November 24, 2013
Farewell Talk
Missionary Work
While I was thinking of the best way to talk about missionary work I
decided telling you about my journey was the best way to do so. There will be a few stories and I hope you
can take some lessons or techniques that you can use yourselves.
When I was a beehive (12 or 13) there was a sister missionary in our ward
that I became close to. She was a really
jolly person. You’d walk away from a
conversation with her confident and happy about life. When I was 14 I wanted to know badly if I was
supposed to go on a mission. Usually I’m
not an indecisive person. Usually I make
a decision and stick with it. For some reason
I struggled with this particular question.
It drove me insane. I prayed and
prayed. I kept getting no answer, which
turned out to be a “be patient” answer I couldn’t fathom. I remember I had been learning about
patriarchal blessings in Sunday school and I thought, ‘This is the perfect
solution. I’ll just let them tell
me!’
After setting up an appointment I went to the patriarch’s house for my
blessing. He asked me if I had any
concerns. I didn’t know I could ask for
answers to a particular problem. I told
him I was really wanting an answer about serving a mission. He probably thought I was crazy thinking
about a mission when I was 14. I
wouldn’t be able to serve one until I was 21, which was still 7 years away. For those of you doing math that was half my
life thus far. We sat in his living room
and he began. A few sentences in I
started crying as he told me I was of the tribe of Ephraim, whose primary
responsibility is to do missionary work.
He continued and the Lord blessed me with advice I have reread many
times. I’m glad I asked for him to focus
on missionary work when I was 14 because it has been the answer to my question,
even though I couldn’t understand it at the time.
In ninth grade I was in junior high
and I started going to seminary. Our
community had a really great relationship with the Mormons. We were blessed to have seminary taught at
the high school. I don’t know if you’ve
been to Minnesota, but the winters there are brutal. On the walk from the parking lot to the doors
you feel like you’re going to get hypothermia and die on the spot. The night janitors would come open the doors
for us and we’d all file into two brightly colored Spanish classrooms. Because we met in the high school the older
kids would go to class, but the ninth graders would have to carpool to our junior
high. For us school started an hour
later which gave us time to work on homework, but because it was so early the
doors weren’t open to the classrooms at the time. We had to sit in the cafeteria every morning. My friends noticed that no matter how early
they got to school we were always there.
Finally they asked me why and I told them I went to a bible class early
in the morning. This made them sure I was insane. They knew I was serious about church and eventually
they knew that if they asked questions I would answer them. They found out I was really open about my
beliefs. My whole high school experience
revolved around everyone knowing who the Mormon kids were.
My junior year the ward missionaries gave
every young man and young woman a Book of Mormon. They gave us the goal of giving it out to
someone the next week. One or two were
handed out from our class and the next week the missionaries came back with
more copies. Amber and I hung around a
similar circle of friends in high school.
She ended up giving a Book of Mormon in orchestra to one of my best
friends. I was at my locker bank
where my group of friends hung out between classes and my friend, who had a very
exuberant personality, came running over to my locker, waving the Book of
Mormon over her head yelling, “Annah, I got a Book of Mormon!” A friend next to me asked me for one too and I handed
him the one from my locker. At homeroom
my friend from orchestra was reading the Book and was asking me who these “Lamb-a-nites” were and
interesting my other friends. From
handing out one Book of Mormon Amber and I ended up handing out 13 more that semester.
To me this seemed like I was pushed into
an easy way to get bonus points for heaven.
However, this situation only happened because of the past
preparation. The Mormons in Maple Grove,
Minnesota had worked for years to become an important part of the
community. The youth had always been
strong in their beliefs. Everyone knew
the Mormons. We were a peculiar people. Telling my friends early on where I stood led
to an ease of gospel sharing later on.
Missionary work is a joy! When you
have even the smallest success you get a confirmation from the Holy Ghost about
the importance of the work. Whenever I’m
sharing my personal beliefs with others a power comes into my life that I know
can only come from the Lord. The days
become a little brighter and the trials a little easier. The best periods of my life have been when I
have been actively sharing the gospel.
The more I talked to my friends about the
church, the more I learned to love them.
I think the only way you can sincerely want others to have the gospel is
to first love them. Jesus loved everyone
he healed no matter their station.
Whether they were beggar or sinner or rich man he loved them. I realize it is only when I really get to
know someone and really get to love them that I feel the urge to tell them of
my beliefs. The sons of Mosiah taught
among the Lamanites, people who probably wanted them killed and they taught the
Lamanites for 14 years. To me the perspective is drastic. Their service would have been ¾ of my
life. It was a huge sacrifice. In Mosiah 28:2-3 they gave their reason:
“That perhaps
they might bring them to the knowledge of the Lord their God, and convince them
of the iniquity of their fathers; and that perhaps they might cure them of
their hatred towards
the Nephites, that they might also be brought to rejoice in the Lord their God,
that they might become friendly to one another, and that there should be no
more contentions in all the land which the Lord their God had given them.
“Now they were desirous that salvation
should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human
should perish; yea, even the very thought that any soul should endure endless
torment did cause them to quake and tremble.”
They didn’t know the Lamanites and they
already had enough love to serve them.
Elder Ballard spoke to us in October about
missionary work. He said that there are
two reasons we don’t share our beliefs with others. First, fear and second, misunderstanding of
what missionary work is. I can say from
experience that taking the first step in missionary work is terrifying. I can also say however, that once you take
that first step it gets easier.
Growing up in Minnesota our youth leaders
were very focused on missionary work.
There were always goals of how many people to invite to church and
always mutual activities designed specifically for our friends. I remember our ward mission leader came to speak to us about talking to others about the church. I always looked forward to hearing from him
in sacrament meeting or classes. He knew
his stuff. This one lesson he taught he
said a great way for us to learn was to role-play. Of course, with my luck, I was picked to
participate. I suddenly wasn’t very
happy he had come to teach. He had one
person act as a non-member and me to act as a member explaining a
principle. He gave us slips of paper and
I tried to quickly come up with an answer.
I stumbled over my words and most of the short minute didn’t know what I
was saying. I didn’t want to do anything
like that again.
Elder Ballard was correct in saying fear
is what stops us from talking to others.
We’re scared we’ll say the wrong thing or we’ll offend them. I certainly was. It takes practice. Now,
luckily, I don’t get scared about it.
Sometimes I’ll get anxious if it’s a touchy topic, but generally I have
one rule; I talk to them the way I would want them to talk to me about their
church, not spewing out information or bearing a sacred testimony at an
inappropriate time. I’ll ask them what
they want to learn about. I make it a
dialogue, not a monologue. Elder Ballard
said the second reason we don’t share our beliefs is that we don’t know what
missionary work it. Missionary work is
our conversations, our being examples, giving service, and being a friend. Anything that brings someone a little closer
to Christ is missionary work.
President
Monson announced in October 2012 that the age of missionaries was
changing. When he announced the change my
roommates and I all yelled a simultaneous, “What?” It became a real possibility then for me to
go on a mission. I decided then I was
going on a mission. As I saw that so
many people were leaving, I wondered if I was just following the crowd or if I
really wanted to go myself. This
resulted in creating for myself a rollercoaster of decisions. One day I would say yes and another it was a
definite no. Still other days I thought,
maybe not yet; later. I read my
patriarchal blessing many times trying to find a hidden answer that the
patriarch had slipped in without me realizing.
After much debating I realized it wasn’t as complicated as I was making
it. The reason I hadn’t received a clear
answer was because the Lord was trusting me to make the decision myself. The whole time he was patiently saying, “It’s
your choice, Annah”. When I officially
decided to serve and called my bishop I knew that I had made the right
choice.
The next weeks I was reassured over and over that I needed to go. I finished the paperwork in 2 ½ weeks and I started
to reread the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel. My bishop had been notified a couple
weeks later that the call had been made.
It just needed to be mailed to me.
I finished the Book of Mormon and knew I was going to get my call that
day. I didn’t. I then finished the Preach My Gospel. For sure it would come, now that I was truly prepared. It didn’t.
That Saturday we went hiking. We
drove home and, as I was mad with the mailbox, I didn’t check for my call. My mom checked before coming inside and I
heard, “Sister Despain.” I ran to her
and everyone ran to the living room to see me tear open the envelope. [Cross fingers] South America. South America. I began reading:
“Dear Sister Despain:
“You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned
to labor in the Utah Salt Lake City West Mission.”
I stopped. Are you kidding
me? I was born in Salt Lake City and all
our family, including my sister in Bountiful, is there. That was the one place in the world I had
ruled out. However, reading it, I felt that Salt Lake was where I was needed. Over the next month I have been reassured so many
times. People tell me of all the people
they know in Salt Lake and giving my lots of people to look out for. I have family inside and 5 minutes from my
mission. It wasn’t what I was expecting,
but I’m excited to serve.
I have a testimony of this gospel. I know that prayer works. I found out for myself that God listens from my journey to becoming a missionary and countless other times my prayers have been answered. I know that the temple is a house of God. There is peace in the temple that I feel every time I visit. I also know that missionary work is important. I have felt a power whenever I have shared the truth of the gospel. You can't help knowing that what you are doing is good. I know God lives, and I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
