Hello!
Well this week has been pretty good!! I read
Nate Johansen's email from Brazil and it is so crazy to see the
difference in our missions!! He had 17 new investigators last week!!! That is
absolutely ridiculous!! We´re lucky to get 2 or 3!! I wish we could tract or
street contact, I know we could touch a lot more people. But safety first
- it's not safe to go into 'strangers' homes here!
We had a cool lesson with a new investigator
this week named Raquel. This was the longest lesson I have ever had...or
imagined!! It was good but it was 2 1/2 hours long!! She is a referral from the
Lizaola family (The family with my funny story with family home evening). We
showed up and she started talking about her family and her problems, so Elder
Silos and I started teaching the Plan of Salvation. That lesson was about 45
minutes and then we were about to leave and she was talking about how sore her
throat is and about how much pain she is in. Then Sister Lizaola offered for us
to give her a blessing. So Elder Silos and I taught her about the Restoration
and how the priesthood was restored on this earth because we're not just going
to give her a blessing without her knowing the importance of it. Then we said
the closing prayer and she wanted to know how she can pray and how she can
receive revelation. Everything just kept leading into another lesson so we just
kept teaching! She is an awesome investigator and we are hoping to set a date
for baptism tomorrow in our lesson.
Well the people here are nuts!! So as elder
Silos and I were walking down the street I saw 4 little kids holding this cat's
mouth shut and laughing. I didn´t think much of it until the next morning when
Elder Silos and I walked past the same house and we saw the same cat as the
night before, except this time it was dead on the ground...not just dead but in
pieces!! Elder Silos told me that the kids put Alka Seltzer in the cat's mouth
and when they closed its mouth, the cat's stomach couldn´t handle it so it
eventually explodes. I mean I don't really like cats but still... have the
decency to not torture the poor thing!
So this past week for some reason the song,
¨You´re Gonna Miss This,¨ popped into my head. It is now my theme song haha It
fits perfect into my life right now. The chorus to the song says ¨You´re gonna
miss this. You´re gonna want this back. You're gunna wish these days hadn´t
gone by so fast. These are some good times. So take a good look around. You may
not know it now, but you´re gonna miss this.¨ Whenever a negative
thought about my area pops into my head or I want to come home I just take a
few deep breaths and sing this song and I feel a lot better.
Okay, you NEED to watch this video! It´s
called, ¨Missionary Work and the Atonement" by Jeffrey R. Holland and
Henry B. Eyring. It is absolutely incredible! One of my favorite parts is when
Jeffrey R. Holland is talking near the end and he says ¨Why does missionary
work have to be so hard? There must be an easier way. Well you´re not the first
to ask that question. Someone a long time ago asked it. Someone a lot better...
but he asked ´Heavenly Father- is there a less excrutiating way?¨ It is
incredible how much Christ suffered for us and he was willing to do it! I
literally don´t know how else to describe this video. It is by far the most
inspirational video I have ever seen!
So this past week I think I walked the Tour de
France/Mexico in one day...at one time. Okay so we taught one of our
investigators and then after we went and taught a less active member. It was 7
miles each way! I´m pretty sure it was the farthest I have ever walked in my
life!!
Well I hope you are all doing well and that you
all had another good week! Live one day at a time because tomorrow you won´t
receive the blessings of today.
Love,
Elder Mike Payne
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| Mike out teaching! |
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| Very skilled at carrying the dirty dishes! |
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| Mike in Mexico overlooking the city |
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