September 4, 2013

Hey mom,

Yes I got your letter but I didn’t get the thing of my priesthood line of authority. Thanks a whole lot for the scriptures, I really liked that. Teagan will be very good out there and no doubt will find some really tough experiences. I really liked the emails this week mom, I am really sorry but I wont have much time to email everyone who sent one to me so I will just give you a nice longer one and try to do my best with the left over time to get with everyone else. 

Well that’s all some pretty crazy news with everyone really. I am super grateful for Dad and all that he has done for us and the example that he has been and all of the love that he gives us.

Well new things coming along for me in the mish. My new area is called Ponte, and it is a lot different from my last area. I showed up and met my comp Elder Vianna. He is from Porto Alegre, the south of Brasil and looks like cousin Braden. He is a really cool guy and works really hard and we have had some pretty fun times. He has been giving me tips on leadership and on being a better missionary all around and he is a great example. I did however, show up and we don’t have a teaching group so we have been talking with everyone and their dog about the church and scraping our fingernails off to get lessons.

Right now we take care of the second biggest zone in the mish with only 18 missionaries and our zone is all good, we don’t have any sisters but everyone is getting along thus far and seems like a pretty tight group. I really missed my last zone and last area, it was hard to say goodbye to some people there but I know that I have other tasks that Heavenly Father wants me to do here. We are in the principal ward in the stake, but the number of active members is super low, I am really surprised that we have a chapel, but we do and we will get those members back also! We have spent a ton of time out on the streets trying to get some investigators and thus I have darkened my skin tone a little more, for the first time on the mission I used sunscreen. It was a landmark day. 

So my comp is a lot like Braden, and our bishops wife looks like mom, and they have a train that passes right by our house so I think of dad driving by. It is fun to have the family by me again. Ha-ha well we had a really cool time at the house of a member eating lunch, the members grandfather ate with us and he looked a lot like what I remember of grandpa Paynter, and he said some cool things about the gospel. But in all he told us a story about how a neighbor decided to be baptized in the church because of the service that the old man did for him. I thought a whole lot about grandpa and I thanked Heavenly Father that day for the wonderful opportunity.

He said something great about the priesthood also, every priesthood holder knows what the priesthood is, they can basically spit a defining line out about it, "the authority of God, given to man, to act in His name" Well this old guy said, “The priesthood is the opportunity to wear the same sandals that Christ wore and do the things he would do here on the earth for others.” I kept thinking about grandpa and how I always heard about the service and the man that he was. He really understood what his purpose and role was as a man of God. I hope when we meet, he will be proud of how I treat his name. 

So it has been a lot of work, we emailed today because I had a leadership meeting on Monday and my time is super short today, we decided to work today so we could get a better teaching group and baptize before the end of transfers. Family, I am really sorry that it has been such a hurry lately. I promise I will do my best to get back with you next week on emails. Thanks so much for all of them and for all of your support. I love you!

Elder Paynter