Lumberton, North Carolina - February 13, 2017

Hello family and friends! I hope you have all had a really great week this week! My time here in Lumberton has gone by in the blink of an eye!! I can't believe that I have been here for 6 months!! Monday night, President James called to ask if I would be a Sister Training Leader in Pembroke. Pembroke is only like 20 miles to the west of Lumberton! I won't even be leaving Robeson county. I am really excited!!!! The people here in Robeson county are very prepared to hear the gospel!!

This week has been really good. It has also been an emotional roller coaster haha!! This week, Danny's brother told Danny that if he got baptized, he would take him off the family will and would basically disown him. So, Danny decided Wednesday that he wanted to wait a little longer. We told him to keep praying and relying on the Lord. Thursday, we went back over and he said that he had changed his mind. He told us that he was old enough to make his own decisions and that he wanted to still get baptized Saturday. Friday, we went over to teach the final lesson and guess who was visiting.....his brother. His brother listened to what we had to say and was very nice. It was extremely awkward though! His brother told us that it was hard for him to see his brother change from Baptist to Mormon. The member we brought with us had converted from the Baptist church and said some really great remarks to the brother. We could tell that Danny was very uncomfortable. At the end of the lesson, he said that he wanted to hold off on the baptism. Later that night, we called him to make sure that was what he wanted. He said that he wanted to hold off on his baptism until next week. So, hopefully this Saturday all goes well and he will be able to get baptized! Since Pembroke is so close, I may be able to get permission to come back and see his baptism!! Everything else though went pretty well this week!

This week, I found the November 2013 Conference Ensign in our apartment and have been reading it all week! Recently I read President Uchtdorf's talk entitled, "Come, Join with Us". This talk is really great and I highly recommend you all listen to it or read it this week!! Anyways, my favorite quote from the talk is "...first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ....Come, join with us. Come heed the call of the gentle Christ. Take up your cross and follow Him." I am so grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I truly know that this is the church that our Heavenly Father wants all of His children to be a part of. I know that life gets hard and it can seem to be easy to doubt our faith, but don't do it! No matter where we are at in our lives, I know that the Savior will always welcome us in!

I love you all so much!! I am so grateful for everything you do for me! There really is no where else I would rather be right now than here on my mission. I love you and miss you all!

Love,

Sister Paynter