David A Bednar put it best in his October
2005 Priesthood talk when he said:
“The single most
important thing you can do to prepare for a call to serve is to become a
missionary long before you go on a mission.”
I’d
like to lay out a couple key things I did, am doing, or wish I had done up to
this point in order to do as Elder Bednar instructs and become a missionary
well before now, before my call, before my papers were even submitted.
The
first of these is from one of my all time favorite scriptures, Alma 37.
6 Now ye may
suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by
small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in
many instances doth confound the wise.
7 And the Lord
God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by
very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the
salvation of many souls.
This idea of small and
simple things has always appealed to me. I’m not a very wise man, most of you
here can vouch for that, but through God, and through my faith, my little
actions can be magnified.
When the youth went down
to the Manti Temple, my fellow Elders and I were able to be the priesthood and
the voice for the baptismal and confirmation ordinances, and I was the last one
to baptize. Just before I got out of the font, the workers handed me a towel,
and said that they’d appreciate it if I’d wipe down the font. As I was doing
this small, almost insignificant task to keep the beauty and cleanliness of the
Temple complete, the spirit reminded me of the power of what small things can
do.
My first experience with
Small in Simple things happened back when I was a newly turned 8 years old. My
mom took on the Saturday night shift at the hospital, and my dad was busy with
school and other things, so my siblings and I were left alone every Sunday to
choose whether to go to church, or stay home and sleep in. Now, I love to
sleep. However, my primary teacher at the time took it upon herself, possibly
unknowingly, to give me a desire to go to church, even if it meant waking
myself up, walking alone, and often sitting alone during Sacrament Meeting. She
did little things, like having a contest of who could finish the Book of Mormon
first, who could memorize the most scriptures, and if we met a certain amount
of attendance days, we would have a pizza party. What started as going to
church to earn pizza became the start of my testimony and love for this Gospel.
My mom when I first entered
junior high gave me some incredibly good, wise, and unfortunately probably
ignored advice; she told me that “coolness doesn’t rub off.” By this she meant
that being nice to someone who may not appear to be someone you’d want to be
friends with, and extending a hand of friendship to them won’t possibly make
you “less cool.” Simply saying hi to someone, inviting them to sit with your
table, or asking them other such things could not only lead to a great
friendship, but also change their entire lives. When I first moved into this
area, I was not necessarily the most welcoming looking guy, but because of a
couple young men who knew the power of small and simple things, like extending
a hand of friendship by inviting me to sit at their table during lunch, even if
it meant watching Parker drown all of his food in chocolate milk, I am where I
am today.
Now, sometimes, the Lord
doesn’t work by small and simple things, like in the story of Ammon, where he
cuts off arms, knocks people out with the spirit, and basically turns an entire
city into converts. However, my next principle is not by large and extreme
things are larger and extremer things brought to pass, my next principle is
giving thanks and recognizing God’s hand in everything, which Ammon is a
perfect example of in Alma 26.
11
I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is
full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.
12
Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will
not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do
all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for
which we will praise his name forever.
As many of you know, last
year I was able to spend 8 weeks on the Stanford Campus in a Summer Program.
For the first time ever, I was thrown into a situation where, like President
Monson, I had to “stand alone.” I was the only member in the program, and therefore,
got many questions. One guy who seemed the most curious asked me: “doesn’t it
suck to say God did everything? Like, if you work really hard to do something,
and it’s still only because of God you were able to succeed?”
Now, this thought wasn’t
foreign to me at all. As a kid, I remember thinking it a lot, actually. In
ninth grade, however, we watched a talk by President Eyring from the October
2007 General Conference, in this talk he talked about how he started keeping a
journal to document the times he had seen the Lord’s hand during the day. I was
inspired, and starting doing the same. That experience of every night sitting
down and thinking back on my day built my testimony of so many things, most
importantly that the Lord’s hand really can be found in every single aspect of
my life. Because of this experience, when my friend Sean asked his question, I
was able to, without hesitation, explain to him that the fact that Heavenly
Father is there to help, and that every good thing comes from Him was actually
a comfort! Knowing that if I did my best, the Lord would make up the
difference, and if he didn’t, being comforted to know that it’s the Lord’s
will, and that whatever he has in store for me instead will be oh so much
greater!
Again,
what does this have to do with being a missionary? Our savior, of course, is a
perfect reference. In the premortal existence, two people stood up as
volunteers. One was Christ, the other was Lucifer. Now, there were probably
many differences between their plans, but the one most evident in their words
is to whom the honor would go to. One, Christ, declared “Father, thy will be
done, and the glory be thine forever.” While the other, Satan, said “Behold,
here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one
soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.”
As missionaries, we are commissioned by Jesus Christ to preach his Gospel. Who
better to emulate than he who sends us? My amazing Missionary Prep teachers once said:
“As soon as you
see the miracles and conversions as because of you, your mission will start
sucking.”
My
final one is to keep the end in mind. We are conditioned throughout growing up
to just do things; we learn addition and subtraction, without ever being told
one day we’d learn multiplication and division. We learn how to read, without
ever being told that one day, we’ll be expected to read a book, and find
symbolism and read what’s not said. This type of thinking is not a bad way to
learn, line upon line, precept upon precept. However, when we’re the teachers,
it pays to remember that someday, the lessons I teach will have to be applied
later for a greater understanding and knowledge to be attained. This applies to
the Gospel, if each investigator, all we do is focus on baptism, or each street
contact all we think about is a lesson, we miss the big picture. The Temple. A
family sealed forever.
Just
recently, I was able to go with a friend to a birthday party of one of her
dad’s investigators. Very few return missionaries that I know are able to see
the fruits of their labors as clearly as him. This family, which started with
one woman deciding to be baptized, had turned into a huge family; a family that
had multiple temple marriages, missionaries, future missionaries, and even a
son in the Quorum of the Seventy. Now, being able to envisage this picture,
instead simply focusing on a baptismal number to put on your monthly record, is
how we turn ourselves from a teacher, to a missionary
No comments:
Post a Comment