Jeff's first transfer and some pictures

Dear Family and friends,

Well as you know transfers were last week and I did get transferred! I am still in Chuuk, I am now in the city of Nantaku and I am with Elder Simpson. I kind of told you about him, but he is from Canada and is super fun and a really good missionary. I am going to learn a ton from him and from the members because in Nantaku a lot of people know at least some English and a few can speak it really well, so they are going to help me learn more Chuukese. I am already really enjoying it here.

That is super cool about Kevin Payne getting his mission call to the California Redlands Mission, I am really glad he decided to go and would love to email him and write to him so if someone would be so kind as to send me that information when they find it out I would be very appreciative.

JAY YOUR GETTING OLD HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So are you Kris don't grow up to quick and savor the good times, they go fast.

Really good to hear that Dan and Rochelle got an offer on their house. Let me know their address when they go so I can write them and get me an email address as well so I can talk to them.  And yell at Dalton for me and tell him to write me or email me or something so I can know what is happening with him.

Nooooo!!! ... DONT SEND ME CROCS! They are not effective in chuuk, they die, really fast. Please heed my warnings. The scriptures say "don't spend money on things that are of no worth". Crocs fall under the category of "no worth". But thank you for the goodies they are really good and do enjoy them thoroughly. But please, I would rather you spend $17 to send food to me. I would just give the Crocks to someone who needs them.

Well I love you all and I want you to all look at life and whatever isn't what is taught in the gospel and "nikitano", or throw it away in Chuukese, it will bless you as you bring your life closer to Christ's and try and make his will your will.

Well I love you all and want you to have the best life possible.

Love,
Elder Jeff Payne

We already sent a pair of Keens shoes - which we have heard are much better. Also received a package with some gifts for the family and an SD card with pictures.  See below...

Using the natural resources for an umbrella

The view from one of the Elder's investigators home.

View from an investigator's home.

Elder Payne, Elder Peck and friends.  (Jeff will have to send us more details)

Kidamwe - peaceful or at peace

May 1, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

Well this past week has been cool.  We had a Zone Conference on April 18.  I got to watch some General Conference... in Chuukese and didn't understand a word of it.  So I will wait until you guys send the Ensign if it isn't too much trouble.  If it's not too much trouble, could you guys download General Conference onto a thumb drive and send it with the next box so we here in Chuuk that speak English can watch it?

So this past week we taught a guy who is a pastor at another church.  But we didn't know he was a pastor until recently, but anywho, we saw him back in March and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon.  Then we couldn't meet with him (Oh his name is Aaron) for a long time because he was sick and/or busy.  But then we ran into him on the way to another appointment so we asked him how he was doing.  He said he was doing good and that he was almost done reading the Book of Mormon!  Elder Peck and I were shocked. We asked him when we could meet with him and he said Wednesday. So we went yesterday and we get to his house and he is home.  So we go in and get done with the pleasentrys and we ask him how he is doing with the Book of Mormon.  He says that he finished it.  Then as Elder Peck was going to ask him something else Aaron says in English, "I want to join God's true church."  Elder Peck and I were absolutely stunned!  We didn't know what to say.  So he went on to say that while he read the Book of Mormon he felt "kidamwe", which is peaceful or at peace in Chuukese.  He said that the head of the church which he was a pastor at was changing their standards and stuff like that.  So he prayed alot to know what to do and felt that he needed to join the true church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the true church.  So he will be baptized on the 24th of May.

Well I will close with my testimony of the Book of Mormon. There is a reason that it is the keystone of our religion because it is the best teaching tool in our 'missionary arsenal'.  If we can get people to read the Book of Mormon and pray as to whether it is true or not, and they pray really wanting to know the answer. The answer they receive will ALWAYS be that it is true and that person will want to change their lives to bring the blessings of God more abundantly into their lives.  This I can testify of because I have seen it happen more than a couple of times in the four months I have been here and will see it more in the coming years.  I say these things in the name fo Jesus Christ, amen.

Love
Elder Jeff Payne

Birthday Page!!
So I have decided to send a Happy Birthday to all that are in the month, these are the ones on the Albuquerque Temple calendar from Grandpa and Grandma. So for May we have - 
On the 2nd  we have Nyla Payne.
On the 3rd is Aunt Julie!
On the 6th is Uncle Bruce!
The 9th is Jennifer Smith!
The 13th is Joshua Payne who turns 4!
Then the 14th is Josh Smith!
Then we have Joseph Payne on the 22nd!
On the 24th is Santana Smith!
Then lastly we got my little brother Jay Payne on the 26th!!!!!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE!!!

Letter from April 24, 2014

April 24, 2014

Dear Family,

So far this week things are going pretty well.  So to start, I SENT MY SD CARD a little bit ago, it was in a letter protected by some card board.  Yes some new shoes, Keens, would be nice.  Elder Peck was saying that the ones he has now have lasted his whole mission, so they might be good.

General Conference sounds like it was a good one, we don't get it until about a month later because they translate it into all the different Island languages. That takes a while.  We will get the disk this weekend so it should be really good.

Love
Elder Payne

If anybody want's to send him copies of the Ensign, New Era, Friend, etc  send them to:

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

Be sure the package is well wrapped (sometimes things get wet).  He would like anything - especially copies he can give to investigators or members that don't have the resources to get them.

Happy Easter

Hand written letter receive by post mail today!

April 20, 2014   HAPPY EASTER

Dear Family + Freinds (ha ha spelled friends wrong!)

Well this past week was really nothing special.  On the 18th President Mecham came in for Zone Conference + it was super good.  He talked alot about obedience because that's what the Chuuk Zone really struggles with. Only because the president is 300 miles away + can't watch over us all the time. But that is why we (or I) as missionaries learn about being self-disciplined + honest with ourselves.

Well Saturday was really cool because we went up to a Mima, (pronounced Mee-mah) which is Chuukese for a funeral, because a member asked us to go.  So we did and got there really early and kind of hung out with these two guys. One of them said, "let's do something to pass the time" and asked us if we had a Bible (which of course we did). So Elder Peck hands him the Bible and he turns to Matthew 28:1-10 and kind of just asks us questions about it.

Then Elder Peck pulls out a copy of the Book of Mormon and asks if the man has ever seen or had one.  The man (sorry I can't remember his name) says that he hasn't seen a copy of the Book of Mormon.  So we begin to explain about it whe he cuts in and asks how Elder Peck came to have faith in this religion. Elder Peck describes how when he was younger he went to church because his parents made him go and he just went through all the motions to make his parents happy. Then one day he read Moroni 10:3-5 and decided to give the promise a try and gained a super strong testimony.  That's why he is was on a mission.  Them commited the man to try it out and "find out for himself if these things aren't true".  The man said he would and we could all feel the Spirit SUPER strong.  It was a really good lesson and we are planning on going and finding him again on Tuesday the 22nd.

That was about it for last week but we had a beautiful, sunny Easter today.

You guys let me know how everything is at home.

Love,
Elder Payne

Here are some more pictures from the SD card received in April...

Group Picture

Who is a Womporong?

Dear Fams and friends,

Omasado tipis (pronounced OH-MA-SADO TEE-PEES and means "forgive me") for not writing for a couple of weeks the internet is down and I haven't had a chance to go and hit the post office.  Well Sounds like everything is going good back home, I was excited to hear about Tristan Thompson being baptized and what is more exciting is they can all now be sealed  as an eternal
family and enjoy all the blessings and comforts that this brings.

I wish Chuuk had a temple closer than the Philippines but if us missionaries work hard we could put in a request for a temple in Guam NEXT YEAR!!!!!!!!!!! THATS CRAZY! but first Chuuk Needs to become a stake and that will make the necessary 3 stakes for temple requirement
it would be super cool to see that happen... OHHH and that reminds me tell Uncle Rus that Pohnpei, a couple of weeks ago, became a stake he will be super excited about that.

Well I can honestly say that I have no information on mothers day except that we will probably call this Wednesday or Thursday to set up something and please pray that the internet is working because I would rather Skype than just call but we will see what happens.

Well on to things here in Chuuk, I am still in Wichap with Elder Peck and we are seeing some crazy huge miracles happen this transfer, so a little back story, the Wichap Branch isn't exactly a very strong branch but this could all change with a few people... One: our recent convert, Apar, is going to be super solid and we are thinking he could be a counselor for our Branch President. Second we started teaching a Wamporong (pronounced WOMP-O-RONG and don't forget to roll the r) or sort of like the equivalent of a Stake President.  So here in Chuuk it goes like this, you join a church and you stay faithful and read the bible and do everything your supposed to and you kind of earn these titles of sorts.  I am not sure on all of them, but it goes 'church goer', Sopatek,  then Womporong. Again I might be missing some but got off subject... So Womporong is super high up in Church here and means you have been a member basically your whole life and you would do almost anything for your church.  So we kind of taught This Womporong's, Aron, daughter. Aron really liked us and always had a question or two for us, so we gave him a Book of Mormon. Then he kind of fell off the face of the Earth for a month and a half, then we ran into him on the road last week and first thing he apologizes for not seeing us because he was sick and his family was super busy. Then he asks if we remember giving him "that book" and we were like "yeah" then what he said next startled us. He said he was almost done with it! So we asked if we could come meet and he said Tuesday. So we go in expecting to have a good discussion about Ewe Puken Mormon but the first thing he says after the prayer is, "I am want to be baptized." Elder Peck and I were absolutely flabbergasted. We really had no idea what to say so we said. "met?" which is "what" in Chuukese and so he said "I want to be baptized into the true church of God." So we recover from our initial shock and commence in telling him some of the requirements that we have for baptism. Just the things like, you have to come to church 3 times and a little on the word of wisdom stuff like that. He is all in for it so we are going to teach him a bunch these next weeks. Super huge miracle and all from a book translated by a farm kid in New York.
Crazy.

Well I will wrap up with a testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon that it can touch and change the lives of even leaders of other faiths if they are honest seekers of truth and are humble enough to accept things they learn are true.  It will change their lives and then they can affect the lives of those they have come in contact with before.  I love to see people love the Book of Mormon and apply the teachings contained in it. The power is incredible and it is real and will bless our lives.

Well I love you guys and hope the best for all of you.

Love,
Elder Jeff Payne

Here a a few more pictures from the SD card Jeff sent.  Some sort of service project - we never heard what they were filling sand bags for...