Monday, May 14, 2012

Happy Mother's Day!

May 14, 2012
Dear Family,

It was awesome getting to talk to you guys yesterday for Mother's day and it seems like everything is going great back at home.  I don't have to much time to write but I just wanted to tell you guys how much I love you.

Things are going great and I love this area. The missionary work is exploding and the members are working pretty hard. We are seeing more people in the Tuesday activities than we have ever seen and each week lots of the less actives are coming back! We have put all of our focus on church attendance and reaching our baptismal goals and as we center our prayers and work on these two things we are seeing miracles. We have had 70 plus in Sacrament meeting for four weeks in a row and our goal is for 100 in this transfer.

Last Sunday many of our investigators came to church and my companion and I had the opportunity to talk about our mothers. It was a great experience and I will never forget it. This week we have a Zone conference with the Spanish mission and I have been asked to give a spiritual thought about desire and excitement. I truly believe that one of the biggest parts to being an effective  missionary is showing your excitement to serve the Lord and urgency to get things done. I will try to give a good thought that will help the missionaries get pumped up about being in the service of the Lord.
Today for P-day we played the mission soccer game with the North vs. the South Zones and we won. We have most of the Latinos in the south Zone we also had the P family come so we kind of had the upper hand over los gabachos jajaj. I talked to my best friend Elder W and he told me that yesterday he talked to his parents and it’s a done deal, we are hitting up BYUI together after we get home.  He gets back in October and we will both plan on Winter Semester. His parents want to talk to you guys to get everything set up or something so we can be ready when we get back so I’ll be giving Elder W your cell number so we can ponernos de acuerdo.

I’m pretty pumped as every week in the mission is flying by and we are seeing miracles as we are leaving it all up to the Lord. I love it out here and I love the people! It sounds like my boys that are coming home from their missions are also having a great time and are ready to start things up when they get back. Life just goes way to fast and I’m just so glad we have the gospel.
 
I haven’t gotten any of the birthday packages from Heather or Alex yet and I don’t know if they got lost in the mail but who knows. I got your package and thanks for the beef jerky G! I love you guys and everything is going great. I love the Lord and I will pray for all of you as I know the Lord answers prayers. Chyeah!
 
Love,


Elder Payne