"Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:32) - January 4, 2023

Spiritual Thought 

While teaching a multitude on one occasion the Savior offered a profound lesson I the form of the second shortest verse in all of scripture: "Remember Lot's wife" (Luke 17:32).  During the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot and his family were commanded to flee that city.  Included in this instruction was a charge to not look back.  However, as this family was escaping this wicked city Lot's wife violated that charge, she turned back and looked.  Upon doing so the scriptures record 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 wished not only to return to her home but to return to the lifestyle of Sodom.  She looked back with doubt in the plan the Lord had laid for her and desires to return to a wicked and degenerate state.  Metaphorically speaking, Zion lay before her while she longed to return to Babylon.

At this time of year in which many of us possess increased motivation to change and progress, 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 not to repeat her mistake.  The past should be learned from, not lived in.  As we begin a new year 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 this new year.  Let us make 2023 the year 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 without forgiveness after full repentance then we may have committed the greater sin. 

My invitation at the beginning of this new year is not so much a new year's resolution but rather a plea to place this principle at the forefront of our minds.  To make our conversion to Jesus Christ the ultimate pursuit for this new year.  Where do we wish to see ourselves in one year?  More importantly, how do we wish for our Savior to see us in one year?  What will we do today, tomorrow and every day to become more truly "witnesses of the name of Christ."  I do not ask you to do this in the sense of making a new year's resolution, though those are often helpful.  Resolutions have the connotation of being temporary.  In addition if the average person remembers their New Year's resolution on February 1st (let alone if they are still working towards that goal) then that resolution has been more successful than most.  This year I ask you to do the very same thing I invited you to do during the Christmas season: to anchor yourself to the Savior Jesus Christ "at all times, and in all things and in all places [you] may be in, even until death."  That is a resolution we must, indeed that we have covenanted, to keep.  

I promise that as we resolve to press forward with faith in this new year 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,

Happy New Year and welcome back!  New Year's in Madagascar is a party! My goodness!  Christmas was underwhelming to be perfectly honest but New Year's was completely and totally over the top.  Let me tell you just how crazy it was.  I saw six nuns dancing in the street like they were LA party girls at the Mardi Gras rave.  It was a little disturbing to be perfectly honest.  And that was at 1 p.m.  What  would 1 a.m. have been like?

Aside from New Year's we have been trying to do what we can after being gone last week.  It's been a little rough this week between leaving our area and most of our progressing people deciding to skip town for New Year's.  They are all coming back this week so fingers crossed they want to keep meeting with us (and prayers said that the New Year's parties didn't lead to too many sins that need to be repented of before baptism).  

We have some more baptisms coming up on the 8th.  The strange thing is we still don't really know how many people will be baptized.  It could be one, three, six or fifteen.  One way or the other it's always nice to have a baptism on the horizon.  We have been working as hard as we can to baptize Priesthood holders.  There are some family and other problems with our most promising men we are teaching so they may not be baptized this transfer but definitely next one.  To make up for it though we've started helping the branch figure out how to give a membership record number to quite a few people who's baptismal forms were never processed.  We were given access to CDOL (the church's leader and clerk resources) and have been using that to go back months or even years looking for information.  We came up with a list of almost thirty people who were baptized in the past but are not on the records of the church because their baptismal form was never processed by the branch clerk.  To put that in perspective, our average Sacrament meeting attendance is about 45.  We've been calling all those people to ask about when they were baptized, who baptized them, etc.  Included in that group are four men who should have the Priesthood by now but can't because they aren't officially members yet.  It's like four "free space" Priesthood holders just waiting to start serving in the branch!

We went to Ranomafana National Park for p-day today.  It was absolutely incredible!  I could have spent days there and been very happy.  Believe it or not, I heard about Ranomafana for the first time when I was about five and have wanted to go ever since.  I was confused on my geography though because I thought it was about twelve hours north of Antananarivo and I'm twelve hours south.  While we were driving to Tana for the Christmas party I was day dreaming a little bit when I saw a sign that said "Ranomafana National Park" and was pointing down a side street.  I whipped around so fast I heard my neck crack then pulled out the phone to make sure it was the Ranomafana.  It was and I'm so glad I noticed the sign because now I can cross it off my bucket list.  The best part is we were able to see lemurs!  They are such incredible animals!  Like I've said before, I'm not a big fan of cities but that's where missionaries need to be in order to do the work.  I'm always looking for a way to get out of them on p-day though and Ranomafana was probably the most memorable p-day yet.  If you ever come to Madagascar go to Ranomafana (and invite me to come with so I can be your translator).  I'll send pictures in next week's email.

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Payne

Everything doubles or triples in price as soon as a white person asks about it.  We needed to find a bus to go to Ranomafana so we brought our roommates with us.  I stayed out of sight with Elder Rakotonimaronanahary while our companions went and found the bus.

One morning this week a man named Mbinina who we have been trying to meet with for a while called us to say he was waiting at the church and was ready to be taught.  We headed up the hill as fast as we could and had a very good lesson with him.  The only unusual thing is as soon as he stepped into the church he pulled some sort of white robe our of his backpack and put it on.  He also refused to wear his shoes in the church.  I snuck a picture when he wasn't looking.  

A picture of Elder Razafisambatra before his mission.  I want his shirt!  Apparently all the American missionaries before COVID wanted a picture with him when he wore this shirt, and I don't blame them!

I swear Malagasy people's necks are made of something different than mine.  Not only do they carry absolutely everything on their head but they also push big, heavy loads up hills using their heads.  Bricks, cement, bags of straw, you name it.  I think my head would be smashed between my shoulders like a turtle if I tried this.

People are pretty upity here.  The taxis are Ferraris.   The 40 year old, ripped seat, stripped exhaust pipe, kick-it-ten-times-and-shout-profanities-when-you-want-to-start-it model to be exact.

Zoom in on the poster and you'll see why that's the only Christmas party you could ever want to go to.

I don't speak German so maybe I'm wrong and someone who does can help me out, but is this seriously the Volkswagen Führer?  Is "Führer" pronounced the way I think it is, as in the title for one of the most evil people in the history of the world?  Did nobody in PR think it might be a bad idea to market the Volkswagen Führer before it started rolling off the assembly line?  

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm basically a master chef.

My Christmas present.  Someone came to visit this mission back in August and brought a suitcase of things from the families of the American missionaries.  I didn't get mine until last week.  I feel just a little bit like an old man getting a bottle of multivitamins for Christmas but it's definitely needed!

Hopefully this gives you an idea of what it's like inside the buses.  Usually it's even a little more cramped.  The beefy knees with the white left hand on top of them are mine.

The last lesson of 2022.  With Rasoavelo (holding a pamphlet) and his friend Rakoto.  Rasoavelo stopped us as we were walking past one day and said he had a dream where his son who died when he was six days old came to him and told Rasoavelo if he wanted to see him again he needed to find two people from a church which didn't he had been damned because he died without baptism.  It was very neat to hear him talk about it.

A lemur, but this picture makes me kind of sad.  Sometimes people will catch wild lemurs then keep them tied up or in a cage until they have lost all of their survival instincts they have in the wild and are dependent on humans.  The way they do it is a very unethical (and illegal) method of domestication.  This one had some sort of belt or rope tied around its middle so it couldn't go any further than where it is in the picture.  I could see where the rope was cutting through his skin.  People were throwing pieces of banana just outside of its reach to harass it.  Pretty sad.