Here is his talk:
Hello Brothers and Sisters. For those of you that don’t know, I've been called to serve in the Adelaide Australia mission. The mission itself covers the whole middle section of Australia so it is a very large mission, so big that most transfers are a 4 hour plan ride. The city of Adelaide itself is located at the southern coast. When i first read my mission call about four and a half months ago i thought , “wow i still have a long time to prepare myself” and yet here we are and I’m about as nervous as you could be. People ask me all the time if I am getting nervous or scared as the day gets closer. Well to answer that, do you know how big some of the spiders are there? They are big enough to eat my dog, so i am just a little scared. That plus waking up everyday at 6 am and riding bikes constantly will surely be a challenge for me. I also have the chance to do some interesting things like eat crocodile, see amazing animals like kangaroo and koala bears that only live there, and maybe even pick up one of the coolest accents in the world in my opinion. To give myself an idea of what it will be like, i started reading blogs that missionaries have written about my mission. To give you an idea, here are a couple of things they have wrote:
“Today i saw the smallest spider I've seen here and it's as big as the palm of my hand…”
“I’ve tried Vegemite. They told me it was like peanut butter but mom, it was not like peanut butter at all!”
“We’ve been doing a lot of bike riding this week, even more then usual.”
“Through all the challenges I've faced, this still has been the best time of my life.”
So yes i'm nervous, but all in all I can’t wait to serve the lord. I’ve been blessed to be raised in the church and have the knowledge that I do and now to be able to spread that knowledge is a true blessing.
Its truly amazing how the chance for me to serve a mission goes way back to when a young man only 14 years old went to the woods to pray for answers on which church was true. The Restoration of the church goes all the way back to Joseph Smith praying as a young man, asking the question that all of us have probably faced. Joseph Smith describes the answer to his prayer in this way: “..When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other- This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” JSH 1: 16-17
Can you even imagine how Joseph felt? There before him was God, our Father, and Jesus Christ, our Savior with perfected bodies in all their Glory. The thing is, we to can feel this power and can speak to heavenly Father like he did. We can pray with real intent just like he did and receive an answer.
The most powerful answer I have received from God was only a few years ago. It was the day my brother left on his mission to South Africa. This was very hard for me because he was someone I looked up to for advice and someone i aspired to be. Now he was going to a place that I knew was dangerous and the next two years were going to be a mystery. As soon as we got home from the airport, I was a mess, in tears and not knowing what to do. I ran up to my room just crying. Then I remembered what I should do, so i knelt down to pray. There wasn’t many words, just me kneeling and crying to God to keep my brother safe. It was to this day the longest I’ve ever spent on my knees in one prayer. After kneeling there for who knows how long I said out loud “please….keep my brother safe” and immediately after I received an answer and I was calm and felt right about it. And now here he is as a returned missionary safe and sound.
This experience truly put me on the path I am on now. Just like Joseph Smith, it truly started with a prayer. Before this, I never really thought about whether or not I will serve a mission. I really started thinking about it when I saw how my brother's mission affected him. He was the biggest example to me showing me what true conversation is.
Now Joseph had many more trials to come starting with the translation of The Book of Mormon. Knowing that doubt and disbelief would follow Joseph and all of us, the lord brought forth the Book of Mormon. There is a scripture in The Doctrine and Covenants that I love that explains this well: “God gave unto Joseph Smith commandments which inspired him..And gave him power from on high, by the means which were before prepared, to translate the Book of Mormon.. Which was given by inspiration, and is confirmed to others by the ministering of angels, and is declared unto the world by them.. Proving to the world that the holy scriptures are true, and that God does inspire men and call them to his holy work in this age and generation, as well as in generations of old” (D&C 20:7-11)
“God calls men to his holy work in this age and generations of old”. The lord has called me to serve his work just as he called so many others to spread his gospel. Just as he called Joseph to do his work. I like to think of Joseph Smith as a perfect missionary. He even had a companion in a way. Oliver Cowdery served as the Prophet's scribe. They sat down together on April 7 and began translating The Book of Mormon over the next three months. They wrote about 500 printed pages in about 60 days. That's like hand writing a 9 page essay everyday for three months. Surly a challenge, but also must have been an amazing experience to receive revelation from God like that. Joseph and Oliver were then commanded by John the baptist to receive the Aaronic Priesthood and to be baptized. A short time later the apostles Peter, James, and John appeared and conferred the Melchizedek Priesthood upon them. Now that the priesthood power was again on the earth, Joseph was commanded to organize Christ's church.
In one of Gordon B Hinckley's talks on the restoration I found something interesting. He was able to trace his priesthood line of authority back to when Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. The line of authority shows who ordained an individual and who ordained them and so on all the way back to the Lord. Gordon B Hinckley's line is David O. McKay; Joseph F. Smith; Brigham Young; the three Witnesses;Joseph Smith, and then Peter, James and John. That’s six sequential ordinations between Gordon B Hinckley and the savior . I thought it would be interesting to find out my own line of authority. Mine line is 12 ordinations starting with my father, then my grandpa and all the way to when Peter, James, and John conferred the Melchizedek Priesthood on Joseph Smith, thereby giving him the same authority given them by Jesus Christ Christ. This really shows how we have a direct line to Christ and where the authority to use the priesthood comes from.
Gordon B Hinckley had this to say concerning the Restoration. “After many generations had walked the earth-so many of them in conflict, hatred, darkness, and evil- there arrived the great, new day of the Restoration. This glorious gospel was ushered in with the appearance of the Father and the Son to the boy Joseph. The dawn of the dispensation of the fullness of times rose upon the world. All of the good, the beautiful, the divine of all previous dispensations was restored in this most remarkable season”
This gospel that has been restored is a beautiful thing. It is because of this gospel that I have this amazing and blessed life that I do. I have been blessed with an amazing family and friends. Taking a step back, I truly realize that it is because of God and this gospel. Now I have the chance to give back and give others the blessings that the gospel has to offer. Out in the mission field, I know I will face hard times; that there will be investigators that don’t want to accept the gospel. But God called me to do his work and to declare to the world of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the first great commandment to “love and serve the lord with all our heart, might, mind, and strength” and that's what I plan to do.
He bore his testimony.
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