"Come adore on bended knee" (Angels We Have Heard on High - Hymn No. 203) - December 13, 2021

 Spiritual Thought 

An old African story tells of a village who asked all of the children to carefully select a gift to give to the baby Jesus just as the wise men did on the first Christmas.  Some of the children gave one of their own few possessions.  Others gave food or created a gift out of grass, rocks, or sticks.  Still others made clothing or jewelry to present to the newborn Savior.  On Christmas all of the children presented their gifts to the Savior as the village looked on.  The last child to offer his gift was a young boy, probably only seven or eight years old, named Sabo.  Sabo reverently knelt beside the manger and presented a beautiful seashell.  The village was astonished because this particular type of shell could only be found in a single bay many miles from the village through rugged and dangerous jungle.  In surprise one of the elders of the village exclaimed "Sabo, why did you travel so far to find your gift?"  In response Sabo smiled widely and said "The long walk was part of the gift."

My prayer is that each of us will apply the principle taught in this story and view our own gifts to the Savior differently.  Rarely does the Savior now ask us to sell all that we have and follow him.  Rather, the gift we are asked for is our heart, time, and talents.  Typically the path of discipleship leads through trials and tribulations which seemingly will never end.  However, when such tribulations arise I pray that we will remember this young boy and view the difficulty of the road as part of the gift to our Savior.  Indeed, why would we think that our own path would be easy when it was never easy for the Savior Himself.  From the moment the newborn Christ was first laid in his manger cradle he was tasked with treading the most difficult mortal journey ever experienced.  My invitation is that each of us will face the challenges set before us and, with a young African boy, declare to the Savior "The long walk was part of the gift".

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Weekly Update

Hello everyone,

One of the exciting things this week was that I was able to start working on a visa application.  The only problem is that it was Elder Ditto's visa, not mine.  Elder Ditto received an email last Friday asking him to start working on his visa.  We spent almost all of Tuesday working on that.  Part of what he needed to do was have his fingerprints taken.  What made this really exciting is that the closest places to have that done are in Ogden and Salt Lake, both of which are outside of the Layton Mission.  President Johnson gave us permission to go to Ogden on Tuesday.  It was an adrenaline packed experience to drive all the way to Roy then keep driving north.  The fingerprint place is in North Ogden so we were a long ways outside of the mission.  I felt like a caged bird that had been set free but kept expecting the MPs (mission police) to come out of nowhere and public flog me for leaving the mission.  It will be a weird day when I can go to Ogden just because I feel like it without needing permission or looking over my shoulder the entire time.

On Wednesday Elder Ditto and I knocked on the door of a person who has previously been taught by missionaries.  A man named Rodolfo answered and was very excited to see us.  He talked with us for about twenty minutes and ended the conversation by asking us when we could come back and teach his family.  He then told us that he wants his entire family to be baptized.  What is even better is that he lives with his wife, María, his three sons, their wives, and ten grandchildren.  In total there are 18 people who could be baptized in this one family and house.  Hopefully everything goes well because I could definitely handle 18 baptisms!  Prayers for the Perez family would be appreciated.

The highlight of the week was on Saturday when we were able to attend an all-mission devotional.  Elder Cook visited our mission and presided at the devotional.  I was asked to play the organ.  It was a great opportunity to be able to hear from an apostle.  A picture of all the missionaries with Elder Cook should be coming soon after it is sent to us.

I hope you all have a great week,

Elder Payne

Mountains that are not in the Layton Mission!

The Ogden Temple (also not in the Layton Mission)

My first experience at In-N-Out.  I was told I wasn't a true American until I had eaten there.  By the way, this is in Ogden which is not in the Layton Mission!

At the Bountiful temple.

It snowed for the first time this week.

My bike the night it snowed.  This isn't the best picture but it is covered in snow and ice.  Thankfully Bro. Willey, the member who owns the guest house we live in, told us we could keep the bikes in his barn so this doesn't happen again.