"I will show unto you a God of miracles" (Mormon 9:11) - January 26, 2022

 Spiritual Thought 

Among the many defining characteristics of our Savior's ministry perhaps the most widely recognized are the miracles he performed.  The power of our Savior over physical and spiritual conditions alike cannot be denied when we read of the blind receiving sight, the dead being raised, and a storm-tossed sea, calmed with a simple rebuke.  The Jewish leadership of our Savior's day brought upon themselves the judgement of God as they denied the divinity of the true Messiah and sentenced him to an agonizing death.  This rejection consisted, at least in part, of a rejection of the many signs of his divinity they had witnessed with their own eyes.  As in all things there is a warning and a lesson for us in this thing.  Our Savior is constant and unchanging.  The scriptures teach he "has not a shadow of turning to the right hand or to the left".  As such, if he was a God of miracles anciently he must also be a God of miracles today.  If you and I are too hard hearted to attest to the reality of the miracles placed before us then I fear we too are in danger of "denying the being of our Creator" and "putting him to an open shame".  Such a harrowing thought should make each of us tremble with fear.  Indeed, as true disciples of the Savior we should be willing to sacrifice anything necessary, even our own lives, to prevent such a tragic occurrence.

I testify of a God of miracles.  The God and Savior I worship does not rule distantly and uncaringly from a Celestial throne.  Rather, he is intimately involved in each aspect of his collective work and our individual lives.  The modern miracle I can attest to is that he has chosen to allow clumsy and inadequate servants, you and me, to be his hands in preparing for the Second Coming of his Son.  Such a thought humbles and excites me.  My prayer is that each of us will allow miracles to be worked for others through us and will boldly testify to the reality of the miracles we witness.  As we do so I promise we will receive more divine aid as we labor in the Lord's vineyard.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Weekly Update 

Hello everyone,

I chose this particular scripture because this week has been the most miracle filled of my mission thus far.

On Saturday Elders Burgoyne, Kolberg, Hammer and I all had plans for what we were going to do in the afternoon.  Those plans ending up canceling at the last minute, however, and we were left with an open schedule.  The afternoons are typically the slowest and least productive time of day so we were at a bit of a loss as to what to do for the next two or three hours.  Elder Burgoyne had the idea that all four of us should go into one of our areas for about an hour then we could switch to the other area.  

We started with my area.  Elder Burgoyne and I started by knocking on Natalia's door.  She was not home so we started to leave the apartment complex to go somewhere else.  As we were walking to the car we asked a lady if she knew if any if her neighbors spoke Spanish.  Her response was "Yeah, all of them, and I don't speak Spanish so I don't know why I live here."  Nothing is sweeter to a Spanish missionaries ears than someone saying all of their neighbors speak Spanish!  We asked which building she lived in then started knocking on those doors.  At the first door we knocked on a woman named Mararuxy (mah-rah-ruhx-ee) answered.  As I side note, I think Mararuxy is one of the neatest names I've ever heard.  She told us she moved from Venezuela with her family two months ago and has been looking for a church to go to.  She then asked what we did as missionaries.  That would have been exciting enough but what she said next definitely trumped it.  She then said " I have been reading in the Bible and my church doesn't match the church Jesus Christ started.  For example, the scriptures say Jesus went completely under the water when he was baptized.  Does your church do baptism in the same way?"  We are very excited to teach her, she seems so prepared to hear the Gospel.  It was a humbling experience to see how Heavenly Father worked miracles through something as simple as canceled plans, talking to a woman in the parking lot, and working during the time of day when "nothing ever happens".

The other miracle happened on Monday night.  Elder Hammer and I share the ward with another set of missionaries.  The Hermanas recently baptized a man named Diego.  Diego received the Holy Ghost and the Aaronic Priesthood this past Sunday.  I was able to give Diego the Aaronic Priesthood.  It was a special experience to give someone else the priesthood for the first time and to do it in Spanish.  Diego wanted his friend William to be present for both events and to start meeting with the missionaries.  William lives on our side of the ward so we will be able to teach him.  After church we talked to William for a long time about what his beliefs are and his experience at church.  We arranged a time to meet with him for the first time the next day.  As we were teaching the first lesson he was very receptive to everything we said and told us it all felt true to him.  I received a very strong prompting that we needed to invite him to be baptized even though it was only the first lesson with him.  After I extended the invitation his response was "Absolutely!  I have seen what baptism has done for Diego and I want that for myself.  I want to have the Holy Ghost, the priesthood, and to go to the temple.  I want all of these blessings you and Diego have told me about."  William is going to be baptized on February 19th and Diego will perform the baptism.  We truly do serve, not only a God of miracles, but a God who loves his children enough to provide each of them the opportunity to return to his presence and to use other children as his hands in doing so.

I hope all of you have a great week!

Elder Payne

Someone asked us to help them clean their house this week.  When I hear "clean the house" I think of things like sweeping the floor, wiping the countertop, or a number of other activities which could be done in proselyting clothes before a lesson.  It turned out these people are remodeling their house and wanted help with full blown construction.  I can now say that I have redone a flight of stairs in a shirt and tie.

We broke into President Johnson's car this week.  During the mission-wide quarantine there was a challenge to see who could teach the most lessons over the phone or zoom.  Elder Hammer and I won so President Johnson bought us pizza and told us to come get them while he was doing interviews with another district nearby.  I wasn't really breaking in since he left the door unlocked and told us to take them but it still felt a little edgy.

There is a restaurant here that has New Mexican food.  It was fun to have the zia sun on the menu and a whole story about New Mexico.

Elder Hammer and I had to make a trip to Lowe's at 9:20 one night for reasons which cannot be disclosed.

On exchanges with Elder Smith.

Our first district council of the transfer where the entire district was able to attend in-person.  From L-R: Elders Smith and Galovan, Hermanas McCasline, Spencer, Lopez, and Berkabile; Elder Hammer and Me.

Hermana Berkabile reached her halfway point this week.  We took a celebration gift to their apartment that night.  The football balloon is an inside joke within the zone.  The bad part is that I accidently tore a hole in the balloon on a handicapped parking sign going to their apartment.  The only thing holding it up is static.

Elder Burgoyne was harassing Elder Hammer one night and put his mattress outside.  A few minutes later the mattress moved to the window well outside our bedroom.

On our miniature exchange with Elder Burgoyne.