Thursday, July 19, 2012

My Homecoming Talk (Feb. 19, 2012)

Key Words and Phrases of Service


  1. “Forget yourself and go to work”
  2. “For whom?”
  3. “Nevertheless”

Definition: True to the Faith: “willingness... to ‘bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light,’ to ‘mourn with those that mourn,’ and to ‘comfort those that stand in need of comfort.(Mosiah 18:8-9)

Elder Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve defined this service as “small flecks of gold that accumulate over time into a large treasure...a life filled with love for Heavenly Father, devotion to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a sense of peace and joy each time we reach out to one another. “1

Jesus taught through the parable of the sheep and the goats that those who serve, and serve faithfully, will be found on the right hand of God for “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matt. 25:40)

During my time in the mission field, and as well in very many other experiences, I’ve taken note of 3 phrases that we can think of and apply in our lives that can help us increase our desire to serve.

1. “Forget yourself and go to work”

That was the counsel given to young Gordon B. Hinckley by his father during his mission.
  • Mark 8:35
    • For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.
Putting the needs and desires of those around us in front of our own, namely the desires of our Father in Heaven, our families, friends, and neighbours.
It is not to say that you should completely stop taking care of yourself, but, to not focus completely on yourself, and to find ways to fulfill the commandment of “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Mark 12:31)
Stories about this point:
  • Elder Washburn-never decided to stop
  • Parents (in specific and in general)
Why would this be a key phrase of service? Have you ever found yourself serving someone, without any desire, and feeling like you are wasting your time? On the other hand, what about the times when you had the opportunity to serve, and found that it was a joy, maybe even a pleasure to be serving? What was the difference maker between these two situations? I think that we’ll find that most of the time, that it is because we had forgotten ourselves, and focused on the task placed in front of us, or even the person whom we were serving.


2. “For whom?”

Story about this point:
  • I found myself at one point during my mission having lost my zeal and was frustrated with myself and my performance. Everything was going fine, our investigators were progressing, the companionship was fine, nothing seemed out of place... but I still felt like there was something wrong, or at least I convinced myself that it was that way. I kept trying to figure out the “problem,” though,  it seemed as if there was no avail. During this period of time, I received an email from my father, in the which he urged me to read section 121 from Doctrine and Covenants. While I was reading it, a thought came to my mind “Why are you doing everything you are doing, and for whom?” I meditated over this thought again, and again... wondering... for whom I was doing all this service? Was it for me? Was it for my companion? Who was I there for?
Well with that, we go back to Mark 12 where it states the first and great commandment that  “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength:this is the first commandment.” (v. 30) And the second...Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (v. 31)

Often, we find people that are in great opportunities of service and doing a great job in doing so, in fact, they do all service that is placed before them... but sadly... they do it too often for themselves, many times, in hopes that they can be seen for there acts; or there are even times when people act as if they are a certain role, but fail to keep up that part that they so claim they play. Elder Lynn G. Robins talked about this in his talk stating that to Do without be—hypocrisy—portrays a false image to others, while be without do portrays a false image to oneself.2


To serve is to help others, not ourselves. We always say that when we serve, we serve not to earn a reward. In fact Jesus taught that  
“when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:
That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.” (Matt 6:3-4)

Our acts of service are not for us, they are to serve our fellow brethren, to show our love for them, and for out Father in Heaven, and if we have this attitude, we will be willing to serve to “with all [our] heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day,” (D&C 4:2)

Preface
  • How would you define love in one word?
  • In Doctrine and Covenants 19:16-19, Christ shows us the overall power of his love for us and his overwhelming to serve us and God in one word. (Verse 19)

3. “Nevertheless”

Our service should be without bounds, restrictions, or restraints. This attitude that Christ had that, regardless of what was happening to him, was fully devoted to finish the task, in fact, he was even willing to do the task, because he knew that it was the will of his Father and knew that he was doing this great service, the Atonement, for us.

How many times do we find ourselves that when an opportunity arises, that we seem to find an excuse pop into our head (“But” Zone) or remember some... thing that distracts us from the opportunity in front of us?

Having this attitude that “Nevertheless” will allow us to overcome many things. Maybe we find that we have a time to attend the Temple, to serve our brethren dead...and yet, at the same time... something arises... if we remember how the Savior the will of his Father and the welfare of his brethren, we can think, “Nevertheless, I will go and do.”

This form of service can truly bring us closer to true discipleship, to a truer form of charity, for we will see that we begin to serve, with a full desire to serve... we may even begin to think “I want to serve them” or “Who can I serve today?” or maybe even “What can I do for ‘Bill’ today?”

Truly... we begin to fulfill and keep the commandment that the Lord gave to the apostles before his turn to serve “By this shall men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35)


Summary:

Now to summarize:
Service reaches it’s highest point of fulfillment and joy once we “forget [ourselves] and go to work”, when we remember “for whom” we are serving, and even when something arises to bring us away from the work, “nevertheless”, we serve.

Now I promise that when we put these phrases in practice in our lives, we will begin to see our desire to serve grow, our reasons to serve change, and our love for our brethren increase and we will begin to see those who surround us as they truly are, each a son or daughter of a Heavenly Father who loves us.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Don't Panic

This is something I should've remembered close to 48 hours ago.

As a preface, let's talk about roller coasters; for those of us who have had a ride on at least one, many of us can agree that these are amazingly fun, exciting and exhilarating; for those who have not, it looks scary, intimidating, and almost ridiculous that any human being would do such a thing. My first experience on a roller coaster went along these lines; the second set of emotions first, and the first set of emotions shortly after the ride started.

So why talk about this. I experienced, once again something new, the which, also produced a mix of these emotions. For the last few weeks, me and an old mission friend have been looking for a place to rent in and reside. We found a place this Monday, we liked it, we signed the contracts, placed our deposits, and held our heads high, knowing we had accomplished our goal. However, panic ensued a few hours later, and thoughts of leaving and choosing somewhere else began to stir. We made a few calls, read our contracts a few thousand times, investigated a bit more, and found out, that there was only a small option of pulling out, through selling our contracts.

After having made a few personal attempts to sell, with panic and stress still building, I remembered that roller coaster experience. Of course there would be fear, it was something new! But that didn't mean I should back out. So I have decided to take on the new opportunity head on, heck on my mission I even told myself many a time, take advantage of every good opportunity, and now I think I can add, and don't back out.

Wish me luck as I dive into some strange, but oddly inviting waters... Who knows what could happen now

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Magnifying Your Calling

Callings are opportunities given to us from the Lord, through his servants, to help continue his work, to help keep the Church organized as a whole, and to keep it functioning properly.

There are many positions and responsibilities to which one may be called,

God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles?
Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?

(1 Cor 12:28-30)

However, we must remember that we all have our part to play, Paul taught this by comparing our callings and responsibilities to a body

For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.


When we all play our role, and we put our best efforts into it, the body, the Church, functions, and continues providing those things which we desire.

Today, I’ve been asked to speak on how we can magnify our responsibilities, our callings, and the blessings that come of doing so.

1. Just Do It

The first, yet most vital part of magnifying our callings requires us to actually be performing our callings
In his talk “The Call of Duty,” President Monson stated,

“How does one magnify a calling? Simply by performing the service that pertains to it. An elder magnifies the ordained calling of an elder by learning what his duties as an elder are and then by doing them. As with an elder, so with a deacon, a teacher, a priest, a bishop, and each who holds office in the priesthood.”


As a member of the Church, I’ve had multiple callings, from Deacon’s Quorum secretary, from missionary, to a simple teacher, but for me to even begin to magnify my calling, to put my best into the assignment given me, it was necessary that I was actually doing that assignment. The gospel is a gospel of action, and without any actions on my part, I’m not truly aiding the cause.

Let’s continue with the comparison of callings to a body, let’s use the eyes for this example. The eyes are assigned the task to help us see where we are going, what’s happening, and help protect us from possible hazards. We can make sight stronger, but... it needs to be functioning in order for that to happen. If an eye decides not to work... or to do its part... there’s no way of making it better.

I know that by simply performing the callings that the Lord has called us to, that we will be an aid to the Church, and we will feel the magnitude of this work and the importance it has.

2. Going the Extra Mile

As a missionary in the field, I had the opportunity to serve other missionaries, and to help them with investigators they had, and even their relationships with each other.

As soon as I began to understand my responsibilities, and put them in practice consistently, I noticed that there was still more to be done. I began doing small extra things for those missionaries I was blessed to serve, like spending a few moments each night talking to them to see how they were doing, sharing motivational thoughts or powerful experiences that me and my companion had during the day, even taking them out to lunch at times.

At the moment I began going the extra mile, I noticed how my love for the work, and the love I felt towards these missionaries, increased.

Going the extra mile doesn’t require much. For home teachers, it could be stopping by between formal visits to see how the families are doing, for an organist, or a pianist, it could be finding the right song for the moment, maybe even based off the topics of the talks. Just small simple things.
For


By small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.
And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.

(Alma 37:6-7)


I know that by following this principle of callings, that we will begin to feel the love of God, and not only will we feel God’s love towards us, but we will feel it for all his children, and that we will continue to have desires to aid them and transmit that love to them.
3. Trust the Lord

This last principle is when faith comes into full action. Let’s use the example of Abinadi for this principle of magnifying our callings.

Abinadi was called to cry repentance unto the people of Noah. We know that a very large number of trials and confrontations faced him, and that seemingly, his attempts had failed. Yet we know, that through these experiences he trusted in the Lord, for example, this scripture, when the servants of king Noah tried to stop Abinadi from preaching

Touch me not, for God shall smite you if ye lay your hands upon me, for I have not delivered the message which the Lord sent me to deliver; neither have I told you that which ye requested that I should tell; therefore, God will not suffer that I shall be destroyed at this time.
But I must fulfil the commandments wherewith God has commanded me
(Mosiah 13:3-4)

While he did not know what would come to pass, he trusted the Lord that he would be able to deliver this message, and that maybe just one person would be able to hear, and believe his words.

Fortunately, and thankfully, his trust was repaid, and Alma believed; and because he believed, many others came to believe and became converted.

We may not know what effect our actions through our callings may have upon others, in fact, we may never know, but if we put our trust in the Lord, we need not worry. He will always provide.

The blessings can are great in trusting the Lord, first, off, our faith tremendously increases, as does our hope and our charity towards all. Another is that we will begin to see how the Lord is transforming us and helping us grow through our efforts, and while it may be somewhat of a difficult experience for some, the outcome is always a reason to shout for joy.

I know these things to be true, for I have been a personal witness of these principles in my life.