Sunday, July 14, 2013

Week 48 - July 13, 2013 - 119 hours!?!


On Monday we had divisions with Zamora 1. I went to work with Elder Pathakis in his area. It was pretty fun working with him. He is super funny!  It poured while we were there and we just got soaked. I didn't bring my rain coat or umbrella so I was absolutely soaked!! I stayed there until Wednesday morning and then traveled back to Morelia to work in my area. 

On Wednesday we taught one of our investigators named Victor Gallegos. That man is a stud! He is a pastor of the Christrian church (like the bishop of pour church) and he knows our church is true. He told us that he wants to get baptized but that he would let lots of people down if he does. We are working super hard with him because if we can baptize him then we will baptize like 30 more people from his little church!! That would be insane! It will take lots of work and time I think but little by little. He accepted a baptismal date and everything but there are just lots of obstacles. We will see what happens.

On Thursday we went on Divisions again and I worked with Elder Wilhelm in our area (Estadio). He is a super good missionary. He has almost 9 months in the mission and will most likely be transfered to be an assistant in Guadalajara in like a week when we have transfers. 

Well that's about it for the week. The time is just going by super fast and I cannot believe we are already at July 13th!! That is so crazy!! In just over a week I will have a year in the mission! I did the math this week of how many hours I have traveled in a bus since I have been called to be an assistant and I calculated 119 houras!!!!!!! That has to be a record. I am going to get a frequent traveler card so that I can get lots of discounts. :-0  Actually the bus is pretty nice, I don't mind it because there is always lots to see and there are a lot of Pueblos that are pretty cool!

This week we will be doing divisions again with Uruapan and Zamora 2. Which means I will be traveling for another 16 hours. It will be super fun because I will get to work with Elder Quinney again and he is super chill. Then next Monday we have transfers again so we will be off to Guadalajara to have another crazy schedule with taking the old guys and also picking the new guys up from the airport.  There are 3 elders going home and we are getting 22 new sister missionaries! 

Yesterday as I was thinking about Grandpa's death - I read in 1 Corinthians 15. It is such an amazing chapter. It really hit me hard how awesome it is going to be living in the Celestial Kingdom with all my family. As we sit on earth thinking about how miserable it was when both Grandpa's passed away, they are up there laughing waiting for all of us to join with them. Christ lived so that WE can be clean and worthy. Christ died so that WE can live with our Heavenly Father again. I have no doubt that we will all live together again. No matter the sacrifices we make in life being away from the family, I think the biggest promise God has given us is to be able to live forever with our families in a world of perfection!

I love you all so much and have an amazing week!!

Love,
Elder Mike Payne

Monday, July 8, 2013

Week 47 - July 6, 2013 - New Companion!

Well this week has been super good and super fast!!

To start off, we had special transfers on Monday. Elder Morales got transferred to Guadalajara to be an assistant there and the assistant over there, Elder Rueda, got transfered to be an assistant with me. He is like the coolest guy I have ever met. Man he is amazing!! I think he is hands down the best missionary in the mission. The reason why we had divisions was because Elder Rueda and Elder Holmquist (the other assistant in Guadalajara) have competed 21 months in the mission and President wants them to train next transfer. When he called to tell me about our changes he told me that I am now in charge of all the missionaries in Michaocan. Wow what a responsibility huh? Man I am super excited though because this experience has been so fun and I am so happy to be with Elder Rueda. It's super crazy because when I got to Mexico to start my mission, my zone leaders were Elder Castro and Elder Rueda...and I have now been companions with both!! 

Well on Tuesday we had a meeting with President all morning about all the changes that are going to happen in the mission. We will be opening up another zone out here in Michoacan in a few months, making it 11 zones in the mission. The new zone will be about 8 or 9 hours from the offices and 4 hours from Morelia (my area).  We had a meeting with him from 10 until 3 and then went to lunch with a new kid who just got here from Peru on Tuesday monring. We then went back to the offices to prepare for the zone leader councils and then ate dinner and had a fireside at the President´s house. 

On Wednesday we had our zone leader councils and it went really well. All of the zone leaders are super pumped up to work and see lots of success. Our mission is increasing like crazy and we are seeing lots of success!! President is super happy with us right now haha!! Then we traveled back to Morelia in President´s car. He is doing some stuff out here so he just asked us to travel with him. We didn´t get home until like 11pm and then I had to stay up until 1am waiting for all the other zone leaders to get in their house so that I could send the report to President.

On Thursday we woke up at 4:30 to take President to Uruapan (another zone in Michoacan). I got to drive and it was pretty crazy I must say. That was the first time I have driven in a year. It went well and President was very content with my driving, as he slept for 3 hours as we traveled haha!! I was so jealous as I would look back at him snoring, just wishing I could be in his position! We then came back to our area and worked all day and had lots of success.

Then today we met President at the bus station. He was doing a bunch of stuff over here in Michoacan. He was going to travel back to Guadalajara and doesn´t like to travel alone so he asked if we would go with him. We left here at 11 and got into Guadalajara at like 3:30. Then we got back onto a bus and traveled back to our area in Morelia. A loooong day!

It has been a crazy fast week and lots of fun. I love my new companion and I am souper excited to learn from him. He is slowly letting me in on his life before the mission. He use to be this crazy rockstar with long hair that use to travel the world with his band. The kid is incredible! He played drums for his band and was just livin the life. I have never heard his band but its called ¨Electric Co.¨ I guess they were super good because theyopened for lots of bands, like U2 and stuff!  He´s pretty much my idol haha!!

Well I love you guys and I hope you had an amazing week and an even more amazing week to come!! Thank you for all that you do!!

Love,
Elder Payne


Driving Presidents car to Uruapan for the first time in the mission.  Man I was so scared!  I'm sure I look hilarious driving for the first time in 11 months!

4th of July eating hot dogs!