Friday, January 10, 2014

Come Unto Christ

When I gave my talk in Sacrament Meeting a few weeks ago, this is about how it went.

Good afternoon brothers and sisters. I am so excited that I get to speak to you after my companions. Earlier when we were preparing for our talks, Sis. Slater had said "Ok, this is how it's going to work, I will speak for 5 minutes, Taualii will speak for 7 and Adair you will speak for 25. Sound good?" I thought they were kidding. No, I really am happy to speak after them and their wonderful words about the savior and inviting Him more fully into our lives. I am also happy that we sang Count Your Blessings right before I got up to speak because it invites us to count our blessings on an individual basis. The Savior always looks out for 'the one.' He is always seeking after 'the one' and 'the one' means so much to him. In that way I'd like to start my talk as Elder Packer once did. He began by saying "I asked the chruch records department to tell me how many college age youth we have in the church. They responded "1,974,001" 'Good' I thought, 'I will speak to the one." That is my wish as well, to speak to the one. It's also much less intimidating that way. I pray that I will be led in my words and that they will find the one.

Today I wanted to speak on my favorite subject which is Jesus Christ. More specifically I wanted to speak about how we can come to know him. Coming to know the Savior is important because when we do that we can better understand the Atonement and when we understand the Atonement we can better use it in our lives. As Elder Packer once stated in a diferent address, "Our Salvation depends on believing in and accepting the atonement."

My favorite sport is rock climbing and I wanted to use it as a way to illustrate how we can come to better know the Savior. My brother and I would go rock climbing pretty much every weekend. We would wake up early and gather our equipment. We made sure that we had the rope, harnesses, caribeeners and belay devices that we would need. Then we would hike up the canyon, get to our desired climb for the day and set up. It was typical for us to climb for 4-5 hours. Inevitably the next day I would be so sore. I would be moving like a zombie and my little sister thought it was hilarious to poke my arm then run away because I was in so much pain and couldn't even chase her. This happened pretty much every week.

In Rock Climbing we need tools such as a rope, a harness, a belay device and carabeeners. In our lives we have also been given tools. We have prayer, scripture study, temple attendence, taking the sacrament, going to the temple and serving others. Yet all of these tools would be for nothing without the physical application and actually climbing. This is what I wish to focus on today, the physical application.

As we climb we will get sore. In life, as we climb we will feel pain, sorrow, grief, discomfort, lonliness and a plethera of other challenges and struggles. I have often heard the question asked of 'Why do we need to suffer?' and I have also asked this question in my life. I found an answer in a talk given by Elder Jeffery R. Holland in an address to missionaries. He said:
"Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?
You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.
Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.
For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.
If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass," then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.
The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life."
I know that struggling is part of life and that as we continue to climb, feeling sore will come, but we need to climb. We have been given a way to return to live with our Father in heaven again and this is by climbing through our lives. As we climb we will come closer to our Savior and he will strengthen us. Our endurence will increase and we will be able to handle and do more. We will also continue to come to harder and and harder climbs. As we go through these struggles in our lives we can more clearly than before know our savior better.
Elder Kent F. Richards of the 70 also asked the question of why do we struggle. He was in the hospital and he had just read in Alma 7:11-12.
"11.And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. 12.And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." He says of his experiences as he lay and ponder this passage. "Late one night lying in a hospital bed, this time as a patient and not as a physician, I read those verses over and over again. I pondered: “How is it done? For whom? What is required to qualify? Is it like forgiveness of sin? Do we have to earn His love and help?” As I pondered, I came to understand that during His mortal life Christ chose to experience pains and afflictions in order to understand us. Perhaps we also need to experience the depths of mortality in order to understand Him and our eternal purposes."
As I reflected on these two quotes, my mind was drawn to a time in a my life where I felt darkness and a lack of hope. It seemed to stretch on before me forever as if it would never end. I used the tools that I'd been given and it didn't seem to be helping. I was explaining this to a friend and she pointed me in this direcetion, that sometimes we struggle so that we can have a greater apprciatation and love for the Savior. As we come to the Savior we can lift ourselves out of the mire. With his divine help we can make it out of the fog of our trials. As Elder E. Patrick Kearon of 70 says: " We can’t see clearly, we feel confused, and we sense that we have moved ourselves away from the light and warmth of our Heavenly Father’s love. We forget that the pure light of the Lord awaits us, beckons us, and is only a few steps of faith away. We must recognize that we have the power and capacity to take ourselves out of the filthy air of the valley and into the bright sunlight of the peace and hope that is found only by coming to the Savior." As we strengthen our relationship with him, we allow him into our lives more. As we make him our fountadion we can not be shaken. In the book of Mormon, in the book of Helamen, the Prophet Helamen is giving councel to his sons and teaching them to rely in and on Christ. He says in Hel 5:12 "And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your bfoundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty cstorm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." I am so grateful for the Savior in my life and the ways that I've been able to come to know him better. He truly has been my foundation and my rock. I know that I can rely on Him and in His Atonement. It is this great message that we carry. As we rely in our Savior our lives are truly changed. We want those around us and those we love to feel and know the Savior. I know that he loves us and that He died for us that we may return to live with God again. I say this in his name, Amen.

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