Transfers!

Well, looks like my time here in Santa Maria is far spent! I can't believe that it has already been three transfers here. I feel like I just got here and at the same time I feel like I have been here for an eternity! This has NOT been the easiest area but I have seen blessings like I have never seen before! I was able to witness 4 baptisms, I have met some of my favorite members thus far in my mission, I have been in a great district with some amazing missionaries. I guess the Lord saw fit for me to get me to my 4th area! The catch is... I'm training again and I'll be in a threesome... again so that will have it's blessings and challenges! But I'm excited. 

We had some pretty strong rain this week. A lot of people got flooded and it got to the point where church was canceled on Sunday. That's too bad, I would have liked to see a lot of the members here for the last time in a while. But I did weasel my way out of having to give another talk here so blessings were involved ;) Besides that, not a ton happened. Just another week in the Philippines! 

Well love you all tons but you already know that ;) Take care always and make someone smile this week. It's the best :) 

Love,

Elder Payne 

Back to Work!!

Hello Family and friends! First of all, thank you so very much for all of your prayers and emails of encouragement to me! It really means so much! I am feeling much better now and have been so relieved to get back to work!!! It has been a great week of learning, growing, and serving! Being a missionary is just the best! We were able to have a conference this week with Elder Teh of the seventy! He was really great and had some really great things to help us as missionaries! It was also really fun to see friends I hadn't seen in a while! 

 We were also able to have a Book of Mormon Fireside on Sunday that was really great!!! They had a clip from the movie "The Testaments" Of course it's no Hollywood movie... but the spirit that comes when Christ visits the Americas... I LOVE MY SAVIOR! Oh how I wish to fall before his feet one day and praise him! I want that more than anything. I testify that the Book of Mormon is a testament of Him! I know we can get closer to him from that book than by any other book here on earth! SO it's simple, if you love Jesus Christ, read his book! Read the Book of Mormon and I promise you will grow closer to him.

In other news, we had a baptism this week! My boy Jerome came through! He wouldn't let any rabies hold him back from the font! We also had a super awesome child of record baptism that day as well! What a fun day. That spirit is so strong as that sacred ordinance is being performed. I was also able to confirm the child of record as a member of Christs beautiful church! Wow, every time I get the wonderful opportunity to do that... The Priesthood is real! 

Sorry, I'm not a big fan of long emails but I've got one more story... We were coming home from work one day and we were passing some bbq's that are always out here. I turned to Elder R. and the member we worked with and asked if they wanted empanadas. Of course they said yes so we walked up to the bbq and look into the glass case holding the empanadas to find a mouse chowing down! We just looked at each other and I just said "ummm hinda pa gutom ako" (Im not hungry anymore...) Eww! I don't know when I'll get an appetite for empanadas again! That's too bad, but I still thought it was funny!

Well that's it for the week, love you and miss you all!!! 10

Love,

Elder Payne 

As this is a public blog, pictures of baptisms from this week aren't included to protect the privacy of the those in the pictures.  They are included in Elder Payne's weekly emails for those that are part of that email group, though.

Released na ako!

Just from the hospital. Don't worry, I still have plenty of time in the mission ;) Well I got released from the hospital and now am back in Santa Maria. My body is still pretty tired but I am excited to get back to work. Days do not go by very fast in the hospital... It has been raining super hard here lately. In fact church got canceled yesterday but nothing can stop the work from progressing! (now that dengue is done from stopping the work from progressing) We are going to work hard to get our schedule back into play! We still have 2 baptisms that are getting very close to the font so we will keep working there! Love you all and have a great week! 

Elder Payne 

Filipino Hospital episode 2 Dengue Fever

We didn't hear from Andy on his regular P-day.  Instead, we found out the next morning that he was in the hospital.  This is an email his mission president allowed him to write while he was recovering in the hospital.  

Well, I'll be honest. Before I got the Philippines I was hoping to never have to visit a hospital here. Now I'm on my second time... Oh well, you can't get everything you want, right? Turns out I got Dengue this time around. I wouldn't suggest it. I'm not going to lie, it's not that great haha On the bright side it did "feel" colder the past two days... The chills really came in when I was around 103 or 104 degrees. Kind of ironic, the coldest I've felt in the Philippines is when my temperature was the highest it's been here... haha I'm doing fine though. I should be in the hospital for a couple of days then I'll get released and get back to work!

In other news... the other day we were trying to find a referral in a place we'd never been to before. It was a place called Ampuagan. We heard it was next to a barangay called Cabaroan that wasn't to far from our house so we were going to walk to Ampuagan and do some contacting along the way. Turns out Ampuagan is WAY the heck out there! It took us a solid 4 plus hours to get there! But It turned out really great cause we picked up some NI's and met a ton of people, plus we found our referral! Another fun thing that happened, on the way home from Ampuagan we ran into a tractor who was dropping off his workers who just planted rice for him. Turns out he was going back to the barangay that we needed to go to! We asked if we could hop on the back and he gave us the ok so we cruised out of Ampuagan on a tractor! haha it was pretty great. 

That covers about all the highlights this week! Hope its worth the read ;) Love you all and miss you tons. Take care this week!

Elder Payne