My Farewell Talk
finalllllllyyyyyyyylkmlk, get your exclusive first look today
before I read this tomorrow!
Being a Disciple of Jesus Christ
Good morning brothers and sisters. It is an honor and privilege to have this opportunity to speak about the gospel to you today. Short intro, For those of you who don’t know me or moved into the ward while I was at the branch, My name is Do Park. I am a sophomore at VCUarts. I will be serving in the California, Anaheim mission. It is Korean speaking as well. I leave for the MTC on Tuesday. But anyways, It’s kind of funny, when I was given the assignment, and I was preparing, I started thinking in my head, my 5 minute talk days are over. When did that happen??? How do I fill this extra 10 minutes. I dunno… it just blew my mind. Nahh im just kidding but seriously today I will be speaking on “Being a Disciple of Jesus Christ.” I will be referencing Elder Neil L. Andersen’s talk given in April 2012 titled “What thinks Christ of Me?” If you haven’t seen this or read this, I highly recommend it. Your typical Super solid…. Classic…. general conference talk. It just.. ahh makes me pumped.
But lets ponder about that really quickly. BEING A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST.
And for some reason, To start off, I just really want to share this one story from Elder Andersen’s talk. He stated “Disciple ship is believing Him (Jesus Christ) in seasons of peace and believing Him in seasons of difficulty, when our pain and fear are calmed only by the conviction that He loves us and keeps His promises.” Olgan and Soline are parents of three children, and this family is from Haiti. On January 12, 2010, Olgan was at work and Soline was at the church when a devastating earthquake struck Haiti. Their three children—Gancci, age five, Angie, age three, and Gansly, age one—were at home in their apartment with a friend.
Massive devastation was everywhere. As you will remember, tens of thousands lost their lives that January in Haiti. Olgan and Soline ran as fast as they could to their apartment to find the children. The three-story apartment building where the Saintelus family lived had collapsed.
The children had not escaped. No rescue efforts would be devoted to a building that was so completely destroyed.
Olgan and Soline had both served full-time missions and had been married in the temple. They believed in the Savior and in His promises to them. Yet their hearts were broken.
In his darkest hour Olgan began to pray. “Heavenly Father, if it be thy will, if there could be just one of my children alive, please, please help us.” Over and over he walked around the building, praying for inspiration. The neighbors tried to comfort him and help him accept the loss of his children. Olgan continued to walk around the rubble of the collapsed building, hoping, praying. Then something quite miraculous happened. Olgan heard the almost inaudible cry of a baby. It was the cry of his baby.
For hours the neighbors frantically dug into the rubble, risking their own lives. In the dark of the night, through the piercing sounds of hammers and chisels, the rescue workers heard another sound. They stopped their pounding and listened. They couldn’t believe what they were hearing. It was the sound of a little child—and he was singing. Five-year-old Gancci later said that he knew his father would hear him if he sang. Under the weight of crushing concrete that would later result in the amputation of his arm, Gancci was singing his favorite song, “I Am a Child of God.”
As the hours passed amid the darkness, death, and despair of so many other precious sons and daughters of God in Haiti, the Saintelus family had a miracle. Gancci, Angie, and Gansly were discovered alive under the flattened building. “
Like Elder Andersen said, Discipleship is believing Him in seasons of difficulty.
What a powerful example of believing in Christ… of Faith, displayed by these parents.
At the branch, Our mission leader is extremely busy with work. So I was blessed with the opportunity and called as the Assistant mission leader maybe a month and a half into this past school semester, to help out and do what he couldn’t. I knew it was going to be tough because that meant Saturday morning correlations (and I do mind you, Saturday mornings are huge to any college students, that is a SACRIFICE itself, and you can ask my mom or my friends, they know that I sleep in) but anyways I’d also be going out with the missionaries even more. It was hard because I had to balance classes, and my job, try to be sociable because I knew that I might not be here next semester. But when I saw how much the branch mission leader had to work, it was physically impossible for him to be out with the elders and I saw how much that upset him, that he couldn’t do as much as he wanted. I couldn’t make excuses, I knew I was busy but he was busier and I was called for a reason. So I made a goal to try to go out with each set of elders (since we had 2 sets) at least just once a week. That was hard though! Like I said, I had other things swirling around me that I needed to do. But I realized that there is never going to be a perfect time or a convenient time for anything. It might and youre lucky if it does, but the Lord’s timetable should be testing us for us to grow. Even though I could have easily said that I had too much homework or there were events that I wanted to attend (which sometimes was the case! I did have a lot of homework/ wanted to do something fun), I knew that if I put the Lord first there would always be time and a path. And this probably sounds like You know its like when your sitting in a lesson at church and you have that classic oh if you listen to the Lord’s will you will be blessed for it, but… do we reeeeeally know that..? or do we just shrug it off and say I know, I know. But what I didn’t know was when I really tried pushing myself to fulfill and magnify my calling, truly how much the blessings were. Its tangible to you. It was tangible to me. Those experiences were what made it real. Earlier this week I was reminded of this scripture, Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Even though I am not on a mission or havent gone on one yet, being just a member, this calling showed me some previews of how fruitful missionary work can be. I can’t even imagine when im out on the field doing this full time, putting all my heart might and mind, the miracles ill witness.
I wanted to more then anything leave on my mission right after my first year of college. But I feel that that very desire kept me from going because I think Heavenly father had me wait because either there was something here I had to do or that if I waited he knew that I would be tested and be going for the right reasons at the right time. I did not want to go to one
more semester of college, I just wanted the timing to be perfect and the sooner I left the sooner id be getting back. But I think he had me hold off on my papers to really go for the right reasons and have a right mindset. It didn’t occur to me though how many blessings I would have by being faithful in him and being patient. If I had rushed and gone earlier last year, I would not have had the great blessings I’ve experienced just these past few months. I would not have had the calling in the branch and all the knowledge from what the elders had to offer. I was finally able to take classes towards my actual major and they just completely changed my perception of what I can do in the future and now I have some really solid grounding to think about on my mission. I even had an opportunity to baptize 2 people yesterday, the week before I leave. One of them an investigator that I’ve met with a few times with the elders and the other, someone very dear to me and that I know closely. I would have never gotten any of this if I left earlier this year. This all had to happen and the Lord knew it and because of faith it all came back around before my last days entering into the mtc. That is why the story in Haiti touched my heart when the father asked heavenly father if it be his will that his children survive. In Luke 22: 42 it states “saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” The phrase “not my will, but thine, be done” was one of the biggest lessons I learned from my previous home teaching companion while I was maybe a sophomore in high school. I always kept it in the back of my mind ever since. And IF I always put heavenly father’s will first, no matter how hard or undesirable, just as Christ did, I am promised that I would be strengthened and blessed. Like I said it was very hard for me to wait any longer especially a semester because I thought the sooner I got out the better since I would be doing the Lord’s work. Right? Something the Branch president would always tell me (that I very much believed as well) which kept me being patient is that there is someone out there that I am suppose to talk to, and I know that, and the Lord has it so that the timing will be perfect but it is on his time. I found out that I was suppose to be here because I had work to do here. He needed me here first and had me grow through my calling, tried reaching out to those that are inactive, I was blessed with finding an investigator on my own and that I could bless others such as the baptisms.
It was so hard because during the beginning of the semester I prayed and asked Heavenly father if it be thy will please allow me to leave as soon as I can so that I can finally be on the field to serve. But then I started to accept the fact that You know whenever I do end up leaving, it is going to be okay (there were much bigger trials such as for the parents in Haiti, I can wait just a few more months if that’s my trial…). Even though it might not be the most ideal thing, I should still have faith. I think I finally fully realized this before I submitted my papers last month. It felt good though that it was the right time, but I knew that with the whole age change and all the missionaries submitting papers, I could be looking at most likely leaving next year. Then once I opened my mission letter just 2 weeks ago and it said that I was to report on the 18th it felt like he was telling me “No, Do, you were faithful in your patience and I do want you to leave as soon as possible and I do want this to be good timing for you in your temporal affairs.” This confirmation was like a full circle and that he really listened. That he truly cares about our concerns and that everything happens for a reason, not coincidence.
Being a disciple of Jesus Christ, to me is believing in him as the parents in the accident did and following his example. That if we love him, really try to do heavenly fathers Will in front of our own, trusting in him with all our heart, we will be better disciples of Christ. I know this is the true church. I know it was restored on the Earth by Joseph Smith and that we have a living prophet, Thomas S. Monson. I know the Book of Mormon to be true. Bare more testimony by the spirit….. AMEN
Here is the reference talk if you wanna see it and the link to the websi
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/04/what-thinks-christ-of-me?lang=eng
