"Man, thy sins be forgiven thee (Luke 5:20) - May 9, 2022

Spiritual Thought 

Toward the beginning of the mortal ministry of the Savior a certain group of men sought the Master's aid in healing one of their friends who was afflicted with palsy.  Due to the throng gathered to hear the Savior teach there was not a way to bring the sick bed to the Savior.  Undeterred, these persistent and faithful individuals carried the bed, with the afflicted man still in it, to the roof and lowered him slowly down into the crowd of disciples.  As the miracle of this man's healing took place the Savior's first words surely must have surprised many of the gathered onlookers.  As the Savior looked upon this afflicted man and watched his limbs convulse as a result of his infirmity his first words were unrelated to the physical condition before him.  The Savior said simply: "Man, thy sins be forgiven thee"

To the passive onlooker or the passive reader such a statement must seem strange and largely out of tune considering the helpless physical state of this good man.  As this Israelite man tried in vain to control his flailing limbs and compulsing body, was his first concern really about his sins?  In this moment, after being lowered through the roof into a crowd of strangers, was this man honestly looking to his Savior to simply hear "thy sins be forgiven thee"?  However, as in all things, the Savior was teaching those ancient Israelites and billions of future readers across the globe who he really is.  The Savior is the Creator of all things and the Ruler of all the physical elements.  It is only logical then that if the Savior could create the human body he could also cleanse it from palsy.  If he causes the winds to blow, naturally he could also calm them with a word.  He possess power to work any physical miracle he deems necessary.  However, his first and foremost role in eternity is not as a temporal healer.  His eternal mission is to reach into the spiritual palsy of our own sins and state with authority "thy sins be forgiven thee".  

The skeptic will always find a way, regardless of how ludicrous it may be, to dismiss a physical miracle.  The naysayers know no limits and will turn to an infinite supply of natural phenomena or mental irregularities to explain away a physical manifestation of our Savior's power.  Such a pattern was shown on another occasion when the Savior restored sight to a blind man.  This man quickly went to the Pharisees, his spiritual leaders, and excitedly told them what had been done.  Rather than rejoicing with this man and recognizing the divinity of such an event, their laughable claim was that this man had never actually been blind.  How absurd.  Yet those determined to deny any semblance of a miracle will always be able to find a way to brush aside such events.

On the other hand, when one truly witnesses the Savior's power to forgive sin that person carries a greater and more lasting testimony than any physical event can produce.  When one has felt the cold grip of sin replaced with the warmth of forgiveness such a witness cannot easily be forgotten.  When one feels as though they have been smothered by darkness and all hope is lost surely there can be no greater miracle than to hear "thy sins be forgiven thee".

I testify of a Savior who possess the power to dispell darkness and forgive sin.  He is the Lamb of God who was sacrificed to win the victory over sin.  He is the Redeemer of our bodies and the Savior of our souls.  That each of us will yearn to more frequently draw from the well of forgiveness he offers is my sincere desire.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Weekly Update 

Hello everyone,

Another week, another transfer, another area, another companion.  Life in Kaysville is great!  Kaysville is known as a dead area in both Spanish and English so I wasn't sure how I felt when I was transferred here.  So far though it's looking like this will be my highest baptizing area.  We have a baptism scheduled for a couple named Jonathan and Joseline on May 22nd.  This couple has met with missionaries for a long time but have never been baptized because they are not married.  When they lived in Miami they asked their priest to marry them but he never filed the paperwork so they weren't actually married.  Joseline called this week and asked the priest for her money back.  He went through his records and found their marriage certificate that had never been given to them.  Long story short, turns out they are married and have been for quite a while.  Kind of confusing but as long as they are able to be baptized it all works out in the end.

The other couple is named Clotilde and Enrique.  Their baptism is scheduled for May 28th.  They have also met with missionaries for a while and have decided to be baptized.  I'm excited to watch each of these people over the rest of the transfer.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Payne

I'm confident many of you will remember what happened as far as cars and cameras when I was companions with Elder Porter for a week.  In case you have forgotten, the abbreviated version is that Elder Porter lost control of his chapstick and somehow it ended up smeared all over our camera.  He wasn't allowed to be in mission cars for all of last transfer.  Well, I ran into Elder Porter at the mission office as I was changing areas.  He's now allowed to ride in mission cars again.  I had to get a picture with him to document the moment!

The Layton temple is in my area now.  It's so fun to drive past it multiple times each day.

I don't remember if I have mentioned this before but Elder Burgoyne started calling me Duck last transfer.  Like most things related to how the Spanish zones view me I have no idea how this started or why he thinks Duck is a good name for me.  We saw this van with a "Be the Duck" bumper sticker and I had to get it.  This is my new mission Motto, "Be the Duck"

You might remember another picture like this from an email all the way back in early October.  My house was having a toilet paper crisis then and stooped so low as to steal a roll from the church building.  Well, we had the same problem again this week.  This time, however, we had to take it before church started without getting too many weird looks.

I was finally able to get my driver's license renewed this week so I had to take a picture with it like all the sixteen year olds.

We had a lesson with someone we are teaching named Alan last night.  He had a Ping Pong net on his kitchen table and wanted us to try it.  We only played for maybe three minutes but that was plenty of time for me to snap his ping pong paddle in two.  The ball landed at the edge of the table and as I tried to hit it I heard a cracking sound and the paddle went skidding across the room.  Luckily Alan thought it was hilarious.