Dedication Sunday

Howdy! Has Thatcher had a complete make over yet? Haha well I've actually only met a handful of people that know where Thatcher is. It's proabably because we talk to YSA and a ton of young people. Once I get transferred to a family ward I'll probably meet some more Thatcherites. Anyway, let me tell you about our car. We love our car because our area is ginormous! We're so blessed. We have a 2010 Ford Fusion. Elder Gomez says it's "pewter" which is almost the same color as the Tahoe. It's nice! We have to track all our miles and gasoline and things like that. There's a meter that tells us our time useage...we've been driving for about 120 hours the past 8 weeks! yikes! and we've traveled well over 1600 miles, which somehow averages to about 35 ish miles a day. We get 1000 miles per month. Elder Gomez has never gotten a license, so I've seriously driven more here than I have my whole life! Sometimes when we walk into the house at the end of the day, I'll look up at the sky and see all the stars. The night sky is coming back into alignment for the October sky, which I practically memorized last year in Astronomy. Unfortunately I've practically forgot everything! Ugh it's ridiculous I'm going to re learn it when I get home sometime. haha

Well shoot this past week has been pretty crazy! We doubled our lessons with members present, but we've had to drop four investigators. They're just not ready yet! During one of the lessons with a girl named Sophie, Elder Gomez got a bloody nose right as he started talking about the Book of Mormon. Just a random, uncalled for bloody nose right as he started talking. So he went to clean it up and and the lesson went in a completely different direction. Apparently our lesson plan wasn't right, so Heavenly Father had to divert the whole lesson. The problem was that she had some questions that kind of threw us off. They were completely contrary to what we thought she needed, so we sort of half way answered the questions and half way stuck to our plan. Well, that obviously didn't work. Her problem was that she has had these legitimate questions about the church that no one has ever been able to clearly answer for her. That's what has kept her away...so until she gets answers, she won't open up. She loves to debate, and she even rebuked my own testimony. But I felt complete peace and clarity as she basically told me that I was wrong, and that was evidence to me that Heavenly Father is still in control and her heart is simply closed. The ward mission leader agreed to have her write down her questions and he will answer them for her, no matter what they are. So basically we handed her completely over to him, so we're not teaching her anymore, but her need is being met. Even though that lesson was kind of a fiasco, it went completely according to Heavenly Father's plan! It was pretty cool!

The other evening we knocked on a member's door to see if we could find any referrals. Well, he let us in, and of course he had two free style rappers over for the night, recording some songs! Obviously they're black, and we got to meet them. We talked about missions and what not, and they were super cool with everything. When we left, the member asked us for a Book of Mormon to give to them. We listened to part of one of their songs. Turns out their songs are super clean and talk about God and stuff, so he thought that it might be a good opportunity. Well he ended up forgetting about it and they didn't get the book haha, but I still liked his willingness to share the gospel. And right after that we helped this super drunk guy throw away his empty Smirnoff bottle and beer box haha. He was real nice to us and shook my hand like 8 or 9 times haha.

On Wednesday we had three zones go to the St. George temple for a session! It was so amazing. President Leonard talked to all of us in the waiting room chapel and told us to ponder about the 5 covenants throughout the session. His little talk and advice really put me into the right mindset, and I seriously learned more in that one session than I have the past 30 or so times that I've gone. It was amazing! Plus the St. George temple is beautiful and is rich with history. It's where the founding fathers appeared to Wilford Woodruff...it's known as "Joseph's Temple"...and apparently it's even where one of my own ancestors helped to build a stair case! haha it was amazing. Afterwards we took a picture and ate pizza. I got to talk to Elder Killian which was sweet. He's my only MTC buddy that I've seen since I've been in the field. He's doing great!

So yeah yesterday was dedication Sunday! It was the dedication of the Brigham City temple, and they broadcasted it to the entire state of Utah...so basically our sacrament attendance was shot for the week haha. But it was amazing! There were three sessions, just like the Gila Valley temple dedication. President Packer presided, put in the mortar, and offered the dedicatory prayer in the first session. He cracked a few jokes here and there haha which is always fun. He's really getting up there in age...he's stuck in a wheel chair and has gained quite a bit of weight. But his spirit is stronger than ever. It was cool to watch him in put the mortar in while in his wheel chair haha and his sweet little old wife scooted over there with her cane and put some in too. He and his wife were both born within a mile of the Brigham City temple, and when the temple was announced, he prayed to the Lord that he would live to see it's dedication. Well, prayer answered! His home temple is finally up and running. I'm not sure how much president Packer has left, but he has basically fulfilled his last dream. I learned that temple work is only one half of the work, and family history is the other half. It's like baptism and confirmation...you need to do both! But yeah when I was born there were 44 or so temples. Now we've dedicated the 139th temple. There were like 35 dedicated in the year 2000. Good old President Hinckley!

Well that's all from Elder Payne this week! Tune in next time for another great episode. Love you guys!

Elder Payne!