Good Morning brothers and sisters! Today is a happy day because I’m not sure
I’ve ever gotten to speak in front of so many people I love, so many people who
have played pivotal roles in shaping who I am.
It such a blessing and a miracle to me.
Yesterday my dad told me that if I referenced
skittles and unicorns in my talk that he would give me 50 bucks. I couldn’t find a way to organically fit it
in, so I’m hoping this counts. I accept
cash.
These past few days I have been very
overwhelmed—with running errands and seeing people and getting everything
together before I leave. I have felt
unprepared, afraid, and anxious, but more than anything, I have been
overwhelmed with a feeling of love. Love
from and for all the people here supporting me and love from my Father in
heaven. And ultimately, that is why I am
here, and why I am leaving my home for 18 months.
I
have had the desire to serve a mission since I was a child. I was probably nine years old sitting in a
pew in this very chapel singing along to the hymn “I stand all amazed.” I remember how the words of the song pierced
my heart.
I stand all
amazed at the love Jesus offers me,
Confused at the grace that so fully He proffers me;
I tremble to know that for me He was crucified,
That for me, a sinner, He suffered, He bled and died.
I marvel that He would descend from His throne divine
To rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as mine;
That He should extend His great love unto such as I,
Sufficient to own, to redeem, and to justify.
I think of His hands, pierced and bleeding to pay the debt
Such mercy, such love and devotion can I forget?
No, no! I will praise and adore at the mercy seat,
Until at the glorified throne I kneel at his feet.
O it is wonderful that He should care for me Enough to die for me!
O it is wonderful, wonderful to me!
I think I started to understand at that moment exactly how much I was loved by
my God and Jesus Christ.
As I grew up I continued to learn about the life of
the Savior. I learned that He performed
many incredible miracles. I learned that
he was kind, forgiving, and non-judgmental.
I learned that he endured pain and loneliness and ridicule beyond
comprehension. I came to understand that
any hardship or tragedy that I would ever go through, Christ endured it
first. And He endured it for us. He gave us everything so that we could find
happiness and peace with our Father in heaven someday through Him.
This is the strongest kind of love there is and it
is called charity, which is the pure love of Christ.
Moroni7:
46 Wherefore,
my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never
faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all
things must fail—
47 But charity is
the pure love of
Christ, and it endureth forever;
and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
The knowledge
that we are loved by Jesus Christ is powerful.
It has pulled me through many hard times, and is why I want to serve a
mission. We are told: “Inasmuch as ye
have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto
me.” I know that the Lord loves me. I am
serving a mission to show that I love Him back.
If I can tell just one person who has forgotten their worth that God
loves them infinitely and completely, then I will consider my 18 months in
Brazil a success.
Let’s cross our fingers that I surpass that goal by
at least a little bit.
Any time I have had a discouraging thought about not
being able to learn the language, or be an effective teacher, and anytime you
feel you are inadequate to do good, It is helpful to think about Doctrine and
Covenants Section 4:5
“And faith, hope, charity, and love, with an eye
single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.”
If I have a love for the people I am serving, I will
be qualified for the work.
The same goes for all of us, whether we are
missionaries or not, if we love the people we are trying to help and serve, we
will be capable of doing so.
One of the biggest examples of this to me is a man
from the Book of Mormon named Ammon.
Ammon is perhaps one of the most incredible missionaries in all
scripture. He traveled alone to a land
where his people were hated. He was
captured and bound immediately and brought to the king whose name was
Lamoni. When King Lamoni asked why he
had come into his territory, Ammon responded “I desire to dwell among this
people for a time; yea, and perhaps until the day I die” (Ama 17:24). He also promptly told the king, ”I will
be thy servant” (Alma 17:25). King
Lamoni was impressed at his sincerity and Ammon proved to be a loyal servant
and risked his life for the king. He
earned his trust and taught him of the redemption that comes through
Christ.
Although there are many fearsome parts to this
story, my favorite part is when they run into Lamoni’s father, who is king over
all the land, and ask him to release Ammon’s brethren from his prison. All at once, Lamoni’s father is angered and
tries to slay his own son. But Ammon
protects him.
“And when he saw that Ammon had no desire to destroy
him, and when he also saw the great love he had for his son Lamoni, he was
astonished exceedingly…” (Alma 20:26).
Ammon served these people well because he loved them
and became one of them. His love for
Lamoni changed the heart of a wicked king forever.
When we show others that we genuinely love them and
reflect the perfect love of Christ, they will open their hearts as well.
It is clear that this is what Christ asks of us
The last thing the Savior did in His life with the
apostles was not teach them about resurrection, which they did not understand
completely, or the atonement, or even church organization. What he did was poignant… He girded Himself
and washed their feet. A perfect man and
the son of God, served his apostles. And
the last thing He said was: A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one
another as I have loved you.
Elder Deiter F Uchdorf shares a story about this as
well. A story is told that during the
bombing of a city in World War II, a large statue of Jesus Christ was
severely damaged. When the townspeople found the statue among the rubble, they
mourned because it had been a beloved symbol of their faith and of God’s
presence in their lives.
Experts were able to repair most of the statue, but
its hands had been damaged so severely that they could not be restored. Some
suggested that they hire a sculptor to make new hands, but others wanted to
leave it as it was—a permanent reminder of the tragedy of war. Ultimately, the
statue remained without hands. However, the people of the city added on the
base of the statue of Jesus Christ a sign with these words: “You are my hands.”
Jesus Christ no longer literally walks this earth,
He doesn’t heal people on the streets or raise our loved ones from the
dead. But that does not mean that we are
left alone and that we cannot be healed.
We are the Savior’s hands. We are
his heart.
Christ said
in John 15:13… "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down
his life for his friends" (John
15:13). This doesn't mean we have to die to show our love
for our friends. We lay down our lives every time we put someone else's needs
before our own.
Uchdorf:
Christ did not just speak about love; He showed it
each day of His life. He did not remove Himself from the crowd. Being amidst
the people, Jesus reached out to the one. He rescued the lost. He didn’t just
teach a class about reaching out in love and then delegate the actual work to
others. He not only taught but also showed us how to “succor the weak, lift up
the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.” 12
Christ knows how to minister to others perfectly.
When the Savior stretches out His hands, those He touches are uplifted and
become greater, stronger, and better people as a result.
If we are His hands, should we not do the same?
Love is what inspired our Heavenly Father to create
our spirits; it is what led our Savior to the Garden of Gethsemane to make
Himself a ransom for our sins. Love is the grand motive of the plan of
salvation; it is the
source of happiness, the ever-renewing spring of healing,
the precious fountain of hope.
In a world where discouragement and hate can be seen
on the streets, the airwaves, and all over the internet, this kind of fountain
of hope can surely be put to good use.
Last semester at BYU I was taking a New Testament
class and my professor told us a story that changed my heart.
It was about his experience serving in South
America. He had taught people in slums
and the area was very poor. There was
one woman who was a widow and lived on the cheapest land you could buy—she
lived in a shack on a dried up river bed, a river bed that annually flowed with
water, so only the poorest of the poor resorted to living there. He visited her home to teach with her and
noticed how poorly she had it off. Her
bed was a simple mat on the dirt ground below.
He observed that her kitchen table was made of two pales and some scrap pieces
of wood overtop. He left her home and
met with the bishop, telling him that something needed to be done to help this
poor widow. They decided the first thing
they would do was try to get her some real furniture. The next Sunday, the bishop announced to the
congregation that someone was in need of a table, and that if anyone had one to
spare, they should bring it by his office.
The bishop waited and the clocked ticked on by and nobody came with an
offering. Until much later that same
widow unexpectedly walked in. She told
the bishop how sad she felt that someone didn’t have a table. She said she didn’t have much, but she did
have some stands, and two simple pieces of wood she would give him.
The bishop, with tears in his eyes, told her
that the table was meant for her.
When we are serving those around us, we are serving our
God. This story humbled me so much. A mission had been my desire for a long time,
but when the time came for me to act and to make a decision of whether I would
serve or not, I can’t say I was like the widow from this story who answered the
call for help immediately. I let doubt
and fear enter my mind for a long time.
I was not sure how I would ever have the means or support to serve. I often felt I would be unqualified for the
work. I am no gospel scholar and I’m not
convinced I ever really learned my scripture masteries. But that poor widow living on a dried river
bed didn’t have much either, but she offered what she did. And I knew that I needed to as well. I knew that I was loved by Heavenly Father
and that because of this fact, I would be taken care of.
And I have been.
John 4:18 says, There is no fear in love; but
perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is
not made perfect in love.
Whatever fears we may face in this life will
disappear when we truly understand how much God loves us.
We can all be instruments in the hands of the Lord
for good. We can lift each other up and
we must learn to reflect Christ’s love to everyone around us. This was Christ’s final commandment to
us. To Love each other as He did.
Spencer W. Kimball, a former prophet, explained:
"God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through
another person that he meets our needs"
Loving someone else and treating them as you would
like to be treated seems like a simple thing, but I believe we would all be
happier if we tried this a little more.
If we opened our hearts a little bit more to those around us. If we listen sincerely about someone’s day,
and show them that we are interested in how they are feeling and who they are,
miracles could happen. WE will be
happier as a result, because we will be thinking less of ourselves and more of
others.
We are all needy people. We all have failures and we
all fall short. God sees our hearts
perfectly and all our flaws and yet, He loves us anyway. He provided us a way to become clean again
through the loving atonement of Jesus Christ.
There is a great quotation in the book entitled A
Heart Like His. It says, “The love of
God truly is the most joyous and delicious thing we can experience on this
earth. It is so good that when we are filled with it, we are consumed with a
desire that others should feel too.”
And this is what I want! I want others to feel the happiness and love
that I have felt.
My Heavenly father’s
love is what made me want to go on a mission.
I have been blessed with so much.
A family, amazing friends, a place to call home, and most importantly, a
knowledge of his everlasting love. I owe
everything to my Savior Jesus Christ.
And that is why I am willing to leave behind my home, my loved ones, and
my schooling. Because I know without a
doubt in my mind that it will still never measure up to the sacrifice he paid
for me. Serving a mission in Brazil is
how I feel it is best for me to show my love.
But we can all act as the Saviors hands and lift one another up. If we can open our hearts a bit more and let
His love change them, I know we will have lasting happiness.
I know that God lives and I know that He loves
you. I know this church is true and that
Jesus walked this earth and died for us.
I can feel His love all around me and I know that because of this, we
are never alone.
