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I promised to make accessible the text of my address in Sacrament Meeting on August 16, 2009, so here it is. It's not exactly as delivered, I'm afraid, but the content is nearly the same.
Over two years ago, I spoke from this pulpit on five things I had learned in preparation for my mission. You probably don't remember them. That's okay. Today, I have been assigned a topic. And to demonstrate that topic, I've selected yet another list of five. I would like to mention the Five Great Changes that Happened on my Mission.
1. Desires
Among the first to change were my desires. Within 6 months of being in the field, I had the language down, and I could teach coherently. I was far, far from home, nestled in the mountains of Northern Peru. I was far from the Mission Home and my Mission President, even. My companion was likewise prepared, but we were on our own to figure out what we would do. And we wanted to do something BIG. The work was moving steadily, but slowly. We immersed ourselves fully in the work, and our desire to preach, to teach, and testify reached its peak. My greatest desire was to raise my voice before as many people as we could find.
My companion and I found a park where, when the weather permitted, a good number of parents brought their small children to play. The park was centered around a raised, cement sombrero, about the size of a minivan in diameter, and the children enjoyed climbing on it. One Sunday afternoon, my companion and I got a courageous idea. We climbed on, too. To the very top! We faced the crowd, opened our hymnbooks and sang "I am a Child of God" and took turns testifying (with as much volume as our poor little lungs could pump out) to the multitude. Next, we sang "Families Can be Together Forever" and testified likewise. That being done, we alighted from the sombrero and sought out who we would talk to. We spotted a family sitting on one of the benches. They accepted a visit in their home and gave us their address. They were all converted to the Gospel.
When the Gospel became the central focus of my life, my desires changed. At other times in my life, I might have shuddered nervously at the thought of singing and testifying to an unknown crowd. But the Lord made me want it. Our desires change when we center our lives on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
2. Attitude
The next thing to change was my attitude. My very first zone leader told me, expectantly, that I would be a leader in the mission. I spend about half my mission in leadership positions. What a humbling experience! I was in conference with my Mission President and other mission leaders every week. I had the awesome privilege of working with men of much greater faith than I. Yet the trials we faced as missionaries seemed to triple as leaders. I got less sleep than ever before, and my right ear was never so red from so many phone calls. Our Mission President asked much of us. We often felt the weight of that expectation nearly too much too bear.
Under those faith-trying circumstances, I repeated to myself the admonition found in Philippians 2:14-15: "Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world."
Whining, complaining, and making excuses are three signs of a bad attitude. I wanted to be a light in the world, to lift those around me - both investigators and missionaries. And my source of that light stemmed from a confidence that I found in the Savior and His Atonement. President Hinckley passed away when I was out about 6 months. President Eyring said of him that when discouraging challenges faced the church, President Hinckley often listened carefully and replied, "Oh, things will work out." President Eyring reminded us that this attitude stemmed from President Hinckley's unwavering faith in Christ. He knew that all things would work out, because the Savior is in control. As we come to know Christ and what He can do, our attitude becomes quite positive. President Howard W. Hunter taught, "If our lives and our faith are centered on Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, nothing can ever go permanently wrong. On the other hand, if our lives are not centered on the Savior and his teachings, no other success can ever be permanently right." Could there be a better attitude?
3. Perspective
In a third world country, I experienced life on a different scale. Much throughout my mission, I identified - often vocally to my companion - the major cultural differences between the United States and Peru. I saw people in the most destitute circumstances - poverty beyond your imagination - and yet they were happy. I thought Boy Scout camp was bad enough: and that only lasts a week!
Many things I saw and lived changed my perspective. And I learned in the scriptures that happiness is the result of a life centered on true principles. Listen to King Benjamin: "Ye should remember, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you…and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come…. And…if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God." (Mosiah 4:11-12)
I became more aware of the great blessing my family is to me - even in the moment when they were the farthest away. I saw what a joy it is to have true friends. I began to understand more completely why the Lord wants me to gain education and work. Oh, I especially changed my perspective on work. What a pleasant word that is now. The true riches of this life and of eternity take a form much more pleasant than money. And you can learn that by living on very limited budget.
Our perspective changes when we learn and live true principles. Often this only requires that we remember, as King Benjamin directed, the things we have been setting aside. It happens when we finally decide to apologize for something we did so long ago. To recognize or give thanks to someone whose influence in our lives we haven't appreciated as much as we should have. To say, "I love you," and mean it. To do whatever it is we haven't been doing. Take some time to remember each day.
4. Faith
I had a change in faith much like that of Nephi. He urged his brethren to try a third time to get the Brass Plates, reminding them that Moses had divided the Red Sea with the Lord's help. He said. "Let us go up; the Lord is able to deliver us, even as our fathers, and to destroy Laban, even as the Egyptians." (1 Nephi 4:3) I don't know if Nephi fully expected a Red-Sea-parting experience, but I believe he really didn't expect what the Lord really did require of him. In the moment of crisis, Nephi recalls, "I shrunk, and would that I might not..." (1 Nephi 4:10) It took a moment of teaching between the Lord and Nephi before he "did obey the voice of the Spirit." (1 Nephi 4:18)
I remember having the faith in word, much like Nephi. I said to myself, surely the Lord can do it, just like He did for Nephi and Moses. But when the moment of trial came, I found myself debating with the Spirit. Is this really what I have to do? But I've never done this before! Many times I shrank, as did Nephi, and needed to win that inner battle over myself before going forward with faith.
One of the great tests of my faith came towards the end of my mission. I was transferred to my last area at the beginning of May, and when I came, we sat down to set a goal for the rest of the month. Two new members had been baptized the week before, and we prayed and fasted and settled on five more - a total of seven convert baptisms for the month. Every week was a trial of faith. Things just didn't happen as we planned. The Red Sea just wasn't parting! But things just came together in totally unexpected ways. We were surprised. We seemed to end every week uncertain of who would be baptized the next. We worked at the limits of our faith all the time. I was baffled. We ended the month with a total of seven baptisms. I believe it was my companion's faith, to tell you the truth. But through the experience, my faith became unshakeable as well.
True to nature, faith grows when it's exercised at its limits. We nurture it with diligence under trials, and it expands. That doesn't mean we go looking for trials in order to strengthen our faith. We need to live right without pressure so that when the pressure comes, we don't shake, because we already have a habit of correct living.
5. Character
One of the greatest changes that occurred on my mission was a change in character. You may have heard that character is what you do when nobody is watching. As leaders in a geographically large zone, my companion and I traveled by bus two hours to a town called Huarmey, where we did baptismal interviews. It was our first trip down, and we went on a tour bus that held twice as many people as it should have. They were playing a movie, and it was quite noisy and in English. We didn't have to look at the screen to know it was highly inappropriate. We slept through it for an hour, but when the movie ended, bus administration put in what appeared to be its sequel. We had had enough. My companion and I stood up and asked if anybody else on the bus understood English. They said, "no," and expressed some complaints about the movies as well. I pulled out a Spanish copy of "The Emperor's New Groove" (that I carried for emergencies) and knocked the door to the cockpit. The man in charge grumbled a bit about having to stop the movie, but he did so and we enjoyed the rest of the ride to Huarmey.
On another instance, returning from Huarmey back to our own area, we boarded a similar bus. Fortunately, it was featuring a movie of less offensive caliber - Speed, it might have been - but we knew we shouldn't watch it. We knew that there were better things to do. We had a screen right above us. It afforded enough light to make out the words in our scriptures, so my companion and I carried out two hours of study together about topics that interested us.
Right living (without supervision) forged our character. Those moments helped us define who we would be by making our own decisions. We made the decision to do right, and in the moment of trial, we relied upon one another for strength.
President David O. McKay posed this question:
“What is the crowning glory of man in this earth so far as his individual achievement is concerned? It is character—character developed through obedience to the laws of life as revealed through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Man’s chief concern in life should not be the acquiring of gold nor fame nor material possessions. It should not be the development of physical prowess nor of intellectual strength, but his aim, the highest in life, should be the development of a Christlike character”
The Savior taught, "Therefore, I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." (3 Nephi 12:48) Perfection is synonymous with whole, complete, and finished: it means to have integrity, a sound character.
Our character is forged when we choose - even when we don't feel like it - to live the Gospel as we know it. Sometimes our decisions are tried, ridiculed, and insulted. But if we can rise above those challenges and still make the right decision, it strengthens our determination to keep on living right.
Brothers and sisters, my assigned topic was about being "born again." Being born again means to have a change of nature. Our natural desires become weak compared to our spiritual strength to resist them. I shared with you my experiences because I believe they show what changes - and how - when a person is born again. It is a process. It makes changes in our desires, attitude, perspective, faith and character. And it happens as we center our lives on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, living it under pressure, at our limits, and through our trials.
