"I will give away all my sins to know thee" (Alma 22:18)

July 11, 2022

"I will give away all my sins to know thee" (Alma 22:18) - July 11, 2022

Spiritual Thought

In the Book of Mormon we read about the missionary experience of Aaron, one of the sons of Mosiah. As Aaron teaches the father of King Lamoni there comes a point when this king exclaims "O God...I will give away all my sins to know thee". Later in this instance this same king promises that he will give away all that he possessed simply to come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ and to be forgiven of his sins. The genuine desire of this man is humbling. This individual was a king, a powerful man with one of the largest empires of his day under his control. In his time he was the most powerful man in the world. At his word cities were built and wars were begun. However, when introduced to the light only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can provide this same man feels empty and perceives that something is missing. I am profoundly inspired by the willingness of this monarch to abandon all his worldly possessions to come into good standing with the Redeemer of the World. I am more deeply inspired, however, by his heartfelt cry to abandon each of his sins in order to know the Savior. It is my sincere desire that each of us will approach our Heavenly Father in sincerity of heart and offer our own version of this commitment. I ask each of you to examine your individual lives, identify those things hindering your spiritual growth, then to approach our loving Heavenly Father in prayer as we too exclaim "I will give away all my sins to know thee". As we do so I promise that Redeemer of the World stands ready to receive us. It is His privilege to offer the sweet relief of forgiveness because it is He who drank from the bitter cup given by the Father. The price has been paid by the Lamb who owed no debt.

Of these things I earnestly pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Weekly Update

Hello everyone,

I am very confident I am living in a dream and will wake up at any moment. After waiting for so long to see this place everything feels surreal.

Before I talk about this week I want to say how grateful I am for my time serving in the Utah Layton Mission. There were lessons I needed to learn that I could have been taught and people I would not have met had I come directly to Madagascar. A wise person once said that "Man plans and God laughs" Well, perhaps that is never more true than when it is related to missionary service. I don't know all the reasons I needed to spend the first half of my mission in Utah (although I can already see at least some of those reasons) but I know the Savior always has a greater purpose. I genuinely would not choose to serve my mission any other way than how it has been. Thank you to everyone in Layton for what you have helped me learn!

After leaving Layton on Wednesday I spent far too long on airplanes and finally made it to Madagascar Thursday night/Friday morning. There are seven Americans who came to Madagascar. We all spent Thursday night in an apartment next to the mission office which is usually used for the senior missionary couple when there is one.

Friday was spent doing introductory things at the mission office. My mission president, President Rakotoarivelo, is one of the kindest, most genuine people I have ever met. All of the vazas (white missionaries) have been put in trios throughout Antananarivo, at least until this transfer is over in two weeks. My companions are Elder Damy (dah-mee) and Elder Tombosoa (toom-boo-soo-ah). I am serving in Ambohijanahary (ahm-boo-ee-zzah-nah-hahr-ee). It is in northwestern Antananarivo.

There hasn't been too much time yet for teaching and finding because of all the travel. Even so, I can tell this is an incredible place. There are constantly people walking up and down every street. You could spend all day standing on one corner and never run out of people to talk to. I'm excited to see what happens in my first full week!

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Payne