A Week of Blessings

Monday:
WOOOOO P DAY!! YES SIR!! We love P day. Didn't have such an exciting time this week compared to last week, yet it was still pretty solid. We played chair ball at the church with the district, and oh boy, it was wild. Elder Rice played soccer so he was just destroying us all. We tried to team up on him but we weren't that coordinated. Oh well, we will get him next week. We went to Buc-ee's again today and I got a really nice sticker for my water bottle. I am excited to put it on. (Update I left it in the other elders car) We went to a burger place for lunch with the district called Hat Creek. Pretty solid. I would go back.
We had a super fun activity tonight with all the Empty Nesters of the ward and other wards. They invited us to have dinner and a Q&A. They asked us all sorts of questions and we got to answer. It was super fun to talk with all the wise people of the ward! We shared a scripture that we like and then bore our testimonies at the end. It was a very good experience. They told us we are always invited back.
I call my family every P-day but today was really nice! Everyday is nice but I just gotta say it is a really nice refresher being able to see them and hear their voices. Talk to your family! They are the only one you have!

Tuesday:
First ZONE CONFERENCE, what a great experience. I love President and Sister Fox. They have such a good perspective on everything. The others that gave some training did great as well. I had a question that I was pondering the day before, and we talked about it during the conference. It was kinda funny. I was talking to Elder Rice and the other Elders in my apartment about my question/dilemma, and when the question came up Elder Rice and I just looked at each other. We were kinda surprised but I knew it was an answer to my prayer and my question that I had the previous day. God is pretty cool and aware of me for sure. Elder and Sister Barlow, the senior missionaries in the ward, drove Elder Rice and I up to Waco. They had snacks in the back of the car that they offered us. Of course we aren't going to say no, we are teenage boys. Sister Barlow told us there was so much junk food in the back. We looked in the back of the car, some pretty nice junk food. Popcorn, nuts, fruit leather, and more hahahah I got a good chuckle in. The Barlow's are so awesome!
I was able to get my Buc-ee's sticker on my water bottle today. It's looking pretty good. Elder Saline your water bottle ain't got nothing on me. I got the TAM sticker, Stand for truth sticker, and now the Texas Buc-ee's sticker. Better watch out. If any of you have stickers for me to add, send them my way.
Had a really good lesson with one of our friends. They have been really struggling. Elder Rice and I spoke with a lot of power and authority during this lesson today. It was awesome! We had some powerful impressions that we shared. They are trying to be better but it is hard. They need all the prayers they can get. Please pray for all the missionaries friends. If I have learned anything it's that they need the help that faith from others will bless them in so many ways.

Wednesday:
We need to address a problem that I have not yet addressed. One of many. . . Here it is: The Trains. Just like back home in Utah there is that familiar train horn sound. Now I love to hear the train horn every now and then, but right as we are going to be or early in the morning is not the time. The train conductors do it on purpose, I am almost guaranteed of it. Imagine this, you just finished getting ready for bed. Brushing your teeth, getting changed, saying a prayer, or whatnot. Then climb into your nice cool bed, shutting your eyes, and dreaming about sitting on the beach sipping out of a coconut, then all of the sudden, HONK HONK HONK!!! Not a very pleasurable sound, I don't think. Now every night this happens and every morning as well. Not mid morning, early morning when you are still sleeping. Now I have to be up at 6:30 every morning and thats pretty early. So even earlier than that is just so incredibly silly. The trains aren't close enough to be super disrupting during the day, but they are close enough to cause a major disruption during the dead of night. I might need to get me some ear plugs, that should do the trick.
Today there were a lot of helicopters flying around. I think I can still hear a few. I have no clue where they came from or what they are doing but you look up into the sky and "Oop, there's another one!" Completely random. Oh to be in one of those helicopters and drop copies of the Book of Mormon upon all the people. Get the work done. (haha) If only people would read them, that would be nice. My favorite thing is when we talk to people as they are passing by in a park and we say who we are, and then they are not really interested, but we ask to walk with them. The responses are really funny sometimes. When we do walk with them, we share a short message of the restoration and hand them a copy of The Book of Mormon. They sometimes get more interested, but we do our best. And that's all we can do, is invite.

Thursday:
The days just keep getting busier and busier. We were all over the place today. Thing is, tomorrow will be even crazier. We were supposed to have weekly planning done today, but what we planned for this morning was completely changed. Good thing all of our lessons cancelled today . . . right? WRONG. When someone cancels a lesson it sucks. All of our planning is thrown off. But it is ok. God has a reason for everything. He is leading us the way we need to go.

District council today was really good. We talked about a lot of good topics that I know I needed to hear. The main thing we discussed was Praying with Faith. This topic is a subheading in Preach My Gospel under Recognize the Spirit. It can be found on pages 99 - 102. Go check it out if you have the chance. We talked about praying to know what to pray for. Sound kinda silly I know, but it works. You can get that power and knowledge on what to say if you just ask. Say a prayer on what to pray for. It can be audible in the prayer or just quick and personal before you say a vocal prayer. I have seen it work a lot. I say a prayer every time before I give a blessing just to get in the right mindset and to be able to know what the lord would have me say/bless the person with. Try it, if you don't believe me, but you gotta have faith that it will work. When you pray, take time after you pray to listen to the spirit and what God would need you to hear at that moment. Write down thoughts or impressions after a prayer and then act on them. That way you will be able to know if they are truly from God or not. All good things come from God. Pretty powerful. Any who I could talk about prayer for a while but I got more things to say.
My soapbox for today is the amount of Dodge Chargers and Mustangs that are here is a silly amount. They aren't even cool cars! The people who get them just waste money on a dinky looking car. I know the people are really nice but come on. If you are going to get a "cool" car please don't ever get a Mustang or Dodge Charger. I plead with you. I have no personal beef with anyone who drives such a vehicle, it is just a silly option for a car. Again no personal dislike, just a dislike for the car.

Pretty solid day overall. People act like children. "Jesus Loves You!" Sis Hammer

Friday:
It was a magical day! We finished weekly planning and it went over by about an hour but we got it done which is important. Set some really good goals for this next week and I am so excited. We had two really cool experiences today so let me tell ya what happened. They were back to back so it is quite a story.
1st Elder Rice and I were heading to a house of a member to ask for some referrals. We pull up and Elder Rice notices someone outside of a neighboring house. We pray before we get out of the car and we go to talk to this lady before going to the members house. We start talking for a while and she said that she has a friend that she grew up with that is a member and she has always been interested. So we invited her to church, told her we could help her paint her house. (she was painting at the time) And she was so thankful!! We have a time planned to help do some work on her house. She said she will be coming to church one of these times and was just really happy. She told us she loves our church just because we are always looking for ways to help other people. It was so cool. She was really sweet as well. She has been through a lot the past week or so and just told us everything.
2nd As we were talking to the lady above her neighbor came out of her house with some cute dogs. I can tell she was kinda listening in on our conversation. We finish up at the sweet lady's house then turn to walk towards the members house, which is in the direction of the dog lady. We start talking to her and she was super nice and upbeat. We invited her to church as well and we have a lesson that we set up. She told us that she was looking for a new church. Absolutely perfect. How magical is that? AND they are neighbors so we can teach them together. We then went to the members house and they weren't home so that tells you why we felt prompted to go that way today. God works in crazy ways.
We didn't get home until 9:40 ish tonight. It was pretty crazy. One of our friends really needed our help. He has been having a ROUGH time, and we are trying to help him the best we can. We have to call the mission president if we are out past 9:30 so we called him, he didn't answer (lol) so just left a message and he texted us the next morning saying thanks for letting him know. It was a great day.

Saturday:
EXCHANGE DAY!! WOOOO I got to go on an exchange with the DL Elder Andrus. Now this man is so cool. We get along a little to well. If we were actual companions we would get nothing done. We would sing songs that would pop into our heads and it was really fun. He would talk about random stories from his mission so far and I would just listen. We got DR Pepper Shakes at Whataburger. Now I didn't really know what to expect when he said lets go get these. I was skeptical at first. And for a good reason. I can't even describe the taste or anything about it, other than it kind of tastes like a root beer float but with DP. Not very good. Would I get another one? Absolutely not. Never again.
I got a letter from one of my bestfriends in the MTC today. All the Elders in the apartment went wild as I was reading it. Just teasing me or what not. I also got a package from my family. Thanks y'all!! The Lucky Charms are delicious.
Elder Andrus and I talked to this guy at a random apartment building today. He wasn't very receptive of our message but we tried our best. That's all I am going to say about that. We tried really hard. He was just really cool and we would have loved to talk to him more. But it is alright. We invited and he has a choice to accept it or reject it, but we can't force that on him.
Overall very well done day. Elder Andrus is pretty cool

Sunday:
WOOOOOO!! I LOVE SUNDAY!!! One day of the week were we can just relax at church. So refreshing. It was a wonderful sabbath day today. The counselor that is conducting this month will be asking people to talk about their conversion story's. If we get our friends to come, it's game over! The two talks today were great. I know the friends we are teaching that were there felt the spirit and it helped them grow their faith in this restored gospel. Not much else happened today. Just did some drop by's, had dinner with a family, they have a really cute family, and just went home. Jesus loves you!

Alma 26:12Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in the land, for which we will praise his name forever.

Not a lot of pictures I know. I'm sorry. It is just hard, when I'm living in the moment.

Love y'all
-Elder Kohl Payne