Monday, February 23, 2015

Zumpango-February 23

Love you mom!!
Ok, I apologize in advance, pretty boring letter this week, I don't have any time this week.... and I'll just break the bad news right now... My bike got stolen and I have to pay for the new one... ugh... Ill spare you the details... again i am sorry...  Today Me and Elder Mora went to Pachuca to take his English test. He will be finishing his mission this cycle. He is from Colombia and was born in Brazil, he is super great, but I miss Elder Gomez like crazy, I heard that he got sent to work with one of the  missionaries in the mission, so i will keep him in my prayers;) Michael is home that is crazy!! 2 years is too fast, I have already been gone for 4 months... CRAZY!! I don't have much time like always but I love you so much and am so sorry for the bad news.... love you!! You are amazing I hope you will forgive me before my two years are up:)
Elder Paynter

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Zumpango-February 22, 2015

Jordan's New Companion-Can't wait to hear about him tomorrow! I have not seen Jordan without a smile on his face since he entered the MTC.  Makes a mom happy...


Thursday, February 19, 2015

FHE on the "Y"
February 16, 2015

The Labits asked us to join them on a hike to the "Y". I am most certain I will NOT be doing that again. This old and unfit body just can't do what it used to. Coming down was almost as bad as going up! With many (and I mean, MANY) stops, we made it to the base of the "Y". It was amazing to be able to see 4 temples from this lookout...Payson Temple, Provo City Temple, Provo Temple, and the Mount Timpanogas Temple. We are indeed blessed to live in this valley!


 Kaylie told me the only reason I got a smile from her was because I asked a man how much further and he didn't respond...he was listening to his headphones!

 Jacob...contemplation on the need to ruin your knees climbing to a painted letter of the alphabet on the side of a mountain...
 Made it! (Twice for Jacob!)


"Y" on the "Y"...


 Provo City Sunset

Monday, February 16, 2015

Zumpango-February 16

Gracias Mom!!
Today is a little bit of a sad day...Tomorrow my best bud Elder Gomez is gonna leave me.... I`m going to stay here in Zumpango, but it won`t be the same without him... We had our baptism this week!! Her name is
Dolores and she lives three houses down from our house and like the first week that we started teaching her, she started attending sacrament meeting!! She has been attending with us since, She has
progressed so rapidly!! For a while we thought that she was just doing all this stuff because we are really good friends, but once it got closer to the baptism we could feel that she had changed quite a bit and that she was ready!! On Saturday we had two baptisms, one from us and the other from the Sisters. When we arrived at the chapel to have the two baptisms, the water wasn`t working, uh oh... we had to call
somebody to come and fill up the water with a big truck with a tank and everything. we had to wait an hour for the baptism... we thought it was gonna be a disaster, but after we had the baptism and the new
converts shared their testimonies, we knew that it wasn't a disaster.When Dolores bore her testimony, we could tell how important the baptism was to her, and again, I couldn`t help but to start crying...ugh... plus i was conducting the baptismal service, and I had to talk after her... ugh... wiped my tears and held the rest of them in... haha!! It was great though!! I'm so grateful for all of my blessings here!! I`m glad that you were able to give your talk, but don`t be worried about what you said during your talk. Only worry about what the spirit was able to say through you. Remember how powerful the Holy Ghost is, If Jesus Christ himself came to me right now and told me something, I would slowly begin to forget it, but when the Holy Ghost says something to us, it is permanently stuck in our hearts:) That is what kind of power that the Holy Ghost has!! As long as we can feel the spirit, we don`t need to worry!! Studies are great, I have learned quite a bit of the Gospel and Spanish. But the Gospel is just like spanish. It is a lot easier to learn and comprehend it by speaking(sharing/living) it. But don`t get me wrong, we can learn tons of things as well from reading about it!! How do you like my hair?? I do a pretty good job right?? haha I love you mom!! Thanks for Everything!!
Elder Paynter

Weekly Update:)
Tomorrow we have Cambios(transfers) and well, Elder Gomez is leaving me... I am feeling a little sad having to say goodbye to one of my greatest friends:( It`s all right though, one of the sisters in the ward told us that the reason that we have cambios is because there are other families being prepared for us in other places, so I know that Elder Gomez will be just fine. We had some pretty great times and
experiences together! I`m so glad I got to serve with him!! I don`t think I will ever forget my PapĂ ! We were able to have our baptism this Saturday! It was such a reaffirmation of mine and Elder Gomez`s testimonies!! Our investigator, Dolores, has changed so much since the first time we met her and we have been able to see the power of the Lord's work through her!! I thank the Lord every hour of the day for this opportunity that I have to serve!! I don`t think I will ever be able to thank him enough!! I`ve been so blessed!! i say this a lot,
but I dont think there is anywhere that I would rather be!! To be able to see this kind of change in peoples lives is a blessing that only can be seen through sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with our brothers and sisters!! I am so grateful and love my Heavenly Father more that anything!! I Love Zumpango, Mexico and I love Serving the Lord!!! woo hoo
Con Amor,
Elder Paynter
Zumpango-February 16

PICTURES, PICTURES, PICTURES...






Monday, February 9, 2015

Zumpango-February 9 (Well worth the wait...)
Hola,
So that really cool experience that I told you about was pretty great!! One day we were just riding our bikes through one of the neighborhoods and we saw a lady sitting on a bench in the park staring at the sunset, so we decided to contact her. She was really receptive and agreed to schedule another appointment with us. So the next lesson we visited her in her house and we invited her to pray and everything. She was really receptive again, but she is really Christain and everything and reads the Bible every day and all that. So the nest visit we were teaching about revelation through the Holy Ghost. She asked me, "Can people recieve answers to their questions through dreams?" and i was like, sure but its not always  like that, some people just have small feelings from the spirit and stuff like that. And she was like, oh, because I think i got an answer in my dream.... I`m like, ok... and then she told us about how the night before we had our first visit with her she had a dream that she was eating at a table and Jesus was sitting on that table eating with her... and I was like, ok... and then she said that the night after we taught her to pray, she prayed. She told us that that night she had a dream and she described it something like, I saw a big white building and when i
entered in the building I saw a bunch of people, male and female, all dressed in white. they were all sitting on chairs waiting for something, and they were all staring at a projector screen waiting for a video, and some of the women had wedding veils..... and I was like ok.....WOW....haha we explained to her that what she saw was one of our Temples and we set a baptismal date and everything... Crazy Right?? haha, thats my great experience!! she is great, her name is Karen, and we are super excited for her!!
Entonces..... I will try and respond to all your questions: I don't have a lot of time to read all of the emails from my missionary friends and everyhing but i read yours dads tammys and all of the kids emails every week. Our other investigators have not been baptized yet but we are working on it!! I have only born my testimony in sac meeting, I haven't had the chance to talk yet! how is your talk going? We have interviews and house checks every three months i think, so like every other cycle!! and Zone conferences are every cyle. well I am glad that you are all doing great!! Its great to hear from you every week!! and sorry I`m not a fast typer, I cant type everyone every week, and I dont even have music to distract me on the computer:) Love you tons and thanks for everything mom! I ll read the talk as soon as I can! Love you!!
Elder Paynter
p.s. Remember how i bought a buzzer to cut my hair? well i cut my own hair, and yesterday i cut the hair of the son of one of our investigators!! I think i have a carreer ahead of me, jk!

Weekly Rundown

We had a pretty great week this week! This week we are preparing for another baptism!! The investigator that we are going to baptize is great!! she attended sacrament meeting the week after we met her!! and
she has been attending ever since then! I can tell that she was prepared to meet us before we met her!! Her progression has been excellent! I can`t wait for this Saturday!! One week until I finish my
first 12 weeks here!! I`m super excited and nervous!! The time has flown by quicker than I could have imagined!!! At times i wish that it would slow down a little bit!! I read the talk Missionary Work and The
Atonement by Jeffrey R Holland this week and I was pretty amazed by what I learned!! As missionaries we have the responsibility of bringing others to come unto Christ by inviting them to follow the gospel of Jesus Christ, which includes Repentance. At times when we teach Lesson 3 we kind of skim over the repentance part, we need to remember that repentance is a requisite for Baptism. In the talk Elder Holland talks about how missionaries are to teach the Atonement to others through the Book of Mormon. Its a responsibility as well as missionaries to declare repentance to others, just like Alma, Amulek, Lehi, Mormon, Moroni, Nephi and many other prophets. I have been trying really hard lately to try and share the words of the prophets
from the Book of Mormon in our lessons. I have seen that as others read the Book of Mormon their testimonies are strengthen and the come closer and closer to Christ, and the same I have seen in my own life.
The Book of Mormon is the word of God and we can come closer to God by reading this book than by any other book!! (just like it says in the Introduction!) I love this work and I am so grateful that I am here in
Zumpango doing His work!!

Sunday, February 8, 2015

"Small and Simple Things"
Tecamac II Zone
03 February 2015


Zumpango-February 2

Weekly Rundown
No pics this week, and not much time either.... we helped the sisters move houses this morning and we had a zone activity after! and so now we are here with like five more minutes to write!! haha, we had a pretty good week though! We went with the Mission President's wife out to eat pizza and went shopping in the Tianguis. She posted the pictures on the blog!! She aslo posted pictures from our house inspections. And we had interviews with the president as well!! We had a great week!! Love you!!!!
Elder Paynter
 
p.s. Yesterday we walked into two different houses and they had the Superbowl Game on... it took all of my strength to ask them to turn it off....
 
p.s. I´ll have to tell you about one of the experiences we had this week next week!!! ( be prepared!!)

Sunday, February 1, 2015

This week President and Sister Egbert were in Jordan's zone for house checks and interviews. 



House Checks... WOW!
Monday in Zumpango as I was doing house checks I had 40 extra minutes and so we stopped to see the local shopping while I had two "body guards" to direct and protect me. I think 40 minutes in any "Tiangui" (Huge neighborhood garage sale) gave me my fix for the rest of the mission. It's almost like a dollar store on steroids- in addition to produce, tacos, meat (with lots of flies), clothes..actually anything you might need! 
So fun to spend some time with Elder Gomez and Elder Paynter... a less active sister who we met there gave us a free Popsicle- how kind. -Sister Egbert
Tecamac II Zone -Tuesday 
27 January 2015