Elder Bednar!!

Hey everyone! Gosh what a week! So on Saturday Elder Stephens and I drove down to Salina for the big and 1st ever mission conference! We ended up getting there an hour early haha but that's okay because we got to see everyone in the whole mission! crazy!! So eventually Elder Bednar walked in followed by his sweet wife, Elder Whitney L. Clayton and his wife. We all stood up and showed our reverence as one of the most pure forms of the Holy Ghost filled the room. That man is astounding! So much authority and dignity, and yet so much humility. The latter three spoke first, sharing their testimony and adding the importance to be ready to listen to an apostle of the Lord. Elder Clayton added that the keys of the dispensation of the fullness of times was in that little chapel with us, and that there ought to be a sense of awe and preparation.

Soon enough, Elder Bednar got up to speak with us. I say "with" because that's exactly what he did! He didn't give us a "talk" and instead taught us how we ought to use our agency to volunteer and speak up and participate in the meeting. Then he started asking us inspired questions. Prior to the conference, he had requested that everyone read and study three of his past talks. The questions were based on what we learned from those talks. Anyway the idea was to get us to act in faith by raising our hands and opening our mouths, and then the power of the Holy Ghost would come after.

So that's how the meeting went. He would ask us a question, he would pick a volunteer, listen to their answer, ask another couple follow up questions, and then add his own testimony and insight. We did that for several minutes and then he changed it up and this time we got to ask him the questions! He told us to ask truly inspired questions because...well, we won't get an opportunity to ask an apostle a question very often. What would you ask an apostle if you had only one chance? Anyway we started asking him questions and he would answer them, and he would invite the others on the stand to answer them as well. So profound! I, in the meantime, was trying to think of a good one to ask. Eventually one came to my mind and I started raising my hand, but by then like half of us were raising our hands haha. The Lord rewards the use of quick moral agency without delay or hesitation!

Anyway, I didn't get to ask him my question, but he noted at the end that he wasn't the one answering the questions...it was the Holy Ghost. He asked if any of us had received answers to unasked questions, and most of us had! The Spirit was the true teacher. He added that you don't need an apostle to get answers to your questions. You just need faith, and then you need to exercise that faith, and then you will gain knowledge. That was the whole process of the meeting. We learned because we used our faith by participating. 

Anyway I learned so many things, and I have my own little "small plates" from the meeting. Basically the moral of the story for me was to act. I've learned a ton of things, but I need to apply them more deeply into my life. I've already started to apply the things I've learned, and it's been awesome! We got a mission picture after the meeting, but we haven't got it yet. Oh and after the "Amen" we got to shake E Bednar's hand one by one, and guess who happened to be first in line? Elder Stephens! Which means I was second! (Elder Linville saved us a seat on the first row haha) I finally got to shake an apostle's hand and look him square in the eye. Humbling, but powerful. I'd recommend it if you get the chance. 

Well other than that, we met a guy named Caleb Swallow a few days ago near the Snow campus. He served in Safford for like 9 months from Apr 2011 to Nov 2011 on his mission. It was cool to talk with him about his adventures over there! So does Elder Swallow ring a bell to anyone? Anyway gotta run!

Love,

Elder Payne

 

Happy Labor Day!

Well another week has passed. We were told to email everyone on Tuesday so here we are mom don't worry! It's been a good week! Although we cover 9 wards in our area, the work is off to a slow start. We're not sure what the future of the area will be here soon enough...perhaps a less active area. We get less-active referrals handed to us like candy, but the non-member work is slow! We've gone through family apartments only to find strong members living in them. But it doesn't matter because the work is hastening! Now that doesn't mean that the work in our individual areas is automatically going to explode. With the influx of missionaries, a ton of areas have had to be cut in half, which means the work was too. We're still in the stage where the big change in missionary work is in its infancy...the beta version more or less. But nevertheless and notwithstanding, the work as a whole is going up. More are coming unto and into the gospel than ever before! We have to keep that in our minds, especially when serving in areas like Ephraim! What a great place to serve!

Well with that in mind, we have met a lady who is practically as golden as they get. She moved in from California about the same time I got here. Her name is Chelsea, probably in her 60's or so. Such a great lady! Very well-mannered and regal and sociable. She's a non member, and just before she moved here she started talking with missionaries. She's super curious about mormons and wants to learn just the basics. She's been coming to church on her own and is developing relationships with ward members. She's basically her own fellowshipper! It's awesome haha. 

The only thing is that the house she moved into is much less than meets the eye. She was awfully disappointed to say the least, long story short, she has found a new place to move into in Mt. Pleasant, just a few miles north of Ephraim. So she's moving out of our area! Darn! haha but we've been able to answer some questions and gave her some pamphlets and videos. She's really been impacted by the kindness and standards of the people of the church and has gained a love and trust of the members here. She asked us about baptism and jokingly added that she doesn't like the idea of being dunked in water if she decides she wants to "become a mormon." Plus she did mention that she will not give up coffee or wine haha but we won't worry about that yet. Anyway, we're deciding to tread lightly and let her come to us at her own pace and in her time. She's willing to take the lessons from the Mt. Pleasant Elders (E Gomez and Wade!) once she gets moved in. She's moving this Saturday! Such a blessing and privilege to have been placed in her path. We're planting a huge seed for her, and she's thrilled to watch the Testaments tonight! haha she's prepared and ready. Finding the elect is awesome!

A big lesson I've learned on my mission is the principle of quantity vs. quality. I've noticed that a lot of missionaries get out here and focus on the quantity...their motivation is the numbers and the goals. They're successful because of the expectations of leaders. They get lots of baptisms and lots of lessons with a member present and lots of everything. They're really good missionaries! I've taken more the quality approach throughout my mission, meaning I focus more on who I'm teaching and how to make each appointment an effective one. I tend to focus on who I'm working with rather than finding more and more to teach. I want to make sure my converts don't go astray after baptism. I'm not so much concerned about hitting the goal for the month as I am with the investigator truly being ready to covenant with God. It's really helped me develop a lot more charity! But now I feel like I can step it up. I feel like the good thing is quantity, the better is quality, and the best is a balance of both.

Well in other news, we took a Labor Day hike yesterday in a canyon outside of Moroni. We went with Elders Finnie from Canada and Jones from I forgot haha. It was pretty fun! We went exploring and stuff and it wasn't nearly as bad as the hike we did right before I left haha. I'll send some pictures. Also, we're starting to teach a Daniel George, as well as Daniel and George. Two different families. Kinda weird. We went on exchanges this week and I went with Elder Betham for the day! What a clown haha he says he reads my blog every week so at least we have one fan on there mom. Well other than that, guess how many lessons I've taught on my mission so far? Well I did the math from all my planners and as of right this minute I've taught 996 lessons! Join me as I hit the four digit barrier this week! haha well I love you guys and I have hope that you will have a great week!

Love,

Elder Payne

 

Karlie's Baptism!

Hey so we had a pretty good week this last week! First of all thanks for the emails haha I got to watch Bryson eat some cereal which was awesome! I was wondering why in the world mom sent me the scripture about hell fire and damnation until I saw the picture she sent in the other email hahaha "ohhh.." I said. Anyway yeah! So Karlie was baptized on Saturday! Pretty crazy situation there...not as bad as stefani's back in buena vista, but still! So the parents just got divorced not too long ago and the mom got custody of the kids, so they can legally be baptized without their dad's permission (which has been the problem...the dad is super unsupportive and doesn't want Karlie or Keegan who is 8 baptized at all). So we talked with the bishop of the ward about it, and he was fully aware of everything. He called the two parents and on Friday morning, about 26 hours before the baptism, we got a phone call saying that the baptism was off because the bishop wanted the dad to be okay with it. Darn!

So we went through our whole day and come 8:30 at night I felt like we needed to go by the mom's house. We did and said said "what's up? ...did you know the baptism is back on?" What! I guess the dad said okay and either way, Karlie put her foot down and said that she's not going to wait anymore. She's had missionaries teaching her since November and she wanted to be baptized soo bad. So at 9pm we were on for the baptism at 11 the next day! We got everything together and the service was awesome! A family friend Nate Bridges did the baptism. Karlie had the biggest smile on her face when she came up out of the water! It was amazing! Her dad didn't even show up though, so we have no clue what his problem is. But yeah yesterday we did her confirmation. I got to confirm her, what an honor! But to be honest, we didn't even really do anything. Karlie's had missionaries in the double digits. All we did was take care of the record and programs and service. The other missionaries did all the work, and in fact Karlie is the one that did the most of it. She knows what she needs and wants and she's willing to do whatever to achieve that. She's definitely a sharp 10 year old girl! But yeah this was definitely a miracle baptism for us!

So yeah other than that, things are going pretty good! Slowly but surely since the work is pretty slow in this area right now. But either way, we should be having another baptism coming up by the end of the transfer! This transfer's already half over! crazy! We're stoked for September 7th...our first ever Mission Conference with Elder Bednar! Gonna be crazy! It'll be in Salina. I heard from Elder Linville this morning too! He had a miracle baptism as well back in my old area in Buena Vista! Soo awesome, I'm proud of him! We're soo blessed to be in this mission! We have had so much success! We have high expectations, but we should never over look the work we have accomplished. I heard the other day of a member's nephew who served in Hungary and didn't have a single teaching appointment for two whole years! Big difference! So yeah I love this mission to death. I don't care how close I am to home...in fact it makes great comic relief and a nice ice breaker for door contacts. I love serving here!

Have a great week,

Love,

Elder Payne!

Week 2 in Ephraim!

Well it's been a pretty good week up here in Ephraim! Things are still picking up as we get a firm grip on the work in this area. We've talked with a ton of leadership in the stake and have been meeting all kinds of new people, so it's been good! But it's still pretty slow since a lot of appointments have been cancelling, but it's a tough time of year...everyone's trying to squeeze in their last little trips to who knows where before the school year starts up. But yeah we're getting things rolling!

So Elder Wengert took off last monday, so it's just been Elder Stephens and me! We're teaching a few people right now, one of which is the giant polynesian guy in the pictures I sent last week. His name is ILaisia (like Elijah). He's super awesome haha he's basically experienced the first half of Alma 36 in his life, and we're helping make some spiritual changes in his life. From gang banger to.....well hopefully a worthy priesthood holder! He's pretty open with us and doesn't want to get pushed into baptism. He wants to learn and do it when he feels it is right. It's tough though because he plays football at Snow and they've been stacked with two-a-days and weights, but we're gonna meet up tonight and start teaching him for real. 

We're planning on having a baptism this Saturday! Came out of nowhere last week...a bishop stopped us as we were getting in our car and told us about a 10 year old girl that wants to get baptized on the 24th. The parents just got divorced and the mom has custody now, so the way has been opened, but the dad still doesn't want her to be baptized. We'll see how that unfolds this week. 

So fortunately for us, yes they do have a walmart here! It's a compact one, nice and cozy! We also have a car wash right next to the Family History center, and a washer and dryer in our apartment, so P-day chores are a breeze here! Thank goodness! But yeah they have a few good places to eat around here...like the Malt Shop (which Pres Kartchner himself actually recommended to me before I left). It's a lot like Taylor Freeze only better in my opinion. But yeah there's a ton of farming and ranching here. Cows, horses, chickens....but the main industry is none other than a big turkey processing plant in Moroni about 10 miles away from here. Turkeys! I've heard all kinds of stories about how good the BBQ turkey is here, but I have yet to try it! haha

Hey it's good to hear from K...Kyle and Shayla?...wait I mean Ke..Keith and Shauna! Oh yeah you guys! hahaha just kidding! That's great news about Katelyn! Bryson is a stud. As far as the food itself goes here, it's pretty much just an extension of Arizona. The only out of the ordinary food that I've had is Kimchi and frog legs, and I guess lamb. I'm a fan of Oriental food now for the most part. We eat with a hispanic lady and her husband every sunday here, and they make Vegan food for us! which means they can't eat anything that comes from an animal...solamente food from plants. It's actually pretty refreshing. 

Well that's too bad that my box didn't get there! Shoot! It had all my spanish and personal study books that I never used and more importantly some one-of-a-kind gifts for you guys, including QP's birthday present! oh well there's not a whole lot I can do about that at this point...just let me know if it ever shows up haha

Oh and I need the EAC curriculum as well. I figure if I'm gonna be going to school next year, I need to figure out what I'm going to sign up for. Just something for me to look at on p-day or lunchtime. I've been meaning to ask for that for a while but I kept forgetting haha. I don't want to worry about it too much at all yet, but I like getting head starts where it's appropriate. Oh mom and remember the "Don't Open until Thanksgiving 2013" envelop? Should we postpone that? haha

Thanks family much love!

Elder Payne

 

I was transferre​d to Pima!

Well the transfer was a success! We got all my stuff in the transfer van and I said all my goodbyes and what not. We transferred up with like 12 other missionaries. It was weird because I was like the third oldest in mission-age in the van. The other two were Elder Ramirez and Gomez, my first two companions haha. E Ramirez is going to Delta and E Gomez is my zone leader with E Wade in Mount Pleasant! and our District Leader is none other than E Betham! haha Pretty awesome! Anyway it was like a 4 hour drive in a nice air conditioned van, so compared to peru or bolivia, I'm sure it wasn't bad at all. 

Honestly this place reminds me of Pima more than anywhere! Well I guess like a combination of Pima and Thatcher. Ephraim is a great place to be! We cover the whole stake, which is 8 wards and we cover the Spanish branch as well. It's been weird trying to adjust back to that many wards haha I've gotten so used to the four wards in Buena Vista. They have a ton of youth here too...in one of the wards yesterday the young women got up to sing a song and there was at least 30 of them up there! Crazy! So yeah it's been a transition week for sure, trying to get my mind switched to the new area, which is always normal. We've met some great people so far and we're gonna have a miracle baptism this month on the 24th! Oh and we've done a ton of service this week: painting a room, mowing a lawn, helping two different families move in, helping someone move out, pulling an older lady's weeds in her backyard because she just had shoulder surgery, and so forth. It's been a great week and we've gotten a lot done, but we still have yet to get our feet on solid ground. But yeah things are looking good so far!

We're white washing the english stake, which means all three of us are new to the stake. It's pretty nice because we all get to learn the stake together. My companions are Elder Stephens from Oklahoma and Elder Wengert from Pinetop, AZ. They've both been covering the spanish area before this, and now we're all combined because the Spanish work is slowing down like crazy up here. So they gave us the english stake too. It's pretty fun actually to start up a new area from scratch. This is the third time on my mission that I've experienced that. The only thing is that I don't know the area at all, but I have two great companions who know where everything and everyone is. I just gotta get used to the streets and what not and I'll be good to go! +1 for companion gps!

So yeah Elder Wengert just got his visa! He's going to Trujillo, Peru. We've been talking about Peru quite a bit. He's super excited and his spanish is really good despite only being out for less than 3 months. He's pretty out going and played football in high school. We go and work out in the mornings at snow college's gym. Pretty fun! Anyway he's heading out today actually, so we'll miss him a lot. He's a future AP, I've already thrown out the prophecy for that. He'll do a great job down there! He's 18 by the way. Elder Stephens just turned 19, and he's been out for about 5 months now. He's stayed in the same area the whole time (minus the 6 weeks at the Mtc). He's a pretty funny guy. He kinda reminds me of a mixture of Ethan Mcbride, Keith, and my mtc teacher hermano stornetta. We'll get some work done this transfer together, that's for sure!

So I'm the designated driver over here. We're rollin in a 2012 white chevy malibu. Pretty nice car but the turning radius is terrible haha. Plus since I don't know the area too well yet, we have to make a ton of u-turns haha so e stephens is almost outside the car backing me up more than inside the car. It's a lot of fun though! What's nice about covering the ephraim english stake is that we spend a lot of time in a small concentrated area. In other words, we still ride bikes here! Not nearly as much as Buena Vista but we'll park the car every now and then and cruise around on the bikes. Plus we have a bike rack on our car so we can take them wherever. Pretty nice! 

But yeah that's about all for this week. Hopefully I've hit on everything you guys want/need to know about. If I left anything out, let me know! I like when you guys ask me questions because otherwise I just get on here and blab for a few minutes. Hey keep up the great work and mom your email was awesome!! Keep it up! haha and it sounds like keith is back in the states? sounds good! have a great week everyone!!

Love,

Elder Payne

 

EPHRAIM!

Well I'll keep it short sweet and to the point this week. We got transfer calls! It was actually a blessing because normally they come in late Sunday night. But this time President called us early Sunday morning! So he told me that I'll be going to Ephraim with Elder Stephens and a visa waiter (who is leaving in a week) Elder Wangert. Hopefully I spelled those right haha. Never met either of them! All I know is that I've been out a lot longer than either of them. In fact, I'll be the senior companion up there. The assistants called later last night with the details. I'll be designated driver again, which is kind of a bummer because I just spent 5 months getting my legs and lungs in the best shape of their lives. Oh well! Back to being fat again! Well we'll see how it goes up there. But yeah so Ephraim is a small town about the size and culture of thatcher. They have snow college there too, but we don't cover that. And that's about all I know! Oh and if I end up staying up north for the winter I'll get to experience the -20 degrees baby! that's disgusting haha. But I'm super excited and I'm ready to move on. I'm not a zone leader....yet. That's what the AP's told me. In fact they said something like "thanks for you service as district leader elder payne...this is not the end, there's more where that came from" something like that haha. So there's obviously a reason why I'm going to ephraim right now instead of a zl area.

 

Elder Linville will stay in the buena vista 2 area! He's the new dl! Holy smokes I'm so pumped for him! What a goofball haha. First leadership position and he's been out for 15 months. He'll do a good job. So yeah I'll definitely really miss all the people here! I said bye to everyone all week and since the call came Sunday morning I got to get up in three wards and bear my testimony/thankamony/adiosamony. It was awesome! time to move on!

 

Oh and we baptized an 8 year old this weekend! We got special permission to teach her based on her family situation. Her name is Faith Lemon! Her little sister Rahel is from Ethiopia and she's 6. They're the best! The baptism doesn't count for the mission, but it counts for me :)

 

Love you guys!

Elder Payne

 

The Pioneer's of Buena Vista!

Hi Keith! Sorry I missed you last week haha. Well that's awesome that you guys were able to watch me on TV. I'm famous! What happened to that old giant tv? Haha that thing was a tank! Well it's good to see everyone and I'm glad everyone's alive and well and happy! Thanks for the pics! Oh and we had that granite top on our kitchen when we lived with the Bardsley's. It's pretty nice! Super easy to clean up and what not. Sounds expensive though haha good luck with the new semester I'll be praying for you mother!

 

Hmm well so we participated in the big 24th celebration over here in Washington, Utah. We had some members in the area drive us over a couple miles to the breakfast, and then we headed over to the parade. There was probably three zones there plus past and future missionaries from the area, so there was probably like 200 of us missionaries! Pretty crazy! Some of us got to carry big flags as we marched and sang some pioneer hymns. Guess which flag I got to carry? NEBRASKA! yeah I don't know why but someone gave it to me haha. Anyway it was pretty awesome! They had a bunch of young men do a stripling warriors thing too with captain moroni and everything...it was pretty awesome!

 

So Elder Holland was there, but we didn't get to meet him or anything haha. He cruised by us before the parade started in his little horse buggy carriage thing. He told us we all looked terrific! Talk about a man called of God! You could feel the spirit oozing off of him! But that was all I saw of him. But I must say that marching down the main street of Washington and having hundreds and hundreds of bystanders cheering us on and yelling and whistling was super chilling and amazing. I've never had a group of people cheer that loud and wholeheartedly as that to me before! It was such a neat experience because it made me realize that the Lord still needs pioneers today, and I'm one of them! I've been accomplishing and doing things that are just as important to his work as the pioneers of the early church. Very humbling!

 

To go along with that, it's been even cooler to see the progress of this area. I've been here for over 5 months now, and when Elder Bradford and I got here, we literally had only a house key, our luggage, and an empty area book. We've come so far, and it's been such a privilege to be there every step of the way as this area has gone up and running. And what's even better is that within the last two weeks we've been able to find 5 new investigators. We've been struggling with the non member work and have only had 1 investigator for about a month until recently. Now we're up to six, half of which are on date for baptism and the others are close! What a blessing it has been for me this week to reflect back on the work that has been done since I've been here. I feel like a pioneer myself...like I (and my companions) have done something for the Lord that no one else could. We've baptized the honest in heart, we're teaching the elect, we've reactivated some lost and struggling members, and we've gotten the members involved in the work and have helped to change the focus of the whole stake. We're the pioneer's, the beginners. I'm super excited to see what will happen in the years to come in this stake!

 

Well we're going to work even harder this next week to bring those six individuals closer to baptism. This might well be my last week in the area though. I feel like the Lord is preparing me for work elsewhere. That's fine with me! I'm ready to move on. This area is in good hands because it's part of the Lords vineyard. The people here will be fine! We went on exchanges with the zl's this week and Elder Noriega and I both agreed that zone leader is probably the next step for me. That is what has been recommended to the assistant's and president center. They will be adjusting the transfer board this week and making all the changes, so make sure to pray that I will be led to the right place! And if I stay and remain district leader, then so be it! Either way the work will move on! Thanks everyone I love you all!

 

Elder Payne!