"I will give away all my sins to know thee" (Alma 22:18) - August 2, 2021

Spiritual Thought

In the Book of Mormon we read about the missionary experience of Aaron, one of the sons of Mosiah.  As Aaron teaches the father of King Lamoni there comes a point when this king exclaims "O God...I will give away all my sins to know thee".  Later in this instance this same king promises that he will give away all that he possess simply to come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ and to be forgiven of his sins.  The genuine desire of this man is humbling.  This individual was a king, a powerful man with one of the largest empires of his day under his control.  In his time he was the most powerful man in the world.  At his word cities were built and wars were begun.  However, when introduced to the light only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can provide this same man feels empty and perceives that something is missing.  I am profoundly inspired by the willingness of this monarch to abandon all his worldly possessions to come into good standing with the Redeemer of the World.  I am more deeply inspired, however, by his heartfelt cry to abandon each of his sins in order to know the Savior.  It is my sincere desire that each of us will approach our Heavenly Father in sincerity of heart and offer our own version of this commitment.  I ask each of you to examine your individual lives, identify those things hindering your spiritual growth, then to approach our loving Heavenly Father in prayer as we too exclaim "I will give away all my sins to know thee".  As we do so I promise that Redeemer of the World stands ready to receive us.  It is His privilege to offer the sweet relief of forgiveness because it is He who drank from the bitter cup given by the Father.  The price has been payed by the Lamb who owed no debt.  

Of these things I earnestly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

 

Weekly Update

Hello everyone,

This week has been the most miracle filled I have seen up to this point on my mission.  This area had several baptisms just before my arrival so the teaching pool was drastically depleted.  Elder Divelbiss and I have been praying to know how to replenish our pool of investigators.  Those prayers began to be answered this week.  We found a promising individual to teach in each of the four wards in our area.

On Sunday evening we received a referral from some missionaries in Iowa.  One of their more interested investigators, Tim, is moving into our area.  We found some last minute help from the ward and moved him into his new apartment.  Tim is sick right now but we are optimistic we can meet with him this coming week.

Another referral was the Hansen family.  This is a family of six (four children, two parents) who are all very interested in meeting with the missionaries.  All of the other missionaries are very jealous of us because Utah missions almost never baptize entire families.  The last time an entire family was baptized in this mission was in November of 2019.  Hopefully all goes well.

About two weeks ago we were able to share a brief message with a woman named Kelly.  Kelly was born in China and moved to the United States when she was 25.  Elder Divelbiss and I went by her house on Thursday evening to try and give her the Mandarin Book of Mormon.  She was not home but her seventeen year old son, Kevin, was.  We were able to talk with him for about thirty minutes.  He told us that his dad passed away about three months ago and then asked many questions about what happens after death.  We were able to teach most of the Plan of Salvation.  Kevin seems very interested in hearing more.  

After we left Kelly's house we realized that we have no way of showing Kelly which sections we would like her to read.  We decided to try to find some help with Mandarin to at least mark where the chapter begins.  The next morning, Saturday, we were teaching a lesson to some members in our apartment complex.  The husband mentioned that he served his mission in Taiwan and is still fluent in Mandarin.  We told him about the situation with Kelly and he responded that he would love to help with Mandarin any time we need him.  We are hoping to deliver the Mandarin Book of Mormon in the next couple of days.  Some may call all of this a coincidence but I refuse to believe that our Heavenly Father would leave the exaltation of His children to accidents and lucky mistakes.  

Yesterday, Sunday, we had the most unbelievable rainstorm I have seen in my entire life.  The rain was coming down hard and fast for over an hour.  There is a normally small stream close to our apartment.  It became entirely filled then started to flood the apartments on the first floor.  It was incredible!  We are sure there will be service opportunities from this but will see what that looks like.  Elder Marchman took a picture of me standing in the gutter in water up to my knees.  I will remember to send that picture next week.

We also were able to help a widow in Elder Davis' area clear out nearly every bush and tree in her front yard.  She paid to have a woodchipper brought in and it was a lot of fun!  I told all the other missionaries that I think I am going to do missionary work for the first year then after that buy a woodchipper and spend the second year cutting down trees.  We were seriously feeding in entire trees and in a matter of three or four seconds they would be reduced to mulch.  Elder Divelbiss has as picture of me next to the woodchipper so I will remember to send that as well in the next email.

I hope you all have a great week,

Elder Payne

 

 

The road during the storm.  The current is so strong we were having a hard time standing in it.

The little stream by our apartment after the rain.  Normally this is maybe two inches deep.  In this picture it is probably three or four feet deep.  We watched for about five minutes and could see the water level rise.

The storm moving in.  Normally you can see the temple very clearly from here but it was completely blocked.

There are three hawks we can watch hunt almost every morning.  Two of them were sitting on our back fence one day.

When your district leader's car has five seats and there are six missionaries you have to use the unofficial sixth seat in the back of the car.  Whenever we do this we cross our fingers a cop doesn't see.  Then again, this is Bountiful, nobody would pick on a poor missionary, right?

The inside of the Mandarin Book of Mormon 

The front cover of the Mandarin Book of Mormon.  The whole book is backwards.  If this were an English copy you would be looking at the back of the book.