"Remember Lot's Wife" (Luke 17:32)

September 12, 2022

"Remember Lot's Wife" (Luke 17:32) - September 12, 2022

Spiritual Thought

While teaching a multitude on one occasion the Savior offered the second shortest verse in all of scripture: "Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:32). These three short words teach a profound lesson on how we are and are not to face change and progression in our lives. During the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot and his family were commanded to flee the city. Included in this instruction was a charge to not look back. However, as this family was escaping that wicked city Lot's wife violated this charge, she turned back and looked. Upon doing so the scriptures say she was turned into a pillar of salt.

Considering the eternally patient and empathetic nature of our Savior I do not believe this punishment was the result of merely looking back. I am confident the Savior fully understood the sacrifice this woman and her family were being asked to make. They were leaving all they knew and loved, their home and livelihood, to wander in the harsh desert. Rather, I am confident that the judgment of our Savior was brought about because Lot's wife looked back longingly. She longed not only to return to her home but to return to the lifestyle of Sodom. She looked back doubting the plan the Lord had laid for her and longed to return to a wicked and degenerate state. Metaphorically speaking, Zion lay before her while she wished to return to Babylon.

Change is an eternally crucial element of spiritual growth. Rarely, however, will it be comfortable or convenient. When some new task is asked of us by our Savior may I ask that each of us do exactly what the Savior counseled: "Remember Lot's wife". In particular, may we remember the reason her action was wrong and resolve to not repeat her mistake. The past should be learned from, not lived in. May we choose to look forward to all things the Lord has instore for us, rather than longing to return to days past. I invite each of us to choose to develop a deeper, more personal relationship with our Savior during moments of change in our lives. Let us make this week, this day or even this hour the one in which we gain the greatest witness of who our Savior is and view him not only as a distant, redeeming figure, but as our closest and most constant friend. As part of this personal relationship I pray we will access the power of his greatest gift to us as we repent of our past mistakes. In addition, may I ask that we allow those around us to repent of their own mistakes. If something has been fully repented of and has been forsaken in the past then leave it there. If the Savior of the World himself, he who made repentance and forgiveness possible, has said in mercy "thy sins be forgiven thee" then who are we to hold on to the past mistakes of others or ourselves? I fear that if we continue to hold grudges or withhold forgiveness after full repentance then the greater sin will be answered upon our heads.

I promise that as we resolve to press forward with faith we will receive the help of our Savior at every turn. He is anxious to assist and reward any good effort. Indeed, it is for this reason that he sacrificed his own life. I testify of his atoning sacrifice which makes such progression possible.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Weekly Update

Hello everyone,

I'm running out of creative and witty ways to start these emails so imagine I said something cute right here.

The first week of the transfer is always very busy. On Tuesday we left Antsirabe and took a four hour bus ride so we could attend a meeting in Antananarivo. Bus rides are an adventure. The roads are terrible, the buses are several sizes too small for me and the drivers make James Bond look like a scared grandmother driving ten under the speed limit. Our bus ride was tiring enough and it only lasted four hours. Other missionaries had to take a ten or twelve hour bus ride. It was great to be able to see some of the other American missionaries. Two of the four missionaries from Réunion were there and it was good to see them again. Apparently there is a Book of Mormon famine in Madagascar. We tried to pick some up to bring back here but the office told us that we only have 220 copies to last the entire mission until December. I don't think that should be any problem at all when your transfer baptism goal is 265. It's very hard to ship anything here. In fact, the church is already stockpiling garments for when the temple is dedicated at least five years down the road.

As soon as we made it back to Antsirabe on Thursday we were off and running again. Even though we lost a big part of this week we were able to help Richard and Justine get married. It was very exciting to see it finally happen after all this work. They have had a baptismal interview and will be baptized on Saturday. We were also able to help Henri get his birth certificate from Toamasina, a town about fourteen hours away from here. Antonette is working on getting her certificate also and we will hopefully have another wedding either at the end of this week or beginning of next and a baptism shortly after. This area has many different people who are willing to be baptized as soon as they are married. This week we found two more couples who are in that situation. I say we found them but that might be giving ourselves too much credit. Both couples stopped us as we walked past and said they had been taught by missionaries before COVID but had never been baptized, even though they would like to be. Elder Razafimanantsoa said it is helpful to have the Americans back of nothing else because we stand out. He said if a Malagasy person sees another Malagasy wearing a shirt and tie walk past they will think "That guy is dressed nicely for something" then forget about them and go on with their day. White people already stand out and white people in dress clothes are even more obvious so he said when they see one of the American missionaries they think "Hey, I had someone like that at my house a couple of years ago and really liked it, I should talk to them again." Basically my purpose right now is to roam the streets of Madagascar showing off my white face and let people remember the last time a white guy wanted to come to their house.

Yesterday we were standing just outside the chapel welcoming people to church. There was a man from the branch which meets before us who was walking past. Just to set the scene, this guy was maybe five feet tall, sounded a lot like the Malagasy version of Donald Duck and was wearing a parka which I'm pretty sure I saw someone wearing during the Iditarod. If I were told I would be exiled to Nunavut for the rest of my life and could only take one thing with me it would be this man's parka. It would fit right in up north but here, when we're not even in summer yet and it's already 85+ degrees every day, it seemed more than a little excessive. Well, as he was walking past he saw me and suddenly appeared 0.5 inches from my face. I swear he covered 20 feet in two steps. I acted surprised and backed up a few steps only to have him follow, never breaking eye contact while he did it. Then he launched into a very loud rant about how the Doctrine and Covenants prophecies that the American government will rule the world, that's the only thing that still needs to happen before the Second Coming and I've been sent here to overpower the Malagasy government as part of some sort of world domination scheme which was blessed by God. The nuttiest thing he said was that the seven horsemen of the apocalypse are George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Donald Trump, Wolf Blitzer, Jimmy Fallon and Harrison Ford. This went on for several minutes before he suddenly stopped (I hadn't had a chance to say anything yet), backed up a step or two, looked at me appraisingly and said "Oh, you're Croatian, my bad." I have no clue where any of that came from so if you have an idea please let me know!

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Payne

Missionaries claim this apartment in Antananarivo is haunted. I still don't know about that but it's a little strange. None of the keys we had were working so we called the Mauritius missionaries, who were the last people to stay here, to see if they had them. They did so the only key was across the ocean. We walked back up on the street to call them and couldn't see the apartment. The light was off when we walked away and when we came back maybe five minutes later it was on. The door was still locked. Kind of weird!

I found King Julian.

Malagasy pronunciation of English words.

Christmas came early! This amazing, beautiful stuff is called Permethrin. It's basically bug spray on steroids that you use on your clothes and sheets. It's so strong. If it gets on my skin I'll probably dissolve into a puddle and the fumes will melt my brain but it's all worth it to get rid of the fleas.

A fire in somebody's yard. No big deal.

Easily the most expensive food item I will ever buy here. We wanted to find Richard and Justine some sort of wedding gift but bouquets of flowers don't really exist here. This was the next best option.