December 5, 2011
Thanks for all the letters you sent me as it’s so good to hear all the news that’s going on. That’s really cool that the little Neilson G's are wrestling and I know they are going to be great wrestlers. It’s good that they are starting young so they can get some state titles in High School. Charlie Farr is a beast and I knew he would be doing well at Mercer. All the missionaries out here want me to wrestle our Zone Leader who is a 3 time state champion from Arizona that wrestled at 189 ha-ha. I’m not going to mess with that kid but I might try to get in a wrestling room and do some service. One of our investigators kids that is 13 is picking up wrestling and I want to go to a practice one day and see if I still remember how to do a fireman. That’s a pretty cool story that mom wrote me about seeing my High School wrestling coach in Subway. I’ll never forget those guys as they helped me to man up and get my mind right.
The attendance at sacrament meeting is gradually progressing and we are seeing miracles as people are coming back. We will continue to strive and find the Lords elect but we are mostly focusing now on strengthening the members we have. We have been teaching a really awesome member that told us that he is going to be entering into the temple this month on the 17th. He invited us to come and hopefully we will be able to go through the temple with him. We have been sharing a lot of lessons about faith and having hope. We have all been sent here to learn and to grow and that’s why we have trials and weaknesses. I love the verse in Ether 12:27 that has been the theme of my mission as I’m always finding things I need to work on and improve. I know as we have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and draw upon the powers of his infinite atonement, we can be healed and molded. It’s amazing the things you learn daily out here and the joy that comes from seeing the work of the Lord. I’m so happy out here on my mission and there’s no place I would rather be. I love Woodburn and all the people here.
I’ve been trying really hard to polish my Spanish and work on my accent. President P told me if you read out loud with a pen in between your mouth it helps you to pronounce the words better. So every morning I am reading out loud with a pen in my mouth and I guess when Christmas comes around in a few weeks and I get to call home Mom can tell me if it is working or if I still sound like a gringo ha-ha. Well about the Christmas list, all I really need are some socks to be honest. I’ve worn holes through all of my socks so I could use some new black gold toes. A GPS would be cool but then again, I don’t want you guys to have to spend too much doe. Everything is going good and we are coming up on the last three weeks of the transfer, time is flying but I love every second of it.
I have a pretty cool story about how my companion is the man. Yesterday before church we stopped by all of our investigators to remind them about church. Well we decided to go see B and the family to see if they were coming. Well it turns out that one of the water pipes broke and they couldn’t get any water to the house. They couldn’t go to church because no one was showered and ready. My companion being the farm boy from Utah got under the house in his slacks and nice shoes to find out what the problem was. I had no idea what he was doing as I’m not a plumber and I’ve never messed with that stuff. Sure enough he figured out the problem, turned a couple nozzles and fixed the water. There was an hour before church started and everyone was cheering as he got the water back one. Elder B saved the day and B and the whole family happily came to church that day. It’s true that we both have our own strengths and together we make a pretty powerful team.
Well thanks for all you guys do for me and I love you guys so much.
Love,
Elder Payne
