That song (Where Love Is) is very special to my dad’s family because it was kind
of their family song growing up. It was sung at my grandma's funeral and it was
neat to see all of my aunts and uncles sing it, and I thought it would be neat
to have it sung again. Plus I think it goes along with the missionary theme because
love comes first in everything as a missionary.
I wanted to first begin by saying how excited I am to serve a
mission. I've always wanted to be a missionary since I was a little kid. I am
excited to wear the badge. I am excited to proclaim that Jesus is the
Christ, our Savior, and through his suffering and dying on the cross, otherwise
known as the atonement, all things can come to pass, even our returning to
our Father. I have gained this testimony throughout my teenage years. My first
year of seminary we studied the New Testament, and reading through it, I had found
something dear to me, my Savior's love. It makes me grateful for my wonderful
parents who have taught me well and have given me the foundation to then find out
for myself if what they taught was true. I know what Nephi means when he says
he was “born of goodly parents”.
To say the least a mission means a lot to me. It's something I'm
taking very seriously.
With all of this said I was tempted to not show up today. Really I
was reluctant to give this talk. I haven't done anything yet. What if I'm not
adequate enough, what if I don't know enough, what if I'm not mature enough,
what if I fail? My insecurities have been attacked severely in these past
couple of months. Lots of sleepless nights, and plenty of emotional High stress
days.
*serious*
But I have realized that this talk is probably more for me then
for you.
It has sometimes made me wish that I didn't care this much about
my mission.
But, this isn't the first time that I have gone through this.
Probably not as big of a deal as this, but there had to be a place to start. In
hindsight my childhood and into my teenage years have been nothing but proof of
what the Savior wants of me and his plans for me. Especially these last two
years, the Lord's hand has been everywhere in my life. I have seen how if I
live my life the way he wants me to opportunity and peace are given. The
primary source of this is through my Patriarchal Blessing. My Patriarchal Blessing
is what has helped me through the rough times of my teenage years and is what
has given me the image of the person that I want to be, along with guiding me
throughout my life.
I remember the day that I got my Patriarchal Blessing. My
grandparents and parents came with me to receive it. I remember when our Patriarch put his hands on my head and began talking, it was like the spirit
had just dropped an anvil upon me. There have been fewer times of when I have
felt the spirit as strongly as that. My blessing mentions a lot about my
mission, it talks about how if I work hard and really LOVE the people that
Angels will walk with me and that the people will hear me.
One of the biggest ways that my blessing shows the Lord's hand in
my life is about the timing of my mission. Basically what it implies is that
you focus hard on your mission and then when you get back you will be guided in
what you want to do. At the beginning of my senior year My parents were
making me focus on college, they asked the questions where do you want to go,
what schools are you going to apply too, which well isn't a bad thing but when
they asked me these questions it stressed me out, it didn't feel like the right
thing for me to be focusing on. Every time they would bring it up I would feel
uncomfortable. I knew that it wasn't right for me to do and I tried to convince
them but they wouldn't listen. It just had felt wrong to me and I knew what my
blessing had said. Finally my parents read my blessing and realized like an epiphany
that my blessing addressed this issue and that I was right about not needing to
focus on college until after my mission. After that everything just started
falling into place. We knew I was going to go on a mission right out of high
school. Once they had realized this we were on the same page and then
everything had just started to fall into place with both preparations for my
mission and school, the hand of the lord was evident. This was undoubtedly the
Lord showing his plans for me.
After realizing this I started to see how these last two years
have been preparing me for my mission. There was a couple of months where I
would have five church meetings every Sunday. I was thrown into leadership
positions all across the board, whether it be school, basketball, Priest Quorum
etc. I also have learned what it feels like to have a full day everyday for an
extended period of time.
I have mentioned love and it's importance in regards to missionary
work. There is a great poem about this that i want to share with you, it also
happens to be my dads favorite poem. It goes like this:
Abou Ben Adhem may his tribe increase
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold --
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the Presence in the room he said
What writest thou? -- the vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord
Answered “The names of those who love the lord”
“And is mine one? Said Abou. “Nay not so.”
Replied the Angel, Abou spoke more low,
But cheerily still, and said “I pray thee, then
Write me as one that loves his fellow men.”
The Angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had
Blessed,
And lo! Adhem’s name led all the rest.
President Lewis who you have already seen on the stand today, has
helped me understand this fully. President Lewis has brought our Priest Quorum close together. He has helped us create a brotherhood that I will always
remember and cherish. He got us together as a quorum 30 minutes before every
mutual activity, and we would go visit less active boys in the ward to check up
on them, tell them that we care about them, to fellowship them and to love them
as the Savior would. This has taught me a lot about missionary work and the
love of our Savior. I truly believe that President Lewis is a blessing from God
to our Priest Quorum, he has done amazing work.
I have talked a lot about hard times and having to get through
them. This last year has been the most challenging for my family. I'm not
saying that to be woe is me or to say our lives are sad, that is just the way
it was this last year. It was non stop stress and tensions were high. Without
the Lord's help we definitely would not have made it through it. 2 Nephi
31:20 says..
20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in
Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.
Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and
endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.
This explains that having a steadfast faith in Christ and having a
perfect hope that things will be ok as well as a LOVE of God and all men, we
shall have eternal life if we endure to the end. My family has applied this
scripture to our lives in the last year deeply.
Bush Family, this scripture reminds me of the story of our beloved Patience and the way she lived at the end of her life. She was the perfect
example of this as she battled through cancer. She is truly one of my greatest
Heroes.
All of these things give me comfort that when the mission gets
hard, and it will get hard, Spanish alone will make it hard, but it gives me
comfort to know that the Lord is on my side and will help me through even the
most hardest struggles.
In my first missionary interview with Bishop he told me that a
purpose of missionary work is to get people to the temple to receive their
temple ordinances. I have only just learned the importance of the temple when
I had received my endowments a month ago. That ordinance is very sacred but it
is so important and necessary for our salvation, as well as being sealed to our
families forever.
I love going to the temple, it has allowed me to take a step out
of this terrible world and to be able to just go and feel the holy comforter.
Like I have said I have been struggling.
So the temple has been my escape. The first week that I was
endowed I went to the temple everyday. I love it there. This last week I had a
very special experience in the temple. I had gone to the Provo City center
temple with one of my friends. We ended up having to wait an hour for the next
session. Which I was fine with because it is a really neat temple, and I had
only a few chapters in the Book of Mormon left so I got to finish it. So as we
sat in the chapel and I had just finished the Book of Mormon I began to sit
there and ponder. You see I have been praying a lot recently to Father to be
able to overwhelmingly feel the spirit because I have been having a really hard
time and needed some extra comfort. So here I was and all of a sudden the
greatest feeling of peace had come over me and I had this feeling that just
told me, Hayden you will be ok, you are going to go on your mission and have an
awesome experience as long as you work hard. This is just a minor
blessing of the temple which shows how important the temple is. Being sealed to
our family's forever allowing us to reach exaltation is what the temple allows
us to do, and it is not a wonder why the temple is the a reason for
missionaries to to what they are doing.
In closing I want to give a very sincere thank you from the bottom
of my heart. I want to thank my friends and their families for always
supporting me and being their for me and for putting up with such a weird kid.
I want to thank all of my youth leaders and all of those who have
taught me and given me a good person to look up to. You have no idea what
kind of impact you have on us young teenagers.
I want to thank my extended family, you guys are the best and have
always shown me love it really has meant a lot to me
I want it to thank Bishop and his family for their great sacrifice
to serve us all. Bishop there is no one else that I would rather have send me
out on a mission than you.
Lastly I wanted to thank my brothers and my parents.
Austen, Dillon I'm going to miss you.
Mom Dad I'm gonna miss you too, thank you for everything, truly you
guys are the best parents. I Love you guys.
I hope the people of Queretaro Mexico are ready for me.
All these things that I have said I say in the name of Jesus
Christ our savior
Amen.
