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!

 

Another Zone Conference​!

Hey I appreciate all the emails! Wow back to Chile again huh? Yeah I was wondering this past week if you were still there or if you had come home or what haha. That's cool though that you guys came up through the mission! I always keep an eye peeled for cars that look like ones from home, and then of course I'll double-take the Chevy Tahoes and Ford Rangers and so forth haha. No Thatcher Fire Chief trucks though! Elder Linville and I always have to grin at each other when after we help with the sacrament on Sundays in some wards, they invite the priesthood to go back and sit with their families haha. We miss our families but at the same time we don't! haha

 

Well so yeah we had a zone conference this week, our first one with President Center and our last one with Elder Woolley, our infamous car coordinator. He was a military drill sergeant and he gets in our faces all the time. Great man but extremely fiery! We love him and his sweet wife. She's the mission secretary and she's confined to a wheel chair. Such strong and unique personalities! We're going to miss them a ton! But anyway I digress. Zone conference was good. We had some great speakers and trainings from President and sister Center and the assistants E Stewart and Campbell. We even did a reenactment of the story of Ammon and king Lamoni and his father. Swords and everything! It was the ultimate role play. They sang happy birthday to like 15 of us! But yeah lots of revelation and inspiration was received! Zone conferences are the best!

 

One bit of news we got at zone conference is that there will be no backpacks in any mission worldwide by the end of the year, which is kind of a bummer because mom just bought me one! and I've put a lot of use in it! But yeah I'm not sure what to use instead...probably a shoulder bag haha I'll look like the ultimate nerd with my harry potter glasses but if that's what the brethen up north want then by all means I'm willing to do it! I'll look around at Ross or wherever whenever I have time, but I may need to ask someone probably mom for assistance when the time comes.

 

Well that's about it for this week! Our "clients" (investigators and less-actives) are progressing pretty well. Some of them are moving on and don't need our help anymore because they're so gosh darn active, which is awesome! Like Stefani and the Jerdens! But yeah we're finding new investigators and not only that but we're finding the elect and honest in heart, which is very encouraging! Transfers are coming up on Aug 4th and I'll most likely be leaving. I wrote on our area progress report that I'm fine with leaving at this point, so stay tuned until then! Oh and we're marching in the 24th parade this week and we'll be meeting Elder Holland and taking pictures! Gotta go!

 

Love,

Elder Payne!

 

"The Clouds of Success Will Rain on to You"

Hey it was awesome to see all the b-day updates and the little primary kids! Warms my heart :) Yeah I had a good b-day and all that. I tried to keep it on the down low and when some of the sister missionaries found out about it and that I didn't tell them, they got super ticked haha it was funny. Yeah I was surprised sis Holland actually called you mom! I think that was my favorite part haha the cookies were good but more importantly I'm glad these people are connecting with you and keeping you involved in my life while I'm away. Such a blessing!

 

The new mission president is great! I sustain him whole heartedly! He and his wife are definitely different than President Leonard and his wife. Pres Leonard was more regal and business like, and Pres Center is a little more goofy and awkward. I don't know if that's the best way to describe him, but it's the best I got for now haha. He feels more like a brother to me than a father if that makes sense...kinda like we're on the same level. I can't imagine the pressure of leading an organization you know nothing about. Regardless, he's been getting involved with the work and the missionaries. We had two baptisms in our district (yes!!) this week and he was in attendance to one of them with his wife. He's different but I support him and his decisions. His wife is such a sweetheart too and she's got a firey personality behind her motherliness. She gives firmer handshakes than President does! haha they're both awesome.

 

So I got a fortune cookie from Panda when we ate with the Brians back on the 6th of July. It said "the clouds of success will rain on to you" and I thought it was pretty unique so I saved it and taped it into my journal. Well fast forward to this past Friday (the 12th) and we found ourselves contacting a referral in some ghetto apartment complex. We knocked and the lady we were looking for, Torrie, answered almost immediately. We didn't even have to say anything to her. She basically just said "Oh! you guys got the memo! Awesome! Hey me and my boyfriend want to be taught by the missionaries...." Best door contact we've had in a long while! They were on their way out to something, but we set an appointment for this week. They requested to start up the 12 step addiction recovery program and we have the perfect fellowshipper to come with us for them. We're super stoked! And the best part was as we were chatting with them, the clouds decided to dump an ocean on top of us. We tried waiting it out for a few minutes but we needed to get going elsewhere haha so we through all our belongings in our backpack and ran out into the rain and took off on our bikes! We got SOAKED! Like seriously! We had to build two or three rafts to cross all the flash flood rivers on the roads and we probably resurrected like four times. We even had to climb the biggest hill in our area, which was pretty much a waterfall at that point. Crazy! We dried off in like an hour haha and we were fine. But yeah I have a strong testimony of fortune cookies now.

 

So yeah the french sisters had a baptism on Saturday. It was for Amy, who Elder Gomez and I taught way back in September in my first area! I got to interview her for her baptism on my birthday!! Best present ever! haha it was such a spiritual experience talking with her and seeing the progress she has made in the past several months, and to see how the gospel has truly blessed her life and changed her heart is remarkable. That's my favorite part of the mission right there! Her life is under much greater control now and she's soo happy....it's amazing! We got to be at her baptism. It was the best! We also went to another baptism in the district for a girl with selective mutism. I got to interview her as well. Such a sweet girl...didn't say hardly anything but she said enough. I can relate with that! haha I got to confirm her on Sunday! I just followed the spirit and blessed her with the capacity to fulfill her potential and to use the gift of the Holy Ghost in her life. Confirmations are my second favorite part of the mission! So yeah in other words, we've had a great week!

 

Hmm well that's about all for this week!

Love, Elder Payne!

 

Happy 4birth of Juliey Day

Hijo le no manches! qp, en cierto?? su carta esta loco pero como se dice suuuper bien! jaja orale wow! Hey well we've been really busy and focused this week that I keep forgetting about my birthday. I loved all the pictures haha good times! We proselyted like any other day on the 4th except we ate lunch with the payne's I mean the brian's, and we had a zone activity at a chapel in St. George from 6 to 9. We played sproutball and dogdeball woohoo! Oh I don't know if I ever mentioned this but Elder Ramirez is the other DL in our zone so it's super awesome to see him at things like that. We're good buddies and we kept destroying each other with the ball the whole time haha it was fun! We're practically relief society presidents...being in st. george we get soo many sister missionaries in our districts because of the visitor center at the temple. Our zone consists of 8 elders total and 12 sisters. Being a district leader of sisters and having to call them and check on things and offer advice is probably preparing me for marriage. I do notice that phone calls with the elders takes about 5 minutes and with the sisters its like 15...they talk forever! haha but it's all good and we have a sweet zone. We had a zone training meeting this week and if you pay attention to the communicator mom and dad, our zone (St. George Central, or SGC) is a little lower than the rest of the zones. At ztm on Friday we all decided that this doesn't mean we're awful missionaries, it just means that the Lord has put some of his best missionaries in one of the toughest zones in the mission. That's the way we have to look at it, because it's true. We're the best missionaries for the areas we serve in, otherwise the Lord wouldn't have put us there. But there's always room for improvement, and our zone leaders are setting the expectations! One of them, Elder Lopez-Mayta, is from Bolivia. Super good elder!

 

Anyway, we've had a great week all in all. We found two new less-active couples that we're starting to teach. One of them was a referral from the ward, they told us to go find these people because nobody has been able to contact them. Turns out the wife has been really ill for the past several months and they haven't been to church since they moved into the area. We offered to give a blessing, and we ended up finally giving her one on Tuesday. I got to give it! I love giving blessings...they require you to rely on the spirit soo much haha. It's really humbling but rewarding. Anyway they want us to teach them the missionary lessons and they want to try to get back into church despite her health. Amazing! We were definitely on the same page as the Lord with that couple...in the right place at the right time.

 

Speaking of blessings though, I got a text from one of our sister missionaries. Her companion is brand new, a French sister who learned her first bit of english at the mtc. Now that she's in the field, she feels super uncomfortable and she feels like she can't express herself the way she wants to and that everyone is judging her whenever she speaks. It's definitely a trial for her! Anyway we quickly called for a ride and got over to the visitor center after studies so that I could give her a blessing. We went into a room and after explaining what a blessing of "comfort" was to her and saying her full name in French, I started giving her the blessing. At first I was trying to keep my words simple so that she could understand them, and I was doing okay, but it was a challenge nonetheless. Then I paused and heard the faint sound of a pencil scratching on some paper. Her companion (bless her heart) was taking notes! She was writing down my blessing so that her companion could refer back to it whenever she needed to. Sweet! So with that assurance, I knew I could just go full blast and give her a proper blessing from the spirit. Such an amazing experience! I got to use all the little bits of wisdom that I have learned from my own mtc experience, learning a language and all the struggles that came with that, and give that knowledge to her through the blessing. It was incredible!

 

Well, on that note, I gotta go!

Love

Elder Payne

I'M STAYING!!

What in the world! Yeah so I'm staying in Buena Vista 2 for another transfer!! I totally thought I was leaving so I was saying bye to everyone this week and Stefani and her buddies gave me a "goodbye" gift with a note and everything haha. But yeah we got the call at like 10pm last night from Elder Stewart. He said "Elders we have a transfer call for you! ...are you ready? Elder Payne and Elder Linville, you will both be staying in Buena Vista 2! Elder Payne will stay as senior companion and district leader and Elder Linville will continue to be junior companion. Any questions?" AAHHHhHh I'm sooo happy! Elder linville said "oh praise Jesus!!" or something like that haha while I was yelling "YES!" We got like two or three texts from people in our area this morning saying how their prayers have been answered that we're both staying! The lord has made his will know unto us, so now it's time to capitalize and perform! We've already been setting some goals to become even better missionaries and to boost up the work in the area as well as in the Telegraph district! We're excited! We're anxiously engaged! Amen.

 

So other than all that, we've had a great week! We watched the broadcast last night.....suuuper bien! Like for real it was excellent! Go watch it all! It's only 2 hours of modern day revelation! The whole presentation revitalized our purpose as members and missionaries (which is the same purpose by the way! Preach my gospel page 1!) It showed us what we need to do, how to do it, and why we need to do it. And with the changing times, full time missionaries will be using the internet for digital proselyting soon enough. Pretty crazy! We'll see how all that unfolds! It was awesome to see all the young MTC missionaries though! Holy cow they look like 8th graders! That age change is fo real...it's amazing!

 

Umm...gosh what else did we do this week. Oh we got permission  to confirm Stefani on Monday night! What an awesome experience that was! and she got a limited use temple recommend interview right afterwards, so on Wednesday night we went to the temple to do baptisms!! Holy cow it was the best experience of my mission so far! The spirit was sooo strong and being with Stefani and seeing how far she's come in the past short month was incredible. Elder Linville struggled with the confirmations haha they were all Slovakian names! I got to baptize Kenna, Kate, Stefani, Elder Linville, then he baptized me, then I got to baptize some random kid too!!! All spanish names and I think even Kp and QP would be proud of my pronunciation! Silky smooth! Oh my gosh I was soo happy haha. I really hope they have instant replay cameras in the celestial kingdom because that experience was priceless! It's that type of experience that makes the entire 2 years absolutely and without question worth it.

 

I liked that picture of caboose mom because there's like 500 frozen yogurt places here in St. George so we got taken out for some yogurt by members twice last week haha. Gosh Chile! Man that's like the ultimate transfer! it kinda reminds me of when mom and I flew down to peru for the first time...it was kinda nerve racking! Neither of us knew what was going on until we found you! haha but that's awesome you will do great and heavenly father will in fact help you! He has to! He is bound when we do what he asks us! It'll be a great adventure to tell the kids one day. I'm also looking forward to that giant flag haha I wish I could have one! Anyway we need to split! Love you guys!

 

Love,

Elder Payne