Below is my talk. Sorry for any grammer mistakes and things, I didn't actually read this word for word, it was just written down in case I needed a reminder of what was next :)
My name is Chelsey Clark, I am from the Harbor 2nd
ward and I just returned from my mission about 1 month ago. I served in the Alpine-German speaking
mission. It is the best mission in the
world! Today I’m going to be talking about ways to prepare for a mission and I
want to start right away with what in my mind should always come first: #1: Be
excited to go on your mission! Do it
because you want to, not because you have to.
When I was 9 years old, my older sister Brittney left on her
mission. She served in the Curitiba
Brazil mission. I remember being able to
go all the way to the gate to say goodbye and watch her plane fly away. I even remember the last words she told me
before she left and they were: Chelsey.
Keep reading the scriptures every day.
She served, while I strived to read each day, and 18 months later she
came home; Different than before, but still my sister. About 6 months later, my sister Alisha
decided to also serve a mission. She
served in the Texas San Antonio Spanish speaking mission. She also served
faithfully and returned home 18 months later, different than before, but yet
still my sister.
These two experiences stayed with me for the rest of my life.
Their examples of serving the Lord made me question if one day I would serve a
mission? I often wondered, what does it mean to serve a mission? It wasn’t until 1 year before I turned 21
that I started to figure out those answers. One day I got a text from my sister
it said: So Chels... have you ever thought about serving a mission? I told her I still had a year and that I
wouldn’t have to think about that for at least a couple more months. But the next day, the thought wouldn’t leave
my mind. The reality sunk in deep that I could leave soon, and I pondered the
question: Should I go? For many months, I talked with my two sisters for hours,
asking questions, learning on a deeper level what it truly meant to serve a
mission. I was nervous to make the decision. I remember praying for months on
end for Heavenly Father to just tell me to go. Or to not go. I wasn’t receiving my answer until one day in
May, It was a Sunday, and I was reading in the Book of Mormon in Ether chapter
4: 11 It says: “For because of my spirit he shall know that these things are
true; for it persuadeth men to do good.”
That scripture couldn’t get out of my mind and as I attended church
later that day I was reminded of this quote: ‘Go out in the darkness and put
your hand in the hand of God. That shall
be to you better than light and safer than the known way.” I drove home that day from church with my
question still in mind. As I turned into our neighborhood, I saw 3 sister
missionaries walking. I started to cry
and my mind began to remind me of all those little instances where I thought my
answer to go was yes. I knew that I needed to pray differently. I decided that I needed to make a decision
and then ask if it be right. I knew that
a mission would be good, and that it would require me to trust God. Later that
night, I told Heavenly Father that I wanted to go. After that things just seemed to fall into
place, and I knew that it was what the Lord wanted me to do. I wasn’t sure where to start on preparing for
a mission. I got scared many times after I made this decision. I was unsure of
myself at times. Sometimes I would cry knowing I would be leaving my home for
18 months. But, a journal entrée that I wrote soon after I made my decision to
go always kept me going; and always rejuvenated me. I said: The more I talk
about a mission, the more excited I get.
The more I talk about it, the more real it feels. I’m starting to really feel that I need to be
preparing myself spiritually. I am so excited to go!
#2: Read the whole book of Mormon. But may I add, not just read it, But study
it. Know it. Have a testimony that it is
true. Since I the time I was small, I
had been taught in my home and at church to read in the book of Mormon. I didn’t quite “Study” it until I was a
senior in high school. It became to me
another Best friend in my life. I took it everyday to school. I read from it when I had time, I gained a
love for it like I had never experienced before. I grew to know that it was
true. I had a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and that really helped me
on my mission. I remember many times
reading the Introduction to the book of Mormon with my investigators and people
I would meet and reading in the 6th paragraph a quote by Joseph
Smith. It says: “I told the brethren
that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the
keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its
precepts, than by any other book.” People would always stop us there and say…
This is the most correct book on earth?? What about the bible? My companion and
I would always smile and bare our testimonies of the truthfulness of the Bible
and the Book of Mormon. I learned that
we couldn’t convince people to believe; we could only do our part and bear our
true testimonies of the Book of Mormon.
President Uchtdorf said: Have Faith.
The lord can magnify the words you speak and make them mighty. God
doesn’t ask you to convert, but rather to open your mouths. The task of
converting is not yours; that belongs to the person hearing and to the Holy
Ghost.” No one can tell you, you don’t believe something. They can test you and try you, but you can
stand strong knowing that you have a testimony because of that witness from the
Holy Ghost. I was also privileged to have a member of the quorum of the 70 come
to a conference near the end of my mission. He told us that every soul
searching question someone has could be answered with the Book of Mormon. But
if we don’t know it, we won’t be able to help those who are searching for those
answers. Read the book of Mormon long enough to feel the spirit, then read a
little more.”
#3: Read Preach my Gospel. Now let me just start with
saying… I was not the perfect example of this before my mission. I didn’t know what Preach my gospel said after
chapter 3. I later learned that there
are 13 chapters. I would just suggest to anyone here tonight, to pick it up and
study it like you do your scriptures.
It’s not just a book for preparing missionaries, and it’s not just for
the full time missionaries. It’s for
every member. My mission president wanted us to be a “preach my gospel
missionary”. As we studied Preach my Gospel every morning, my mission president
encouraged us to spend some time studying a specific chapter; Chapter 6. That chapter is called “How do I develop Christ
like attributes?” It not only tells us the kind of person that Christ was, but
the kind of person we should be. If we
want to be more like Jesus, we need to know Him and his characteristics and try
each day to act like He would act. In
this chapter at the beginning it tells us: “Some chapters in Preach my Gospel
focus on what you need to do as a missionary- how to study, how to teach, how
to manage time wisely. Just as vital as what you do, however, is who you are.”
That line drove me to dive into the scriptures and to learn more about my
Savior. I wanted to become like Him. And
i noticed It wasn’t easy, but my mission president suggested studying one of
the Christ like attributes every month.
And so that’s what I tried to do. Each month I picked a different
attribute to study about and to try and live more in my life. I still have a long way to go, but there is
another line that brings me hope. It says:
Learning to be like Christ is a lifelong pursuit.
#4: Go out with the missionaries. That is also something I didn’t do before my
mission. Honestly it freaked me out. I
was nervous I would say something wrong, or that I wouldn’t be very good. But
man oh man, did I wish that I would’ve gone with them once I was on my mission.
I feel like having an experience of missionary
work would’ve helped me understand exactly what I was going to do for the next
18 months of my life. There was a girl in my last ward in Salzburg that is
preparing to serve a mission. She jumped
at every opportunity to come out with my companion and I. I watched her grow and develop a greater love
for the people we were teaching and not just a love for those we taught, but I
saw how she developed a greater love for the gospel, and I saw how she
understood the gospel more and her desire to go on a mission increased.
#5: Go to your seminary classes, Missionary prep classes and
where and when
available institute. All
through the grades of 9th-12th, I loved seminary. I loved my teachers, I loved learning about
the gospel every other day at school! After I graduated from seminary and high
school I decided that I would always attend an institute class. I must admit, I
missed a few times but I do have to say, I saw a difference in how my life
went. Institute helped my testimony grow more as I studied the gospel throughout
the week and not just on Sundays. As a missionary you are bearing your
testimony many times throughout the day, in order to bear your testimony, you
must first have one. For me, I really developed my testimony by going to
seminary and institute.
#6 Go to the temple once a week. I can’t begin to tell you how much I missed
the temple when I was on my mission.
There is a term on a mission that when people are going home, sometimes
they look and act “Trunky”. Meaning they act like their bags are already packed
and they are just waiting for the day they can hit the plane and go home. Now I was never called that but my companions
and I would joke we were “trunky” for the temple. We did have a temple in my mission, but it
was located in Bern Switzerland. Because I was serving in Germany and Austria,
I never had the opportunity to attend the temple. But, I am so grateful I took
advantage of living in Utah, and having about 5 or so temples in one hour’s
distance before I left on my mission. I
remember going and doing baptisms before I received my endowment and once I
received my endowment I went as often as possible as well. The peace that the temple brings into our
lives cannot be replaced by anything else.
#7 Figure out who you are and then be that! It kind of sounds silly, but its true. The Lord knows exactly where you need to
serve. He has called, or He will call
you to exactly where you need to be. He knows your strengths, your weaknesses,
how you deal with things. He called you
to that specific mission because He knows that the person you are needs to be
there. We are each given so many talents
and strengths and He wants us to use them to the benefit of others. He knew that I needed to serve in the
Alpine-German speaking mission. He knew
my strengths and he knew my talents and He had faith in me! He knew that I
could learn German, even when I doubted myself. Not only does He send you to
that mission because of who you are, but because of who you can become. Have
faith that the Lord will put you in the path of others who need you and who you
will need. He knew that I needed President Miles to be my mission President, he
knew that I needed to be companions with the companions I was with and I know
he knew I needed to serve in Goeppingen, Germany, Vienna and Salzburg Austria. Once I knew for myself that Heavenly Father
had called me to my mission because He knew me and what I needed, and that I
should just be myself as a missionary, I loved the people more. I was more
confident in my German skills, and I had a greater desire to help others. When
I shut out the world and all its lies, I gave the spirit the chance to show me
who I truly was.
And point #8. My last point comes from part of my mission
scripture actually. It’s found in Words of Mormon 1: 7 “And I do this for a
wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the
spirit of the lord which is in me. And now I do not know all things, but the
lord knoweth all things, which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do
according to his will. “
Be willing to do the will of the Lord. As a missionary sometimes you are asked to do
things that are outside of your comfort zone.
That isn’t because Heavenly father hates you, or because He wants you to
suffer unnecessarily, but because it is another opportunity to for you to trust
God, and to show Him that you will do all that He calls you to do. It was kind
of my motto on my mission to do what ever I was asked to do. It don’t really know if I fully understood
what that meant before I left, and it sure wasn’t easy, but I learned so much
from so many experiences I had. Early on in my mission, I was called as Sister
Training leader. It was a new calling
for sisters and so my trainer and I had no idea what we were doing. All we knew was that we needed to go on exchanges
with sisters and help train them.
Because of this difficult time, I really learned what it meant to
pray. Through prayer learned what I
needed to do as a Sister Training leader for those sisters that I was over. I learned that was a divine daughter of God,
and that each and everyone of those sisters I was over, was also a Divine
daughter of God and that I had been called to love them like Christ did.
I also learned from trying my best to follow His will, that
missionary work wasn’t supposed to drag on, it wasn’t supposed to be TOO hard.
In 2 nephi chapter 2: 25 it says: Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that
they might have joy.” We are on missions and we go on missions so that we might
have joy. Elder Anderson said: This
isn’t missionary work, this is missionary fun!” With one of my companions early
on in my mission we had that quote up in our apt and we strived each day to
have fun. Good, sensible fun. We didn’t go race car driving or break any
rules, but by following the rules in our mission, and doing the will of the
Lord, we also found joy.
I don’t think there is one perfect way to prepare for a
mission. I know Heavenly Father will tell you personally how you should prepare
for your mission. These are just 8 things from my list of many of how I did
prepare and how I wished I‘d prepared for my mission better. Maybe some of the
things I shared tonight didn’t mean anything to you, but I pray that the spirit
was able to teach you what you needed to know in order to be a missionary. Even if you are not preparing to be a full
time missionary, I hope you also learned something from the spirit, for we are
all called to preach His gospel as members. We are all disciples of Jesus Christ and we
have the responsibility to share His gospel. I hope the spirit might have told
you one thing you could do in order to better share His gospel with those you
love and with those you associate with. President Uchtdorf said: “Whether we
are at the beginning or the end, whether young or old, the Lord can use us for
His purposes if we simply set aside whatever thoughts limit our ability to
serve and allow His will to shape our lives.”
I want you to know, I loved my mission, I love
the people of Germany and Austria. I am grateful the Lord told me to serve a
mission. I am grateful for the spirit. I am grateful for my family. I am grateful for their support, and I love
them all very much. I know this church
is the church of Jesus Christ. I know
that Joseph Smith restored it and I know that we still have a prophet today;
president Thomas S. Monson. We are privileged to hear from him every 6 months.
I look forward to conference in order to be taught even more. I know our
Heavenly Father loves us all so very much.
He loves you, and he loves me. I
say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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