My Farewell Talk

First of all, Happy Birthday Aunt Leslie, special thanks to you for being here. And thanks to all the rest of you for coming as well, especially those who traveled a long distance to be here. The love, support, and friendship from all of you throughout the years has been a wonderful blessing to my life.

As most of you know, I have been called to serve in the Argentina Salta mission. This is an amazing blessing for me that I never even imagined happening since two of my uncles served there. The Salta area is the northernmost mission in Argentina and it borders other countries in South America, like Bolivia, Paraguay, and Chile. Everyone I talked to has basically only talked to me about how much I am going to like the food there. Apparently, they have really good meat in Argentina.

Now for those of you who are not members of this church, a Mormon mission is kind of different than other churches missions. When a boy turns eighteen or when a girl turns nineteen and graduates high school, then they are eligible to put in the paperwork to serve a mission. After that a period of time is waited and they receive a letter in the mail, which asks them to serve somewhere. The way that this destination is decided is by one of the leading general authorities of the church looking at your application and a picture of you and a world map and praying to Heavenly Father about where would be best for you to serve. Then the missionary is sent to a MTC or Missionary Training Center for a few weeks and then they are sent into the field to share the gospel. I don’t know if you heard all that, but it sounds a little crazy. Living in a different country and speaking a language you know nothing about and preaching religion probably is not what most young adults plan on doing. But I have felt that it is important for me to go and that it is something I must do, and even though it seems hard I know that God will help me with it. As a missionary,my lifestyle will change pretty drastically. I only get to email people in other countries one day a week, except for two phone calls home to my family on Mother’s day and on Christmas. I will be limiting my media which is pretty much cutting out TV and video games and music and cell phones and other distractions. I’ll be struggling with a new language, which is not standard to all missions, but it is to mine. So I don’t really get to be a part of anyone’s life when I am gone, so all my siblings and cousins will be growing up without me around now. Marshall will probably be taller than me when I get back, but he still won’t beat me at 21. Missing out on that part of it still makes me sad, but I know that serving a mission is the right choice. Since a big part of being a missionary is setting goals, and so,the goal of my mission will be to invite others to come unto Christ and to serve and love others as Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ do because it is only through Jesus Christ and His Atonement that we can have everlasting joy.

As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we believe that through our faithfulness and obedience to God, and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, that we can have eternal life and families. We believe the Atonement to be an act which Jesus Christ performed in His time here on the earth. He paid the debt for all of our sins by bleeding from every pore, and He conquered death after His crucifixion so that we may have eternal life.  Robert D. Hales in his talk titled, The Eternal Family, stated, “The home is where we are nurtured and where we prepare ourselves for living in mortality. It is also where we prepare ourselves for death and for immortality because of our belief and understanding that there is life after death, not only for the individual but also for the family.” My home has definitely been one of growing and preparing. I am not saying that my family is perfect or anything like that, but we love each other and support each other for the most part. My mother and father have always had strong testimonies of the gospel and are frequently good examples of the principles of God. I am very thankful that I have them, even if I do not say it very y often. I am also very blessed to have a lot of family that lives in Colorado, and lots in other states too that support me. I am glad to know that we will be together through eternity.

I am very grateful for the reassurance that this doctrine can bring in times of death. I have many fond memories with my grandfather, DeForrest Orval Young, or as his children lovingly call him, Heavy D. My middle name is DeForrest, which is after him and which is also a sweet middle name. Maybe it was because of that or maybe it was because I was his first grandchild, but I frequently remember going to his house as a toddler and climbing up onto his reclining chair with him and him tilting his head back and closing his eyes and being completely at peace and saying “My Maxy”. Grandpa left the earth almost 8 years ago now due to diabetes. When he died, I was sad, and, for a few weeks, I started to really question the ideas of what was going to happen next after life. In Robert D. Hales talk, The Eternal Family, he explains, “The fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ brings great comfort in stressing times of mortality. It brings light where there is darkness and a calming influence where there is turmoil. It gives eternal hope where there is mortal despair. It is more than just beautiful doctrine. It is a reality in our lives that if we can be obedient and obtain the eternal rewards that God grants us, if we will draw nigh unto Him and embrace the eternal doctrine, we will be blessed.” It took me a lot of studying and praying to really understand the ideas at place here. It is a great comfort to me to know that there is a next life and that I will see the people that die again. And I also know that it is not easy to follow all the words of God and understand all the principles that He has, but I know that if we do that, then He will bless us.

In Moses Chapter 1, verses 7-11 it says:

7. And now, behold, this one thing I show unto thee, Moses, my son, for thou art in the world, and now I show it unto thee.

8. And it came to pass that Moses looked, and beheld the world upon which he was created; and Moses beheld the world and the ends thereof, and all the children of men which are, and which were created; of the same he greatly marveled and wondered.

9. And the presence of God withdrew from Moses, that his glory was not upon Moses; and Moses was left unto himself. And he was left unto himself, he fell unto the earth.

10. And it came to pass that it was for the space of many hours before Moses did again receive his natural strength like unto man; and he said unto himself: Now, for this cause I know that man is nothing, which thing I never had supposed.

11. But now mine own eyes have beheld God; but not my natural, but my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him.

I love this part because God shows Moses pretty much everything that He created, and that the power of God is real. So if He created all things, then He must know what he is talking about. And in the verse it makes reference to Moses seeing all mankind that are and that were created, which blows me away every time because God knows us and He knows our families.

Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, because He bled and suffered for each one of us by name and because He died for our sins, we can live with Him and our families again.