"To this end was I born" (John 18:37) - April 11, 2022

Spiritual Thought 

As the Savior faced questioning from Pontius Pilate prior to his crucifixion he was asked many questions concerning his divinity and true identity as the promised Messiah.  In response to one such inquiry He responded "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world" (John 18:37).  The truth this statement entails is eternally profound, it is the pinnacle of all human history and the object of hope for multitudes of faithful believers.

Our opportunity over the course of this week is to remember more perfectly the sacrifice and atoning mission of our Savior.  We reverently commemorate all that our Savior did and the profound gift he made available.  As we remember the triumphal return of the Messiah to Jerusalem may we resolve to allow the Savior to make a second triumphal return but this time into our own hearts and desires.  May we join with that ancient multitude in proclaiming "Hosanna to God and the Lamb'' as we more devotedly embrace Him with every fiber of our being.  

May we reverently remember the Savior of the World in a private garden shaking in agony as he bore the solitary, redemptive task of atoning for the sins of the world.  As we do so my prayer is that we will allow ourselves to shed a tear of gratitude for this supreme offering.  Surely such an expression is the least we can offer when the Lamb of God sweated great drops of blood as he paid the ransom for our salvation.  

May we shudder as we remember the trial and public humiliation of the Master.  As we ponder on scenes of abandonment, mockery, and betrayal my prayer is that we will commit to never repeat such scenes in our own lives.  The Savior has worn a crown of thorns once.  My plea is that he never be asked to wear one of our own making as we treat Him and His Gospel lightly or with anything less than profound reverence. 

When we feel abandoned or as though our Heavenly Father is far from us, may we remember the company we keep in such moments.  As the Savior of the World hung in agony on the cross even he, the perfect and Only Begotten Son of God, exclaimed "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me".  I testify that a perfect Father did not forsake his perfect Son in this final moment.  Though his spirit was temporarily withdrawn in order to make this sacrifice infinite and complete, such abandonment and disinterest would be contrary to the eternal nature of God and all paternal instinct.  In our own moments of despair may we remember this moment and the truth that our Savior knows exactly how it feels to feel distanced from the presence of God.  

Finally and most wonderfully of all, may we each remember an empty tomb and the angelic statement: "He is not here for he is risen".  This statement serves as the reason hope, joy, and peace are possible.  The empty tomb serves as a witness of the truth that The Lamb of God fulfilled his eternal promise and stands today as our advocate with the Father.

The more my own testimony of our Savior grows and the more I see the impact he has in the lives of those I meet, the more difficult it becomes to express my witness of Him.  Words are simply too fleeting and hollow to describe the role of our Redeemer.  Any righteous act falls pathetically short of the debt we owe to him.  Songs can be sung, testimonies can be written and shared, service can be rendered and a host of other personal and public witnesses of our Savior's reality may be performed but they simply can never describe the feelings of my own heart and countless others through time.  However, such comparatively inadequate means are all you and I have available to us.  We, in reality, are all we have to offer.  Our heart, our faith, our time, and everything with which we have been blessed.  As I have considered my personal testimony of the Savior I have come to the realization that there is only one way to describe my feelings: I love him.  I praise him.  I testify of who he is and the sacrifice which qualified him to be called Master.  He is a king.  He rules in power on the right hand of his Father.  He is in every detail of our lives.  His eternal invitation is to follow him.  Such a path will, for each of us, lead past our own symbolic crown of thorns and too often it will even involve betrayal and rejection.  Nevertheless, when such times come let us look steadfastly to the Redeemers of the World.  As disciples of Jesus Christ our responsibility is to walk some portion of the path he walked.  I am profoundly grateful that in such times he stands by us.  He walked alone once in order that we will never have to do so.  I worship him as my Savior.  I praise him as my King.  He is my older brother, my confidant and perfect friend.  I pray that during this Holy Week each of us will resolve to offer ourselves completely and permanently to the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Weekly Update 

Hello everyone,

For the first time in about a month I still have the same companion as the last time I wrote one of these.  It's actually kind of a weird feeling.  My transfer clock has been set to change  every week so now I'm not sure what to do.  

Elder Allen and I are teaching several promising people.  The hardest part is trying to get everywhere we need to be without a car.  The YSA missionaries found someone named Edgar a little over a week ago.  He is sixteen and came from Mexico on March 20th.  We have been teaching him a good amount and it is going very well.  He has great questions and reads everything we ask him to.  When we met on Saturday we asked him how he feels when he reads the Book of Mormon.  His response was "I feel very good.  Usually I don't like reading but I feel really good inside when I read this book."  We were able to talk to him about the Holy Ghost and why he feels that way when he reads.  We are very optimistic he will be baptized within the next few weeks.  

We are now halfway through this transfer and between General Conference and people being out of town I feel like I still do not know anyone in our ward.  One night this week we knocked on a door and I was getting very excited because I thought we had just stumbled onto the most elect person on the planet.  Not too far into the conversation I asked what this man's name was.  He got a really weird smile and said "I'm Obispo Peña"  I felt a little dumb but in my defense it would help if the Bishop had actually been in town for the past three weeks.

As a random side comment there are a bunch of trees that started blooming this week.  They look really pretty but they smell absolutely terrible.  I don't know what they are but they smell like a mix of rotting meat and a high school locker room (come to think of it, I'm not sure those two things are different).  Somebody decided to line our entire street in them so it smells wonderful.  I just keep telling myself that this is a good way to make sure I never plant that tree in my yard.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Payne

Pictures 

Disclaimer:  I realized I still have not taken a picture with Elder Allen.  I promise I have a companion and I'll make sure to have a picture next week.

With Elder Burgoyne and Elder Anderson after doing service.  Elder Allen was there too but he didn't want to be in the picture.  Some people never outgrow that phase of their childhood.

When I was about six or seven years old I helped my dad take a load of donations to Goodwill.  As we were driving away I was watching the employees sort all of our stuff into different bins.  I thought it looked fun and told my dad that I wanted to work at Goodwill when I grew up.  He laughed and explained to me that I may want to set a higher standard for myself.  Don't worry, I listened to his advice and no longer see Goodwill as one of my career options.  That being said, we've started volunteering at DI almost every afternoon and it is a lot of fun!  This is the bailer and, not to toot my own horn, but I've become an expert at it.  You take crates full of clothes and other donations and keep filling the bailer with them.  The clothes are then compressed repeatedly until the bin is full to a certain point.  Each bail weighs 500-1,000 pounds and is donated to countries in need.  It honestly is a lot of fun.  This is a finished bail just before it is dumped out of the bailer.  I said Goodwill wasn't in my future but I didn't say anything about DI…

We played soccer with a felon.  Look at this man's right ankle.  He was very open about the fact that he was on house arrest but he didn't care so he came anyway.

One of the crates at DI had two humongous dog/bear/rabbit sort of things in it.  It was kind of morbid to watch them get crushed by the hydraulic steel arm.

The Living Christ display in the Tabernacle visitors center.  It is very neat because this is the culmination of the tour and it shows how everything points to Christ.

Zone Council

We went back to the house that had a knife next to it last week.  This time there were some scissors on the other side.