Week 38 - April 29, 2013 - VACATION 2013!

So this week has been pretty awesome!! My vacation was great!! 

So Tuesday we got to the airport and Elder Murdock and I sprinted to call our families hahaha! That was so awesome! It was so nice to call you guys and hear your voices! Man I can't wait to actually see the fam via Skype in like 11 days!! That is going to be so awesome!

So from Guadalajara we flew to Mexico City. We had to sign a bunch of stuff for our visas so that we weren't illegal!  We had a four hour layover in Mexico City so we just hung out at the airport and waited, then flew to Houston and got in around 9pm....but that didn't stop us from having a party. 

The guy who picked us up told us that we would be staying in a hotel and then proceeded to tell us the plans for the next two days. So we got to the hotel and ordered Dominos Pizza and just partied in the room. The only thing that sucked was having the huge flat screen TV mounted on the wall and NOT being able to watch it! But it was super fun getting to talk to Elder Murdock to see how everything is going. He doesn't talk English because he wants to make his spanish perfect. 

On Wednesday we woke up and went to ihop to go eat breakfast! Man that was probably the best breakfast I have had in like 9 months hahahaha! I took so many things for granted in the states! I think when you can say that you miss ihop...you have been in Mexico for too long! Then after ihop we went to the consolate to sign a bunch of stuff for our Visas again, it took 2 hours and by the time we left it was noon. So then the guy that was driving and hosting us asked us where we wanted to eat. We found a mall and ate there. Then the guy told us that he wanted to buy a few things for his family (since he lives in Mexico and can't buy the same stuff there). So we walked around the mall and just hung out for like 4 hours! I think if I were ever to be at a mall for 4 hours before my mission I would kill myself. But to be able to have a little free time was super nice!  

Then the guy finally took us back to the airport and we had to wait for another couple hours...so we called our families again hahaha!! It was so nice to be able to talk to Mitch on his birthday! I was so happy I got to do that! 

We eventually had to end our vacation 2013 and come back to Mexcio. At least this time I know what to expect! We got to the secretary's house at like 2 am and had to wake up the next morning at 6. So I was sooooo tired on Thursday due to the lack of sleep the last 2 nights!!

This week was a super good week in our area and zone as well. We completed our goal for baptisms for this month. In the beginning of every month, every companionship sets the goal of baptisms that they wnt for the next month. Our goal was 9 and that was pretty high. Remember that our zone had only baptized 3 in the last 3 months! Well this last week we had a baptism and completed our goal for the month. President called us on Saturday to congratulate us on our hard work and the success we had in the month of April. We set 5 baptismal dates on Saturday and Sunday so we are hoping to see lots of success this next month of May as well!

Today was transfers...my first transfer as a zone leader...and it sucksss!!!! I have been waiting in the big bus station for no joke 6 hours!! President made a new rule that we can't travel alone so I have just been chillin here setting up rides and companionships here.

I got a new companion today and it will definately be a tough transfer. His name is Elder Alvarado and he is from Veracruz, Mexico. He use to be a crazy fisherman before his mission. I can barely understand his spanish, the mexicans can't even understand him!  He talks so crazy!! But the kid loves to laugh so I am just going to work super hard at having fun and making him laugh. I know that when I finish my mission and have tons of trials, I will look back on my mission and say that my time with Elder Alvarado was when I learned the most about myself.

Well right now I am still at the bus station and I have to wait here for like another 30 minutes and then I get to leave and then I have to go to the offices tonight to host the people that are training. So there goes my P-Day hahaha! But I am excited for this next transfer and for the experience I will have to work with Elder Alvarado. We are going to work as hard as we can so that we can seesuccess and have fun together.

I have tons of meetings and zone leader councils this next week so it should be a pretty fast week for me out here! I love you guys so much and thank you for everythinhg you do for me! I can feel your support all the way out here. Even though I am in a different country, I hope you guys can feel my prayers and love! Goodluck and enjoy the next week! 

Love,

Elder Mike Payne

We have landed in the States!

Writing in my journal in the bath tub... that was such a clean and nice bathroom!

Eating Dominos Pizza... the simple things!

Breakfast at Ihop!

Elder Murdock and I in front of the mall

Superman Ride!

Elder Murdock and I are the coolest!

Eating a Molten Lava cake at Chilli's in the Houston airport!  Best meal EVER!!!

Going back to Mexico

Vacation 2013 is officially over

Week 37 - April 22, 2013 - DEPORTED!

So yepp...I am being deported and headed back to the states for a couple days while my visa is being processed. I will be assigned to stay in the Houston Texas mission. So that will be pretty sweet I guess haha! I am going to the offices tonight and then tomorrow morning we leave to Texas. I am super excited because elder Murdock is going too so we are just gunna chill for a few days!!

Well this week was a super good week here in good ol mexico! On Tuesday and Wednesday we had leadership meetings all day and it was pretty good. President Camarillo told us some big news...Elder Christofferson is coming to speak to our mission the last week of May so that should be cool! Also we are going to start having American sisters serve in Mexico. President Camarillo said probably not here in Guadalajara because it wouldn´t be the best place for American girls to be!!

On Thursday I had a meeting with President Camarillo and oiur stake presidency! The zone leaders have a meeting with the mission president and the stake presidency every month so it wasn´t a big surprise but I was still pretty nervous. It was suyper cool though because President Camarillo was being super nice to me. Our zone in the last 3 months has only had 3 baptisms.  So far this month our zone has had 9 baptisms!!! We are super excited!! It has been a very good month. It just feels good to help make people's lives better.

Let me just tell you how happy I am that I was raised in a city and not on a farm!! I had the craziest experience of my life here on Saturday!! So we went to eat with a family on Saturday and as we walked into their house they had like 20 chickens running around. My first thoughts were ¨wow...only in mexico...¨ Then the mom told us that they were planning on killing a couple and she wanted ME to do it for them. She toild me that they have never killed a chicken before so they wanted me to do it for them! Okay this is some sort of sick joke!! So we ran around like idiots for about 30 minutes trying to catch the stupid things!!

Then as we finally caught them, I was expecting to go to some slaughter place to kill these chickens...but nope...the mom tells us to go over by the drain on the ground and just cut off the head. I asked her for a knife and she handed me a stake knife...I was expecting like a butcher's knife or something. Well anyways it wasn´t very sharp so I think I just tortured the chickens!! I had to like saw back and forth and on one of them I cut in the wrong place and started cutting through a super thick bone and it didn´t go to well. But I got the job done and as we were leaving the mom started taking all the feathers off the chicken. She then invited us to go back to her house tonight to eat it hahahaha I am so happy that I am going to the offices tonight because I am missing out on that wonderful experience...So Nasty!!!! Check the blog for pics!

Then Saturday after that whole incident we headed over to the church to prepare for our baptisms. We had 3 baptisms as a ward so that was pretty cool. It was actually the best baptism I have been to in my time here in Mexico. We couldn´t fit in the baptism room so we had to go to the chapel and have our program in there. Elder Castro and I baptized a guy named Miguel. He is such a stud! He is 23 and has had tons of health problems in the past. He went through chemotherapy for like 7 years of his life. He is the son of other recent converts and he has come such a long way!! He told us that he wants to be a missionary like us and that he is going to work as hard as he can to get all of his papers in by next year!!! I was like crying when he said that! He is so awesome!! The other two baptisms were of the other elders in our ward (Elder Hippard and Elder Hughes). It was such a good experience!!

Well that was it for my week. Such an awesome week and I am sure this next week will be pretty eventful as well! I am pretty excited to go back to the states fopr a couple days and I am going to try and get out to some super good Barbecue restaurant with Elder Murdock hahaha!!

I love you all and thank you so much for all the support!! Good bless and talk to ya´ll next week.

Les amo y que Dios les bendiga!! Cuidense mucho!!!

Elder Mike Payne

Sharpening the steak knife to kill my prey... I am so hard core!

Here we are trying to catch the chickens with laundry baskets haha

Me and Elder Hughes about to pounce!

Kissing the chicken

Cutting off the head

Liliana's baptism from last week

This person figured out that their car couldn't fit so they just decided to bend the bars on their garage door... a lot of garage doors look like that out here haha!!!

The baptisms this last week - Miguel, Brenda, Gabi, the last bishop (left), and the current bishop (right)

Miguel and his mom

The most people I have ever seen in a baptism.  I counted 43 that were there!  So awesome!

Week 36 - April 15, 2013 - Look for the GOOD

So this week was pretty good!! Sorry this email is going to be a little shorter because I don't have a lot of time.

Anyways, Tuesday night President called a bunch of the zone leaders to go to the offices to give him our missionary agendas. I was super nervous because he said he was going to a council with all the mission presidents in Mexico and they were going to revise them and see how we were doing with our agendas. The assistants told me that he only took the three best agendas and one of them was mine...not a big deal...I'm just a super good planner ;)

Then President called us on Wednesday and told me I was going to be having divisions with the assistants for the week. So I went to their area and worked. It was cool because that was an area in my old district so I got to see a few missionaries from the old district. It was fun though-I learned a ton from them!! We actually had a lot of success in their area. We found 3 new investigators and set a baptismal date with two of them. They were so happy because they aren't having any success in their area because they are hardly there! They told me they work like 2 days a week in their area so its super tough to have baptisms. So hopefully those two investigators will get baptized soon!!

Then I came back on Saturday morning and we had our baptism with Liliana. It was such a good baptism!! She invited a bunch of family and friends and because of her, we have 4 new investigators!! She is going to be such an amazing member!! She is super pumped up about sharing the gospel and particpating in all the activities we are having in our ward!! I am really excited to see her progress now as a member!!

Then Saturday after the baptism we had a lesson with our investigator who has his baptismal date set for next Saturday and he was asking us what time it was going to be at. hahaha so were almost positive that this kid is going to be baptized. He is so awesome...his name is Miguel and he is about 24 years old. He told us that he doesn't want to hang out with his friends anymore because he wants to be like us. We asked him what that meant and he said ¨I want to serve a mission too.¨ We were so happy to hear that and he is so awesome!! These last two weeks he has gone to church in his Mexico soccer jersey, basketball shorts, and his black hat that he always wears. We told him that he should probably wear different clothes and he felt so bad because he just thought that you should go to church in comfortable clothes. haha  But he is awesome so we will most likely be having his baptism this next Saturday.

President sent me a letter last week telling me that I am supposed to be serving in this area for a reason and that is to help the missionaries that are struggling and not having any success. He told me that because of the success that I had in my last area, he decided to put me in an area that isn't having any success. That made me feel so good and I have just been working super hard to help the missionaries. It's pretty tough but I am starting to gain a greater love for these guys. In the beginning I was pretty frustrated at their disobedience and lack of success, but I have realized what I need to do to help them and they are doing awesome!! We have already had 4 baptisms in our zone this month and we have 5 planned for this week and 6 for the next week. I am loving this zone and where I am at right now. Tomorrow we are opening another area in our zone because their area is huge and they are splitting it up. So were hoping to see some more success in that area.

I am doing great and loving the mish. It is so crazy to see the difference in my attitude because at first I hated being here and I thought this place was so dirty and so dangerous. I will always remember what Carlee said. I don't remember exaclty what she said but it was something along the lines of, ¨You can find beauty in everything...if you are looking for the bad, you WILL find the bad...but if you look for the good, you WILL find the good.¨ She sent me that in the very beginning of my experience out here and I will never forget that because it is so true. This place may not be as beautiful as the beaches of Hawaii (mom and dad), but I am enjoying it here and all the many experiences that I am having.

Well that is it for this week but I love you guys and I hope everything is going well. Take care and God Bless!!

Elder Mike Payne

Week 35 - April 8, 2013 - An American Meal!

Hola Everyone!

Well to be completely honest, nothing super exciting happened last week...kinda hard to beat watching some guy get crucified hahahaha!! But nonetheless is was an extremely fast week and it was super good!!

So on Tuesday we had our zone leader counsels that we have every month. We went to president´s house and Hermana Camarillo made us a SUPER good meal. She always makes American home made food for all the americans!! She made roast beef, steamed vegetables, salad, and super good rolls!! Wow it was such an incredible meal!!  And then President just pretty muich did a fireside and talked about how we, as leaders, need to show an example for our zones and it was super good!

But president gave us a few new rules...one of them being that we don´t have a time limit while we write home on the computers!! It was super funny because some of the zone leaders were actually kinda mad. President shared his feelings on having the missionaries write a detailed letter to him every week instead of focusing entirely on their letter to their families. I mean hey I´m not complaining!! We´ll see how long this lasts for! But I will make the most of it for now hahaha!!

Conference was super good!!! I can´t believe there are more than 45 thousand missionaries right now!! that is pretty crazy!! We had 5 investigators go to the Sunday Morning session and it was super good!! I think my favorite talk was Holland. Man that guy is awesome!  But it was fun because we had our own room with a TV that had conference in english. We had like 5 of the american missionaries in my zone watching it. It was pretty fun because we were paying attention but at the same time we got to talk and we didn´t have to stay completely silent the whole time haha!! It was nice to be able to speak in english!

It´s funny because one of our investigators only went so that he could play soccer with me hahaha!! So yesterday in between sessions we had a little soccer game. It was the first time I played in a while!! Man I was schoolin' the Mexicans haha!! It was the first time I played here in Mexico (and I don´t even know if that counts since I was in church clothes)! But it was super fun!!  I miss the good ole days on the Foothill turf.......losing every game. ahhhhhh the good ole days hahaha

Well that was it for the week. We have a baptism coming up this Saturday so we are super happy about that. This zone is kinda dead so its pretty frustrating but we are working hard to set the example for the missionaries and to help them out in their areas. Also president told us that Elder Castro will be leaving after this transfer. President doesn´t like missionaries ending their missions as zone leaders. So I have to know this whole area and everyone living in it within the next three weeks. It is super funny because I just walk around with the map all day asking where we are hahaha!! Im picking it up quick though so it´s all good!!

Well I love you all so much and thank you so much for all the love and support!! Go out and share the gospel...and if you have questions...ASK THE MISSIONARIES!! God Bless and have an amazing week!! You are all in my prayers every day!

Love,
Elder Mike Payne

"Guero" means like "white boy" hahaha that's what everyone calls me on the streets!

Inside San Juan De Dios.  That place is crazy!  Super cool though!!

At San Juan De Dios.  That is a big Catholic cathedral in the background.  It was actually pretty cool.
 

Elder Smitheram's chair broke during conference.  It was super funny haha!  So then I decided to tip the chair over and in the second picture that's what it looked like haha

The zone of Reforma

What I had for lunch... chicken feet!  YUMMMMM!!! 

Week 34 - April 1, 2013 - Feliz Pascua!

What a difference in this holiday!! It is crazy here on Easter!

Okay so here's why it is so crazy here...So Friday was the day Christ died for us. So the Mexican Catholics have a tradition around here. As their Easter tradition, they re-enact the crucifixion of Christ. On Friday morning, elder Castro and I were walking to a lesson and in the middle of the street was a huge group of people walking towards us. Leading the group was a guy dressed as Christ and 2 guys dressed as the Jews of that time. The guy dressed like Christ had a white towel around his waist with a thorn crown on his head. He was walking down the street with a huge cross on his shoulders. A couple people were behind him helping him out. The two guys dressed as Jews then proceeded to dip their towels in a bucket of red paint and whip the cross (representing the whipping of Christ-except they hit the cross instead of his back). This group consisted of about 250 people! They were all chanting and singing, it was a little depressing!!

Then Elder Castro and I went to eat at a members house and we were telling her of the event that just occured. She then proceeded to tell us that they were walking him to the front of their huge catholic church to be crucified!!!! They literally put this guy up on the cross all day...with nails in his hands and feet!!!!!! What is wrong with these people??!! People could go and kneel down in front of him and pray. Last year they said the guy who volunteered died! I don´t understand it!

And then they decided to cut off ALL water on Friday. Since in the scriptures water represents life, they decided to cut off all the water here!! Then on Saturday they have a tradition where everyone goes into the street and has a water fight!!  Definitely an Easter I won't soon forget!

Yesterday we had a ward baptism, the mom went all out!! Tons of their family is from Tiajuana and they drove 36 hours to get here! There was probably about 30 of them. They all came dressed in purple! It seemed more like a quinceñera! We had a few investigators at church and I think it scared a couple people away. She had elder Castro and I direct the baptism, she had SIX talks on the program!

I hope you all had a good week and that everything went well for you all!!

Elder Mike Payne

Me and Elder Murdock!  

This is the little girl we baptized

Me and Elder Silos and the kid he is training

Everyone here worships the Chivas! haha

I am definitely gaining the weight back... but at least I'm happy right?! :)

McGriddle! Yum!

Went to McDonalds with Elder Smitheram.  We had a blast!

Paradise!

Week 33 - March 25, 2013 - 8 Months!

Wow I can´t believe I am at 8 months! This last month just flew by! I cant believe next week it is already April!!

Anyways, I don´t have too many crazy stories to tell you from this week. I mean I have a had a bunch of cool little experiences but nothing crazy exciting!  Our house has 3 bedrooms and a pretty nice bathroom, we only use about half of the house.  My companion is cool, he is a super good missionary. He has 22 months on his mission and most likely I will be his last companion because he goes home in June. It is so nice because he knows what he´s doing and we are just working super hard together! His name is Elder Castro and I couldn´t help to think of the Castro District in California....so sometimes I call him Ël Distrito.¨ I told him the story and he just chuckles when I call him that! hahaha we are having fun together

The area I am in is actually pretty nice!! Tons of walking but its all paved roads so its pretty nice!! I have lost a lot of weight last week because we didn´t have time to go buy food last P-Day so I didn´t really eat anything except for lunches with the members. But we have tons of stores in our area and it is super nice to finally have things in my area. We have Walmart and Office Depot in the same parking lot!! Just when I thought vacation couldn´t possibly get any better... I found Office Depot!! It is absolutely incredible!!  We also have McDonalds, Burger King, Carls Jr., Little Ceasars, Tacos Paza...and more!  It is so amazing!!!

So my first night here as we were walking back to our house, we passed a catholic church. The Priest was preaching to the entire congregation and right as we passed he said, with a lot of enthusiasm ¨Watch out for the 21 year old gueros. They are coming to teach about their church and trying to convince you to be baptized. They are underaged and unintelligent.¨ haha  So that just explains this place. Everyone here is super catholic!! Not a lot of people want much to do with us! It´s pretty sad but we also have found a lot of investigatoirs last week so that is super good!

The ward is super strong and we have a bunch of awesome members. The Bishop is super cool. He has only been Bishop for 4 months so he is just super pumped up to work hard and to help us out. We received 11 references last week!! I have never even heard of a companionship getting more than like 5 in a week!! So that was pretty awesome! We set 3 baptismal dates last week with some of our investigators. They are all dates for April so we are hoping to have about 3 or 4 baptisms here next week. That is pretty good because Elder Castro told me they have had 3 baptisms here in the last 8 months!! 

As for our zone...they are seeing lots of success actually. Elder Castro was telling me that they are pretty disobedient missionaries and that´s why they haven´t had much success! But we talked about how we could help them and we have been calling our zone like crazy to make sure they are working hard. We call each companionship at least twice a day! It has really helped because we just ask about their day and how they are doing and we just try and motivate them. Its funny because we have a zone of 12 missionaries and 8 of them are Americans and the others understand english! 

We are teaching english classes in our ward. We have four missionaries in our ward and two are from the states, one is from Canada and the other is from Mexico. I have been teaching the classes, it is pretty sweet because we have like 30-40 people every Tuesday and Thursday in our classes! 

Well today we just went full out vacation mode!!! First we went to Office Depot to buy some things for my desk. Then we went to Walmart and bought a ton of food!  It was only 530 pesos which is like $45!  We went and ate at Little Ceasar's Pizza. Super funny story actually. So we were going to go eat at Carls Jr. but some guy was sitting down and started talking to us in english. He had a perfect english accent and we realized he couldn´t speak spanish at all!  He looked super wealthy haha!! Then he was like ¨Hey why don´t we go to Little Ceasar's, I´ll buy you whatever you want.¨ After talking to him for a while we realized he is a member and has been his entire life. He owns all the Little Ceasar's in Mexico!!!! How crazy is that?! 

Well that´s about it for the week!! I love you all and I hope you are all doing well! I am doing awesome!! 

2 Timothy 4:7. Fight through your battles and put all your trust in God. ¨Pray to God like everything depends on him. Work like everything depends on you.¨

Take care and God bless. I am praying for you all!

Elder Payne

Me playing in the kids place in Carls Jr. haha

Corn Dogs baby!  I have found a way to gain all my weight back! 

I can't wait until I get home so I can have little kids to play with so I don't look like an idiot just playing by myself in the kids place! haha

Week 32 - March 18, 2013 - Transferred!

I got transferred today!  I am writing this in my new area...Reforma.

First I will start out with my last week in Buenos Aires. It was definitely tough to say goodbye to those people and I will miss that area a lot. I had a lot of good relationships with a bunch of the members and I will miss them a lot! So this last week Elder santiago and I worked super hard to find new investigators. We have a few baptisms planned in that area but we have been having tons of success so it was good to leave that area on a high note. 

On Friday we had an activity at the church. The young women in our ward are going on their girls camp this summer and they are trying to raise money for it. They made tomales, nachos and bought tons of candy and just basically had a huge fundraiser.  They raised like 2,000 pesos...which is like $170... that's a lot for how poor this area is. President called me during the activity and told me that I was going to be transfered to zone leader this week but he didn´t tell me where or with who, so I was super nervous all weekend and I was thinking of all the possibilities of where I would go....and of course the places that I DID NOT want to go. 

I told my comp the one place I didn´t want to go was to Reforma because they don´t baptize at all and they have a lot of disobedient missionaries. I then told him that I had a feeling I was going there because God has a sense of humor!! So on Sunday night we got a call from the zone leaders telling us what was going to happen this next transfer. He told me 'Reforma,' and I just started cracking up with Elder Santiago. I KNEW it! hahaha

My companion is Elder Castro, he is pretty cool - I'm sure we will have a great time together. He is a hard worker and that´s all that matters! The one thing I would hate is to have a companion that doesn´t want to work or that is super disobedient. Our area is actually really nice!! It is like a little town. We have all the fast food restuarants you could ask for!! It is pretty legit! Except we don´t have a Wal Mart or any big grocery store so we have to go pretty far to buy groceries every week. I feel very safe here and I think it is a good area for me. All the roads are paved, unlike Buenos Aires where I was walking on rocks and dust all day. The houses are pretty nice and not nearly as many Mexicans are yelling swear words at me. 

Our address is Teresa Reynoso 4054 Col. Insurgentes Guadalajara, Jalisco (please only send letters there, no packages!). I am about 2 hours away from my last area. Our house is pretty nice, kinda dirty but thanks to Dad...I will take care of it!!  He taught me how to be a clean freak and how to take control when things are a mess!  But like I said, this area is a lot more safe and I feel good working here! I am going to work my hardest to help the missionaries in this zone be more motivated to work, but first I have to lead by example. 

I am glad that this last week was over and that all the goodbyes are done. The hardest family to say goodbye to was the Ortega Sanchez family. They are absolutely amazing. Erendira, who was completely less active for 6 years when we first met with her now has a calling and a temple recommend. She is learning english so that she can serve a senior mission in the Salt Lake City temple. Her daughter, Fernanda, didn´t want anything to do with us when we first got there and now she is first counselor in the Beehives. Lupe, the grandma, was super Catholic and yelled at us like the whole first month we visted- telling us how our church was false and how the virgin was the best thing that ever happened. The 63 year old Lupe is now a member, took down all of her pictures of the virgin, and just went and did baptisms for her parents on saturday. She is now trying to baptize her husband so that they can get married in the Salt Lake City temple in a couple years. It just goes to show that there are so many people waiting to hear this gospel and waiting to change their lives. They just don´t know how to start. As missionaries it is our job to establish the Lord´s Kingdom on this earth and to bless the lives of everyone around us. I am so happy I was placed in their lives and that I could be a part of their progression.

Last night when I was saying bye to them I brought them some gifts. I brought them root beer candies, warheads, an english Book of Mormon with my name engraved on the front, and 300 pesos for Fernanda. To go to girls camp the girls all have to pay 300 pesos. Well on Friday, her mom and aunt went out and bought pretty much everything...they didn´t make much of a profit because they divided out all the money and Fernanda made about 40 pesos while all the other girls made enough money to go to girls camp. This family doesn´t have a lot of extra money so I decided to give Fernanda the money that she needed to go to girls camp. It was such a blessing because I know she needed that money more than I did and it was such a good feeling to see their tears of joy and happiness as they received the money.

Well I am doing good here in Reforma and I am excited for this next transfer. I am workin hard and will continue to do everything in my power to give the Lord all I have. I know I am called to this area for a reason and that there are people here waiting for this gosepl. Like it says in my Patriarchal Blessing: ¨You will be called to go to the nations of the earth to share the Gospel message. There will be those whom you alone can touch.¨

I Love you all and I hope you have a great week. I am prayin for you all the time!! Take care and God Bless!!!!

Elder Mike Payne

Tiny toilet haha it is meant for like 3 year olds.  It looked super funny so I decided to take a pic!  haha 

The American boys

One of the members has this little dog!  It was so cute!

The Ortega Sanchez family.  Man I will miss them so much!!!

Week 31 - March 11, 2013 - No More Walmart :(

This week has just flown by!! On Thursday we had our interviews with President Camarillo and it went well. He started by telling me how much success I have been having and how much he appreciates all my hard work. Our conversation went more or less like this :

President- How long have you been in Buenos Aires?

Me- Almost 6 months

President- Wow that´s a long time! How do you feel?

Me- Good! I am workin hard and loving where I am at

President- Thats good! So are your bags packed?

Me- hahaha I am just trying to enjoy the time I have while it´s here

President- Thats good. Enjoy your last week...

Then we had divisions with the zone leaders and I went with Elder young. He is super cool. But he was telling me how in their interview, President told them that I will be a zone leader next transfer. I have no clue where I am going but it will be interesting for sure...so this is my last time writing in this internet cafe place!! Super sad but I am just trying not to think of transfers yet, I am for sure going to miss all these people!! 

On Friday we had our baptismal interviews and they went well. We worked super hard with Lupe this whole last week! She wasCatholic and she has 2 daughters (Mayra and Erendira) that are Mormon and the rest of her family is Catholic. So Elder Santiago and I visited her twice a week just to make sure that she felt good about everything.

On Saturday we had our baptisms and also the other Elders in our ward had one. It was pretty cool because we had 6 people dressed in white so the pictures look sweet! But not too much crazy happened last week!! 

I learned that my Mission President's daughter is serving a mission in San Pablo (I'm not sure if that's in the San Francisco mission or San Jose), but that's pretty cool! 

I'm so bummed because the President told us that we couldn't go to Walmart anymore!  There are too many temptations there!  I guess he's right, all the things that I love about Walmart are temptations! haha  But, they have the best groceries at Walmart, now I guess we'll have to get our groceries from the Tiendas (little stores in people's garages!).

I love you guys so much and thank you for everything you do!! I can feel all your prayers and love and I am so grateful for the friends and family that I have!! You guys are all incredible and I hope you have an amazing week!! I will most likely be writing this in another area next week!! Crazy to think about how fast time goes by!! I can´t believe I have already been in this area for 6 months!! 

Tha tha tha tha tha tha thats all folks!

Con Amor,

Elder Mike Payne

PS- Sorry this letter was so short haha I honestly don´t remember what happened!! It was such a fast week haha!!

Me drinking jalapeño juice last week in our Family Home Evening with the Ortega family... they were pretty impressed haha

One family in our ward has a cat who just had babies... this is how they feed the kittens haha

Our two assistants (Elder Castellanos and Elder Mckie).  They finish their missions this week, and are both going home on Monday

The three people who got baptized in our ward on Saturday (Lupe, Amanda, and Eric)

The baptism of Lupe and the fam.  Best baptism I have had here I think!  Man I love that family!!  Such a miracle of a family!

Eric and his sister 

This is how people sell things here!  They just put their stuff in a little bike like this and ride around the streets trying to get people to buy their stuff

Week 30 - March 4, 2013 - No Regrets!

Wow what a week!! So it all started on Tuesday. President called me last week and asked if I would be able to go to the Zone's council meeting. So on Tuesday we picked some other zone leaders up from the bus station and took them back to our house. Then me and a couple of the other zone leaders went to president's house and met up with all the zone leaders in the mission. Every month the zone leaders have councils at the president's house and it´s pretty much just a fireside and the next day they have a big meeting to discuss the mission. 

Then on Friday we had our baptism for Urial. It went well, Elder Santiago baptized him. It was Elder Santiago´s first baptism.  Then on Saturday we had our baptism for Lorrita- the little American girl. It is so weird because she knows maybe 10 percent of spanish so she is more lost than I was my first few weeks here. We just laugh because she is so funny! She is 10 years old and everyone went up to her to congratulate her and she would just look at me and shrug her shoulders because she had no clue what the people were saying haha. 

While Lorrita and her dad were changing after the baptism, everyone watched a movie on the atonement, I looked over at Elder Santiago and he was crying. We left the room and I gave him a big hug! I knew exactly why he was crying...HIS SISTER GOT BAPTIZED THAT DAY IN GUATAMALA!!!! It was awesome because he got to baptize Uriel on Friday and then he got to see Lorrita (who is the same age as his sister) get baptized on Saturday. He has 9 people in his family and only 3 (now 4) of them are members, but two of his other siblings are also taking the missionary discussions. This morning when we were printing our letters, he just broke down and started crying because his family sent him pictures of the baptism. It was so awesome to be with him for this experience!!

Then Saturday night we went and had a lesson with Lupe. She always tells us that she is going to get baptized but she wants it to be her decision and that she doesn´t want to set a date and get pressured into anything. We told her that it was her decision but that Elder Santiago and I have been praying for her and we feel that she will be ready for baptism on March 16th. She accepted and said  "if I don´t feel ready by then, then I will get baptized the next week.¨  It was such an awesome lesson!!

Then yesterday at church we asked Lorrita and Uriel who they wanted to confirm them and the both chose me...GREAT!! So I was super nervous before and I pulled out my white missionary handbook to start memorizing the ordinance. It came time for the confirmations and Lorrita was first. I took a deep breath and said a little prayer...I didn´t feel nervous at all. I honestly felt like I was speaking my natural language. It was such a weird feeling! It went super well. Then after I confirmed Uriel. The second time was so much easier. It was a cool experience to confirm someone for the first time!

Then as church was ending yesterday, we saw Lupe, Erendira, and Mayra talking to our Stake President. Mayra came up to me crying after and she was so happy. I asked what happened and she told me that her mom is going to get baptized this next Saturday instead of the 16th!! Her mom then said, "I feel really good right now. I talked to President Muños and he said that the ward is going to do baptisms in the temple on the 16th and I want to go. But I have to be a member for at least a week before I can enter. So I want to be baptized this week!" Wow!!!! What a miracle!! This is like my favorite family here! I was scared that I wouldn't be able to see her baptism because of transfers, but now I will be able to see her baptism and also hear about her experience in the temple!!

We also will be baptizing Eric (brother of Edwin and Yazbek) this Saturday. I am so happy for him!

Well that is about it for my crazy week!! What an awesome week!! I don´t want to be transfered but I am almost positive that I will haha! But it´s all good! I am prepared...kinda hahaha! It will definitely be weird because this is all I know about Mexico- Buenos Aires. So it will be cool to get to know another area but at the same time I am going to miss the people here!  I think I am going to get to come to the States for a few weeks at the end of March!  I guess my visa is only good for 6 months, so I need to come back to fill out more paperwork and wait for my new visa to go through.  I'm pretty excited to come back to civilization and maybe drive a car again! haha

I wanted to give a shout-out to Mrs. Carrick and Mrs. Robinson, thanks for reading my emails!  Mom, I love your quote about teaching by showing. It would be easier to be lazy and not work hard, but it would be the worst feeling in the world to be at the end of your mission and have regrets. I have 16 months left and I'm trying to live each day at a time and not take any opportunity for granted!

Well I love you guys and I hope you all have an amazing week!! I know my week will be awesome!! Whenever we have baptisms the weeks always go by super fast!!  I love you all and thank you so much for all the support!!!

Hasta proxima semana,

Elder Mike Payne

Uriel's Baptism! 

Uriel's Baptism! He is such a shy kid, but it was awesome!

Baptism of Lorrita.  Her family is so awesome!  None of them speak Spanish.  Her little brother, Angelk, is such a funny little kid!  He says the funniest things!

Baptism of Lorrita!