Mission Farewell Address

For those that may have missed it, I had the opportunity to speak to my church congregation before I left. Here's what I said, if you are interested!

                Good morning, brothers and sisters! I am excited I have the opportunity to speak to you, and I am even more excited to go serve in the Great Kentucky Louisville Mission, Spanish speaking! In thinking about a topic to speak about today, I wanted to speak about a deciding factor in my serving a mission. I have a couple reasons for wanting to serve a mission, but the main one revolves around the happiness I have felt through the love of my Savior Jesus Christ. I can only hope that on my mission I have the opportunity to help someone else feel that love and happiness that I have felt in my own life.

                I believe that Jesus plays three distinct roles in our lives. First, Jesus Christ is our perfect teacher and example. His life shows us the right way, and gives us something to strive for. He taught of hope, charity, and love, and then went on to show those characteristics in His actions. Through His many instances of healing the afflicted, He taught us that He has time for each and every one of us individually. In his preachings on the Sermon on the Mount, He taught us characteristics that should be aimed for. His interactions with the adulteress woman who was to be stoned and her accusers taught us that He loves us endlessly no matter what we may have done in our past, a knowledge that allows us to move forward in hope. These are just a few examples of His teachings; the list is endless.

Thomas S. Monson, the current prophet here on the Earth today, said, “In the home, the school, or the house of God, there is one teacher whose life overshadows all others. He taught of life and death, of duty and destiny. He lived not to be served, but to serve; not to receive, but to give; not to save his life, but to sacrifice it for others. He described a love more beautiful than lust, a poverty richer than treasure. It was said of this teacher that he taught with authority and not as did the scribes. I speak of the Master Teacher, even Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind.” When we respond to Christ’s gentle invitation, ‘Come learn of me,’ we do learn, but we also become partakers of His divine power.

Christ is our teacher, which makes us His students. Our lives here on the Earth are like a test, or a continuous classroom. God, our loving Father and caring Parent, sent us down to Earth to be tested, to learn, to grow. We have our good days where our focus is solely on Christ the Teacher and the good things that He teaches us to do. Other days, we may need a friendly reminder to return to the important tasks at hand. We have the tests that we excel at, and we have the tests that require much preparation and diligence. Sometimes, we even have the tests that we may fail that require us to go to the Teacher for help.  I am thankful to have Jesus Christ as the head of that classroom, as an ever-present teacher that is willing to do anything to help us succeed.

The second role that Jesus Christ plays in our lives is as our Brother. We are all children of Heavenly Father; Christ is our perfect brother who Father sent down to Earth for a time to help us along our way. As our Brother, He loves us endlessly. Romans 8:37-39 states, “Nay, in all things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Because of this love which He has for us, He can heal us from things that plague us, just as He did with the people He came in contact with during His time on Earth. Christ cares about everything we care about, and He dislikes the things that make us unhappy. If we come to Him, He can take away any pain. Like my own two brothers that came to cheer me on in my softball games, Christ is in our fan section. One of my favorite scriptures is Romans 8:31, which basically says, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” It’s a comfort for me to know that Christ is there for me in everything.

The third role of Jesus Christ in our lives is as the Savior of the world. This is the most powerful position for someone to hold, but also the most merciful. John 3:17-18 states this perfectly. It says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

I love the second chapter of the 2^nd book of Nephi in the Book of Mormon. It gives me hope that when we make a mistake, it allows us to grow and learn. Verses 11-14 read, 

11. “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; wherefore, if it should be one body it must needs remain as dead, having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.

 12 Wherefore, it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation.

 13 And if ye shall say there is no law, ye shall also say there is no sin. If ye shall say there is no sin, ye shall also say there is no righteousness. And if there be no righteousness there be no happiness. And if there be no righteousness nor happiness there be no punishment nor misery. And if these things are not there is no God. And if there is no God we are not, neither the earth; for there could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away.

 14 And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon.”

Those scriptures are very deep, but they fill me with hope. We are here on Earth to choose between good and bad. It is those decisions and their consequences that bring purpose to our lives. Mistakes do not have to be the end; we do not need to give up when a mistake is made! It is only when we make mistakes that we grow. Christ’s sacrifice and Atonement is there to complete us, to make up where we lack, to make us whole.

Brad Wilcox, who is a professor at Brigham Young University, once spoke in a devotional about Christ’s grace. If we had time in this meeting, I would read you the whole talk as it is very good, but instead, I will just pull some of my favorite parts. He said, “Too many are giving up because they are tired of constantly feeling like they are falling short. They have tried in the past, but they always feel like they are just not good enough. They don’t understand grace. There are young women who know they are daughters of a Heavenly Father who loves them, and they love Him. Then they graduate from high school, and the values they memorized are put to the test. They slip up. They let things go too far, and suddenly they think it is all over. These young women don’t understand grace.

“There are young men who grow up their whole lives singing, “I hope they call me on a mission,” and then they do actually grow a foot or two and flake out completely. They get their Eagles, graduate from high school, and go away to college. Then suddenly these young men find out how easy it is to not be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, or reverent. They mess up. They say, “I’ll never do it again,” and then they do it. They say, “I’ll never do it again,” and then they do it. They say, “This is stupid. I will never do it again.” And then they do it. The guilt is almost unbearable. They don’t dare talk to a bishop. Instead, they hide. They say, “I can’t do this Mormon thing. I’ve tried, and the expectations are just way too high.” So they quit. These young men don’t understand grace.

“In all of these cases there should never be just two options: perfection or giving up. When learning the piano, are the only options performing at Carnegie Hall or quitting? No. Growth and development take time. Learning takes time. When we understand grace, we understand that God is long-suffering, that change is a process, and that repentance is a pattern in our lives. When we understand grace, we understand that the blessings of Christ’s Atonement are continuous and His strength is perfect in our weakness.”

I love the metaphor of Christ as a Shepherd. Mosiah 14:6 states, “All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.” We all stray, we all make mistakes. Christ is not going to leave us to get lost. Instead, He will find us. He will continue to find us time after time. I know that Christ as our Savior will never let us down and will never leave us on our own. The Good Shepherd who knows his sheep has proven to me personally that I am numbered among that flock.

To end, I want to read a poem that I heard when I was attending BYU this past year that convinced me that I needed to serve a mission.

"I’d been in that hole for a very long time. In the dark and the damp, in the cold and the slime.

The shaft was above me; I could see it quite clear, but there’s no way I ever could reach it from here.

Nor could I remember the world way up there, so I lost all my hope and gave into despair.

I knew nothing but darkness, the floors, and the walls, when from off in the distance I heard someone call,

“Get up! Get ready! There’s nothing the matter! Take rocks and take sticks and build up a fine ladder.”

This had never occurred to me, had not crossed my mind, so I started to stack all the stones I could find.

When I ran out of stones, the old sticks were my goal, for some way or another I’d get out of that hole.

So I soon had a ladder that was really quite tall, and I thought, “I’ll soon leave this place once and for all!”

Then I climbed up my ladder, it was no easy chore. For from lifting those boulders my shoulders were sore.

So I worked and I climbed and at last had to stop, for my ladder stopped short – some ten feet from the top.

I climbed back down the ladder and felt all around, but there were no more boulders nor sticks to be found.

I went back to my ladder and started to cry. I’d done all I could do; I gave my best try.

But in spite of my work, in this hole I must die, and all I could do was to sit and think, “Why?”

Was my ladder too short? Or my hole much too deep? Then from way up on high came a voice: “Do not weep.”

And then hope, love, and faith entered my chest, as the voice said to me that I’d done my best.

He said, “Nothing’s the matter.  There’s reason to hope. Just climb up your ladder; I’ll throw down my rope.

You have worked very hard, and your labor’s been rough, but the ladder you've built is at last tall enough.”

I climbed up the ladder, then climbed up the cord. When I stood at the top, there stood the Lord.

I’ve never been happier; my struggle was done. I blinked in the brightness that came from the Son.

I fell to the ground; his feet did I kiss. I cried, “What can I do to repay thee for this?”

He looked all around Him – there were holes in the ground. They had people inside, and were seen all around.

There were thousands of holes that were damp, dark, and deep. Then the Lord turned to me and He said, “Feed my sheep.”

Then He went on His way to help other lost souls. And I got right to work, calling down to the holes,

“Get up!  Get ready! There’s nothing the matter! Take rocks and take sticks and build up a fine ladder!”

It now was my turn to spread the good word. The most glorious message that man ever heard.

That there’s One who is willing to save one and all, and we've got to be ready when He gives the call.

He’ll pull us all out of the hole that we’re in, and save all our souls from death and from sin.

So do not lose faith; there is reason to hope: Just build up your ladder; He’ll throw down His rope."

I am eternally grateful for my Teacher, my Brother, my Savior, Jesus Christ. His love, his grace, is life-changing. No matter what we may have done, no matter if we may do it again; His love is all encompassing. His power in my life gives me hope for what is to come. I look forward to teaching this message of salvation on my mission to Kentucky, along with the other joys that the gospel provides to my life. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.