"Perhaps in their mockings and beneath the stir are repressed doubts of their doubts." (Neal A, Maxwell) - September 19, 2022

Spiritual Thought 

Before this world was created, two plans were presented during the great council in heaven.  Both would provide a Savior and both would result in salvation being made available to all of our Heavenly Father's children.  The key difference, however, was that in Jehovah's plan salvation would be the result of a "mighty change of heart" and becoming "new creatures in Christ.  Sadly, however, some would choose to step away from the indescribable opportunities which they could have claimed.  In Lucifer's plan this would never have been allowed to occur.  Salvation would be given, or more accurately forced upon, each and every spirit child of God.  Not a single soul would have been lost but salvation, if it could even still be called that under this plan, would have looked nothing as it is supposed to.  Rather than discipleship being developed over a lifetime of rejecting the bitter to know the good, it would look more like a caravan of prisoners which had been tied, blindfolded and forced to march obediently and undeviatingly towards their eternal reward.  Very different from the joy we will surely feel when we are embraced by our Heavenly Father and welcomed back to his presence as one who had all Satan could offer placed before them and nonetheless chose to brush it aside because of our love for him.  Our joy will be full but surely his joy will be even greater that one of his sons and daughters has chosen to return to him of their own free will, not by compulsory means.

In this mortal arena we see a continuation of the battle between good and evil which began so long ago.  Here too our Heavenly Father beckons for all to return to him through the atonement of his Only Begotten Son.  On the other hand Lucifer, now Satan, cunningly entices us to step away from the path which will take us home.  I believe that sometimes we forget Satan and his followers did not pass through the veil as we did.  The devil knows the way home but he is eternally and hopelessly miserable and desires for you and me to be that way also.  His tactics are many and varied.  He will be able to convince some to commit great sins.  Others will commit smaller sins over the course of their lives which gradually erode their grasp on the iron rod.  Still others will choose to leave the church and gospel they once loved and wander in strange paths.  This last group is particularly tragic to me.  Too many members of this church allow doubt to destroy faith, criticism to replace testimony and questions to triumph over truth.

It is interesting to me that the overwhelming majority of those who choose to leave this church will not travel down their chosen road in peace and allow us to do the same.  Instead they scream at, mock, slander, criticize and seek to harm those who are striving to be disciples on the covenant path.  Many convulse and protest at even the smallest mention of the restored Gospel.  Why is this the case?  Why are many of the most vocal and active critics of the church the same people who, in the not too distant past, sat shoulder to shoulder with us as we partook of the Sacrament and sang together "I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me?"  Well, the answer is really very straightforward.  This is the truth.  This gospel and the church which proclaims it are the church of Jesus Christ restored to the earth through a young, unlearned prophet.  There simply is no other path which will lead to lasting happiness and a fulness of joy.  As such we have an inherent enemy.  The same who sought to make us miserable before this world was created and will continue to do so until he is cast away for all eternity.  He is not content with merely pulling a few struggling souls from the path.  His purpose is to destroy every principle and precept our Savior has taught.  Even if he tragically pulls some of our brothers and sisters into the darkness, you and I are still on the path which will lead to eternal joy.  That thought is utterly unbearable for the author of misery.

Speaking on this topic Elder Neal A. Maxwell once stated: "Church members will live in this wheat-and-tares situation until the Millennium. Some real tares even masquerade as wheat, including the few eager individuals who lecture the rest of us about Church doctrines in which they no longer believe. They criticize the use of Church resources to which they no longer contribute. They condescendingly seek to counsel the Brethren whom they no longer sustain. Confrontive, except of themselves, of course, they leave the Church, but they cannot leave the Church alone (Ensign, Nov. 1980, 14). Like the throng on the ramparts of the “great and spacious building,” they are intensely and busily preoccupied, pointing fingers of scorn at the steadfast iron-rodders (1 Ne. 8:26–28, 33). Considering their ceaseless preoccupation, one wonders, Is there no diversionary activity available to them, especially in such a large building—like a bowling alley? Perhaps in their mockings and beneath the stir are repressed doubts of their doubts. In any case, given the perils of popularity, Brigham Young advised that this “people must be kept where the finger of scorn can be pointed at them” (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe [1941], 434)."

My prayer is that you and I will never choose to step into the darkness of doubt, even if our destructive journey only begins out of curiosity.  All too quickly we will find the adversary's brand of happiness to be nothing more than feebly disguised misery.  There is nothing for us there.  We are children of the covenant and the blessings of eternity are set before us.  The feast was spread for us a very long time ago when the Light of the World volunteered to become our Savior.  In that first council Jesus Christ said to His Father "Here am I".  May we resolve to always be able to state "Here am I" when our Master calls for his disciples.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Weekly Update 

Hello everyone,

Another great week here in Antsirabe.  On Saturday Richard, Justine, Henri and Antonette were able to be baptized.  We have invested so much time and energy into those four people and it was a privilege to be able to watch it all come to fruition.  I baptized Richard and Justine and Elder Razafimanantsoa baptized Antonette and Henri.  The Gospel has changed all four of them so much already and it will be exciting to see that change accelerate now that they have the Holy Ghost.  The water was freezing again but this time it was slightly green and smelled like fish.  I'm sure the Lord will protect me from any liver flukes and brain worms though!

Saturday was one of those days that makes people love their missions and that I've been dreaming about since primary.  As soon as the baptism was over we went to a lesson with someone named Hasina and her mom  Valentine.  Hasina is very anxious to be baptized but we thought Valentine was just sitting in on the lessons and didn't really care that much.  After the opening prayer Valentine held up the pamphlet that talks about baptism and the Holy Ghost and said "I've read this entire thing more than once and I need the Holy Ghost in my life.  How can I get that?"  We were able to teach about the importance of both the Holy Ghost and baptism.  Hasina and Valentine committed to be baptized on October 1st.

Our next lesson was with a lady named Vero.  Vero's husband passed away a few months ago and she has been left with three young kids to take care of.  Because of her situation we have been spending more time talking about the plan of salvation than we normally would.  We felt like we needed to be very direct and tell her that her husband was waiting for her to be baptized so he could receive the blessings of the Gospel.  After we said that she started crying and said "I have felt like that for a while now.  I want to be with my husband again and I'm ready to do whatever it will take."  It was a special day filled with neat experiences.

Henri and Antonette were married on Friday.  These are the people who thought we suddenly needed 140 bricks a couple weeks ago.  Both of them were so excited and were emotional at several points.  There have been miracles on top of miracles and it is great to be able to watch it all unfold.

One of the many things I love about the Malagasy people is how eager they are to share the gospel.  Henri and Antonette started telling their neighbors about the church and now we are regularly teaching two out of the three families which live close to them.  Richard and Justine have done the same thing as well.  

One day this week we were teaching Nary and his wife Clark (yes, Clark is a woman's name here.  Don't feel bad, I thought we had bigger problems than just needing to get married when Nary said he'd go find his wife Clark.)  People don't have front doors here and instead just have a thin blanket or sheet across the doorway.  The animals pretty much have free reign of everything so it's not uncommon to have chickens, ducks, geese, cats, goats, pigs or just about anything else roaming around during the lesson.  This particular day it was puppies.  It sounds cute but I actually groan whenever we see dogs because they are absolutely covered in fleas, even more than the other animals.  At one point I felt something weird by my feet and glanced down to see one of the puppies licking my shoe.  It wasn't just a little taste-test sort of lick either.  He was going after my shoe like it was covered in hand made Ol'Roy straight out of a five-star Paris restaurant and he didn't plan on sharing.  I moved my foot a little only to have him follow.  It was very distracting to have slurping and licking noses the whole lesson but the good part is my shoe was a lot cleaner once we left.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Payne

 

We had to do a baptismal interview after dark one night but were in the most dangerous part of our area.  We didn't want to be sitting in the dark with armed robbers prowling the streets so we hightailed it to find some light.  This was the best option.  It's the light from somebody's open window.  We stood right outside their gate and I figured out that if I held the planner with the questions just right the light reflected off the page and you could see me better.  If it works it works.

Elder Razafimanantsoa likes to stand over the sewer while we are talking to people.  It grosses me out because I know he's going to slide in one of these times.

The sunset.

A cow that sounds like a dinosaur.  I swear I've been dropped in Jurassic Park every time I hear it.

Henri and Antonette after their wedding.

Sorry for the gross picture.  I'm mainly sending this so it's preserved for posterity.  I want to be able to pull this out when my future kids complain about things like making their bed and eating dinner.  This is my foot and the red dots are flea bites.  This is what my feet and legs look like all the way up to the waistline, just in case you were wondering.  I've counted a total of 160 flea bites and I'm trying to hit 200 by General Conference. I've counted 17 bites in this picture alone but I'll give a free copy of my self-help book "How To Sleep With Fleas and Love It" to anyone who finds more.

With Antonette and Henri.

With Richard and Justine.

With part of Richard and Justine's family.

With all four people who were baptized.  From L-R: Justine, Richard, Henri, Antonette.  I'll let you figure out which missionary is me.

One of the street vendors had an American flag blanket hanging from his shop so naturally I had to take a picture.  If you are ever feeling down about our country, talk to a Malagasy for a few minutes, they love America!