Farewell Talk

Aloha/Good morning brother and sisters,

As most of you know, my name is Max Petersen, I’m the son of Gregg and Barbara Petersen. I am called to the work, in Louisville, Kentucky, with direction to serve in Spanish.

Thank People for coming (1:00 session)

I was assigned to speak today on the importance of missionary work. When I first started preparing for this talk I began to read and reread conference talks and listened to the prophets and apostles speak and share their testimonies on missionary work. I searched for a long time, but I never found a flat answer on what the importance of missionary work exactly was.  Maybe I wasn’t looking in the right place, or maybe missionary work doesn’t have a cut and dried definition, and that is a little harder to pin down and talk about. Everything in the gospel seems to be like that. There is so much more to everything. So I ultimately compiled testimonies from a number of general authorities on the topic of missionary work, and took it from there.

As each of the General Authorities bore their testimonies of missionary work I noticed something similar in each of their testimonies. Every one of them talked about or described one or all of three specific things.

1.     The missionaries themselves,

2.     The Work of Salvation in the hearts of others,

3.     Jesus Christ, and the Love of God.

The importance of missionary work encompasses these three things, and not only is each individual part important, but like so many things in the gospel, the combination of all three of them working together is also important, and is fundamental to God’s plan.

According to Elder Bednar, “A missionary is a believer and follower of Christ who testifies of Him as the Redeemer and proclaims the truths of His gospel that has been restored.

They accept the call to teach people all over the world about the Lord Jesus Christ. This is more than a spiritual duty, it is also a reflection of how important these truths are to the missionaries themselves.

A missionary’s main desire is to share … the truths that are of greatest worth to them. They can only be a great missionary after they have developed a strong relationship with God.

This would imply that every missionary that decides to serve a mission has a strong testimony of God, and desires to serve Him and become an instrument in His Hands, but we all know that since we are imperfect people, all missionaries that go out aren’t all perfectly prepared to serve. There are many different reasons why we may serve, and maybe every single reason is a good reason, but the greatest reason to serve is because we love the Lord and want to be part of helping him further His work.

“For behold this is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” Moses 1:39.

When missionaries are truly converted and love the Lord, the reason for going shows a much greater magnitude of trust to the Lord. Knowing you are part of a much greater work.

Missionary work is necessary in order to bring the knowledge of Jesus Christ to people and to give them the opportunity to hear and accept His gospel. They need to learn the truth, turn to God, and receive forgiveness from their sins but none of that would be possible without the last and most important piece of missionary work, Jesus Christ. The Savior of the world and the atonement is the reason for missionaries going all over the world in the first place. Everything we do in the Church and in the mission field is to bring us and others closer to Christ. We teach of faith and repentance and making covenants because it leads us to Him. As we follow His example, we feel His love and we become more like Him.

His love shines as the perfect example to not only missionaries, but everyone. He was the first missionary of God and He created the path, that through Him all may be saved. Missionary work allows all to come unto Christ, sharing the love and peace that Christ offers. This charity shows missionaries, and every member what we should strive to become, how we should live, and how we should love. When was loving ever the wrong thing to do. God loved us so he sent his son. The atonement is the result of their love.

Elder Holland has stated,

“Of the many magnificent purposes served in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, one great aspect of that mission often goes uncelebrated. His followers did not understand it fully at the time, and many in modern Christianity do not grasp it now, but the Savior Himself spoke of it repeatedly and emphatically. It is the grand truth that in all that Jesus came to say and do, including and especially in His atoning suffering and sacrifice, He was showing us who and what God our Eternal Father is like, how completely devoted He is to His children in every age and nation. In word and in deed, Jesus was trying to reveal and make personal to us the true nature of His Father, our Father in Heaven.”

Loving others the way Christ loves us is the best form of missionary work we can do in our daily lives. When we see all those around us the way Christ does is when missionary work has been successful in ours and others.

In closing, I would like to bear my testimony. I am excited to begin my missionary service, and start my calling to the work. Ultimately it may not be the best 2 years of my life as I know that it will not be easy, but that’s not the importance of it. Ultimately I know, that it will be the best 2 years FOR my life.

I say these things in the name of the savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.