My Homecoming Talk
A lot of people refer to missions as the best 2 years, or the best 18 months. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said it best when he said “It’s not just the best, it’s the toughest. It’s the longest. It’s the shortest. It’s the wettest. It’s the driest…there is nothing that condenses so much of life into [18] months”. I have found that to be true. I have grown so much, not only as a person, but in my testimony of the Savior and His gospel. In all honesty, I was not very prepared to be a missionary. I didn’t know missionaries still knocked doors…I don’t know what I thought they did – but it wasn’t that! Thankfully, I didn’t need to know everything. D&C 4:3 says: “Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work”. Really, all you need is a desire to serve God and, as you act on that desire, everything else will fall into place.
During the last few months of my mission, my mission president placed an emphasis on studying the doctrine of Jesus Christ, which is faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. And that’s what I want to talk about today!
First of all, faith. To have faith is not only to believe in something, but to act on those beliefs that you have. But that is not all, having faith means you can’t see the whole picture. Alma 32:21 says, “And now as I said concerning faith – faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true” Faith is hope combined with action and for me a great example of faith is Ramiro. We met Ramiro around Christmas time. We had texted everyone who had been taught in the past and invited them to come to church for Christmas and Ramiro responded! He had been looking for a way to grow closer to God, but he didn’t know how to do that on his own. He was raised with a belief in God, but going to church, praying, was new to him and it was intimidating. But he pushed forward – he was determined to change, and it started with little things. He started praying every day. He started coming to church. And little by little, his faith grew and he was baptized. He couldn’t have done that without faith, without hope that change was possible and without the effort he put in. A couple of weeks after his baptism we had stake conference. We were talking to him afterwards, and he absolutely LOVED it – he was so happy and so proud of the changes he had made in his life. He was able to go to the temple a couple of weeks later! Seeing his joy remains one of the highlights of my mission.
Step number two: repentance!! Sometimes this step gets a bad reputation because it’s seen as a punishment rather than the gift that it is. But without repentance we couldn’t change and that’s what life is all about, changing. That doesn’t mean that it’s easy though. One thing Satan is very very good at is twisting repentance into a negative thing. He tells us that we will never be able to change. That God surely can’t forgive our sins. That we can only repent for things once.
Hna. Kimball and my repentance
And in these times, it’s important to remember that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is infinite and that “no one has sinned tomorrow” (Gary B. Sabin). One of my favorite scriptures is Romans 8:38-39 which says: “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”. No matter what we’ve done or where we’ve been, “[His grace is sufficient]” for us, and it will always be sufficient. Which is good news, because repentance is continuous.
“And the first fruits of repentance is baptism” (Moroni 8:25) Which is the next step. Baptism is so important because it’s how we accept the gift of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Without it, we cannot receive a full remission of our sins or all the blessings that God has in store for us. So, any time someone is baptized it’s a joyous occasion. One of the most memorable baptisms that I was apart of was the baptism of Jesus. He was so excited and anxious to be baptized, that he tried to go under the water before they had the chance to say the prayer! He knew why baptism was important and it showed in his actions. However, unlike faith and repentance it’s a once-in-a-lifetime type of thing. So how can it still be applicable to us after we have been baptized? And that answer comes in the form of the Sacrament, which we get to take every single week. And while it is not being baptism again, it does renew the promises we’ve made, and it reminds us of the goodness of God in our lives. In a talk called “The Blessed and Happy State” Susan Bednar talks about the power of remembering. Remembrance is how we stay on the path that leads us back to God. She said, “Please remember, remember who you are, remember what you stand for, remember that you have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” As we take the Sacrament, we also take time to remember and to reset. It is essential that we don’t forget to do the little things that bring us closer to God or the miracles that He has done in our lives.
After we are baptized, we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. I know that the gift of the Holy Ghost is real. It is an essential part of being a life-long disciple of Jesus Christ. As members of the church “We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, vision, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth” (article of faith #7) All of these gifts come through the power of the Holy Ghost. The one I saw the most on my mission was the gift of tongues. I did not know any Spanish when I got my mission call. In fact, I had no desire to try to learn Spanish. But that had to change. It is safe to say that I understood basically nothing my first 6 weeks in California. I could say a couple of things, but I was hopeless when it came to conversations. My trainer would try to pass off the lessons to me when we were teaching, and I would just stare at her. Through a lot of work and a lot of prayer, that changed. I know that it is through the power of the Holy Ghost that I was able to learn Spanish. It was through the power of the Holy Ghost that I was able to teach the gospel. President Russell M. Nelson said, "In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost." That’s true. The Holy Ghost “will show unto you all things what ye should do.” (2 Nephi 32:5). It is also important to remember that, when choosing between following the spirit and google maps, the spirit is always the answer. Part of my first area was a desert – and there were lots of “dirt roads” that weren’t really roads – it was more like dirt paths were people dump their trash. But one day we were running late, my companion was on the phone with one of our most progressing friends and I could tell that something was wrong. I was so focused on trying to understand their conversation that I missed my turn! And I decided to trust google maps for the fastest way back…that ended up with us getting stuck in the dirt, so, I would not recommend
One way we can invite the Holy Ghost into our lives is through prayer. I don’t think I’ve ever prayed so much in my life as I did as a missionary. We prayed before we did anything. Before lessons, before knocking doors, before leaving our apartment – even if it was just to take out the trash! And it made a difference. Every single morning, right after we woke up, we would pray and then plan our day. We would fill in every minute – from 6:30am to 9pm – with what we would be doing. However, it wasn’t uncommon for us to fall behind schedule or for our schedule to be completely thrown off by something unexpected. One day we had planned to visit Javier, he was a referral (someone who requested missionaries to come by online) that the missionaries before us couldn’t get in contact with. And it had been a couple of months since he had sent in this referral, but we felt like we needed to go visit him. Unfortunately, this was one of the days that our schedule got thrown off. But we still felt like we needed to contact him somehow, so we called him and he answered. He was so excited to hear from missionaries, and we were able to start teaching him. The spirit is how we knew to visit him in the first place and it’s why we decided to keep trying after our first plan fell through. The spirit is also what makes the last step possible and enjoyable.
Endure to the end. This step is, in a nutshell, all the other steps repeated throughout our lives. Conversion to Jesus Christ is not a one-time event and it doesn’t end when we receive the Holy Ghost. Enduring to the end means that we have joy to the end. But it doesn’t mean that we suddenly stop having problems or that everything becomes easy. It means that we have the tools to overcome the challenges we have, and that we can have hope that everything will be alright. Like with everything, Jesus Christ gave us the example on how we can endure hard things. When He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He suffered unimaginable pain and sorrow. In Luke 22:44 it says: “and being in an agony He prayed more earnestly”. I love this. Instead of giving up, instead of saying it’s too hard, or God has abandoned me – He prayed more earnestly. The gospel doesn’t necessarily make our lives easier. But it makes us stronger. It gives us the tools we need to overcome anything that comes our way.
About 4 months into my mission, I was going through a really hard time. One of my friends shared this verse of “Come, Come Ye Saints” with me, and it changed my perspective. It says:
Why should we mourn or think our lot is hard?
’Tis not so; all is right.
Why should we think to earn a great reward
If we now shun the fight?
Gird up your loins; fresh courage take.
Our God will never us forsake;
And soon we’ll have this tale to tell—
All is well! All is well!
God knows us. He will never forsake us. And as we live the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can become who He needs us to be. I would like to close by sharing my testimony in Spanish, because if I don’t my mom will kill me…
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