The farewell talk (or how it was written, anyway). Given on December 17, 2017.
My name is Nathan, soon to be Elder. I got my call a little more than 2 months ago to the Washington-Vancouver Mission, I report to the Missionary Training Center in 3 days on the 20th! Before I begin the meat of my talk, I'd like to show my gratitude by thanking some people, my family (especially my Mom), my friends, and my leaders and anyone who has been a mentor or teacher or example to me my whole life in dealing with my shenanigans. It is pretty amazing how I got here, throughout my time as an Aaronic Priesthood holder I have had many challenging experiences to build my Faith and Testimony in the Gospel to facilitate building me into the person I am today helping me through my journey with the Priesthood and through the Temple and now when I need it on my Mission. A big part that helped me, especially through my teenage years were the Missionaries.
I was born into the LDS church so I do not have a miraculous story about the Missionaries knocking on my door to teach my family the Gospel, my conversion story came about a lot more differently than that. I applaud the converts for being able to stay active in this weird and wonderful religion. I do not fully understand the immense faith that you show through coming to this church but I am so glad you took that leap and are here with us, or wherever the converts are. My closest interaction with the Missionaries and investigators were when I had just turned 16. Most of the Mormon youth are excited to turn 16 to date, however I was excited to turn 16 for a separate reason. Having always been a fairly tall kid I have memories of being asked to go on splits with the Elders and drive them places as a 13 year old Deacon, only to disappoint them by revealing my age. When I turned 16 I was excited to go, and even more excited when the Missionaries sent me a text to help them with a lesson! Granted I didn't know what I was getting into, and looking back I wish I had been a little more prepared.
Elder Lilya and Elder Erickson were awesome, I saw them every Sunday and even some Wednesdays during mutual and they were always so happy to see me so I was pretty excited when I met them at the door and we got invited inside. I do not remember the details of the first time I helped with this family but I do remember being nervous of saying the wrong thing so I was mostly quiet unless one of the Elders asked for me to interject when I cautiously thought of any Primary answer that would fit into the context, but the more I went to help this family the more I interjected and sounded better and was filled with the Spirit. Eventually I was talking about as much as the Elders, and even though I was maybe a little judgy at first of their tea drinking habits I learned to love these people. This is the first time I truly knew to use the Spirit and what it felt like, I sure liked it. After a while I'm ashamed to admit I lost contact with the family because they moved boundary lines and moved back into but I also moved boundary because of my ward getting dissolved, that's only part of my excuse. But I saw him [Juan, a young man from this family] at the YSA Ward a couple of months back and I was so excited that not only had he been baptized but that he was still active nearly 2 years after I had first met him. I was so relieved I nearly cried. This was my first taste of true Christ-like love and Missionary work.
The other big change in my life in the past couple of years came in a drastically different way and had to do with the Plan of Salvation. Missionaries are called of God to bring people unto Christ and to help families be together forever. I now know this is the single most greatest act of service and charity that we can do. Over the summer I was invited to an Aaronic Priesthood camp in Flagstaff, Arizona by my aunt and uncle. It was a wonderful time where we did activities to invite the Spirit and learn more about Doctrine and Principles, I especially learned to honor my Priesthood and it was this experience that helped me a lot in preparing for the Melchizedek Priesthood and for the Temple, and it probably won't hurt me on my mission either. What I didn't realize at the time was how important it would be the day after I left the camp. The last day of camp we had a testimony meeting where I got up and shared my gratitude for the camp and my love for the Savior and His Atonement. Then we had pizza and wings then headed down the mountain to the Phoenix area to see the rest of my cousins and spend some time with them. We went to the pool and played ping pong and had an awesome time. So much so that I had almost forgotten my phone and everything that was going on back here. I plugged in my phone and checked it, but I was not ready for the news I got. I checked my group chat with my friends to see how they had been doing when I read some disturbing news. There was a lot of worry about my friend Donte, apparently there were fire trucks in his front yard, but no one would tell me what was wrong. Donte was one of the best kids I knew, a little loud and annoying, but with the kindest heart, and holy crap he was equally popular as athletes, basically if you went to LCHS or knew anyone there 99/100 people knew Donte. When I finally got a straight answer about what happened I couldn't believe it, my first thought was that his house caught on fire, but that wasn't it. My friend told me that Donte, my friend and this wonderful kid that brought so much joy and laughter to so many people had committed suicide. I cried. I wanted to be sad, I wanted to be heartbroken, and mostly I was. But there was a little thought in the back of my mind, immediately I knew what it was, the Comforter, the Spirit comforting me. But I did not want to be comforted, I wanted to mourn the loss of one of my best friends. I finally prayed for comfort, I prayed for comfort for not only myself but also for my friends who didn't have the Gospel, but especially for his family. I remembered a Sunday School teacher when I was younger that would tie every lesson to the Plan of Salvation. This got pretty tiresome after a while and I didn't like it at the time, I probably still wouldn't, but right then I was glad that was burned into my memory. I was so happy for the love of my Heavenly Father and for the chance to go to that Priesthood Camp, because who knows how I would have reacted without having the Spirit. I am sorry if I cried during this, I do not like crying but probably just leaving my mom and my home for 2 years might be getting to me, I usually only cry when the dog dies in the movies. But I know that this Church is true, the Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God, I have seen the blessings not only in my life but in the lives of others and I desire to bring that joy into every life I can. I say these things in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, Amen.
My name is Nathan, soon to be Elder. I got my call a little more than 2 months ago to the Washington-Vancouver Mission, I report to the Missionary Training Center in 3 days on the 20th! Before I begin the meat of my talk, I'd like to show my gratitude by thanking some people, my family (especially my Mom), my friends, and my leaders and anyone who has been a mentor or teacher or example to me my whole life in dealing with my shenanigans. It is pretty amazing how I got here, throughout my time as an Aaronic Priesthood holder I have had many challenging experiences to build my Faith and Testimony in the Gospel to facilitate building me into the person I am today helping me through my journey with the Priesthood and through the Temple and now when I need it on my Mission. A big part that helped me, especially through my teenage years were the Missionaries.
I was born into the LDS church so I do not have a miraculous story about the Missionaries knocking on my door to teach my family the Gospel, my conversion story came about a lot more differently than that. I applaud the converts for being able to stay active in this weird and wonderful religion. I do not fully understand the immense faith that you show through coming to this church but I am so glad you took that leap and are here with us, or wherever the converts are. My closest interaction with the Missionaries and investigators were when I had just turned 16. Most of the Mormon youth are excited to turn 16 to date, however I was excited to turn 16 for a separate reason. Having always been a fairly tall kid I have memories of being asked to go on splits with the Elders and drive them places as a 13 year old Deacon, only to disappoint them by revealing my age. When I turned 16 I was excited to go, and even more excited when the Missionaries sent me a text to help them with a lesson! Granted I didn't know what I was getting into, and looking back I wish I had been a little more prepared.
Elder Lilya and Elder Erickson were awesome, I saw them every Sunday and even some Wednesdays during mutual and they were always so happy to see me so I was pretty excited when I met them at the door and we got invited inside. I do not remember the details of the first time I helped with this family but I do remember being nervous of saying the wrong thing so I was mostly quiet unless one of the Elders asked for me to interject when I cautiously thought of any Primary answer that would fit into the context, but the more I went to help this family the more I interjected and sounded better and was filled with the Spirit. Eventually I was talking about as much as the Elders, and even though I was maybe a little judgy at first of their tea drinking habits I learned to love these people. This is the first time I truly knew to use the Spirit and what it felt like, I sure liked it. After a while I'm ashamed to admit I lost contact with the family because they moved boundary lines and moved back into but I also moved boundary because of my ward getting dissolved, that's only part of my excuse. But I saw him [Juan, a young man from this family] at the YSA Ward a couple of months back and I was so excited that not only had he been baptized but that he was still active nearly 2 years after I had first met him. I was so relieved I nearly cried. This was my first taste of true Christ-like love and Missionary work.
The other big change in my life in the past couple of years came in a drastically different way and had to do with the Plan of Salvation. Missionaries are called of God to bring people unto Christ and to help families be together forever. I now know this is the single most greatest act of service and charity that we can do. Over the summer I was invited to an Aaronic Priesthood camp in Flagstaff, Arizona by my aunt and uncle. It was a wonderful time where we did activities to invite the Spirit and learn more about Doctrine and Principles, I especially learned to honor my Priesthood and it was this experience that helped me a lot in preparing for the Melchizedek Priesthood and for the Temple, and it probably won't hurt me on my mission either. What I didn't realize at the time was how important it would be the day after I left the camp. The last day of camp we had a testimony meeting where I got up and shared my gratitude for the camp and my love for the Savior and His Atonement. Then we had pizza and wings then headed down the mountain to the Phoenix area to see the rest of my cousins and spend some time with them. We went to the pool and played ping pong and had an awesome time. So much so that I had almost forgotten my phone and everything that was going on back here. I plugged in my phone and checked it, but I was not ready for the news I got. I checked my group chat with my friends to see how they had been doing when I read some disturbing news. There was a lot of worry about my friend Donte, apparently there were fire trucks in his front yard, but no one would tell me what was wrong. Donte was one of the best kids I knew, a little loud and annoying, but with the kindest heart, and holy crap he was equally popular as athletes, basically if you went to LCHS or knew anyone there 99/100 people knew Donte. When I finally got a straight answer about what happened I couldn't believe it, my first thought was that his house caught on fire, but that wasn't it. My friend told me that Donte, my friend and this wonderful kid that brought so much joy and laughter to so many people had committed suicide. I cried. I wanted to be sad, I wanted to be heartbroken, and mostly I was. But there was a little thought in the back of my mind, immediately I knew what it was, the Comforter, the Spirit comforting me. But I did not want to be comforted, I wanted to mourn the loss of one of my best friends. I finally prayed for comfort, I prayed for comfort for not only myself but also for my friends who didn't have the Gospel, but especially for his family. I remembered a Sunday School teacher when I was younger that would tie every lesson to the Plan of Salvation. This got pretty tiresome after a while and I didn't like it at the time, I probably still wouldn't, but right then I was glad that was burned into my memory. I was so happy for the love of my Heavenly Father and for the chance to go to that Priesthood Camp, because who knows how I would have reacted without having the Spirit. I am sorry if I cried during this, I do not like crying but probably just leaving my mom and my home for 2 years might be getting to me, I usually only cry when the dog dies in the movies. But I know that this Church is true, the Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God, I have seen the blessings not only in my life but in the lives of others and I desire to bring that joy into every life I can. I say these things in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, Amen.
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