A hundred days before President Nelson’s one hundredth birthday he made an announcement that the best gift he could receive would be for us each to find the one; as in the parable told by Jesus and written down in Matthew 18 and Luke 15.
Long before this invitation was even given the Marysville ward embodied that parable and continues to do so to this day. For many of you I was that ‘one’ you brought into your fold.
When we first arrived here at Beale, AFB we were on unstable ground. Our family had just been separated for the eight months before that for basic and tech training, we had never been far from the help of family before, and the only time one of us had even lived away from home was when Da Beast served his two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Boston, Massachusetts. Everything was new, raw, exciting, and unknown. In order to protect these new and raw feelings I arrived here with a rough exterior and a single thought of “I’m going to be a challenge here.”
Now as we are leaving, I’ve realized that I interpreted that message incorrectly. The true message was “I’m going to be challenged here.” Sure some of you may have had interactions with me that have also challenged you. I had, after all, arrived here in Northern California as raw material ready to be molded and refined.
These past three years with the help, patience, and encouragement of those I've interacted with here I’ve been able to find myself. Becoming a member of the Marysville ward as well as a dependent in the United States Air Force has been what I feel like a climatic moment in my life.
I may not have seemed so lost on the outside, but through others following through on the inspirations they have each received, by the members of the ward each being themselves and sharing their testimonies, and by them challenging me, I became found.
While living here I have gained confidence in my own gifts and my family has moved from a neutral and dormant space of belief to a belief that is awake and alive. I’ve been able to take this confidence and even learn new things that I never thought I’d be able to do like bake bread, publish a book, and befriend my neighbors. My family has also been able to experience things I wasn’t sure would even happen such as my son being baptized, my husband and I being able to attend the temple, and my kids making so many friends.
Every perfectly planned moment from God has happened so small and simple that while looking back trying to take into account all that I’ve learned here I’ve almost missed it all. Or rather its all so woven and interconnected into everything that I’ve done since I’ve been here that there is no possible way I could even present what I’ve learned and the gratitude I have for it all in one single list.
Our family has seen so much exponential growth since we have come here and much of that is because we have found ourselves members of the Marysville ward family. For those just moving into this ward, if you let them, the love here will change you in all the best ways possible before you even know what is happening.
The Marysville Ward has been to my family what the MTC is to many missionaries. In a message given by Joshua J. Perkey from a New Era publication back in February of 2019 entitled “Your MTC Experience”, was laid out a typical experience of what to expect from attending the Missionary Training Center. From the schedule you’d have, to the homesickness you might feel, to the companions you might disagree with, and even to a new language you might learn; I couldn’t help but feel like the quotes given from various Elders and Sisters is what I’ve been feeling as our family has been preparing to move to England. A few of the things that stood out to me in this message, that I have also experienced while living here, are:
- Learning how to study effectively
- How to teach by the spirit
- The value of how I spend my time here on Earth and reevaluating if I use it wisely and align it with God’s timing.
- Setting myself up to help others and to foster growth with them.
- Receiving comfort from each other
- Combined efforts of focusing on doing the work of the Lord.
And finally but most importantly that if I am trying my best, my understanding will follow.
Many of these things, and more, have had foundations laid out for me since I was a child in primary. I’ve also had other experiences gaining and obtaining understanding throughout my life; “Line upon line; here a little and there a little.” (Isaiah 28:10).
And then there are moments like now where I can look backwards and forwards and see more of the meaning of my life here on Earth. The picture becomes more clear, and while scary and unknown the future holds, I know that I’m being guided down the path designed for me where I have the honor and opportunity to meet others along the way. Those who I will teach and those who will teach me.
This is missionary work! The very thing that since I got my patriarchal blessing at the age of fourteen tightened my stomach into knots. It says that I will have opportunities to teach the gospel and serve a mission or missions. I didn’t at the time know that that meant nor did I want to. I didn’t want to serve a mission! When I didn’t go on a full time mission and instead got married and had children my mom offered that an interpretation of my patriarchal blessing could be that a mission I’d be serving on Earth would be to teach my children. While I agreed that this was certainly a part of it, I couldn’t help but feel like this was not the intention of the blessing. It wasn’t until Da Beast joined the Air Force and again now as I began to prepare this message, that the missions I would be serving would be in regards to where we are placed through the Air Force. I’ve learned that I can’t get closer to God without also being a missionary. Or rather it was rebranded to me through a dream as “discipleship”. Being a disciple of Christ is being a member missionary. It is the covenant taken at baptism to be a representative of Christ when I take His name upon me. I serve Him by serving others. I love others because He loves them. I follow His example and see the person before their choice is made and grieve when their choice isn’t Him. I don’t give up trying to bring the one back to the fold and I definitely don’t find joy in the eternal destruction of those around me. To be a disciple of Christ is to experience adversities, challenges and trials.
As Samuel Annan-Simons said in a message entitled “Some Signs of True Discipleship”, “Adversities lead to experiencing charity, the pure love of Christ.” Just before this quote Samuel had just shared his own family's trials and struggles particularly with their brand new baby. Samuel continues by saying that “during [this] challenging time in our family life, the love we had for our son, the rest of our children, for each other, and for everyone of Heavenly Fathers children grew exponentially. We learned to see each of Heavenly Fathers Children as He would see them –eternal beings with limitless potential. Our desire to forgive all was enhanced, and an eye of faith and extra perspective was developed. Love for God and all His Children is perhaps the most potent of all the forces in the universe.”
Later in Samuel Annan-Simons message he shares a story from a talk by Gene R. Cook entitled “Charity: perfect and everlasting love”. The story was about a woman named Betty who encountered many hardships but because she “suffered tribulation in the Savior's name, partook of His divine nature, and gained a deeper faith in and a love for God” she was able to endure it all. Most remarkable however was that she, “Seemed to even forgive others in advance”. Samuel’s remarks to this were “To me to forgive in advance is to understand that all Heavenly Father’s children are free to choose. When the consequences of their choices bring us unwanted effects, it’s no longer about them. It's about us, and how we will respond. Will we love or otherwise? When we give people the benefit of the doubt, we are the ones who benefit.”
“When we give people the benefit of the doubt, we are the ones who benefit.” Why? Because we are using much more than our own understanding. We are giving the power not to the people but to God who knows all things. We are using our faith that everything is going to be okay, that God is with us through all of the choices being made through us or on our behalf. When we feel like we are frustrated, cornered, scared, and unsure of the next weighty choice we are to make we can rest assured that even if we make a mistake that it is there for our good. That even if others make a mistake it is for our good and that all will be made right through the atonement of Christ. We are spending our belief to gain a glimpse into the mysteries of God. Samuel Annan-Simons, later says that “when our actions are based on inspiration, what we achieve is exponentially greater than what we can achieve on our own.”
Despite our feelings of inadequacy and loneliness at times from having the trust of the Lord to “Go and do” His work as his disciples, as long as we “Open our mouths” through inspiration, “they will be filled”. (D&C 33:7-10). In a message given by Joe J Christensen entitled “Open your Mouths: The Courage to Share the Gospel” he says “ Miracles could happen if we would just open our mouths.” This talk, as well as the promptings I’ve received that I’ve been prepared for many missions through my patriarchal blessings, and learning more in depth about discipleship through membership in this ward I know that going forward I will be inspired to do as has been done for me. I will be seeking more to find the one out of the hundreds.
Joe J. Christensen says, “I was visiting a returned missionary colleague, now a mathematics professor at BYU, who has made some interesting calculations of what will happen to Church population if present Church growth rates remain constant during the next twenty years [as of 1981]. He showed me that if the present growth rate of the Church in one particular country were to continue for the next twenty years, there will be more than three million members of the Church. There by the year 2000. Later, I made some further calculations. If just one hundred members of the church were effective in finding one other person each year with whom they could share the gospel, and who in turn would share it the same way with one other person in each succeeding year, there would be more than one hundred million new members of the church in Twenty years. That is what happens when exponential growth rates are accelerated. Even if just one person were to bring one other person into the Church each year, and each of them were to bring someone else into the Church, there would be 1,048,576 new members of the Church in twenty years.”
I’d like to simplify this even further especially because of something I’ve learned just this past year; If one person were to bring one other person closer to Christ each year then there would be millions of Christians strengthened together in their numbers. The one needing to be brought into the fold might not even be outside of the fold to begin with. They might be within the fold, looking like they are doing just the right things, and trying their best to follow the master. To strengthen the church also looks like strengthening those within the same belief.
As brother Christensen says, “We could help so much if we could just let people know who we are. And often we don’t need to do much more than open our mouths.”
It’s through our God given gifts and following His inspiration that we can all experience our own exponential growth in Christ, together.
XOXO
-Megan
Other Blog Posts of mine that have been highlighted throughout this post are:
1. "Dating Jesus" where I talk about the dream I had that influenced the way I see discipleship. I go through the whole dream talking about even the more silly parts and then I break it down into what it means. The first part is very similar to the dream Lehi had in the beginning chapters of Nephi. It was the very answer I reflected upon to a question I'd be asking about three or four months later.
2. "Known By Name" is a blog post from the first relief society discussion I lead when we first arrived here. It breaks down the importance of our covenants and why they're important on our own journeys relating it to the story of the iron rod.
3. "Uncovering our Spiritual Gifts" Is a new blog post that as of the publication of this blog post on 8/12/2024 is not finished yet. It goes through the process of paleontologists do to uncover fossils and study them and relating that to our spiritual gifts. Among those gifts is the gift of the Holy Ghost which I talk more about in the second part of my "Prayers to Heaven" blog post which covers the difference between the spirit and the Holy Ghost. I decided to publish it because it seemed to fit this whole week of inspiration.
I decided to publish these posts all at once even though they are in no real chronological order simply because they all are connected. Just as I mentioned above about being unable to fully acknowledge or appreciate my growth here these four blog posts are a collective of when I tried my best to record what I was being taught during my time here in Northern California. Interestingly enough along with nostalgia at how much time has passed here I have also felt that while this is the closing of our our Northern California chapter there are glimmers of the beginning of it circling back around. Another gift from God showing me where we started and where we are going.
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