"A Choice Land" (Ether 2:12)

July 04, 2022

"A Choice Land" (Ether 2:12) - July 4, 2022

Spiritual Thought

Prior to initiating the restoration of His Gospel it was necessary that circumstances be created which would enable such a restoration to take place. As there was no nation which could serve as host to such an event it became necessary to form an entirely new government, one established by the hand of God and won through the blood of brave men. The miraculous circumstances which led to the formation of this nation include the discovery of the new world by Christopher Columbus, the search for religious freedom undertaken by the pilgrims, and the various personal situations our founding fathers faced which led them to take such drastic actions. The probability of success was so infinitesimal that the only logical explanation is that it was aided by the hand of God Himself. How else could a small group of untrained frontiersmen defeat what was then the most powerful nation in the world, one who had very nearly conquered the entire world? How else could such men write a document so pure as to earn the approval of our Savior unless the ink were guided by deity? How else could such a struggling and floundering nation rise from the obscurity in which it began to now stand as the "shining city on a hill" unless such a course were charted by the Savior of the World? Any explanation other than to accept the divinity of this land is simply illogical.

As we celebrate this independence day, may I ask each of you to look beyond the celebrations and festivity to see this day as yet another testament to the reality of our Savior and the truthfulness of His Gospel? It is my prayer that, through it all, we will see the hand of the Master beckoning us to Him. May each of us ponder in our mind what the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ means to us. May we express our gratitude to the founders of this land for their courage and obedience to the promptings of the Spirit. Through their actions such men were endangering themselves with a traitor's death through any one of a myriad of horrific methods. In a certain sense, these men have done more to further the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the establishment of Zion than any of us will be asked to sacrifice. However, they pressed on being constantly assured of the nobility of the task in which they were engaged. Above all, as we celebrate the "shining city on a hill" may we draw our minds to the Light of the World. He of whom it can be said is "a light which is endless, that can never be darkened" (Mosiah 16:9). Of this I earnestly pray.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Weekly Update

This is the last email I will send from Layton, Utah. I will miss this mission but am excited to see what the Lord has in store in Madagascar. There were definitely lessons I needed to learn in Utah and now it is fun to look back at those in hindsight.

This week we did a lot more exchanges, said goodbye to missionaries and people in our old areas and started packing to leave. On Wednesday I had a departing interview with President Johnson. It is a neat opportunity to reflect with him on what I have learned during this past year.

I don't know what my technology situation will be next week but I will still send out weekly emails. I'm excited to share this next part of my mission with all of you.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Payne

Waiting at the mission office with Elder Johnson. They asked us to sort dishwasher pods into bags of ten while we waited. Kind of strange but also pretty fun.

The mission border goes through the middle of a park in North Salt Lake. Naturally we had to go see it. Everything you can see in this picture is out of the mission.

Elder Golden threw a baseball and it rolled out of the mission. My feet are exactly on the mission boundary. Good news, I was able to reach the baseball.

The south side of this tennis court is out of the mission. I think we need to invite the other missionaries and they can play on the south side and we'll play on the North side.