"I will find my own Sacred Grove" (Primary Song) - November 15, 2021

Spiritual Thought

There is a song written for primary children which contains significant lessons relevant to each of us.  This song beautifully describes the experience of the prophet Joseph Smith and says, in part, "I will find my own Sacred Grove".  The lessons and principles attached to this simple phrase are profound.  

Our Savior has promised that he will provide guidance, answers, and direction to all who will demonstrate the faith to sincerely ask him in prayer.  Do you and I fully comprehend what such an opportunity entails?  We are not left to drift alone in the bewildering sea of false ideas and perceptions.  Our guidance is not contingent on another person.  Rather, it is the profound privilege of all Heavenly Father's children to receive guidance for their own lives.  What a gift!  The Savior of the World who rules the heavens from his celestial throne is willing, no, is anxious to answer our sincere questions.  

Among the many doctrines learned through the sacred experience in the Sacred Grove this particular principle simply must not be ignored.  Our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ personally appeared to a young, unlearned boy from an obscure farming town in New York.  This to all-powerful beings demonstrated the love and the patience for young Joseph Smith to answer the questions which weighed upon this young man's heart.  

This gift of personal revelation is available to all who wish to use it.  The requirements are that we have faith to ask and willingness to accept what our answer may entail.  I invite each of you to once again draw upon this power and seek knowledge from your Heavenly Father.  Like Joseph Smith, identify what it is that weighs most heavily upon your mind.  Then "ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not" (James 1:5).  I promise that as you do so you will receive inspiration and will know of our Heavenly Father's love for you.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

 

Weekly Update

Hello everyone,

The big news for this week is that I am being transferred again.  I am disappointed to have only spent one transfer in Woods Cross but am excited to see what the Lord has in store.  I will be finishing the training of a missionary, Elder Ditto, whose companion is going home tomorrow.  The really surprising part is that I am being assigned as a Spanish speaking missionary.  To be honest I have no idea why I have been reassigned to Spanish.  My Spanish is passable but in no way fluent and is certainly not to the standard of leading a lesson or conversation.  I'm sure that the Lord will provide a way!  My area is the Syracuse Utah Bluff Stake.

I am always amazed by how anxious the Savior is to reward our righteous efforts..  During this transfer we have done all within our power to familiarize ourselves with the people in this area and we are seeing the benefits.  This week we received three referrals, all of which could feasibly be baptized in the next few weeks.  Two of those referrals came directly from the Bishop and are individuals he is working with.  In addition, there are at least three more people who could be baptized in the near future.  The Lord is anxious to reward our efforts.

We came dangerously close to having to quarantine this week.  One of the ward mission leaders, Brother Ita, and his wife tested positive for COVID on Wednesday.  We have had very close contact with him over the past few weeks.  We called the mission nurse and explained the situation, fully expecting that she would tell us to quarantine for at least a couple days.  Her advice was to wait three or four days to see if any of us started showing symptoms.  Thankfully none of us did.  We dodged a bullet!  There is no way that I could handle being locked in an apartment for ten to fourteen days.

The bad part about this situation is that Micah and Phoenix very badly want Brother and Sister Ita to be at the baptism.  They will be out of quarantine one week from Wednesday so the baptism has been rescheduled again, this time for November 21st.  It is disappointing that we will have to wait longer but I am confident that it will actually happen on the 21st.  Pictures to come next week!

We have been trying to contact a woman named Cherie.  She is not a member of the church but one of our Bishop's has been helping her work through some of her struggles.  We had an appointment to meet at the chapel Saturday evening.  She still had not made it by 5:15 so Elder Holdaway and I decided to walk up the street to her apartment complex in case we ran into her on the way.  We were stopped by a couple different members that wanted to talk so we were still farely far away by 5:30.  I asked Elder Holdaway if he thought we should just turn around since it was so late at this point.  He very emphatically said that we should keep going.  I am so glad he said that because just a minute later we ran into Cherie.  We talked to her for several minutes then she asked, without any hinting or prompting from us, if we had a copy of "the book".  We were very surprised but gave her a copy of The Book of Mormon.  She was very appreciative then asked us how she could be baptized.  I was so shocked but managed to stammer out a response.  Cherie has had some serious struggles and trials that will need to be worked through but we are excited to be a part of her progression.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Payne

 

 This truck was parked in our apartment complex.  We waited several minutes to try and meet the driver but never saw him.  It was fun to see the zia sun again!

Only in Utah.

  

In the church building after walking through a torrential downpour. (picture missing)

We helped move this massive pile of wood chips.

We started teaching a family of elves this week.  The only problem is that The Book of Mormon is bigger than their entire house.  

I think I found my new career goal.

I met my second cousin while we were out and about on Sunday.  The name of the store is Croft Power Equipment.  Croft is my Grandma's maiden name and my dad's middle name.  Neil, the person in the picture is from the same line of Crofts as my grandma.  Pretty fun!