Farewell Talk
I have not
developed whatever music talent I might have, but do enjoy listening to music.
I often feel the Spirit strongly when I listen to reverent and sacred music
like we’ve just heard. Thanks to all
those who sang, it was wonderful.
We appreciate family members and friends who have
come today. Some of you have traveled considerable distances to be here, and we
appreciate it.
When I was applying for medical school, I told the
Lord that I would be willing to serve a
medical mission. During my career, I became acquainted with a number of
physicians who provided service to either missionaries or disadvantaged peoples
of the world, and I admired them for their sacrifices, but while helping Patsy raise six kids, there never seemed to be a convenient time to emulate their service.
When I retired, Patsy and I talked with the general
authority over the missionary health program and asked what opportunities there
were. I was excited to get a call to
coordinate the health care of the missionaries in Guatemala, Belize, and El
Salvador, areas where I served 50 years ago.
We will cover 9 missions and the
Guatemala City MTC, and will be responsible for helping keep over a thousand
elders and sisters healthy so they can fulfill their calls to serve the
Lord. We are excited about this
opportunity.
I am also comforted, knowing that unlike many young
missionaries going out, there’s not much chance I’ll get a Dear John letter
while I’m serving. At least I hope not.
A little geography and religious history, Central
America is the region starting south of
Mexico and ending at Columbia at the start of South America. [ From
north to south, it is composed of the countries of Guatemala, Belize, El
Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. We will cover the northern half of the area.
Mark and LaFaunda Curtis are presently covering the southern part, and will be
replaced in a few months by Terry and Sharon Smith of the Second Ward.]
In 1947, John O’Donnell, a member of the church working
as agricultural advisor for the US government, was assigned to Guatemala. He felt that the people of the area would be
receptive to the gospel and wrote the president of the church, George Albert
Smith, and asked if missionaries could be assigned there. A few missionaries were transferred from
Mexico and the first converts were baptized in 1948. I entered the MTC in Provo 50 years ago, in
October of 1967 and arrived in the Guatemala - El Salvador Mission in January
of 1968. At that time there were about
15,000 members in those two countries.
The only stake in all of Central America was in Guatemala City. The nearest temple was Mesa Arizona. Airfare
was beyond the reach of most of the members, so once a year the mission would
organize a temple excursion by bus up through Mexico to Arizona.
The current membership in the three countries is
nearly 400,000 in 56 stakes. There are presently two temples in Guatemala and
one in El Salvador. Towns that had a struggling branch or two when I was
serving there now have their own stake.
I was born in 1948, so the history and phenomenal growth of the church
in that area has all occurred in my lifetime.
I am humbled to be able to play small part in helping build up the
kingdom in that part of the Lord’s vineyard.
We’ve been asked to talk about charity. Charity is perhaps the grand culmination of
all spiritual gifts. The things that we
do to enhance other spiritual gifts ultimately help us to more fully develop
charity.
As Patsy has pointed out, the word charity, as used
in the scriptures, means much more than giving things to poor people. As Paul reminds us in I Corinthians
[13:3-5]: “And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor...and have not
charity, it profiteth me nothing.” Paul
talks about it’s characteristics: “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity
envieth not... is not puffed up...seeketh not her own”
As Moroni further explains: “charity is the pure
love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at
the last day, it shall be well with him.”
Moroni 7:47 This love inspires people to sacrifice comfort, time,
resources and even risk their safety for others.
Recently the only grocery store in the small town of
Bear River, Utah was robbed at gunpoint.
A few days later, the owner of the store was surprised when the people
of the town put on a fund raiser and gave him back the amount of money that had
been stolen.
In the recent Las Vegas shooting, a man covered his
wife with his own body to protect her.
She wasn’t harmed. He was killed.
These are examples of great charity which were done
for a relative, or for friends and neighbors, but does charity stop with people
we know?
Again in the Las Vegas tragedy, Amy McAslin hid
under a table to escape the gunfire. She realized she was being shielded by
someone."A gentleman -- I don't know his name, completely covered me. He
said, 'I've got you.' During the chaos, the man was wounded. McAslin's shirt
was stained by the man's blood. He was taken to the hospital, she never learned
his name or how he is doing.
When hurricane Harvey hit Texas, a pediatric
surgeon, dealing with flooding in his own home got a call from the hospital. A
sixteen-year-old boy required immediate surgery. He paddled a canoe, rode in a
pickup truck, canoed again, and eventually walked the last mile to the hospital
in waist-high water to provide medical care to a complete stranger.
Four bakers in Houston found
themselves trapped in their bakery for two days by the hurricane. Instead of
despairing over their bad luck, they took advantage of the situation. The
bakery still had electricity, so they baked and baked and baked. The team took
4,000 pounds of flour and baked nearly 5,000 pieces of bread for flood victims.
These are recent examples of
pure love, not love for people who might pay them back in the future, not love
for people who were family or neighbors, but love for strangers with no
expectation of receiving any personal reward or benefit.
Contrast these actions with
several recent news stories of men of
power and riches who used that power to take advantage of vulnerable young
people.
Or the woman who saw a
fellow having an epileptic seizure in a store.
Instead of helping him, she stole a credit card from his wallet.
Or the recent fatal shooting
of a returned missionary at the University of Utah during an attempted car
jacking.
These people were taking
advantage of others, they behaved selfishly for their immediate benefit and
hurt others, sometimes emotionally, sometimes physically.
In Matthew, a Pharisee
attempted to confound Jesus “Then one of them...asked him a question, tempting
him, and saying, Master, which is the
great commandment in the law? Jesus said
unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the
first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself. On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Some people love God, their
neighbors, and even total strangers
enough that they are willing to make great sacrifices for them, while
other people love evil and darkness and use their riches or power to take
advantage of people, even knowing that they are causing permanent emotional or
physical harm.
How does this love or hate
come about? Did the people helping in
these various situations get up that morning and think “If there’s a
catastrophe today, I’m going to do something really unselfish and heroic”, Of
course not.
Sometime in their past, they had made a
commitment, perhaps even a covenant, to serve. So when the opportunity arose,
they didn’t have to decide whether
they should serve, only how to do so.
By the choices we make each
day, we move a little in one direction or the other. We all are naturally torn between being
Christlike men and women, and King Benjamin’s natural man.
In his recent conference
talk, Elder Stephen Owen explained how we can maintain our spirituality. He said quote “It is not enough just to gain a testimony; you have to maintain
it and strengthen it. ...if you stop pedaling a bicycle, it will fall, and if
you stop feeding your testimony, it will weaken. This same principle applies to
repentance—it is a lifelong pursuit, not a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
close quote. He was talking specifically
about testimony and repentance, but I think the principle applies generally to
all spiritual gifts including charity.
Whether one has charity is not like a light switch that is either
on or off. It’s more like a dimmer
switch that can change the environment in a room gradually from total darkness
to bright, glorious light.
The world teaches us to be
selfish, to hate, and to take advantage of people, Christ teaches us to love
them and serve them. Each time we resist
a bad choice and make a good one, our spiritual muscles get a little
stronger. If we give in, they become
weaker.
In our lives, it is not
enough just to avoid doing bad things.
We can’t coast. The trials inherent in our earthly existence, the
friction of temptation, the actions of others toward us, and the consequences
of past bad choices slow us down, while our efforts to be faithful and obedient
accelerate our spiritual progress. What
eternal destination we will eventually arrive at is the result of each day’s
choices and actions.
In Third Nephi, Jesus asked
the people “what manner of man ought ye to be?”
Then answers the question: “ Even
as I am.” So how do we progress from
being the natural man to becoming a man or woman of Christ.
Laman and Lemuel were pretty
clueless when Lehi told them about a vision he’d had. They complained to
Nephi. “...we cannot understand the
words which our father hath spoken...” Nephi replied “And I said unto them:
Have ye inquired of the Lord? And they
said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto
us.” Nephi instructs them: “Do ye not
remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your
hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in
keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto
you.” I Nephi 15:7-11
So the first steps are
having faith, keeping the commandments and asking.
Alma talked about additonal
steps. “Behold, I have fasted and prayed
many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself
that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his
Holy Spirit...” Alma 5:46
Spiritual progress, whether
increasing our knowledge of principles that are true and right, or increasing
the amount of charity we have is not like rain that falls on everyone. It
requires active inquiry and obedience, sacrifice, steadiness, and commitment,
requires making good choices and
enduring trials. Spiritual progress
doesn’t come easily, but what good thing doesn’t require effort.
Some years ago, Patsy and I flew to Africa for a camera
safari with a number of neighborhood friends.
As I remember, John Hedman and
Ralph Ryser were the instigators. The first night, we’d flown from Salt Lake to
San Francisco then to London traveling across 9 time zones. We had deliberately stayed awake during the
day so we would be better able to sleep on the night flight from London to
Tanzania. We were all tired and jet lagged.
As we were boarding the plane, I
noticed a lady with three young children get on. It turned out she had been on an extended
visit with her parents in England, and was returning home to Africa. Her husband had flown back earlier because of
work. Her oldest, a girl of about 9,
was assigned the seat next to me, while the mother and her two smaller children
sat in the row ahead. It was clear that
mom would be busy taking care of the smaller children, and wouldn’t be able to
give the nine year old much attention.
The girl looked lost and a
little scared. I had a decision to make.
My natural man was yelling at me that I hadn’t slept much on the previous
night’s flight, and reminded me how tired I was. If
Patsy had been sitting by her, she would have immediately started finding
out about the girl, reading with her, asking about her friends and telling her
stories, but Patsy was sitting the other side of me.
I really wanted to go to
sleep as soon as possible. As I
considered the situation, I decided I
either had to give her my complete attention, or completely ignore her, that
anything in between wouldn’t work.
I did the right thing. I
talked to her and entertained her until she went to sleep. In the morning as we were getting off the
plane, her mom thanked me profusely and even though I was tired, I felt pretty
good about my choice.
I did work it into the
conversation that we were LDS, hoping that someday a couple of missionaries
will encounter her, and she’ll say “I met some LDS people once, they helped
with my daughter, won’t you come in?”
Why would I do something
like this for a total stranger? As
members of the church, we are supposed to bear the burdens of other members,
but she wasn’t a member. Did I have an
obligation to this family?
Charity says that because
Christ bore my burdens, that I have debts that I cannot repay, so I should
follow His example and when possible, bear the burdens of those who struggle,
whether they be relatives, members of the church, or total strangers.
The more love we have and
service we give, the easier it gets to be committed to giving it in the
future.
At the start of the American
Revolution, Thomas Paine published a book called The American Crisis. One of his memorable quotes from this work
says:
“These are the times that try men's souls.
The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot
will, in this crisis,
shrink from the service of their country...”
Our American revolutionary
war is long over, but a battle between good and evil began before we came to
this earth and still rages on at the present time. These are definitely times that try our
souls. At some point, each of us has to
choose which side we are on, then endure.
Seeking and developing charity is a big step toward becoming men and
women of Christ.
I am looking forward to our
time in Guatemala. While our assignment won’t involve direct proselyting, by
keeping the missionaries healthy, we will aid in building up the kingdom.
Ending - For those of you
that I’ve taught in Sunday school or young men, I’ve given you a scripture
reading challenge. Sister Matthews and I
will be gone for a year and a half, but we look forward to rewarding those of
you who meet that goal when we return.
Even if you move out of the ward, get married, or are away at school, if
you met that challenge, when we get back, we’re still good for the reward.
We are excited to have our
children, grand children and many extended family members here. For all of you grand children, think of all
the times grandma Patsy has read to you, tucked you in, played with you or told
you stories. She does that because she loves
you. Can you imagine that grandma loves
anyone more than she loves you?
Grandma and grandpa love
Heavenly Father and Jesus more than we love you. We still love you very much, but we love
Heavenly Father more.
When we are gone, we will
naturally worry about the family, but we have faith that if we are doing the
Lord’s work, that He will bless you and protect you more than we could if we were here. We hope not to shrink from this assignment
and to be more than summer missionaries and sunshine servants.
Conclusion: Peter tells us “charity shall cover the
multitude of sins.” If we can develop
charity, if we can become Christlike men and women, then the burden of our sins
can be lifted from us. Charity is like a
muscle that gets stronger with use, or weaker with neglect. The world throws a lot of bad influences at
us. To keep our spirit at a high level, to continue to develop and have
charity, we have to make a continual active effort. Will that effort be worth
it? As the Lord reassures us in the
Doctrine and Covenants: “But learn that he who doeth the works of righteousness
shall receive his reward, even peace in this world and eternal life in the
world to come.” [D&C 59:23]
What more could we ask?
Brothers and sisters, it
gives me joy to be with you today and feel of your strength and feel of the
spirit of the Lord. I know that Joseph
Smith was a prophet of God and that he restored the church of Jesus Christ in
this last dispensation. The Book of
Mormon is the word of God. I know that
President Monson is a prophet, and if we follow his counsel, we will not go
astray. I say this in the name of Jesus
Christ.
Hermanos y hermanas, tengo
gran gozo estar con ustedes hoy y sentir de su fuerza y espiritualidad y sentir el espiritu del Señor. Sé que Jose Smith era profeta de dios, y que restauró la iglesia de
Jesucristo en esta ultima dispensacíon.
El Libro de Mormon es la palabra de dios. Sé que el presidente Monson es un profeta, y
al seguir sus consejos, no nos fallaremos.
Digo todo eso en el nombre de Jesucristo. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment