Dear Family and Friends,
This week was the best week ever. I probably say that a lot but it truly was a really good week. I had some really awesome experiences and a lot of things happened. First I’ll let you know about the interview with President Morby. Well the first interview we had was a pretty good one; we just got to know each other pretty well. But due to the circumstances that have been happening lately I have gotten to know President Morby extremely well and he is the man. He calls me up some days and just asks me how things are going in the area and I think he trusts me. We actually spent some time with him on P-day yesterday and I gave him and his wife two of the newly designed OPM shirts. I’ll explain to you a little more about how awesome P-day was yesterday later in my letter. I will continue to pray for the family and I’m glad that everyone is doing well.
Wow the work is going great out here and I’m loving every minute of it as I get to share my testimony with everyone I come in contact with. The other day I had a really spiritual experience as we found out that one of the investigators we have told us that he is terminal. We only knocked on his door once and taught him a little but I feel like I knew Harvey pretty well. One day we went over to see how he was doing and he was in really bad shape. I knew that the power of the Priesthood could help him so we offered to give him a blessing. As we gave Harvey the blessing the spirit witnesses to me that Harvey was going to pass on soon. In the blessing we told him that the Lord would bless him with the strength to endure this trial. It was a really spiritual experience and a different experience as I have never received that witness while giving a blessing. Yet it was comforting to know that Harvey has lived a good life and will receive the gospel beyond the veil. After we gave the blessing, we sat there in silence until Harvey offered up his own prayer and the room was filled with the spirit.
Things are going amazing out here and there is no other place I would rather be. Sharing the gospel and testifying to people that God lives and his son Jesus Christ is the only way to Salvation is the most meaningful thing I could be doing. I know that this is Jesus Christ’s church and it is my only to desire to do the Lords will. I have been pretty excited today as a local member Hunter, an 18 year old that just got back from BYUI is spending the whole day with us today to get ready for his mission. He came over to the apartment last night and we ran him over the missionary schedule and nightly planning. He slept over and we all woke up in the morning and worked out and did all of our usual morning studies. Now we are about to take him through the whole day and show him what a missions really like. I wish I could have done that before my mission to further prepare but I’m glad for his desires to rock out with us. It is an awesome feeling to show someone new the ropes and help them get ready for their mission. I hope I get the chance to be a trainer one day as I bet training a missionary would be sweet.
Well, let me tell you about P-day and how crazy it was to start off with. We called all the Elders in our district and told them to come to Seaside for P-day. So the Elders in Astoria and Neakanni came down and we decided to go get one of those six person bikes from a bike shop. One of the members owns it so we get to ride on the bikes for free. So we had 6 missionaries riding through downtown on a bike and it was crazy. We were waving to people and giving out compliments and people loved it. We cruised down the streets of downtown Seaside and saw a local street performer dancing and his name was Silver Man. It is a guy that spray paints his whole body silver and acts like a robot. Well as we all cruised by Silver Man we started laughing because we thought it was pretty funny. We weren’t making fun of him; we just thought it was funny because every time he moved his body it would make a robot noise like, ZZZZiiiii. Well as we rode by we kept laughing and didn’t pay any more attention to him and his dances moves. As we rode down the street, I heard Elder Sanchez yell, “its Silver Man!!!!!!!!!!!!" in a Mexican accent. Then everyone on the bike turned around and we saw Silver Man’s face as he was hanging on the back of our bike. He started making his robot noises and we all started screaming because it was like a movie scene from the Terminator!!!!!!!!!! It was pretty funny and he hopped on the bike with us after he gave us a good scare and we introduced ourselves to him. It was a pretty funny experience.
After we got off the bike we went to go try on cowboy boots at a store in town and ran into Sister Morby. She told us that she and President Morby had come to check out Seaside for the day and it was such a surprise to see us. Well we took some pictures with them and then invited them to come over to see our apartment. All of us got home and we decided to grill up some BBQ chicken while we waited for President and Sister Morby to get there. Well they showed up to the apartment like 30 minutes later and took a look at our place and really liked it. I gave them both an OPM shirt and they said they really like them.
Love,
Elder Payne
