November 11, 2018
Taz
Homecoming Talk:
I was
supposed to prepare this week, but I was a little busy. As I sat during the
sacrament hymn, I started to shed some tears. I guess it finally feels real
that I’m home and I don’t really want to be hear. NO actually, I’m excited, I’m
just kidding. I got home from my mission on Tuesday and I got released at 8:00
Tues. night. That was 5 days, 10 hours and 7 min ago and I know that there
isn’t a second that’s gone by that I haven’t thought about going back I wanted
to do that. Before my mission I was actually terrified to go, I didn’t want to
serve a mission. Today I’m going to be talking about following prophetic
principles from General Conference. I’m not really sure what that means so I’m
just going to talk about General Conference if that’s o.k.
I’ll first
say that on a mission General Conference is much better. Before your mission,
you’re not really paying attention. This past conference I learned a lot of
things but all the talks that stood out to me were all about trials and faith
and stuff. I feel like that’s the thing I learned the most on my mission is to
have faith in the Savior and to overcome trials. So I want to talk a little bit
about that today. When I started my mission, it was a lot harder than I
expected it to be and it only got harder and harder and harder, it was really
hard. There was a lot of things happening in Korea, at home with friends and
family that were hard to go through but luckily I had the best Mission
President in the world and he helped my go through it. I was about to give up
actually when I was about 3 months out and 4 months out. I was just not
enjoying my mission at all, finding no joy and no success or miracles. I told
my Mission President that I packed my bags and I am ready to go home. But luckily,
he said no and so I didn’t go home. When I was going through this hard time,
gratefully, I had some of my best friends with me that could really support me
and help me a lot, but probably one of the biggest supports was my little
sister, she was also going through a hard time and she sent me an email about a
conference talk called: God Shall Wipe Away all Tears and I read that talk and
that was kind of a turning point on my mission where I started to realize that
it’s going to be hard and it’s going to be pretty miserable, but it’s going to
be worth it and that’s when I started really growing too. As I served in Korea
we met 4 apostles and 4 seventies and they all talked to us and as I listened
to them talk I gained a testimony of their prophetic call. As I’ve applied
things I’ve learned from them, I’ve pretty much got a testimony from their
counsel and the blessings we receive from following it. The talk that stood out
most to me during General Conference to me was a talk called Wounded by Neil L
Anderson. He opened his talk about a bombing where a lot of people were killed
and there were some missionaries in the airport that got exploded and a lot of
injuries and after that they had a lot of trials with healing and things like
that. Elder Anderson posed a kind of the question of all time: Why do bad
things happen to good people? As I served in Korea that’s kind of the question
I was asked the most: Why do bad things happen to good people? Especially
because the year before I got to Korea, there was a big crash and a ship sank
killing 500 students. So lots of people wanted to know why is the world so
terrible why do bad things happen? I think Elder Anderson covered that really
well. When I was on my mission I had an experience with my less active friend
and it was probably one of the coolest experiences I’ve had. A lot of my old
companions had served in this area so when I got there, they all told me that I
needed to go visit this less active and work with him. I picked up the phone to
call him and I was typing in his name and he called me. Hello, hello, oh, are
you Jenkins friend? I must see you…if you’re Jenkins friend, then you’re my
friend. I was like ok that’s lets meet, so I met him that day 2 hours later at
McDonalds and yes there is McDonalds in Korea and it’s cheaper and it’s just as
delicious. We met in front of McDonalds and as soon as he picked us him he
immediately started with the excuses why he wasn’t going to church…he was busy,
no job, no money, no time, but the excuses got worse and worse and he just
really made me mad listening to all the excuses he had on why he couldn’t
follow God. Then started telling me
about all the hard things he’s been through and all the trials that come up ever since he joined the church
and he said If God loved me when I was going to church, he should have helped
me get a job, he should help me keep my job. He often told me during that
meeting that’s he’s much happier not going to church because his life is easier
and better. Ever since he left, his life started getting better. I really just
listened to him a lot because I really didn’t know what to say exactly. When I
listened to him for probably 2 hours just going on about how hard it is for him
and listening to all his excuses and then all of sudden I just knew what to say
and I told him that, I promised him in the name of the Savior that until he
came back to church, he’d never find a job and that until he came back to
church he’d never find a job and I told him that until he starts putting God
first in his life that he will be miserable and I promised him that. The next
Sunday, he came to church and he came 5 weeks in a row. I left the area and I
came back two weeks later and he was at Stake Conference. I guess I must have
scared him pretty bad. As soon as he came back, there was a light in his eyes.
The ward welcomed him back and he just seemed so happy. We met a couple of more
times, he really likes bread because he’s allergic to a bunch of stuff, so he
can only eat bread and he kept saying you need to come over and break bread with me. We got really
really close after that. I never got to break bread with him because the day
before I left that area he came to visit me and we were sitting in his car and
he started crying and he broke down and said I had no friends no support and I
was really lost and when you came into my life and he sat there crying for a
couple of minutes and he leaned over in the car and just hugged me for a long
time. He said you were right, as soon as I came back to church, I got my job
back and I started to be happy again my life is peaceful. He said goodbye and I
left. I thought about why did he have to fall away and learn the hard way that
maybe even though following the gospel is hard, it’s much more rewarding. I
thought about why he had to go through that hard time, what was the point of
God taking away his job and his friends and family and basically leaving him
alone for a little bit? Then I thought about by own experiences on the early
part of my mission when I felt nothing but alone and was just miserable. I
thought about the trials I’ve gone through and about what that’s done for me. I
saw the change that this man had because of his trials. And so I guess along
with Elder Nielson and a lot of the apostles that spoke at General Conference,
they all said take joy in trials and lift up your heads and be of good cheer
when times get hard. The biggest struggle on my mission was the temptation to
think that because I’m struggling God doesn’t love me. Because there were a lot
of days where I could not feel God’s love for me. I felt like he had abandoned me and during
those times it was really easy to say why is He making me do this? or Where is
He now? if He loved me, He’d help me? And finally for the first time in my life
I actually following God and giving Him all that I had and he’s gone…at least
that’s what I felt like and this period
of time lasted well over a year but luckily during that time I had some great
companions that helped me a lot. One of my companions at the time was Elder
Lydon. We were in Incheon together and that was just the worse time in my life
and we watched a video together about trials, times of trouble by Elder Holland
and he talked about this question: Why do bad things happen to good people? And
how can I be happy during trials? He first talked about the scriptures. If you
look in the scriptures there is not a single fairy tale ending in there. Either
they die or get stoned or get swallowed by a whale. There is a lot of hard
stories in the scriptures and none of them seem to have very easy lives. I
thought about all the Book of Mormon stories that I’ve come to love and how
many trials. All of it is trials. But the thing that stood out most to me is
Elder Holland talked about the Savior, talked about how hard the Saviors life
was. We might think that our lives hard, but it’s not hard at all because no
one lived a harder life than Jesus Christ. He had to be perfect every day. He
faced so much ridicule and suffered for all of us in the Garden of Gethsemane
and died for us on the cross. Jesus Christ was God’s only perfect son, the only
son that ever listened to Him, the only son that was faithful to Him. Jesus
Christ suffered more than all of us combined. I don’t know about you guys, but
I would never say that God doesn’t love Jesus Christ. That just makes no sense.
God loves Jesus Christ I knew he loves me and the prophets in the scriptures.
But I know for a fact He loves Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ suffered for all
of us. He suffered so bad that on the cross he cried out, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Jesus Christ didn’t have to be alone. He’s the only son
that was ever worthy, God never had to abandon Jesus Christ, but He did. So
that Jesus Christ could would know what we feel like when we feel alone or when
we’re struggling. After that talk, I really started to recognize the Savior
more in my life and recognize the people that he sent to me and feel the love
that he has for me. Ever since I thought about that, I’ve had more faith in the
Savior and his ability to help me and comfort me. I know that when we have hard
times and things don’t always seem to go our way the first thing we have to
hold onto is that God loves us no matter what. No matter how hard Satan tries
to convince us that God doesn’t love us, He does. In April General Conference
someone quoted President Nelson who said: when people are going through hard
times, the thing I want them to remember most is their identity. And so it’s no
wonder that when we are going through hard times that Satan would want us to
forget our identity that we are sons and daughters of God. I also know that
during hard times, we need to have faith in the Savior. We need to know that he
actually did suffer for us and he actually did die for us and he actually did
rise again for us, that that is not a fairy tale. That’s not just something
that people say to comfort themselves. That that really happened, it was a true
event. And when you know that and know those two things you can get through
anything. On my mission I saw so many Korean members had it so hard. It would
be so hard to be a member in Korea because everyone hates you. We are the
biggest cult in all of Korea and everyone hates us so bad. The members in Korea
are so strong and they are so faithful, but their lives are just so hard. I’ve
seen so many people whose spouses have left them or are disabled, or have kids
who fall astray, have family members that die. I’ve seen so much suffering
amongst the members in Korea and I’ve also seen so much suffering among my
companions and missionary friends. But I’ve learned on my mission that
suffering is exalting, that if we really want to get to the Celestial Kingdom
that we have to suffer, we have to walk through the Garden of Gethsemane. Not
in the same way the Savior did, but no matter how you get to salvation you have
to go through Gethsemane and that is a place of suffering. I know that that
might sound like life is miserable and everything is hard but it’s not. There
is so much happiness in life and I’ve seen so many blessings and miracles on my
mission. I do truly know that the Savior loves us and that we are Heavenly
Father’s children. I’m so grateful for the support that you guys showed me on
my mission. I’m so grateful for my parents for strongly encouraging me to go because
without them I would not have gone and without my mission I would be lost, I
would not be the person I am today. I know that this church is true. I know
that the Book of Mormon is true. I’ve read it and I’ve prayed about it. I know
that Joseph Smith saw and talked with God.
이제 한국말로 이야기하도록 하겠습니다. 제 간증을 이미 나눴는데 제 뒤에 계신 친구들한테 제 사랑을 표현하고 싶어요. 저는 여러분들을 너무 사랑하고 제 영원한 친구들이 되어서
엄청 기뻐요.
I say these
things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen
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