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

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!

Week 46 - June 22, 2013 - I love the Bus!

Crazy to think how fast time flies by!! Remember last year when we had those 25 gifts for mom and dad for their 25th anniversary?  That was so much fun! Man I miss you guys a ton!

Well this last week went by so fast!! It was just a crazy week!! So Monday we took a bus to Urapan to have divisions with them and I worked in their area with Elder Quinney. He is such a stud! Man I love that kid. We are definately going to be hanging out after the mish!!  On Tuesday we just practically did service ALL day!! It was pretty nuts!! 

We went to lunch with one of the older ladies that lives in his area and then she asked if we would help her cut down a couple branches on her tree in her backyard. We said yes, thinking it would be a small little tree. It ended up being like 40 feet tall. So we had to climb the tree and use this axe thing to chop off the branches - in our dress shirts and pants! It took like 3 hours! 

Then we went to go teach one of their investigators and she asked if we would help cut the vines that were growing on the side of her house. That ended up taking like another 2 hours. As we were cutting, Elder Quinney started cutting above the door of the house. He noticed there was a bird's nest tucked behind the vines and moved it a little bit. All of the sudeen we hear ¨plop, plop, plop.¨ As we looked at the ground, we saw three dead baby birds - we felt bad!  Then as we were collecting all the leaves in front of the house, the neighbors dog fell off the roof and was hanging by his leash!!  Don't worry, it was a harness, so he wasn't choking!  I took pictures of it haha it looked soooo funny!!!!

Then on Wednesday morning I treveled back to Morelia (my area) and then unpacked, packed, and left to Zamora!! I got to Zamora and worked with Elder Perez, the zone leader over there. He is a pretty funny dude! I had fun working with him. On Thursday, we had to travel like an hour and a half to do a baptismal interview for one of the district leaders. Then we traveled an hour and a half back to his area and had a couple more lessons.

On Friday morning, I came back from Zamora...ending my week with a total of 14.5 hours in a bus! Good thing I like traveling because I can catch up on my sleep!

Yesterday we had a few lessons in our area and it went really good. It's super weird because I work with my companion, Elder Morales, only 2 days a week!  But we are having another baptism tonight so we are excited about that. We have 4 elders in our ward and its a baptism for the other elders but the girl lives in our area! We are super pumped for them though because they have baptized 5 weeks in a row now. One of the Elders has 4 months in the mission and the other has 4 weeks! They are super happy so we just keep giving them our referrals because they are super hard workers!

This next week we have zone conferences all week so I will be traveling all week again. It should be fun because I think President will take us out to nice restaurants again! Last week President's daughter got back from her mission in San Francisco so he has just been super happy all week! I am pretty sure she will be doing some of the zone conference activities with us so it should be fun to talk to her and see how everything is going back in the Bay!

Well I am doing great and loving it out here! Time is going by so fast! I can't believe I will have 11 months done on Tuesday! I love you all so much and I am so thankful for all the support you guys give me! I am prayin for you in every prayer and have an amazing week!!

Love,

Elder Payne

Week 45 - June 15, 2013 - I'M SO TIRED

So Sunday morning we took a bus early to go to Guadalajara with all the missionaries that ended their 24 months and were headed back home. We got to the offices at about 2 o'clock and President did interviews with all the missionaries. It ended at about 6 and then we went to Presidents house to eat dinner and just talk about all their missionary stories and experiences. They all shared their testimony and President and Sister Camarillo ended with theirs. It was such an awesome experience and kinda made me glad that I still have time left in the mission because everyone was just super depressed haha!! We stayed with the assistants in Guadalajara and didn't get back to their house until 12:30am.

Monday morning we woke up at 4 to go to the airport to take the missionaries that were going home. Then we had to stay at the airport and do a bunch of stuff and wait for the new missionaries to arrive. They finally got in at 12:30. We took them back to Presidents house and had lunch with them and had a meeting on the expectations of the mission and all the rules and fun stuff like that. Then one of the other assistants (Elder Holmquist) and I went back to the airport to pick up the American missionaries. They came in at 4 and we did the same thing-took them back to Presidents house and ate dinner and gave them the same talk...but in english of course. We finally got done with all that stuff and had to plan a bunch of stuff for the next day...we didn't get to bed until 1 am!!

Tuesday morning we wake up at 5:30 to get ready for our big meeting with all the new missionaries and their trainers. President made me translate for him and it was awful hahaha!! I was forgetting so much english and everyone was laughing at me hahaha!! He told me that I needed to take it more serious, it got better after that! Then President assigned all the companions and we all headed back to our areas. We didn't get in until 10pm. We opened a bunch of areas out here in Michoacan and lots were for the sisters. So the stake President out here took us around taking materials to their houses all night. We had to take matresses and chairs and a few desks to some of the areas. We didn't finish until 1am and we hadn't eaten since noon. The stake president took us out to eat tacos and it was super good!! We finally got back to our house at 1:45am.

Wednesday morning we had to wake up at 6am to go on divisions with the zone leaders in Zamora. I worked with Elder De Los Santos. We left our house at 6:30 to take the bus to Zamora. We got their at 9 and then headed back to our area. JUST IMAGINE HOW TIRED I WAS!! The last thing I wanted to do was go and have lessons haha!! But we have to be strict and work our hardest with the zone leaders so that they can see our example and apply it in their areas. We finally ended divisions this morning. We got up at 5 to take the bus at 6 and we finally got back to our area at like 11 haha!!

So I think its safe to say that I have had the most tiring week of my mission so far!! It was a fun week but just super stressful and tiring. I am so exhausted and I am glad that the week is over haha!!

I love you guys and I hope all is well!! I wish I coiuld be there this summer to see all you guys and hang out and go on vacations but all of that will have to wait I guess haha!! Sounds like you have lots planned for the summer which is awesome. I just wish I could be there. I know that what I am doing is exactly what I need to be doing at this time. I am learning so much about myself and how I can be a better person for the future. I have had lots of trials but I am so thankful for every trial that I have because it helps me become the person that God wants me to be. Have an amazing week and I will talk to you soon!!!

Love,

Elder Payne

Week 44 - June 8, 2013 - Moved Again!

Well this week has been pretty good!! We got to work in our area all week so that was good to see some success again!! It's just tough because we are hardly in our area so we don't get to have many lessons. But it is awesome because we are having tons of success in our ward. We have 4 missionaries in our ward and we have a pretty good routine!! When Elder Morales and I are in our Area we just try and find as many people as we can...then when we have to travel, the other missionaries come and teach our investigators. We have 3 baptisms tonight so we are super excited about that!!

This last week we had divisions with a few of the zone leaders. On Monday I worked with one of the zone leaders in Morelia and then on Wednesday I went and worked with one of the zone leaders in Aeropuerto. It went well and I learned a lot. Hopefully I helped them learn some stuff too! I still feel kind of intimidated because I've only been out 10 months and I feel like all the zone leaders judge me!! But it's fun and I am working as hard as I can. It is definately a humbling experience.

We just found out the transfers 10 minutes ago. We have transfers on Monday and we had a bunch of changes this transfer. It is pretty cool to see what everyone is doing in the mission and where all my friends are going. We are going to send the email out to the zone leaders in an hour so that they can tell their zones tomorrow who is going where! 

Tomorrow morning we are traveling to Guadalajara to help with transfers. We have to take the gmissionaries going home to the airport and then also welcome in the new kids. I am super exited because its going to be tons of work but it will for sure be fun!! It is going to be a long day though!! We have to take the missionaries to the airport at 4 in the morning and then we have to be back at the aiport to welcome in the new missionaries at like 3 pm. So we are going to have lots to do! Elder Castro (my companion 2 transfers ago) is going home Monday. Its crazy how fast time goes by!!

Today we just moved into our new house. We were living with 2 other missionaries in their house and it was super fun but sister missionaries are going to be living there on Monday so we had to move today. Our house has NOTHING!!! All we have is running water and a tile floor. We dont have a fridge, a stove, a microwave...or anything hahaha!! So we will most likely be living the rough life for a few weeks.

Well I am doing great and absolutely loving the mission!! The weeks are flying by because there is always so much to do!! I feel stressed out but at the same time so blessed to be where I am at right now. There are always struggles and trials and that's a given no matter where you are. It's not important what kind of trials you have in your life- the important thing is learning how to overcome them. I love you all and I hope everything is going great!!

Love,

Elder Mike Payne

Mike thought this guy was pretty impressive!

Week 43 - June 1, 2013

So this week has basically just flown by!! I was talking to my companion and it is crazy to talk about the things that have happened this week because it seems like they all happened like this morning hahaha!!

So on Monday night we took a bus to go to Guadalajara and then we stayed with the assistants there and then the next morning we woke up super early. We went to the offices to have a meeting with President that pretty much lasted like all day, from 8 until 4. Then we had to write and make the agenda for the zone leader councils. Then we went to President`s house later to have dinner with all the zone leaders and listen to President Camarillo`s fireside.

Our zone leader councils went really well. I was a little nervous because President gave me a pretty tough theme to talk about. He gave me the topic of trainers and trainees and why they aren't motivated to work. President told me that I had to be direct and firm. So here I am with ten months in the mission, telling all the zone leaders what they needed to do better and I was super nervous!! But it went really well and through all the nerves I think I got my point across!

Then we went on divisions and I worked with a zone leader named Elder Padron here in my area. It was good. We had some super good lessons and we have a bunch of people that we are going to put baptismal dates with soon!! And then on Friday morning we got up at 3:30 to travel to Zamora (the area of Elder Padron). We had to evaluate their zone meeting and see what they did well and what they could do better. Then Elder Morales and I came back and worked in our area.

Today we went to the ZOO!!! It was so much fun!!  Man I miss being a little kid! I haven't been to the zoo in such a long time!! I can't wait to get back and do kid things again with Mitch and all his friends. We bought animal hats and wore animal ties and were literally like little kids running around the zoo. It was so much fun!!  I am having so much fun and loving where I am at right now. Time is flying by and I am very content with how things are going.

Well I haven't read all your letters yet but I am excited to hear about your weeks and to see what happened. I love you guys so much and I am so thankful for everything you guys do for me!! Have an amazing week and have fun!! :)

Love,

Elder Payne

Week 42 - May 27, 2013 - So much traveling!

Wow my schedule is just crazy!! The thing is that it will probably never be normal or relaxed because every six weeks we have to redo the entire routine!! Man it is so much fun, so much work, and just super crazy!! I feel like these last 3 weeks have just been a dream because of how fast time is going by!!

So last Monday Elder Christofferson came to speak to our mission and also the other mission here in Guadalajara.  It was super good!! We got to take a picture with him and the rest of our mission in front of the temple. Later we all got to shake his hand and greet him. 

He talked in spanish and it was incredible!! His spanish is amazing!! He talked about being worthy and ready to receive all the promptings that God has for us. He talked about having hardships and trials in the mission and how we can overcome them and put ALL our trust and confidence in the Lord. Then he asked if we had questions for him. After every question he had a reference in the Book of Mormon and his answers were all just super simple and all spot on. That was such an amazing experience that I will never forget!!

Then on Tuesday President Camarillo came and picked us up and we went traveling around Michoacan all week to have interviews with all the missionaries. We went to Uruapan on Wednesday, Morelia on Thursday, Aeropuerto on Friday, and Zamora on Saturday. During all the interviews Elder Morales and I had to check all their agendas and area books. We had 96 agendas and 192 area books to look at!! After about the first couple hours I was done with that hahaha!! But the rest of it was good!

Every day after interviews we would get into the Presiden'st car and he would ask where we wanted to go eat. Usually he just told us of a really good restaurant nearby and we drove to it. President doesn't like driving so he makes us drive...the only bad thing is that my license expired so he told me I can´t drive until I get it updated. Every time we traveled, President just slept in the back and Elder Morales and I just partied it up in the front hahaha!!

It was so fun to spend the whole week with President. He told us a bunch of stories about his life and how be came to be a mission president. He told us how he and his wife met and just a bunch of super cool and also funny stories. We all got to know each other really well last week haha!!

President doesn't like to travel alone so on Saturday we finished all the interviews and then we traveled 4 hours to go back to Guadalajara and then we had to take a bus 5 more hours to get back to Morelia haha!! So pretty much all day Saturday we were traveling!! 

This week we have zone leader councils in Guadalajara and we will be traveling back on Thursday. Then we are going to have divisions with a couple of the zone leaders from Thursday until Saturday so I am thinking we will most likely get to write again on Saturday...but who knows. As an assistant we are constantly changing plans so we never have any firm plans which kinda stinks!!

But just know that I am doing great and loving where I am at. Our schedule is crazy and I know that I don't get to write you as much as we would all like but I know that sacrifices bring blessings and there is no doubt that what I am doing out here will forever bless me and my family. I wish I could write you guys every day but I just want you to know how much I love you all and miss you like crazy!!!

Have an amazing week and I will talk to you soon. Not quite sure when but I will try and let you know as soon as I can haha!! 

Love,

Elder Payne

The mission and Elder Christofferson

Week 41 - May 18, 2013 - Blue Eyes?!

This week has been a pretty good week! So on Monday I traveled to Zamora (a zone) to work with one of the zone leaders there. I worked with this kid named Elder De Los Santos, he is a pretty cool dude.  We had a pretty funny lesson... we had a family home evening and as we began, one of the daughters started telling me how much she loved me eyes.  It started to get kind of awkward because she just kept staring at me. The whole family starting commenting as well about how much they loved my eyes and it just completely ruined the family night and our lesson! hahaha  Blue eyes aren't very common in Mexico! Neither is blonde hair!

Then on Wednesday morning, I came back to our area for a few hours and then went to Uruapan (another zone). I dropped off Elder Morales there and came back with Elder Pintor. We worked in our area and had some crazy lessons!!

We had a lesson with one of our investigator families; they are super cool but they have some crazy beleifs!! They told us they have been baptized in 4 different churches and they believe in every belief in every church. They are mainly focused on Krishna right now. It's some Indian religion and they were telling us some of their beliefs and I couldnt take it any more haha!! They showed us a picture of Krishna and he is blue! Elder Pintor looked at me and asked ¨Is that Avatar?¨ hahaha but they said they love reading the Book of Mormon and thery want to come to church, but they have a lot of other beliefs to drop before they can get baptized.

Then we had a lesson with another family, they are all members except for the Dad. As we got up to the house, we noticed him passed out in the drivers seat of the car. We entered the house and then like 5 minutes later we hear the car start and he just started honking his horn like crazy. He was super upset that we were there so we told him that we would leave. Before we could leave, he told us to sit down because he had a few quetions for us. He asked us some crazy questions and then just started ripping on his wife! I felt so bad for her. He was just screaming all of these horrible things and telling us how much his wife has ruined his life and how he wants to get divorced. He just went on for like 15 minutes and we couldn´t stop him because he just kept talking even if we tried to interrupt. We eventually just set another time to come back because there was no way we were going to have a good lesson with him there. We asked if we could end with a prayer and he said that he would do it. In his prayer he just started yelling cuss words and telling God how much he hates his wife and how unhappy he was with her. I wanted to hit the guy so hard, I felt so bad for his poor wife and daughter that were just sitting there listening :(

But then on Friday morning I met up with Elder Morales and we had a few lessons. We had a church activity last night and it was incredible!! It's pretty hard working in your area as an assistant because you are only there like 3 days of the week. But in our activity we had 5 of our investigators there and they loved it! We just played a ton of sports and it was super fun. We had more people at the activity than we did at church last week!!

Tomorrow (Sunday) we are going to be traveling to Guadalajara. Elder Cristofferson is coming on Monday to talk to our mission. I am sooooo excited!! It has been so much work for my companion and I trying to plan how everyone is going to make it to Guadalajara. Imagine trying to find a ride for 86 missionaries without cars to get to Guadalajara which is like 7 hours away!! So I just cant wait for all this stress to be over so I can just sit down and listen to Elder Cristofferson!

I love you guys and I hope you all had an amazing week!! Man it was so good to talk to the family last week!! Nothing like getting to see the whole family again!! Take care and keep enjoying life!!

Love,

Elder Mike Payne

Mother's Day breakfast... pancakes with peanut butter.  Yum!!!!

Skyping with the fam on Mother's Day! :)

A Catholic Cathedral... it was huge!

On divisions with Elder Pinto.  I was lost and was calling the sister to get directions to her house haha... it's tough opening up an area!

Morelia Centro at night

Another picture of Morelia Centro at night

Week 40 - May 9, 2013 - Transferred!!!

Wow what a crazy and incredible couple days it has been!!

So on Tuesday Elder Alvarado and I were walking to a lesson and President Camarillo texted us saying ¨Elder Payne when you get a moment give me a call.¨ So I called him to see what was up and he told me that I was having special changes. I couldn´t hear him very well because it was super windy so all I heard was, ¨Be in the offices tomorrow at 9 am with all your bags ready to travel.¨

I started thinking of all the worst possible scenarios that could have happened. I was almost on the verge of tears because I was convinced that something had happened to my family. So I decided to call president back and I made him promise me that you guys were okay. I think he was more concerned than I was!!  And then came the big news. He told me, ¨Elder Payne...you are going to be one of my assistants.¨ I was super shocked!! I am definitely not good enough to be an assistant but I will work as hard as I can to be the best I can be.  It will be a lot of work, I didn't realize how much the assistants have to do!!

So on Wednesday I got to the offices and President Camarillo was there and I had an interview with him before I went off. He told me how happy he was for all the work I had done so far and told me that I have one of the highest baptizing percentages in the mission (whatever that means hahaha) and then told me he knows that the mission will be okay if I keep up the attitude and keep working hard.

So yesterday I just traveled all day!!  As an assistant we have to travel(by bus!) to every area of the mission.  I am now in Morales, Michoacan - which is 6 hours from the mission home!  I will have to go there every 2 weeks, so I will not actually be in my 'home' very much at all.  We spend a lot of time visiting other missionaries, and doing divisions with them.  I'm super excited about where I am and who I am with! 

My new companion is Elder Morales. He is a stud!!! He is from Guatemala and he is such an amazing missionary. We are having tons of fun together. This last transfer President just made 4 assistants instead of two. We have two states in our mission (Jalisco and Michoacan) so he decided to put two assistants in each state. So Elder Morales and I are opening an area and it is super tough because we literally have 0 investigators but he is such a hard worker so I have no doubt we will have success together (for the time we are in our area haha). 

But I am doing great and LOVING where I am at and who I am with!! Crazy how much an email can change in two days huh?! hahaha

I love you guys so much and I can´t wait to talk to you Sunday!! That will be such an amazing day!! Only 3 days away!!!

Love,

Elder Payne

Soccer as a zone on Monday

My sun burn from soccer.  That part of my neck hasn't seen the sun in 10 months haha

Skyping Mike on Mother's Day!

Mike showing us his cool "new" phone lol

Getting to Skype Mike in Mexico with Carlee in Utah and his immediate and some extended family in California!

Week 39 - May 6, 2013 - Rough Week

Well the week that I thought that was going to go by super fast, ended up going extremely slow!!  Man this is going to be a tough transfer!!!  So I will just start with Tuesday and Wednesday; we had our zone leader councils and it went really well. I learned lots! President Camarillo is the man! He just knows exactly what to say! It was nice to see all the other zone leaders and hang out with them. My new companion is probably the hardest working companion I have had, which is awesome... When we get into a lesson he is just super hyper and ready to go!  I think it rubs some people the wrong way, because we haven't had much success this week.  I fasted on Saturday and Sunday so that we can have more success together and that I can have more patience.  My companion is Elder Alvarado and he is 27 years old and used to be a fisherman before his mission.  We set up a bunch of divisions with our ward this last Sunday, so I am going to have him visit the less actives while another missionary and I visit the investigators.  Hopefully we can get some of them back on board! 

Well yesterday we had a pretty funny experience. We got on the bus to go to church - keep in mind that it is 10 am, and some Mexican I guess partied a little hard for cinco de mayo. As we got on the bus, I looked at the ground and noticed a stream of liquid headed toward the front of the bus...as I followed the stream, I saw some guy sitting in his chair with his beer in his hand, just completely passed out. As the bus would put the brakes on, his momentum would go forward, making all his beer just pour out of his huge one liter bottle. As I examined a little more, I noticed this man just dripping beads of sweat and his ¨pride and joy¨ sticking out of his zipper of his pants...man the things that I see here in Mexico...  Never a dull bus ride!

Well that was my week. I am going to work as hard as I possibly can to do everything I can for this ward and our investigators. 

I love you all so much and thank you for all the love and support. You guys are all amazing!! 

I AM SOOOO EXCITED TO CALL HOME ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!

Have an amazing week andI´ll SEE (Skype) you soon!!

Love,

Elder Mike Payne

PS- ALL my teams get blessed because of me!! Keep cheerin on the BAY!!!
 :)

Last pic with Elder Castro... miss that kid!

Me and my friend Bessy.  She always hangs out by that fence and she is one of my good friends!

The new zone