"Yet ye would be unprofitable servants" (Mosiah 2:21)

November 21, 2022

"Yet ye would be unprofitable servants" (Mosiah 2:21) - November 21, 2022

Spiritual Thought

Few discourses are as timeless or doctrinally saturated as the final address of King Benjamin to his people. These chapters of the Book of Mormon constitute a lifetime of learning and spiritual preparation being shared by an aging leader. As part of this sermon King Benjamin declares "I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another…I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you."

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this week I invite all of us to consider King Benjamin's message in these verses. You and I are the recipients of unfathomable blessings. Blessings, which we largely did not earn or merit but were lovingly bestowed upon us by our Father in Heaven in order to accomplish his purposes. We certainly did not qualify for a single one of them without his assisting hand. We should rightly set this time aside to celebrate and prayerfully acknowledge not only the literal feast laid before us but the metaphorical feast of divinely bestowed blessings heaped on every side.

Yet, as King Benjamin taught, all the thanking, praising, and even praying we can summon will still leave us as "unprofitable servants" and unworthy of all which we call our own. Thus, we must do what Benjamin instructed us to do. We must "keep his commandments" in order to prosper, or, perhaps more accurately, because we have already prospered in the land. In other words, we must turn our thanks, praise and gratitude into action. A disciple in word only is not a disciple at all.

In that spirit I would like to extend a special invitation to each of you to make this Thanksgiving more action-oriented than any previous celebration has been. As you list, literally or mentally, those things you are grateful for, I invite you to also prayerfully decide on a plan to show through action how much those blessings mean to you. If you are thankful for your family how will you make that love more apparent to each family member through word and deed? If you are thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ what will you do to become a better "example of the believers" than you currently are? If you are grateful for the Book of Mormon how are you going to elevate your study of this book and share it with all around you who "are kept from the truth because they know not where to find it?" As you express gratitude for our Savior Jesus Christ how will you proclaim "yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee" through deed and not only through word? My promise is that as you prayerfully seek for your own answers to these and similar questions you will feel a greater appreciation for and witness of our Savior come into your life.

When writing these weekly spiritual thoughts I typically attempt to keep the personal anecdotes and experiences to a minimum so as to allow the words of the Savior and the prophets to speak for themselves. However, today I would like to stray from that practice slightly so as to recognize some of the things for which I am most grateful. I am profoundly grateful for my family and the lessons I learn from each family member. For my dad who I am unashamed to admit has been the person I most aspire to be like since the days when we would read stories together and he would carry me on his shoulders as we looked for animals. He has taught me more of what our Heavenly Father's love is than any other mortal man ever could. I am equally grateful for my mom who should rightfully have the scriptural term of "an elect lady" applied to her. I am far from perfect but continually try to follow the Savior's directive to "behold [my] mother." I am grateful for a host of siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins whose friendship and support make me yearn for the joy of the celestial kingdom.

I am thankful for the privilege of representing our Savior Jesus Christ and "confessing his name before all people." I pray daily that through his aid I will be equal to the task. I also am thankful for each and every one of you whose support and encouragement inspire me each day.

I am grateful for a fourteen year old boy who's tenacious search for answers brought light to a world which had gone hopelessly dark. I am also grateful for the integrity this boy showed to the experiences he was privileged to have. In so doing he sealed his testimony with his blood and has taken his place among the martyrs for the cause of Christ. I am thankful for the sacred work of scripture this same young man brought to the world which has changed the lives of millions upon millions of readers throughout the world.

Most of all, I am thankful for a Savior who cared enough for me to offer his life on behalf of my transgressions and shortcomings. I am grateful that during the agony of such an ordeal he looked down through time, saw that you and I would follow him and that was reason enough to be led like a lamb to the slaughter. I am thankful and humbled by his aiding hand which is always extended to me, even as it brings a tear to see the scar of the nail which was driven through that same hand on my behalf. There will come a day when I am given the privilege of seeing my Savior and expressing my gratitude to him. My deepest desire is that in that moment he will say to me "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

May each of us have a wonderful and spiritually edifying Thanksgiving as we resolve to show our gratitude in more apparent ways. That this will be so is my prayer.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Weekly Update

Hello everyone,

Joseph and Sitraka were married on Thursday. Satan tried very hard to stop this wedding from happening. It all worked out in the end though and now it's time to get ready for their baptism. Almost everyone is married tribally but the church requires you to be married legally before baptism. Sitraka's parents did not like the idea of her getting married legally. They called and were very rude to her the night before the wedding and told her that if she was married legally they did not want to see her again. Sitraka called us and was obviously upset but after she explained the situation she paused for a minute and said "Elders, do you remember the verse you read to us when Joseph Smith said he knew what he had seen and God knew what he had seen so he could not deny it? The same is true for me, I know what I have felt and God knows what I have felt so I cannot deny it. I will see you at 10 a.m. tomorrow for the wedding. Don't be late." It was very impressive to see the faith she showed. I am grateful to have been able to watch both Sitraka and Joseph's testimonies grow in such a short amount of time.

I decided this week that I'm 40% missionary, 40% social worker and 20% relationship counselor/matchmaker/wedding planner. This week I was able to add another wedding to my tally but I was also able to add something I didn't expect to ever add: a breakup. That's right, we helped organize a breakup. Not a breakup so much as a temporary separation in order to be baptized. Sitraka (different Sitraka) and Agustin are a couple we are teaching who need to be married. There are some problems that are making it take about three times longer than it should to get the documents. Both of them are scheduled for baptism on November 26th. We won't have all the necessary documents until November 25th, however, and there is a five day waiting period after that before the wedding can happen so obviously that isn't going to work. We were talking with them this week and suggested they live in different houses until after the wedding so they can still be baptized. Both of them agreed. I'm a little worried for Agustin though because he was acting far too excited about the idea of leaving Sitraka and living with his brother for two weeks. My happy relationship alarms were going off for him and I wanted to give him some man to man advice. Hopefully everything works out for him!

Alright, that's enough of this lovey dovey stuff. Let's talk about rats. Specifically about rats jumping through the window during lessons. On Sunday we were having a lesson with Desire and Vohangy. Part way during the lesson we heard some rustling and scratching around the things piled at the end of the bed and on the window sill. Strange rustling noises aren't that unusual though so we all didn't really think anything about it. I assumed it was probably just a chicken that had decided to take up residence at the foot of the bed. All of sudden this little gray thing shoots out from behind one of the piles on the window sill and lands with a thud in a big plastic bowl used for bathing. It quickly climbs out from the bowl and runs into the darkness between the piles of things. Needless to say, I was more than a little grossed out that rats were just randomly leaping into the house. Elder Damy, however, didn't even react to all of this and Desire's only reaction was saying "oh" then a half hearted glance under the bed before continuing on with life. I tried to hide my complete confusion at letting a rat run freely through the house and continued teaching. Moral of the story is if you hear strange scratching noises in your house it's a rat that has decided to become your roommate, and that's okay.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Payne

President Rakotoarivelo finally found a new bike for me. It's a little small but that's to be expected when I'm taller than everyone's house. I hope you all enjoyed the warmup because now that I have my bike it's time for the real work to start.

Elder Flake and I just might be the best companionship in the world. Not to toot our own horn or anything but the pictures speak for themselves.

Elder Flake's biker gang, Celestial Choppers.

A really impressive statue of a Baobab tree in the restaurant after zone conference. I'm going to buy a seat for this on the airplane when I come home and carry it through the airport with me. It's going to look great in my future entryway.

When it's raining the posy-posy drivers put a thin piece of plastic up to block the rain and this is your view.

The plastic doesn't do any good because my knees press against it and all the water seeps through.

Sitraka and Joseph during their wedding. Everyone is laughing because we had just made it to the "you may now kiss the bride part" and Joseph was acting like a scared little bird again. I didn't blame him at all this time. When he looked at me for help I just thought "Sorry pal, my advice would be to give her a high five and run away screaming so you're on your own."