Wichap

Hey all the everyone,
Well it was another week here on the island of Weno in Chuuk lagoon! 

It was altogether an alright week, me and my companion haven't gotten very far with our investigators but that because here in Chuuk the people think that as long as you worship god it doesn't matter what church you are part of or how you worship so it makes it very difficult to teach them about the true church.  We are definitely going to have a baptism on the 8th (haha that's my birthday but the investigator wont pick me to baptize him because I haven't been able to say anything to him). 

Well church in Wichap is super depressing because like 20 people ever show up, none of them investigators, and rarely will the people who are set up to give talks show up!  So we went and had a super long talk with the branch president, because he is super bummed out about the branch and came up with that Elder Peck and I will start doing a ton of service in the hopes that it will get people to come to church. but we will see what happens. 

I have the runs something fierce right now its awful. I have to get up out of bed about every hour to let everything out then try to get back to bed.  Apparently that is what Chuukese food does to your stomach and it just never gets used to it so we will see what happens.

Well I hope everything is going well at home and email me some pictures of the family and stuff like that.  And let me know how everything is going and how everyone is doing because I miss everyone so much.  Well better wrap it up others are waiting for the computers now.
With all love
Elder Jeff Payne

Mail, Apartment, and Sick...

I have everything I need so far.  The letters you sent haven’t come yet.  The zone leaders have it so we just need to go over to their house and get it all.  I’m super excited to get my birthday package.  Oh and one other thing is don’t send fragile things because Chuuk mail is super rough on boxes. 

 
Oh and that’s another thing right now I am in the state of Chuuk on the island of Weno and my house is in the town of Wichap (so you guys can show everyone where I am on the globe haha).

I met the Crisps the other day.  They were like ahhh you know about Ramah.  We had a good time talking about it.

My house is a little place right next to the Wichap church building.  It has a kitchen, bathroom, and one air conditioned room about the size of the TV room back home that has no windows.  This is where we sleep, eat, study and occasionally play chess.  Elder Peck is super cool.  He know Chuukese super well and is doing almost all of the talking.  I can only say hi my name is Elder Payne, I am from New Mexico.

How we get mail is it gets sent to the Chuuk post office and our zone leaders go and pick it up and hold it till Monday when we come in for pday.  I get to check emails every Monday in the Mwan chapel (haha me and my companion live a good hour walk from Wichap to Mwan). So it takes letters and packages about 2 weeksish to get to us.  I very much look forward to getting letters and packages though.

It hasn’t rained a lot because they have been having this dry spell.  But it is still super humid and rains more than has in a New Mexico year.  I’ve been sick from the food and worrying about filtered water all the time is hard but oh well.

Love you all and I look forward to the letters and packages.  Here’s a fun picture of where I am.

Elder Jeff Payne

Elder and Sister Crisp

As we looked for other Micronesia Guam missionary blogs, we came across the site below. The missionary couple posted a picture of Elder Payne, fresh from Guam (on the left). He looks great!

Elder and Sister Crisp's Site. The Crisps are CES Missionaries.  They give critical help to the local schools and aid the young missionaries.

Kindness in the airport

Dear Familia,

Sorry I didn't email like at all whilst in the MTC my muse for writing just was not there (hahahaha).  Hopefully I can make it up to you guys with this letter. 

Well I hope that the letter that had my other sd card for the camera made it to you guys it had some pictures of my MTC district and a few photo bombers haha. 

Well basically my flights were ok from SLC to LAX was a couple of hours and I slept pretty good on that flight. Then I went to go get food in LAX at Mikky D's there and a 6 foot 8 guy in army fatigues walks up and says "let me buy you some food Elder" and I said (hesitantly) "ok"?  So he bought me food and we talked about how his son was on a mission to south Africa and just a bunch of stuff.  Then he walked me to my gate and we talked for a while at my gate then he said he had to go so we exchanged good byes and he left!

Then I flew to Tokyo. It took 11 hours. I was in a middle seat and couldn't watch any movies! It was KILLING ME!!! Hahaha oh and I couldn't fall asleep for some reason.  I got to Tokyo at 1 am and got to Guam at about 2 am.  I met President Mecham and drove back to the mission home to get some
sleep.  It was ridiculously humid. Then the next night we flew to Chuuk (it was even more humid than Guam) and is super similar to the native american reservation.  But everyone is super nice and super humble.

I did get super homesick last night and I am still trying to get over it but we will see what happens. I smell like sweat and campfire.  Everyone here on Chuuk live in little corrugated tin huts that just about roast everything inside when the sun is out. I got to have real coconut water.  That coconut water from Walmart or Smiths is a lie those are old dry and husked.  Nothing compares to fresh coconut water.  I also have had these small bananas that were the most flavorful bananas on the face of the earth but other than that I'm still getting used to it.  The language here is Chuukese and it sounds like gibberish to me but I am slowly getting hold of it.  Some Chuukese for you-

Ran Ananim = Good Day (ohh and they roll there r's super heavy)
Kiddy so = is thank you
Eo tek = prayer

So that's about all I can catch in a conversation but oh well.  But the weather and landscape is similar to the deep south.  Basically imagine a picture of the rain forest with some corrugated tin shack villages interspersed on both sides of the cabin road.  And that is Chuuk. 

Hey well it is now time to get off the computer so i say good by till we meet again.

Love,
Elder Jeff Payne!

Jeff's address

For those of you who may want to write to Jeff, his address is below.  They have standard US mail so letters are the standard .46 cents they are here in the US.  As far as we know, mail doesn't have any problems reaching them.

Elder Jeffery Payne
P.O. Box 861
Moen, Chuuk FSM 96942

Elder Payne has arrived in the Micronesia Guam Mission!

Jeff is in Guam!  We thought he was going to fly out on Wednesday January 15th, but never heard any details from Jeff.  A call to the MTC Travel office let us know that he left the MTC at 5am this morning (at least that's what they said).  With a little detective work on the Internet, if had a pretty good idea he was supposed to fly out of Los Angeles International Airport at 12:30 today, connect to a different flight in Tokyo, Japan before arriving in Guam.

When we received our US Mail we found a letter from Jeff that included the itinerary for his trip.  HE FLEW OUT YESTERDAY!!

The mission president called us this evening to let us know that Jeffery arrived safe and sound at about 1am Guam time.  Tomorrow he joins his companion, Elder Peck, and flies to Chuuk. He will live in the town of Nechap.

We will have to rely on 'snail mail' since they have very limited Internet on the island.  Since Jeffery seems to prefer hand writing his letters, it should work out fine for him.

He did include some pictures from the MTC.  Below is one of his MTC District.

Here is a Google Maps link to the Chuuk islands.  Nechap is on one of the Eastern islands of the group.

https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Chuuk,+Micronesia&aq=0&oq=chuuk&sll=34.166232,-106.026069&sspn=11.823429,19.753418&vpsrc=6&t=h&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Chuuk,+Micronesia&ll=7.955877,153.314209&spn=3.541054,4.938354&z=8&iwloc=A

1/2/14

Dear Mom, Dad, Kris and Jay,
I love you all so much!  I just wanted to say that to you all because I feel like I didn't say it often enough at home.

Well after you guys dropped me off at the MTC, the host missionary and I went to drop off my stuff in my room.  I was the first one there and kind of got to meet some of my district.  I didn't get to meet my companion till later cause he was late.  My companions name is Elder Calinzales he is from Maryland and is super cool.  We met our teachers yesterday and we met the MTC presidency. Then we had dinner and it is just like EFY food haha.


Then we did what they call teaching experience.  Where they brought in recent converts and we (we had about 30 of us in this class) had to teach them
the first discussion.  That was super hard mainly because very few of us were on the same page as to what to say to them but oh well.

Then we met our zone leaders.  They are all super cool.  It's kind of weird though like even though they are the same age as us, they act and talk older and they seem like they've lived here for years.  When they've only been here like a week, it's kind of funny.

Well I'd better start wrapping it up.  I love you all so very much and hope you guys all stay safe.  Jay, stay strong and I look forward to your first letter.

With all love,
Elder Payne

1/5/14

Guampedia, history of LDS church in Guam

Dear Mom and Dad,
Hey so things are going really good here at the MTC.  The food is good, the people and the teachers are fantastic.

The district is really good.  It consists of Elder Berghout and Elder Wilkinson who are going to Uganda; Elder Barton and Sister Phillips to Perth, Australia; Elder Conizales, Sister Parker, Sister Sunday to Sydney, Australia.  Then there's me the only one going to Guam haha.  So ya, that's the district that I lead. 

Love,
Elder Payne

P.S. Do you think you could send some tums or something?  The food makes everyone's stomach go bonkers.

P.P.S.  We watched an address by Elder Bednar.  It was super cool!  He did an impersonation of cookie monster and it was the single most epic thing I have heard from General Authority!

Jeff's First Letter Home

Jeff's first letter was waiting in the mailbox this afternoon.  Yeah!!!

Dear Mom and Dad,
Hey thanks so much for sending me the towel, shampoo and turtle. (Haha, the turtle was born on the same day as Jay).

Anyhoo I just wanted to let you know that I am doing great and learning a bunch.  My other companion arrived last night about 2 hours before lights out at 10:29.  His name is Elder Barton he is from Indiana and got stuck on a shutdown highway.  We are just grateful that he made it here without injury.

So I got assigned to be District Leader last night. Basically my duties are to get mail for our small district and to make sure the other elders are doing well.

The spirit is so strong from all those wonderful teachers and all the missionaries.

Hope I can write again soon.

With all love,
Elder Payne

Note:
In Provo, there are various locations that will deliver packages to the MTC for a very small fee the same day.  His aunt suggested we send the couple of items he had forgotten that way. While we were in the store we saw beanie baby turtles.  For those of you that know Jeff, he loves the movie "Master of Disguise" and was a pro at saying "Turtle, turtle" over and over again.  With that in mind, we included it in his package.

Dropped Elder Payne off at the MTC in Provo, Utah.  We spent some time in front of the Provo Temple before we dropped him off.  As you drive into the MTC grounds, they stick a Post-It note on your wind shield that helps the staff direct you to the correct drop off zone.  Then it is a quick minute to unload his luggage and hug good bye!  Then we were in the van and off again.

Haven't heard from him yet (he's only been in the MTC for 5 days).  We are waiting to hear about his companion, teachers and classes.