Aimee's Farewell Talk

Hi everyone! My name is Aimee, soon to be Hermana Gardanier! I have been called to serve in the Chile Rancagua Mission. I report to the Santiago MTC next Tuesday. I could not be more excited to go share my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people in Chile. I feel like I love them already!

I’ve always wanted to serve a mission, but I didn’t know if it was God’s plan for me at the time. At BYU last semester, I took a study break and opened my scriptures. I started reading stories I have read many times and I was overcome with Joy. I was able to kind of step back and see the big picture of my life again. This gospel has given me the most joy I have ever known. I wanted to cry as I thought about people in this world who don’t know what I know. I imagined them going through hard times and not knowing where to turn. Whether they are everyday struggles or permanent trials, I can’t imagine what it would be like. I have been so blessed to have grown up in this church. I know that my testimony is a gift from heavenly father and it is something I absolutely love to share.

It’s like when you hear a song for the first time and you just have to show it to your best friend. Or when you learn something that just blows your mind, or when you watch a funny video and you immediately send it to people you know will laugh at it. It’s like my dad’s favorite dating theory. I swear he brings up this funnel theory at every family get-together, at any group activity, or anytime hear hears the number 16. That’s how I feel about this gospel. It is something that I know is true and I just want everyone else to know it for themselves.

I know I am going to grow so much, and that I will change in so many ways, but I am going on a mission to

Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. That is the purpose of a missionary that we learn about in preach my gospel.

I’m sure all of you returned missionaries are very familiar with this book. It is a guide to missionary service. And if you haven’t read it, I highly encourage you to read it. Even if you aren’t going on a mission. My family has been studying it every morning for the past few months and it has been so helpful in my preparation to serve. It’s about the lessons you teach investigators with connecting scriptures and quotes from prophets. It also has sections about recognizing the spirit and a whole section about different Christ like attributes. It is amazing so you should read it. I promise you, it has the power to change your life.

Missionaries didn’t always have this book. It was published in 2004. Our parents who served missions didn’t have this. The missionaries used to have memorized lessons that had to be taught in the same order saying the same things. The reason this book was written was because President Hinckley recognized that there was something wrong with the missionary program of the church. He thought there was a problem because missionaries would come home and fall away. They would come home after dedicating 2 years of their lives teaching this and telling people to change their habits and sins, and they would come home and not follow it themselves. President Hinckley felt that the lessons and the gospel has to be firm and deep in the missionary’s heart before they could teach an investigator. We can’t skip the step of being converted ourselves. That’s why I think missionary work starts long before you get your call and long after your 18-24 months are over. It is a way of life.

 I don’t think there is a sudden on or off switch to being a missionary. It’s easy to agree there is no sudden off switch. Can we all think back to when our friends or family members came home from their missions? They were definitely, different. It usually takes them a while to “adjust” back from being a missionary. Which is kind of sad that some people are so quick to adjust and become “normal” again. What is wrong with being a missionary for longer than 2 years?

So if there is no off switch, I don’t think there is really an on switch to being a missionary either. I don’t think that when you get set apart, you all of a sudden know every story in the book of Mormon, and know everything about what you need to teach, and have all the skills to talk to people and comfortably bring up the gospel to strangers. I could be wrong, in fact I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t buy that. I think it starts way before you enter the MTC. I think it starts way before you get your call or start your papers. Your mission preparation starts now. And I think that is so important to understand.

And the best part about missionary work, is that you can be a missionary without having to be set apart and called somewhere in the world. In fact, Harold B. Lee said,

“The most important of the lord’s work you will ever do will be in the walls of your own home.” Do you ever feel like you don’t really influence your family? Well I promise, you do. It impacts me when Daniel wakes up every morning at 5:30 so he can read the scriptures before he practices piano and goes to school. It affects me when I walk downstairs and I see Ryan on his knees by his bed. It’s powerful.

If you don’t think one person can make a difference, try falling asleep with a mosquito in the room. We are just like that. God can take things that may seem impossibly small in our eyes, and use them for great things. Christ teaches us this principle in John 6. Oh, I love this chapter. I think we are all pretty familiar with this story. Christ is among a multitude of 5,000 people who need to be fed. Someone offers his 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes. And he asked Christ, “but what are they among so many?” Almost like he was embarrassed that he even thought to offer these few snacks when he saw there was no way for such little food to feed five thousand people. And we all know the end to the story, they fed everyone in the multitude until they were full. They had extra food leftover. That’s how god works. He uses us. Humans, imperfect, and nothing without him. If you feel like you, one person can’t make a difference, if you feel “what am I among so many”? You’re more than enough.

So what can we do? Today? To be missionaries. Clayton M. Christensen wrote a book called the power of every day missionaries. It is a great book that gives specific examples of how we can be better missionaries every day.

A specific example he gives is to create conversations about the gospel. He said to practice using Mormon words in our regular vocabulary. What does he mean by that?

1       Maybe when we are asked how our weekend was, instead of talking about what we did on Saturday, we can share something we learned at church or how peaceful it was to keep the Sabbath Day Holy.

2       He gives a couple examples. When someone asks you how you are, you could say, “I’m so tired. I’m the scoutmaster in our troop sponsored by the LDS church, and I took the boys on an overnight camping trip last night.”

3       Or at work you could say, “I go to the Mormon Church in Provo and a friend who gave the Sermon last Sunday said something that I think is exactly how we need to start this presentation.”

4       Or “When I was a missionary in Korea”,

5       Or “my daughter who is a student at BYU”.

He says that “when I use these words in my conversation, it is like I am opening a door for people to a conversation about the Church. The vast majority, of course, do not walk through the door and that’s fine. But sometimes they do and ask follow up questions.

I know that “The Lord’s sheep will recognize his voice.”

Is that hard? Why don’t we? Is it embarrassing? Do we not want to be looked at as the “molly Mormon”? That is exactly how Satan gets to us. He simply asks, “What is your price.” What will it take for you to lower your standards or stop doing what you know is right. Will you talk about the gospel with your friends as long as they still like you and don’t make fun of you? Will you wear modest clothing and swimsuits until it is the style to wear bikinis and immodest clothing? Will you never swear unless something makes you really mad? What is your price? Satan knows our individual weaknesses and he will start there.

Our preparation to become missionaries starts with ourselves. We need to be strong before we can lift someone else or we will just fall.

It’s like the wise man and the foolish man primary song. Where the wise man builds a foundation and the foolish man doesn’t. Then the winds come and storms come to both of them. Just because the wise man built his foundation, doesn’t mean then no storms or trials came in his life. They came, but when they did. He stayed there. Don’t leave your foundation when things get hard. Because the storms will come. The style will change, so don’t dress immodestly because it is popular. Don’t do something just because it is “cool”. If you know what is right, why would you leave when the storms come? Right now, you are building your foundation. When you come to church, when you listen to general conference, when you are where you are supposed to be, you are learning things that are shaping who you are. So build your foundation today, right now. Decide where you stand. And then stay on your rock.

But when we are strong enough to lift other people that is powerful. That is the beauty of missionary work. It will be hard, I promise. But I also know that when we are doing the Lord’s work, the power behind us is always greater than the obstacles ahead of us.

I absolutely love the tradition we have in our ward. For the closing hymn we have all of the youth come up on the stand and sing we’ll bring the world his truth. I cry every time. I imagine Heavenly Father looking down at us. At the youth, the future of the church standing together singing that we WILL be the Lord’s missionaries. We will. Even if no one else will. Even if it isn’t “cool”.

Being a disciple of Christ is a sacrifice. It is going to cost something. It might be getting called out for being the only one not swearing or laughing at inappropriate jokes in your group of friends. It might be changing the song in the car on a date even though it may be embarrassing. It might be walking out of a movie. It might be missing out on something fun with your friends to be at family home evening. It might be leaving a group text with your best friends because they are being inappropriate. It might be leaving your friend group during lunch to sit by someone alone. For me, it was getting made fun of that I was the only one at a cross country workout with a shirt on. It was saying no to a date because I wasn’t 16 yet. But what will it be for you? Are you willing to be that one person?

(moroni 10)

Are you willing to, “come unto Christ and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing?” Moroni 10. “Yea, come unto Christ and be perfected in him. Deny yourselves of all ungodliness and love God with all your might mind and strength.”

That means to not just read the scriptures. It is like wanting the most delicious cookies so you read the recipe over and over again every night. Just reading the recipe won’t make the cookies.

I promise you that this gospel is sweeter, and better, and brighter than anything else in this world. The recipe is right here (scriptures). We have the ingredients right here (pmg). God has blessed us with the tools we need. Like our bishopric, our home teachers, our ward, our friends, our family and so on. So don’t just read the recipe. Make the cookies.   

I hope we are all willing to stand up for what we believe. And share the gospel. Especially when it is hard. I hope that we will all be missionaries, not just for 18 months or 2 years, but we will all become missionaries for eternity.

I love this gospel.                                  

 I love my savior, Jesus Christ and knowing what he did for me will carry me through every disappointment, heartbreak, and rejection I will face in Chile.

I love the prophet and the leaders of this church. I am so grateful for them. I am so grateful for the sacrifices Joseph Smith made his whole life and the example he is to us of standing up for what he knows even until the end.

 I know the book of Mormon is true because I have read it and searched, and prayed, and asked for myself. I love this gospel with all of my heart and I know it is true.

 And I can’t wait to share the joyful message of Jesus Christ to the people in Chile. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.