FHE Lesson -- Full-Time Missionary Service

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If you're wondering which one is me, I'm the best looking one.  :-)

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Tammy’s family home evening lesson – The Joys and Blessings of Serving a Full-Time Mission

August 2, 2015

1 –The Field Is Watch Already to Harvest -- Doctrine Covenants 4:4, The Joys and Blessings of Full-Time Missionary Service

2 --“Long before leaving our earthly home to serve a full-time mission, we left heavenly parents to fulfill our mortal mission. We have a Father in Heaven, who knows us—our strengths and weaknesses, our abilities and potential. He knows which mission president and companions and which members and investigators we need in order to become the missionary, the husband and father, and the priesthood holder we are capable of becoming.” The Opportunity of a Lifetime, October 2011,W. Christopher Waddell

Story: “A few years ago, Elder Javier Misiego, from Madrid, Spain, was serving a full-time mission in Arizona. At that time, his mission call to the United States appeared somewhat unusual, as most young men from Spain were being called to serve in their own country.

At the conclusion of a stake fireside, where he and his companion had been invited to participate, Elder Misiego was approached by a less-active member of the Church who had been brought by a friend. It was the first time this man had been inside a chapel in years. Elder Misiego was asked if he might know a José Misiego in Madrid. When Elder Misiego responded that his father’s name was José Misiego, the man excitedly asked a few more questions to confirm that this was theJosé Misiego. When it was determined that they were speaking about the same man, this less-active member began to weep. “Your father was the only person I baptized during my entire mission,” he explained and described how his mission had been, in his mind, a failure. He attributed his years of inactivity to some feelings of inadequacy and concern, believing that he had somehow let the Lord down.

Elder Misiego then described what this supposed failure of a missionary meant to his family. He told him that his father, baptized as a young single adult, had married in the temple, that Elder Misiego was the fourth of six children, that all three boys and a sister had served full-time missions, that all were active in the Church, and that all who were married had been sealed in the temple.

The less-active returned missionary began to sob. Through his efforts, he now learned, scores of lives had been blessed, and the Lord had sent an elder from Madrid, Spain, all the way to a fireside in Arizona to let him know that he had not been a failure. The Lord knows where He wants each missionary to serve.

3 –“No missionary that ever lived failed to influence the lives of many for the better regardless of the number of converts he may have gained.”  -- James M. Dunn October 1983

4 -- In whatever manner the Lord may choose to bless us during the course of a mission, blessings of missionary service are not designed to end when we are released by our stake president. Your mission is a training ground for life. The experiences, lessons, and testimony obtained through faithful service are meant to provide a gospel-centered foundation that will last throughout mortality and into the eternities.

5 --Now to the young men who have yet to serve a full-time mission, I share President Monson’s counsel from last October: “I repeat what prophets have long taught—that every worthy, able young man should prepare to serve a mission. Missionary service is a priesthood duty—an obligation the Lord expects of us who have been given so very much” (“As We Meet Together Again,”Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2010, 5–6).

6 –How to Prepare to Serve a Full-Time Mission

“First, secure your individual testimony of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Know for yourself that you hold the priesthood and that Jesus Christ is your Savior.

Second, study and ponder the Book of Mormon to the point where you can declare that it was received by Joseph Smith from the angel Moroni and that the Prophet Joseph translated the book from the golden plates.

Third, be clean and pure. To those who have slipped, repentance is available if you will approach your bishop and seek his help and counsel.

Fourth, pay your tithes and offerings so that you can bear witness of this great principle of the gospel. Save money so that you can serve a mission. A mission is not free, and each missionary should expect to financially contribute towards the cost of his mission.

Fifth, learn how to work. Be willing to get up early in the morning, work hard all day, and retire on time. As you prepare for your mission, learn how to work.

And sixth, serve as a home teacher in your ward to know the joy of service.” – Earl C.Tingey, April 1998

7 – video presentation –Value of a Full-Time Mission, 5:23

8 –Elder Richard G. Scott, Of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles

"Now may I speak from my heart of what an honorable full-time mission has meant to me personally. I grew up in a home with very good parents, but my father was not a member and my mother was less active. After my mission that changed. They became strong members and served devotedly in the temple—he a sealer, she an ordinance worker. But as a young man, like many of you today, I had no way to judge personally the importance of a mission. I fell in love with an exceptional young woman. At a critical point in our courtship, she made it very clear that she would only be married in the temple to a returned missionary. Duly motivated, I served a mission in Uruguay.

"It was not easy. The Lord gave me many challenges that became stepping-stones to personal growth. There I gained my testimony that God the Father and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, did in fact visit Joseph Smith to begin a restoration of truth, priesthood authority, and the true Church on earth. I gained a witness that Joseph Smith is a singular prophet. I learned essential doctrines. I discovered what it meant to be led by the Spirit. Many a night I got up as my companion slept to pour my heart out to the Lord for guidance and direction. I pled for the ability to express effectively in Spanish my testimony and the truth I was learning to a people I had come to love. Those prayers were abundantly answered. At the same time, my future eternal companion, Jeanene, was being molded to become an exceptional wife and mother by her own mission.

"Most important, all that I now hold dear in life began to mature in the mission field. Had I not been encouraged to be a missionary, I would not have the eternal companion or precious family I dearly love. I am confident that I would not have had the exceptional professional opportunities that stretched my every capacity. I am certain that I would not have received the sacred callings with opportunities to serve for which I will be eternally grateful. My life has been richly blessed beyond measure because I served a mission.

9 -- "If you are a young man wondering whether you ought to fulfill a full-time mission…I know that a mission will provide extraordinary blessings for you now and throughout your life. I urge you not to pray to know whether you should go; rather, ask the Lord to guide you in whatever may be necessary to become a worthy, empowered full-time missionary. You will never regret serving a mission, but you most probably will regret not serving if that is your choice.” – Elder Richard G. Scott, April 2006

10 -- e-mail from MTC friend, Rob McKinney:

“I was a product of divorce and the only one in my house that attended church. I honestly didn't have much of a testimony at the time but my best friend and his family as well as my grandfather kept me in touch with the church. My friend was preparing for a mission and eventually went and I think I might have felt an emptiness in my life. I started kicking around the idea of going on a mission and really wasn't doing anything to prepare but I had devised a plan to get out of going to church and thankfully that plan was foiled by a wonderful young men's president. He kind of railroaded me into taking to the Bishop and before I knew what I was saying I told him I wanted to go on a mission.

I didn't know the difference between going on and serving a mission and I'm not going to say the difference but any young man or young woman that chooses a mission I challenge them to find out on their own the difference. I promise that if they do they will find great blessings in choosing what Heavenly Father wants us to do.

"Anyway, after that meeting came the meeting with the stake president. That meeting didn't go well and I found how my lack of preparation needed to change. I followed his counsel and before I knew it I was in class with Sister Stone in the MTC! The decision to serve a mission was the greatest blessing in my life.

"My mother that had not been to church in over 10 years before I served is now active and a current temple recommend holder. My patriarchal blessing told me my family would be blessed by my service and I testify that they were blessed greater than I could have imagined. Everyone is promised that if they serve. You are not only serving those in the mission but your family more than you could ever imagine.

11 -- "Serving a mission didn't keep my life free from trials because I've had many since my mission but serving helped me to gain a testimony of the Gospel and the Savior's love. I know that no matter what the trial I'm never alone. I experienced things on my mission I could never experience anywhere else. I will NEVER regret serving a mission but I would have had an eternity of regret if I chose not to.” –personal e-mail from Rob McKinney, July 28, 2015

12 --“May I quote from Elder Joe J. Christensen: “The Lord did not say, ‘Go on a mission if it fits your schedule, or if you happen to feel like it, or if it doesn’t interfere with your scholarship, your romance, or your educational plans.’ Preaching the gospel is a commandment and not merely a suggestion. It is a blessing and a privilege. … Remember, … the Lord and his prophets are counting on you” (“The Savior Is Counting on You,” Ensign, Nov. 1996, 41).

13-“There is not anything a young man can do that will be any more important than serving a full-time mission. The good they do as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ will carry on into eternity.

The greatest army of missionaries ever assembled in the history of the world is serving today. These young men, trusted and proven before they came to earth, are not ordinary young men. They are choice spirits that have been held in reserve to come forth in this day.”—H. Bryan Richards, October 1998, As for Me and My House, We Will Serve the Lord

Next slide—number 14

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, October 2011, We Are All Enlisted

 “When we rehearse the grandeur of Joseph Smith’s First Vision, we sometimes gloss over the menacing confrontation that came just prior to it, a confrontation intended to destroy the boy if possible but in any case to block the revelation that was to come. We don’t talk about the adversary any more than we have to, and I don’t like talking about him at all, but the experience of young Joseph reminds us of what every man, including every young man, in this audience needs to remember.

14 --"Number one, Satan, or Lucifer, or the father of lies—call him what you will—is real, the very personification of evil. His motives are in every case malicious, and he convulses at the appearance of redeeming light, at the very thought of truth. Number two, he is eternally opposed to the love of God, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and the work of peace and salvation. He will fight against these whenever and wherever he can. He knows he will be defeated and cast out in the end, but he is determined to take down with him as many others as he possibly can.

"As President Boyd K. Packer taught this morning, Satan cannot directly take a life. That is one of many things he cannot do. But apparently his effort to stop the work will be reasonably well served if he can just bind the tongue of the faithful. Brethren, if that is the case, I am looking tonight for men young and old who care enough about this battle between good and evil to sign on and speak up. We are at war, and for these next few minutes, I want to be a one-man recruiting station.

Do I need to hum a few bars of “We Are All Enlisted”? You know, the line about “We are waiting now for soldiers; who’ll volunteer?

Story:  For you, let me mix in an athletic analogy. This is a life-and-death contest we are in, young men, so I am going to get in your face a little, nose to nose, with just enough fire in my voice to singe your eyebrows a little—the way coaches do when the game is close and victory means everything. And with the game on the line, what this coach is telling you is that to play in this match, some of you have to be more morally clean than you now are. In this battle between good and evil, you cannot play for the adversary whenever temptation comes along and then expect to suit up for the Savior at temple and mission time as if nothing has happened. That, my young friends, you cannot do. God will not be mocked.

"So we have a dilemma tonight, you and I. It is that there are thousands of Aaronic Priesthood–age young men already on the records of this Church who constitute our pool of candidates for future missionary service. But the challenge is to have those deacons, teachers, and priests stay active enough and worthy enough to be ordained elders and serve as missionaries. So we need young men already on the team to stay on it and stop dribbling out of bounds just when we need you to get in the game and play your hearts out! In almost all athletic contests of which I know, there are lines drawn on the floor or the field within which every participant must stay in order to compete. Well, the Lord has drawn lines of worthiness for those called to labor with Him in this work. No missionary can be unrepentant of sexual transgression or profane language or pornographic indulgence and then expect to challenge others to repent of those very things! You can’t do that. The Spirit will not be with you, and the words will choke in your throat as you speak them. You cannot travel down what Lehi called “forbidden paths”5 and expect to guide others to the “strait and narrow”6 one—it can’t be done.

"But there is an answer to this challenge for you every bit as much as there is for that investigator to whom you will go. Whoever you are and whatever you have done, you can be forgiven. Every one of you young men can leave behind any transgression with which you may struggle. It is the miracle of forgiveness; it is the miracle of the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. But you cannot do it without an active commitment to the gospel, and you cannot do it without repentance where it is needed. I am asking you young men to be active and be clean. If required, I am asking you to get active and get clean.

15 --"Now, brethren, we speak boldly to you because anything more subtle doesn’t seem to work. We speak boldly because Satan is a real being set on destroying you, and you face his influence at a younger and younger age. So we grab you by the lapels and shout as forcefully as we know how:

Hark! the sound of battle sounding loudly and clear;

Come join the ranks! Come join the ranks! 

My young friends, we need tens of thousands of more missionaries in the months and years that lie ahead. They must come from an increased percentage of the Aaronic Priesthood who will be ordained, active, clean, and worthy to serve.

16 --Missionary work isn’t the only thing we need to do in this big, wide, wonderful Church. But almost everything else we need to do depends on people first hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ and coming into the faith. Surely that is why Jesus’s final charge to the Twelve was just that basic—to “go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”8 Then, and only then, can the rest of the blessings of the gospel fully come—family solidarity, youth programs, priesthood promises, and ordinances flowing right up to the temple. But as Nephi testified, none of that can come until one has “enter[ed] into the … gate.”9 With all that there is to do along the path to eternal life, we need a lot more missionaries opening that gate and helping people through it.” – Jeffrey R. Holland, October 2011, We Are All Enlisted