4th week in Oklahoma

SO whats up my Peeps.

i love reading your letters, it makes me feel special. i get more mail than most. sorry lauren for yelling at you :( i was just mad because i havent herd from you in 2 weeks. i still love you. so the high school will be hot all the time so just get used to it. even in the winter it will be boiling. were did you get the cookie moster shirt? i hope you make alot of friends. and learn to love school your only in there once so make the best of it! How is jake doing? jake you should totaly wright me and tell me about your life and stuff. people allways coment on the tie you gave me. so thanks man. you shoud have ryan wright me as well. and tyler and zack if you can track him down. how is his papers coming? is he still planing on going on a mission? tell him its the best decison i have ever made its well worth the 2 years form home. our address it 506 feildstone way mustange oklahoma. so feel free to wright me any time. wink

church sounds good you sound really busy. i wish the ward here had more going on in it. they basiclly dont like each other. (the members) So theres not alot of unity. they have the same 3 people do every thing. our ward mission leader brother greenland basicly hates the missionarys. so i dont know what to do about that. like he doesnt want to talk with us and he basicly ignorrs us when we are eating at his house. we get feed about three or four times a week. dinner is usally great! i love the food here. so much i have gained a ton LB's but no big deal because we have a gym in our appartment complex that we go to every morning. really we havent had much success this week its been alot of tracting and alot of door slaming. we have had meeting like every day to. we had this thing called the greeny meating. were all the new people go and tell how things are going. it was good to see all my old district. they miss me so much. because i made the "MTC experence Bearable for them". i miss being funny. because my comp doesnt get my jokes so now im not funny because nobody laughs. the members are getting to like me though. im allways a hoot at dinner. but spiritual when the time comes. any way i got a hair cut. because my hair was getting out of controll. but i used the wrong shaver head so i basicly have a buzz cut. my head is sun burnt because we spend alot of time in the sun. and no its just gotten hotter it was 107 yesterday and 110 the day befor. witch is no good. it doesnt matter how much deoderant you put on you still sweat so much. its very windy here. so it smells like dirt. i miss the smell of the marsh and the smell of utah. you wouldnt think you would notice the smell untill yo leave. we are doing alot of service for people to like moing lawns and washing cars and stuff. O i forgot to tell you i went on an excange with the zone leaders. his name is elder forsyth he is going home in like 6 weeks so he is Trunky (wants to go home). but he knows so much i got more done with him in 1 day than me and elder damon did in a week. he rides his bike really fast so it was hard to keep up with him. he is cool though and really supportive. i hope i get him as a companin for his last transfer. but you know whatever. life is really good. i dont want to come home at all but i do want to see you guys. i wish we could skyp on p days. i think that would be a whole lot cooler. so what have you done with my room has lauren moved in yet? did you find my watch? and does that cat sleep in there all the time? im really praying for hummility this week because i think i need a little slice of humble pie. this gosple is so great i LOOOOOOVE it! the things that happen your like wow this church is true. there is allot of people that are so confused about there life and there religon. and it is up to us a missionarys to bring them to the truth. if all goes well we can be able to have lots of investigators this week. we have a solid plan to get people interested so wish me luck.

love ELDER Payton Clements.

P.S. did you get the letter of reconmendation for pizza factory yet? you should let me know.

 

 

Dakota this is for you. (if you get this email)

hey man hows it going. i miss you tons. your mission sounds so awsome. i wish i could have baptisums every week. how is the laugenge coming? how long have you been out again? and how is your house that you live in. hows the food, what do the people look like? how does it smell there. are you gaining or losing weight? do you get fed alot by the members? and do you have any advice for me as a new missionary? i like your letters. i wish i could talk to you as a fellow missionary. but know that i love you and i will see you in about 2 years.

LOve Elder PaYton Clements. 5757

3rd week in Oklahoma

wazzzzzzzzz up!

im going to start out that the key board sucks. so it types like 3 letters at a time. this week was good. so after i emailed you we went bowling as a zone. and part of the rules is you had to bowl crazy. like left handed or granny style. and on your tippy toes. o and funny story i was bowling on my tippy toes and when i let go of the ball i lost my ballence and fell. like hard core! i hit my head pretty bad and hurt my ankle. (who knew you could do that playing bowling) i laughed about it and some guy got it on video. which is funny. i watched it like 11 times. i wish we could put it on youtube. then we went to the mall that just opend up. dont worry i didnt buy anything. but elder neild. he has been out for 3 months. and he bout like 200 bucks worth of stuff. which he isnt going to wear untill he gets off his mission. nana gave me a 50 but i wont spend it unless i need to. o the place im serving is called Mustang oklahoma. its an ok sized town about as big a centirville. its cool but not tempreture wise. its still above 100 every day. it has broken the record of most days of the year over 100. which is like 57 and it dosnt seem to be cooling down any time soon. we ride our bikes every where like 10 to 15 miles a day. so my legs hurt so bad. affter we get home i have  lost 3 pounds in sweat. but i drink a ton of water. like 6 bottles a day. im still likeing my bike. the 29 inch wheels are good and bad. i can go alot faster than elder damon but it takes alot to get started. and i gain allot of speed going down hill. elder damon has biked his whole mission so he is like the energizer missionary. he just keeps going and going and going. tuesday we just spent alot of time  Tracking .im like a pro at knocking on doors. we are trying to get 10 itc's which is invitations to Christ a day. we get allot of potental investigators but nobody wants to take all the lessons. the take the first lesson and then decide there too good for the church. we run out of book of mormons daily. ive placed like 57 of them. but people just talk to there minister and then they decide its not for them. wednesday we taught the malatka family. i told you about them right. well any way we taught them half the plan of salvation. and they really got into it. and we set up an appointment on sunday. but they called us on thursday and basicly demanded that we teach them the second half that day. so we basicly visit them daily. they are so into the gospel its not even funny. theywent out an bought the whole family quads. so thats like 300 dollers of scriptures. we are teaching/ comforting this old lady named ruby joy. she remides me a whole lot of grandma. she just had surgury on her legs. so we go and visit her like once or twice a week. friday i went on an excange with elder kile. hes from st george and knows deven maxwell. hes cool, a little lazy but he knows how to teach the gospel. he is a drummer in a band so he is constantly banging on somthing. but like fast and good. we helped a lady named jeniffer take down her pool for the summer. it was hard work. it was like a 5000 gallon above ground pool. she is a less active and hasnt been to church in a wile but on sunday she came witch is good. she has a really good looking daughter. but that doesnt matter for like two years. on saturday the malaka family invided us over for dinner we had meat loaf (not as good a yours mom so dont worry) and they had this hot sause  called devils blood. like its $100 a bottle and is 11 times hotter than a hobinyero pepper. you can only have 1 drop at a time other wise you could die. its not even good it just make your mouth and throat hurt. and you sweat for like 5 min after. then sunday we went to church and its basiclly like church back home but just not as many members. we have an inactive bisop wink. he has been out of town for like 5 weeks so i havnt met him yet. after church we went tracking. and we taught this guy named nick i dont know if i told you about him. but he is 18 and is progressing super slow. then we had dinner with the bastings. there family is so cute. they have 5 kids and they are all under 12 there so funny and smart. it was kind of like watching out of the mouth of babes. everything they said i was busting up laughing. it made me want a family. witch has never happend befor. like now i want 10 kids when befor i only wanted like 2. so this week has been a blast and a half. i miss home some times but thats normal im told. i love you guys so much i just want to give you a great big hug on the face! i know that doesnt make sence but who cares. not me. court and zak im so excitted for you guys. the place sounds great. im glad you have people to help you out. o and i no what you meen about gaining weight. if i wasnt riding a bike every day i would be 200 pounds allready. zack thanks for writing me i really felt the love from those 2 sentences.

LAUREN  you better wright me you peace of crap. wink jk you dont have to. but ill hate you if you dont. lol tell me about school tell me what clothes you bought and what you look like.send me lots and lots of pictures. o i dont like by the mission office so i dont get hand writen letters for a wile. so i will send you my appartment address. and lots of pictures.

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH i want to here from dakota as well so you should forwad me his letters.

LOVE your favorite son elder payton clements

lauren this is your favorite and only brother. in case you havnt noticed im at not around any more. so i dont know whats happening in your life. i dont know how school is going for you because your not telling me. I WANT TO HERE EVERYTHING. tell me how chuck is and if snuggles has died yet. tell me about your favorite part of the day tell me how your friends are doing. just a heads up i still love you and want to party with you.

if further action has to be taken your not going to like it. lol

Elder Payton Clements

hi dad this is payton thats cool that you went deer hunting. as weird as it sound i miss your crazy over exaggerated story's so thanks for wrighting me every week even if it is on sunday. i love you so much. thanks for your advice and your prayers. i knew you were inspired to pray for me. try not to fight with mom to much. treat her like a queen. you should wright her a hand writen letter that just says i love you and that she makes your day. your should tell bishop to wright me because i miss that guy. and every one else in the ward as well. i also want to write the young men of the ward and tell them that serving a mission is so cool and thats a great decision in there life.

well love you tons. i will see you sooner than you think.

love elder payton clements

                                           Meeting Elder Damon

2nd week in Oklahoma

hi every body 

how are things? well i kind of know from your letters but really i want to party with you! well some cool things that have happend this week is right after i emailed you i went and played vollyball with the other elders and sisters in our zone. and i loved it! its my new favorite sport. i was just rocking everyons socks. not to be cocky or anything but i cant wait to play today. things with my companin are just a roller coaster ride. there up there down and then there spiritual and then there totaly crazy! like for example we kind of got in a argument and he just got super pissed of. and he punched a hole in the wall. i was saying that we are lazzy missionarys and that we could be working so much harder. and he just got all deffencive and then went into the bathroom. and i herd a loud bang and his fist went through the wall. so i dont really know what to do about that. o and dad that was friday morning. so thanks for the prayers. but other than that its been good. he is a good trainer and he knows his stuff. but he just wont let me teach. every time i try to talk he just cuts me off. so i dont know if he doesnt trust me or he just thinks he is just a better teacher. well we are teaching several diffrent people. the malatka family. they are less active/ part member family. but he just came up to us on the street and started apologizing for not coming to church. and said he would like to be taught. so we came over to his house. and taught about the importance of church. and then commited them to come. so they showed up on sunday. and really liked it. then latter last night we went to talk to them and i commited jake there son to be baptized on september 10! so in the first 2 weeks i already have a baptizum. witch is pretty FRICKEN SICK! then we are teaching this 18 year old boy named nick. he is kind of a troubled child he learns very slow. but he keeps inviting us over. so thats good. we are just reading from the Bof M. about 2 chapters a day with him. he has a baptisum date but he has to commit to come to church 3 times first. then we are kind of teaching kind of bible bashing with this babtist minister. we fist knocked on the door though tracting and he invited us in. and he didnt know we were mormon so he was listing to us untill we brought out the book of morman. and he is like whoa dont bring out that devil worshiper book! O just so you know he is indian. not native american but like from india. he is willing to learn but as long as we dont talk about the bof m. which is what were supost to teach him but he just keeps yelling at us every time we talk about it. so i dont know if we will go back. then we are teaching this girl named whitney. she wants to come to church but her boyfriend is anti mormon. so as long as we just split them up that every thing is going to be ok. most of our time is spent tracting from door to door. o and yes my bike is fixed we found a pump. the ward mission leader (Brother Greenland) found a pump and some extra inner tubes. trackting is kind of fun because you never know who your going to meet. but its so hot that you lose a 3 pounds of sweat every day. which is good because. people feed us all the time it mostly pizza so im kind of getting sick of it. but thats ok i use to work at a pizza place. i really miss pizza factory. and the people that work there. and this is going to sound wired but i miss the pizza smell in my clothes. thats great that your setting up larana with the missionarys. i hope that she kind find the importance of the gospel in her life. i miss costa vida there is no costa or cafe rio here :( so thats depressing but there is other good food here like swadlys and braums. there BBQ places. a really big dessert here is birthday cake ice cream. and it really does tast like birthday cake with icing on it. courtney you would love it!i wish i could send you some. the ward here needs unity. nobody really likes eachother. so i dont know what to do about that. mabey a tornado need to go though the ward and people work together to clean it up. o the weather here is so unpodictable. its sunny in the morning and then all the sudden it hailing and the wind is blowing at like 60 MPH. the hail here gets super big like as big as a golf ball. on a regular basis. and when its really bad they get like a big a base balls! some cars have like hundreds of dents in them from the hail. speaking of cars there is more yellow cars in this state than i have ever seen. its like yellow one (slug) yellow one (Slug) like every 5 seconds. so we just stop playing. 

Lauren your teachers are all great i dont reconize some of them but most of them are going to be just swell. armstrong was one of my favorite teachers. and herrick is a pretty good teacher as well. a little boring but good. high school can be what ever you make it. so make the most of it. take hard classes. take fun classes. talk to every one. make lots and lots of friends but dont forget who your true friends are. if you ever are freeling down just pray the lord knows you and what your going through. he will be able to confort you and guild you in the right direction. and dont talk to boys untill your 16. they are going to be all over you like crazy. try to dull yourself down just for untill your 16. because every one here is like who is that when they see your picture. so i had to take your picture down because all the missionarys were allways oogling you.

thanks Knight family for the letter. i really like it. and thanks for allways supporting me. the picture that alli drew is amazing. you should take alot of art classes in high school. and thanks for the advice aarron and angie.

thanks Nana and Papa for the letter . and the money. thats too bad about cathy. have a nice vacation and im sure your dinner is going to be great.

Courtney and Zack thanks for writing me i love you guys so much. have a good move. i hope you enjoy your new house. you guys deserve it!

well i got to go but know that i love you and love this gosple so much! this is going to be the best experence i have ever had.

LOVE your son, brother, grandson, friend, and favorit missionary. Elder Payton Clements

Just a side note……On Friday between 9 and 11 Beau had a feeling that he should pray for Payton and so he did and it sounds like Payton needed it :)  for some of you who don't know Payton also can have a temper so ……..sounds like prayer works ……..

1st week in the field

hi yall. this is payton well any way i will start of by saying i went on the plane to oklahoma. and i fell asleep because we woke up at 3am and i drolled all over my suit jacket. it was fun yet embaresing. i got to sit by the window and when i looked out the whole flippen place is flat. there is no mountins or anything tall no sky scrappers nothing. the tallest building here is only 3 storys tall. but everything went well we landed president taylor and his wife picked us up. and we went to the mission home. we hade home made hot pockets. they were good buy had olives in them so i just had to grin and bare it. then we went to bed at like 9 because every one fell asleep in the oriantation. so president taylor just sent us off to bed. he is a great guy! he is truly an ispired man. we woke up (there are 12 of us) and had to fight for the shower. then we went to the church and met our trainers. my comp is named elder Damon. he is from the marshell islands. so his english is "No so good" but he is learning. he is a really great guy he teaches me so much. he loves to read his scriptures. and yes lauren he is good looking. just not as good looking as me Wink! well any way. on wednesday the tempreture was 117!!! and 100% hummitity. it was the worst day of my life. i was sweating like a cow in the oven on a volcano in the sahara dessert. but i guess its the hottest day ever recorded here. o and we are in a biking area. so we tracted for like 2 hours and allmost past out. then we went home. at the MTC i realized i laught to keep from crying. but now my comp has no sence of hummor. so i cryed like a baby my first day in the fild.i really just wanted to call it quits and go home. but i got over it in the morning. i know this is were im suppost to be. the people here are so nice. i finally know what southern hospitality really is. people are willing to do anything for you. like we get fed every meal. and we get free laundry done at laurens laundry, and free pizza at christs pizza. every body here belives in jesus. and that can be a good thing and a bad thing. because people say o we go to church every sunday. tracting can be very hard here. lots of people dont want to listen. and thouse that do want to bible bash. elder damon is cool about it he allways seems to know what to say. he is really good at talking to people. and me ahh not so much. but i will learn. the appartment im staying at is good small two bathroom two bedroom. theys say its the best place to live in the mission. but it kind of smells.  and there is 4 people living there. me elder damon elder neild and elder kile. elder kile went to dixie highschool and knows deven. so thats cool. its a small world. ok so on thursday we went tracting again and that went ok. this guy drove up to us and said he would like to be babtized. so we took down his name and address and were teaching him tommorrow. it was kind of a mirical. gradmas packege was there when i arrived so thats good. THANKS GRANDMA AND GRANDPA!!! i loved all the candy and oreos. but im getting fat. because people feed us all the time. my bike got here ok but they deflated the tires on it. and they are french style inertubes. so not just any bike pump will work. so i have been borrowing bikes from other elders untill we can go to a bike store.  friday i at we went out on a split with some guy in the ward. he was cool. he just bought a new car a BMW and he likes to race around. o and nobey stops at the stop sighns here. you just slow down. even the mission president. so it really should be called oklahoma stop. its cazy and scary. saterday i met the ward mission leader. he is crazy and akward. like he says stuff that you cant reply to. like the walls are sure blue today. and your like yep. (but really your thinking lets get out of here because this guys is nuts). sunday it was fast sunday. it was the longest fast sunday of my life. because sunday is not a day of rest here. its probably the hardest day of the week. we tracted all day and we viseted with members to ask for referalls.we met this one guy named john while tracking and he is what they call the "golden investigator" he just got into a car wreck and he new that god let it happen to him to hummble himself and go to church. so he let us right in and we taught him and he wants us to come over like everyday and teach him. today is pday. so we did laundry and we stayed there for like 3 hours to help lauren out. i can see why we get free laundry because she get 12 hours of free labor out of us. we cleaned and counted Quarters. she is a nice lady and stuff but any one can be nice to free labor. once or twice a week. we went to the gym this morning and got in for free. because the lady thats the manager is mormon. then we went shoping and some lady came up to us and asked if she could buy us lunch. we said sure. and she took us to this BBQ place. it was so good. it was probably the best food i have hade in the mission feild. we talked to her about the gospel and she said she has 46 kids!!!! form diffrent husbands and stuff. im like wow you need to slow it down there lady. i ges she has like 15 sets of twins. but she is a child of god. and we love her any way. hey ryan thanks for writing me i really miss you man. thts good you got your cast off. and thats cool that trisan came home. i wont see that kid for 2 years. well anyway im running out of time. because im on the librays computer.

send me mail just to the mission home i guess. i dont know our address.  this gospel is so great its a really good way to live your life. i have a great respect for missionarys. two years is not a long time but its long enough to show your commitment to the work.

keep writing me i love you all. i will try to write some hand written letters today. because i only have 1 min left.

i love you . the church is true the book is blue.

Love Elder Payton

 

I'm Here

hey i arrived safely at the mission home the fight was good and scary and awsome. but everything is great the mission presedent and his wife are nice and they cook really well. its 104 right now so wish me luck go to taylorsinok.blogspot.com to see me and the mission blog. i will email you on monday thats my pday.

Leaving tomorrow for OKLAHOMA

hi Famdamily

 this is payton im leaving the mtc tommorow at 4 A.M. so i will call you around 5:30 or 6. but i also could call you in denver at like 8 to 10. so my comp is gone he left this morning at like 5. so now im reallly tired! but thats ok. the ntc is great! i have never grown more spiritualy and menaly in three weeks. its so great! i love this gospel with all my heart i really want people to know how much this gosple means to me. i said i wanted to serve a mission before but now im freaking pumped! i cant wait to get in the field and start placing some books of mormon. i got five pass along cards to give to people at the airport. and i hope i can really change peoples lives my first day in the field. o and remind me when i get home to write a book about the mtc. im going to call it HOW TO LIVE THROUGH THE MTC By Elder payton Clements. im going to tell about all the stuff you really need and the stuff you want. and take pictures and tell witch food to stay away from and witch vending machines are the best. but yea this could be my last email for like 2 weeks but mabey i will get a chance tommorrow. is it weird that i miss smelling like pizza? and i really want the people at pizza factory to know how great it is serving a mission! i want to inspire austin to go on a mission because he is kind of on the fence about it. i want to tell him its one of the best decions i have ever made. and im only 3 weeks in but it feels like i got here. but i love you all.

o and lauren remeber how your kind of like i dont want to serve a mission. well let me tell you what sister. the world is getting to be so evil! that your kids are going to have to be so strong! in the church and there going to need two spiritualy strong parents in the gospel. not that your not spiritual. but the next generation is going to need all the help it can get!

i really like talking about deep doctorin. it really intrests my mind i want to know all i can about the church and how it works. o and remeber how your like the devil controlls the water. well in D&C it talks about how the water is cursed and is use to be that water was safe but not any more. im sending a letter as soon as i get to oklahoma so you know everyting is fine and stuff.

love you all again! the church is true the book is blue!

Love Elder Payton Clements