Monday, April 30, 2018

Amazing progress in Blois

Bonjour à tous,

This week was amazing, literally a miracle week! But the miracles didn't show up really until the weekend.

So our gas service at our apartment has been out for the past week. Luckily our stove is electric and so is the oven. However the hot water for showers in the morning? Yup you guessed it - nothing. We now have to boil our own water every morning. I know that other missionaries in other areas have it worse still, but it's still pretty annoying. We expect that to be fixed this week. The problem though is that the utility company is not reliable and for some reason, and they seem to ignore the missionaries. 

On the other hand, to the miracles! So the first one started out as an awful day. We had a progressing investigator who told us that he doesn't see the need to come to church or get baptised. He is too prideful and we left the appointment feeling awful. But we had another rendez-vous right after that with a part-member family. The father being the member. His wife has been difficult and unrespensoive for a long time. We went in with a general idea on what to teach, but we weren't sure. And as we said the opening prayer, the spirit told me in a quiet whisper "have a testimony meeting", so I told my companion and then I testified, he testified and the father testified. Then we turned to the wife and said "now you've seen the testimony of 3 people who you are close friends with, and there are almost 16 million other people out there who are a part of this church because they felt the same feeling, now when are you going to start looking for yourself?" (Paraphrasing of course) she said that she always knew this to be a good church and she trusts the missionaries and loves the members. Thé spirit was so strong in that room and we know that she is really going to be moving along towards baptism soon!

Also the man we are helping to Quit smoking came to church! With his 2 kids! His kids absolutely loved it! I have never seen the man so happy than when he was at church with his kids. I think he caught a glimpse of what his future could look like and he loved it!

Another ami that has been coming to church all on his own told us that he feels at home in our church and is probably going to invest more in our church! Also, another ami that we were going to stop teaching had a sudden change, she used to be completely unresponsive and would not follow commitments and she wasn't progressing. We had a rendez-vous with her and all of the sudden, she seems to have changed, just enough to contribute and listen to what we have to say. 

Man, I love this gospel. I have been doing so much learning and growing over the past week that it's not even funny!

Well I love you all! Have a great week!

Sincerely
Elder Payne 
France, Paris Mission

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Short note from France

Bonjour a tous,

Yeah, our ami is still doing well, I have been seeing things start to improve lately. We are trying to set something up for him to go to the temple, we hope he will have a great experience there and really get a desire to work hard.

I did get a haircut today. I decided I like my hair a little longer, but I also need to keep it short since you know... missionary.

The 100 pushup challenge is still going well. The only thing I find difficult is the fact that I am only working a certain muscle group in my body. So I try to switch it up but to still keep the goal of 100 of something. Speaking of counting steps, my pedometer broke. But that's ok because I got some good data while I was in Épinal. Keep in mind, the pedometer broke a while ago, and I have done way more walking since.

Love,
Elder Payne

Monday, April 16, 2018

Elder Jay Payne - One Year Mark!

Bonjour a tous,

What's new this week you say? Well, quite a bit. We learned that our ami progressing toward baptism has been experiencing a positive change of heart. He is going strong, and working on quitting smoking. Yesterday at church there was a guy from new York who is here on business. He is a laser specialist and one of the only ones in the world that specializes in his specific field. So he travels a lot. We talked with him about his job and it is sooooo cool. He is an awesome guy and was the ward mission leader in New York. We had a good time talking with him. 

It really was a good week! I got a lot done and learned a lot. I realized this week that I have already done half of my mission! I literally feel like I was in the MTC yesterday. It does NOT feel like 1 year. It has also sunk in and I realized that if you were to ask me about all of the good times and Spiritual experiences on my mission, I mainly would be able to tell you about the big ones. So I decided to start keeping better track. I am now keeping a record of all of the little moments that I have had that touched my spirit and made me happy. Even the really little things. I want to remember them for years to come. Really, I just want to be able to remember the little things, they are so important.

Elder Sebryk and I went to a city called Amboise last Monday. It's a cool city based around a castle. It was fun. I found a cool place to skip rocks (yes I still do that from time to time) on the river.

We had lunch with some members yesterday, for 10 minutes. Long story. But we have a list of members that want us to come over and so we go eat with a member every week.

Also, me and Elder Sebryk have started a challenge for ourselves. Every day, we do our best to do squats or push ups. It's going pretty good and so far, I've been able to do over 50. I like keeping fit because I hate the feeling of not being able to do something if I want to.

Well that's it for this week! Have a good one!

Love you all!!

Sincerely
Elder Payne
France, Paris Mission

Monday, April 9, 2018

Pictures from France


Parent's note:

No letter this week but Elder Payne did send pictures!  This week Elder Payne will pass his one year mark on his mission.  In many ways the time flew by and in others it seems like it will be so long until we get to see him again.

He has mentioned in his letters that his testimony of Jesus Christ has grown tremendously since he began his mission.  He has seen how keeping the Commandments and living a Christ like life can really bless the lives of everybody.  He has also noted that understanding the principle of repentance can help everyone regain focus on their purpose in life and get them back on the right path.

We are so proud of how he has been selflessly serving and look forward to another year of letters and pictures.


Elder Sebryk and Elder Payne













Monday, April 2, 2018

Busy Week and Strange Dinner

Hi!

General conference was good! I missed the first session because we had to listen to it in French. I understood everything but because I was focusing hard on the words I didn't retain anything.

Otherwise, I really liked general conference! I haven't watched all of it because the time change means that we haven't been able to watch the last session. It was 10pm here when it aired. So I will catch up on it later.

This week was alright, we had exchanges in Le Mans, then zone conference in Paris. Then we had district meeting in Tours. So I was outside of Blois quite a bit.

Well something interesting that happened this week was we met a woman whose name in our phone was "DO NOT CALL". That was interesting. She called us and I didn't know who she was but she really really wanted us to come over and eat with her. So me in my little innocent "I don't turn anyone down" mindset, accepted and set up a rendez-vous. She seemed a little different over the phone. So we went and she actually lives really close to us. We found her apartment and walked up and we met her, literally the instant I saw her I knew exactly how the rendez-vous was gonna go. She was quite odd, not dangerous, just very odd.  I was a little worried when the cup of soda had floaties in it. And we found a strand of hair in the food. And the dessert was burned. It was interesting, to say the least. We tried to teach her, so at first we asked her if she knew who we were. And she said "are you doctors?" So she didn't even know who we were. We basically just were nice to her and talked and got out as soon as possible. She gave us candles. So that was fun.

Don't worry, I'm safe, I'm cautious when it comes to meeting new people. 

Well I love you all!
Sincerely,
Elder Payne
France, Paris Mission

Elder Payne - Home!

Elder Payne arrived home at 11:10pm March 28, 2019. Thanks everyone for your support and prayers!