"In our Heavenly Father's plan there are no true endings. Only everlasting beginnings." (Dieter F. Uchtdorf) - August 22, 2022

Spiritual Thought 

In order for our Heavenly Father's plan to come to full fruition it is crucial for change to take place.  If you and I were to eternally remain in one perfectly comfortable and familiar situation then our eternal progression would cease.  Just as standing water will quickly begin to stagnate, you and I must also continually be in motion if we are to achieve our full and eternal potential.  Such periods are nearly always difficult and painful as we feel the pain that endings bring with them.  Additionally, we quite often feel uneasy concerning what the future may hold in some new chapter of our lives.  I testify that we will eternally carry with us the aid and comfort only the Savior of the World can provide as we allow Him to direct the course of our lives.

Crucial to this discussion of change and progression is the ability to repent and to be forgiven of our past mistakes.  Too many hold to a belief that individuals are unable to change.  That you and I are born with certain inalterable predispositions and will never progress beyond our weaknesses or be forgiven of our mistakes.  Such a belief stands in direct opposition to the eternal plan of our Heavenly Father and makes a mock of the suffering endured by our Savior.  If we truly believe that our Savior's Atonement was infinite and individual, how dare we claim to believe that such a sacrifice cannot cleanse any person of any mistake they may have made?  When past mistakes have been repented of as fully as they can be repented of, it is our responsibility to do as the Savior Himself does and "remember them no more" (Hebrews 8:12).  If the Son of God,  the very person who makes such forgiveness possible, can forgive so fully as to "remember them no more" who are we to hold onto past transgressions, whether those be our own, or those of someone else.  I testify of the reality of our Savior's atoning sacrifice.  I testify of a Redeemer who eternally guides our progression and I ask each of you to begin this very day to draw upon the power His atonement provides. 

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

Weekly Update 

Hello everyone,

Every week is busier than the last here.  Whenever we think we are about to have a calm and fairly boring week something happens that makes it the busiest yet.   It's a great thing though.  It's good to be on the move and working.

Richarde and Justine were supposed to be baptized on Sunday.  Before that could happen they needed to be married which required Richarde to go to a town called Ambositra to get his birth certificate.  Well, long story short, the birth certificate was lost and floating around Madagascar on the wind for most of this week.  They asked Richarde's sister who lives deep in the hills outside of Ambositra to get the certificate and bring it to Antsirabe.  Instead of doing that she gave the certificate to someone who promised they would be coming to Antsirabe the next day (Wednesday).  They never showed up.  They still weren't here by Friday.  Friday morning we decided we had to take drastic measures, even if that meant going to Ambositra ourselves.  The problem is that the sister rarely is able to receive phone calls because she lives so far from town.  Even when we were able to reach her she told us she didn't know the name of the person who was supposedly bringing the certificate and that person doesn't have a working phone number.  Why she felt like it was a good idea to send money and a very important document with this person who she had no way of contacting is completely baffling to me.  To make it even worse every time we tried to talk to Richarde or his sister the connection was absolutely horrible.  It's hard to even describe how bad it was.  Imagine if the other person were on Mars, then put the phone in a popcorn maker and tried to yell over all the noise while using a blender, listening to Metallica, and letting the baby pound on a drum.  They are also speaking a foreign language and you can only hear one word out of every 100 which is entirely useless by itself.  Oh, the person bringing the document didn't have Richarde's phone number, didn't know what he looked like or even the general area he lived. I guess his plan was to come to Antsirabe then wander the streets yelling "Richarde" like he was looking for a lost dog. Maybe he should have brought rice cakes instead of dog treats to help bring in more Malagasies. That was the situation while we tried to figure our how to possibly find a very important document that was either taking a joy ride around Madagascar or had been dumped in a gutter somewhere.

Well, Friday night we were at Richarde and Justine's house when there was a breakthrough.  Somehow their son, Jean Marius, knew how to talk to the friend of the sister of the boss of the person with the certificate.  After about twenty phone calls and a lot of rapid-fire Malagasy we were able to talk to the person with the certificate.  He had been sent to Antsirabe to buy supplies for his boss and was essentially wandering the streets looking for Richarde without having any idea what he looked like or where he lived.  We coordinated a time and place to meet and now, finally, have the certificate.  It really was a miracle.

The bad part is that whole situation took long enough that Richarde and Justine were not baptized on Sunday as planned.  The silver lining though is that the rest of their family now wants to get baptized with them.  We have rescheduled the baptism for September 3rd and will most likely have eight baptisms that day.  The field is white and ready to harvest.

Our apartment usually has either water or power, but not both.  Both of them are gone roughly a quarter of the time.  That means you need to charge your phone whenever there is power and shower when you get the chance.  I call it showering but that's a very loose definition here.  That being said, I may never do anything other than bucket showers again. I feel so primal and connected to my roots every time. Even so I won't tell you what my record is for time between showers.  All I'm going to say is we didn't have any water whatsoever from August 8-17th.  Do the math.  Well, apparently the CEO of the water and power company in Antsirabe is an excommunicated member of the church.  He has a bad taste in his mouth and because of that he regularly turns off the water or power or both for missionary apartments.  It sure makes for good war stories!

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Payne

With a group of Malagasy kids.

Two high quality Malagasy dinners created by yours truly: mushroom rice and sardine rice.  We're eating like kings out here!

With Elders Razafimanantsoa, Kunkel, Andriamihaja, and Rakotomalala.

Somebody please teach the APs how to drive.

It's time to play one of my favorite games: "What's wrong in this picture?"  Send your answers in the comments. The winner will be sent the recipe for mushroom rice, sardine rice, and five other tasty dishes to give your friends and loved ones a satisfying week of rice-themed culinary fun.  Hint: these are train tracks.

A horse in the middle of town.  There are actually a lot of horses here.  Like I said: this is basically a Malagasy cowboy town.

The pedals on my bike decided they've had enough of the fat white guy and fell off one day.

We walked through a famadiana party going home one night.  Famadiana is a Malagasy tradition where they pull the corpses of dead family members out of the tombs, dance with them, feed them, talk to them, and basically act like they are still alive for a day.  Then they bury them again and have a huge party like this one in the street.  It's also the reason the black plague still exists here.  The last time missionaries were evacuated it was because of a plague outbreak during famadiana season.  It's a little strange to us but is honestly a great conversation starter when you bring up eternal families and the temple.  Personally I would be interested if you told me I just had to be sealed in the temple in order to see my family again, not dig them up and dance with the corpse.

With Elder Kunkel.

After Zone Council.

Elder Fergus looking creepy as usual during an all-mission zoom meeting.  Seriously, why is that guy sitting in a dark room by himself?  It's like his power has been out for two weeks or something.  Parents, hide your kids and lock your doors.