The Wait is Over, the Trials are Not

Well, I'm here in Provo with my parents, spending some time with them before I report to the Missionary Training Center TOMORROW! I can't believe it's here. My time to serve the Lord in the mission field has finally come. It's been hard waiting for my report date, but it's been great at the same time. It has shown me the different tactics that Satan uses to try to get me off course. He has tried to use distractions, {such as boys, worldly gain through work and school, activities that I would be missing out on} and self worth issues {I don't know enough to be a missionary, people won't want to listen to me, I'm not good enough to preach the gospel, etc}. If you have been experiencing the same things I have been, I encourage you to stay strong. Think about the righteous reasons that led you to desire to serve a mission. Always be on the Lord's side and you will conquer Satan.
I have a friend who has recently started taking the missionary discussions and we were talking about questions he could ask the missionaries. I was thinking how grateful I was that my friend had someone to answer his questions. Then I realized that that would be me very soon, and I started to panic, thinking I was not prepared enough to be doing this, crying repentance to the people of Alabama. But I have felt a calm reassurance that I will not be the one teaching, but rather it will be the Holy Ghost doing the teaching and I am merely the vessel through which He works. Although I haven't memorized all of Preach my Gospel and the scriptures before I enter the MTC, I have been prepared enough to teach with the Spirit. I was blessed to have been born and raised in the Church. I grew up attending Church meetings, going to Primary and ward activities, learning lessons in Young Women's, and participating in service projects. When I was getting set apart, my stake president told me and my family that he could tell that I had been prepared to serve a mission, which was comforting to hear. So even though I don't yet know the best teaching methods to use, I know that as I trust in the Lord and invite the Spirit into every lesson, I will be able to touch hearts and make an impact in people's lives.
This morning at breakfast, my parents were telling me how hard a mission is. Both served missions, in the same mission, actually{that's where they met!} so they know what they are talking about. My dad wasn't prepared for how challenging it would be. People only told him the good sides to a mission, not the rough sides. But he says he wouldn't have done it any other way, that his mission made him who he is today, which is a strong priesthood holder who fulfills all of his church callings and takes care of his wife and family. I know that my mission will be hard. I'm not expecting it to be easy. As I learned on my stake trek when I was about 15 or 16, "I can do hard things." That trek was the hardest thing I had done until the point, but it was also the most fun I have ever had. I'm counting on my mission to be the same thing, the hardest thing I will ever do, but also the most fun thing I will ever do. One of the apostles said "My mission was the best two years FOR my life." I truly believe my mission will be the best eighteen months for my life.
This is my last post before going into the mission field. I'm hoping I will have some time on Preparation Days to post, but if not you'll be hearing from my mom as she relates from my letters all that is happening in Alabama. I hope you all have a happy Tuesday!

Setting Apart and Farewell

I was set apart as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints tonight. It was an amazing experience. My immediate family was there with me, as well as my second family the Allen's, my cousin Nephi, my past Young Women's president Audrey Fox, and two really good friends, Josie Wright and Austin Lange. I hadn't officially invited Josie and Austin, but I am grateful they were there to support me. I also think it was good for them. Josie is a new convert and the only member in her home and Austin grew up without a priesthood member in his home, his dad not being a member, so his testimony is not as strong as it could be and he wasn't sure about serving a mission. I could see both of their testimonies growing from this experience.
It was a sweet experience to feel the Spirit in the High Council room and see the emotion on everyone's faces as they felt it. President Lawes had me bear my testimony to the group, and then my grandparents, parents and finally Bishop Jones shared his. I know that this is what the Lord wants me to do and I am happy to be doing it for Him.
I also spoke in church today, so I thought I would leave my talk here for you readers and hope that I can touch someone's heart through the Spirit.

I want to start with my favorite scripture, and that will probably clue you in as to what my talk will be about today. 1 timothy 4:12. When I was in young woman’s {that was only a year ago, so it’s strange for me to say} my first mutual theme as a beehive of 12 was “Be thou an example of the believers” and it has always stuck around in the back of my mind. I entered high school at 14 and sort of remembered that phrase but it didn’t hit until junior or senior year that I was an example of the believers. I attended and graduated from Queen Creek High where there was a high population of LDS kids and a seminary building for release time seminary, so almost everybody on campus knew about the LDS church. I would be very surprised if someone didn’t at least know the name considering there was a church building right next door to the school. But I came to realize that just because people knew the name of our church didn’t mean that they knew what we believed in.

Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said this about members being examples in the October 2010 General Conference.

“Each member can be an example of the believers. Brethren {and sisters}, as followers of Jesus Christ, each of you can live in accord with His teachings. You can have “a pure heart and clean hands”; you can have “the image of God engraven upon your [countenance].”  Your good works will be evident to others.  The light of the Lord can beam from your eyes.  With that radiance, you had better prepare for questions. The Apostle Peter so counseled, “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you.” 

“Let your response be warm and joyful. And let your response be relevant to that individual. Remember, he or she is also a child of God, that very God who dearly wants that person to qualify for eternal life and return to Him one day. You may be the very one to open the door to his or her salvation and understanding of the doctrine of Christ. 

“After your initial response, be ready to take the next step. You may invite your friend to attend church with you. Many of our friends do not know they are welcome in our Church buildings. “Come and see” was the Savior’s invitation to those who desired to learn more about Him.  An invitation to attend a Sunday meeting with you or to participate in a Church social or service activity will help to dispel mistaken myths and make visitors feel more comfortable among us.

“As a member of the Church, reach out to those you do not know and greet them warmly. Each Sunday extend a hand of fellowship to at least one person you did not know before. Each day of your life, strive to enlarge your own circle of friendship.”

Our choices have consequences and one of the consequences for living my standards daily was that people saw it. They saw in me the glow that all of us Mormons apparently have and they wanted to know why. I have had several missionary experiences because I have lived as an example of the believers.  Most of them have been simple questions on why we do things a certain way and once their simple curiosity is satisfied, they don’t ask any more questions and I haven’t seen any fruits from our conversation. Except one person. This person is a great example that just because you didn’t convert someone after a few conversations doesn’t mean that you didn’t plant a seed and get things moving. Many of you know my friend Josie Wright. I helped her come into the Church a year ago, but I want to give credit where credit is due. If Hannah Smith hadn’t taken Josie to Mutual, Josie wouldn’t have been telling me about it the next day in class and I wouldn’t have gotten the prompting to invite Josie to my mutual activity that evening, which led to missionary discussions in my home and a deeper bond between Josie and myself. The moral of this little story is that you might not be the one to lead into the fold, but you could be the one to get someone going in the right direction.

I really couldn’t tell you how much of an example I have been to Josie, but I can tell you how much she has been one to me. Josie and I met in our sophomore math class but we didn’t become close friends until our math class in senior year. If you had told me sophomore year that Josie and I would become close friends in two years, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. And it wasn’t that Josie was doing anything bad or was an awful person. We talked a bit in class and she was really sweet, I just couldn’t see us spending anytime outside of school together because our activities didn’t really line up. But I am so glad we have become so close. I noticed a difference in Josie our senior year. Throughout the beginning of the year, she made some changes. She chose a different group of friends, started wearing lighter colored clothes and was looking for ways to be happy. Josie wanted to change, so she did. As I have reflected on this, I truly believe that Josie prepared herself to receive the gospel. There is no doubt in my mind that Josie would have found her way into the gospel whether or not Hannah and I were there to help her. Josie is now the only member in her home and she has told me how she struggles to balance living the standards of the Church and pleasing her family, whom she loves dearly. Her family will sometimes do or say something to get her to go against the covenants she made at baptism, but she has remained steadfast and immovable. Josie enjoys going to church and it shows in her countenance how much she loves this gospel and that she knows it is true. We have talked and I know things are hard for Josie, but I can tell by just looking at her that there is no way on Earth that she will let go of this gospel. She will be obedient and endure to the end. Josie is my greatest example of the believers, pushing through her trials and always seeming to come out on top.

I have related to you a modern example of the believers, and now I wish to share with you a Biblical one. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were all children of Judah taken captive by the kingdom of Babylon. They were chosen to go to the king’s palace and partake of the king’s meat and wine so that they would become strong by it. Now, I don’t know about you, but if my land had just been taken over by another king and that king wanted me to eat his food, I would have done it without much fuss, grateful that he was sparing my life. We’re lucky the other three had Daniel to follow and not me. Daniel remembered what he had been taught throughout his childhood and chose to fear God instead of man. If we turn to Daniel 1:8, we read….. Daniel had found favor with one of the servants of the king and was able to persuade him to provide the food Daniel and his friends were accustomed to eating, having been commanded of the Lord to do so. They had a little contest to see which group of children would be healthier, Daniel and his friends who ate pulse, which is foods made of seeds and grains, and drank water, or the ones who ate the meat and drank the wine. Well, the Lord has given the word of wisdom for a reason, so of course at the end of the allotted ten days, Daniel, Hananaiah, Mishael, and Azariah were healthier. Daniel 1:15. Because these four boys stood for what they believed and knew was right, the Lord blessed them. Daniel 1:17, 19-20. We know that Daniel went on to interpret King Nebuchadnezzer’s dreams and survive the lions’ den, and Hananaiah, Mishael, and Azariah, also known as Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, survived the fiery furnace. These mighty miracles could not have happened unless these four boys put their faith in God and stood as examples of the believers.

I guess what I’m hoping you will get from this talk with these amazing examples is that you become aware that you are an example yourself. You youth may not realize it like I didn’t, but it’s true. Everywhere you go, people are watching you. They are listening to the words you speak and how you talk to different peers. People are watching your actions, how you react in a situation, how you treat others. Your teachers and classmates and even your siblings are taking note on whether you are living up to the name of Christ that you took upon yourself when you entered the waters of baptism. We are told that we are baptized at the age of 8 because that is when we become accountable for our actions, when we know right from wrong and can actively choose for ourselves what to do. Even though we do realize what is bad and what is good, we don’t really quite understand all the covenants we make at baptism, at least I didn’t. We partake of the sacrament every week to renew these covenants, but do we know what the covenants are that we are renewing? For a long time, I didn’t quite understand myself. If you are like me and you realize you are not entirely sure what covenants you are renewing, study the sacrament prayers found in Doctrine and Covenants section 20: 77, 79.

This topic is near and dear to my heart because I had so many great examples to follow growing up. I had so many wonderful young women’s leaders and older girls to look up to. The young men, though a little bit crazy at times, are true gentlemen who inspire me to do better when I’m around them. Even the young primary children have been such great examples of Christ-like love. This ward has been so loving and caring, raising me almost as much as my own parents have with the same standards that have been taught me at home. I want to thank you all for everything you have done for me and my brothers. We are who we are today in part because of what each of you have shown us through your examples.