Farewell Talk-Numero Um

Funny side note: As I was taking the sacrament today, I dropped a cup of water on my lap and it got all over my talk so had to ad-lib some of it. And I had a wet dress the whole time :) Oh the adventures...

Here is my farewell talk that I gave in my college branch. 

Until I sat down to write this talk I would have told you that I couldn’t decide where to go in life, I heard the age-change announcement, and decided right there to go on a mission. I started my papers that Wednesday and leave exactly six months from that date. But as I contemplated how in the world I was going to give a 20 minute talk on that I realized that it wasn’t ever that simple and quick. You hear about people who have been prepared their whole entire life to serve a mission. I am that person.

In 1991, my mom and dad met and started to date. My mom decided she didn’t want to raise her children outside of the church and my dad took missionary discussions. He got baptized. They got married. And a year later, when I was 2 weeks old, we got sealed in the Idaho Falls temple as a family for all time and eternity.

Fast forward to 2006: I had just turned 14 years old and the idea of a blessing full of promises from God intrigued me. I decided I wanted to receive my patriarchial blessing. I did, and it was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. It referenced a scripture about missionary work that I had read just that Sunday in Sunday school. It also talked about learning multiple languages and it talked about how as I learned these languages that Heavenly Father would help and my ability to communicate would flourish.

2007: I was attending education week at BYU Idaho with my dear, sweet cousin and best friend. We were attending one of the classes when the teacher sang and played a song about his wife’s brother who had passed away at a young age. I heard a voice as clear as if they were sitting next to me, and it said, “I am here. I am real. And it is all true. The church is true.”

2010: I started attending BYU. I stopped praying and reading scriptures and was active only through outward appearances. I knew there was a God but I wasn’t sure how involved He was in our lives. I knew religion was important, but I wasn’t sure how this church fit into it.

Jan. 2012: My cousin and best friend began her mission papers and I began to desire to serve a mission We had done everything together up to that point and it was hard saying goodbye to her knowing that the next time I got to see her I would be 22. I was only 19 at the time. At this point I reevaluated my views on this religion and decided that God is here. God does listen. God does care.

Apr. 2012: I chose to defer my BYU enrollment a semester so that I could go ‘travel the world’. I got a passport, started saving money, moved home for free rent and free food, and started the highest paying job I could find: working in a plastic bag factory, and got accepted to teach English in China. And then Lithuania. And then all my travel plans fell through and by September I had decided to return to BYU and finish my degree and then go on a mission. This plan still didn’t feel right but it was all that I had.

Oct. 2012: President Monson’s announcement. It was earth shattering for nearly every Latter-day Saint, but more so for those it affected. I was flitting in and out of the room where my dad had the computer on watching General Conference and I heard that the prophet changed the boy’s missionary age from 19 to 18. I ran in there in shock!  I couldn’t believe what he had said. I was so excited for the boy’s that this would affect. And then President Monson said something I will NEVER forget. He said that starting immediately young women would be able to go on missions starting at 19. I was 19!  I knew immediately this was for me! Definitely an answer to prayer! I sprinted upstairs and told my mom. I was crying and shaking at the same time.

That Wednesday, I met with President Hanscom and started my mission papers, something that I hadn’t expected to be able to do for another year. On November 18^th, I officially submitted my papers and anxiously awaited word that my call had been assigned. The week after Thanksgiving it had been assigned and I received my mission call on December 6, 2012. The moment I saw that large white envelope in my mailbox, it really hit me. Wherever is in this envelope I would be spending my next 18 months!

Up to this point I had prayed fervently to be sent to a foreign mission. I wanted to travel and learn another language. I had also had 2 dreams. In one I was sitting on a bench in a chapel and a missionary came into the room and said ‘Sister Lillian, we are ready for you.’ I followed that missionary into another room and began to translate in American Sign Language for a bald, black man in his mid-twenties. In another dream I dreamt that I got called to Salt Lake City. I took these dreams as a sign that I would be getting called stateside, maybe speaking ASL. I had begun to prepare myself for this possibility that I may not be going someplace cool and exotic. I hoped for Ireland, or Australia, or, especially, Africa. But I expected someplace like Salt Lake City or North Dakota.

After I got my mission call out of the mailbox, I took it inside, and set it on the table. I spent some time with my brother and sister and waited for my mom to get home. When she got home and saw the envelope she was surprised I hadn’t opened it yet. I then took it downstairs, alone. I said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to help me know that this call was for me, where I needed to be, and when I needed to go. I then opened it and began to read:

Dear Sister Lillian,

You have hereby been called as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You have been assigned to labor in the Brazil Vitoria Mission. It is anticipated you will serve for a period of 18 months. You will preach the gospel in Portuguese. You will report to the Brazil MTC April 10, 2013.

I know everyone says this about their mission calls, but after I read that, I KNEW that there was someone waiting there for me. I would be speaking Portuguese. A language I had never even heard of. And I would report to the Brazil MTC in just under 17 weeks. 4 months. I had never even considered South America. Brazil was never on my radar. But, a couple of people in my branch had guessed that I would be going to Brazil that week prior. I reread my patriarchial blessing and was reminded of this scripture, which my patriarchial blessing quotes, and which sparked my desire to serve a mission back in 2006, more than 7 years ago:

Jeremiah 16:16

Behold, I will send for many ^afishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

This was when it hit home that I have a Heavenly Father who has a plan for each and every one of us. He knows us. He loves us.

After opening my call I ran up the stairs and just handed my mom the letter. I told my family and none of my siblings really cared. It took a while for it to sink in for them. I tried calling my dad, but it took a few times to get through to him, since he was busy at work.

I was shocked. I was going to South America. I would live on the beach, I would get really tan, and I would never be cold!

One idea that I’ve slowly wrapped my mind around, is that a mission is not for me. It is a tithe of my life for my Heavenly Father.

I’m a member of a Facebook page that is called “Many are called, few are sisters”. On this page, more than 5000 sisters post where they have gotten their mission calls to and are able to connect with others who have received that same call, or give advice to those who are going to be in their home mission, or reach out to help uplift others and give advice and ask for help in preparing. There are sisters on this page from new converts to 18 year olds with mission calls to 23 or 24 year olds who have decided that now is their time to serve a mission. There are also a few returned sister missionaries who willingly give advice and comfort to those of us who are all new to this missionary thing.

One of the sisters, a Sister Bonner, posted this in response to another sister’s worries that she will not be called someplace ‘cool’ because of health problems: “Whether you go to Africa or Idaho you will be doing the same thing...finding and bringing those to Christ! That's all that truly matters in the end.”

It is great things like this that are uplifting and definitely needed to assuage worries that we all have. This is what this Facebook page is all about.

In a talk given by President Monson, titled “Missionary Work”, he outlines 3 things that a missionary must do in order to be a successful missionary. Prepare with purpose, teach with testimony, and labor with love.

The first point is to: prepare with purpose. Whether you are preparing to serve a full-time mission, a service mission, or simply preparing to share the gospel with those you interact with every day, preparing with purpose is imperative. Preparing to share the gospel in everyday situations is what every one of you should be preparing to do and doing it. Whether you have been a member of the church since you were 8, 18, or 28 the idea is the same. We have something amazing. Why wouldn’t we want to share that?

We can prepare many different ways. Studying Preach My Gospel is a great way to prepare to share the gospel in any type of missionary setting. It will give you the tools you need to be confident and knowledgeable in what you are trying to share. Reading your scriptures and prayer are also powerful tools in preparing. As I was growing up, I have lived outside of the “Mormon bubble” for most of my life. And I have had the opportunity to answer many questions pertaining to why I did or didn’t certain things. Why I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere on Sundays. Why I didn’t drink coffee or use vulgar language. I believe that the only reason I was able to answer these things was because I was prepared with the purpose that my friends would ask these things. Listen in church, read and study your scriptures, and pray with the intent that you may be able to help a questioning soul today.

Christ once made this statement, “behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind”. A worry that is constantly coming up in my mind and in the minds of others that I know is that there is no way we are good enough to represent God and to share His gospel. However this is never the case. Christ teaches here that as long as we have a willing heart and mind, and we are willing to do our part in preparing then we will always be worthy enough to represent Him.

There is a quote circulating around that is apparently from a bumper sticker, which I have admittedly never seen, that says, “The Lord doesn’t call the qualified. He qualifies those he calls.” Even though this quote is not church doctrine I have definitely come to recognize the truth in these words. Just like what I said above, if we are willing and able to serve, He doesn’t care in what capacity that service is rendered. He will always be there to help us if we have prepared as well as we can.

The second point, teach with testimony, is not one that I’ve necessarily been able to utilize often, but I’ve seen it every time I’ve gone out with the sister missionaries we have here in our ward. One thing that they do very well is that they lay out the doctrine and then they bear testimony of what it is that they are teaching. I’ve noticed that when this happens it’s not necessarily what they say that hits home to their investigators, but what the spirit is saying along with their testimonies.

Thirdly, is to labor with love. One of the questions that President Hanscom asked me in my final interview was whether or not I would be able to love people. Of course I said yes, but after thinking about that question I had to reconsider my answer. Every missionary, past and present, that I’ve talked to has said that loving others is one of the biggest parts of missionary work. I had to think…I love my family. I love my God and Jesus Christ. But can I love someone who is in a gang and likes to hurt others or is smoking and refusing to quit? And although I have not been in these circumstances yet, I’ve come to the conclusion that I can do this.

Working in a factory is hard enough with the temperatures and the crazy flip-flopping hours, but there are also people there. People who smoke a lot, swear worse than a sailor, and work very hard for the little money than can. And as I’ve thought about leaving and never going back there to work, I start to miss it and I realized that it’s not the hours I’ll miss. Or my fork truck. Or taping boxes. It’ll be the people that I’ll miss. And the only way to miss people like that is if I love them. And I’ve come to the conclusion that I really, truly have come to love and respect those who I work with.

President Hinckley said this on the topic of laboring with love,

“There is no substitute for love. Often this love is kindled in youth by a mother, expanded by a father, and kept vibrant through service to God. Remember the Lord’s counsel: ‘And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.’  Well might each of us ask himself: Today, have I increased in faith, in hope, in charity, in love? When our lives comply with God’s standard and we labor with love to bring souls unto Him, those within our sphere of influence will never speak the lament, ‘The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.’”

Saint Francis of Assissi once said, “Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words”.

I think that by laboring with love, which can also include service for others, we are spreading the gospel. He does not always require that we bear lengthy testimonies while standing on the street corners or that we give every single person that we meet a Book of Mormon, although that is a good thing. It is necessary to live what we know and to live what we teach, throughout the church, whether a member or a ward missionary or a full time missionary.

I could list so many things that I hope to accomplish as a missionary. I hope to become fluent in Portuguese and to bring enough people to the church that Vitoria can get its own temple. I hope to be able to read all 4 books of scripture and to be able to help others feel the spirit. I hope to learn about another culture and to become more adventurous in my food choices.

But all of my goals can be summed up into one ultimate goal.

My goal as a missionary is to rely on my Heavenly Father in all things. Far too often I’ve taken life upon myself and have decided that I can do so much better. But time and time again I’ve been proven wrong and have had to humble myself and turned to my father in heaven.

I turn for just a moment to member missionary work. I realize that not everyone has or will serve a full time “official” mission. But I do know that everyone can serve their own personal mission. My calling in this ward is to be a ward missionary, and even though I’m rarely out with the missionaries because of differing schedules, I’m still doing my part. And you can too even without a special calling. In Doctrine and Covenants 88:81 Joseph Smith says, “It becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor.”

Every single person sitting here can be a missionary. Being a missionary means explaining misconceptions about the LDS church that you may hear. Being a missionary means dressing and acting as disciples of our Heavenly Father. The world is watching and how we approach a situation with someone may later spark their interest in this very church. And in doing so you have done your part to assist another person to eternal salvation.  And that sounds pretty darn important.

In the 2003 Ensign, Elder M Russell Ballard gave a talk titled “The Essential Role of Member Missionary Work”. Elder Ballard says this:

“Member missionary work does not require the development of strategies or gimmicks. It does require faith—real faith and trust in the Lord. It also requires genuine love. The first great commandment is to “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. … The second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matt. 22:37, 39).

I am so excited to serve the people of Brazil in any way I possibly can. I am terrified of being thrown into something that I’m not prepared for, but I’ve also realized that if we do everything we can to be prepared, then the Lord will fill in the gaps. I intend to do this!