For all those who weren't able to make it, here are notes with a few added stories and things that I remember saying during the talk. ( Obviously it didnt go EXACTLY like this, but its a pretty good idea of what the overall talk was about, minus me telling the stories and what not)
Enjoy!
Introduction:
When I was 7 years old, I
remember sitting in sharing time in primary with the other boys and girls my
age singing the song We’ll bring the world his truth”. And I remember as a 7
year old feeling the spirit touch my heart as I sang the words;
We are as the army of Helaman.
We have been taught in our youth.
And we will be the Lord’s missionaries
To bring the world his truth.
As a little girl I remember looking around at the
other kids in my class and thinking. “I want to be part of the army of helaman.
I want be a stripling warrior!” I looked up to those soldiers who were valiant and
true at all time. Who know what they stood for and who were not ashamed of it
and wanted to be just like them. I wanted to have the faith and love for the
Lord that they did. And I was going to do my part in sharing the truth with all
the world, and no one was going to stop me.
(Bear quick testimony of the importance of
missionary work in my life).
Over the years I have had an ever growing desire to
serve the Lord, and as I was taught in my youth that the best way to prepare to
serve a mission was through application. Through study and prayer, learning how
to recognize the spirit in my life, striving each day to be more like Christ
and understanding his gospel more fully and applying the atonement daily to
change me into a creature more like him. Once I understood who I was, where I was going and
what my purpose in life was nothing was going to stop me from sharing the gospel,
until after high school I moved to China for a semester aboard teaching English.
China Story
(See post “One of the many reasons
I decided to serve” August 11th 2012)
The simple desire to know God
changes our lives. When we have the desire as
that girl on the train did, to truly know God, and strive to be like him
everything in life seems to fall into place. It is that desire which lights a
flame in our hearts, and gives us the ambition to learn of him and his plan.I know
that one day that girl and many others like her will have to opportunity to
hear the message of the restored gospel; I look forward to that day with great
excitement and anticipation to see the words of Joseph smith come to pass:
“No
unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs
may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will
go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every
continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear,
till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say
the work is done.”
The mission Motto for the
Japan mission in 1991-1994 states:
Obedience is the Price
Faith is the power
Love is the motivator
The spirit is the Key
And Christ is the reason
This outlines the way that we
can all become something greater than we are, and gives us to tools to get
there. It is through these principles that I will be able to become a better
missionary, how you will be able to become better spouses, parents, friends,
and leaders.
Obedience is the Price.
John 1:5 – God is light, and
in him is no darkness at all.
D&C 88:49 talked about
how light cleaveth unto light. And darkness comprehended it not.
49 The
a shineth in
darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not; nevertheless, the day shall
come when you shall b even God,
being quickened in him and by him.
To comprehend him, and to
know him and recognize light we need to get rid of all the darkness in our
lives.
That as we act and think like
god we come to know him. 1 John 2: 3-5 says that by keeping his commandments we
become like him. How do we come to know God? How to we recognize him and his
light? We become like him. When we are making the choices that bring
light into our lives we attract light, we become closer to our heavenly father by
being like him.
Through Our OBIEDINCE we come
closer to God, and have the ability to obtain whatever it is we seek.
Too often we think backwards,
we think that by making mistakes will allow us to have more freedom, to do what
we want.
I remember my young women’s
leader telling me when I asked her about how much fun the other kids were
having by not living the commandments and she reassured me that “ they weren’t
REALLY having fun, it just looks like it” J
What she really meant was that those things only bring instant gratification,
they don’t bring lasting joy into their lives the way the gospel does.
Helaman 13: 29: Yea, how long will ye choose
darkness rather than light?
13:38 “Ye have sought all the
days of your life for that which ye could not obtain. Ye have sought for
happiness in doing iniquity”
Of course you’re not going to
find happiness committing sin, you can’t truly be happy if you are looking for
light by doing things that bring darkness into your life.
How are you doing it? – You
know what you want to be like to find happiness... So how are you doing it? What is the quality of your obedience?
How are you keeping the
commandment?
Personal reflection/reality
check.
Why do you go to church? How are
you fulfilling your callings? What is the quality of you scripture study or
personal prayers? How do you love others?
If obedience is the price, It
is something that has to be paid, physically, mentally and spiritually. How do you pay the person who
gave you everything? Who gave you the tools so that you have a way back to your
heavenly father?
Mosiah 2:21-I say unto you
that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is
preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that you may live and
move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment
to another- I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole soul yet ye would
be unprofitable servants.
Obedience is the price. The
only thing we have to give that he hasn’t already given us is our will. And yet
that is the one thing he asks of us. To align our will with his and to lose our
life in his work. Matt 16:25- For whosoever will save his life shall lose it:
and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Obedience is the price, and
your right, being obedient isn’t always the funnest thing in the moment, but by
doing so the reward greatly outweighs the sacrifice.
He promises that you will be
filled with Love as you keep the commandments. Mosiah 2:4 keep the commandments of God, that they might rejoice and be
filled with e towards God and all men.
Faith is the Power
To start off I just wanted to
talk a little bit about how faith and fear cannot be together. That in order to
truly put all of our trust and faith in Jesus Christ we need to eliminate Fear.
To further illustrate this I’d
like to tell a story about an experience I had a few weeks ago at the lake. It
was my first time Sea-doing( I was pretty scared to get out there on the lake
in the first place, but I had a life jacket on so I felt a little bit secure). Once
I worked up enough courage and go out there, I would slowly go faster and
faster, do a few turns here and there, you know eventually getting to the point
where you’re like “yeah! I can do this; I’m not going to die!
Then, pulling in for the day (so
I thought) my friend just looked at me, smiled and said “oh, you’re not
finished yet! I want you to go out there again, go as fast as you can and then
SLAM on the break, TURN the handle bars, and THROW yourself off into the water!”
You want me to do WHAT!!??!
Are you insane? Nope. Impossible. I can’t do it, I’m way too scared. That’s crazy!
I can’t do it and that’s that! (Listen with your spiritual ears)
His response was” Okay, then
I’m going to do it for you.” I will drive, all you have to do is hold on. And
when we go flying off into the water, I’m coming with you. I’ll do all the
scary stuff; you just have to hold on to me as tight as you can. And guess
what, that’s exactly what we did. He did all the hard/scary work, and I just held
on for my dear life! After he throw us off for the first time, I popped out of
the water and all of a sudden it was fun and exciting, I was filling with an
energy and enthusiasm to do it again.
By letting fear take over I
was halting my progressing. I was letting something I was scared of stop me
from achieving something better. When we put faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ he takes the role of my friend, and says I’ll do it for you. He
works through us and does the hard part, all we have to do is hold on to him
with everything we have and don’t let go when you go flying into deep water.
In preparing for my mission
fear has been something that I have become quite familiar with.
Getting my call I was
overcome with fears and doubts regarding learning the language. I allowed Satan
to take over my thoughts and corrupt the ability I had to put my faith in God
to teach me the language. I find it interesting that Faith and Fear cannot exist
together. Learning Korean is going to be hard, but I know and have faith that He
will work with me, and through me to learn the language. He will give me the
power because I have faith in him.
Alma 17:12 Talks about how
the sons of Mosiahs hearts were filled with courage as they went to teach the
people. They were filled with COURAGE, not Fear in order to be successful missionaries.
In the last days, men’s
hearts will fail them for fear (Luke 21:26). Faith in Jesus Christ allows you
to have access to that power- the ability to do anything. Faith is power that
God gives us access to according to our obedience. It is powerful, it
motivates, it moves mountains, and it allows us to see a vision beyond our
sight.
I have faith because I don’t
always know. But I trust. Faith is the power that God gives me to overcome
fear, the promise that if I put my trust in him he will make my weaknesses
strengths. In the Lord we can do all things. To have faith you have to
act. It’s a powerful tool that motivates you to become something you don’t see
in yourself. Faith is the power to do things and believe in things that don’t
always make sense. It is a higher law.
See how it relates? We can do anything, as long as we
are obedient first.
With enough faith I can do
anything, and if I can you can!
Love is the motivator
“A man who is full of the love of god is not content with
blessing his family only, but thinks about all of the people in the world,
anxious to bless the whole human race.” Joseph Smith, History of the Church,
Vol. 4, pg. 227.
When you ask people what is
most important in their lives they usually say their family. We all love our families;
I know a huge part of why I am serving a mission is because I love my family. Love
is the reason behind why we should do anything in this life, why we are all
here, and really why in life we do anything at all.
We need to remember that we are
all here as a family, working towards a common goal in this gospel. Now I want you to think about
why you do your calling? Are you doing it because you love the Lord?
Because you love the people you serve?
When you concentrate on the things that you
love, it changes the reasoning behind what you are doing. Instead of dreading
going to work each day you look forward to the next day with energy and
excitement because you love it. And that Love motivates you to keep going.
“Get to the point where your
actions and goals are not motivated by fear or reward or duty but by a love
for the Lord and for those they served. The highest motive for keeping the
commandments is a love for God and for His children”
I think of a story my
institute teacher told me. As a little child he had this aunt who whenever he
would come over to visit would take a special moment out of her day to sit him
down, look him in the eye and ask him how he was, she would listen and give him
heartfelt advice and counsel. This simple gesture of love, that she would pay
close attention to him overwhelmed him and stuck with him through his life.
That’s how I think the savior
loves. He stops. Listens, and cares about each one of us. That is the type of
love I want to have for the people I’m serving. The type of love I need to have
towards my investigators, the food and my companions. That is the love I want
to have in my callings, family and work.
“Love is itself a gift. It is
difficult for us to love others if we are not loved. Sometimes we don't feel
loved or at all lovable. At these times it may be difficult for us to feel
motivated to exercise faith or to show love. But God loves us. He loves us more
than we can comprehend at this time "We love him, because he first loved
us" (1 John 4:19)When you understand that, it
transforms you. We need to have faith that the Lord does indeed love us. As we
exercise that faith through obedience, we begin to feel the Lord's love more
powerfully in our lives. All of these principles are interconnected”
Spirit is the key
2 Nephi 32:3 & 5 – “the words
of Christ will tell you all the things what ye should do… And, the Holy Ghost
will show unto you all things what ye should do”
Christ performed the
atonement and provided a way back, and the spirit is the key. The Ordinances of
Baptism, the sacrament, temple work is the key to unlocking the power to return
to him- those are all made possible through the spirit. He is the missing link, the
spirit it converts, comforts, cleanses and connects us to heavenly father and
Christ. It is by the spirit that we can know we are clean, we can receive
personal revelation. Through our obedience and faith and a love of God, we are
worthy to have the spirit direct our lives.
Listening to the spirits promptings:
2 Sundays ago I was driving
home from church, listening to Taylor Swift. I realized I probably shouldn’t be
listening to that on Sunday, so I shut my music off. As I drove in silence the
name of a boy who I had known from a year of two prior came to my mind, and I
felt an impression to contact him. To reach out and see how he was doing. This
honestly surprised me, because we were never really friends… in fact I remember
him not always being the nicest person to me. He was very rough around the
edges and often came across in such a way that would create fear or negativity
towards the people around him. However I remember the rare occasion when I would
see past, and see a child of God in him. I could see that there was someone who
had the ability to love others incredibly.
As I continued to drive home I again felt as if I needed to reach out to
him, so when I got home I messaged him on Facebook and said something along
these lines; I don’t know if you remember
me or not... but today I had a feeling that I needed to contact you. I know
that sounds weird. But I just wanted to check in on you and see how everything’s
going in your life? What have you been up to? I’m sorry this is so random. But
I just couldn’t ignore the prompting. He responded with much
appreciation for the concern as he had been struggling with some things in his
life, and I was the last person in the world he ever though would reach out to
him, but was forever grateful I had listened to that prompting. We were able to
talk briefly about how heavenly father loves each one of his children and will
never stop reaching out towards them to come back into his fold.
I know that the spirit
prompted me that day to let my friend know that God does love and care about
him. When we listen to the promptings of the spirit to guide our lives we are
able to be instruments in God’s hands to reach out to his children. “Listening to the spirit is
something very personal and different for each one of us. But I know that as
you strive to keep yourselves worthy the spirit will guide your life.”
The spirit is what will guide
me as a missionary, to know what to say, where to go, and will speak when I am
not able to. (Literally!)
As we are worthy, have faith
in Christ and a love for the work and people we are serving we will be able to
have the companionship of the spirit in all that we do. I know that is true,
because I have experienced it in my own life.
Christ is the reason.
When you know that, nothing
else matters.
I know that Christ really did
live, and he in reality died for me that I can return to him. That not only my
sins can be forgiven, but that any hurt, pain, doubt, or loneliness can be
taken away. The burdens of life are lifted, and he will give you rest.
Christ is the basis for all
that we do. He is the reason we do missionary work. He is the reason why I am
going on a mission.
“Without the Savior and His
Atonement, there would be no good news to spread. Without Him, temple work
would be in vain. Our progress would stop. But He did partake of the bitter cup
and "finished [His] preparations unto the children of men" (D&C
19:18–19). As we come to know Him and to "learn . . . that there is no
other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ"
(Alma 38:9), we become better students, we have a stronger influence on others,
we serve more faithfully as missionaries, we raise better families, and we
become worthy to return to him.”
It’s a daily battle to make
the decision to follow Christ. We have to have a current testimony of Christ
daily. It’s something we have to work at one step at a time. We can’t do it all
in one dose, It is up to each one of us to be worthy to return to him.
(Bear quick testimony)
In the name of Jesus
Christ amen.
* Please forgive me for not posting all the references used... if you really want to know I can get them all you you! :)
