"By this shall men know that ye are my disciples" (John 13:35) - February 14, 2022

 Spiritual Thought 

In the New Testament we read the account of the Savior's final teachings to his apostles prior to his betrayal and crucifixion.  There are numerous truths and principles taught in the account of this final time in our Savior's mortal ministry.  Included in these verses is a commandment to "love one another; as I have loved you" followed by the declaration "By this shall men know that ye are my disciples".  It is interesting to me that love and concern for our fellow man is the attribute given by Christ to qualify as a true disciple.  The depth of our scriptural knowledge or our exactness in obeying other commandments are not the standard of discipleship we have been given.  The primary expectation our Savior has for his followers is that they love and serve one another.  

When speaking of the type of love expected of us we are more correctly referring to charity.  Charity is the "pure love of Christ" (Moroni 7:47).  The beauty of charity is that it surpasses simple concern or affection and emulates the type of love the Savior has for us.  Jesus Christ is the perfect example of love because he is first and foremost the perfect example of charity.  As we develop true charity for those around us we will become more truly disciples of Jesus Christ.  My prayer is that each of us will exert greater effort to becoming a disciple of our Redeemer as we become more charitable to our fellow man.  As we do so we will feel the power of the spirit increase in our lives and will be more atune to the promptings we will receive.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Weekly Update

Hello everyone,

The highlight of this week has been working with the Rosales family.  They are progressing so well.  The ward has done an outstanding job so far of befriending and fellowshipping the Rosales family.  In fact one of the ward members, who is from the same city in Venezuela, offered to let them live in their basement.  Ward members have also been by their house to visit them, found Jesús a job, and driven Rosa for different errands she needed to do.  They do not currently own a car so there are three or four families that are all rotating through helping them, including taking them to church.  We are very optimistic that we will be able to invite all five of them to be baptized this week.  

This past Sunday was absolutely incredible.  There were thirteen nonmembers at church!  What made it even better is every one of those individuals could realistically be baptized.  The entire Rosales family attended plus eight other individuals.  It was honestly exhausting trying to make sure everyone felt welcomed and no one was overlooked.  Being exhausted because of how many nonmembers attended church is the best kind of problem to have though.

Our area is primed for a wave of success and baptisms.  We are going to invite all five Rosales to be baptized.  In addition William will likely be baptized.  The wife and daughter of one of the Hermana's recent convert just moved to our side of the ward and would like to be baptized.  I feel a little bad about this 9one but a woman named Laura who Elder Burgoyne and Elder Kolberg put on date is also moving to our area.  The field is white!

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Payne

With Hermana Risenmay the day before she went home.  Hermana Risenmay was at the mission office the day I came here and I believe she was the first missionary I met. It's weird to have more and more  of the missionaries I have known finish their missions.

Last p-day before transfers.

First day with Elder Morse.

With the Rosales family.  From L-R: Andrés, Alejandro, Jesús (in the back), Jesús, Rosa, Me, Elder Morse.

One of the members of the ward is renovating his house.  We help him for service several times a week.  This week he was doing the electrical work.  It was a trip down memory lane to be running wires again.  I quickly realized I don't know any of the vocab for electrical work though.

Happy Valentine's Day from "Los Elderes"

We ate dinner with the Zegarra and Rosales family yesterday.  This is what they served us: Peruvian Ceviche.  It was fun to try something a little more exotic!