July 28, 2014

Just a little taste of my life. 

Getting up early to workout with my old comp, 

and a little taste of favela life! Been wild.

 

Hey Mom,

Can I just say our family is gorgeous I love you all so much. It sounds like you all had a really pleasant week.

My week was also pretty good. We left with a young man that is getting ready to go on the mission, and we were able to help some less actives get back to church and we will hopefully be baptizing a young kid from that family this Sunday. 

We went on splits with the first counselor from the bishopric here. His son went into the MTC two weeks ago. It was cool to see how close he was with his son, and how excited he was to tell him about him going on divisions with us. I just kept thinking about how great it is to have such loving parents like you and dad who are so encouraging. I love you both so much.

Carol is doing well, she is progressing but her 26 year old cousin had a brain tumor that they discovered last week, did emergent surgery and he ended up dying after being in a coma. She was pretty beaten, and didn’t make it to church this last week. Some of the YSA's went and visited her after church and I think it helped a lot. 

The work here is just flying by. We are running from appointment to appointment and we are loving it. Time is flying by and hopefully next week we will finally have a baptism happening. There are lots of missionaries from this ward that are out in the field right now, and you see just how much they love their kids, and they treat us all so well. It reminded me of you mom, you are so loving and I just can’t thank you enough for everything. I love you so much mumsy, I hope you have a great week.

Elder Paynter

Hey Dad,

That was just the best letter. I wish I could show you just how much I love you. I feel like it’s exactly what I needed to hear. This last week I was walking on the street and I just felt like you were with me. I am so happy for your support and so grateful to hear about your mission. It means a lot to me dad. Thank you so very much. You always were my hero dad, and now that I am getting to know you better you are even more of my hero. I hope and pray that I can grow spiritually to one day be like you. I love you so much. I think it’s going to be a lot of tears when I get to see you again, they will be the most grateful tears of my life. 

It sounds like you had a pretty fun week with everyone. Full of adventures and good company. I sure am glad to see that our wonderful family is together. That’s great to hear about Nelson. Is she LDS? I hope he is happy. Isn’t it neat how there are so many new temples going up? I can’t believe they will have one in Rio de Janeiro. That has to be one super expensive temple. 

I got some great news today! Kaique got his papers in, they are in Salt Lake now. He had a mini MTC with his stake yesterday and he is on cloud nine, so excited for his call. I am so happy for him. I think of all the crap that we go through and when I hear from Kaique, it reminds me of how it’s all so very worth it. 

We threw down a lot of work this week. It was a good week number wise dad, and I think that we will be getting some baptisms this Sunday, and hopefully the next. My comp is a pretty dry guy, but I am liking him a lot and opening him up. He is teaching me a lot also. It’s been stressful, but I feel so blessed to be out here and to be able to finish my mission here. I hop that’s what happens anyways. It sounds like Kaique will be coming to visit my ward this next Sunday, it’s been a little tough because he has a ton of callings in his ward. But so glad to see he is firm. I bought my new suit last p-day. So the money you put in left the account now. Thanks a lot, I am really happy to have it. 

Well dad, I can’t thank you enough for the email and all your love and support. Can’t wait to see you again. It’s passing by really fast. Have a great week. I love you!

Elder Paynter

 

July 21, 2014

Well I was going to send some pictures I took this week but the computer is throwing a fit so it will have to wait. We had a pretty good week and we were able to get a family reactivated. They hadn’t been to church in 8 years and we got them to come this Sunday. I was really really happy about it.

On Saturday we had a ward party, and we went to church in the morning to help set up. Bishop asked me to run some errands with him, so we went on a division and we had a great time together. We went to this place where all the local farmers bring their goods and sell them to the big supermarkets. It was pretty dang cool. He took me to where he grew up and we ate some food at a little fair they have every Saturday. It was a really good time and I was able to learn a lot from him and his example. He is a great bishop, he really transmits the love that he has for everyone. 

At night we had the ward activity and it was a fun time, we ate tons of food and they had a tiny little hillbilly dance which is traditional here, me and one of the elders from the house danced and it was really funny. We had a good time and the members all laughed at us. 

Carol is a 20 year old girl we have been teaching for a while, she has been going to church for a while too but we don’t know how to help her feel the spirit and let it testify to her. She has been pretty tough. Her cousin died from brain cancer yesterday and she was crying a lot at church. I felt pretty useless because I didn’t know how to help her but I am so glad we have the gospel to guide us and comfort us enough to know that it isn’t the end. I am so grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ and the comfort it brings. I am so grateful that we can change who we were yesterday into a better person today because of His sacrifice. I am so grateful for the mission and the things I am learning and have learned. I love you mom. I hope you have a great week!!!

Elder Paynter

July 14, 2014

Hey mom,

This week was a lot of hard work and a good time. We went to a multi-zone conference in downtown Campinas and on our way back the game had started against Germany. We were walking back to our house at half-time and it was 5-0 and people here were really mad. Some lady stopped us and cussed out Brasil and then asked if we were Germans, when we told here we were Americans she let us go by but she was pretty dang angry and yeah, I was a curious with what the lady was going to do but yeah it was fine.  

We spent a lot of time this week working with less active people, and we had a family home evening last night with a ton of people. It was so good and I hope we helped them have a greater desire to come back to church. We have just been running around a ton too because our area is massive. I have never used the bus so much like this last week.  But the family home evening was great, we made an object lesson with "Jenga" and it turned out well. 

Friday night we had gotten a call about a service project the next morning and we went there at 8. We carried big buckets full of cement up on top of the house to finish the roof. We did it non-stop for four hours straight, and we were pretty dang sore last night but it was a really fun time. We got super dirty, but it sure feels nice every now and then to take off the shirt and tie, and roll in the mud like men should. Ha-ha 

We had the opportunity to see a young man here in our ward give his last goodbyes before he enters the MTC this Thursday. It reminded me a lot about what a privilege we have to serve a mission, and just how great the blessings are that come from it. I wouldn’t trade my mission for anything and I love every second here. I know it is going to be so hard to say goodbye to such a wonderful life, but it will be so easy to thank the Lord every day for the time that he allowed me here. I love the gospel, I am so grateful that we always have one more chance to make ourselves better and more like our Savior. I love this life. I hope you have a great week mumsy, I sure will. I love you!

Elder Sunsy