10 March 2013
MY FAREWELL TALK
I want to give all of you a little background of how I got to be up here today.
Some of you might know I moved to good old Gatlinburg, Tennessee to work for a company called CLIMBworks right after I graduated high school. As I was there I really started to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ. I needed it. Yes, I had a testimony but I needed something more. I needed a friendship. Even though I was staying with my brother and his family, sometimes I felt lonely. It was my first time on my own and sometimes times got tough. I started learning more and more about my Savoir and all the months of my summer in the south I started praying earnestly every morning and night that I would be more able see opportunities to serve others and become more like Christ.
Right after I finished my summer work in Tennessee I came home for a week to pack up for BYU-Idaho and drive up. Right as I got there I fell in love with BYU-I the second I got there. I loved being able to study music, and have a practice room of my own, I loved all the new friends I was making, and it was a dream to have my sister Madeleine and her husband so close by. She and I would visit each other at least every other day. Well, when I was about 1 month into school I was having a little lunch with my sister and she asked me if serving a mission could be down the road for me. I thought about it for a second and then quickly answered “nope”. A mission was something that I really admired and respected. Two of my three sisters went and a mission was something I was always interested in. But when it came down to it. I asked myself “can I really do this?” I didn’t know. I really enjoyed school and studying harp. And I am very attached to my friends and family. I love them all so much and that was a sacrifice that I didn’t know if I could give up. I didn’t know if I could really just roll up my sleeves and get to work and forget about my life and give it to God. And quite frankly I don’t think I really wanted to.
Then it all changed.
On the morning of October the 6th I was cleaning my dorm room at BYU-I, when my roommate decided to turn on General Conference. I was making my bed when I heard President Monson announce the age change for the young men of the church to serve at 18 years old. I was blown away! I was so exited for all the young men I knew that could now go on missions and not have to wait. So I stopped what I was doing to watch Conference and just as I was turning around President Monson announced the age change for the young women from 21 to 19. That’s when it all happened. Before I could even think about what he said my entire body was filled with the spirit so intensely it literally felt like fire and it was in every fiber of my being. Every bit of it! I’d never felt the spirit so strongly before. I was standing there in shock. When I heard the word “GO” in my head. And it wasn’t my own voice. It wasn’t even my own thought. I started crying and my roommate turned around to me and said “Audrey?” I didn’t know what to say. I just opened my mouth and the words “I’m going on a mission” came out. I still remember the look of shock on my roommate’s face. It wasn’t my own words that said it. As if all this didn’t shock me enough. I heard the word “GO” again - this time it was louder and clear and stronger than before. I was crying because I was over come with the spirit. I just stood there shaking. I couldn’t talk. I just sat down. And stared at my wall. It was literally as if I had just gotten zapped.
I knew with such a strong answer like that, that I shouldn’t wait. Not another semester or anything. I have to just GO like Heavenly Father told me. I immediately began my mission papers and submitted them. All the while I was still in shock at this dramatic turn my life had taken me. Two weeks later on the 8th of December I received my mission call. I hopped in a car and booked it to my sister’s house with a couple of friends and I anxiously tore it open. I found out that I am called to serve in the Rome, Italy mission. Of course all of this was shocking and new to me but finding that Heavenly Father wanted me to serve in Rome absolutely crazy to me. Of all the places in the entire world I could never have thought that place. All that night, till 1 AM I kept saying “Rome” out loud as if to make it real to me. Now that it has settled in with me I can’t see myself going anywhere else. It’s really perfect for me.
I am so thankful that I was keeping my covenants, and living my life so that I could feel the spirit and get such a prompting and answer to prayer like that. I have come to understand that Heavenly Father has a plan for each and every one of us. And if we choose the right, follow the Savoir and try our best to be like him, Heavenly Father will let us know what that plan is and bless us. I’ve felt blessings of following his plan for me already and I haven’t even left for my mission yet. I’m so thankful that my prayers last summer in Tennessee were answered. I was praying that I would be more able see opportunities to serve others and become more like Christ. Now I’ll be serving people every second of my every day I will have my name next to Jesus Christ’s for a year and a half.
Ever since that day that Heavenly Father literally told me to GO on a mission and I acted on it, by doing the papers, sending them in, and going to the temple - and I have felt His love for me X10.
When I was thinking of topics to speak on today I had a few ideas but I wasn’t quite sure which one. I decided to talk to my mom about it, so I came up to her and asked her what she thought I should speak on. Of course, she gave me the best answer: “Audrey, what’s in your heart?”
I didn’t have to think twice about it. I know that what’s in my heart is overwhelming love right now because of the experiences I’ve had recently. And that’s really what I want to focus on. His love for us, our love for Him, and how serving is the best way to show our love for him.
Last Conference in October 2012. One of our General Authorities, Jeffrey R. Holland, gave a talk called “The First Great Commandment”. It’s an incredible talk. In it, he paraphrases what happens in John chapter 21 where after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ the remaining apostles look to Peter and ask, “What do we do now?” Peter tells them he’s going back to being a fisherman and all of them join after him. To their astonishment, Christ comes to them while they’re on their ship fishing. Christ turns to Peter and asks him “Do you love me?” Peter replies by saying “Yea Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.” The Lord asks him again saying, “Peter, do you love me?” and Peter of says the same response “Yea lord, thought knowest that I love thee”. Christ asks him a third time, making Peter truly uncomfortable “Peter do you love me?” and Peter responds yet the last time “Lord, thou knowest I love thee”.
In Elder Holland’s non-scriptural approach, says Jesus says something like “Then Peter, why are you here? What I need Peter are disciples – and I need them forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to preach my gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who loves me, truly, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do. Ours is not a feeble message. It is not a fleeting task. It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of the almighty God, and it is to change the world. So, Peter… I am asking you to leave all this and to go teach and testify, labor and serve loyally…”
“Then, turning to all the Apostles, He might well have said something like: “were you as foolhardy as the scribes and Pharisees? As Herod and Pilot? Did you, like they, think that this work could be killed simply by killing me? Did you, like they, that the cross and the nails and the tomb were the end of it all and each could blissfully go back to being whatever you were before? Children, did not my life and my love touch your hearts more deeply than this?”
My beloved brothers and sisters, I am not certain just what our experience will be on Judgment Day, but I will be very surprised if at some point in that conversation, God does not ask us exactly what Christ asked Peter: “Did you love me?” I think He will want to know if in our very mortal, very inadequate, and sometimes childish grasp of things, did we at least understand one commandment, the first and greatest commandment of them all – “though shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all they mind.”
“If ye love me, keep my commandments,” Jesus said. So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before. The Crucifixion, Atonement, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the beginning of a Christian life, not the end of it.”
That passage from Elder Holland shows us that we cannot merely accept Jesus Christ in our hearts and love him. We have to really truly love him, and show him that we love him by giving our lives and serving him. I, like Peter, am responding to the Lords answer, “Do you love me?” and I too, like Peter, will go to Rome and give my life because I want to be able to say that I truly love the Lord and I will preach His gospel and defend His faith.
James 2:17-18 goes perfect with this. It says, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me they faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.”
There have been countless times in my life when somebody has served me and I have felt the love of the Savoir through thru that person and deepened my testimony of this gospel.
President Henry B. Eyring in his talk “Come Unto Christ”, says that as we strive to become like him our hearts will be changed and “Another wonderful thing will happen. When you give your heart to inviting people to come unto Christ, your heart will be changed. You will be doing His work for Him. You will find that He keeps His promise to be one with you in your service. You will come to know Him. And in time you will come to be like Him and “be perfected in him.” By helping others come unto Him you will find that you have come unto Him yourself. If you want to be near Him, to feel His peace, you can do it best in His service.”
Isn’t it great that President Eyring says that if we come unto Christ through service our hearts will be changed? I have felt my heart change and I want to help others come unto Christ and feel that change too. It’s such a beautiful thing.
President Howard W. Hunter once said, “Real Christians must understand that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not just a Gospel of belief, it is a plan of action. Therefore seek to bring all truth together.”
Just recently I was talking with somebody who is not a member of this church. I told her about how I’m going to Italy and how I’ll be a full time missionary out there. She asked me what I’ll be doing to serve. And I responded by saying that I am going to tell people about Jesus Christ. But what I really meant to say was I am going to tell people the truth about Jesus Christ.
And these are some of the truths that I want to share with the people in Rome.
(testimony)
I love my scriptures more than anything. I know the Book of Mormon to be the Word of God. Every time I read it I feel of it’s divine power and I know that it can change lives because it has changed mine. That book is a light in darkness for me when I have had my own trials.
I know that Joseph Smith was a real and true prophet.
And most importantly I know that my Heavenly Father and Savoir live. And that the Holy Ghost is a real being, he comforts and guides me. Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost have led me to this happiness I have found and I cannot thank them enough.
I have mentioned before that I feel a lot of love in my life right now. I feel that love because of all of my many blessings. I have so many blessings that I don’t even deserve. I have so many obvious faults, big faults. And yet I still feel the Lord’s hand in my life. And I can’t thank him enough. This is a big reason of why I am going - I am so blessed and I owe so much to Heavenly Father, a year and a half is nothing.
I am thankful for my parents and their patience with me and not giving up on me even when I have been a brute. I owe my parent’s everything. They panted me in good soil.
All 5 of my siblings (and even my in-laws) who have been the wind at my back these 19 years. They’re all so much older than me and they could have gone on in their lives, but each of them have loved and cared for me, included me in everything, and built a friendship with me.
I am thankful for temples and that my beautiful family can be together forever. Going to the temple has strengthened my faith like nothing else. When I enter its doors I can feel of its divinity. I always believed that my family can be together, but now I know that my family can be together.
I love this gospel and. I love its light. And I know this church is true.
No comments:
Post a Comment