Farewell Talk

Hello brothers and sisters. Thank you for coming today.

The topic that I’ve been asked to speak on today is “faith”.

Faith is the first principle of the Gospel. It is the first step of anything. Although obedience is the first law of Heaven, you can only be truly obedient if you first have faith.The fourth article of faith states: “We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Faith is the first step. We need faith before we can do anything else in this church. Even coming to church today was an act of faith. Taking the sacrament, another act of faith. Anytime we are acting in accordance with church standards, we are demonstrating our faith.

There are many definitions of faith. Faith is like a little seed, if planted it will grow. Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things. But really, what is faith? In the end, faith is believing that things will turn out all right. President Joseph Smith taught that faith is the power to motivate our day-to-day activities. Faith is the power to keep us moving forward when life has taken a turn for the worse. Believing that everything will turn out okay in the end is what faith is.

In the April 2003 General Conference, Richard G. Scott gave a talk called “The Sustaining Power of Faith in Times of Uncertainty and Testing”. He talked a lot about the principles that God has established for us to gather the fruits of our faith.
First we need to “trust in God and in His willingness to provide help when needed, no matter how challenging the circumstance.” I am somewhat of an absent-minded person. As long as I consciously put something down, I’ll remember where it is. Unfortunately, since I’m usually distracted by conversations with my roommates, I misplace a lot of things. One important thing that I have lost many times is my BYU student i.d. card. This is unfortunate because for my apartment, that is the key to the building and to our apartment. That thing was gone for at least 3 days! I searched everywhere. I tore apart my backpack and my bed. I cleaned my room. I refolded every piece of clothing that I own, just in case it had gotten mixed in with my laundry. I searched everywhere. And finally, what did I do? I said a prayer. I said a simple little prayer, which I probably should have done earlier, but I said “Heavenly Father, I have looked everywhere. I really need that i.d. card. I know I’ll be able to find it.” and guess what? Not within 5 min. of asking in faith, I found my i.d. card crammed in between the cushions of our couch. There have been countless answers to prayers in my life because of the faith that I have.

The second principle Elder Scott lists is to “obey [God’s] commandments and live to demonstrate that He can trust you.” God has given us commandments for a purpose. They are to make us happier and ultimately help us have greater agency. But we have to follow these commandments to receive the full benefit. If we follow the commandments through faith, we can receive many blessings. Faith is demonstrated countless times in the scriptures. Noah built the ark to save his family from the flood because he had faith.  Moses parted the waters of the Red Sea and led the children of Israel to freedom because of his faith. Every manner of miracle has come to pass through the power of faith. But these miracles were only possible because the receiver of the miracle was living a life in accordance with the principles of the Gospel.

The next principle is to “act courageously on that prompting” which we receive. Just as I felt a prompting to search the couch for my i.d. card, some promptings come softly. However, counsel from others could definitely be considered a prompt to act on our faith. Faith is doing and believing just as the blind man in John chapter 9 did when Jesus anointed his blind eyes with clay and then told him to wash them out. Jesus could have immediately healed him, but instead, he tested the man's faith by expecting him to act. The blind man acted in faith on the prompting from Christ to go wash the mud out of his eyes.

The next principle Richard G. Scott says is to “be patient and understanding when God lets you struggle to grow and answers come a piece at a time over an extended period.” When Christ went to heal Jarius’ daughter in Mark chapter 5, he said “Be not afraid, only believe.” This may have  seemed scary and impossible in this situation because there were people around, mourning her death. Being raised from the dead is an exceptional miracle, and I’m sure Jarius and his wife were able to gain a greater testimony because they had to struggle through losing their daughter.

Brigham Young once said, “God never bestows upon his people, or upon an individual, superior blessings without a severe trial to prove them.”This may seem a little scary, but it is important that we remember that Heavenly Father gives us trials because he loves us. He knows that through our trials we will grow stronger. All the woman with an issue of blood of 12 years had to do was believe that she could be healed by Christ. So she was healed by touching his robes. Even though she had struggled for many years, her pain and suffering was still taken away from her.

Moroni:said “Faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.” Many times it is through our trials that we are able to gain a greater perspective of Heavenly Father’s love for us. Elder Scott said, “Sincere faith gives understanding and strength to accept the will of our Heavenly Father when it differs from our own.”

Faith is believing in a greater purpose outside of ourselves, the “big picture” or “eternal perspective”. When my brother passed away two years ago, it was hard to have faith in anything. I did not see the big picture, and I did not understand why he had to die. But the last two years have led to so much growth in my family that would not have been able to occur had he not passed away. We are much closer to each other and appreciate the great gift of life that we have. We are able to “mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort” because we have been there and we know the feelings of loss and pain.

Abraham and Isaac both acted in faith when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son. Abraham and his wife had already struggled their entire lives to have children, so going through with sacrificing his son was a big deal. But Abraham acted in faith and brought Isaac to the altar to be sacrificed. Literally, at the last minute an angel of the Lord came and said: “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me” (Gen 22:12). Because of Abraham’s faith, he and his posterity were blessed for many generations.

In our day, it is easy to listen to the advice, counsel, and commandments of others, but if we do not act on it, then it is as if nothing has changed. If we are not acting in faith, then miracles cannot happen. It becomes true that “faith, if it hath not works, is dead” (James 2:17). By following in faith the commandments, we set ourselves up to receive many blessings from God.

We study and learn because we believe that we can obtain wisdom and knowledge. We work every day at something because we expect to accomplish something. Each day we hope for things which cannot be seen.

The Brother of Jared had such great faith that even the Lord could not hide Himself from him. The Lord said “never has man come before me with such exceeding faith as thou hast... for never has man believed in me as thou hast” (Ether 3: 9,15). It was only after the Brother of Jared had faith though that this miracle was able to come to pass. He could not receive that blessing without his faith.

Little acts of faith my whole life have led me to where I am today. Although I did not originally want to go to BYU, I prayed about my decision and did a lot of thinking. Ultimately, I knew it was my choice about where to go to school, and I acted in faith by choosing BYU since I knew it would have the best spiritual atmosphere for me. Even though I was scared and intimidated by all the people there, I had faith that if I did my best, things would turn out alright.

It's honestly a little weird that I'm giving my farewell talk. I've known since I was 15 that serving a mission was something that I really wanted to do-- I just didn't think that it would be possible. 21 seemed so far away, and I could very well be married by then, so I didn't really think about it too much. There have been a lot of acts of faith on my part leading up to me going on a mission. Acting in faith by submitting my mission papers and trusting the Lord's will was a huge step for me. I like to be in control of situations and have a long-term plan for myself, so waiting the three-and-a-half weeks for my call was nerve-wracking to say the least. Although I acted in faith and knew I had made the right decision, Satan has been there every step of the way trying to stop me. I immediately began to doubt myself while waiting for my call. Am I good enough? Am I really prepared enough? Is this the right decision to put my life on hold for 18 months? Why was I not feeling confident with my decision now when I had felt so sure submitting my papers last week?

Ultimately, I got my call and every doubt flew from my mind. I had prayed about whether or not to include my chronic poor circulation (Raynaud's) on my mission papers and hadn't felt confirmation in doing so, so I didn't. And I got called to Russia. I admit, I was shocked. Siberia. They're sending me to Siberia. Although it had never occurred to me that I would be sent there, I knew that it was the right thing to do. The more I learned about the Russians and their culture, the more at home I felt every day leading up to my report date.

The concept of going on a mission seems so easy. You live your life in accordance with the Gospel, you put in mission papers, you get your call, you report to the MTC then to the field, you work really hard, then you come home and talk about your mission for the rest of your life.

If only it was that easy.

I know I'm supposed to go on a mission. I know that there is someone very special who I am supposed to find. I have faith in that. I believe in that. I know it's true, and I know I'm going to Yekaterinburg for a specific purpose. For me, it's been easy to have faith in that.

Never in my life have I felt the adversary's power so strongly. Even though I have dedicated the last 5 months to preparing to go to Russia, it would still be easier, even after giving this farewell talk, to just not go.

But you know what? I'm doing it anyway. I have doubts, yes. But those doubts are not of God. I have faith that I will be blessed for my service to the Lord. I am excited to share the Gospel with the people of Russia. I have a long list of reasons of why it would be so much easier to just not go on a mission at this point but none of them matter because this isn't about me. This is about Him. This is about repaying my debt to the one being whose opinion matters most to me. Jesus Christ is my Savior. I am not perfect, but He was. He died so that I could live. A perfect man died so that I, an imperfect daughter of God, could live. That is the truth. That is extremely humbling.

You can't anticipate what kind of things are going to happen to you in life. You could write a billion different scenarios of how your life is going to turn out, and you would never be right. There are many aspects of life that aren't pretty and if you think about them too much, they can be overwhelmingly depressing. The only way we can overcome negativity in this life is through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the principle of faith.

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