To all my lovely blog followers, I will be set apart as a missionary tonight at 6 PM. Yesterday I had the incredible opportunity to speak in sacrament meeting. I wish this was truly what I had said when I spoke, but unfortunately I am not a "write it down and read it straight off the page" kind of girl. So bear with me, and I hope you get a gist of what I spoke on :)
Love to you all
HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
SO first off.
I would like to apologize. Sister
Christensen asked me to choose the opening and closing hymns. For our closing hymn we are singing God Be With
You Til We Meet Again. Now in my mind
when I chose this song, I was thinking of the movie the other side of heaven
when he is leaving Tonga and all of the people are singing the song to him as
he rows back to the boat that will take him back to America. So I was like OH YEAH. I ROCK. These songs are
PERF. And when I went to brag to my mom about my perfect hymn choices she
enlightened me with the fact that this is hymn is sung at just about every LDS
funeral. So I promise I was not trying
to somehow lead to the idea that I was dying or something… so I apologize, and
when we sing this hymn I would appreciate it if you all pictured cute Tongans
waving goodbye to an incredible missionary rather than picture yourself at a
funeral. Hahaha
Anyways… WOW. I can honestly say that I never
thought this day would ever come.
Although I have always wanted to serve a mission, it always seemed like
it would be miles down the road, and now here I am. J
I wish I could express to you the amount
of crazy emotions I have running through me right now... nerves, excitement, stress, joy, and mostly…
GRATITUDE. If it wasn’t for this ward, I most certainly would not be here right
now. It was from you that I was taught
primary songs, it was you who sent me home on Sundays with colored pictures of
Jesus to give to my mom to hang on the fridge, and you who taught me that I am
truly a daughter of God who is destined to be a queen. It was also this ward that showed me
incredible examples of service, Christ Like love, and of course, missionary
work. My heart truly is SO full as I
stand before you today, and I have all of you to thank for that.
I would like to echo the words Sahara and I just sang
by repeating one of the last lines, “If by the still, small voice he calls me
to a path I do not know, I will place my hands in His hand, going where he’d
have me go”. These words are so
incredibly true. Every aspect of missionary work lies on faith in our Savior, and
in obedience to him. Brothers and
Sisters, this is what I would like to talk to you about today; the principle of
Obedience. I have a story to share with
you; and although lengthy, it is an incredible testimony of obedience.
“A
certain LDS couple wanted to go on a mission to someplace warm, so they put in
their papers and mentioned that they wanted to go someplace warm. The call came back: Mongolia. After some discussion, they decided to
decline the call and did so. A few
months later, they felt like they really needed to serve a mission so they put
in new papers and this time wrote that because of medical conditions, they
needed to go someplace warm. The second
call came back: Mongolia. This time, as
they talked about it, they decided the Lord must really want them in Mongolia
to call them there twice and felt, maybe, they could handle it for a little
while. If it got to be too much, they would come home. So they went to Mongolia and were assigned to
serve in the Mongolia Federal Prison. He
taught the inmates and she cleaned the kitchen for eight hours every day, doing
the dishes, scrubbing pots, mopping floors, etc. She didn’t understand a word of Mongolian and
didn’t know what anyone was saying to her.
All she knew was that she did not come clear across the world to wash
dishes in Mongolia for her mission. One
day, in Sheer Frustration and close to tears after cleaning for hours and not
understanding a single word, she went out into the prison courtyard and screamed
at the top of her lungs, “Does anybody here speak English?” No one replied. Louder the second time, she yelled it again,
desperate for some English response “Does anybody here speak English at all?”
From the upper corner of the prison, a voice called back, “I do. I speak English!” That night she told her husband about the
prisoner who answered back and they wondered about him. For days they tried to get him out of their
mind and couldn’t. Eventually, they went to the warden and mentioned the
prisoner who spoke English. The warden asked where he had called from. When she told him, he said, “Oh. We can’t go
there. That is maximum security. It is too dangerous. I have not even been there.” They asked to
see the man’s records and were told the prisoners kept in maximum security have
no records. Only the most vile criminals were there and they were sent there to
die. There was no parole for them, no
chance of a second life- therefore the prison needed no information on
them. Still the prisoner’s response haunted them and they
persisted in their desire to meet this man and promised the warden they would
be safe. Finally, after several more
days, the warden relented and agreed to let them trust the Lord. He took them there. As they walked into the maximum security
unit, all the cells were dark. But from
one cell they heard a voice they had not heard in 18 years, saying, “Mom. I knew you’d come for me”. It was their own
son. They had not seen him in 18 years
when he got caught up in a life of crime and left home. Twelve years ago, they had been told he had
been killed during a crime. He had
actually fled the country and, over the course of several years, made his way
to Mongolia, where another run-in had caused him to be sentenced for life. He had been in prison for years, unable to
contact anyone. No one knew he was
there. Yet God did. Through his fervent
and lonely prayers, this prisoner knew he would be reunited with his mother one
day- that someday , she would find him buried in a prison cell in Mongolia, and
would come to help him.”
The man who told this story had served with this
couple in Mongolia and after he told the story, he continued by saying that “the
amazing story does not end. The couple
is still serving in Mongolia, but when they return home from their mission in
five more months, because of the work of the church there, the Mongolian government
had agreed to release their son. They
will be able to bring their son home with them. “
Soooo, chances are I won’t be serving in a prison in
DC and I definitely won’t find my long-lost son, but this story should remind
each of us that everything truly happens for a reason. Heavenly Father is preparing all of us for
great things if we can but obey his will and let him in.
I love the picture of Christ knocking on the door
without a door knob. Christ is RIGHT
THERE fully and completely willing to help us out with every aspect of our life
if we can but let him in. Our obedience
to his will can strengthen us and bless our lives more than we will ever
know. How merciful and great is our God
to bless us so immensely for doing the simple task of following his
commandments. I use the adjective simple
for a reason… because let’s be real… sometimes staying chaste, sober, and
modest is the farthest thing from easy. But
if we try our best and let Christ in, We. Can. Not. Fail.
Elder Henry D.
Taylor, who was an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said: “I
like the beautiful lesson taught and the impressive example set by our first
parent, Father Adam. He was commanded by the Lord to offer the firstlings of
his flocks as a sacrifice. He did not know the reason for the request, but
without hesitation he was obedient to the commandment: ‘And after many days an
angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices
unto the Lord?’ Adam responded with this magnificent, trusting reply: ‘I know
not, save the Lord commanded me.’ (Moses 5:5–6.)
To Adam it was not a matter of blind obedience, but rather it displayed his
complete and unwavering confidence and faith in the word and instruction from
the Lord” (“Faith,” Improvement Era, Dec.
1970, 44).
The scripture I chose for my missionary plaque is
D&C 6:36. It simply states “Look unto me in every thought; Doubt not, Fear not.” The Lord is truly standing before us with a merciful
heart and open arms just waiting for us to heed his counsel. If we can truly look unto him in every
thought, and are obedient of his will I know we have no need to fear.
Now I have one more story to share with you guys… as
a lot of you know, my cousin Weston was recently in a very bad car accident in
Pensacola Florida. This accident left
him blind in one eye, with a collapsed lung, a crushed spleen, shattered facial bones,
internal bleeding, significant brain swelling, and he was put into a
medically-induced coma. They were able to get the internal bleeding under control
after a couple of days, and they removed both his spleen and appendix. After a
few short weeks he was responsive, squeezing his mom’s hand, opening his eyes,
and even writing. He just went upward,
upward, and upward. Now before all of this, he served a mission in Mexico City
and was absolutely incredible. He was
known as the missionary that was “100% Obedient”. He was and is such a good example to everyone
of obedience. Eventually he was transferred to a hospital in St. George and my
family and I were able to go see him.
Because he was still in an unstable condition, only one person was
allowed in at a time. When it was my
turn I walked in, we talked, and he told me how much he loved me. Now hearing this from the mouth of my cousin that
I wasn’t sure would ever be the same person was incredible. He went on to tell me stories of his mission
and about how important it is to heed every bit of counsel perfectly. And before I left the room he patted my leg
and said “elli, the amount of love and prayers I feel here in this hospital is the
same amount of love and prayers you will feel on your mission. And I will pray for you every single day because
I am so proud and so excited for you” I looked at my angel of a cousin with
tears in my eyes thinking, this perfect 22 year-old boy has every reason in the
world not to be praying for anyone else and yet here he is, reminding me that I
will be in his prayers. He is an
incredible example to me of obedience and selfless love. I only hope that I can
be half the missionary he was.
I am so so so excited to be serving
a mission in Washington DC and I have a very strong testimony that if I can be
100% obedient I will be blessed beyond comprehension. Once again I would like
to remind us all of the words from the beloved hymn I Will Go Where He Wants Me
To Go by saying, “If by the still, small voice he calls me
to a path I do not know, I will place my hands in His hand, going where he’d
have me go.” Let us all walk by faith,
not by sight and have strong testimonies in the power of obedience. Sending all my love, prayers, and hope your
way over these next 18 months. I love you all.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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