"Lead me, guide me, walk beside me" (I Am a Child of God - Hymn No. 301)

September 06, 2022

"Lead me, guide me, walk beside me" (I Am a Child of God - Hymn No. 301) - September 5, 2022

Spiritual Thought

From our earliest days in primary we are taught the words of "I Am a Child of God". Typically this is one of the first songs we learn and children eagerly look for opportunities to sing it. I wonder, however, if the words of this song sometimes become so commonplace to us that we lose sight of their meaning. Our prophet, President Nelson, has repeatedly implored us to remember our divine identity and the future which can be ours if we choose to accept it.

Think for a moment about what exactly we declare each time we sing "I Am a Child of God". Each an every person on thus earth possess a spirit which dwelt with and was created by God Himself. We learned at his feet, desired to return to him, and shouted for joy when a plan was presented which would allow us to do so. Inherent to this plan, indeed essential to its success, would be a period of testing and trial when we were physically distanced from our Heavenly Father. This period would require us to endure all manner of heartache, sickness, and despair. Some of us would be required to endure disease and immense physical pain. Others would pass through mental illness and limitations. And still others, too many of them, would face this experience largely alone as grappled with broken homes, shattered relationships, or outright rejection. Worst of all, however, we would he required to be tempted and tested. Far too many would fall to sin and thus be unable to return to our Heavenly Father's presence. Surely our Heavenly Father must have wept knowing there would be some who chose to reject him and deny themselves of the blessings he desired to bestow upon them.

The promise given to us is one which is difficult for many to comprehend. It is nothing less than everything our Heavenly Father possess. Every person carries with them the spark of divinity. We have a divine nature and eternal destiny. We are not merely the result of some great cosmic accident. Nor are we merely just another piece of nature placed upon this earth. We are the children of the king. Our inheritance is our Father's kingdom and our destiny is a throne. My prayer and invitation is that we will allow our divine nature and destiny to be the defining characteristic of our lives. As we do so we will come to realize the comforting, ennobling, and ultimately exalting power such a principle carries with it.

I am a Child of God

Rich blessings are in store

If I but learn to do his will

I'll live with him once more

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Weekly Update

Hello everyone,

Another week for me, another action-packed email for you. Let's dive right in.

We received the transfer news yesterday and finally, at long last after all these months on a mission I am not changing companions or areas. I will be staying in Antsirabe with Elder Razafimanantsoa for another six weeks. It's honestly a strange feeling. This is the beginning of my eleventh transfer in the field (an Elder spends sixteen in the field) and it is the first time my companion, area, or both is not changing. The majority of those eleven transfers my companion and area have both changed. Not this time though! It took fifteen companions but I finally learned how to not run them off quite so fast. In all seriousness though, I'm grateful for all of the areas and companions I have had. I've enjoyed every area for different reasons and learned great lessons from every companion except Elder Hammer. All I learned from that guy was how to find the exit when your roommate starts acting like a creep. :)

Pierot, Tantara and Joanna were baptized on Saturday. I was able to baptize all three of them as well as three other people from the Sister's area and it was such a neat experience. Joanna is from a family who is returning to activity and she had not been baptized yet. I didn't think I would teach any more unbaptized children once I left Layton but it was a unique and fun experience to do that here. Pierot and Tantara are two of Richarde and Justine's children. For reasons I'll explain in a minute, Richarde and Justine's baptism was postponed a week but they still wanted Pierot and Tanatara to be baptized. I am amazed by the faith every member of this family has and their desire to be close to the Savior.

Richarde and Justine were very excited to be baptized with Pierot and Tantara on Saturday. I'm sure you'll remember from the hours you've spent poring over every word of these emails that we've had quite the adventure getting Richarde's birth certificate so they can be married. We finally had everything we needed and went to the vital records office on Thursday to get a marriage license. Well, the problem was actually Justine's birth certificate. Something on it needed to be updated in the town where she was born. She is from Betafo which is only about 45 minutes from Antsirabe but it still was going to be a major burden for Richarde and Justine. We were trying to figure out what we could do when our Elder's Quorum president appeared out of the crowd. I have no idea why he was there. It was honestly like he was an angel sent just to help with this one problem. He asked Richarde and Justine if they were excited for their baptism and they explained the situation with Justine's birth certificate. He listened calmly then asked if Betafo was very far away and if they could leave right away. Then he said "You have already sacrificed enough. You have shown you want to follow the Savior and He is pleased with your faithfulness." He then reached into his backpack, pulled out 20,000 ariary and handed it to Justine. 20,000 is not a small amount of money here. It's more than most people (Richarde and Justine included) live off of in a week. You don't hand out 20,000 on a whim so this was a very generous and Christlike thing for the Elder's Quorum president to do. Justine immediately found a bus and left for Betafo. She needed to spend the night because there wasn't a bus coming back that day and didn't even take time to pack any sort of bag to take with her. It reminded me of the shepherds from the Christmas story who left immediately when they saw the star and didn't wait for even a moment to see the Savior. Like I said, when the scriptures talk about "the elect" they are referring to Richarde, Justine, their family, and the overwhelming majority of all other people living in Africa.

There is another couple, Antonette and Henri, who are in almost the exact same situation as Richarde and Justine: ready to be baptized, need to be married first but need to go to a town far away before that can happen. The problem with this situation is that Henri is from Toamasina, a town about sixteen hours away from Antsirabe. We coordinated with the missionaries in Toamasina to meet Henri's sister and get the certificate before we are both in Antananarivo for a meeting this week. We told them we would only have one chance to do this so we needed to make sure it happened in time. We came to Antonette and Henri's house on Friday to see if they had been able to send the money for the certificate yet. Henri sat with his head down looking at the floor for several seconds then looked up with tears in his eyes and said he had not been able to make enough money that day to buy food and send money for the certificate. In Madagascar, and many other countries, you live off of the money you make today. There simply isn't the economy or infrastructure for the average person to do anything else. If you don't work, you don't eat and if business is slow one day then you better not be very hungry. Antonette and Henri make and sell bricks for a living. I asked if they would be able to send the money while we were still with them if I bought enough bricks to pay for the certificate. They acted shocked but nodded enthusiastically. Then I asked how much money they would need and how many bricks that was equal to. Their answer was that they would need 10,000 ariary which would buy 140 bricks but the bricks weren't made yet so I couldn't buy them. I don't like being told I can't do something so I asked if I could pre-order 140 bricks. They were confused but after I explained my idea they said I could do that if I wanted to. I am now the proud owner of 140 genuine, custom-made Malagasy bricks lovingly crafted from authentic Antsirabe mud. They should be finished some time this week or next and I'll be sure to take a picture for all of you. Whatever it takes to move the work forward!

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Payne

With everyone that was baptized on Saturday. Three are ours and three are the sisters who split the branch with us.

Please forgive me for the soapbox you are about to read. There are some products and services where the word "Lucky" can appropriately be used. Lottery tickets, piñatas, and half-off night at the casino are some that come to mind. There are plenty of others, however, where the word "Lucky" is downright terrifying. Cement is one of those. Who thought it was a good idea to market cement with anything even remotely related to luck? Seriously? Were they watching the first batch of cement crumble like a sandcastle then said "Well, if we're lucky this might not collapse in the windstorm" Do they realize that it's used to build the foundations of buildings? The competing brand of cement is "Simba Cement". Simba, like Lions. Lions which are strong and powerful and will hold up your house, not let it come crashing down the first time rock paper scissors goes south. I really want to know what redneck looks at the two options then says "That looks good! Grab a few bags of that Lucky Cement, some Hail Mary steel and a couple Cross Your Fingers trusses and we'll be sittin pretty Betty Lou! It's ten cents less than this Simba Cement trash! Ain't nothin a little duct tape won't fix!" Sorry for the tangent but it's been weighing on me.

There's some sort of Catholic celebration going on right now. There are parades like this in the street that stretch on and on. They sing African songs the whole time so it sounds really neat.

Orange juice from Egypt.

We don't have a whiteboard for weekly planning so this is what we have to do. If I were Satan I'd probably just go back to bed and hide under the covers after looking at this. Big things are coming.

Yes, we gave ourselves a name and a logo. If you'd like a signed "Fo$a BoyZ" t-shirt, let me know. I know someone who can help with that.

Another parade.

It takes 24 hours to fill the baptismal font. We turned the water on at about two on Friday and by the time the baptism started at two on Saturday we finally had enough water. There's no hot water here and this water was ice cold. It took my breath away when I stepped in and I had to hide it so people would still get baptized.