WEEK #73

Friends and Family,

Sorry I didn't get to email yesterday, there was a problem at the Lan-house and the Internet was down so we couldn't email unfortunately. So we went to Cuiabá instead and went to this park where you can feed monkeys and stuff! It was pretty sweet, it is crazy to me how smart the monkeys are! They are also thieves,so we have to be careful with our stuff. We went with the Assistants and also some sister missionaries from our zone and from the Industriario Zone, it was way fun. Elder J. Batista got poop thrown at him by one of the monkeys, apparently he made the monkey mad. The monkey just started pooping in his hand and throwing it at him, I about died laughing!!! I thought it only happened in movies and stuff haha. I will send some photos.

Oh so I actually have big news! Elder Nere got transferred last Monday night after pday, and I got a new companion...... ELDER WATCHMAN!!! My MTC companion! We were both so excited haha it has been so fun! Our whole missions we have been talking about how we want to be companions again and how it would be tons of fun, and then all of the sudden it happened! So now we are both zone leaders here in the Cuiabá Zone. It was kind of crazy though, because we had Zone Meeting last Tuesday, so Watchman got here at like 11 pm Monday night and had to prepare a training to give to the zone for Tuesday morning. It went well though. The trainings we gave were cool, but we decided to do an activity at the zone meeting as well. Since it is a new transfer and one of our goals was unity between missionaries in the zone, we split up into 4 groups and then each missionary took turns telling their conversion story, why they are on a mission, biggest thing they have learned since coming on the mission, and also the funniest moment/experience of their mission. It turned out really well and created lots of new friendships. It was tons of fun! One of our other goals is to mark more baptismal dates with investigators, as well as follow up with them every day on their commitments and how they are doing to prepare for baptism. Our zone had a goal to get 20 baptisms this transfer, so we will see how it goes! I feel like things will go really well, the zone seems super excited and ready to work.

So the other big news this week was that Alexandre was baptized on Saturday! It was an awesome experience! It was also pretty stressful, nobody from the Bishopric showed up for the baptism even though we invited them, so nobody was there to open and fill up the baptismal font. But luckily the elders in the other ward had a baptism as well and their bishop showed up with the keys, so its all good. We ended up combining the two baptismal services, so there were a lot of people and lots of support for them. Alexandre is super awesome, I'm so happy for him and for the decision he made to follow Christ! He will be an awesome member of the church and bless his family forever. He will be receiving the priesthood here pretty soon, so that will be another big milestone. We are way excited.

I got food poisoning on Friday, it was awful! Probably the worst I have gotten sick in a long time. Luckily we live on the same lot as a member, so he went and got me some medicine and some Gatorades (which are really expensive here) so it was alright! I just spent all day sleeping practically. But we were still able to go make lots of visits this week and meet with our investigators, but we also did a bit of travelling this week doing baptismal interviews for the other missionaries` investigators. 

Next week we will be going to Caceres and doing divisions with them, and this week we will be going to Imperial and working with the other Elders in the other ward in Várzea Grande. So it should be a pretty busy week as well. It has been super hot lately, yesterday it got up to 41 degrees, I'm not sure how hot that is in Farenheit but it is super hot. Especially when we have to walk like 15 kms every day to visit people, it gets pretty tiring, but its worth it.

Anyways, that about sums up the week. I love this work, so happy to be here in Brazil right now! I hope you all have an amazing week, remember to read your scriptures and say your prayers! :) Love and miss you guys!

Love,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #72

Friends and Family,

Can you believe its August already!?!? I seriously don't know where the time is going. Its passing way too fast in my opinion! But things are going great here, we had some great visits with Alexandre this past week, turns out we misunderstood what he was trying to say about his family. We thought he had family problems meaning that his family didn't want him to get baptized, but what actually happened was that last Friday, the day before the baptism, his uncle suffered an accident and had to have brain surgery and is now in critical condition at the hospital in Cuiaba. So there was just a lot going on and it wasn't the best time to be baptized. But we taught the Plan of Salvation to him again and focused on eternal families and that everything happens for a reason, I think he really enjoyed the lesson. He has progressed so much and is now saying prayers in church and is talking more openly about religion and his feelings, I know the Lord has prepared him to be baptized! He has become a very good friend to me and I cant wait for him to be baptized. We had lunch with him and his girlfriend and her family yesterday, then after we played Monopoly with them for a while, it was a lot of fun haha. This may be bragging, but I completely dominated in the Monopoly game, at the end I had more money than the bank did! haha. But I deserved to win though, because I lost pretty bad playing soccer with them before lunch haha.

So tomorrow we have Zone Training, everyone in the zone will be coming to our chapel in Mapim for the meeting in the morning. Elder Nere and I will be giving trainings, it should be good. Elder Nere will talk about marking baptismal dates with investigators and also following up every day and leaving commitments to be sure they will keep their baptismal date to help them progress. I will be talking a little about personal development and how we will have more success as missionaries as we practice self discipline and strive to continually learn and better ourselves. 

Last week we had Mission Leadership Council again, once a transfer all the zone leaders and sister training leaders get together with President and discuss ways to improve the mission, it was a pretty good meeting. There were quite a few changes as far as counting numbers and the statistics of the mission, and how we can get rid of some bad "traditions" of the mission. It will be tough but we will make progress slow and steady in the mission.

This transfer we will be working a lot in an area called São Mateus, it is a neighborhood that is part of the Mapim ward right now, but there will be a group opening up there next transfer. A group is smaller than a branch and a ward, so there wont be very many people in the beginning but it should be growing really fast! the area is full of people who are ready to hear the gospel, and in no time it will grow into a branch and then a ward, no doubt. We will be working a ton there getting members together and getting things ready to have Sunday meetings and everything. We already got a missionary house and a house to have Sunday meetings there, and we will work with the ward mission leader a lot to make visits and invite people. It should be good and if all goes well the group will open up next month :)

Anyways, we also met some great families this week and had some awesome lessons, unfortunately none of the new investigators came to church on Sunday. We did our best to invite them and follow up, but maybe next week we will have more success getting people to church. We met a woman named Sandra, who had lessons with the missionaries about 5 months ago but stopped taking the lessons. But we asked if we could visit her and her husband and 7 year old son and she said yes and seemed very receptive, so maybe now she is more prepared to hear the gospel. We will see this week.

But things are going really well here, we will be doing divisions with the Elders in the zone this week and working in their areas, so we will be super busy. Woohoo! 

I hope you all have a great week, I love and miss you all! But at this time in my life I am so grateful to be a missionary, and to have the opportunity to see what the Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ and his Atonement can do for people. It truly is a blessing in our lives. I know that as we live the commandments and do our best to follow the teachings of the Savior, we will receive so many blessings and live happier and richer lives. We are promised by the Lord in the scriptures that even when times get tough or we have a rainy day, we can always count on our Heavenly Father to listen to us and answer our prayers, and that we will receive comfort and help from him. I have felt his love throughout my mission in the hardest of times, and I know these things to be true. The Lord always keeps his promises.

Love,
Elder Kyle Payne

Pictures!

Caught in a Rainstorm!

WEEK #71

Hello fwends and famwy!

So I don't have a ton of time today, we have lots to do. We got transfer calls last night, I will be staying here in Mapim with Elder Nere for another transfer. I'm excited it should be good! But the thing is, our ward has two companionships so it is divided into two areas. But this transfer one of the areas is being shut down, so me and Elder Nere will be taking over both of the areas, so there will be lots more walking and working in new areas this next transfer! We figured out it takes about 4 hours to walk from one side of our area to the other now. 

Elder man Elder Moody is getting transferred to Ponta Porã! I will miss him for sure, it has been really fun living with him this past transfer, we had some way good times! He is going to first ward in Ponta, but I knew a lot of people in that ward as well so he will tell everyone hi for me, I told him to send my love to everyone down there. Elder Blalock who lived with us is going to Campo Grande in the south, it will be good for him he will be with a Brazilian now so he will pick up the language faster.

We will be moving houses this week, but first we have to find one and get it approved, it is a huge hassle here haha its been a pain in the butt. But we will find one for sure.

So Alexandre didn't end up getting baptized, I was a little bummed out but I think its for the best! We just remarked his baptismal date for this next Saturday or possibly the next one. Not everyone in his family approved of his decision and he felt like he wanted to take care of things and get it worked out before he got baptized, to avoid hard feelings and confrontation. He will be the only member in his family so it is a huge leap of faith for him. But we didn't find out until Friday night while we were waiting for him to show up for the baptism interview. But we will meet with him this week and straighten everything out, I have a lot of faith in him. He asked me to baptize him so it will really be an honor for me. Hopefully we can make it happen this week.

The past week was kind of crazy getting things ready for transfers and with divisions, so our numbers weren't as high as they usually are but we still taught a decent amount of lessons. We are going to be super busy this next week because we are taking over Elder Moody's and Blalocks area and investigators, so we will be getting to know a lot of new people and hopefully we can mark some more baptismal dates. 

We had some good experiences this past week though, Elder Moody and I got stuck in a huge tropical storm on our way back home the other night, it took us forever to get back because the streets turned into rivers practically, we got drenched. I´ll attach a photo. 

Anyways, that about sums up the week, we have a lot on our plate this next transfer but I'm ready! I hope you all have an amazing week, thank you for the love and support. 

Com muito amor,

Elder Kyle Payne

WEEK #70

Friends and Family,

I hope you all had a great week! I heard it is pretty hot back in the States as well, so we are both in the same boat! It has been super hot this past week as well, but it is winter so it isn't as hot as it usually is. But here in the winter the air gets super dry compared to what we are used to, so we have been getting dry throats and bloody noses and stuff. Its been pretty fun! haha. I think it has been in the high 80s in Fahrenheit, but it seems much hotter because of the clothes we have to wear and how much we walk. 

So we are going to have a baptism this Saturday, it will be awesome! Alexandre accepted our invitation to be baptized last week and we set the date for this Saturday, he is so awesome! He is so prepared by the Lord to be baptized at this time in his life. He has 23 years, so its been pretty cool teaching someone that's pretty much our age. He has been progressing very well, he remembers everything we teach and has been reading the scriptures and coming to church. We are so excited for him. Also he will get the priesthood which will be a huge blessing in his life.

We didn't end up going to Caceres last week, there were a lot of problems with getting a bus and working it out with the Elders there and their schedule, so we are just going to do it next transfer instead. Also we haven't been able to move into our new house because we haven't been able to get the elders from the office to come approve the house. So we will keep trying! There are some pretty nice houses though that we have in mind so hopefully we can work something out.

Eder, our recent convert, is doing very well. He is going to all of the youth activities and everyone is welcoming him into the ward. Also Gabrielly and Kevin, who were baptized last transfer, are still doing very well and are still coming to church. We visit them a couple times per week. 

We have been trying to work smart this transfer as well, working with members and trying to reactivate families as well. We have met some amazing people and have learned so much from them! We have been visiting a member named Alice, she has terminal cancer but is the one of the bravest and nicest women I have ever met! We have been working with her granddaughter Jaqueline who is less active in the church. She is very receptive to us and is starting to think about life in a different frame of mind because of her grandmothers situation. She came to church one time but is still hesitant about coming every week, but we will keep working with her as well.

This week we are going to focus on getting Alexandre to the waters of baptism and work on finding new investigators and setting everything up for next transfer so we can hit the ground running. We will get transfer calls on Sunday so we will see what happens! I think I will get transferred, one of the Assistants told us that we need to prepare things for the next Zone Leader that comes into the area. So I think either me or Elder Nere will leave.

We have still been teaching quite a few lessons but when we have gone back to visit them they haven't kept any commitments or aren't available to meet with us again, so we have dropped quite a few investigators. But we still have a good teaching pool and are focusing on them.

Today we are going to Cuiabá to play futebol and have a churrasco with the Elders in the other Zone there, so it should be pretty fun! It will be good to see Elder Watchman and Rasmussen from my group again.

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

Love,

Elder Kyle Payne

Pictures!

Zona Cuiabá

Baptism of Eder 

This is Rafa.  He lives with us and eats the spiders in our house. 

View of Cuiaba

Kyle and Elder Nere at the Pantanal Stadium in Cuiaba.

Veo da Noiva

Chapada

WEEK #69

Hello everyone!

Sorry I didn't get to email yesterday, we left early to go to a place called Chapada, it is a city/national park outside of Cuiabá that has some awesome waterfalls and views, so we spent most of the day there and didn't get back in time to email. But I included pictures, it was absolutely beautiful!

So last week was really good, we had a baptism on Friday it was a really good experience. It was so awesome to see Eder follow Christs example and be baptized! He will be an awesome missionary one day! The Young Mens president baptized him in Friday then Confirmed him on Sunday. There were also a TON of people at his baptism, some members brought cake and hot dogs and soda, so it was really good to have the ward involved. 

We are all a little bit relieved that the world cup is over! I am kind of sad though, it was tons of fun and just super crazy. But it will be nice for things to go back to normal. 

Last week we found some new investigators, but they didn't come to church on Sunday so we are going to visit them this week try to help them come to church next Sunday. It will be hard though, we are going to be doing lots of divisions this week. Tomorrow we are going to Cuiabá to go to the District Meeting of one of the districts there, me and Elder Nere will be giving a training. Then on Friday we are going to another city called Cáceres for a few day with the Elders there, it should be a lot of fun. Also the missionaries there told us thatFriday night there will be a huge Churrasco so we will bring some money to pitch in. He said it will be the best churrasco of our missions so we will see! haha :)

We are going to be moving houses pretty soon, Elder and Sister Davis (The new Senior missionary couple) came and inspected our house and were absolutely horrified haha. We have plants growing out of the tile, termites eating all of our doors and door jams, we don't have any way of getting clean water, pigeons live in our roof, there is water damage in all the walls, the list goes on! haha. So instead of trying to pay and get the place fixed up, we are just going to be on the lookout for new houses in the area to rent. So hopefully we can find one close for a good price and get it approved.

This is already the 5th week of the transfer, so we are going to be working hard to find new investigators and set things up for next transfer so it will be a good one! I think I might be getting transferred, but we will see. Who knows. But the new American that arrived last week his name is Elder Blalock, he is from Mississippi. It is fun having him in the house, so now we have 3 Americans and 1 Brazilian in the house, which is really rare for this mission. But its been fun so far.

Kind of a cool story really quick, so we found a new investigator last week, her name is Ana Paula. She works at the hair salon we got our haircut, and we just started talking to her and she asked us questions about where we were from, what we do, etc. Turns out, her sister is dating a member in one of the other wards here in Varzea Grande, so she was already a little curious. She loves to talk and joke around so we had some good conversations with her then just gave her a card and our number. We invited her to church and said we will pass by the salon and visit her again. She came to church with her sister on Sunday, so that was really cool! We are going to start teaching her this week. But it is just kind of cool how the Lord puts people in our path, even when we just go out to get a haircut. 

Anyways, I hope you all have a great week, I love you and miss you guys! 

Love,

Elder Kyle Payne