"And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments" (1 Nephi 17:3) - May 16, 2022

Spiritual Thought 

In 1 Nephi 17 there is a verse which at first may seem repetitive or redundant.  Verse three says, in part, "And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them".  It seems strange and circular for this verse to state that if we keep the commandments God will nourish us, strengthen us, and provide a way for us to keep the commandments.  Wasn't keeping the commandments the requirement at the beginning of the verse which would allow us to receive these blessings?  If we are already following the commandments and being obedient why is the promised blessing for such faithfulness an increased capacity to continue doing so?  Is this not a redundant promise?

One of the beautiful aspects of the scriptures is that sooner or later we will each find a verse that makes us step back and ponder what we are being taught in a particular passage.  Surely there can be no greater opportunity to "feast upon the words of Christ" than when we are trying to resolve the dissonance of confusion we will occasionally experience.  

Obedience to the commandments of God is the first and greatest demonstration of our love for Him.  Each commandment is a new opportunity to place the things of this world on the altar of sacrifice in order that we may "Love Him, who first loved us".  However, due to our fallen nature, you and I will never be able to offer even the smallest portion of the dedication and commitment required of us.  The Savior knows this and paid the ultimate price to compensate for it.  If you and I fail to recognize the reality of our own inadequacy then we choose to deceive ourselves and spend our time hopelessly striving for an unattainable goal which we will never reach.  

Nephi first teaches the vitality of obeying the commandments of God.  Our genuine best efforts are absolutely crucial to our own spiritual development.  However, after all we can offer through our own power, after we have toiled, sweated, and wept, we will not be able to amount to even the smallest measure of the divine standard expected of us.  It is simply impossible.  What then are we to do?  The answer is given in the seemingly redundant conclusion to Nephi's verse:

"and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them"

This verse really has nothing to do with you or me.  Rather, it is about the Savior.  It is about his ability to provide a way in which we can accomplish whatever it is he expects of us and his capacity to, somehow and in some way, make our efforts sufficient.  This verse is not describing a circle but rather a sphere spiraling eternally upward through the aid of our Master and King.

There is a word for the principle I am describing which is not used as commonly in our church as perhaps it should be.  The word is "grace".  I testify of the power the principle of grace carries with it and the Lamb of God which makes such lofty ideals become reality.  Our Savior has promised he will take our meager offering, whatever it may be we have to give, and he will accept it.  He will provide a way for our personal effort to become enabling, ennobling, and ultimately exalting, but only through the infinite power of His grace.  Indeed, the price for such a supernal gift has already been paid in a private garden as a God subjected Himself to the agony which would allow him to overcome our imperfections.  I testify of the reality of that sacrifice and the power available to each of us if we will only speak for it.  That each of us will allow the Lord Jesus Christ to apply His grace in our own life is my prayer.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Weekly Update 

Hello everyone,

Another week, another email.  We started to give Joseline and Jonathan a practice baptismal interview this weekend to make sure they are ready for baptism.  It's a good thing we did because somehow they had some very large holes in their Gospel knowledge.  By large I mean things like who Joseph Smith is, what the Book of Mormon is, and having a living prophet today were missing.  Never fear though, we will teach these very important Gospel principles and reschedule the baptism.  They still would like to be baptized but only after some crucial details are taken care of.

One night this week we were about to go home for the night when we decided to try and talk to one more person.  We had talked to someone in this house another day who had grudgingly said we could come back but it didn't seem like the odds were very promising of her opening the door again.  We decided to give it a try though just to see if she happened to be home.  I fully expected to either not have anyone answer or be told they actually weren't interested.  Apparently this person lives with her parents.  Her mom, Pati, opened the door and was so excited to see us.  She told us that there used to be some sister missionaries who would come visit but then they left (thanks transfers, always messing things up).  She told us she would love to talk to us again but her husband wasn't home right then.  As soon as she said that a truck pulled up to the house and parked.  It was her husband, Jairo, who was just as excited to see us as Pati.  They invited us in and we had a very good conversation.  We are optimistic and excited to see how they will progress.  Jairo told us he had some "wild days" when he lived in Mexico.  He was involved in drugs, crime, and gangs for a while.  When he tried to get out of the gang one of the gang members attacked him with a machete.  He has the toughest looking scar on his face that goes from the hairline on the upper left side of his head, all the way down his forehead to his eyebrow.  If I could get one of those scars without being attacked with a machete I think I would do it.

If any of you would like to hear the story of me trying to teach a panhandler by the freeway with a "Need Cannabis" sign who said he was going to kill me, send me an email!  I'd be happy to tell you about it!

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Payne

At one of my legitimate favorite places: the trailer park.  These are an absolute gold mine for Spanish missionaries.  What's even better is this ward has two of them.  When sisters were here they didn't work in the trailer parks because they didn't feel safe (I don't blame them at all, by the way, I wouldn't want my sister in either one of them).  I'm not afraid of a little trailer park though so we're going absolutely crazy in both of them.  Over the past two weeks we've found over twenty new people to teach just from the trailer parks.  I have a serious love obsession with these places.  Send me an email and I'd be happy to give a detailed explanation of why I think you should pay a visit to your local trailer park.

This Crow was eating a smaller bird on the roof of one of the people we're teaching.  Just a reminder that nature is still nature.

The neighbors' two dogs like to look in our kitchen window.  We've named this one Lobo (which means "wolf" in Spanish in case you are one of the few people receiving this who doesn't religiously follow UNM football).  The other one is named Alika (which means "dog" in Malagasy in case you haven't been keeping up on the Celestial language).

Clotilde and Enrique are in Mexico right now.  Thanks to the wonders of technology we were able to have a lesson with them nonetheless.

The same trailer park street where I had my picture taken two days earlier.  This is why I don't blame the sisters for not coming in here.  It's also one of the reasons I love this place so much!  Where else in Kaysville am I going to see three squad cars, watch a SWAT team kick somebody's door down then go put someone on date in the same night?

Typical ZLs, playing basketball during prime teaching time.  What's actually going on is they are picking up more Books of Mormon from us because they ran out but I made them wait about 15 minutes because we were talking to someone.  I can never miss an opportunity to accuse Elder Burgoyne of being a lazy missionary though.