February 3, 2014

Well Dad,

     They canceled the meeting because they wanted to do it after transfers. Five zone leaders are going home this next little bit so they decided it would be better to do after.

     Well dad, I took your advice and thought a lot about fasting. I decided that I couldn’t wait until Saturday to fast so I did it on Wednesday.  The next day the AP s showed up at our house to do a surprise division with us. I was pretty tanked but excited to see that the Lord had answered my prayers.  At the end of the division one of the APs talked with me for a while and it felt god to be able to talk about things here and get a lot of feelings off of my chest. I realized that I had been pretty unexcited about the work here and it had been hurting the progress but I did another division with the elders here and it felt really good. I talked with everyone and their dog on the streets and I think some of them will be some great investigators.   

     I don’t really know what to think dad, I am so glad for the trials that I have had because they are really pushing me to the limits and I am seeing my spirituality and dedication increasing. This Sunday, in our small little branch we have an average of 80 people, but we brought five investigators to church and the other companionship brought seven. There were over 110 people at church. It was quite a site and the leadership of the ward got really emotional. We haven’t had any baptisms here unfortunately but we have had some good success in the other aspects.

      I am sorry I don’t really have much time to email today, we are going to another city to visit with a member and have a bbq.  I kept thinking a lot about your email that you sent this week. It has helped me a lot Dad. Thanks for pushing me to be better and for all of your love. I miss you tons and love you even more. Have a great week and be so safe.

Elder Paynter

January 13, 2014

            Wow, that’s all some really cool News mom!  I am so excited for everyone back at home in Dean and Merriloy's family. I hope these things all go well for them! I sure love that Family so much! Well if you want to be a little alarmed, I counted the mosquito bites I woke up with one night, and I had 69 on my left arm. But they were tiny little bites and it wasn't too big of a deal, we bought a repellent plug in and it did the trick. No worries mom. Well here it’s not as hot as Campinas, but its still crazy hot. I can’t handle the thought of snow again though. Ha ha!

            Well mom, the branch here is really quite cold to tell the truth. Most of the missionaries that passed through here caused problems, or just kept getting on people to help them out and it pushed the other way. But we have a lot of activities planned and we have been doing our best to get them a little warmed up. It’s a little different living in four. The members don’t like to give lunch that much but hey, what can ya do. The leadership is really great and we will be working a lot more with them to help their goals also.

            Well mom, my growth here on the mission is a question I often ask myself, and it’s pretty much impossible for me to answer. I don’t know really. I feel like I have been blessed with some really great friends here to help me see past a lot of the politics of the mission and such. I had a couple turning points on my mission mom. The first was when I realized that if you count your blessings, you will see more, and be more happy. Another is that if you truly desire something, God will give it to. The other is that this work we are doing here, is not numbers or baptisms or a hard two-year sacrifice away from the Family, this is the work of eternal salvation. And unfortunately I don’t feel like that is well perceived by the majority of missionaries. The things we do here are so much more important than most people think. And yes, its been really tough at times to choose between doing what would make me look good as a missionary and what would be best for a person in an eternal perspective. Spirituality is something so hard to take care of at times. I don’t know what it is, but I have felt like as the mission has grown on, it has been harder maintain because everything becomes routine, instead of it all being new and unknown. But I really wish I had the opportunities to visit the temple more often to help maintain it all.

            Well Tiago was baptized. The old Ward went fishing last week and they sent me some pictures. I missed out but I am going to get my fishing trip in here for sure. Ha-ha

            We have a chapel here, its a lot of people, they just barely joined two branches together so its a big branch now. It’s nice. We have a huge area, so we ride the bus a lot to get around. It’s just a diferente ball game here. But I love it. I sure love it here. I hope we can be sending some pics of families going in the water soon. We will see how it all works out though. I am so grateful for the opportunity to do this work and to be here. Mom thanks so much for the email. I miss you and love you so much!

Love,

Sunsy

 These are the falls we visited on our p-day.

January 8, 2014

Hey Dad,

Well I was transferred, and it really opened my eyes. For some reason whenever transfers come around I had gotten worried but this time I wasn’t. I really was in the swing of what you were saying and in a lot of ways I still am but I feel like a lot has gotten better also. I just kept thinking work will be work and that wherever I go it will be the same thing, but remember how I was talking about how president would be opening some areas in the mission? Yeah well he sent me to that tiny little zone, and next transfer they will be opening up a brand new area here close by.

Yeah Miguel is right, we are on the very limit of the mission and it’s about a four-hour bus ride. Think of a redneck American missionary's dream though. There are so many fishing holes around here, we are planning to take off with a member and go fishing one of these coming p days. Here is a little branch; there are four of us working in this branch. One of my buddies from my last zone got transferred here with me so it was pretty cool. Our comps are on their second transfer here, but they were well trained and super willing and ready to work. My comp is Elder Vale, he is from the Amazon and he is twenty-five. He was a salesman before the mission so I am learning some cool techniques with him. He will be a great missionary and lead a lot of others soon.

Well a little about the area, it’s a city of about 140,000 people and are area is the poor side. Ha-ha but the branch here has 920 members registered and only about 80 that are active. So we have a ton of work to do. The good thing is that people here are very receptive and it’s pretty easy to get appointments marked. However in the last year this branch only had 18 baptisms. I hope we can break that little goal down in two months and there is no reason not to. I am teaching these missionaries to work with the members because that way the people will stay firmer and we will have more work done too.  We have had a great time thus far this week.

Sunday we were asked to give a training about missionary work to the branch and it was cool to do so. It seemed to stir some people up and get them excited; we also scored a ton of references. Then Monday I had to go to leadership council, (our small zone of 8 has just me as a zone leader, we don’t have an DL) and it was a long bus ride Sunday night, we got to the bus terminal at 11 pm and the taxi driver took his sweet time to get us to the mission office at 11:45. Hardly slept with all the bugs that were eating me on the mattress and then woke up at five to get ready and finish grabbing numbers from the other elders because my cell phone died on the bus ride. It was an adventure, but the meeting went really well. I set a really high goal of 26 baptisms here in our zone for the month, and it super super high but I know we are all committed here to make this place that great. Everyone calls this the black hole on the mission, but I quite honestly am in love with this place. I hope we can make it a stake before I get sent home. Ten months. It’s really crazy to think that that is all I have now dad. But I am really glad I got transferred here because it has woke me up again with a bigger challenge. And this time I don’t plan on settling down or being satisfied with what is accomplished. Well my time is running short. I love you so much and thanks so much for the prayers, I know they were answered. I hope you have a great week dad, I love you so much and I am so grateful for you. 

Love 

Elder Paynter

December 30, 2013

 Our Hot Wheels Derby was way cool.

 Fried Chicken and Grape Drink

 Tiago and I on Christmas Eve

 Elder Liesmann and I bought these ties for all of them. 

Felipe, Kaique and the ward mission leaders who are great friends of Tiago.

December 16, 2013

You know something Dad, I love my comp. I love this area just you wait and see, these last few weeks we will have baptisms and we will also be the happiest missionaries on the face of the planet.

Wow, just hearing about people already ending the missions makes me so sad. I never want to end the mission. I'm going to move out of Utah just so I can preach the gospel to more people. I don’t know dad, but it’s already been a year and 2 months and I still have fourty years of work left to accomplish in these last 10 months.

One thing is for sure though dad, if I don’t get to talk to you on Christmas, it wont be Christmas. That’s all I could ask for is to talk to my father, and I have been wanting to have just a couple minutes just to talk with you alone. I miss you and love you to death dad. I am not homesick, but fathersick. Ha-ha jk I am fine and we are able to stay really focused here on the work and things are going quite well.

The Christmas Spirit is really hard to get going here but we are going to carol in front of the church and try and stop people so we can talk to them. Its just so weird passing December without any snow, but hey next year this time I am going to be with the fam.

Well this week was a lot of fun, we had some great spiritual experiences and I’ll tell ya about them in moms letter. Well I will definitely be praying hard to have you off for Christmas; you have never worked one in my life so I think that God will keep the streak going. I sure can’t wait for it. Don’t you worry either this ward takes really good care of us, along with God. Ugh, I don’t ever want to leave this place or end my mission. I miss ya dad, I love you tons. Have a good one alrighty. Be so safe too. I love ya 

Elder Paynter

Mom,

I hope you know just how much I love you. I can’t wait to talk to you on Christmas. Its looking like it will be pretty early in the morning, so keep the computer ready while you are opening presents. Maybe I can watch you all open some. Will Ashley and Miguel be opening presents at our house? It’s so crazy that everyone is just grown up now. Ha-ha when I get back, it’s going to be so weird.

Well I love this talk of Zion mom.  It feels so good to say that we are building Zion! The Millennium will be so magnificent to be able to rest with the Savior here on earth and everyone so happy and loving. 

This week was really quite fun and I was able to learn a lot of things. We had been so blessed by the members this week they have been so loving. I don’t know if its because Christmas is close or that they really like us, but its been fun.

We had been running around trying to track down some references but they weren’t ever home, so some time was left over and I asked Elder Liesmann what we should do. He reminded me of a contact that he had done a while back, so we went to visit him. We knocked on the door and an old lady answered and said that nobody with the guys name lived there. I was a little turned off but we decided to knock across the street to see if they lived on the other side and sure enough, he did. It was a big family and they were so so friendly. Tons of people were walking in and out of the house, and they listened to us teaching. In the end they didn’t want much, because they are super Catholic but they were some of the most loving people I had ever met in my life. We left the house and I just kept thinking about how essential it is for everyone to be so loving to ALL people. They truly were great examples to me. And just as it says in D&C we both were edified when we left. I am so grateful my comp follows the spirit and helped us to have that opportunity.  

We had a big ward activity this Saturday, and it was such a blast and brought many new investigators for us also. They had an inflatable soccer field and threw a ton of soap and water in it. The kids played, and then the guys got on and went crazy. It was a pretty crazy thing to watch. Elder Liesmann and I were dying to go play because it was also pretty hot but we stuck around helping set up tables and played a little Jenga also.

Yesterday, we had gone to church and all of the sudden a lady showed up with her boyfriend.  Her name is Vanessa and her boyfriend is Rafael. It was a reference we had from back when Elder Vianna was here. We went to visit Vanessa but she had never let us in, she just kept saying that she would go to church. So we left her alone, and here two months later, she came and now we will teach them both this Thursday. They absolutely loved church.

Our lunch we had was with a family of four and it was so wonderful. They are so loving and I hope one day to have a family like theirs. The kids adored us and we had a blast feeling the love from them. It was just a wonderful week.

And I almost forgot, we got a new ward mission leader and assistant to the mission leader. They are so cool and we are going to buy them ties today to get them excited and tomorrow when we are at the temple we will buy them copies of preach my gospel too. They are both recent converts within a year so they are still so amped up about the gospel.

Well family, this week will be wonderful, we are going to baptize someone, I don’t know who it will be but the Lord will provide the means for us to accomplish this for Him. Let us all go build Zion! I love you all and miss you tons! Have a great week! H.A.G.W.  Ha-ha just like the old yearbook signing.

Elder Paynter

December 9, 2013

Thanks so much for that email. It’s so great to hear such powerful words again. I still remember that talk but there are some key things I had forgotten. I love that phrase, it’s up on the board in our church. I absolutely love this ward, and you know what that means, now that I like where I am at I will get transferred. Ha-ha.

Well just a quick recap of these days we had, the baptism we were going to have fell through and doesn’t look like it is one that will recover, however we have a lot of great plans up ahead of us and the ward is just boiling with excitement to build the lords kingdom here on earth! This last Thursday we were out working and I wasn’t feeling good at all so we ended up going easier and I bought some meds and slept really early that night. Woke up on Friday with fire in ma bones and we worked as hard as we could that day and then at 7 we had an activity with the priesthood at the church, playing soccer and having an American bbq with hamburgers and soda. Good times. It was really productive we were able to get a lot of less active members there and get into contact with some new investigators also. I am so excited.

Saturday we went to teach a retired dentist/scientist/author that is partially deaf and it was a cool experience. I had to speak really loud and clear, and that cold stuffy sound that I have been stuck with lately helped with a little with the accent so it was a blessing. He was a really nice guy but said he wouldn’t be going back much to our church because he can’t understand anything and it’s not worth it to sit there for three hours if he can’t hear. We are trying to figure out what we can do to make it worth the while.

That afternoon we had lunch with the bishop, and it was a really cool experience to be able to get to know him better. He is a great guy and in these few short weeks he has brought a lot of great things to the ward and everyone is happy. I am just so happy to be working here with them.

Afterwards we had to go to the temple to help with a Christmas presentations that they had. There were so many people and we were helping to contact all of the non members and get their addresses and such. It was packed and it was super super hot. Especially to be wearing a suit. Nina was there and she gave me Christmas present. It was a jersey from my favorite soccer team here. I had always joked with her about her team. It was really nice of her, and I was also able to see some of the other families that we taught. It was such a great experience to be at the temple to see all of them and also to think about our family and how we are eternal. I really can’t wait to go do some ordinances there again; which we will be doing on the 17th for our Christmas mission devotional.

This week we have a huge ward activity planned for Saturday and we are going to get a bunch of investigators and less actives there and as a result, baptisms and happiness. I just am so happy to be doing the Lords work, and yeah this week was one of the toughest I have had in a long time, but I love this work. It’s so cool to see how the Lord truly is hastening it, and I never ever want to stop helping Him bring about this happiness. I love the gospel so much! I hope you all had such a great week. I am so jealous that you get to see the chubbs again, and I really miss you all. Levi a lot too, but at least Kaique is here to fill in his spot for a bit. He and Levi would get along really well. I love you family, I miss you, and God be with you!

Elder Paynter

December 4, 2013

Hey Dad,

Thanks a lot for the email. It really is a lot of what I needed to hear. This week went quite well. We weren’t able to get tons done on paper but I feel like we are really helping a lot of people with what we were able to accomplish.

Kaique's mom, Andreya, called and said that Marcios, her future husband, decided that he wanted to be baptized and he felt that the time had come! We were all so happy. So his baptism will be this Sunday and Kaique will baptize him now that he is a priest! It has been so cool to see the whole process happening with Kaique and to see that he is so firm in the gospel. He has been talking a lot about a mission lately which would be a huge sacrifice. He has a scholarship from the government that pays everything for him until he graduates but if he leaves on a mission he will lose it all. And college here is super expensive. But those who are converted recognize the importance of sacrifice.

 We also had our activity on Saturday at the church, I didn’t think many people would show up, and it came to the point where I was only expecting to have five or so people, the bishop his wife and the ward mission leader and his wife, but more people showed up with low expectations and we hit a home run. I had bought Jenga with my Christmas money so I could do this game. We divided the group of about 25 people into two and then asked a bunch of questions. If the team got the question right, the other had to take a block out of the Jenga tower if they got it wrong then they themselves had to take the block out. It got so competitive and exciting that people would get up and start dancing when they got the question right. It was such a fun time and I am excited to see the outcome for the next one.  

Sunday night we went to a fireside where an area seventy was there. He and our mission president gave a training thing about working with the members. Kaique and Marcios went and they loved it. They shared some really cool things there and more than ever the work of Salvation here is speeding up. They also said that we had 90 missionaries after the mission divided; now we have 140, and soon we will have 220. Yeah, we have a lot of work to do here to get people trained and ready to go.

Monday was an interesting time at the leadership meeting. I had gotten sick on Sunday and just was not feeling so hot, and then the bus drivers were on strike so I sat waiting at the bus stop for two and a half hours and then ran to the meeting in my suit in the hot humid Brazil and showed up super sweaty. But it all turned out good. President was just throwing it down on some things here on the mission. Obedience is one of them, he basically told everyone if you don’t want to be obedient go home. It was really cool to see that.

We got out of the meeting at about four and then I went to the mission office to talk with the secretaries who are part of my zone and ended up helping them out a bit with some struggles and didn’t leave there until seven thirty at night. We took a bus back home and went to a family home evening with Kaique and some other missionaries who live close by because it was one of the Elder's birthday. We had a big bbq and ate cake and lit fireworks and after we had sang for the cake the members grabbed a bunch of eggs and broke them on our heads. I couldn’t believe it! Then everyone started throwing cake and all kinds of food at each other. Kaique almost escaped but then they threw a bunch of milk on him. It was so funny. We turned on the hose and sprayed everyone down, and then we grabbed a bus home while everyone stared at the guy in the soaking wet suit. It was such a good time and I will never forget it.

Yesterday we had to go downtown to get Elder Liesmann’s visa taken care of. We have got a lot of things to do this week and there will be zero time. We will be having a big activity with all of the priesthood on Friday night and also we will be helping with the Christmas presentation at the temple all day Saturday. But I prefer the busy life. I would just like to get rid of the cold I have.

Well Dad, that’s my week. Full of miracles and great things and I feel like more than ever I am changing. I think I am finally starting to understand what missionary work really is, what the gospel truly brings and what role it’s playing in my life. I have never felt like this before on the mission but it’s something really really good. I love you and thanks so much for the email. I am glad to hear you had a Christmas party and that the week went well. Be safe and have a good one Dad.

I love you.

Elder Paynter  

Super cute little kids, the little girl in the middle is an angel, 

and the other two are pretty wild.

These are some activities we did.

Then for a family home evening we played the game where you have to
get the cookie from your forehead into your mouth without using hands. 
Great memories made in these past couple weeks.

The flag is my buddy's. He is from Georgia and he is hilarious.