"The intent of scripture is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how heaven goes" (Galileo - paraphrasing Cardinal Baronius, Vatican Librarian) - August 29, 2022

Spiritual Thought 

The Book of Mormon prophet Jacob taught on one occasion that the Jew's blindness and rejection of the Savior was caused by their "looking beyond the mark".  Those things which were largely unimportant distracted these ancient people and even caused them to hate the Messiah which they professed to be eagerly awaiting.  Their zeal to follow a strict and rigorous regimen of outward performances was well-intentioned and initially fulfilled its purpose of pointing them towards the Savior Jesus Christ.  Bear in mind this law had been given to Moses by the Savior Himself as a means to prepare his people for the physical coming and mortal mission of their Messiah.  Tragically, however, the symbol quickly obscured the symbolized and the observance distracted from the observed.  You and I know the tragic outcome which this blindness resulted in.  The Messiah came in mercy, taught His Gospel, extended his hand lovingly towards them, only to hear shouts of "crucify him" in return.  Certainly we must never allow the outward performance of ordinances, covenants or commandments to distract from the true intent for which they were given: inviting us to "Come unto Christ and be perfected in Him".

There is a second principle or application to be learned in this idea of looking beyond the mark.  One of the miracles of our day is the astounding wealth of scriptural and prophetic guidance available to us.  With only a smartphone we can access more scriptural instruction and prophetic teachings than the ancient prophets could have even imagined.  With this blessing comes the duty to learn more fully and study more deeply the word of God than in other previous generations.  In our zeal to "live by every word which proceedeth forth from the mouth of God" it is easy to become tangled in a web of obscure doctrine mingled with the ideas of men and shortly the flame of our faith begins to sputter as it gasps for spiritual oxygen.  It is easy to allow doctrines which may be interesting to distract from those which are redemptive.  The adversary is the great distracter.  He understands many of us will reject his lies if he immediately attacks the core beliefs in our testimonies.  That is no deterrent for him though.  Instead he will fill our time and efforts with intriguing but ultimately unimportant ideas or doctrines which will cause the roots of our testimony to die as they go uncared for.  If the adversary can fill our minds with questions over the exact time line of the creation then shortly he can also make us question whether there is even a God at all and if we are his children.  If we are so preoccupied wondering how it is possible that one man and one woman are the parents of the entire human family then we quickly lose sight of the truth that there was an actually Adam and Eve who fell from and actual Eden bringing physical and spiritual death with them.  If the only pondering we do on the resurrection is to wonder which angel it was that removed the stone from the tomb entrance then we are choosing to ignore the sublime reality that the stone was removed, the tomb was empty and the Son of God had won the victory of all victories on our behalf.

Perhaps Galileo once expressed this idea better than I can.  Said he "The intent of scripture is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how heaven goes".  I testify of the genuine and undeniable power which is had in the revealed word of God.  There is no safer place to weather the storm of mortality than by living "by every word which proceedeth forth from the mouth of God."  If we are to have any hope of returning to our Heavenly Father then we must cling tenaciously to His word and the message for which it was given: to declare to the world that Jesus is the Christ and there is no other name by which we can be saved.  

Of this I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Weekly Update 

Hello everyone,

If I had to give one word to describe this week it would be "weird".  I know that's not the most refined or impressive word to use but it's the best one I have.

The week started when I had my first experience with drinking dirty water and, let me tell you, I do not recommend it.  Most of this week was spent very sick.  I'm not sure where it came from but I'm pretty sure it was caused by water, not food.  I could easily be wrong though.  I'll spare you the details but just say a little prayer of gratitude every time you go to your kitchen sink and get a drink.

After I was mostly past the water problem I had a pretty bad infection in my throat.  I woke up on Sunday and had lost my voice.  It was strange though because instead of only being able to whisper my voice had gone up in pitch several octaves, almost like I had been inhaling Helium.  I sounded like a five year old who was happy his dreams had come true and he was in a big person's body.  It was pretty funny.

We had two different exchanges which was a lot of fun.  I went into both areas while Elder Razafimanantsoa stayed in our area.  Both missionaries I spent the day with speak practically zero English so it was a fun challenge!  During the exchanges I was also able to do my first baptismal interviews in Malagasy.  I love doing interviews and can always feel the spirit so strongly.  You can feel how much the Savior loves the person being interviewed and is pleased they have chosen to follow him.

Richarde and Justine are going to be baptized on Saturday.  We're very excited for that and are anxiously getting ready.  Stay tuned for more details!

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Payne

I've received requests for more food pictures and I'm just here to please.  This is what a typical Malagasy restaurant meal looks like.  Rice (of course), some sort of meat, beans and a salad which is usually a tiny bowl of shredded carrots with vinegar.  This is sausage in the picture but it can be pork, beef, chicken, cow stomach, etc., etc.  The meat and beans are put on top of the rice.  Looking back on it, it's very possible this meal is the one that made me sick.  Who knows though!

We're teaching someone who lives out in the sticks and this is the view as you go to their house.

A cow.  Enough said.

Long time readers of these emails (or anybody from the Utah Layton Mission) will know that I am proud to be known as "The Duck".  Well, I saw a glimpse into the future this week when I saw my seven children walk past.  They're learning how to find their own bugs and waddle without me there. I'm a proud papa!

A sketchy bridge we had to walk over.

With Elders Razafimanantsoa, Nahasoloniaina and (get ready for this one) Rakotonimaronanahary.  Yes, his last name is twenty letters long.  Mine is five.

The view of Antsirabe during exchanges.

Guinea Pigs roaming the house during a lesson.  These will probably be dinner within a month or two.

We were in a lesson with Richarde and Justine's family on Saturday.  I looked down at one point and their son, Tantara, had written "Payne" in the dirt on my shoe.  It was pretty cute.  He's like my little brother and thinks my name is hilarious for some reason.  He'll just be sitting in the lesson then say "Payne" for no reason and start laughing uncontrollably.

In our pitch black apartment.  The power has been out for a while so the flashlights on our phone are our only light.