"Tomorrow the Lord will do wonders." (Joshua 3:5) - December 26, 2022
Spiritual Thought
Another Christmas has passed and now lives in our memories. Today we are, hopefully, basking in the afterglow of a wonderful, rejuvenating spiritual season and experience. We look ahead to a new year dawning in a few short days and, if we truly captured the reason for Christmas, have used these past four weeks to convert ourselves into disciples of Jesus Christ with a rock-ribbed commitment to follow him in every moment of 2023. Many of us, however, are today feeling a sense of melancholy mingled with the peace and joy Christmas seems to inherently provide. Like Moses of old, we will shortly descend from Sinai, so to speak, and once again face the toils and struggles of this world. For a few brief days we seemed to catch glimpses of a celestial world only to be required to return to a telestial world which leaves many hopes and desires unsatisfied. The unfortunate reality is that all peak spiritual experiences must eventually come to an end, though we are quick to add that we must make such an ending very brief before they are replaced with new moments of spiritual power. It is inevitable that Christmas will pass, scripture study will be paused, the final prayer will be offered in General Conference and each temple session will reach its conclusion.
The adversary, the great deceiver, would have us believe that when these particularly special moments reach their end then that is the end of our spirituality and peace. That lie will only become true if we make it so. We are the captains of our own ships, the leaders of our own spirits. Just as with our experience during Christmas, we choose what we will do and who we will become in every moment and every day of the year. The Savior stands ready to offer the same peace we seem to so readily feel at Christmas in every month of the year. It is simply always there. But it will never be forced upon us. We must reach for it, plead for it and work for it each and every day.
Many describe the particularly special spiritual experiences I have described as a type of school for our lives and for those moments which are not quite so richly blessed in spirituality. That description is certainly accurate. The nature of school, however, is that in order for it to truly become effective it must eventually come to an end. If school stretched on for eternity it would become self-defeating. School is intended to be a temporary preparation for something else. The doctor who never leaves the classroom will never save the life of one in need. Preparation must eventually be completed in order for lessons to truly be applied and retained. The same is true with any spiritually refining moment, including, perhaps especially, Christmas.
In the Old Testament Joshua told his people to "sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you." Today I say the same to each of you. Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow, this week, this month, this new year, the Lord will do wonders among you. Today is December 26th. Christmas is over. Now, it is time to put the lessons we learned and commitments we made into action. It is time to truly be the hands and feet of the Savior. The mouthpieces and willing hearts. The disciples who answer at any moment or on any day "Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth." That this may be what each of us declare ourselves to be is my prayer.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Weekly Update
Hello everyone,
Another week has flown by. This week was definitely one of the strangest of my mission. President and Sister Rakotoarivelo are finishing their mission in July and wanted to have a special party with all the missionaries for their last Christmas. It was very fun and I am grateful for all the work that was put into making it possible. The bad part is that my area is twelve hours away from the mission office and tickets, especially return tickets, are often difficult to find. Because of that we actually only had one day to work in our area this week. We spent the rest of the time trying to do what we could over the phone using the spotty and extremely limited cell coverage in Madagascar. This was one of the very, very few times, maybe the only time, I have ever wished I were serving in Antananarivo.
I am always grateful for an opportunity to talk to other Americans. It's an emotional boost to be able to speak English, talk about things we both relate to and exchange tips and tricks for living in Madagascar. There is a couple in this mission, the Jacobs, who brought their entire family of eight kids to Madagascar in July and are serving a mission until sometime in the summer. This was the first time I have really been able to visit with them. It was fun to be able to talk to an American family in English. Brother Jacob served in Madagascar from 1999-2001. At that point missionaries were assigned to speak French, not Malagasy. There were also only five branches in the country, all in Antananarivo. It was neat to hear him talk about his mission and look at how far the church has come. It made me excited to see what it will look like after I have been home for twenty years.
Like I said, it's usually quite the fiasco to get to or from Fianarantsoa. I'll walk you through what our schedule looked like this week. On Tuesday we were able to work as normal. Wednesday we drove to Antsirabe. I was able to stay in my old apartment for a night which was good. Thursday we drove to Antananarivo, helped Elder Peterson set up for the Christmas party and bought some more flea kryptonite to bring back to Fleanarantsoa. Friday we celebrated Christmas. Then on Saturday we went on exchanges with a companionship in Antananarivo. All the missionaries were supposed to be in their apartments by two on Sunday so we went to church then spent the afternoon with Elder Peterson.
I was able to do exchanges with Elder Monte, one of the Filipino missionaries, on Saturday. He is serving in the Ambohijanahary ward which was my first area after coming to Madagascar. It was neat to see some familiar sights both in Antsirabe and Antananarivo this week.
Well, I think that about sums up the week. It was definitely one of my more unusual Christmases but it was a fun time nonetheless. I won't be able to send another email until next year so I apologize for that. Hopefully all of you have the patience to wait so long.
I hope you all have a great week!
Elder Payne
This man worked with lepers.
A statue of the crown of thorns.
The view of Fianarantsoa.
This dog was stuck between the rungs of the balcony and couldn't get free. I felt bad for it but didn't have any way to help it.
Somehow we lucked out and had the front seats on the bus going to Antsirabe from Fianarantsoa.
This guy has efficiency figured out like a pro but is still working on safety and wisdom. He was tired rising his bike up the hill so he grabbed a rope on the back of this semi and let it pull him up the instead.
A waterfall on the drive from Fianarantsoa.
Under the Antsirabe sign at the old train station.
We had a gift exchange as part of the Christmas party. Elder Peterson has been responsible for tracking down and confiscating all of the personal phones missionaries have, and there are a lot of them. As a joke I bought him his own personal phone because I figured it was only fair. His plays music and has a psyadelic picture of a fish!
The mission office has pictures of all the missionaries who have ever served in this mission. Here's my picture, Elder Evans and Elder Fergus.
My beautiful wrapping job on Elder Peterson's gift.
The best Christmas gift I ever could have asked for! Two Mormon dads (I know that's not politically correct) straight out of American Fork running the grill at the Christmas party. Seeing them making pancakes made all the Americans very happy and all the Malagasies very confused as to what strange food they were being served.
The entire mission eating breakfast.
Almost all of the American missionaries. From L to R: Elders Peterson, Flake, Galbraith, Evans, Nelson, Me, Elder Lewis.
Elder Peterson has been in the office so long that this is the point he's to: eating ice cream straight out of the tub.
With Elder Monte.
We were able to teach this man, Mario, while in Antananarivo. The craziest part is he asked to be taught in English! That was the first time I've taught in English since I was made a Spanish missionary last November.
The all-mission picture from the Christmas party. I'm standing on the right side behind President Rakotoarivelo. I'm mostly blocked by him. I'm not really sure how that's possible since I'm about a foot taller than him but it's true.
With the Jacobs and their friends, the Ericksons.
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