FAREWELL TALK

 

Farewell Talk!!!

Good morning brothers and sisters!! I am very excited to be up here today. As most of you know I received my mission call to the Adriatic North Mission speaking Slovenian. When I first opened my call and read that I had absolutely no clue where or even what that was. If you go back and watch the video as I open it I’m pretty sure my first words are “what the”. The mission covers 5 countries Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzgovina and Serbia, Since I am speaking Slovenian, I will only be in Slovenia. Tomorrow I start my missionary training which is why I am speaking today. 

To start off my talk, I wanted to touch upon why I chose to serve a mission. Serving a mission is a big sacrifice because for a year and a half I will be away from my family and friends in a foreign country speaking a different language that I know very little about. It is nerve-wracking and a major commitment. Why would I ever choose to do this? Let me tell you about it. Since I was a young child, I always knew that I wanted to serve a mission. It was always going to end up happening but moving here solidified and added meaning behind that desire. For those of you who may not know, I moved to Connecticut from Utah when I was 11. The area that I used to live in before was a very small town. Most of the people there were members of this church. There were only a handful of people that weren’t. It was quite the change when I went from living in an area where nearly everyone is a member to an area where you are one of the few. This move helped grow my own personal testimony and strengthen my relationship with Heavenly Father however,, the greatest blessing was seeing two of my friends join the church. 

I have seen how coming closer to Christ has blessed their lives. I have seen them have the strength to get through their trials. I have seen the Lord’s hand guide them in becoming disciples of Jesus Christ. I have learned so much from their examples. 

I want to quickly share a story about one of them. This is about my friend Nattacia. She and I both attended Brigham Young University in Utah this past semester. She’s still out there right now which I am definitely FOMOing. There was a moment where she and I were eating lunch together and talking about the drama in each other’s lives. Somewhere in between conversations about the food, late homework assignments, and bad dates, we had got onto the topic of trials that go on in life and how we deal with them. She told me that if someone had come up to her asking for advice, she would interrupt them and ask, “Did you pray yet?” More than likely the answer was no so they would go say a quick prayer and would find that trial was not quite as scary, confusing, or daunting as before. Now this wasn’t a very long conversation we had but that phrase has stuck with me for a long time. It has just blown my mind that I didn’t think of it before. Now everytime I go through a trial or even a minor inconvenience like losing my car keys, I hear Nattacia’s voice in my head saying “did you pray yet?” If I’m being completely honest, I had a really hard time writing this talk. I was so stressed about making it perfect that I kept putting it off. Last night while I was writing down this part, I started to get frustrated because I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to say and things just didn’t flow right. Then low and behold. Guess who’s voice popped into my head. So I went and said a prayer and instantly ideas and vocabulary words just started wizzing all over the place in my head. It felt like one of those scenes in the movies when the writer finally gets over their writer’s block and starts writing at a million miles per hour. 

Anyways, to sum up my why, I want to serve a mission not only because I want to help others receive joy and peace through Jesus Christ, but because there are things I know I need to learn from them. 

You guys have heard me say my why for going on a mission, but I want you to think about your why when its comes to wanting to develop a relationship with God. How big is your why?  Small “whys” tend to have a short shelf life. For many of you here, you are on day 16 of your new year’s resolutions. That means for most of you, those resolutions expired two weeks ago maybe because your why wasn’t big enough! :) I want to exercise every day in 2022!... two days later…well, maybe not every day, my body needs time to recover… :) and it doesn’t help that the left over christmas chocolates are just begging you to eat them.. 

How can you make your why bigger?

The closer you come to Christ and the more you learn about Him, the bigger your why will get. It is impossible for that to not happen. Kinda of like how once you eat one christmas chocolate, the next thing you know you’ve eaten the whole bowl. Dad, if you’re wondering where all of the chocolate went, it was your wife.

For your mission, you get what’s called a mission plaque to go on the wall in this church. Mine is not here yet, but on this plaque, it includes a picture of you, where you are going, the dates of when you go and come back, and scripture of your choice. It took a long time for me to choose which scripture but eventually I settled on Matthew 17:20. It says “if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” I love the concept of faith being likened to a mustard seed because sometimes all it takes is just a little bit of faith. I have a necklace, ring, and keychain that all have little mustard seeds in them. I got the ring in the wrong size so it doesn’t quite fit me but I wear the necklace nearly all of the time to remind me that when all else fails if you just start out with a little bit of faith, nothing is impossible. The key word in that last sentence is “start”. It is important to remember that a seed has the potential to become far greater than just a seed. 

A seed doesn’t just stay a seed. You don’t plant tomato seeds, water them, pull out the weeds and do all of that work just for them to still be seeds. You plant the seeds and nurture them to grow into a plant that produces tomatoes, and even more seeds! Seeds are not for display only (joke about your necklaces, ring, and keychain)  

The scripture I read earlier says if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed you can move mountains… what do you think that seed will look like after you watch that mountain move??? That seed has now become a forest of faith!

Just as a seed has great potential to become greater, we too are the seed of God and with the Savior’s help we can grow into our divine potential. That is His infinite and eternal Why… That is my why…to help others come unto Christ so they can reach their full, divine potential. 

I want to end by bearing my testimony in Slovenian. I’m hoping no one knows the language so they can’t tell me how bad my pronunciation is. 

Vem, da ta cerkev je resnična. Vem da preko njegove Odkupne Daritve Iahko prejmemo večno živiljenje. Molil sem in je Bog odgovoril na mojo molitev. Rad imam Jezusa Kristusa. Rad imam Nebeški Oče. V imenu Jezusa Kristusa, amen

 I know that this church is true. I know that through the Savior’s atonement, we can receive eternal life. I prayed and God answered my prayer. I love Jesus Christ. I love Heavenly Father. I know that I am loved in return. I am so excited to serve with the Slovenian people. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

SETTING APART