January 28, 2013

Hey family!

Sounds like it is just frigid there! I am super sorry; it has been pretty cold here this week too. Super cloudy and rainy but it’s been great. What a crazy season you guys have had. I wish I could be snowboarding this year!!

Ya I have turned a new leaf and I keep everything super clean. My comp is the old me x2! I think I do because it is easier to worry about a few dishes and a just a little clothes than it was back at home with all my clothes and the even busier life. Each house has blankets and yes I have used them once or twice when it was cold enough.

I love that scripture mom thanks very much. 

           Joshua 1:9

"Be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dis mayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest."

 I have had a daily scripture that I write on my planner and I love it. I have had tons of good ones. I’ll make the one you gave me the scripture for tomorrow.

Get feeling better! It sounds like everyone is getting sick! A lot of missionaries have been getting sick in our zone so our president has been checking in on people with a surprise visit to make sure the houses are clean. Ours is always pretty clean but I have seen some serious disasters!

Ha-ha mail will take a while but that is fine. The office receives it and then every week at district meeting they hand it out to us.

Well this week was great. We didn't get a baptism but we are making a lot of progress and have a lot of appointments thanks to all of the references the ward members are getting us! It has been great. We taught Brother Jose and he started crying. It was so good to finally see someone be healed by the gospel of Jesus Christ with the same love that I have felt from him. That is the reason that I am here. I just hope I can bring it into more lives. We are just waiting on some marriages to happen.

We went to the house of Monica and discovered that she has a ten year old daughter also with tons of friends that are super close with her. When we were visiting Monica her daughter came home with all of her friends so we invited them all to be there tonight when we teach. I hope that it all goes well. I have such a great feeling about Monica and her husband, Roni. Roni is already a member and they took a trip to the temple on Saturday to visit it and talk about their opportunity as an eternal family. Monica is super into it and I can't wait until they are married because it will be wonderful for them to open these doors together. They are just waiting on some papers to come back from an office in Sao Paulo.

We got some great references this week and have some great opportunities coming up. I am excited to get rolling big time in the work. The members of an area make the difference. We have been super blessed here!

Brasil is cool but I realized we have it so well in the United States. If we want to do anything fun we can. Here, they can fly a kite or run maybe. There isn't much, if they want to play soccer they have to pay to play on a synthetic mini field because they don't have any open recreational parks here. But they live simple and happy lives. I am so grateful for the love of them all, they are nice people. I am so grateful to serve here and to learn so much and to experience this life. I know this church is true and that this gospel changes lives for now and for eternity. I love you all, have a great week!

January 21, 2013

Well things are going well here in Campo Limpo Paulista!

It has been quite a week, a lot going on! Well Bishop is really involved in our ideas and our work and I love it. He is a pretty good guy. We are going to start having an integration night every month so we can get some people into our church eating some free food and then Elder Leal and I will sweep them up and hopefully get some appointments out of it. I think that is coming up on the 31st of January.

 The next day we had "multizone" or mission meeting but we were out of our money for the bus fare, so we called a member to pick us up and drop us off in Jundiai. He is a super cool guy and was way happy to do it. So he came and got us at 6 in the morning. He tried talking to me English the whole time because he is trying to learn. He is a lawyer; he said he gets up at 5 am to study English for two hours every morning. He kept getting on Elder Leal for not trying to learn English. It was kind of funny, but he kept saying a phrase that I loved. "dedicação vencerá dificuldades" which means dedication will overcome difficulties. So it was great to start off the day with a great example.

 So we met with the rest of our zone at the stake center in Jundiai and then hopped in a huge van and took off to the stake center in the heart of Campinas and had our conference with another zone. It was good; I learned a lot and gained some confidence talking to other elders. Most people were really impressed with my Portuguese and I know I have been so blessed, it is all about keeping my confidence with me and I can talk the language well enough to communicate. And I had a lot of questions but didn't really have to time to talk to anyone. I was really hoping someone from my district in the CTM would be there but nobody was.

But on the way home I talked to this Elder that reminded me of our cousin Zach. He is a stud just like Zach was I am sure and he really helped me out. It was a pretty great day all around.

Then Saturday came around. It was baptism day for two young girls; Stefanie just turned 8, and Sabrina 12. It was pretty exciting. Stefanie's grandfather tried baptizing her and she got in the font and freaked out and ran and changed her clothes. It was pretty devastating. But I got to baptize Sabrina and it went well. She will be a great member in the church. It was a great feeling but a very bittersweet time for me. It will be a lot better when we work for the baptisms instead of just being chosen to help baptize.

Then Sunday, was a good day. Our speakers in church skipped out so Elder Leal and I had to give talks. I was super nervous but it all went well and I think they were able to understand what I was trying to say. Ha-ha.

After sacrament, which is our last meeting of the day, a member wanted a blessing and it was pretty cool to help give that. We went and ate lunch at a member’s house and right after that we were called to go give some more blessings. It was kind of crazy but I love being able to see the priesthood in action.

This week we have tons of stuff coming up with our investigators. We are just having some big problems with people living together and not being married. We would have three more members in the church if they would just get married. They already go to church and pay tithing and do everything else. Just got to put a ring on the right finger!

Levi, go fight fires. That is awesome and something you can tell to everyone. Whatever you do this summer do something you'll never forget!

Ash and Miguel congrats! Don’t spoil her too badly until I get home and she knows me! Best of luck with the home! I will keep praying for you!

Lacey, have a dang fun semester just let it all go and happy stinking birthday!

Mom and Dad, awesome job on the gym thing. We’re going backpacking finally to Havasupai when I get back! No battle. You owe me. Ha-ha I love you all and have the best week!

Our Apartment

January 7, 2013

Hah Hello Momma! 

            How is the new living quarters? 

            It is super small; we have a lot of bugs. To work out I tied two bricks together so I could do curls and a bunch of other things. My feet look like I have chicken pox from all of the mosquitoes and it is just perfect. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I am in total bliss and happiness, I only wish some of the people I love could experience this fun way of life here. So simple but so happy.

            Now that you have been there a week what is it like to be out in the real world looking for people who are seeking the truth?

            So this week we taught a couple lessons that were just awesome, we really focused on getting to know all of the ward members and it was super good. They have just been feeding us contacts and helping us to find those people who are ready for the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is so funny to teach here because there are probably ten different types of churches within a mile from where we live. So many different beliefs. It just makes me laugh, there are plenty of blind hard hearted people here but our members are helping a bunch. Hopefully we’ll have three baptisms this week. Yesterday we confirmed two members that were baptized a month ago, and I bore my testimony in our church building. It is different but it is church and I love it. We have sixty members in this ward, the church bought land to build a big legitimate building but won't build until we have 100 members, and once we have that building membership will explode here. I hope I can come back when it is all done towards the end of the mish. 

            Are you only speaking Portuguese since your companion is Brazilian?  

            Yes it has only been Portuguese. An investigator of ours spoke some good English but my senior comp banned me from speaking any English. Ha-ha it has been good and I am learning a ton from him. The key to baptism is the members, their references and the friendliness they show to the investigators. So don't forget your responsibilities as members you guys! 
             Package was great and yes I got it all. Thanks so much momma!  Don’t worry about sending anything; you can just wire money if I really need something. I can buy just about everything here too.

Oh I think you can just cancel mission ties. I have tons of time to email and write and I wouldn't worry about it anymore. I just think it was super useful for the stay at the CTM.

            Should we still always send your letters to the mission home or do you have a new address?

            Yes all things will be sent to the mission home throughout the mission. That will always be the address and we have zone meeting every week so I will get them then! Yes I got the first letter, no worries mom. I love you all so much and thanks so much for the email. I have tons of time to email and write.

            So I am further in land, it is great. It rains every now and then, it is super cloudy or super sunny here I am loving it. The other night after we talked with our investigators we started walking home in the rain, we forgot our umbrellas but it was a nice shower. I love the rain and the thunder here. It is just so beautiful and it cleans the streets.

            Are you in the rural country?

            Our areas are so big that they cover rural and urban. It is like pockets of houses built super close together between big rolling hills with trees. Gorgeous!

            We have been living on a steady diet of coca cola (elder Leal loves coca cola) ice cream bananas, crackers and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. I love it!

            How do you like the members?

            Members here are so loving and we have huge lunch appointments every day with each of them. The bishop here is the best ever. He helps us so much and is just the most relaxed guy ever. We played soccer with the ward members the other night on this artificial turf field with nets and a fence around it. It was so fun. I played goalie basically the whole time but they were super impressed and said I did way good especially for not playing back at home. It was a blast.

            There are tons of dogs here that just live on the streets. They eat some scraps and just run around smiling all the time in their freedom. In the morning when we see them they are just waking up from their little shady plot of land. It is so funny.  

            Well everything is great here in Campo Limpo Paulista. It is going to be Zion when I am done here but until then it is great. I love you all so much; I will have much better things to talk about next week, like my first baptism!

            I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Elder Paynter

January 3, 2013

Ola Mae! 
          I am officially in the Campo today. I am so excited! I have a Brazilian companion, he only speaks Portuguese and he is a boss! He baptizes every week; he has only been out in the field for 5 months. I absolutely love the kid! I am so blessed. Also scored the best area! Campo Limpo Paulista, Jundiai! I am so happy to finally be here! The keyboard changed on me again so it is a bit hard to type quickly! I have learned so much, my companion is so excited that I already know some Portuguese and can understand almost everything that he is saying. He is a boss and I am going to love every second here in Campo Limpo with him. He said the people here absolutely love the missionaries and the bishop is the bomb.

So last night I took three buses and a train ride with a ton of luggage to get here but man it is so dang beautiful. Last night we arrived to our little shack and went and bought coke and ice cream for today. We ate a meal, cost three dollars; that was way good some pasta rice beans and two money pieces of chicken. So today he has been teaching me in our house and tonight we will go meet the members and make some friends. Right now we are in a little room with fourteen computers and boys playing video games. They charge by the second for what you use. It is super cheap but so cool.

I absolutely love Jundiai. It is so clean and beautiful with rolling hills with tons of trees between different neighborhoods. We have a big area and it is so cool. They were saying yesterday that they have ten closed areas in right now in the Campinas mission because they are so short on missionaries. This lowering the age thing will be good. New Years was just any other day in the CTM. We didn’t do much because we were packing and getting ready to leave. But it was still a fun last couple days.

I am so excited to finally be out in the field and to learn so much more about this work. I am so grateful for my companion. I talked with my zone leader and district leader who are Americans and they both said that Elder Leal is the best. Thanks for your prayers they have helped out. This week I read a talk by Uchtdorf. It was so good. A quote of his I really liked is when he said, "Don't forget the goodness of the chocolate bars even if they don't have a golden ticket in them." I knew I needed to slow down and just smell the roses instead of pushing myself to depression. My companion lives by this and everyone knows him. He is a celebrity.

 I woke up today and was actually cold because it has been overdraft and cloudy. Hasn't rained yet but it might.  It is perfect though. I love the air here and the people and the weather. I am so blessed.

That is too bad that everyone got sick. I am so sorry about that. I wish I had time to relax and just study other books but I just need to study the patterns of the Lords message right now out of Preach My Gospel. It’s still incredible. But I love D&C and the messages of missionary work.

How is dad doing? I miss you all so much but I am happy to hear you had a good year. Tell them to get better and you and dad don't get sick. How will that work out with mission ties? Is it always month to month? Or is it a quantity thing? Anyways you'll have to start sending all letters to the mission office now. Don’t worry about sending packages either momma. It really is all fine. Just give me lots of pictures when it comes to Christmas time and birthday time. Thanks so much for the package I love you so much! Well I’ll let you know how everything goes on Monday which is now my p day. We emailed today because I have to email each week.

Haah I am just loving it here and it will be the greatest time. I miss you all so much and love you all so much. Have the greatest week and remember to love the little things in life. I love you so. Talk to you soon with much more to write. Sorry I am a little scattered it has been a whirl of two days! I love you!

Also mom, I want to make sure you and dad are writing in your journals. I remember that one time long ago when we read some of the journals entries of dad’s grandpa or dad or something and it was so great to hear. I wanted to hear so much more about it. I wish so badly that Grandpa Kimball and Paynter kept a journal so I could know them better than I do. Please please please make sure you guys are writing at least one thing good or something about your days. I want my kids to be able to read to theirs. Please please please. I love you so. Thanks for doing this.

January 7, 2013 Photos from CTM, Sao Paulo, Brazil