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!

 

 

 

Censored Letter from Last Week

Note From The Editor:

It is a wonderful thing being the administrator of this blog. I have the power to post just whatever I please... hahaha
Last week's letter came with some information that should not be revealed at this time.... So it got the chop!! It was still a super fantastic letter and I want to share it now(censored, of course)... Enjoy!

Well I don't even know if I've mentioned how big our area is...we cover the whole YSA 2nd stake, which means we cover everything east of Interstate 15 in the St. George area all the way out to Hurricane. Apparently we don't have to go out to Hurricane though because that's like a 30 minute drive, which would rack up too many miles. The Elders over there just take care of the YSA work. We cover 8 wards: Buena Vista, Bloomington Hills, Hurricane, Little Valley, Morningside, Pineview, Washington, and Washington Fields. So basically that's like one set of missionaries for all of Thatcher. It's a lot of work, and yet we're having an awfully hard time just teaching lessons. This past week we only taught seven lessons, not including less active/ recent convert lessons. All those college kids are just livin life I suppose and they're not ready for the gospel just yet haha. We go to this apartment complex called Red Rock Ridge quite a bit. It's basically the party central of St. George. We've found paintballs and even clothes all over the place. It's a little sketchy. We call it the Great and Spacious building haha. It's a huge complex though with tons of non members. Lot's of potential there! It's hard to feel the Spirit though with dubstep blasting in every other room. If you haven't yet, you should check out my area on Google Earth haha. We even have the mission office in our area, which is extremely convenient. We've got Deseret Book here, Walmart, Target, Ross, Staples, In and Out, Olive Garden, Golden Corral...everything that KP and QP probably dreamed of haha so we're good to go for at least the next 5 weeks! We're so blessed!

This past week we got to be involved in the baptism and confirmation of some sister missionaries' little investigator, Emma! She's a 9 year old little girl with ADHD, and she's awesome! Elder Gomez does all the baptismal interviews now, and during the interview he said that Emma was all over the place, jumping off the chair and flying around on the walls and all that awesome stuff. Her baptism was amazing! We sang "When I am Baptized" which is like the best song ever invented. Yesterday we went over to their family ward and helped confirm her. It was neat to just support her and her family and see the difference between little kids and college kids. We're getting ready for another baptism for V on the 29th of September! He's super excited, and so are we! We've had a young man who is 17 come with us on splits. His name is Ryan. They love basketball and shoot some hoops like every day. They're like best buddies now haha...I love fellowshippers! Ryan always talks to us after each lesson and talks about how pumped up he is to go on a mission! "Thanks so much guys! You're all awesome! I'm just gonna leave right now!" haha he feels the spirit so much. After our last lesson with V, we all went to Cafe Rio for dinner. These are the types of things we'll be talking about when we're all like 85 with no hair..."remember when we'd come teach you and then go out for a bite to eat?" haha we're having some awesome adventures. V says he'd love to take us golfing some time. That would make my whole mission haha but we'd have to make time for it. We'll see.

So yeah yesterday Elder Gomez and I spoke at Buena Vista! I had no time to prepare another talk, so I whipped out my farewell talk and basically made version 2.0. It went well! I told everyone that bishop told me to pick a topic. Like every good missionary does, I thought about the needs of the people for a minute. I thought, "hey! they're all in singles ward....so they all need to get married!" So I told them with as serious face as I could muster that I would be speaking on the blessings of eternal marriage. Then I laughed and said just kidding, I'm speaking about conversion. We all laughed and then I spoke for like 25 minutes just like last time, and Elder Gomez only got like 5 or 10 because I stole it all from him. haha!

 

I love you guys!

Elder Payne!

p.s. is everyone getting my emails?

I was live at the CES Broadcast!

Well it sure sounds like things back home are sounding pretty hectic more or less haha. I suppose life really does have its ups and downs. Hey well sorry I didn't write last week! Labor day...everywhere is closed...can't use member's computers...no email. So sorry mom haha. Yesterday we were writing our emails when the Internet went down all over town, so we're taking some mormon.org time today to send these things off haha. It's super rainy today! Flash flood warnings...streets are a little flooded...need to build a raft to get to the car haha. ITS AWESOME! Anyway, these past two weeks have been crazy...we even had to chase a little lost chihuahua dog in the rain with a laundry basket before an appointment! I don't even know where to begin for this email. I've got some notes haha so I'll just throw everything in here!

First of all, they have Waffle Crisp over here! That's my favorite cereal ever! I had to go to Bolivia in order to find some...and they sell it here! So that's good. We got those little Preach My Gospel's which is sweet! We love them! I also picked up a few new ties at Ross, so that's why my balance went down. Elder Gomez found a sweet hacky sack in his last area, so we do that every now and then when we have time. My foot skills are returning and I love it! We also have this little rubber soccer ball that I'll juggle a lot for stress relief haha it's fun. I love having a companion who appreciates futbol as much as I do. We are extremely pumped for world cup 2014! We put our names at a couple hospitals last week for potential priesthood blessings, but we haven't been contacted yet, so we'll see. The Saturday before last was Robert's baptism! It went well. If you haven't ever been to a convert's baptism, then go! They are amazing! Things are going well for him...he's a firecracker! He loves the gospel, and so do I. The picture is kinda fuzzy, but he is the one right next to me.

We found three new investigators all within a block of each other. All three are single pregnant young women. Their lives are almost completely out of their own control...fiances leaving them, full time school, full time work, getting fired and needing to pay bills, some even have other children that need attending almost all the time. Then all of a sudden all their problems are put onto us, and that's terrifying because we have no idea what to do besides teach! haha Thankfully they are supposed to attend a family ward if they have children, so we turned them over to the Sister missionaries. They are all awesome though! One of them, Lei (Lay), is Hawaiian. Her life is a complete mess, but really wants to go to church and get some sort of hold on her broken life. Well we taught her a little bit. She started having contractions toward the end. She was supposed to come to church, but she went into labor haha. A few days ago we got to go give her and her brand new son, Maiki (Mikey), a priesthood blessing. It's a good thing that his name is five miles long. His middle name translates to something like "Blessed miracle child of God" only in pure, hard to pronounce Hawaiian. It took me like 30 seconds to say his full name, but I did it! That was probably the most powerful experience on my mission so far...anointing and blessing a sick child with a helpless mother who was completely depending on us. He should be good to go now. All of us (except Maiki) were fighting back tears while Elder Gomez gave her a blessing. It was so powerful. I felt as though all of my spiritual strength left me and entered into her. I was exhausted. The spirit really wipes you out! Things seem to be going well with Lei. She is elect and seems the most hopeful of the three.

The food keeps getting better! That Black Bear Diner place is amazing, and we've also been to Olive Garden with Gil (one of our recent converts) before he left to Salt Lake. He is amazing and super fresh. I hope you guys get to meet him some day! I've also eaten Katsu Chicken at this Hawaiian place called Honolulu Grill! It's exactly like Kainoa's only with even more variety. It's wonderful. The $120 per month actually isn't too bad because half the time whenever you buy something someone else buys it for you. Sometimes people fight over who will pay for us. Utah......

We found this awesome Cambodian young man, Vatahna! He goes by just "V" though. He is also extremely elect. He's the type of person that people assume is LDS but are shocked to find out that he's not. He goes to church and is super nice and awesome. He's on date for September 29th, so wish us luck. Things with Yoshi are going well too. I swear we have all the freshest investigators. They're awesome! We tried to find a guy named Ryan at a sweet bikeshop in Washington. Turns out Ryan's not interested, but they have some amazing bikes at that place! Pro road bikes, the ones with those thin tires? They are incredible. Mom needs to come here some day. I'm thinking about saving up for one instead of another car and just ride everywhere haha. The average price is like $4500. They are nice and distracting! Gotta get out of there haha.

Well so yesterday was Stake Conference over here for the Young Single Adults. One of the best stake conferences I've ever been to! It was one of those meetings where the Spirit just dumps light and knowledge onto your lap. We had the CES broadcast last night with Elder Holland! I honestly thought we wouldn't get to go to that, then we got a random call from President saying that he got seats reserved for us and our investigators and their fellowshippers! Score! We forgot that we had dinner appointment already set up, so we rushed out of dinner with the Adams (that's the third time we've eaten over there haha) and we found our seats. We were on the floor of Burns Arena, this giant basketball stadium on Dixie campus. Elder Holland walked in and everyone went dead silent and stood up. Hopefully at least Quentin got to watch it! The stake president that conducted was President Myers. We ate at his house my first Sunday out. He's awesome. We talked to him and his family afterward. He was super nervous conducting! The young woman that said the opening prayer was a fellowshipper in one of our lessons a while ago. She's a ward relief society president. She's super awesome too! Anyway, the fireside was incredible and intense! Elder Holland talked about the importance of judging righteously and loving others. We felt our eyebrows get singed a little bit. The part where he almost screamed "You NEVER check you religion at the door!" was so intense! I looked over at some other investigators (Elders Hawkins and Legizimon, the assistants, as well as Elders Bennion from the blog and Eggen who was my MTC zone leader--they all had some investigators there). These investigators looked quite shocked and were practically gasping haha. Elder Holland is right on the edge of boldness but not overbearance. It was wonderful! His testimony at the end was so powerful!

Anyway, I'm about out of time. Oh by the way, we got transfer calls last night. I'm still in the 12 week program, so we're staying put for at least another 6 weeks. But Elder Gomez es nuestro neuvo "capitan del distrito"!! We're both super pumped for him. We'll be busier than ever, and I'm still sleeping on a couch for another six weeks haha. Elder Dyer who was living with us is leaving back home to Canada. We're all jealous because he gets to go home and play Zelda haha we'll miss him! He had everyone sign a Canadian flag, and everyone wrote nice little paragraphs and what not. I just wrote "Get married" and signed it. He laughed at that. Well, more info to come next week. Hope you all have a wonderful and productive week back home! You are all awesome! I love everyone! Especially my family!

Yoshi is back!!

Well wow it was so awesome to log on over here at the library and to see like 5 emails! Thanks everyone! sounds like everyone is super busy! good. I'm so glad that qp is finding people to teach haha that's so awesome. So far it's the same way for us here in St. George...about 45 baptisms and almost all are referrals. I like not finding people though! It's awesome to see that elect people just show up at our front door ready to be taught. Apparently Keith and Shauna's prayers are being answered! We really are finding and sifting out the pure in heart...those who really need and want the gospel right now. It's fun! I remember having a blowout on my way to EFY up in flagstaff two years ago with ethan mcbride. That was a ton of fun! Sounds like some good adventurous memories! I'm super glad you're alright and receiving so many blessings!

Yeah mom I got a letter from Bro. Evans this past week! It was super awesome. He and his wife had an amazing experience...you can ask them about it at church if you haven't heard it. And I've learned that staying within a budget is not quite the same as just rationing my money for important things. Our mission card has $120 a month, and once it's out we have to use personal cards. We'll see how that goes! I heard about Bro. Echols. It's cool to see that you're helping him! haha good luck with the whole rental thing (again)! By the way, the house looks nice! Keep it up haha and did you ever make that life size portrait of me? I was just wondering about that the other day...

Well shoot this week was actually kind of slow, but in a good way. We've had quite a few (most) of our appointments fall through this week, which means we had to resort to back up plans. I love back up plans! except when those fall through...and then plan c falls through too. Haha it was kinda stressful in a healthy way to figure out what in the world to do. We went on exchanges on I think Friday with the zone leaders. Since Elder Chidester didn't know anything at all about our area, I was in control all afternoon until I reunited with Elder Gomez. I was scratching my head at about plan G or H trying to find someone to just talk to. White washing is interesting sometimes. It made me realize the responsibilities of senior companions a lot more, so more than anything it just gave me a taste of what's coming within the next few months haha. The other day we were looking through our area book contacting former investigators. We were in a deserted church parking lot right next to a tree, so I thought it would be awesome to just climb the tree and make some calls up there. We spent a lot of time in the car that day, so it was a refreshing change of pace!

So yeah we've managed to pull through this week. Right now we have one investigator on date for this next Saturday the 1st of September. His name is Robbie, and he's super elect and awesome! His story is pretty similar to David's...just quit drinking and smoking and decided it was time to change. He has felt the Spirit and knows it's all true, and he's way excited for his baptism. He's awesome! All in all we've actually found five new investigators recently...it's just tough to meet with them. We have appointments this week, so we'll see!

Yesterday was the best! We got a random text from the assistants saying that they had an investigator they wanted to hand over to us. We met up at the Visitor Center and turns out he is a man named Yoshi Suzuki from Japan! He was in our area book and was on date, but he left home to Japan and got stuck there without a return visa for a few months. Saturday we decided to throw away his teaching record thinking he wasn't coming back. Then literally out of nowhere the next day he returns and wants to be baptized! What the heck haha thanks for your prayers Keith, Shauna, and probably everyone else! We need to throw away more teaching records so that Heavenly Father will just send them right to us more often. That was awesome! He's a super cool guy and is very friendly and speaks pretty good english. Elder Gomez and I are so stoked!

So yeah the work pays off eventually! This next week should be busy. Thanks for the support! I love support! haha oh and in case you want my actual street address here in St. George, it's:

Elder Payne
798 So. Cambridge
St. George, UT 84770

Okay until next week! Oh and the food here is fantastic!

Elder Payne :)

This is the Lord's Work!

Well shoot sounds like things are going pretty good over there! At least from Mom's point of view haha. I had no idea she was thinking about taking classes at EA. Yes, education is important! Good luck with the semester mom! Are they staying in the house for the until the end of spring? Oh and we only get $120 per month on our cards, so I'm trying to save all my money for important things haha. Apparently the $400 per month goes into a church wide fund and is distributed even for all missionaries. I'm not sure how much money I have in my account...maybe I'll check after this or something haha. I need both Andrew's addresses (Andrew Spencer and Andrew Nolan) if possible. Oh and did Bro. Evans ever get those letters that I sent to him?

So right now Elder Gomez and I are doing the 12 week program, which means I'll be in this area for three months. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned that, so there you go! Basically all it does is teach me how to be a more efficient missionary faster so that by the end of the three months I can be a trainer if necessary. We have more study time, and we sometimes don't even leave until about 1 pm in the afternoon. Last week during laundry....it happened. Keith told me the story of a pen in the washing machine that destroyed his shirts. Well, a random pen exploded into one of my shirts. The others got a little pen splatters here and there, but I was able to get it out. Just one is out of commission. All is well!

This past week we had a training meeting for all the new missionaries here in St. George. President Leonard taught us about what our purpose is as a missionary, and specifically for here in the St. George mission. It was just what I needed! Pres. Leonard will be leaving in July, so I'll finish with a new mission President. Anyway, this week has both been slow yet rewarding. We came across this guy called Max Pope. He has grown up here in the church and his mom told all of her kids to get baptized whenever they felt it was right. Max says he feels like it's about that time. In fact, he just got married a few days ago to a member, and he was talking about how he wants to get sealed in the temple. We were stoked! That's the perfect answer! That's the last ordinance here on earth, and it's already a goal for him. Unfortunately we have to refer him to the sister missionaries because he's married. At least we finally found another elect investigator! Later on in the week we got a random text from a member who said they had a friend that wanted to meet with us. The member who is an RM took us to Golden Corral for dinner and then we went off to teach Robbie. That was probably the best lesson we've had on my mission! We didn't even have any time to prepare for it either. All those months teaching lesson 1 in mission prep have really payed off haha. I put him on date for September 1st, and he's excited to be baptized.

I love it when golden investigators just show up at our doorstep like that. It makes things so much easier for us and much more effective. President Leonard talked about the progression of investigators...find; teach: faith, repentance, baptize, Holy Ghost; Melchizedek Priesthood; endowments; sealing. When the members take the roll of finding investigators, us missionaries don't have to waste any time doing it ourselves. We just get to do the things in bold. Then we hand them back over to the members to take care of priesthood and temple ordinances. If I could go my entire mission without having to find anyone, I would be happy!

Well so this past Saturday we had the baptism of Gil Cataluna! It was awesome and reminded me a lot of the baptism we had for David (especially since it was in the same chapel). I said the opening prayer and Elder Gomez gave a talk. Gil's testimony was powerful. He isn't the best public speaker and he stumbled over his words, but his effort to testify allowed the Spirit to carry it to the hearts of the congregation. He had a ton of family there, and we all got refreshments afterward! haha it was a blast!

The only other thing I can say is that St. George actually does have more beautiful skies than Thatcher. I keep meaning to take some pictures of the awesome sunsets, but I never have my camera with me haha. I figure after my mission I'll hopefully have time to come back. Oh and is there a way that you can send some mini Preach My Gospel's? Elder Gomez wants one, and I think it would be cool. We could send some money for it or something haha. I thought I saw some at CMI somewhere...if not that's fine don't worry about it. Well I love you all! Remember to get me those addresses! Happy birthday again QP! Good old Denny's haha. Until next week!

Elder Payne :)

The car was in Salt Lake for a few days, so we rode bikes and walked!

Miracle Baptism

Man oh man...Chance finally passed away. What an awesome friend she was! I already said bye to her before I left knowing I wouldn't see her again. Oh esta todo bien! Thanks so much for taking care of her. She appreciated that. She's finally resting. In the meantime, the work moves on. This past week we had exchanges! I was with Elder Paiz, our district leader, for the day on Tuesday. I felt super out of place because Elder Gomez and I are the only missionaries in our area of 7 wards. Without Elder Gomez, I was the man in charge. It was tough but a good learning experience. The dust is finally starting to settle down and I'm starting to get back on my feet haha.

This past weekend on Saturday we had a baptism! David was baptized eleven days from the first day we met. I would consider it a miracle baptism. He was completely prepared by the Lord. He moved in with LDS roommates and came home drunk one night. His roommates invited him to ward prayer, and there they shared his favorite Bible verse, John 16:33 by "coincidence." God decided to speak to him through miracles. At that point he decided he needed to change, so he quit drugs and everything cold turkey. A couple weeks later he and his roommate were walking to their apartment, talking about speaking to the missionaries, when they came across Elder Gomez and me talking to the assistants. We were just talking about how people will sometimes just walk up to you and ask you to teach them. Well, they walked right between our cars and we asked them if they knew anyone that needed out help. David pointed to himself and we immediately went to his room and taught him the Restoration. We taught him everything, and he just absorbed it all up. A few days ago he was driving home from the lake and decided to ask God all of his questions and doubts about the Gospel. He answered every single question he had. We had scheduled him for the 18th, and he then asked us to moved it to the 11th. We as missionaries didn't do more than simply provide him the mandatory way for him to be baptized. He did the rest on his own. I got to type up his baptismal program! It was awesome. During his baptism, the Spirit reaffirmed to me that everything was where God intended things to be. I don't expect every baptism and conversion to be this easy, but I know it's possible for anyone who opens their heart and is willing to let Christ enter into their lives. As missionaries, we simply help people like that connect themselves to Christ and start their conversion process. It's thrilling to watch!

Well, the mission is tough. I have a long ways to go. But that doesn't matter! All that is asked of me is that I have a pure and willing heart and a testimony of Jesus Christ. Everything else will come over time. My perfectionism will be the death of me yet haha. Oh and after the baptism, we realized we needed to unplug the font. We didn't have any choice but to get in and unplug it. Elder Gomez went in and was baptized too. I'll send pictures haha. We also talked to an intoxicated man yesterday. He spent 15 minutes cussing and arguing with us that Elder Gomez is going to hell because he kills bugs even though our book says thou shalt not kill. It was kinda funny but more sad than anything. His heart was closed. I felt we should just leave, and eventually we got out of there. He felt as though he had won and confounded us, and he had his reward. But "blessed is he that is cursed for my names sake." These nametags are a target! You guys don't have them, so share the Gospel! It's easier and more effective for you. Anyway, you all have a great week! Hope to hear from more of you! Love each of you! Happy b-day this Thursday QP! I'll think of something to do for that, but I need more time haha. Maybe the rest of you can throw him a surprise b day party. I remember when mom did that to me. I hated it! haha Oh well love you all have a great week please!

Con amor, Elder Payne :)

Welcome to Dixie 2!

HOLY COW so much has happened this past week! First of all it was awesome to just hear you guys again haha. I'm glad you got my letter and pictures. Keep doing missionary work! We all wrote a letter to our families once we got to St. George...did you get that? That'll explain all my travels to the field. Overall the flight was good and we had orientation at the stake center right next to the temple. My new companion/trainer is Elder Gomez! Mom got the picture of us at the Myers when we ate dinner last night at their house. (President Myers is the stake president for Dixie 2). We are alive and well! Unfortunately I haven't had enough time to pull out my camera at all this week. I'm still trying to adjust to real missionary life! Mom was right when she said that change is stressful. My first day was in a complete daze...I was sick with a cold and after orientation I was paired up with Elder Gomez and he can't drive so I have to drive everywhere and neither of us know the area at all....it was crazy! Anyway, Elder Gomez grew up in Venezuela until he was 9, then his family moved to Utah where he learned English. So we speak Spanish off and on here and there. It's pretty cool! His birthday was this past Saturday! We went to DQ for dinner haha and we just talked about what we did as kids. Well, we are in a brand spankin new area called Dixie 2. It's a YSA stake. They just split the Dixie stake into two stakes, and the AP's cover Dixie 1. Elder Gomez and I are completely white washing the area. School doesn't start until the 15th, so there's hardly anyone around yet. We expect to have lessons sky rocket once it does...the AP's were having about 50 lessons a week last semester. Right now we have three investigators, all on date for baptism this month. Josh, Gil, and David. They are awesome! Josh needs to wait for a letter from the first presidency because he was on probation for a while. He's had the lessons for like 10 months. Gil has been taught for a couple weeks and is excited/nervous for his baptism. He's half Philipino and really tall. David is super awesome. The other two were already being taught by the AP's, who handed them over to us. We found David on the first day. We were at an apartment complex talking to the AP's about how people will sometimes walk up to you and ask for lessons, and David and his LDS fellowshipper and roommate Michael just walked up to us. We asked if they needed our message, and David pointed to himself and basically said "teach me!" So we headed to their room and had a lesson. Since then he has had his prayers answered and he knows this is what he needs to do. We put him on date for the 18th, but now he wants to push it even sooner. He's one of the elect! That's what we've been told to expect. Unfortunately we haven't found any new investigators since the first day. The work is slow but still progressing right now. We get to teach at the Visitor's Center a lot, which I love! Oh and we have eaten at places such as Arby's and Wendy's this week...haven't had fast food for weeks. It was so delicious! We also hit up a mexican place called Irmita's for language study one day. I got a giant burrito (un burrote) and a huge glass of horchata, that rice/cinnamon drink thing. It was awesome! Right now we are living in a member's home in the basement with two other elders. They only have two mattresses, so we're sleeping on the couches. They're looking for another place for us, so I'm basically using my suit cases as a closet. We're going shopping pretty soon, so we'll actually have some food to eat haha. I was so pumped to get mom's package! At the MTC, food is unlimited. In the field, no. So the ritz and nutella and cheeze its and v8 fusion was excellent. Thanks a ton it saved my life! Well, sorry for all my scattered thoughts here. One random thought I had is that Sis. Leonard looks almost exactly like Ms. Calloway haha. It's weird. The picture in the packet is a little different. I also have like two hours for email now, so that's good. If you all need anything, just let me know! Can't wait to hear from the rest of you! Love you all and thanks for all the prayers and thoughts.

Elder Payne :)