introduce myself
So I was asked to give a talk on a favorite conference talk from this last conference. Choosing favorites is hard for me. There was just so much goodness from last conference a few weeks ago. We truly are blessed to hear their council. I felt impressed to talk about sister oscarson’s talk called the needs before us and elder eyring’s talk called fear not to do good.
But I wanted to start out with telling a story that some of you may have heard before.
“There was a stuntman in the year 1858 named the great blondon and he had decided on for his next big stunt to walk across the Niagra falls on a tightrope. This is a very dangerous stunt. Well the day of the stunt rolls around and thousands are the Canadian side and thousands are on the American side. He climbs upon the rope with his pole and it takes him twenty two minutes to walk across to the Canadian side, when he gets there, they are all screaming his name and cheering. He looks at them and says “you came to a show!”, turns around and walks back another 25 minutes to the American side. When he finally arrives the americans are screaming and cheering, he looks at them and says “you came to see a show!” And then proceeds to throw his balancing pole into the water, turns to his manager and tells him to bring the wheelbarrow. After fixing the wheelbarrow onto the rope, he turns to the crowd and says, “who believes I can make it across with this wheelbarrow?” As the crowd then proceeds to shout “we believe we believe we believe”. The great blondon then calmly says, “I’m so glad you all believe, because I only need one volunteer to get in the wheelbarrow with me”. After hearing this, the crowd goes silent. Which makes the stuntman question, “I thought you believed?” This is a lot like what Christ asks of us. He asks us to get in the wheelbarrow with him. But do we believe him. The crowd believed in the stuntman, they believed in his image. But they didn’t believe him, they didn’t believe his ability. Do we just believe in Christ? Do we believe in his image? Or do we believe Christ? Do we believe him when he tells us that he has a plan? That he suffered for us? That he loves us? And if we believe what are we doing to show it? As missionaries, as members, as brothers and sisters, as children of a glorious father in heaven, what are we doing to show our love for him? Who are we converted to? Are we converted to the church, the members, the missionaries, the activities at church? Or are we converted to the Lord? This is all something we need to be striving for. You can never be too converted, never can believe Christ too much.”
Do we have the faith to get in the wheelbarrow with Christ? Our faith needs to be rooted in Christ. In President Eyring’s talk he talked a lot about faith. He talked about how we build our faith. And the thing I felt like was repeated over and over again was reading the Book of Mormon every day. We hear this a lot. But I really do promise there is so much power that comes with reading our scriptures every day. I know in my own life my faith is strengthened tremendously. I think my hardest thing is trying to not make it like a check list. My day is filled with check lists so it’s hard not to just make it something like homework. Reading our scriptures should be sacred time. Personal time with our Heavenly Father. Even if it’s in the library before we start our homework. That’s honestly where I do a lot of my scripture study. Because once I get home with my roommates I will often forget to read my scripture study.
So president eyring talked a lot about the commotion and tulmult going on in the world right now. He talked about when we have strong testimonies of Christ that fear will be turned into feelings of peace. When we have faith we can forget ourselves and our trials and go to the relief of others. The desire we have to serve others is based off our own testimonies of Jesus Christ. President eyring said “That faith, put into action, which requires selfless sacrifice, brings the change of heart that allows them to feel the love of God.” He also said “when we stand with faith upon His rock, doubt and fear are diminished; the desire to do good increases” I thought that was really cool cause I haven’t really thought about our faith relating to service that much. But it is true- when we are built upon his rock our desire to be like Christ and serve increases.
Something that I love that sister oscarson said was “But I also think that sometimes it’s easy to miss some of the greatest opportunities to serve others because we are distracted or because we are looking for ambitious ways to change the world and we don’t see that some of the most significant needs we can meet are within our own families, among our friends, in our wards, and in our communities. We are touched when we see the suffering and great needs of those halfway around the world, but we may fail to see there is a person who needs our friendship sitting right next to us in class. What good does it do to save the world if we neglect the needs of those closest to us and those whom we love the most? How much value is there in fixing the world if the people around us are falling apart and we don’t notice? Heavenly Father may have placed those who need us closest to us, knowing that we are best suited to meet their needs.” - sister oscarson
This definitely hit me hard and it is so true. I know that the people that need our service the most are the people right next to us, the people that God has put in our path. We sometimes really have no idea what our roommate or classmate are going through at a certain time. We need to have faith in promptings to help someone else. It’s like when president Nelson had the faith to go to the bedside to president Hales right after morning conference.
I’m really grateful for the faith of others who have served me and my family. The 6 months of my mission my family had a lot of trials and it was really hard not to be there with them. But I know that my faith and service helped my family more than I can understand. I am also really grateful for the people who served my family and paid attention to promptings.
Christ served others one by one. We need to be strong ourselves to help someone else. But we aren’t alone in helping others. One of my favorite scriptures that helped me a lot in my mission is d&c84:88 “Whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up”
The Lord truly does go before you face when you are on His errand. President eyring said, “Sometimes you will be the angel the Lord sends to bear others up. Sometimes you will be the one surrounded by angels who bear you up. But always you will have His Spirit to be in your heart, as you have been promised in every sacrament service. You have only to keep His commandments.” - pres eyring
I’m grateful for the angels in my life and I hope to be one to someone. I encourage all of you to do the things to build your faith because you never know when the Lord needs you to help someone else. We can ask ourselves “who needs me today?” I don’t know who said it at conference but I love this quote it says “Service is the very fiber of which an exalted life in the celestial kingdom is made.” How do we want to show our love to our Heavenly Father? I know that one of the best ways is to serve. When we are converted to Christ we will have the faith to do anything. I love what elder hales told us this conference ,“When we choose to have faith, we are prepared to stand in the presence of God”
BEAR TESTIMONY
