"I will find my own Sacred Grove" (Primary Song) - April 18, 2023

Spiritual Thought 

There is a song written for primary children which contains significant lessons relevant to each of us.  This song beautifully describes the experience of the prophet Joseph Smith and says, in part, "I will find my own Sacred Grove".  The lessons and principles attached to this simple phrase are profound.  

Our Savior has promised that he will provide guidance, answers, and direction to all who will demonstrate the faith to sincerely ask him in prayer.  Do you and I fully comprehend what such an opportunity entails?  We are not left to drift alone in the bewildering sea of false ideas and perceptions.  Our guidance is not contingent on another person.  Rather, it is the profound privilege of all Heavenly Father's children to receive guidance for their own lives.  What a gift!  The Savior of the World who rules the heavens from his celestial throne is willing, no, is anxious to answer our sincere questions.  

Among the many doctrines learned through the sacred experience in the Sacred Grove this particular principle simply must not be ignored.  Our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ personally appeared to a young, unlearned boy from an obscure farming town in New York.  This to all-powerful beings demonstrated the love and the patience for young Joseph Smith to answer the questions which weighed upon this young man's heart.  

This gift of personal revelation is available to all who wish to use it.  The requirements are that we have faith to ask and willingness to accept what our answer may entail.  I invite each of you to once again draw upon this power and seek knowledge from your Heavenly Father.  Like Joseph Smith, identify what it is that weighs most heavily upon your mind.  Then "ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not" (James 1:5).  I promise that as you do so you will receive inspiration and will know of our Heavenly Father's love for you.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Weekly Update 

Hello everyone,

There are some things that happen on your mission where ignorance truly is bliss for your mother.  This week was one of those.  Love you Mom and I'm fine!

Another marathon of galavanting across Madagascar began this week.  Our first stop was a city called Toliara.  Just like Mahajanga and Fort Dauphin, Toliara used to have missionaries but no longer does.  It's in the southern part of the island, is incredibly hot, has Baobabs a plenty and will rewrite your definition of what poverty is, even if you happen to be coming from a place like Antananarivo.  Toliara feels almost identical in every way to Albuquerque.  Now that we've talked about the rainbows and sprinkles side of Toliara, let's talk about the deep, dark realities.  First of all, it's a major hub for drug and weapons trafficking as well as human trafficking.  It's such a hotspot that, according to Elder Razafimanantsoa, you'll hear stories from time to time about a group of four or five men wearing night vision showing up in the dead of night to raid some compound or kidnap someone before vanishing into the night.  Sounds a lot like black ops activity to me.  Lowlifes like the Taliban, Al Qaeda and Bokko Haram use it as an easy transit point to move anything into place they may need to position (think bomb making materials and ammunition, for example).  That's fun fact number one.

Fun fact number two: there was a very really possibility I could have been kidnapped by a tribe of warlords who may or may not still practice human sacrifice and cannibalism.   Again, according to Elder Razafimanantsoa, there's some debate over whether those two things really are still happening (they certainly did in the past) but let me tell you a little bit about my good friends, the dahalo.  Madagascar is divided into roughly 50 different tribes.  By and large all 50 are passive, peace-loving people who just want to keep to themselves as they herd cows, eat rice and join the true and living church in droves.  Not the dahalo though!  This tribe is extremely violent and aggressive.  There's one city, Sakaraha, that is entirely controlled by the dahalo.  Malagasy police or military won't go into the city.  We had to drive down Sakaraha main street not once but twice.  The dahalo occupy a large portion of southwestern Madagascar and love to watch the cars go by on the way to Toliara.  Except for them "watching the cars go by '' means blocking the road, surrounding the cars at gunpoint and demanding money.  The dahalo are very wealthy, thanks to helping Taliban type groups smuggle things through the island.  They are also armed to the teeth with old Soviet-era AK-47s, RPGs, grenades, etc., etc.  Great people.  You should invite them over to do a story hour with your kids some time..

Why do I tell you all this?  Well, driving to Toliara is a two day process.  One of those days is spent almost entirely in the dahalo's favorite hiding places.  We took Elders Kunkle and Amrine with us for a variety of reasons.  It was nice to have the company but also unnerving to have not one but three white people driving through a genuinely dangerous area of the world.  It kind of felt like I was cruising the streets of Fallujah in a jacked up F-350 with two giant American flags on the roof and a loudspeaker blasting "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" by Toby Keith.

Thankfully though, our family road trip to Kabul ended up being fairly uneventful.  We weren't stopped, although we did see several dahalo watching us go by.  We made sure we had plenty of gas to make it through their territory and tried to keep moving as fast as possible.  Something we hear about from time to time in the church which I have a strong testimony of is the "compensatory power of righteousness."  That idea of greater righteousness existing alongside greater wickedness applies perfectly to the Toliara branch.  They are incredible.  Mature beyond their years and anxious to do everything possible to help the church grow and prosper.  There haven't been missionaries in Toliara since 2017 but in the past year the branch has had over 100 convert baptisms.  Because of that, there will be a second branch created in Toliara before the end of the year.  Toliara will almost definitely be the next city to open for missionaries and I'm genuinely disappointed I won't be able to serve there. We were able to watch the Malagasy translation of general conference with them for church on Sunday then go on some visits with the branch missionaries.

Since I was driving, almost all of the pictures from Toliara are on the other three phones.  I will get those this week and send them in the next email.

I hope you all have a great week,

Elder Payne

Enough said.

The apartment I lived in while serving in Fianarantsoa has not been kept very clean recently.  Elder Kunkle and I decided to sleep at the church rather than with all the fleas and other fun things in the apartment.

Us just before going to sleep.

Where we watched general conference in Toliara.

This is called a push tok-tok.  You sit in the little carriage part then somebody walks/runs and pulls you along.  I've never ridden in one because I would feel like a fat oaf.  This one is like a monster truck!  Look at those big, beefy tires!

We ate at a seafood place because it was cheaper than getting things like beef or chicken.  It was incredible!  This is crab with oyster sauce that cost a whopping $3.

Elder Amrine jokingly asked one of the branch missionaries to climb the palm tree on the church grounds and bring him a coconut.  That was taken literally and before we knew it he had climbed the tree and dropped eight coconuts.  The worst part is that to come down he slid down the trunk like a fireman's pole with bare feet.

Little baobab in the median.