"Be still and know that I am God" (D&C 101:16) - January 30, 2023

Spiritual Thought 

In the Doctrine and Covenants we read of the plight and distressing state the early saints too often found themselves in.  At this time they had been driven from their homes, threats of death were common, and malicious destruction of property was a normal occurrence.  These early saints had already sacrificed so much for the kingdom and still such harrowing events as extermination orders, Haun's mill, and a horrendous treck to the Salt Lake Valley still lay before them.  Surely there were many during this period who, with their young prophet-leader, cried in confusion and despair "O God, where art thou?" (D&C 121:1).  

The 101st section of the Doctrine and Covenants was received at a particularly dark and hopeless time for these early saints.  Some of the saints had gathered in Missouri while others, including Joseph Smith, were still in Kirtland, Ohio.  Surely Joseph must have wept bitterly as he heard the plight of the faithful men and women who had answered the call to gather in Missouri.  As was his lifelong custom he took these concerns to the Lord in prayer, inquiring to know how to succor and ease the trials set before the fledgling kingdom of God.  The answer he received, one originally given in the Old Testament, still can be heard ringing through the halls of time as the counsel of a loving Father to an anxious child: "Therefore, let your hearts be comforted concerning Zion; for all flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that I am God."

My humble invitation for you and for me is that we will be more conscious in our efforts to obey this counsel.  Not in an apathetic or uncaring sense but rather as an expression of our faith in the God we serve.  He is our Eternal Father.  He rules the heavens and the earth and has orchestrated a perfect plan for each son and daughter throughout time.  This plan will require us to pass through struggles, pitfalls, and danger.  It will require us to be tempted by the enemy of all righteousness and sadly many will yield to that temptation.  At times we may even feel that we have been abandoned by our Heavenly Father.  In spite of whatever we may feel or what we are asked to pass through, I testify of a perfectly loving Father and a Savior who stands at his side.  They have promised to ease the burdens placed upon our backs and fight our battles for us.  May we each choose to be still and know that he is God us my prayer and invitation.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Weekly Update 

Hello everyone,

Time has to be speeding up.  There's no way it's moving at the same speed it has been for the rest of my life.  I just barely finished writing an email talking about the start of the new year and now it's practically February.  Each month (or week or day) that passes brings a mix of emotions, as I'm sure all the RMs reading this can relate to.

We had a bit of a rough start this week.  In this area it is very easy to waste a lot of time riding on buses.  Because of that we try to have as many lessons as possible either at the church or within a fifteen minute walk of it.  The group of people we were teaching on Tuesday all live far away but said they would be happy to meet us at the church.  Our first appointment never showed up so we decided to do some good old tracting close to the chapel We couldn't go too far though because our next appointment was also supposed to be at the church.  We came back to the church for the next lesson but no one was there.  This happened two more times.  I can't stand that feeling of "killing time" or thinking "Well, now what am I gonna do" so I was not in the greatest mood at this point.  We ended up finishing the day with a couple good lessons though.  On Wednesday we had a new referral from a member.  We needed to take a bus but I decided my great plan didn't work out on Tuesday so it would be better to take the bus than twiddle our thumbs at the church as I slowly became more irritated.  Bad idea.  I didn’t realize that we actually had to take two different buses and slowly zigzag our way across the city.  Finally, when I realized we were now going in circles and were very late, I called the plan off.  We left the bus, rescheduled the appointment and ended up finishing with some good lessons as I tried to cool my blood down without anyone knowing I was less than a happy camper.

After the bumpy beginning to the week we were on a role.  We are starting to feel a little overwhelmed with our teaching pool, which is a great problem to have.  We have been receiving referrals almost ever day from either members or Facebook.  We also have people we have found on our own that we are teaching.  I'm hoping we get at least one more set of missionaries in Fianarantsoa next transfer because there is enough work to keep them busy.  

The lessons with Yvon's family are still going very well.  Slower than I would like (thanks to the transfer clock always ticking away) but it's because they want to truly understand everything we teach.  Once they are baptized I have no doubt they will be truly converted and remain active in the church, I just hope I'm here to see the baptism happen.  One way or the other I'm very excited to see what the future holds for that family and what the Lord has planned for them.

Update on the cyclone: it decided to change direction late Monday night/early Tuesday morning and ended up missing us.  Instead it turned toward Africa and is now sitting in the ocean between Madagascar and mainland Africa (in the Mozambique Channel) and churning.  There's a chance it could come back but it also may just die out there in the ocean.  We'll see.  A town on the west coast called Morondava was hit very badly though and there will be a major cleanup.  Last I heard three people died in Morondava because of the cyclone.  Please keep them in your prayers.  Morondava doesn't have missionaries so all of us are still safe.

Well, I think lots of work, cyclones and Elder Payne trying not to become violent when he feels like he's wasting time just about sum up this week.  Oh, I almost forgot!  We have a new washing machine!  We still can only use it when we have running water (obviously) but I still feel like I'm back in the land of first world comforts and problems.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Payne

 

Fianarantsoa

This past p-day was honestly one of my favorites of my mission, after Ranomafana of course.  We decided to hike up to the cross that is on the hill above town but both of us had seen it before so we decided to take the longer more scenic route just to see what we could see.  We found this old wall.  I think it used to be part of a house but now it looks like either one of those wildlife viewing blinds or like an old military bunker.

The cross.

Maybe you'll make fun of me but I thought pineapples grew on trees.  Apparently they actually grow in these little bushes that kind of look like agave.  I just hope they have someone watching so the javelina don't steal all the pineapples.

We found a cave.  We didn’t go in any further than this but it was still pretty neat.

The river a little ways outside of town.

With Elder Rasoloarivony.  I think he used a filter or something because all the plants look really bright, kind of like we're in the Garden of Eden or something.

Lightning McQueen brings all his friends to this guy at the side of the road.  Who knew.

Taking cover during the biggest rainstorm of my entire life.  In ten minutes at the most the road had turned into a river with water past my ankles.

There was a frog in our apartment one night.  I have a video of us trying to get it out but it's too big to send in this email.

This man, Mamy, has quickly become one of my heroes.  We invited him to be baptized a week ago from this past Saturday.  He said he wanted to be baptized but was struggling with smoking.  We asked how many cigarettes he was smoking every day and he said twenty.  I invited him to see how few he could smoke the next day and he immediately cut that number in more than half, nine.  Except for one relapse day he has been making progress ever since then and was down to five as of yesterday.  One of the ideas we gave him to resist temptation was to go on a walk just before he went to sleep to clear his mind.  We saw him doing that as we were coming home one night.  It was good to see someone actually putting my ideas into practice.