Upcoming Baptism and Staying in Blois

Bonjour à tous!

Well this last week was alright. I got cussed out on Thursday. You know, I firmly believe that when people aren't nice to us, it's because they think that we are someone else, or they simply don't know who we really are. Quand même, it's hard to have charity some times for people who do that. 

Olivier had his baptismal interview! He's gonna get baptized this Saturday! I am so excited for him! It's been really cool to be there by his side as he decides to take this step. I've loved watching him grow (he's already a pretty big guy) and he's just awesome all around. 

We got the transfers today. I am staying in Blois for another transfer! And staying with Elder Nilsson too! So I will get to be there for Olivier's baptism and I am so excited! I am also no longer district leader because the district was merged with the Bourges district. The mission has downsized this transfer because there aren't that many missionaries coming in because of visas. But there is still about 12 missionaries finishing. So they had to close a couple of areas temporarily. It's pretty weird. 

Our ami Belinda came to church all on her own again and she is coming to Olivier's baptism as well. So we are excited for that. 

We went to Paris on Friday because I had to do legally work we ended up going at the same time as the sisters in Tours so we spent a whole day in Paris and went to eat at KFC got home at about 8 at night and we were exhausted. Voilà quoi.

Overall, everything is awesome (cue Lego movie music).

I love you all and wish you the best!

Excellent District Meeting and New Shoes

Bonjour à tous,

Our investigators are doing well. One of our amis is still going for baptism, a few hiccups have appeared, we are helping him however we can and he is still pushing forward. 

Anyway, life was fun this last week. Our district went to Alencon on Tuesday to help clean out the old Elders apartment. And I got some free shoes! They are Rockports and they are some pretty intense shoes. They look really tough and I will probably use them during the winter. They look completely unused, which is awesome and they're my size!

Transfers are next week. We get the repertoire (document with who is going where) next Monday morning. I might be transferred. I asked the zone leaders about it and they told me that I may be moved. So I am anxiously waiting for the new. I will be sad to leave Blois because it's so beautiful and the branch is awesome and Elder Nilsson is great.

 My cooking skills are improving. I made a pizza a few days ago! It was a French specialty of chevre and honey. It was REALLY good. I've had it before and I really liked it, so I figured out how to make it myself. This week I want to learn to make something new. I'm not sure what yet. I'm thinking Mexican, any ideas? 

As I write this letter I'm actually sitting in the gardens of the Chateau de Chambord. It's one of the most popular castles in France. It's beautiful and very intricately made.

I had a cool experience lately too! On Wednesday, I had to lead a discussion in district meeting where I was assigned to teach the missionaries in our district how to be better consecrated. So I prepared my lesson over the course of the week, making sure to listen to the Spirit and everything neccassary to help prepare and teach the missionaries to become the best they could be. It is sometimes a daunting task to teach. But I love it. 

I planned a good lesson, and then the day of the meeting, I accidentally left my tablet with all of my planning at the apartment. So I had to replan it using the time I had on trains (what had taken two days to plan). And hoped and prayed that I could deliver this message in such a way that I would do the most good possible to the missionaries. I prayed a lot on the train and felt good about it. We got to the district meeting and I did someting I hadn't planned. We had an activity to help everybody focus on being humble and ready to listen to the Spirit. 
After the activity I started to teach the lesson. Not long into the lesson I realized that I was teaching a lot that I had not planned on before I started teaching. I realized that the spirit was directing the things I taught. I let it happen and made sure not to become a speed bump for the Spirit. And it became a powerful Spiritual experience.

A couple of days later, I got a call from one of the Sisters in my district and she told me of a super cool spiritual experience that she had at District meeting. I became curious and looked at my original notes and saw that the whole activity we did was something that I had only added because I lost the original notes. So if I had not left my tablet at home. This sister may not have had that Spiritual experience.

So that was a miracle that I had the luck to see play out. My testimony was strengthened by that.


Love,
Elder Payne

Two Excellent Investigators

Bonjour à tous,

This week was pretty good! One of our investigators is still preparing steadfastly to be baptized. It's pretty much certain at this point. I love him so much, he's awesome. Although, I'm not sure that I will still be here for his baptism, it is possible that I get transferred before I get the chance to see that. He asked Elder Nilsson to baptize him, Elder Nilsson is a smaller man and the investigator is pretty big, so this will be interesting for sure. 

Another investigator is also is doing good, she read the assignment we gave her! Yay! And she also read the chapter after that without us asking her to! That's awesome, she has been growing and progressing pretty well, it's tough to get a hold of her sometimes, but we keep trying.

We had a birthday party for Elder Nilsson! We wanted to go out and eat, but that got complicated really fast because apparently 6pm is way too early for French restaurants to be serving anything else other than drinks. So we just got some kebabs and then some ice cream. We put candles in the ice cream and I sung happy birthday to him. It was fun. Small, but fun.

Tomorrow we get to go a city called Alençon with the district because there used to be elders there and now there aren't. President told us to go over there as a district to clean the old apartment, which apparently is in pretty bad condition. But it will be a nice way to get out of our normal every day routine and do something different. 

It has rained here, and I love it. Because the heat tends to make missionary work harder than it needs to be. 

I have some pictures! One of me with a giant pistol meant for dismounting cavalry. Elder Nilssons birthday ice cream. And I learned how to poach eggs! Delicious!

Love,
Elder Payne

Happy Birthday!!

Renewed Interest from Old Contacts

Bonjour à tous,

Well this past week was pretty great. Today we went to Tours for Elder Nilsson's Birthday. We played laser tag and it was an awesome time. One of the sisters was hilarious because she has a reputation of being clumsy. Well she blew us all out of the water by crushing us at laser tag. She was a total underdog! I got 3rd place. But it was so much fun and I think I lost weight just by sweating so much! Hahaha

This last week we had some fun stuff happen. A woman we met a while ago has started to become more interested in hearing more about the church. It's gonna be an adventure because she has some habits she needs to overcome, but at the same time, she is learning. So we will see how that goes. She came to church and loved it!

We got stopped on the street a couple of days ago by a homeless woman and told us that the Sister missionaries that used to serve here years ago came to her home (at the time) but she rejected them. They prayed with her before they left and a week later, she won 20,000 euros. And she has been looking for the missionaries since then. Now she says that she has begun to believe in God and her kids believe in God and that's why she wants to meet with us. She wants to make her kids happy. I'm not sure how teaching her will go. But it's a start.

I found that Elders have no idea about interior design. I rearranged our apartment to create more space, and it looks so much better now. There is so much more space than before. I did the same thing in Épinal and Amiens. Missionary apartments are pretty horribly done sometimes.

Well right now we are stuck on a train trying to go home. There was an accident in the Blois train station. And now all the trains in the area are backed up. So we are in a train waiting for things to start back up. Not a huge problem, it's only 6, I have at least 3 hours to get home. Sometimes you gotta be patient.

Well I love you!

Sincerely
Elder Payne 
France, Paris Mission

The work continues in Blois for Elders Nilsson and Payne

Bonjour à tous,

This week was pretty awesome! We met some new people and felt the spirit often!

We helped a family move on Friday, I was sad to see then leaving, because they are really awesome. They moved to Dijon. Also, the new transfers came! I am staying in Blois with Elder Nilsson for another six weeks! Which is good, I like Blois and I really like where the work is going here. 

I'm gonna be honest, I don't really remember much about this week. We met with a new ami and she introduced us to her friend! Who is super awesome and was a lot more prepared for the gospel than she was. So we met with her, and her friend. The rendez-vous was awesome and they both committed to pray and read the book of mormon (we later found out that the girl hadn't read or prayed, but the guy did.) The girl then told us that she's not the one who needs our message, but that the guy needs a lot of help and she gave us his address and told us to go find him because he needs us. So we did. He wasn't home, but no big deal, I'm a missionary, I'll go back several times if I have to!

After that we ate at the home of an American family named Rowley. Eric Rowley is the guy that is here for work for a year and his family is here to visit him. Classic American meal. I felt right at home. I have never felt more comfortable in a members home during my mission. It was awesome. And I got a free haircut! Woo-hoo!

I made sopapillas a few days ago and BOOOOOY they were soooooo good. Shout out to my mom for sending me the recipe!

I am also apparently the cat whisperer. Because almost every cat I come across on my mission comes when I call it. So yeah, cats aren't evil people, sorry to break the news.

Well I need to clean the apartment. Have a great week everyone! I love you all!

Sincerely
Elder Payne 
France, Paris Mission

Elder Payne - the cat whisperer

Beautiful View

Sopapillas!!

Elders Payne and Nilsson with the Rowleys?

Zone Conference

Staying in Blois

Bonjour à tous,

Well this past week was pretty great! And I am still seeing miracles every day! I am learning a lot of lessons (many of which I learned the hard way).

I am so grateful for this wonderful district and the ability and opportunity I had to serve them on a meaningful level. Thankfully, I am still the District leader here in Blois. And I am very happy about that. 

One of our amis is coming to the temple with us on Saturday! I am incredibly excited for that because the temple has always been a wonderful place for me, and one of the only places on earth where I can feel genuine peace and refuge from the world. So I am very excited to be able to share a little bit of my passion for the temple with one of our amis. We also had to change his baptismal date, some family issues.

Also, this past week I have again seen the hand of God in my life. He answers every single one of my prayers.

I have been learning how to make crepes and I must say, I've gotten decent at it. I've made crepes for dinner about once a week now. I'm starting to really figure it out.

I have begun to look into my family history as well. I figure that during the Mission, I don't have a way to really do work to find these ancestors, but I can learn about them. So I have been using the family tree app to learn about my ancestors. And I must say that I feel like I have more of a real relationship with these people now. I know some of there stories and have taken a real interest in it. It really is interesting to learn about who they were and to understand what kind of people I came from.

I learned an especially large amount about the man I was named after, Jay Payne. Who was my great uncle. It is amazing to read about the legacy that was left behind for me.

Anyway, so this is a little bit on what's going on in my life. Also, France just won the world cup for soccer. And man, France went crazy that day. We actually were told that we needed to be home by 5 because that's when the game started. And people in France tend to be a little crazier when things like this happen. France likes to get really loud and crazy when the world cup comes around.

But we were safe so no worries there. 

Well I love you all! I will see you in about 8 months! Have a good week!

Sincerely
Elder Payne 
France, Paris Mission

Learning to Use the Spirit More Effectively

Bonjour à tous!

Well this past week was interesting. We went to Paris for exchanges with the Zone Leaders. And that was good, nothing much to report there.

Something that is really cool that has been happening is our efforts in Blois. I had the idea while I was still with Elder Sebryk that I could try a new way of finding the people who are ready for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The idea is centered on using the spirit to the maximum. Every missionary knows that tracting door-to-door and contacting on the streets is incredibly inefficient. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack. We go out and walk around and talk to everyone in hopes that we will find that one person who is searching.

So what we do now is every morning, we try our best to feel the spirit during personal study. And then before we do any proselyting, we pray personally to make sure that we do indeed have the spirit with us. After that, we get together and pray as a companionship to know what to do. Then we go out and follow the spirit to the best of our ability. The idea is that we follow literally the challenge given in the scriptures.

Doctrine and Covenants 42:13-14
And they shall observe the covenants and church articles to do them, and these shall be their teachings, as they shall be directed by the Spirit. 
And the Spirit shall be given unto you by the prayer of faith; and if ye receive not the Spirit ye shall not teach.

And that is what we have decided to do as a companionship. And let me tell you, the fruit is good. I have seen miracle after miracle, day after day. And I feel like I have been the doing my best to improve. It's amazing and I see God's hand in my life every day. I am so blessed right now that it's not even funny. 

I feel that I have found the key to effective missionary work. And I wouldn't have found it if I had not gone through the trials that I did. 

So that has been amazing to watch. And that was the highlight of my week.

I love you all!

Sincerely
Elder Payne 
France, Paris Mission