Sawyer had his farewell on June 9, in the Eastview Ward. It was awesome because the whole meeting was dedicated to missionary work. He did a great job on his talk! After sacrament meeting, we came back with family and friends and had lunch at our house.
Good morning Brothers and Sisters! I can’t believe I am
giving my farewell talk! This always seemed like something I would never give
because it was so far in the future but now that it is actually here
it doesn’t even seem real! I’d just like to thank all of my family, friends,
and ward members for turning me into the missionary I am going to be very soon!
I am giving
my talk on the miracle of missionary work. But I guess I should change that and
call it the miracles of missionary work because there are multiple ways that
missionary work is miraculous! I am going to be directing my talk more to the
people who have yet to go on full time missions. The first miracle I am going
to be talking about is the expansion of the Gospel through missionary work. Now
you are probably all thinking well duh Sawyer… that is what missionary work is
for- of course it’s a miracle. But if you really break it down you can see how
much of a miracle it actually is. Neil L. Anderson compares the expansion of
the gospel in ancient times as well as in the Latter Days in his talk during
the last general conference. Let’s start with ancient times. When the Savior
was resurrected he commanded the apostles to “Go ye into all the world, and
preach the Gospel to every creature.” Now the apostles were probably a little
doubtful considering how small the church was at the time compared to how big
the world was, but the apostles’ faith was still strong and they went out and
preached the word. In the day that they began preaching, 3,000 people were
baptized into the church! 3,000! I don’t think any of us even have that many
friends on Facebook! If missionaries were that successful these days I could
just picture the First Presidency and the Apostles dancing for joy!
Now in
Latter Days Jesus Christ gave that same commandment about 183 years ago. The
Church was a tiny little tight knit group of Saints and they were told to
expand the Gospel to the entire world! With all the persecution the Church was
receiving I’m sure most of the Saints thought that the task would be
impossible! But still Faith was strong and diligent missionaries went out to do
the work! Thousands were baptized into the Church once more! Elder Wilford
Woodruff went to England on his mission and baptized several hundred people as
well as 45 preachers of different churches in the first month of his mission!
And now look at the Church today! It is thriving! Elder Anderson says that when
he was on his mission there were 562 stakes around the world, now there are
over 3,000! When he was on his mission the church was in 59 countries. It is
now in 189 out of the 224 countries in the world. When Elder Anderson was on
his mission there were 16,000 missionaries, which is a pretty good amount, but
compared with the number we have today it is just a sliver. We now have 65,000
missionaries out in the field! That is what I call a miracle!
The next
miracle of missionary work that I am going to talk about is the fact that it
actually gets teenagers to work! D&C chapter 4 is THE missionary chapter in
the scriptures and the very first verse says, “Now behold, a marvelous work is
about to come forth among the children of men.”
Now for most people my age marvelous is not the word they would use to
describe work. But work actually is a marvelous thing. Gordon B. Hinckley
describes work like this: “Work, work, work is the key to getting things done,
the key to success in life. There is no substitute for work, for getting up in
the morning and getting at it and staying with it to get the job done. I don’t
know of a greater asset for whatever lies ahead in life than the capacity to
discipline oneself to work.” Missionary work is the best work of all because it
is the Lord’s work. The Lord even says,
“For behold this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the
immortality and eternal life of man.” The only way to bring to pass the
immortality and eternal life of man is by teaching people of the great truths
this gospel brings! There is no better way to prepare for the greatest work you
will ever do than by learning to work beforehand. I love the messages of EFY
speakers and I have a book dedicated to missionary work written by a whole
bunch of them. My favorite is Hank Smith and he talks about work in his chapter
of the book. He says, “Do you have
people in your life who love to make you work? If so, find them, hug them, and
thank them- then get back to work.” Now
if you don’t have people in your life that love to make you work, go find your
own work! There is plenty of work out there to be done! The Lord wants us to
work so he makes plenty of things for us to work on! If you don’t believe me
believe President Thomas S. Monson. He said, “God left the world unfinished for
man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity in the cloud, the oil in the
earth. He left the rivers unbridged and the forests unfelled and the cities
unbuilt. God gives to man the challenge of raw materials, not the ease of
finished things. He leaves the pictures unpainted and the music unsung and the
problems unsolved, that man might know the joys and glories of creation.” Working
beforehand can have a great influence on the way you react to life in the
mission field because it is HARD work!
If thinking
of just working nonstop for two years intimidates you as it did me think of it
this way. I am a big fan of superheroes, not to mention the fact that I am
Batman, so I like to think of the missionaries in the field as superheroes
because what are they doing? They are saving people! And it takes work to save
people! Superheroes don’t just sit back and relax while the world is saved.
They have to do something about it! Like Spider-Man’s wise Uncle Ben said,
“With great power, comes great responsibility.” Missionaries have the great
power to bring people back to the presence of God, and they have the
responsibility to use that power on the people they teach! You can’t just have
the responsibility and not use it! “It’s not who you are underneath, it’s what
you do that defines you.” Sorry I had to throw a Batman quote in here somewhere
but it is true! You can be a great Gospel filled ball of a missionary, but if
you don’t do anything with it then you aren’t any better than the missionaries
who don’t even want to be out there in the first place. It’s what you do that
defines you. We’ve all seen the heroes save the people in the movies, but in
this story we are the heroes, and in this story it is for real.
If that
strategy doesn’t work for you then think of the good that is going to come from
the work. Especially when the going gets tough thinking about something good
that will come from it is always a way to help. Just look at these three
missionaries in the book I mentioned earlier. This is the first letter sent
home by a sister missionary after entering the field. “The MTC is soooooooooo
hard. I really didn’t believe it when people said it would be hard, but oh,
man… it is difficult. I feel really overwhelmed. They keep us so busy here its
nuts! Yesterday we studied for twelve hours. I know in a usual WEEK at home I
didn’t study that much, so this has been really eye opening.” Here is an
excerpt from a letter from an Elder in the Ukraine. “On Wednesday we met with
Tamara. Now, I love the lady, but she can’t expect to receive an answer if she
won’t listen. It’s like trying to catch a bumblebee with chopsticks. The lesson
didn’t really go anywhere, and she ended with, ‘You haven’t answered any of my
questions.’ I love her, but she needs to listen. We won’t give up on her.” And
finally this third missionary serving in California. “We were dropped twice
this week. It was rough. This family came to church last week and loved it and
asked to meet with us on Saturday. On Friday morning we had a message that
said, ‘Thanks so much for everything, but we are going to continue on our path.
No further instruction is required and our meeting is canceled.” Now hearing
all of these missionaries talking about their experiences probably doesn’t make
missionary work sound very inviting, but just hold your horses! I’m not done
yet! A few months down the road the sister missionary who thought the MTC was
so hard sent this letter. “We are teaching a woman named Lupe and she is so
elect! Perfectly prepared to hear the gospel. We met with her last week and
taught her the Restoration and how much God loves her and how she can trust
Him. I about cried when I saw her walk into the chapel. After sacrament meeting
she stood up right in front of us and said, ‘I want to prepare myself for
baptism.’ WHAT?!?! Oh man! Revelation through church attendance. It’s legit. We
were so taken aback. My companion even said, ‘Wait… for what church?’ Lupe
laughed and said ‘This one! It’s so true!’ Wow. What an amazing experience!”
Now that sounds very inviting to me personally and I hope I meet someone just
as ready to hear the gospel as Lupe when I am on my mission! The second Elder
in the Ukraine said this a little while after his other letter. “Honestly, the
week was super quiet, and we didn’t see too much success, but Saturday was
great. We met with Lera. Now, we started out by asking her about the chapter we
had her read (Alma 34). She said something interesting. ‘I want to believe this
is all true.’ I would’ve normally said ‘Cool. We want you to believe it too.’
But something else came out of my mouth. ‘Why do you want top believe it,
Lera?’ I had no idea why I just said that and I hoped it made sense. Then she
put her Book of Mormon in front of her face. I was confused. After like fifteen
seconds, she put the book down, and she was crying. Then she said, ‘Because if
this is true I can be with my family forever. I don’t know why I’m crying, but
I feel strongly about this book.’ We told her it was the Holy Ghost confirming
it to her. I’m getting way excited!” I would feel excited too! I can’t think of
anything better than bringing light and happiness into someone’s life! And
finally the third missionary in California. “As we were driving out of the
parking lot someone started honking at me. I was a little caught off guard and
looked back to see a family I had baptized waving me down. I was so pumped! I
pulled the car over and talked to them for about thirty minutes. They are
getting ready to be sealed. I love them so much! It reminded me that it is all
worth it. No matter how much you have gone through or how many times someone
tells you no. The one yes is worth it.” That last statement that missionary
said is something that keeps me, and should keep any other missionary
motivated. If I am feeling scared about leaving home, or dreading being trained
to go and awkwardly tell people I don’t even know about religion, or getting a
door slammed in my face, or having to eat cow intestines, or having cockroaches
crawl over me while I’m in bed, I always think about that one yes that will
make it all worth it! That is a miracle! And also notice how each of those
missionaries said how much they love the people they are teaching! That is a
key of missionary work! As the old saying goes, “People don’t care how much you
know until they know how much you care.” Love is a big miracle!
As I
conclude my talk I want to just say how much missionary work has been a
blessing in my life already. It has changed me so much for the better just
preparing to go on it so I can’t wait to see what it does to me while I am
actually on it. I also want to say how much each of you wonderful people have
been miracles in my life as well. My family for raising me in the Gospel, which
wouldn’t have happened without the help of my Mom’s friend when she was in high
school. That was a big miracle. All of my church leaders over the years for
teaching me so much and helping me gain a basic understanding of everything the
gospel teaches. My seminary teachers for helping me gain a more in depth
understanding of the gospel and doing it in a way that I enjoyed every minute
of it! And my friends for keeping me on the right path over all these years and
always being there when I needed them even when it was something stupid. I have
the best friends in the world and wouldn’t ask for any others. I know without a
single doubt that this gospel is true and it has brought a light into my life
that nothing else possibly could and I am so excited to go and bring that
happiness to the people of Texas. I am so grateful for missionary work and the
miracles it holds. The last thing I will leave you with is a verse of a hymn.
“God be with you till we meet again; keep love’s banner floating o’er you;
smite death’s threatening wave before you. God be with you till we meet again.”
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
