March 26, 2012
Dear family and friends,
I'm so pumped right now I can’t even explain it. My new companion is the man and we are just living every second on fire and ready to approach everyone we see about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We both have the mentality that it’s time to go all out and if people think we are making them a little uncomfortable, well it’s all good because that’s our calling. It’s really cool as we are being bold, loving, and saying what needs to be said and having a companion that has the same thought process and excitement you do makes it so much fun to do missionary work. I’ve loved every second of my mission so far, but I can tell that this transfer is going to be super sweet. Sometimes when I get down, my boy Elder T says, “Hey man, what are you doing, you can’t lose your animo (enthusiasm) we got this!!" Then I just get pumped up again. We have set some pretty awesome and high goals this transfer and we know that the lord is going to help us reach them. The theme of this transfer is “Ensenar con Animo” or “Teach with Enthusiasm”!
Basically what I have seen on my mission is that there are a lot of great missionaries but when they teach or tract or do whatever, they don’t show their excitement for the work and that is one of the key parts to helping people understand the importance of the gospel. If they can see that you’re not excited about the gospel, the chances are that they’re not going to get to excited about it either. The theme of this transfer is "if you’re not excited about serving the Lord, you might as well.....GO HOME". You can really add in any sentence in the beginning like, if you’re not going to be obedient and wake up on time, you might as well go home. We get all excited in District meetings when we say that to each other ha-ha. I’m personally waking up every day ready to rock (Spiritually).
We have set the goal to double the church attendance this transfer as there are a lot of less active members that are not coming to church right now that we want to reactive. We have already had some really awesome tender mercies that I will let you know about after I answer all of your questions. I’m just feeling it and it’s my goal to help every missionary in our area get catch fire and get excited about the service of the Lord. Let’s be real here, being a missionary is the coolest thing ever, there’s no better two years a young man can have and I know that. I have an experience about how sharing that testimony really can touch people but I’ll save that for later on in the letter. Let me answer your questions first G!!!!!!
A few questions for you my boy! How is your goal to read the entire missionary library in your last six months going? I’m about done with the Book of Mormon, almost half way through Jesus the Christ, and once I get done with the Book of Mormon, I’m going to get started on the New Testament. The Old Testament is super long and I might be able to use my time reading other things ha-ha. I will finish the D&C and Pearl of Great Price before I'll try the Old Testament. Do you still exercise every day? I exercise every day and I’m in pretty good shape, I still weigh about 150 pounds and I don’t have too much fat. We have a gym in our apartment complex so we bought some protein and we are going to get swollen this transfer. Did you get to show little R the fireman’s carry and some other cool wrestling moves before leaving Woodburn? Yeah, one Saturday morning we went over to teach his family a short lesson and then afterward we talked wrestling. I showed him a couple of tilts, breakdowns and the fireman. He is the man and if he sticks with wrestling he will be a state champ one day! What areas are in your Zone? We are in the Spanish South Zone or “Los Soldados Del Sur” (Soldiers of the South). Our zone goes all the way up to Tigard and all the way down to Salem. The District Leader lives in Molalla and the Zone Leaders live in Tigard. How big is your area as it seems you will have to cover more than just Canby as it looks small, do you have Molalla, Newberg, Oregon City or Wilsonville? We have to cover Canby, Oregon City and Molalla so basically we cover the whole English Stake area. It’s a huge area and there is a ton of work to be done. Were you able to listen to the talk “Profile of a Prophet” by Hugh B. Brown I sent you in an mps file? Yeah, I was able to listen to that talk and it was awesome. It got me so pumped up. It’s funny how people try to disprove the Book of Mormon and the alternatives that they come up with are so absurd. Often they haven’t even read the book or been honest enough to seek an answer about its truthfulness from the Lord. I am so grateful for the Prophet Joseph Smith and for the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is the key! Anyway, I love the talk and thanks for sending it to me.
Okay, so I’ll give you the quick scoop about one of the tender mercies I have seen in my short time here in Canby. My second day here we went over to visit a member family and they have a son that is 19 years old but hasn’t decided to go on a mission yet. We have stopped by almost every day this week to read the scriptures with him and try to explain to him the blessings that come from serving a mission. Most importantly we told him he needed to ask God about it and that he would receive an answer. We received a text from my boy after church on Sunday telling us that he talked to the Branch President and he’s going on a mission! CHYEAH! We didn’t really do anything but it was through the power of the Holy Ghost and the faith of this young man that he made the decision to serve. It was pretty awesome and Sunday night we baked him a cake and some Mexican soup called Pasoli at his house for a Noche de Hogar (FHE). Life is great and I love every minute that I have in the service of the Lord. I know this church is true and all I have to do is share the gospel with all the people I can. Be safe and keep it real.
Love,
Elder Payne
