My farewell talk
Alpine 4th Ward; Sunday, May 27, 2018.
Good morning brothers and sisters, my name is Emily Daines. I have been called to serve in the Ukraine Kyiv mission speaking Russian. I report to the Spain MTC on June 5th. I only have one week to go! I am excited, nervous, and humbled to be taking on this calling to serve the Lord.
As I prepare for this assignment, I take comfort in what it says in section 4 of the Doctrine and Covenants. As you know this is the section that contains the great commission to all who "embark in the service of God.” The section is made up of only 145 words and only takes about 45 seconds to read but it contains a complete formula for success in serving the Lord.
It begins with the simple statement, “a marvelous work is about to come forth.” It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this statement. It reminds us that all our efforts to minister are founded upon a supreme creator with a plan that has brought the authority and ordinances of the celestial kingdom once again to the earth.
It is only because this is true that we can believe that success is achievable. And not only that, but it reminds us that we can have as great a part in this marvelous work as we choose.
We have all been thinking and talking a lot about what it means to minister ever since this last general conference. And that’s what Section 4 is talking about: what it means to choose to minister in the Kingdom of God. It seems that in every way, the savior himself showed us a perfect example of what it means to minister.
The stories are familiar to us. Jesus visited the sick, comforted the widows and orphans, and cared for the poor. These specific cases of ministering repeat time and time again throughout the scriptures. I think there is a reason why it says in James, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction.”
Those specific cases - widows, orphans, and those with afflictions - are repeated far too many times across every book of scripture to be merely random examples. It is clear that the Savior himself has reserved special attention for people who find themselves in some of life’s most difficult trials. When we look closely at the Lord’s own example, we see that ministering in His way isn’t just any act of kindness, though we should always go out of our way to be kind to others. Let us not forget that the call to minister in the Lord’s church is sanctified only when it is done in His way.
I have been thinking a lot about this as I have been preparing to minister in His name to the people of Ukraine. I have asked myself “How can a simple person like me ever expect to emulate the Greatest of all?” There is no question that the call to bring the gospel to the world is a sacred kind of ministering. But how can I possibly live up to this overwhelming assignment? Returning to the 4th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, the magnitude of this commitment is stated very clearly, “Therefore, o ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind, and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.”
Wow. If that’s where it ended, I might just give up right there. Clearly success in ministering isn’t about half-hearted efforts. Wherever we are ministering, the Lord asks nothing less than everything we have. The elites of His day could not understand why He would waste so much of His time and energy caring for those at the bottom.
As always, His way of thinking was the opposite of theirs. He said, “and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” And this applies especially to those of us who accept a mission call. So many people find it peculiar that we are willing to waste so much of our precious time ministering by sharing the gospel with strangers. The word “waste” is interesting. D&C section 123 contains another of the Lord’s calls to minister by sharing the gospel. “And also it is an imperative duty that we owe to all the rising generation, and all the pure in heart - Therefore, that we should wasteand wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven.”
Now all of this to me sounds extremely important, but it doesn’t make me feel any more capable of living up to the immense responsibility that I am about to undertake. Fortunately, just when it seems to me to be impossible, we find in section 4 the answer to the question “How can a person like me possibly succeed?”
The answer comes in two parts. First, the Lord doesn’t call us because of our abilities, but because of our desires. He said, “Therefore if ye have desires to serve God, ye are called to the work.” That’s amazing to me and also very reassuring to know that He believes in us and knows what makes success possible starts with our willingness to serve.
I am pretty sure that’s a general principle of life. If our desire for something is strong enough, our achievement of that thing is inevitable. On the other hand, it also means that failure is assured when our attention becomes divided. It has been said that “desire is the father of initiative, resourcefulness, ambition, and all of the other virtues.” Desire is what makes us want to “do many things of our own free will.” (D&C 58:27). God has said that he blesses us “According to our desires.” (Alma 29:5).
Our desire is just the beginning. He also gives the answer for how each of us can qualify to minister. “And faith, hope, charity, and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.” That’s not a lot of words to say a lot of things. These are the kinds of things that I can have but never have enough of. And each of them should have their own talk.
But I want to focus for a moment on what it means to have “an eye single to the glory of God.” I think it is a key part of the success formula, and maybe even the most important part. An eye that is single to something indicates purity of purpose.
It is hard to say what is the greatest blessing we receive by having the gospel in our lives, but I would propose the list ought to include having a clear purpose. And not just any purpose, but one that is focused completely on God: His love, his power, his solutions, his plan.
An eye that is single doesn’t get distracted by fads and popular opinions of what is right and what is wrong. The scriptures say that “no man can serve two masters.” This may sound hard, but I think it makes it easier to minister. By concentrating ourselves and our efforts on a single purpose, we eliminate distractions and even our limited abilities can be focused enough to emulate Him at least in a small way.
Next in section 4 is a brief list we are asked to keep in mind, “Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.” I guess one way to see this is as a list of attributes which we all know are difficult to obtain. But I choose to see it in a different way: a cheat-sheet of power tools I can draw upon in the difficult times that lie ahead to help me as I minister.
As I previously said, while this section contains only 145 words, it is a master sermon in miniature form. But nothing surpasses the profound brevity of verse 7 which contains the last 14 words. The Lord chooses to end with what may be the most often repeated commandment in all of scripture. And it is a commandment but it is also much more than that, it is a gift, and probably the most powerful tool of them all to help every one of us as we embark in the service of God. “Ask and ye shall receive; knock and it shall be opened unto you.” I don’t think the Lord would use this phrase so much if it wasn’t extraordianarily practical and useful. He is well aware that we are weak, that our powers are limited, and our knowledge even more so.
Larry Y. Wilson shared a powerful story that shows this principle in this April’s general conference. Ensign Blair, a chaplain on a transport ship in Japan during the Korean War, is a perfect example of what it means to ask. During a huge storm, he was asked by crew members to pray for the safety of the ship. Instead of simply asking God to protect the ship, he asked if there was anything he could do to ensure the safety of the ship. He was then able to receive the answer he was looking for. This pattern of asking and receiving led the ship to safety.
This is my lifeline and yours if we will only use it. Apparently all it takes is just to ask - for help, for understanding, for protection, for comfort. There really aren’t any limits listed anywhere of what we can ask for. And even better, this is a lifeline I am also being called to share with the people of Ukraine.
I would like to bear my testimony… As I embark on my journey to serve the Lord and the people of Ukraine, I pray that I will, in my own small way, follow the Lord’s formula for successfully ministering.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
