"Gods and sinners reconciled" ("Hark, the Herald Angels Sing - Hymns No. 209) - December 13, 2022

Spiritual Thought 

The true meaning of Christmas and necessity of the Savior's birth and sacrifice cannot be fully understood or appreciated with out looking beyond the birth itself.  Included in the events we must consider is one which took place much earlier than those joyful scenes in Bethlehem.  Indeed this event is what made the birth and life of a Savior necessary.  

Shortly after the creation of the world Adam and Eve, our first parents, were placed in the garden and given a commandment to not partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  This commandment was broken, however, in order that they may fulfill the greater commandment, namely, to multiply and replenish the earth.  Though the fall was a necessary event for the full plan of God to be accomplished a commandment had nonetheless been broken.  The Father had given a command which had not been followed and these first two inhabitants of the earth had lost all hope of attaining to their celestial home by their own merits.  Thus, a Savior was required.  A great and last sacrifice which could pay the debt of sin caused not only by Adam and Eve but by each and every solitary one of their descendants.  For centuries prophets prophesied about and anxiously awaited the time when the Savior of the World would make his spiritually triumphant but temporally insignificant entrance into mortality.  In reality, however, the knowledge of who this little baby was and what he had promised to be did not start on that first Christmas.  It did not begin when Adam and Eve transgressed the commandment of God.  Indeed, it did not even begin on this earth.  Rather, it began in the grand council in heaven when Jehovah declared "Here am I, send me."  That path would result in the promise of immortality and the possibility of eternal life for the entire human family.  For you and me this path would culminate in our debt being paid by one who owed nothing to justice.  For the baby it would culminate in a garden, a cross and an empty tomb.

Of all the many, many words used to describe the Christmas season perhaps none is more appropriate than "Hope".  Not the worldly hoping for gifts, food and gatherings, but rather the spiritual hope which provides the spiritual stamina to withstand any and all challenges placed before us.  At Christmas hope seems to emerge in our hearts like the new star marking the cradle of the one who provides "the hope which is in us."  

The invitation I have extended to each of you this Christmas season is to use this time to become the type of disciple who, like the Master himself, "never sleeps nor slumbers."  As part of that invitation I wish to extend a second invitation to reconcile past mistakes or disagreements before Christmas day arrives.  What better time could there be to seek such forgiveness and healing than at the very time the world is united in celebrated the birth of the one who makes such a gift possible?  Whether the past carries scares caused by sin or the failures of imperfect men and women I promise the strength to forsake them can be found through a baby.  A baby who was born in order to fix that which is broken.  He is the one, the only name under heaven, who truly has made it possible to declare in joyful adoration "God and sinners reconciled."

That each of us will find the sweet peace of forgiveness and reconciliation this Christmas season is my sincere prayer.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Weekly Update

Hello everyone,

What a great week!  We had three especially significant miracles this week and I'll talk about each one briefly.  First, we had a lesson at the church Sunday afternoon.  The person never came so we were trying to decide what to do.  As we were thinking about it I received the strongest prompting that we needed to go talk to the security guard.  We talked to him (his name is Mamy) and he told us he had been taught before COVID but he didn't think any of the missionaries had thought to talk to him again since then because he is always working at the church.  We taught him the first lesson right then and made a return appointment for the next day.  By Wednesday he had accepted a baptismal date.   It made me think of the scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants which says it is not "meet to be moving in great haste while the inhabitants on either side dwindle and perish in unbelief."

Second miracle: on Tuesday Elder Razafisambatra decided to call some referrals from people who had clicked on a Facebook ad in the past.  To be perfectly honest I didn't think anything was going to come of it because the referrals were old and it seems like the referrals always come from cities without missionaries.  It was during the slow part of the day though so I thought "Well, at least this is better than doing nothing."  One of the referrals answered and told us we could come teach her later that evening.  We had some trouble finding the house in all the chaos of this city but eventually found it and not only was she there but her entire family and in-laws were ready to be taught.  As we were ending the lesson we asked, almost in passing, which one of them had clicked on the Facebook ad.  They acted very confused and said none of them had because none of them have a Facebook account.  The Savior knew they were ready and knew the fastest way for them to hear the Gospel was to place them on our list of Facebook referrals.

Miracle number three: at the end of the night on Wednesday we were starting to go home when Elder Razafisambatra and I both felt like we needed to talk to somebody in a six story apartment building.  The problem is we had no idea how to get up to the apartments because the bottom level is split between a store (epicerie) which is open to the street and a karaoke bar with graffiti of Bob Marley covering the walls.  Typically it's somewhere I would avoid but I have never felt like I needed to knock a door so strongly my entire mission.  I felt frantic to get into this building and was about to start scaling the side.  We asked someone how to get to the apartments and they took us down a creepy alleyway with Bob Marley graffiti.  As we were following them I thought "this ends one of three ways: I find some amazing person to teach who gets baptized, I'm kidnapped by the Malagasy mafia or I'm sent home when President Rakotoarivelo finds out I went here."  Don't worry though, we only had to walk about 100 feet through the secrets of the cript before we made it to a staircase that was very conducive to the spirit and led into the building.  We climbed two levels then I saw the door on the third level and immediately said "That's the one."  It was like I had seen the door before even though I had never been in the building and it looks completely different from every other Malagasy front door I've seen.  We knocked on the door and a woman answered who was very willing to learn.  We couldn't teach her by herself so we scheduled a return appointment for when her husband would he home.  The church needs more self-reliant priesthood holders in order to grow in Madagascar, and especially in Fianarantsoa.  They need people like this family which is obviously self-reliant and in a position they could serve in and strengthen the church.  I am very excited to watch them progress.

We had the baptism for a girl named Christinah on Saturday.  She asked me to baptize her and that is always a fun opportunity.  This is the second nine year old baptism I've had in Madagascar.  Like I said after the last one, I didn't think I would have those any more after I left Layton but it's kind of neat nonetheless.

I would like to end by publicly saying "Mom, you told me so."  When I was younger I didn't want to practice the piano and would always make practicing and piano lessons a big fight.  One day my mom told me I would be grateful I knew how to play while I was on my mission.  With all the wisdom an eight year old has about such things I responded and said "Unless I get called to the heart of Africa I'm never going to be somewhere where nobody else knows how to play."  Well, you can already see where this is going, but it gets even better.  Before I was ever a missionary I was the only person in my home ward who could play the piano or organ for Sacrament meeting.  Mom 1, Croft 0.  Then I spent about half my mission in Layton, Utah and in Bountiful (yes, the Bountiful that is the heart of the church and where many General Authorities live) I served in a ward where I was the only person who could play the piano.  Mom 2, Croft 0.  Finally, call it karma, fate, Heavenly Father's sense of humor, whatever you want to call it but I was assigned to a mission in Africa.  Then I was transferred to the most remote part of that mission.  And what did we find?  Not any piano players except for one little eight year old who already knew he wouldn't be called to Africa and would never need to be able to play the hymns.  Mom 3, Croft 0.  Yes Mom, you were right, I was wrong, I'm going to just go over here and practice the hymns with my tail between my legs.

I think that about sums up the week.  The only other interesting thing is we are teaching a man named Jumbo and his brother Alpha.  I think those have to be some of the best names I've ever heard.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Payne

A Chameleon on the power line outside our window.

A bowl of crickets or some sort of bug for dinner.  Yes, I tried them and they actually aren't anything crazy.  The biggest part is the mental block with eating a bug but if you ignore that it's like a potato chip.

Looking towards the rice paddies.

The sunset.

As we were getting off the bus one day I saw a man wearing a Dion's shirt.  For those of you not from New Mexico, Dion's is a very popular pizza restaurant in Albuquerque (and maybe a few other cities in New Mexico but I'm not sure).  It's only nudged out of our top three state treasures by green Chile, hot air balloons and art shows run by elderly hippie women in Santa Fe.  Seeing someone wearing a Dion's shirt in Fianarantsoa, Madagascar of all places is unbelievable.  I had this exact same shirt when I was about ten so I had to run him down and take a picture with him.  Everyone else was a little confused but I thought it was great.

Our baptismal font from above after it was filled for the baptism.

Waiting for people to come to our English class like King Benjamin on his tower.  Nobody came.

With Christinah before the baptism.

With Christinah's family.

A Christmas tree on top of one of the buildings in our area.

What the water from the tap looks like.  It's a step or two short of crystal clear and ready to drink.

Not only do they drive semis on the roads here but somehow they manage to squeeze two of them past each other.

Inside one of the buses.  The exposed electrical wires and duct tape are a nice aesthetic touch.

Bob Marley welcoming you to the creepy tunnel leading to a friendly chat with Pennywise.

See why I typically wouldn't be doing backflips at the idea of going down here?