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