is on crutches from when he hurt his knee.

Kyle and his companion Elder Watchman

WEEK #2

Boa Tarde Everyone!

I can't believe I've been here for over 2 weeks now. Time here is so weird! It really is as they say: The days are long but the weeks go by fast. Well, hopefully I'll be able to answer all of your questions! Life at the MTC is really good but really weird. I'm still getting used to all the rules haha. I like being productive and everything but here there is literally no time for anything! Every minute of our day is planned out. It's a blessing though because that way we don't waste any time and we accomplish a lot. We have Elders in my room, which is typical. Some Elders have to have 6 people in a room. Luckily I don't. Everyone is waiting for our Visas. It's like a miracle when someone gets a visa to Brazil. i think there has only been one person in my whole branch who has gotten theirs. I will probably be reassigned stateside for a month or two until it comes, but that's okay I will go wherever the Lord wants me to go. My Portuguese is coming along pretty well! The thing I'm working on right now is teaching the lessons more in depth and asking questions. We teach several investigators and it's really important to ask them questions instead of just saying your memorized lines. Some of the investigators talk waaayyyy fast but I can understand most of what they say. The worst is when they ask me a question and I understand it, and I know the answer, but I just don't know how to say it in Portuguese. It's really frustrating. So when that happens I just say I'll find the answer and let them know next time. Learning a language is so hard! Haha now I'm starting to envy the English Speaking missionaries. Just kidding :)

Today is my P-Day, it's so nice. We don't have class or anything until after dinner. So it's up to us what we do throughout the day in our free time. I really think you have more free time in prison than at the MTC! Haha. I always joke around that this place is basically a prison but everyone is happy! Somehow I'm in Happy Prison. Just kidding it's not that bad :) I have to teach a lesson to a new investigator tonight and we haven't prepared very well. I'm nervous! Haha. My District went to the temple today and it was such a cool experience. Every time I go back I learn something new.

Well I'm pretty much best friends with the Elders in my district we have a ton of fun! I'm meeting people from all over the world it's awesome. Also, Easter was awesome here! We got to here from a member of the Seventy and my district and I were on like the third row. I went up afterwards and shook his hand and talked to him for a bit. It was really cool. I learned so much about Jesus Christ and gained a deeper love for him and his atonement.

Oh also they pretty much give the worst haircuts here. The guy who cut my hair was bald though, so he was probably just jealous and took his frustration out on my hair. Just kidding it's not that bad. But it kind of is. haha

What has really hit me this week has been service! There are so many opportunities to serve others we just have to notice them. This week almost every member of my district has gotten sick, germs spread like crazy here. First it was my roommate Elder Lott then his companion Elder Cloud, then I got it then the elders in our district in the dorm next to us all got it. It was like a flu/sore throat/cough. Super fun. But we all gave each other blessings and we are doing good now.

I'm so excited for General Conference tomorrow and Sunday. It will be weird not to be at home to watch it with family and grazing on food all day haha. But there is a lot of support here at the MTC so it will be really good. I need to start writing down everyone's questions when you write me so that I can answer them. I don't have a ton of time to email so I am typing like a mad man haha. But I will send pictures as soon as I figure out how to do it on these dumb computers haha.

I just want to leave you with my testimony (you better get used to this) :)
I know that this gospel has been fully restored to the earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I know that God sent his son, our brother Jesus Christ to atone for our sins. Through him we can be clean from sin and return to live with our heavenly father again. I know that the Book of Mormon contains everything we need to continue to progress and receive inspiration. Heavenly Father loves us so much and wants to bless us. He will bless us more than we can imagine as long as we are faithful and are doing our best. I love this gospel and can't wait to share it with others and help them come closer to Christ and their Heavenly Father.

I will also leave you with my simple testimony in Portuguese:
Eu se que O Evengelho de Jesus Cristo e verdaderio e fortelece as familias. Eu se que O Livro de Mormon contem a plentitude du Evangeho, e as palavras de Deus e as Profetas. Atreves a Expiasao de Jesus Cristo, nos podemos receber bencaos e vida eterna. Dizo estas coisas em nome de Jesus Cristo, Amem.

My challenge to all of you this week is to look for ways to serve one another. Turn your thoughts and efforts OUTWORD rather than INWARD. I promise you will gain a greater appreciation for each other and it will bring you much joy. I love each and every one of you so much and I'm so grateful for your love and support. Thank you for the letters and care packages! I love hearing from you.

Ate Mais! (Until Later!)

Love,
Elder Payne

Kyle's MTC District