Homecoming Talk: Lessons
Learned while Serving as a Missionary
Brothers
and sisters, it is so great to be back with you! I want you all to know how
much I love my mission. It was the fastest 18 months of my life, but through
experiences in my mission, I have changed for the better so much faster than I
ever could have done if I were left to myself. Today I would like to share some
of the greatest lessons I have learned in serving as a full-time Spanish
missionary in the Great Kentucky Louisville Mission. Now, I am not just sharing
these for fun, but I hope that as I share what Heavenly Father has taught me,
that you all can gain a little insight too as you seek to share the gospel. I know
He all has lessons for us to learn as we seek to serve Him more fully.
The
first lesson I learned so much on my mission is about how essential prayer is
both in the lives of missionaries and in the lives of those we teach. As
missionaries, we pray a lot. Just in the morning between the hours of 6:30 and
11, we pray at least 10 times. On my first night in Kentucky after arriving
from the MTC, my mission president’s wife was talking a little bit about the
routine and she said that when the alarm goes off in the morning, our minds
should automatically be accustomed to roll out of bed and get on our knees to
pray. One thing I never expected about missionary work is just how tired I
would be all the time! Because of that, sometimes I was a little sleepy in my
morning prayers. But I believe it’s really the action that counts, which is that
we are putting God first in our lives as we begin our day by communing with Him
before doing anything else. It’s like we are aligning our lives with His will. Alma
34:18 says, “Yea, cry unto him for mercy, for he is mighty to save.” Prayer is
so very important, and as we seek to talk with our Heavenly Father, I believe
we have more hope in our lives. As we pray to Him often, and especially as we
always have a prayer in our hearts, we begin to recognize how our Heavenly
Father responds back to us. Although we can’t see Him, He is really so close to
us. 3 Nephi 14:7-11 reads, “Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye
shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh,
receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be
opened. Or what man is there of you, who, if his son ask bread, will give him a
stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil,
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father
who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” All we need to do is
ask fervently and with faith.
An experience of this that I saw in my mission
was with a woman named Aly. She was a member, but due to work situations on
Sundays, was unable to attend church regularly. One day, my companion and I
were out with a member and we were just not having any luck whatsoever. We were
trying practically every door to just be rejected. I began to pray very
urgently in my head to know where we needed to go with this member, and I was
feeling really impressed to go visit Aly. I shared my feelings with my
companion and the member and we headed over there. We went up and knocked on
her door and within a few seconds, Aly swung open the door very
enthusiastically and welcomed us warmly. She told us that she had been having a
hard day and upon returning home from work, she fell on her knees and began to
pray. She began to ask Heavenly Father if He was really there and if He was
listening to her prayer, and right as she asked that, we knocked on the door.
Because of that experience, I know that Heavenly Father loves Aly so much that
He made it so we arrived at her house at the exact second that she needed us to
so she could feel of His love. I know that if we pray seeking for answers,
Heavenly Father will answer us immediately. Some of my most treasured moments
on my mission were after a really hard day when I asked Him through prayer if I
did what I was supposed to that day. He always would answer me immediately and
with lots of love.
Another
thing that I have learned is just how much God knows and loves each and every
one of His children, and how He will give His children endless opportunities to
accept the Gospel and to come unto Him. There was one email I wrote to my
family after a week where I saw just how much Heavenly Father does to help His
children receive and accept the gospel. A part of the email said, “I think the biggest thing I have realized [this week]
is that God works for the one. The worth of one soul is great in the sight of
God. As a representative of His Son Jesus Christ, He puts me where I need to go
to help one of His specific children. Sometimes I wonder my purpose for why I
am here [on my mission]. What if it is just to meet one person on the street
and share something that will spark a fire and change generations to come? Each
one of us is so important. I know that even if I were the only sinner in the
entire world that Jesus Christ would still suffer for my one soul. I
am grateful that God works for the one. I am grateful for the ones I have been
blessed to meet.” What I said in that email is still true. In Alma 16:16-17,
God said it like this, “…The Lord did pour out his Spirit on all the face of
the land to prepare the minds of the children of men, or to prepare their
hearts to receive the word which should be taught among them at the time of his
coming. That they might not be hardened against the word, that they might not
be unbelieving, and go on to destruction, but that they might receive the word
with joy, and as a branch be grafted into the true vine, that they might enter
into the rest of the Lord their God.” I know each of us are so precious to Him
and that He wants everyone of us to return to Him and He won’t stop working
until He gets that. I also know that He knows that we are at different levels
in our progression, and that He works with us according to our needs.
One of my
favorite stories from my entire mission is about a man named Frederico. I was
on an exchange in my area, meaning I was another sister for the day to work and
learn from her, and we were in a trailer park. We went up and talked to this
man Frederico who was working outside. He did not have much of a religious
background and we asked him if he thought God existed. He said he wasn’t sure.
As we began to talk about it more, rain began to pour down and he invited us
onto his covered porch. Before continuing, he went and got his wife from inside
so we could talk with them together. Frederico continued to ask us questions of
his soul, like about the nature of God and prayer. Due to his questions and the
questions of his wife, we were led to teach them about the Plan of Salvation.
It was the best, most spiritual Plan of Salvation lesson that I had ever taught
right there under the porch with the sound of rain in the background. In the
end, we invited Frederico to pray, and he told us he had never prayed before.
We taught him how, and his simple first prayer was beautiful. I was excited to
return, but as my companion and I tried in the future, we never could get in
touch with him or his family. It wasn’t until a week before I was about to
leave the area that we were in that same trailer park and I spotted Frederico
taking out his trash. I ran over to him, overjoyed. He was surprised and happy
to see us too, and the first words out of his mouth were, “Hermana, the lesson
you taught us changed my life. I now know that God exists. I have been praying
every day and my life is changing.” Because of Frederico, I know that God works
with us according to what we need. Frederico needed to learn that God was there
and that God loved him. I know Heavenly Father is working individually with
everyone around us: our neighbors, the people driving next to us on the street,
our family members. He loves us so much.
Finally, I learned a lot about the
Atonement and our relationship with Jesus Christ. When I left on my mission, I
gave my farewell talk on Jesus Christ. I felt that I knew Him. But my mission
has taught me so much more about Him, and I learned the Atonement is so much deeper
and has so many different aspects. One of those different aspects I learned
about is how the Atonement helps us to change. Ether 12:27 says, “And if men
come unto me, I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness
that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble
themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me and have faith in
me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” The Savior teaches
us that our purpose is to become like Him. He is perfect and without sin and so
we have a long way to go! But Heavenly Father and Christ both want to help us
change and become better. Fortunately, they are both very patient and they
recognize that change is a process and that it takes time. At the beginning of
my mission, I was thinking about who I wanted to become and what traits I
wanted to develop during my mission. I wrote them down, and in reviewing them
the last week of my mission, I realized that Heavenly Father helped me to develop
every single one of the things I had written down. It was not easy, but I know
that through the Atonement we can change when we are relying solely upon Jesus
Christ.
Another aspect of the Atonement that
I learned about on my mission is how Christ is able to give us so much comfort
because He knows us perfectly. Missions are hard. Life is hard. But I am
grateful that I learned on my mission that Christ did not suffer only for my
sins, but that He suffered for all my trials and my heartaches as well. In a
talk titled “Missionary Work and the Atonement”, Jeffrey R. Holland said,
“Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is
this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid?
Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in
angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why
isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet
all day and all night in the baptismal font? You will have occasion to ask
those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my
personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because
salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The
Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head.
How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for
Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at
least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to
take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary. Now, please don’t
misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ
experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that
missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to
know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of
that same price. For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been
easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued
faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something
from the depths of our soul.” I know that in the end true happiness is found as
we become like Christ. The process to becoming something really will require
something of our part, but after we do all we can, Christ catches us and
carries us to the level we need to be at. His grace really is sufficient.
Finally, the last aspect of the
Atonement that I learned about is that the Atonement provides strength. Alma
26:12 states, “Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak;
therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his
strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought
in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.” I remember the days
when I was tired or it was hard and I was given the strength to keep going. I
saw this with one of the investigators that I was closest to. I was there when
we first met the man. He was outside his trailer smoking but as we talked with
him, I noticed a visible light that turned on within him. Something in what we
said sparked the spirit inside him. That began one of the most beautiful
relationships I have ever been privileged to have. As we taught him, I saw his
desires to do the right grow. Before we had even taught him about the Word of
Wisdom, he came to us asking us for help in overcoming his addiction to
smoking. To try to help him in his attempts to quit, we had many lessons on the
Atonement. It was amazing to see him learn to lean on Christ to find the
strength to quit his addiction and live without cigarettes. It was an amazing
experience, and because of that and other experiences in my mission, I’ve
learned that the best moments, days, or weeks were when I would do all that was
in my strength and then I had to leave the rest to the Lord. And He always came
through.
I learned so many other countless
things. I could have shared other lessons, like about how God is a God of
miracles and how everyday can be a day of miracles when we look for them. I
could have born testimony of how being humble and conforming to God’s plan and
doing the work in His way brings success. I could have included stories about
how the Book of Mormon has changed lives, especially my own. I know that book
has a special power about it. I could have talked about the importance of love
in being a missionary, about how God gives us a portion of His love for those
we serve, and about how if we truly love the people, we will share the gospel
with them. My mission means so much to me because of the love I have felt for
the people, and it is amazing how much love the heart can hold. I am so
grateful for everything that I have learned in my mission, and I know these 18
months will shape the rest of my life.
So what does this all mean for you
all and for me now that I am back to being a normal member? In the words of Joseph Smith, “After all that
has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel.”
So in all that has been said today, the words mean nothing unless we go out and
apply them to help bring others to Christ. We can pray fervently and often for
missionary experiences. We can remember the love God has for us and as we go
about our lives every day, we can pause for a second and look around us for
those that Heavenly Father may be preparing. And most importantly, we can use
the Atonement in our lives daily to improve and perform our labors and do the
will of our Heavenly Father. (Bear testimony in Spanish). I leave these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
