Elder Zachary Payne

Elder Zachary Payne

Monday, July 2, 2012

Apostles in the house! + happy 4th of July! + second half of MTC!

Hows it going everyone! I'm writing early this week because our distric gets to clean the temple this afternoon! I'm stoked for that! sounds like dad's been having a lot to deal with lately...keep it up though and stay positive! haha that's no good to hear the mountains on fire. there's actually a wildfire over here too. it's on Eagle Peak (I think) and all of provo is blanketed with smoke. it's really eerie...in the afternoon when the sun shines thru the smoke and dark clouds, it makes everything look like a red-orange color, and at the same time there are little bits of white ash snowing down on us. its kind of cool! in other news, I fixed that loose button on my suit last monday. it turned out pretty good! I just completely re sewed it back on. oh and I realized that my copy of my patriarchal blessing is the one that has the wrong birthday on it. haha oh well! on wednesday for our service activity, Elder Von Kampen and I put up all the different flags of the countries of missionaries that come to the MTC (on the flag poles by 19m and 1m, hopefully KP and QP know what I'm talking about). It was pretty cool! For the tuesday night devotional, there were 10 apostles seated up on the stand with there wives, and Elder L. Tom Perry spoke to us. unfortunately our district had class right before, so we had to go to overflow in another building. we didn't get to see all the apostles, and some people were angry and upset. but I was just happy they were here to support us and all the new mission presidents. afterwards we saw elder anderson and elder bednar while we were waiting in the dinner line. we waved to them as if we had our "we love apostles!" t shirts on. it was cool! yesterday we watched a couple mormon messages, and I got to show the district Same Jersey and For Madison. it was cool to say "yeah dude I know all these people!" and start naming them off haha everyone was all impressed that we have three mormon messages for our little area. I even got to actually show them my high school and ea's football field and the thatcher stake center haha. I'll show them the temple cultural celebration one some other time. we're famous! Anyway, I hope everyone has an awesome independence day! I'll miss being there for that, but I'm used to missing it with all those efy's I went too haha. you know what would be cool is if I could get some printed pictures of the family or something. everyone else around here has them haha. Oh and is there any report on how FBLA nationals 2012 went this year? and I also need Michael Ziccarelli's address so I can write him! shoot well I guess it would be cool to let y'all know what I'm actually doing here, so I'll just hit the highlights of life at the MTC:

- Elder V.K. and I will have 5 investigators this week, but we only have time for about 12 lessons a week (all in 100% spanish of course!)
- We average about 6 hours of class per day (two 3 hour chunks) where we teach, learn spanish, learn the Fundamentals and PMG, and read the BofM in spanish
- We have a service activity once a week
- 1 hour of personal study per day
- 1 hour of language study per day
- 1 hour of TALL lab (Technology Assisted Language Learning on computers)
- 1 hour of gym time except mondays and sundays...for gym you can either go to the inside gym (19m) or out on the field across the street. inside you can run, play basketball, 4 square, lift weights, and even yoga/pelates. outside you can run, play SOCCER, more 4 square, baseball, frisbee golf, and even beach volleyball! (volleyball in sand pits) it's a blast!
- the bookstore in 2m has everything you'll ever need
- other fun things include: meals, devotionals, workshops, temple, laundry, sunday meetings, temple walks, and the Teaching Resource Center where we get to know real members and give them a spiritual thought (in spanish of course!)
- Daily planning (30 mins each day) and Weekly planning (about 2 hours each saturday)
And if there's anything else you want to know, just ask!

Well my time is out, but I just want to let you all know that I know this church is true! I cannot deny it! Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration, and Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He knows you, even when no one else does. I promise he can heal your life, but the thing is, you need to unlock your own heart from the inside and let Him in (revelation 3:20). Be strong this week! I love you all! thank you :)

con amor,
Elder Payne :)

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