Seek Ye This Jesus
Good morning brothers and sisters! It truly is a privilege to speak to you all today! Ya know, after 2 years of serving a full-time mission, I was saying to myself something along the lines of, “Giving my homecoming talk will be so easy! I have 2 years full of life-changing experiences, stories, and fun. What could be so hard?” With that mentality in mind, I sat down to write my talk aaaaaaaand, nothing. Not one single thought came to mind. Fortunately, the Bishop gave me the topic of “Whatever you want,” so that was a big help. After giving it a lot of thought, I realized that I didn’t want to just tell stories about how amazing my mission was, and it was, but I wanted to talk about how my experiences in the mission field genuinely changed my life. In doing so I hope the Spirit will touch each of you as well.
With that in mind, I started thinking. Scary, I know. But as I was thinking, there was this recurring thought that came to mind. Just one word. Seek. The definition of seek is “to desire, and search for something.” To me personally it means to search with great effort, with diligence, and more importantly, with my heart. Now with my child-like mentality, anytime I hear the word “seek”, I can’t help but think of pirates and treasure. And no, I am not going to talk about pirates today. Although that would have been pretty awesome.
But as I thought of treasure, I remembered the scripture in 3 Nephi 13, verse 21, which says “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” So, the question really comes down to, what treasure are we seeking? Where do we put our hearts? Our jobs? Popularity? Our phones? Money? You can buy anything in this world with money, right? I’m not saying that these things are bad. It's good to work hard for what we want. But should we really be seeking them? Or are there more heavenly treasures that we can seek in our lives?
If we continue towards the end of 3 Nephi 13, we read what God wants us to treasure, as well as what He wants us to seek. We read in verse 33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” To me this means that before all other things, we must seek the treasures of heaven first. Then God in His time will bless us with all other things we need in our lives.
Jesus also taught us in His own words saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” In other words, the treasure God wants us to seek is His kingdom. And as we just learned, to seek the kingdom, we must seek Jesus. So today I would like to talk about some treasures I discovered on my mission about seeking Jesus.
Work/Sacrifice
The first treasure I discovered to help me seek Jesus is work and sacrifice. Something that greatly affected me on my mission was a question I was asked by another missionary shortly after I began serving in Panama. The question was, “What do you want to be able to say to God about your mission?” This resonated with something I remembered from Preach My Gospel, which reads:
“I have often said one of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work! If a missionary works, he will get the Spirit; if he gets the Spirit, he will teach by the Spirit; and if he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people; and he will be happy…. Work, work, work–there is no satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary work.”
While I did not have an answer to the missionary’s question at the time, I accepted the challenge in Preach My Gospel to work and made this my missionary slogan “Work, Work, Work.” As I worked to share the gospel and baptize, I felt an increase of the Spirit and eventually was led to my answer in Omni 1:26 which says, “And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.”
I realized that I wanted to offer my whole soul to God. That I wanted to give everything I could on my mission. As I tried to work in this way I began to grow a stronger testimony of the gathering of Israel, of which I was a part. I knew that serving a mission would not help me memorize all the scriptures or understand all the doctrines of the Church, but when I stand before God on that great day of judgment, I can tell Him that as a missionary I was tireless and relentless in teaching the gospel and baptizing in the name of Jesus Christ. That is why Doctrine and Covenants Section 4 declares, “Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day. Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work.”
Work is one of the understated eternal principles of the Gospel. God’s plan of redemption of the gathering of Israel and perfecting of the saints does not happen without work. It is by work that we demonstrate our faith. It is this work where we begin to obtain the attributes of Christ to be His hands, feet, mouth in serving others. The people of Panama know of my love for them, not only by my words but because of the work I did to serve them. I love my people in Panama and will always pray for them.
I can truly say that this principle of work became the foundation of my mission. It's how I could serve and love others. It's how I could stay focused. I not only felt his love, but I experienced His love as I served others in His name.
Gratitude
The second treasure I found is gratitude. As many of you know, a mission is not always sunshine and rainbows, whether it be rejection, sickness, companions, the list can go on for quite a while. There are a lot of hardships!
My second area I served in was a place called San Felix. A place I like to call, “Mountain Land.” When I was called to serve there, many missionaries commented things to me like, “San Felix!? Ha! Good luck!” or “Have fun being banished!” or they would tell me that the area was completely dead, with no work to do, and that the living conditions were terrible. In other words, people were telling me that it was one of the worst areas in the mission.
Now I’ll admit, when I got to the area things were looking pretty rough. I had a really difficult companion. Our house was extremely small and hot. Half the time we didn’t have electricity. We lived about 2 hours from the nearest city. We didn’t have a kitchen. We were serving in a group in which we were in charge of literally EVERYTHING. We had to hike 1.5 miles up a steep mountain to go ministering to members. Oh, and to top it all off, we didn’t have any water. Talk about being tossed into the fire, right?
Looking at the situation I decided that I wasn’t going to let myself get down. I was determined to have a positive attitude, work hard and trust in the Lord! Yes, the work was extremely hard. Yes, the living conditions were horrible. Yes, climbing a mountain, in church clothes, is tiring! But my attitude also made it really fun!
Dieter F. Uchtdorf in the April 2014 conference said, “It might sound contrary to the wisdom of the world to suggest that one who is burdened with sorrow should give thanks to God. But those who set aside the bottle of bitterness and lift instead the goblet of gratitude can find a purifying drink of healing, peace, and understanding.”
I truly began to see this in my life. Even though things were hard, every night I began to say prayers of gratitude. Prayers that were specifically focused on all the things I was grateful for that day. As I began to do this, I noticed a shift in my life. I started to be a lot happier. I started to recognize and see all the small ways that God was in my life each day. I felt peace. I felt a greater understanding of why I was in that area, and how I could grow as a person.
Really, in life, we have 2 ways to look at situations - obstacles or opportunities. Many times, we sit there saying, “Why me? Why this? Why that?” I am beyond guilty of that! Just ask my mom, it happens every time she asks me to do the dishes. But what we really should be saying, and this is from the opportunity perspective, is, “Thank you God for this chance. Thank you for loving me enough to push me. What do you want me to learn from this?”
Our gratitude and our happiness are tied together! We can’t have one without the other. Our gratitude inspires us to be better. To do more. We then can show our gratitude not just by our words, but by the very way we live. We can shape our lives through gratitude.
Having gratitude helped me to work harder. It helped me to have more hope in the work as well! After a bit of time, the area began to have more success! Eventually, by a miracle, a part member family was reactivated, which resulted in the daughter being baptized 3 weeks later. After almost an entire year, there was finally a baptism in the area of San Felix. An area that was considered to be dead and impossible was suddenly filled with more hope and miracles.
I continued throughout my mission to give prayers of gratitude. And I can truly say that it is how I found peace in times of storms. It's how I could find happiness in hardship. How I could find the opportunities in the obstacles. But what I really came to understand more and feel more appreciation for is the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Elder Dale G. Renlund once said, “I can emphatically state that because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, ultimately, in the eternal scheme of things, there will be no unfairness. ‘All that is unfair about life can be made right’. Our present circumstances may not change, but through God’s compassion, kindness, and love, we will all receive more than we deserve, more than we can ever earn, and more than we can ever hope for.”
Life is hard. Sometimes it seems unfair. But in the end, Christ makes it all ok. Men are, that they might have joy. And we can find this joy through our gratitude. We can find Jesus through our gratitude.
Miracles
The third treasure I found to seek Jesus is through miracles. In Mormon 9:19 we read, “And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so, he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God and is a God of miracles.”
I know that God is a God of miracles. That means that when we see miracles, we are seeing the hand of God. Whether the miracle be big or small, it doesn’t matter. However, many times we only look for the big miracles, and we fail to recognize the little miracles right before our eyes. As we look for the little miracles in our lives, we are really seeking Jesus.
I love the story of the people of Israel in the wilderness. Every single day a type of food called manna was provided for them. Every single day, with the sabbath as an exception, for 40 years. I'm sure that after 40 years this incredible miracle must have become normal or common to the Israelites. Yet, it was a daily reminder, a daily miracle, that helped the people recognize God's hand in their lives!
Think about our own lives! Our own daily miracles. The sun shines on all of us! We can live and have experiences. The miracle isn’t that Jesus healed the withered hand, but that we even have a hand! In fact, the greatest daily miracle we have is Jesus Christ himself!
Ether 12 verse 6 and verse 12 state, “And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that 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.
For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith.”
We all need, and hope for miracles. But just like all the amazing stories we read in the Book of Mormon, before the miracle, there is always a trial of faith. For God can’t do any miracle until after our faith. In fact, many times in the Book of Mormon they suffered before great miracles came.
While I was serving in Penonome, there was a part member family. The wife and kids were very active in the church, but the husband was not a member. His wife and the missionaries had tried for many years to teach and convert him, but every time he had some reason or excuse not to be baptized.
One day my companion and I were at our district council when we got a call. The wife was panicking, and she was asking us to go to their house immediately. So, we quickly went over to the house, and she explained the situation to us. Years ago, her husband had taken a medication that turned out to be toxic, and now his stomach and his insides were getting all knotted and messed up. The doctors had told him in the past that there was no cure. After explaining to us the situation, the husband asked us for a priesthood blessing. We gave the blessing, and he left immediately for the hospital.
A week later we got a text from the wife. The husband was completely healed! By a miracle, the doctors were able to figure out a solution! All the problems he had for the past 10 years were suddenly over. The wife then texted us saying, and I quote, “My husband was very grateful for your blessing. He told me that it was something really special. That from the moment you placed your hands on his head he felt a feeling of peace. And he wants you to baptize him on Thursday.”
This miracle only occurred because of the faith of everyone in the room that day. As I said before, there is always a trial before the miracle. Just like there is always rain before the rainbow. But our trials allow us to use our faith! And our trials of faith allow us to see miracles! And when we see miracles, we see Jesus.
I always loved saying to missionaries, “Pray for miracles, expect miracles, and work for miracles.” When we seek miracles, big or small, we truly are seeking Jesus in our lives. And we truly will see Him.
Prayer/Fasting
The last treasure I found was prayer and fasting. To illustrate to you this treasure, I would like to share an experience that has greatly changed my life forever.
It began when I was transferred to a place called Las 30. A place I like to call Banana Land. It was an agricultural area surrounded by banana fields. There were a total of 2 streets, and everyone either worked picking bananas or packaging them. Bananeros. The people there were indigenous to Panama and were known as Ngobes. I called them Mountain People
These people were nothing like the people in the cities. They were some of the strongest people I have ever seen. They worked hard, they could walk for miles on end, but they were slow in every aspect. There was no urgency to anything they did. In fact, we would ask them a simple question like, “what is your name?”, and very commonly we would not get an answer for several minutes, and after several attempts. They kind of reminded me of the Ents, or the talking trees, in Lord of the Rings. Normal conversations were pretty much out of the question.
In fact, one time I asked a Ngobe if she liked to read. And she told me she did. So I asked her if she would read a pamphlet that I had. She agreed, took the pamphlet, and opened it up. At this point I thought she was going to start reading it, but instead she started sniffing it! It looked as if she was reading through her nose! To this day I still have no idea if she can read, because we were laughing so hard we had to walk away.
The situation we were in was very difficult. The people weren’t very receptive. We were with a group, which didn’t have any records and technically did not exist as a membership group. My companion and I tried everything, but working hard didn’t seem to have much effect. We tried normal fasting and prayer, but again were unsuccessful.
We felt that we had given everything we had, but we became desperate. We began to feel that the Lord was requiring something more of us. It was then that my companion suggested to me that we do what is called a 40 day fast.
This began with a normal fast from food and water to allow the Spirit to tell us what we should abstain from. Giving up the things the Spirit directed became our 40 day fast. Some things seemed obvious like always kneeling when I pray, or not talking about Pday during the week. Other things weren’t so obvious such as not giving fist bumps. As strange as that sounds, the not so obvious things were the hardest to keep! But they also became the greatest reminder of my promise to God to keep my 40 day fast. I often remembered the story of Abraham when he was asked to sacrifice his son. He didn’t know why he had to sacrifice his son, but he was completely obedient. I guess if God had asked me to sacrifice my companion, I would have thought twice, but obedience to not fist bumping seemed like a simple thing.
Each day of the 40 day fast began and ended with prayer, both to ask for strength, and to give accountability to the Lord. I noticed that my prayers began to be more meaningful, and with greater purpose. I also started feeling closer to the Savior.
By the end of the fast, we saw a change in the area that we almost couldn’t believe… the monkeys sang in key, the sun wasn’t as hot, and the bananas smelled more bananier. But seriously, our hearts, as well as the hearts of my people had changed.
The people didn’t talk or move any faster, but they were more receptive to our message. The members started being active and even began to pay tithing. Over the next 2 transfers that area saw 11 baptisms. The Lord had changed the whole feeling and spirit of the area. It wasn’t just me looking through rose-colored glasses, you could feel and see the change in the people.
As much as the area changed, the greatest change that took place was in me. I learned how little changes in the way I fast and pray keep me from being a spiritual Ngobe. I found the Savior through fasting and prayer.
Conclusion
In the end, my 2 years of service wasn’t just to help others come unto Christ. It was me seeking Christ in my life. It was me striving to become like Him. After all, the greatest treasure there is is to come to know and be like our Savior. It is the greatest joy we can ever have in life. I just want to finish with an invitation. The same invitation that Moroni gave to us in Ether 12 verse 41, we read, “And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen.”
Seek ye this Jesus!! Find your own treasures that will lead you to him. For He has promised us, seek, and ye shall find. — Final Testimony
