Reponses from Dayne to friends emails

************************************************************************************** Since I can't respond to friends by email I need to drop a few lines here and hopefully they will see it on the blog: ****************************************************************************************************** Casey: Thanks for the email....ummm....so confession: You haven't received my letter because I haven't sent it yet....ha! Yeah, horrible, I know! Forgive me? I plan on doing it this week though! Tomorrow if possible! And then who knows how long it will take for you to get it...another month? Ha! Sorry! Congrats on your job though and keep me updated on your life! I loved your email! Miss you like crazy! Are you doing BYU summer? Have you and Carried gotten together yet? ****************************************************************************************************** Kaitlyn: Oh my freaking heck! Best email I've received from you! Ha! Well, I don't know....nothing can beat the adventures in the Coffee shop! I embarrass myself so badly from laughing out loud so hard at your emails! I absolutely love them and your stories....keep em comin gurl! I freaking don't care if you ramble! I can hear your voice in your stories and letters and it make me miss you so! I have a letter coming for you too! I need to finish it actually...today! I was going to wait till I received your handwritten letter, but I decided that is too cruel and not fair for you and I love writing letters too much to wait, so yeh, dat be comin gur! MAIA! It's Brittney Snitch....yikes! Candy sticks! Miss you tons! One of my investigators looks like/and reminds me of Emma....weird! Alex has a twin! I will be eating lunch with him this afternoon! :P *************************************************************************************************** Valeria P: Hopefully you will see this! Thanks for your email! I really appreciate it! I love reading your stories and thought! Their so inspiring! Keep them coming! I will write you a letter back, but just in case you haven't heard, the Mexican Mail system is horrible and it will probably take a month for you to get it, but I will send you one nevertheless! ***************************************************************************************

[title of show]

Hola Mi Familia! Since I didn't have time to think of a clever musical for this week, I still chose a musical "[title of show]" but to be more general since I don't have a clever subject to describe this week....what? Did that make sense? Anywho..... Well, first off, transfers happened today. Elder Melchor and I parted ways and I am no longer with my trainer, so no longer a newbie!!! Wahoo!!! So I will be staying in Sonoyta for another transfer at least and Elder Melchor was transfer to be a Zone Leader in Guymas. Que loco! Que Cosas! So today I get a new companion, Elder Castro. Elder Melchor left this morning at 10AM and so I am hanging out here with the Zone Leaders until tonight when I will travel back to Sonoyta and await Elder Castro's arrival with a member. He is supposed to get in late around 10:30 or 11PM. Fun stuff, no? So crazy! I have mixed feelings/emotions, but I've heard nothing but good things about Elder Castro so I'm excited to see what happens. I guess you will hear more next week. I'm kinda of nervous with Elder Melchor gone. I will still be Junior comp, but everyone relies on me since I know the area and the members. I hope we make it through.... This week it was brought to my remembrance....does that make sense?.....the importance of the Priesthood and always being an example and a worthy Priesthood holder. Sonoyta basically blew up this week! Ha! Understatement? Many problems arouse and everyone looks to us as Missionaries and Priesthood holders to help them solve their problems and such. The branch President and his wife are going through a divorce, teenage girls of 14/15 are getting married, having babies with the wrong people, another couple is having marriage problems, and it has turned quite violent!, etc. And everyone turns to us to help them. The thing is we don't know how to help. We can't council people's marriages or force others to be active. It's rough. Elder Melchor and I were talking and we decided that we are truly in the last days. So much wickedness and sad things are happening in the world. Poor decisions are being made. So many people need the Gospel to help them. It is just a challenge to help them recognize the importance and need for the Gospel in their lives. On a happier note....this week we watched the movie "The Testaments" with Marisa and her daughter. It's frustrating because we baptized Marisa but because of her job she has to work Sundays and we haven't been able to confirm her yet. We are still trying though. But anyway, we watched the movie with them and it was really great! I love that movie! So spiritually uplifting! Later that night we received a message from Marisa saying that that movie really touched her and her daughter's heart! How wonderful! We are still working on her daughter and son and will hopefully baptize them soon! Other event. We made a quick little trip to Penasco Friday to get my residency identification. It's just a little card that says I don't live here! Haha! But it tells what I'm up to! Sneaky, Sly, little demon am I! Haha! Ohh...what am I saying...?!? Forgive me I don't even know what the purpose is for telling you about my id....My head hurts at the moment and I'm a little crazy!.....Anywho.... Sounds like you all are just full of butterflies and rainbows! I'm so freaking jeally of this 3 churns of homemade Ice cream...for a youth fireside....Mom, what the heck!?! Why couldn't you have been in the Young Womens when I was a youth!?! You all think you have it hot! Ha! Funny joke! Just remember that I ALWAYS have it hotter and at least you have AC and don't have to be out in the heat all day long! Sucks! But, yes mom, the Gatorade powder made it and that was quite brilliant of you! I drink a glass everyday before going out to just keep my electrolytes and all going good! Elise and Alex, I hope you all have a blast at EFY this week! It should be so fun! I'm surprised Daniel is doing it. I would have thought that he is too old...I guess he isn't 27 or married yet right....!?! Have fun Cole, with just you and the rents...I'm super jealous! Funny stories: So we go to fill the big things of purified water at a little store really close. The water is in the big reservoir tank thing and it has a little spout for the water that is just PVC pipes. Well, we have 2 containers and Elder Melchor fills his and then it is my turn. I turn the spout and my container fills up. When it gets to the top I go to turn the spout off but instead I pull the PVC pipe out and water comes gushing out! Oh how embarrassing! Luckily we were able to get the pipe back on quickly, but I was soaked and wasted a bunch of purified water! The store owner was right there and saw and just smiled and didn't care luckily...but how embarrassing! So one day we were with Marisa talking and my comp said he likes to dance. I wanted to comment that I like to dance as well. However, I had a weird spanish/english moment where I spoke Spanglish. In Spanish you say "Me gusta bailar TAMBIEN" Tambien meaning also....well I said "Me gusta bailar TOO!" Too meaning also in English. Well since Marisa doesn't know English she thought I said a word that sounds similar to too which means pole. So, she thought I said I like to dance pole as in pole dancing....oh my heck! Elder Melchor had to correct that one fast! How embarrassing! Well, that's about it for this week. Hope everyone is happy and well! Here goes another week, with a new transfer, and a new comp, and next week a new President...crazy! Love and miss you all tons! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner

Penasco Zone Conference President and Herman Velez The U.S. border Baptism Day Making Homemade Tortillas

"There's Been A Change In Me..."

Hola Mi Familia! I enjoyed your emails as always! It sounds like you all are just having a dang good time with your summer activities! I'm supes jeally of the play, mom and dad, especially getting to spend an evening with the Hobbs! So Jealous! First off, "Feliz Dia De Los Padres!" to my Papi, Papa, and Grandaddy! I think it is quite rude of the Missionary department to allow phone calls on Mother's Day and not Father's day as well. How blahh!!! But I thought about you all! I was reminded of lyrics from "A Little Princess": "Oh Papa (Mi Papi), I miss you so, And I pray that you know, Papa (Mi Papi) that I love you so, Just to have you right here, Holding me near, Papa (Mi Papi) it could be, Would be the best gift of all..." Hope your day was filled with joy and that you enjoyed that Homemade Mushroom Soup....YUCK! About the Bishop's letter...I did send it right when I wrote it, so yeah I guess it does take that long....sucks! I'm guessing mom hasn't received her Mother's Day letter yet and that means Dad won't get his till probs August! Great... Mom, Congrats on your calling? Haha! I'm sure it will be fine! You will be fantastic! And with Sister Ritz and Sister Harris, my BFFs! How fantastic! Good luck!!! :) So well, I don't really remember what happened this week as far as work goes. Now that I think about it, we did have some difficult lessons with people not keeping commitments, not being available for appointments, and having crazy beliefs that we have to try and work through, but other than that things are great! I'm really surprised at myself and all of these things. So many times I hear people say how hard it is and depressing when you go to an appointment and no one is there, but surprisingly nothing really gets me down. It seem like it would be easy to get depressed and upset not having lessons or people keeping commitments, but I never let it get to me and try to always keep a positive attitude...maybe it's a gift? I did have to speak in church yesterday with only a 30 minutes notice. It was awful! I don't do well with unplanned talks. I like to write out my words and especially with Spanish...it wasn't good. And then we gave the Sunday school and priesthood lesson also on missionary work to help get the members to help us more. My Spanish was bad then too! Ugh! So upsetting! I do remember one thing that happened that was depressing. We learned that one of our investigators, one of the 3 siblings that we have been seeing for awhile, one of the sisters has started getting into drugs. This was really disappointing. It was just us and her and she was telling us about how she has thought multiple time of killing herself and how whenever she gets mad with her family--mad with stupid small things-- she uses drugs to help take the problems away and help her keep calm. This was quite a shocker and both of us couldn't believe it! She is just a 15 year old teenager! And thoughts of suicide and using drugs. We talked to her for a good hour and a half trying to convince her of the self worth and how important our bodies are and to keep them clean. She hasn't been using the drugs for too long and so we wanted to stop her before she gets really addicted. We offered to help her throw them out, but she seemed reluctant. Pretty soon, her siblings came and we had to go to mutual. So we will hopefully keep trying to help her. I just love the thought of how much God loves us and I have a strong testimony of God's love. However it is frustrating in a situation like this when I want to try and help people understand their self worth and importance and show them how much God loves them, but I don't have the vocabulary or words in Spanish to tell them. It is annoying! So this news was upsetting. We've become close to these siblings! It was like my own sister telling me these things. It hurt! But, enough of that. Apart from work, we had our last Zone Conference with President and Hermana Velez this week. It was a combined Zone Conference with our Zone, Penasco, and another Zone about 2 hours away, Caborca. So in all there were about 20 missionaries. It was Friday morning, so we were going to leave Thursday night, but when we called for van tickets there weren’t anymore vans scheduled so we were left to take the next van the next morning at 6AM. So yeah...I got up at 4:30AM that morning....not fun times! The conference was really sad! I mean it was good, but knowing this was the last time that we would see Pres. and Hermana Velez was sad. I played piano and another American Elder and I sang "God Be With You..." in Spanish and another Elder accompanied us on recorder. It was nice. I took a video, but it is too big for the email...sad, I know. President and Hermana Velez gifted us all with a DVD they had made for us with advice on it and photos, and also their address. Ugh! I am going to miss them so much! I love them so much and they are just the greatest. Afterwards all of us went out to eat at a Member's restaurant. The assistants brought my package from the youth! So I finally got that thankfully! It was nice to read all the letters...I can't believe I didn't get a letter from my own sister....the whole youth, plus some and even Alex, but not Elise....well, well, well.... :) After this Zone Conference and just a lot of things that I have been thinking about how it really changed me and my perspective on things. I think I am now just beginning to enjoy the mission! I have been thinking how fast time moves and before I know it I won't have this time ever again. I better savor and enjoy it while it lasts. I will admit that many times I have thought what it will be like to come home, being in the U.S. again and the airport, and then I think about being in the airport in Hermosillo and how sad that will be to leave because of the memories I have already made here and what this place already means to me. And I think deeper and I think of when I come home and meet with the Stake President and he tells me to take off my Name Tag.....I won't be able to do it. I always here how everyone always cries at this part and I know I will. How great is this calling! To be a representative of Jesus Christ for 2 years! To preach His Gospel and help people change live! I wear a name tag with His name on it AND Mine! I love putting on the name tag everyday and I take pride in the opportunity I have to wear it and be that representative that I know Christ wants me to be. How great is this calling! So mom, I actually received the very same exact letter from our President. It said that is was issued by the area authority of Mexico so I'm sure all missionaries got it. It made me a little uneasy, especially to read about those two other missionaries somewhere in Mexico. I'm not completely sure what this all means or what the cause of it, but I feel confident that if we do what we're supposed to, when we're supposed, we will have the Spirit. So hopefully this isn't too alarming and that it will pass in a few weeks. One thing that Hermana Velez told me twice in one day during the zone conference was how strong of a spirit I have and how it is always present! It made me feel good and lifted me up! This isn't the first time I've heard this. A few members tell me the same along with my comp! I like this quality. I hope that my spirit and actions speak louder than my words.... So we are having transfers a week early this change so that President Velez can do it before the New one comes in 2 weeks. So changes are next week and I'm not really sure what will go down and if I'll be able to write that day. It may be Tuesday. We will just see....we are pretty sure Elder Melchor is getting transferred and I'm staying. Love and miss you all tons! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner

"Happiness is..."

Hola Mi Familia! What a week! I don´t even remember what happened most of the days. Let´s try and remember... This was a really nice week for a few reasons...as the song from "Charlie Brown" goes..."Happiness is..." Finding a bunch of new investigators Receiving 2 packages (Thanks mom and Aunt Deb!....So what happened to the youth´s package?!?!) Completing 4 months in the mission Singing at a Baptismal service and watching the Spirit touch people´s hearts HAVING A BAPTISM!!!! Being with Americans The Lord really blessed us this week with contacts! It was really fantastic! Just another one of those little instances I see where I notice how much God loves us! Hermana Marisa had her baptism this week and so the District Leader came for the interview Thursday. The zone leaders returned from Hermosillo Wednesday and so they were able to bring my packages to me Thursday! It made me really happy! I don´t know where the youth´s package is though....hmmm.... I am loving my cliff bars! Thanks mom and Aunt Deb! For the next one I would like more Excedrin and threaders for my permanent retainer, you know the blue threaders? And possibly floride rinse if there´s room....I can´t seem to find any here... :( So we had the Baptism of Hermana Marisa Friday! My very first baptism in the field! And I was able to perform the ordinance! It was a very lovely day and the spirit was quite strong! I made the decision that I was going to sing at the service so I put together an arrangement of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" in Spanish of course! It went really well and was a nice invitation of the Spirit right before the ordinance! I brought people to tears...not to brag...even an 9 year old kid! I absolutely love to see how powerful music is and how it touches people. I have been invited to sing a Hymn for a Quinsiñera this Friday (basically a coming of age party for girls when they turn 15) for a member. More on that later.... The baptism was really special and her kids were there and so it was good for them to see that and hopefully she will set an example for them. We are working on them now. It was so amazing to see the change of Hermana Marisa. Later that evening, we went and visited her and she just seemed more happier than usually and maybe had a glow about her! It was so wonderful to see! I also completeled 4 months! Crazy! It doesn´t like that long, but when you think that I only have 2 more months till I hit 6 is when it gets crazy! And what´s crazier is when I hit 6, David will be at 1 year! That´s weird! So yesterday in Peñasco after our District meeting we went to a really nice beach house with some Americans! I guess yesterday in church some Americans were on Vacay and decided to invited the missionaries to dinner, so last night we went and had dinner with Americans! It was so great! There were 3 families and probably like 20 of them and then us! It was so nice to associate with "my relatives" as my comp calls them and to eat "American Food" too! I became a little country-sick though. I didn´t want to leave them. And being in the beach house made me want to be on a family vacay really badly! Maybe when I get back....? In 20 months....? It was really nice of them to invite us! One of the Families has a Son on a mission in San Antonio and we figured our that I was int he MTC the same time as him. I was leaving as he was entering. The crazier thing is his name is Dayne too! But he spells it Dain, so it isn´t that cool....but you know.... I´m glad to hear that you had a good time on your trip mom! I embarrassed myself by literally laughing outloud at Holly´s experience! I could totally picture her excitement and all! Did you all go to Salt Lake or Timp? I didn´t mean for you to go out and buy me new shoes...although they do look quite nice. Watch, by the time I get them I will be out of Sonoyta and not in a rocky area...but who knows? I bought superglue and fixed the pair though. They weren´t the ones we traded actually. They are the ones I have worn more because of the other ones. So they are just a little bit more worn and I guess don´t like the rockiness! And I switch my shoes everyday. Thanks dad and Stepahnie for the poems! I appreciated it alot! You guys sent me the same one! I began to tear up a bit actually. Because of some things that happened today and what not and just the past 2 months in Mexico, that poem really hit home and were my exact same feelings! I am most def printing it off to read. I love poems! Especially if they have a message like that and messages of courage and triumph. I recently memorized 2 that I had brought with me: "The Road Less Taken" by Robert Frost and "Invictus" by...someone....Henry....you will have to look them up! They are great! If you come across anymore fantastic poems send them my way! Thanks for your emails everyone! I wish I could respond to you, but I don´t have a lot of time today so maybe next week. But I thank all that sent them! Well, that´s about my time this week. I had a bunch of pictures to send, but the computer isn´t recognizing my camera...maybe next week.... I love and miss you all dearly! Hope you are having fun! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner! e and miss you all dearly! Hope you are having fun!

Penasco Zone United States Border Splits in Penasco Visitors from Mesa, AZ.

Monday, June 6, 2012 - Food, (Not So) Glorious Food!

Hola Mi Familia! It was so good to get your weekly emails as always and of course it is constantly a strength to me! Elise, thanks for your words of wisdom! I will take them into consideration! Ha! This week was better! Well, in the food department, no so much, but we will get to that later, yeah? So exciting things happened with investigators and special missionary experiences so let's get started shall we? First, our progressing investigator Marisa! This week we watched "Finding Faith In Christ" with her and we invited 2 of her kids ages 11 and 9 to watch it with us! They really enjoyed the movie and afterward we all went to the store for our weekly groceries and had a fun time there. This was good because before her kids didn't really like us and didn't have like the church too much that one time they went. However, I think the experience with the movie and shopping opened them up to us more and we gained more trust and confidence in them. So the next night after our lesson with Hermana Marisa, when she took us home, we decided that we were going to invite them to Mutual this week to play games with us and get to know them more. We both wrote the kids handwritten notes saying how much we would like for them to come to mutual so we could get to know them better. At this time Hermana Marisa said that her kids had a present for me! This made me excited for Thursday, Mutual night! Ha! Who doesn't love presents? Well, they came to mutual! It was a lot of fun! They gave me a present: I always complain to my comp how I don't like it when the wind blows and constantly get dirt in my eyes and he is always calling me a weakling and a girl, but I take it! HA! He suggested that I buy sunglasses to keep the dirt out. Well, I didn't think I had told anyone else this, or maybe they just thought I was a cool dude, but Hermana Marisa's kids gave me Aviator style sunglasses! Ha! Isn't that great! I felt special that I gained their confidence! Maybe it is just because I'm a freak show here being tall, white, and having blue eyes...or maybe I'm just that cool...who knows....My comp tells me that he thinks I will baptize a lot of kids and teenagers in my mission because they just seem to be drawn to me and listen to me! That's kind of cool! So....anyway...we played futbol and I was pretty good at it! And basketball and Volleyball! Alex, everyone basically knows about you because I am always saying how good of a baller my brother is and how he tears up the court! Your famous...just FYI! We also that this other investigator kid and his dad come and they really enjoyed it which was awesome, but back to Marisa.... We continued to meet with her everyday because she is the most progressing and we didn't want to lose her. We taught her about tithing this week and to start off we read the scripture in Malachi which talks about the windows of heaven being opened and such. I then began the lesson with a question asking her what the word tithing meant. She knew exactly what it meant! She gave the exact answer and told us that she wanted to pay her tithing because she knew she would receive blessings! WOW! She basically taught the lesson to us! How neat is that! So she payed her tithing this week and I know she will receive great blessings for it. We also decided to do a mock baptismal interview to find out what was keeping her from getting baptized. My comp conducted the interview and I practiced the hymns for this week. After almost an hour, they came out and said that we had a firm date set for this coming Friday June 8th! So you know how in the past I've always been like "oh we will probably have a baptism this week", "I am so sure that a baptism is going to happen" and each time it doesn't? (Oh by the way Elise we extend the invitation to be baptized the very first lesson or the very first time we meet with someone. If we don't, then the people will just think that we are nice young men coming to share a scripture with them. However, when we state our purpose right off, they can know that we are there to help them have faith, repent, be baptized, and endure to the end!) Well I'm for reals this time! We are going to have a baptism this week! We have a firm date and an investigator that is so ready! She has asked that I perform the ordinance! And since we gained the trust of her kids we hope to baptize them soon too! So that's what up with her! :) This week we had the neat opportunity to go on splits with Priest from my home county The United States Of America! The zone leaders told us last Sunday that this past week 26 priests from Mesa, AZ where coming down to Penasco Thursday and Friday to see what missionary work was like. We didn't think we would be helpilng out since we were in Sonoyta, but after a big day Thursday, they called and asked if we would come and help out! I was excited and nervous! I have never been on my own with a non-native speaker and since Penasco is not our area, I'm not familiar with it, so I didn't know if I could do it. Well, there were 14 or so priests Thursday and then we came on Friday to help out with 12. There are 8 missionaries in Penasco, but 2 are sisters and naturally the priests can't go with them so we filled in. Each missionary took 2 or so priests and went out. Those missionaries that are here in Penasco went about their normal day with Priests: teaching lessons, contacting, ect. But since Penasco is not our area we don't have any investigators to teach, therefore, we had no lessons to teach so we were left to doing contacts. We had them from about 4PM till 6:45PM...almost 3 hours! It was a lot of fun actually! It was fun to be with Americans and to understand and speak more Spanish than they did. I taught them single testimony lines that they could say when it came time for them to bear their testimonies. Since they knew no Spanish of course I had to take the lead in talking to people and teaching and contacting. This a good experience I think for me-- It forced me to listen and try to understand everyone we talked to since I wasn't with a native and to initiate the contacts and talking because the other 2 didn't know Spanish. We had a good time and they each gave out copies of The Book Of Mormon with their testimonies. Afterwards their ward leaders took us out to dinner. Being from Mesa I naturally asked if they knew the name Whiting or Hobbs. Of course they did! One of the priests I had (his last name was Free) actually live acrossed the street from the Whitings before they moved to Georgia! He said he was sad to see them go, and I said I was happy to see them arrive! My 3rd set of Grandparents! So that's that! I'll attach pictures! Well now to the food part...this week was a trying week for food except for one day! This one day this sister, who is from Guadalajara like Norma, made us a good Spaghetti meal with salad and it was just like being at home and for dessert...Homemade Rice pudding! Papa would be jealous....well, it probably wasn't as good as yours Grandma, but still yummy! So that day made up for the others. The other were trying because I don't particularly like to eat what we had. First we had tuna...so let me just say I don't like any kind of seafood whatsoever, but I ate it anyway like a good boy should. Next, we had Tacos de Fish! Seafood again...except this time you had to scrape the meat off the bones and put it in the tortilla yourself. Again, I plugged my nose and grinned and bore it! Well the next time just pushed me over the edge....we had MENUDO!!!! For those of you who don't know what this is, let me just tell you:....Cow intestines/Cow Stomach! YUCK!!!! What did I do, grinned and bore it of course...like any good boy should! "Hmm...this is really delicious Hermana! Thank you so much"....NOT!!!! You will have to see if you can find pictures of it on Google or something! It looks gross! It is slimly and has these tiny tentacle looking things...NASTY!!!! Luckily I knew ahead of time that is what we were eating so I packed a few snacks know I would not get my fill at lunch! So that happened...yeah....! Well, that's about it for now! The Zone leaders left for their usually beginning of the month trip to Hermosillo so I am hoping that they will be returning with 3 packages for me and maybe some letters! I'm quite ansy! I'm loving the work and loving being a missionary! It is so great to see people's lives change through Christ! Hopefully this week will be especially good with my first baptism! Until Next week! Love and miss you all dearly! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner