...and a Happy New Year!

Hi family! It's Elder Payne again! So skype was fun right? I though so anyway haha. It was kinda weird though because right as I started realizing I was actually talking to my family and started getting into it, my time was up haha. I should've had Elder Ramirez speak-a-da-spanish to you guys, and I should have spoken some too haha. I also wish I would have talked about all the cool stories and baptisms I've experienced.... Oh well! It was cool either way haha so thanks for the awesome Christmas present!! As for baby payne I was thinking either Luiz Javier or Taylor Spencer. Either one works for me :) haha

So it's been kind of a slow week as far as the work goes since lots of people are out of town and what not. We basically had two full Pdays on the 24th and 25th. It was fun at first but got real boring by the time Christmas night came haha. I was excited to get back to work! We spent a lot of time at the institute at SUU playing pool and air hockey and foosball and basketball. You could have probably guessed that we play a lot of church ball over here in Utah. I'm getting better at it...in fact I can dunk it now! Well almost. Anyway the next two days are going to be about the same...not much going on. We do get to watch the Lion King tonight though!! We're so pumped! Finishing off another year with the Lion King as a missionary in Utah has been one of my greatest dreams that I never dreamed of!

We've been working really diligently with Angie these past few weeks. We found out that things are going well with the courts and she should be getting her four rowdy kids back within a month or so! Sweet! The blessings are beginning to out weigh her trials now....the end (or should I say the beginning) is in sight for her. The only thing holding her back right now from baptism is her boyfriend that lives with her. His name is Tyron, and at first he just sat in the back and didn't say anything. Now he's sitting in on the lessons and is fully engaged. We'll probably be picking him up as a new investigator pretty soon. They both made it to church yesterday! Unfortunately in Angie's situation with the courts, getting married would severely damage her case (she has charges of being with lots of guys or something like that). Anyway, Tyron has agreed to move out. We're not sure when or where, but we're working on it. Once it happens, Angie can follow through with baptism. We're so excited! Tyron has a lot of support for Angie. They both speak Navajo by the way which I think is pretty cool haha.

In other cool news this week, we picked up two new investigators...Nate who is 15 and Cody who is 17. Cody's not too interesting in converting right now but wants to learn and match up our beliefs with his. Nate on the other hand just moved with his family from Las Vegas. He took pretty much all the lessons over there and almost got baptized. He wants to get baptized with us! Awesome! Also we went to a dinner out in the boonies this week and this relief society president lady has a couple of Irish Wolfhounds, one of the bigger dogs in the world. They're huge! they looked like a couple of polar bear horses as we pulled up haha we almost threw a saddle on them!

So I was just wondering if KP or QP ever served in leadership positions on their missions. I don't even remember haha. DL's? ZL's? I know they weren't ever AP's though. I haven't been called as one or anything, I was just wondering what kind of experience it was for you guys. District Leader in the MTC consisted of getting mail and conducting class haha that's all. So if you have any input on that please share!

Well thanks again everyone it was great to see all of you!! Have a happy new year and a great week and remember that spiritually minded is life eternal!

Elder Payne :)