Good morning
brothers and sisters, family, friends, and anyone else out there who I don’t
know, but I would probably be friends with! It’s such a blessing to have a
solid base that I know I can rely on and look back on with happy memories! I’ve
grown up in this ward since second grade, and after, what, 11 or 12 years? I’m
going to be serving a mission, something that I’ve been looking forward to all
that time (with varying degrees of joy and nervousness). To those of you who
have helped me (and there are MANY), all I can say is “thank you”, and to my
Mom and Dad, I add “I love you a lot!” Thank you for taking the time to help me
become a slightly better person, and better prepare to serve our Heavenly
Father. I only wish that I could have gotten even more ready in the time I’ve
had, but thanks to all the people I have learned from, I feel pretty good about
going to Rome to serve the Lord.
You know,
I’ve learned quite a lot since I converted to the Church. True, I have always
been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but I still
had to learn for myself that it was actually true, and I’m just glad that it
happened before my mission. That could have been difficult in many ways! But I
have learned a lot since then, in preparation for this journey I’m about to
undertake.
One of the most recurring themes
I’ve learned is that EVERY topic in the Gospel is intertwined, so thoroughly
that it’s impossible to fully understand one doctrine without knowing the rest.
I would absolutely love to tell you all all that I know and all that I have
learned about this Gospel to have arrived at that conclusion, but that would
PROBABLY take too much time. So I apologize, but I’ll have to briefly cover only
a few of the most influential parts of the Gospel that have helped me get to
where I can serve a mission with purpose.
One of the
first things that I had to learn was how to have faith. It’s really important
to understand what faith is, since that is the first of the “first principles
and ordinances of the Gospel,” according to our Articles of Faith. But often
when I heard it used in the church, or from other people about other churches,
it seemed to have several meanings that were possible. For instance, they could
have been using it to say they believed, or absolutely knew, or sometimes it
even seemed that they meant they just kind of half-heartedly believed it. I
don’t know if you have heard that, but especially when I was younger, I’ve
heard people say kind of off-hand “Oh yeah, I have faith that the church is
true, it’s all good.” That sort of faith didn’t seem substantial to me. I had
to find out, mostly for myself, what faith really is.
In Hebrews
chapter 11 verse 1, the apostle Paul defines faith as “the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”.
In Alma 32:21, the prophet Alma adds
to that definition, clarifying that “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”. What really struck me about these definitions is that BOTH
authors say it is hope. It took me a little while to understand the
significance of this. Upon pondering the scriptures, I realized that to have
faith required having hope. That’s basically what faith is.
I learned a
bit more about faith up at BYU in a Mission Prep class. The teacher told us a
little story about a man who hiked to the top of a sizable mountain. While
walking around admiring the view, he slipped on a rock and started to fall off
a cliff. Luckily, he caught onto a tree root that was sticking out of the side
of the cliff. He tried to find a way back up, as the edge of the cliff wasn’t
too far away. However, the rock was too smooth to find a hand or foothold. So
the man starts praying his heart out, “Heavenly Father, please oh please oh
PLEASE help me get out of this mess!”, and keeps going on like that for a few
minutes. After a little while, he hears a small voice say to him clearly, “Do
you believe that I created this mountain?” The man replied enthusiastically
“Yeah, yeah I do!”
“Do you
believe I created the elements that made you?”
“Yes, of
course!”
“Do you
believe I created the tree from whose root you now hang?”
“Yes I do!”
“Do you
believe I could create a gust of wind powerful enough to blow you back up to
where you fell from?”
…. “Yeah,
yeah”
“Then let
go.”
That’s
where I believe faith differs from hope. To truly be faith, it must have
action, even though it may be impossible to see what the outcome will be. This
is explained perfectly by the Savior in John 7:17, which says “If any man will
DO His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I
speak of myself.” I take this scripture to mean that once we actually try doing
the Father’s will, applying that FAITH, then we can know that it’s true.
Another key
to faith that I have found is trust in the Savior. In the Bible Dictionary, it
says that “To have faith is to have confidence in something or someone.” We act
without a perfect knowledge, of course, but what I have found that helps me to
act on faith is trusting that the Lord will work everything out.
So let’s
look back on what I’ve learned about faith: first you hope, you act on it (with
full confidence in Christ), and then you know for a fact whether it’s right. I
can tell you with a full knowledge that this pattern works. When I was in
eighth grade, my cousin died. We had been best friends since before preschool,
but I saw him rather sparingly after we moved from Glendora. Still, the news
rocked me. That was when I really started to hope that there was a spirit
world. I needed that assurance, so I hoped beyond hope that it was true. I
began acting and thinking in a way that showed to myself that my choices in
this life actually matter. And above all, I trusted in the Lord, and believed
that He would somehow assure me that what I had been taught all my life was
true. And I can honestly say, He has. I still haven’t seen the afterlife, or
someone dead speak to me, but fully believe in the fact that there is a place
we go after we die. My faith has been strengthened so much in that area, it’s pretty
much knowledge.
So that’s
what I’ve learned so far about faith. But that is far from the only aspect of
the Gospel that has helped me prepare for a mission. One of the most
influential things in the Gospel in my life has been prayer. This is perhaps
the greatest blessing I have found in this life, the ability to communicate
with my Father in Heaven. The Prophet Thomas S. Monson put it in words much
better than I ever could when he said, “Not a day has gone by that I have not
communicated with my Father in Heaven through prayer. It is a relationship I
cherish – one I would literally be lost without.”
A necessity
to meaningful prayer that I have found is to recognize who I am talking to, and
to do just that: talk. Have a conversation with your Father. Alma, again,
explains this, this time in Alma 37:36, while talking to his son Helaman: “Yea,
and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord,
and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts
be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon
the Lord forever.” According to Alma, we should let God know everything that’s
going on in our lives, and allow Him to be with us as we progress. He knows you
and loves you, and would love to talk to you while you’re away from Him on this
earth. It’s kind of the same thing as calling parents when you have moved away.
Another important part of prayer is
to recognize when answers come to you, and to recognize that they come from the
Lord. Whether it be a thought that comes to your mind (even DURING the
prayer!), an opportunity that arises to serve someone else or improve your own
life, or something that someone else does for you, if you recognize it as an
answer from Heavenly Father, the prayer is that much more meaningful. I have
had too many experiences to count where praying has helped me significantly.
One of the
most powerful experiences in my life happened last Thanksgiving. The week
before, I was having an incredibly difficult time seeing anything positive
about myself. In fact, most of my lifetime before. I was always putting myself
below others, seeing what they could do and I couldn’t. Whenever somebody would
give me a compliment, I would brush it off, or see how they could be saying it
“just to be nice”. An entire lifetime of doing this to myself did not leave me
feeling like I was one of God’s children that He loved. Finally, the Friday
before Thanksgiving, I decided to take a walk, after an especially difficult
trial. There was a trail near where I stayed up at BYU that I liked to
frequent, as it was very relaxing with a small stream going next to it the
whole way, with beautiful trees and other plants, and benches every once in a
while. On this night, it was just starting to snow, so it looked and felt
especially nice. I walked a little ways wrestling with my thoughts, and
suddenly the idea came into my head to tell the Lord all that was on my mind.
Seeing that I was alone, I just knelt down where I was, asked the Lord to help
me to be able to put my thoughts and feelings into words, and let loose. It was
so liberating, to tell someone about ALL that was on my mind. I let Him know
what was difficult in my life in the moment, but I also let Him know what I was
thankful for as well. Anything that came to my mind, I told Him. And I truly
let it be a conversation as well. It was the most powerful and real prayer I
have ever known. And I knew that it was heard.
Once I was
done, I started to walk back. But then I decided to kneel again and ask for
help in a different way. I asked, quite bluntly, for an angel to help me get on
my feet again. I knew that I probably wouldn’t see a vision where the heavens
opened up, but there was still a small hope for it. Anyway, after that quick
second prayer, I finally walked back home, feeling a little better.
That
Tuesday was difficult as well. All my friends had started to head to their
respective homes to be with their families for Thanksgiving, so I was left with
an almost empty dorm. I asked a couple of friends to hang out, so we had dinner
and went to a store a few blocks away. On the way back, they got out of me how
I had a low opinion of myself somehow, and they went on to tell me all of the
things I had been told before, but this time was different. This time I
actually BELIEVED what was said, which I am positive was because of the Spirit.
The Spirit had touched me just right, so that the envy that I felt all the time
was gone. My prayer that I had given four days previously, where I asked for an
angel, was answered, through my friends and the Holy Ghost. Ever since that
time, I have always seen prayer as a way to simply talk with my Father in
Heaven, and have never missed an opportunity or need to get down on my knees.
--------------------------------If
time-----------------------------------
Now, that
truly was an eye-opener for me, into the power of REAL prayer. What’s cool,
though, is that that was far from being the only significant experience I’ve
had with prayer. In fact, it’s not even the first. The first, as far as I can
remember, was at EFY at Redlands just before my senior year of high school. On
Wednesday night, affectionately referred to as “Pizza Night,” all the boys in
my group were in one of our rooms, and were just talking (after the pizza was
gone, of course). After the obligatory talk of cute girls in our group, and showing
funny videos on YouTube, we started talking about the Gospel (a completely
normal topic among 17 year old guys). We started discussing deeper and deeper
topics, and the subject matter just got more and more interesting. At one
point, one of the guys, whose name was Sam, told us that he was having a hard
time deciding if the Gospel was true or not, and then proceeded to tell us the
questions that were on his mind. And let me tell you, they were difficult
questions, especially for 17-year-old philosophers like ourselves. We ended up
talking and thinking for hours, trying to make sense of some of Sam’s
questions, and several others raised by other guys in the group.
Finally, a
guy named Dallin came up with the idea that “We should probably pray.”
Immediately, everyone in the room felt in their hearts that that was the right
thing to do. So we knelt down in a circle, and Dallin offered the prayer. I
don’t remember the words said, but as he uttered them, I FELT something.
There’s no perfect way to describe it, it was almost like my heart was
swelling. Even these years later I can remember distinctly that feeling.
Anyway, he closed the prayer, and we each looked around the room. Everyone in
the room had felt SOMETHING, to varying degrees, but nobody said a word for a
while. Finally someone managed to say “Wow,” and we just felt so close
together. After a minute or two of talking a little bit more, we ended up going
to bed.
That in and
of itself was amazing, but like I explained before, it’s the ANSWER to the
prayer that makes it so much more meaningful. That came the next day. We had a
lesson from the session director in the morning, and it was truly marvelous. EVERY SINGLE question
we had discussed the night before was covered. If not by the teacher in his
lesson, then by the people in the crowd asking the same questions and getting
them answered. For a few points, he could only say “I don’t know,” but for most
he had a very helpful answer.
For the
entire lesson, our group was just looking back and forth at each other going
“Is this for real?” It was so incredible that an answer was able to come so
quickly, and so clearly. We decided that afterwards we would tell the session
director what exactly he had done for us. So as a group, when all the other
kids had gone on to the next lesson, we went up to him and related our
experience.
He could
only look at us with amazement, and shock. He told us that he actually hadn’t
originally planned on giving that lesson. In fact, he had prepared this one THE
NIGHT BEFORE.
It couldn’t
be said any plainer than that. Heavenly Father does answer prayers. That
knowledge is permanently seared into my memory.
I can tell
you with absolute certainty, brothers and sisters, that prayer is real, and
that we can communicate to our Father in Heaven by kneeling down and speaking
with real intent. I know that faith eventually can develop into knowledge, if
we actually apply the word FAITH. I know that through these experiences and
many others, my Lord has prepared me for a mission to the people of Italy, and
I trust that He will help me through all the difficult portions of the next two
years.
I also know
that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, that he translated the Book of Mormon
from the Gold Plates, and that it truly is a record of the people who occupied
this land before us. I know that Thomas S. Monson is the current prophet. I
know that the Holy Ghost can touch our hearts, and let us know of the
truthfulness of the Gospel. I also know that Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten
of Heavenly Father, and that He atoned for our sins, and died for us, and
through Him we can get back to our Heavenly Father.
I say these
things in the name of our Savior, Jesus the Christ, Amen.
