Monday, November 29, 2010

Hola its me again, Hna Payne!

My first shout out goes to Brittany Brooks! I got your letter today and am soooooooo excited. YOU ARE GOING ON A MISSION!!!!!!!!!! I was getting ice cream and I wanted to cry I was so happy. Brazil????? Cool. I wrote you a letter today. It wont get in the mail until next week tho. P.s. I didnt understand a whole lot about the post it note. Haha details please! When? Where? Why? And why soo awkward? Send me an email.. I get them faster! =)

Okay this week... what to say?? We had like 10 baptismal dates.. but 4 of them lost them. BOOOO! We still have six though for December 25th. But only one of these people came to church this last week. Her name is Gladys. She is like 50 and in a wheelchair. She really liked church. We will see what happens. I think she will be baptized but Im afraid she wont be able to get to church every week. We had a taxi this last week which is great, but we cant do that forever.

We are trying to work a lot with the inactive families. We had one mom in church again! That was great. Her husband isnt a member. She has such a sad life. Her husband controls EVERYTHING in her life and doesnt let her go anywhere. Im really not sure how she left with her 7 year old son without her husband saying anything. There are sooo many people that live this way... brain washed, with no way out.

We have a great ward mission leader. Wili. He wants to go with us to lots of our appointments. This man has no shame. Ha he is definitely his own person. He and his wife are giving us lunch this week. She is soooo cute, she hasnt been able to quite talking about it, and that is with EVERYONE. She went to an appointment with us this last week and she was telling this inactive family that she knows, that we are having lunch with them. She was worried about what drink to get us. Sprite or fanta? Oh I feel soo bad, this family has nothing! It was his birthday last week (which we didnt know until it was too late) and they didnt have money to buy a cake. And here they want to give us lunch. Wow. I pray that the Lord will bless them for their sacrifice. I know that he always does. Im pretty sure the members sacrifice more than we think when it comes to lunch for us. Lunch appointments always fall through at the end of the month because no one has money then.

It sounds like thanksgiving was good. Im glad that yall all had a good time. Here it was just another day. But we did have lunch... which the assistants(that arent in our ward or area) tried taking away from us. We were not too happy, but the daughter of the bishop said that we had it. We have lunch every Thursday with the Bishop si o si! The assitants arent my favorite people. We had a run in with them yesterday. The way that approach things is always sooo acusingly. And then I dont have confidence in what im saying, for one i cant speak spanish and two I dont do well in situations like that. We were just doing what our zone leaders said to do. But it makes me so mad that I cant have conversations with people and defend myself without having confidence in what im saying. I dont know if that makes sense. Sorry, I feel like all of my letters are always soo scattered. Anyways, Im trying to love! And I just decided that I need to have more confidence in myself. I decided im not going to be afraid to talk to anyone. And if I am, well they dont have to know that!

Dusty! I just got your email like 2 minutes ago. I didnt understand the translating part? I wrote in english... Its quite possible that it still didnt make sense.. I never reread what I write. Sorry.

Hillary! Loved the letter. I will write next week!

I was trying to send pics but i dont know how... Boo!

Okay well I think that is about all! I love and miss you all! Have a great week.

Love,
Hna Payne

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Hola!! Its me again, Hna Payne!

Im sittin here in good Ol´ Resistencia. Man, are things different! This week has been a little crazy as we are getting to know the area! As far as I can tell Im going to love it here... really i know I will love all of the places. We were told that the ward is pretty big... there really werent very many people this last Sunday because it was raining. When it rains no one does anything.. work, school, or church. The primary was supposed to have had their program this last week, but it is postponed due to the rain. Im excited for this next week to meet all of the ward. We gave our testimonies this last week. At first I thought we had to speak... I about died... but then it was just our testimonies. Ha I would have been nervous no matter what. Hey, we had two investigators in church. One is an eternal investigator... She has known the church for like 8 years. Her Boyfriend is a member, she wrote him the whole time on his mission and he has been back for only 4 months. They have also been dating for the past eight years. They are kind of weird. No idea what her intentions are.... hopefully we can find that out and get her baptized. The other investigator is our neighbor. We live outside of our ward by a couple of blocks.. so she really isnt in our ward. We really arent sure what ward or what elders. Ah we are taking her as a tender mercy, that we didnt have to leave church to go look for anyone. This week we will have others!

Hey, we are in the ward of President. Ha that made me nervous. But then we found out that he really isnt ever in this ward. We didnt want him seeing us with out people in church. I guess its a good thing that we have plans to have lots =)

Hna Runyon has about a year in the mission. She goes home in June. I dont remember your other questions about her. She helps me a lot with my spanish. Hna Marilaf did a lot too. The only difference is that Hna Runyon knows the rules of spanish and can tell me why something is the way that it is. Ha if someone were to ask me rules about English I really woudnt know how to answer that.. And yes Hna Marilaf was great. Why did you think we didnt get along? We wont be BFF but we really didnt have any problems. She is a great missionary and I learned a lot from her. But Im glad for a change. Then again, I usually like change.

So our first night in Resistencia, the Elders took us to our apt where the elders were still packing up their stuff. Ha they left us to clean their dirt! Gross. I think they found out that day that they were to leave and didnt have any time to clean. Im a little sad because my other apt had air conditioning where we sleep. This one has solo fans. Ha we are going to die! Im not complaining, just stating the obvious =) I think Elder Foster from the Seventy said that all the apts need air conditioning, especially for those from the US. I think that is coming next year. Man, I really dont remember humidity it Texas, probably because that was just the way that it was for me. I didnt know a difference. But it is soooo weird being cold from the air, but hot from the humidity at the same time. Weird. I didnt really sweat in Utah, but that is quickly changing here. Yum =)

Our first day working was a taddy bit overwhelming? The elders gave us a map and left. Their area, now our area is the down town heart of Resistencia. I dont know what area to compare it to. It is ALL city with apts mixed into the streets. I want to give you an idea, but I really dont have anything... Every house that we knocked at were people that worked there, not the actual owners. And these people live in other areas kind of far. We didnt know what to do. Contacts in the streets were hard too because these people also didnt live here. But then the following day was the best news ever! We found out that we also have the area of other Elders. The two sets of missionaries in these two areas work in the office so they only had nights to work. So really not much. They are both in another ward and we have their areas. The other area is more of the area of what I had before. Well, its not the country, but there are dirt roads! Yay. We felt a lot better after that.

I know I say this a lot. But I really HATE dogs. There arent as many here is Resistencia. That is a relief. Haha I still pray for protection everyday though! Ha if its important to me, its important to the Lord too! Even if its something as stupid as dogs =) But this last week Hna Runyon was talking to this man and his dog was standing by me. All of a sudden I saw his leg go up.... (he was about to pee on me!) All of a sudden I let out a loud yelp. I didnt know what else to do. The man and my compa thought I was crazy. But no the dog was about to pee on me! NEVER in my life. Im really not sure what that means.. I smell like a dog? I look like a dog? (I was determined not to be an ugly sister missionary, but that has past. But I didnt know that I looked that bad) Or possibly he was just trying to mark me as his territory. Im not too sure, but I really dont like any of those ideas.

Mom, I got your Christmas count down. Very cute. Thank you!

Dust I got your Lake Powell card! I could smell the red sand. All we had in Posadas was red dirt. Now its all white. Definitely different. Hey, TODAY is your birthday! Happy Birthday!!!!!!!

Chels! I got your dearelder! Thanks for all the updates!

Rach! Im still waiting on your letter!

Random P.s. Yesterday was a holiday and today is our pday.

Yall are on your way to Karan´s right now! Weird. Dad are you frying turkey? Eat lots for me. They dont have turkey here. Someone said they saw some in the market for 80 pesos! Needless to say that I wont be eating any!

Okay well I cant really think of anything else. The Gospel if true and nothing else matters. Everyday I am soo grateful for all of the blessings of this Gospel. I still cant believe the opportunity that I have to be a part of this wonderful work. How blessed we truely are! HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I love yall. Have a great week, and give everyone my love.

Love,
Hna Payne

Monday, November 15, 2010

Hola familia! Its me again, Hna Payne!

I just got a phone call from the assistants.... Im being transferred!!!!!!!!!!! Im white washing an area in Resistencia. My companion is Hna Runyon. She is here in Posadas with me right now. We leave tomorrow. I cant tell my compa though. I dont know why its a secret. Ha she thinks she is the one leaving. I get to pack my bags tonight. I dont know why they called today... we always find out Tuesday nights. Im really excited though. I love Hna Runyon. She is from Orem. We are going to work hard!

Well this week I dont really feel like I have a lot to say. We had zone conference and it was wonderful. We only have them every three months now. I wish more. We learned a lot. We learned how to be more direct and forward. This is soooooo hard for me. But something I really want to change. Ha I have always hated 创BIG GIRL创 conversations, so this is really good for me. We walked away from this conference with a better clarity of knowing who we are and the authority that we have. We put into effect what we learned with the approximate lesson. We are working hard! Speaking of working hard we had two investigators in church with us this Sunday. We found them Saturday about 5 in the afternoon. All we really talked about was the importance of going to church and they agreed to go. They declined that we stop by in the morning so we could go with them. We figured it woudnt hurt, so we did anyways. To our surprise when we clapped at their house (which by the way I love where they live. It reminds me of Texas in the country, really green.) she came out in her Sunday clothes. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They really meant what they said! They were really coming! We got to church (I dont know if I said that church is now at 8) and both talks were about tithing, right after we told them they didnt have to pay anything! Go figure! But the approximate class couldnt have been better. The lesson was on Temples and families forever! Her husband died 16ish years ago. Her son that is 30ish suffered some mental something or other when his died died. Needless to say they both want to be a family forever! Who doesnt want this. If only everyone realized that they cant be an eternal family without the temple. When we talk to families about living together after they all act as if they know they can be!!! Well that is why I am here isnt it? Baptism is only the beginning!

I told you my spanish was getting better.. I might have lied. With this same family we were talking about mornings, and I might have mentioned that we as missionaries practice exorcism every morning. Yes, you read that correctly, exorcism. Her eyes got really big and was like what?? Every morning?? My comp shook her heard yes, every morning. Hahahahahahhahahahahahah OOPS! What I meant to say was EXERCISE! We exercise every morning! Exercise and exorcism are quite similar in spanish! I think that has been my biggest oops.. other than the one time that I confused the name of a baby with a napkin. Ha to me they sounded really similar. Hey, at least I havent said anything about monkeys and the priesthood. Raelene told me to stay away from that one =)

EW! Guess what I ate this week. Chicken throat and chicken heart, and who knows what other part of the chicken! Okay it really wasnt that bad, it was just the fact that I knew what it was. Next time I wont ask what I am eating. I was really confused at first because part looked like chicken, and the other looked like hamburger meat... but all connected. I asked my compa what it was and she just told me to eat it. Then someone else said chicken throat. I was quite proud of myself, I only gagged once!

The holidays are coming fast. I cant believe Next week is Thanksgiving. Are yall renting a car to get to Karan磗? The good old days of Thanksgiving with Karan. Those are fond childhood memories at the lake house. Be sure to eat some BlueBell ice cream for me. When I was printing off my mail this morning there was Christmas music playing. Crazy. Hey since I will be in Resistencia I will for sure be able to see the Becksteads!!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!! I will be spending Thanksgiving and Christmas with Hna Runyon. Im really excited for this change! A lot of things have changed in three months! Its time for me to grow more. Ha I can see where 18 year olds get married and then 10-20 years down the road they want a divorce because they are SO different. Okay, maybe that was a horrible example, and you probably dont understand.. but my point is yay for a change. Its amazing what you can do when you have to. Ha im about to have to =) Bring it on!

Mom, I got my package last week. Thank you sooo much! I love the shirts! It is getting quite warm here. Im not close to dying yet.. that means much more heat and humidity to come.
Hey, Im proud of your memorizing. We are supposed to memorize a scripture everyday from the Book of Mormon. I just found this out. Im determined that its impossible in english, much less spanish. Boo! Ha i know I need to stop complaining about it and just do it. The Lord will help me if I give it my best shot. Levi, remember that time you tried to memorize a scripture everyday for a photographic memory?? How many did you memorize? Who was it that said this?

Michael! I got your letter. I am now waiting for a follow up letter.... one that sounds more like the Mike that I know!

Okay, well the next letter will be coming from Resistencia! yay! Have a great week. Thank you all for all that you do!

Love,
Hna Payne
xoxo

Monday, November 8, 2010

Hola Familia! It´s me again, Hna Payne!

This week was a little tough. Again, no investigators in church. We left right after sacrament so we could go find someone to come with us. Again, no one. Oh well, next week right?????? Sometimes I wonder if I have the faith to do this work. Right now Im not so sure.I know that my faith can cause miracles because everything says so.. but I dont have a testimony of this. I dont know if that makes sense. I know, I know, ¨forget myself and go to work¨ ¨remember who you are, and who you arent¨´ my job is to only invite... I know all these things. Our mission has the theme of baptisms every week. Well we cant even get people to come to church. But ¨its possible, its possible´´ again I know this. But what things am I doing, or not doing that need to change? Obviously a lot. I have six months in the mission and I dont feel like I have done anything. Booooo! Haha sorry this sounds REALLY negative. Dont worry, all is good. I know that this experience is shaping the rest of my mission. I wouldn't appreciate the good if I didnt know any of the downs of the mission.

Okay, now on to a much brighter note. We had divisions this last week. Best thing ever! I love change. (I might need to be reminded of this love someday). I was with Hna Mena in her area. I have actually worked with her before, my first week in the field when my compa had trainings. She entered into the field the day that I was supposed to get to Argentina. She is from Chile! We woke up and went running! Best day ever! It had been soo long since I had been running. We didnt go far. Maybe a mile, I was afraid to ask her to go more... Maybe my next compa will like running. We also had music in the apt. First time in 6 months since I have listened to music!!!!!! Another reason that it was the best day ever. Drew are you using my ipod??? I like divisions because it gives the chance of learning things from someone else. I have three months with the same person. It was nice to see how Hna Mena does things. I hope we will have divisions more often! It was so nice not to be in a routine. Its amazing what you can do when you have to! Hna Mena didnt know what I could do.. I just had to do it =) The Lord helps his missionaries, that is for sure.

Hey, Mom!!!! Today is your birthday!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MOMMY! HAPPY BIRHTDAY TO YOU!!!!!!! Where are yall going to dinner?? What did you get?

We fasted this week! Of course! It is getting quite warm here. I wanted water sooooo bad. The bad news is that it isnt even hot yet. Ha I cant wait until December. Im going to die =)

Well I decided that if things in the mission dont work out and i want to quit.... I found that I have options here. We were down by the river quite a bit this week. Every time we see this man that is working construction. He is always really nice and says hi. Well this one day he is walking with us a short ways and some how says that he wants to live with me... or possibly asks... not really sure, I had no idea what was going on. My compa was quite defensive and kept telling him no. He told her that I was the one that had to make the decison. HAHA but I didnt say anything because I didnt know what they were talking about. Ha but she told him that I had a boyfriend or something to that effect.(Everybody has one of those here. Its just easier to say so that guys will leave you alone) And he asked if I was married. Ha she didnt no why I wasnt adding to the conversation. I figured something bad was goin down and I didnt want to say anything and ruin what had been said! HAHAHAHA but really who says things like that. Oh, I forgot one important detail, he is like 65 years old! He has kids older than me! Well, just a word of warning, if this week is terrible, I know that I can find a ¨¨suga daddy¨¨here! HAAHAHAHAHAH EW!

Mom, you keep talking about Leah Brennan. The first thing you mentioned about her is taht you bought a skirt for her.....? That is all I know. Is she planning on school? Living with yall? Finding an apt?? What happened to Alex?

I will see Elder Beckstead this week at Zone conference, and then transfers next week. He is in a different zone, but we only have these like every 2-3 months and I guess it is easier to have them come to us. Soo weird, he only has one transfer left. Im excited to see him. I really hope that I will get to see Jan when they come. As for things to send im not really sure. I will think about this. Just send jan a brisket or ribs and they will be happy to bring anything. Ha I know what you mean by not knowing. Just ask her. She is sooooo sweet. She wont care if you ask. Ask about the airlines and the restrictions and what she is planning on.

Today for pday we went and had lunch, and then played soccer. I actually really liked playing. Today was really the first time that I have ever played. Hopefully one of these pdays we will get to go to the falls. Maybe I will be transferred to this area one day. I think its only like 5 hours away from us.

Hey, my spanish is getting better. I had to call the mission doctor to ask them a question for my compa. He doesnt speak spanish and when he said hello. I couldt for the life of me give an intro in english. Ha this is what I say the most everyday. HAHA no but really my spanish is getting better. Its still slow, but everyday is better. I cant wait until I can communicate EVERYTHING! But hey, gotta live in the moment and be thankful for what I have!

Dad! IM soooo excited for your news! Its about time =) Keep me updated on this! And thanks for your letter!

Karan! You are sooo faithful at writing. I appreciate this soooo much. Sorry I am horrible at writing! I will try to be better!

Grandma and Grandpa thank you as well for your letters. Again, sorry that I am horrible at writing.

Drew, soo faithful at writing too. But I dont know if I can call you my brother anymore. Ha you know why!

Well fam! Thanks for everything! Have a great week. Love you and miss you lots!



Love, Hna Payne

Monday, November 1, 2010

All the bugs that I have to look forward to! Yikes!

My rain attire! Yes, Im a dork, but hey Im dry, warm, and my feet arent muddy!

Two kids that I just love! Mili, and Maria! Their parents wont get married =(

Hola Familia!!! It´s me again, Hna Payne!

About the falls! We dont have any plans as of right now to go. We haven´t met our goal for baptisms. Speaking of baptisms, we didnt have one this last week =( We kept trying to get a hold of Lurdes but every time she wasnt home, or just wouldnt answer the door. We talked to her dad at church and he said that she hadnt said anything about a baptism… which she told us that her parents said that it was her decision. (Her dad and sister are members, but not her mom). So then he said that they were going to talk as a family. The next day was Wednesday and we couldnt get a hold of anyone. I knew someone was home.. just ignoring the door, and the phone. It came to be like 6 that night and we didnt have an appointment with someone until 7:30. I was determined to sit outside of their house for an hour and a half. Luckily they finally answered the door! But to our disappointment she said she wanted more time… that she wanted to finish this year of school that ends in November and then. I was trying to understand the correlation in this… We tried talking about it (all of this was in her stairwell because they were supposedly about to leave) but of course we couldnt drag her to the waters of baptism, so we left… boooooooooo! My compa thinks that its because of her mom! She was going to be baptized like two years ago but her mom wouldnt let her because of her grades?? At least that is what I understand from one of the members.



So this week on Tuesday, the day before the census we were ¨knocking doors¨ and this man told us to come right in. We were really surprised at how easy it was. I dont remember what was said. We started asking him about his family, how many kids he had, work, religion and so on. Then we asked if we could start with a prayer. He was a little shocked but of course said yes. We gave a short explanation about the Restoration and then asked if we could close with a prayer. He finally admitted that originally he thought we were part of the census! Hahaha we got a good kick out of that! But hey we got another appointment for the next day when his wife would be home. It was there that the wife said that she knew me! She was the lady that helped, or didnt help me in the hospital! She kept telling me that is was IMPOSSIBLE to get the test that the doc wanted, for one week. What a small world. Out of all the people in the world! We gave the first lesson, and they are really interested! I cant wait to see what happens with this family. I can only pray that they are the reason that I threw up blood! =) Oh and I gained a stronger testimony that we are representatives of Jesus Christ at ALL times! You never know who you will run into again!

This week we were working out (one of our days outside) and I saw an old investigator, one that we hadnt seen in a long time. I asked my comp about it and she said she had forgotten about her! Well, it wasnt 10 minutes later that she comes charging with a walking stick, all the while yelling at us, when I say us, I mean ME. I had no idea what was going on except that she was pretty angry. She couldnt see my compa because she was on the ground and I was jumping rope. She finally got close and I had no clue what she was saying, or rather yelling. I was so nervous I couldnt say anything. I tried asking her if she knew who we were. All the while my comp just sat there not very close. I told the lady that I was learning spanish and that I didnt understand, that my compa did. I kept looking at Hna Marilaf to help me. She finally woke up and started to talk to the lady. The only thing that I understood from her was when she looked at my companion and said that I wasnt normal. The significance is that Im special!!! Hna Marilaf explained that I was normal and that I speak english! Ha and I thought my spanish was getting better! But really, who calls someone special when they are standing right there! And why do people think that I am my country? Hate America if you want, but not me! That day we talked to one of the members that is a Police man just so that we could tell her no worries, we talked to the police and they said it was a public place! Quite funny! We havent seen her again. Im guessing we havent seen the last of her. Tomorrow we will see! HA

Okay well Im going to try and upload some pics now! Thanks for everything! Love you lots!!
Love Hna Payne