Jordan's Mission Farewell Talk
Tanglewood Ward Sacrament Meeting
May 26, 2013
At school this past year, my
friends and I would try to come up with interesting games to do at night. One of my favorites was called Fugitive. We would get around 20 to 30 kids together
and then split them into teams. About a
quarter of the kids would become “police” and were given a car for every two or
three of them. The rest of the kids were “fugitives” and were given nothing but
cell phones to help them if they got lost. We would then set a home base that
was about 2 miles away from the point where we started. The objective was for the fugitives to hop
fences, run through peoples back yards, and even cross the Provo River without getting
caught by the police. Sometimes the
people of Provo were not too happy with us running through their back yards at
midnight or later, so we tried not to get caught by the Provo Police
either. It was very easy to get lost if
you didn’t have a phone with GPS or a friend close by who did. I personally liked this game because of my
cross-country running background but even I could not have made it to most of
the locations with slowing down to check my phone to see where I was. Sometimes I would find myself way off course
when I hadn’t checked my phone and then getting back to the location was even
more difficult than before.
I think that our lives are very
much like this game of fugitive. We all
have come to Earth as fugitives with the same goal of making it back to our
heavenly father. Luckily, Heavenly Father
has a special plan for each of us. He has laid out a path for us to follow that
will undoubtedly lead back to his presence.
It is difficult, there will be fences to climb and rivers to cross, but I
know that he loves us all very much and wants us to succeed. For this reason, he has given us “GPS”
devices that we can look to for guidance.
The scriptures are full of
doctrine and stories given to us by ancient prophets that can lead us when
things become confusing. Joseph Smith
said in the introduction of the Book Mormon that “It was the most correct of
any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer
to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” This is a strong promise to us that reading
the Book of Mormon along with the Bible will never lead us in the wrong
direction because everything in it is correct and will lead to happiness.
The stories of the Book of Mormon
also teach us about how to the live in order to stay on that path to happiness
and to our heavenly father. Enos is very
short, but it is one of my favorite books.
1 Behold, it came to
pass that I, aEnos, knowing my father thatbhe was a just man—for he ctaught me in his language, and also in the dnurture and admonition of the Lord—and blessed be the name of my
God for it—
2 And I will tell you
of the awrestle which
I had before God, before I received a bremission of my sins.
3 Behold, I went to
hunt beasts in the forests; and the words which I had often heard my father
speak concerning eternal life, and the ajoy of
the saints, bsunk deep into my heart.
4 And my soul ahungered; and I bkneeled down before my Maker, and I ccried unto him in mighty dprayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long
did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice
high that it reached the heavens.
5 And there came
a avoice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins arebforgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.
Enos had probably sinned just
like any of us have. He realized that
what he was doing and where he was headed was probably not what heavenly father
wanted for him. To correct the mistakes he had made he knelt in sincere prayer
and asked for forgiveness and I’m sure direction as well.
Prayer is another guide in our
life. We can receive revelation that is
just for us when we ask for help in prayer.
The apostle James E. Faust said,
“This morning I bear witness of the importance of prayer.
Access to our Creator through our Savior is surely one of the great privileges
and blessings of our lives. I have learned from countless personal experiences
that great is the power of prayer. No earthly authority can separate us from
direct access to our Creator. There can never be a mechanical or electronic
failure when we pray. There is no limit on the number of times or how long we
can pray each day. There is no quota of how many needs we wish to pray for in
each prayer. We do not need to go through secretaries or make an appointment to reach
the throne of grace. He is reachable at any time and any place.”
I
love this promise that at any time we can look to our Heavenly Father for
revelation specifically for us.
Another important guide in our
lives is the words of a modern day prophet.
Modern day prophets are particularly important for us because they know
the challenges that are specifically faced by us right now. This past October, the missionary age was
changed to 18 for men and 19 for women.
Being at BYU, I got to see first hand the impact this decision had on
future missionaries, especially, the women.
Many of the women at BYU did not even have to think about serving a
mission before the age change. When the
age change came, it was easy to see that these young women were ready to serve;
they answered the call with faith and confidence in the lord. I know that the age change was direct
revelation to our prophet.
This
past general conference, President Monson told a story that can help us learn
how to better stay on the path towards our Heavenly Father.
One morning Danny and I decided we wanted to have a campfire
that evening with all our canyon friends. We just needed to clear an area in a
nearby field where we could all gather. The June grass which covered the field
had become dry and prickly, making the field unsuitable for our purposes. We
began to pull at the tall grass, planning to clear a large, circular area. We
tugged and yanked with all our might, but all we could get were small handfuls
of the stubborn weeds. We knew this task would take the entire day, and already
our energy and enthusiasm were waning.
And
then what I thought was the perfect solution came into my eight-year-old mind.
I said to Danny, “All we need is to set these weeds on fire. We’ll just burn a circle in the weeds!” He readily agreed,
and I ran to our cabin to get a few matches.
Lest any of you think that at the tender age of eight we were
permitted to use matches, I want to make it clear that both Danny and I were
forbidden to use them without adult supervision. Both of us had been warned
repeatedly of the dangers of fire. However, I knew where my family kept the
matches, and we needed to clear that field. Without so much as a second
thought, I ran to our cabin and grabbed a few matchsticks, making certain no
one was watching. I hid them quickly in one of my pockets.
Back to Danny I ran, excited that in my pocket I had the
solution to our problem. I recall thinking that the fire would burn only as far
as we wanted and then would somehow magically extinguish itself.
I struck a match on a rock and set the parched June grass
ablaze. It ignited as though it had been drenched in gasoline. At first Danny
and I were thrilled as we watched the weeds disappear, but it soon became
apparent that the fire was not about to go out on its own. We panicked as we
realized there was nothing we could do to stop it. The menacing flames began to
follow the wild grass up the mountainside, endangering the pine trees and
everything else in their path.
Finally we had no option but to run for help. Soon all available
men and women at Vivian Park were dashing back and forth with wet burlap bags,
beating at the flames in an attempt to extinguish them. After several hours the
last remaining embers were smothered. The ages-old pine trees had been saved,
as were the homes the flames would eventually have reached.
*******Danny and I learned several difficult but important
lessons that day—not the least of which was the importance of obedience.There are rules and laws to help ensure our physical safety. Likewise, the Lord has provided guidelines and commandments to help ensure our spiritual safety so that we might successfully navigate this often-treacherous mortal existence and return eventually to our Heavenly Father.
I know that obedience is key to
living this gospel. The laws given to us
are given not to constrain us but to guide us in the right direction.
So we have this guidance in our
lives, but this can’t prevent us completely from making mistakes. We will come to points where we have to make choices
for ourselves. My favorite quote comes from Prophet Boyd K. Packer,
“We want our children and their children to
know that the choice of life is not between fame and obscurity, nor is the
choice between wealth and poverty. The choice is between good and evil, and
that is a very different matter indeed.”
I love how simple he puts it.
There always seems like there are so many factors going into a decision. I bet
every bank robber in prison wishes they had heard this quote before they chose
to do evil in return for wealth rather than choosing to do good. When we make a
decision, we need only to think about wither or not what we are choosing good
or evil.
Regardless of who we are, we will
inevitably make mistakes, straying from the path. The best doctrinal advice I got at BYU came
from my intermediate tennis coach. He
was talking about how, in tennis, there are two kinds of errors: forced and
unforced. Unforced errors are errors are
when you make a mistake like hitting the ball into the net or out of
bounds. Forced errors are when you lose
the point because the opponent has a great shot on you and you just can’t
return it. The coach then said that,
really, there are no such things as forced errors. Even if your opponent just has a great shot,
you could have done a better job not setting them up. In life there are no such things as forced
errors. We are accountable for every mistake that we make.
We are accountable for all our
mistakes, but we can be forgiven through the atonement of Christ. In Helaman:
11 And
he hath power given unto him from the Father to redeem them from their sins
because of repentance; therefore he hathasent his
angels to declare the tidings of the conditions of repentance, which bringeth
unto the power of the Redeemer, unto the salvation of their souls.
Christ has the power to cleanse us
of our sins. I have felt this
power. When we make mistakes and have
guilt weighing down on us, Christ has the power to take it away. We recently watched a video during family
home evening….Elder Shayne M. Bowen
I have lived in Idaho Falls nearly my whole life. I have
contributed a lot of garbage to those landfills over the course of more than 50
years.
What would the city fathers think if on a given day I showed up
on one of the runways of the Idaho Falls airport or the middle of one of the
grassy fields in Freeman Park with a backhoe and started digging large holes?
When they asked me what I was doing, I would respond that I wanted to dig up
the old garbage that I had made over the years.
I suspect they would tell me that there was no way to identify
my personal garbage, that it had been reclaimed and buried long ago. I’m sure
that they would tell me that I had no right to dig up the garbage and that I
was destroying something very beautiful and useful that they had made out of my
garbage. In short, I don’t think they would be very pleased with me. I suppose
that they would wonder why anyone would want to destroy something so beautiful
and useful in an attempt to dig up old garbage.
My
favorite part about this is that the city fathers would not be able to identify
which garbage was his personally. If
Christ has forgotten which sin is ours, we can too. We should be free to go through our lives
remembering that Christ has forgiven us but forgetting the guilt we felt
before.
There
are many pivotal points in our lives where decisions can have lasting
effects. I feel like me going on a
mission is one of these decisions. I
have always known that I would eventually serve a mission. I had my dad and uncles and grandpas and
cousins who all set the example for me.
So for a while I thought I was serving a mission for them because I knew
that is what they wanted from me and I wanted to be like them. Then later my testimony began to grow and I
felt like I actually wanted to serve a mission, but I didn’t know why, I just
knew it was the right thing to do. Then
this past January, my friends and I went to the Mount Timpanogas Temple to do
baptisms for the dead. It was the first time I had been to the temple the whole
school year. I remember sitting in the
waiting area already dressed reading in the Book of Mormon, and I just started
crying. I don’t usually cry but I just
couldn’t stop it, and I looked around at my friends I was with and they all
looked so happy and peaceful, like they just knew exactly what they were doing
and where they were headed.
I knew then that I wanted to serve a
mission for the people of Brazil. I
could feel that there are people in Brazil who need something more. They need
to hear the gospel. In Mosiah 27: 36 it
talks about Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah while they served their
missions:
And thus they were instruments in the hands
of God in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of
their Redeemer.
I hope that through the spirit I can
help people come unto to Christ and feel his love. I want to be a valuable servant to the lord
and an instrument in his hand so that he can reach those in need. I want to
take full advantage of my time there with the people.
This may be the first time
someone has ever quoted “The Office” in sacrament meeting, but in the series
finale episode last week, one of the characters said something that I thought
was very good, he said, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good ole
days before you actually left them.”
When I hear people talk about their
missions, it is some of the best times of their lives. I want to be able to take advantage of the
time I have in Brazil so that I don’t look back with regrets thinking, “Where
did the time go?”
In
preach my gospel it says,
“When you have done your very
best, you may still experience disappointments, but you will not be
disappointed in yourself. You can feel certain that the Lord is pleased when
you feel the Spirit working through you.”
This morning my mom told me
something that I thought would fit very well in this talk. She said, “No one said it would be easy, they
just said it would be worth it.”
I know that, at times, my mission
will be very hard, but I know that what I will be doing will be the lords work
and that it will, with out a doubt, be worth it.
I know that we have a loving
Heavenly Father who has a plan for us to return to live with him and be
happy. I know that Christ has atoned for
our sins and has the power to take away the guilt that otherwise can weigh us
down. I know that we have modern day
prophet to guide us in these latter days that I truly love because I know that
he really cares about each of us. I know
that the scriptures were given back to us as a tool for when things get hard. And I know that serving a mission is what I
need to do for the next two years.
In the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen.
