 |
| Grandma Corbett came hear me speak |
So I invited a lot of people to my farewell talk on Sunday, March 23rd. It was a pretty good turnout, despite the fact that it was at 8:30 a.m. church. But a lot of you did miss it so here's the general gist of it for anyone who cares:
Good morning Brothers and Sisters. I’d like to thank you all so much for being here today and for listening to me speak, even though I’m so young and don’t know very much about anything. I’ve spent most of my life here in Kensington, I’ve grown up here, and I’ve learned a lot from so many of you, so I’m very thankful for this opportunity to now stand here and share with you a little piece of myself just before I embark on this journey that will keep me away for the longest time I’ve ever been away from home. Although I’m grateful to be speaking here, I also feel like the bar has been set pretty high here as far as missionary farewell talks are concerned. Many tears have been shed, laughs have been shared, and even Tupac has been quoted. I decided against quoting Tupac or any other rapper today but hopefully the Spirit will be with me as I speak so you can all feel its warmth and gentle confirmation of the truth of my words.
On the morning of October 6th, 2012, I sat in the lobby of my college dorm with a bunch of my friends, wearing pjs and sharing snacks as we watched the first session of the 182nd General Conference. I remember trying to focus on Thomas S. Monson’s words as I had a million other trivial things going on in my mind, but I quickly tuned in as he mentioned a new temple dedicated in Brazil, my mother’s native country, and then began to speak on missionary work. Words cannot describe the rush of emotion I experienced as The Lord’s prophet announced the missionary age change from nineteen to eighteen for all worthy young men and from twenty-one to nineteen for all worthy young women. Now I’ve been known to tear up watching tons of movies, even kids’ movies like The Fox and the Hound or more recently, Frozen, but usually I can manage to cry fairly noiselessly. Not this time. Just for you to have an idea, as I was preparing this talk I re-watched the address and even then I couldn’t help but let a few tears escape. I can only imagine what all the guys in the room were thinking as all of us girls bawled and hugged each other. This was a big deal for us. I’m talking life-altering. For the next two hours I could hardly pay any attention to the other speakers as my mind drifted to what this announcement could mean for me. As soon as the last prayer was said, I stepped out into the hall to call my parents. I was beyond excited to talk about the news, but my mom was at work and my dad’s response was to ask, “You want to serve a mission?” Was that really so incredulous? Apparently it was, because he remained perplexed. He was also slightly worried about the unanticipated cost—understandably, as $7,000 is no joke. Later, he called back and appeared to be a little more enthusiastic about the idea, but he wanted to know one thing—why? Why did I want to serve a mission? A few months ago, my sweet grandma who is here today caught me off guard when she asked me the same question. Well, I guess I gave my dad a good-enough answer because he’s willing to help pay for my mission, and I don’t really remember exactly what I told my grandma, but I’m sure it was subpar. (At least it wasn’t an answer that took fifteen minutes to give, as this talk is about to be.) To really get to the bottom of it I need to interrupt my story with another story.
Over 2,000 years ago, a young man sat down with his friends to enjoy a meal with them. They ate and talked and afterwards he washed each of their feet. As night fell, one in the company left and the rest the man took on a little evening walk to an orchard. He left all of his friends except three at the entrance and then continued in where he found a spot to kneel down in humble prayer. His friends fell asleep as he prayed and he awoke them but they fell asleep again and again so finally he let them sleep. Later that night, the man was betrayed by one of his friends and arrested. The very next day he was tried, beat, mocked and hung on a cross where he died.
You might all recognize this as the story of the Atonement and crucifixion of Christ. Some of you probably could tell the story in much greater detail, while others might not be very familiar with it at all. So why is this story—the story of the Atonement—relevant to us? What does the word “Atonement” even mean?
To answer the latter I went to the Bible Dictionary, which states, “The word describes the setting ‘at one’ of those who have been estranged, and denotes the reconciliation of man to God. Sin is the cause of the estrangement, and therefore the purpose of atonement is to correct or overcome the consequences of sin.” So the Atonement of Christ restores harmony between us and Our Heavenly Father.
But now why must there even be a reconciliation of man to God? In my personal quest for truth and answers to the basic questions of life and my purpose in this life, what I have come to understand is this: Before the earth was created, we all existed as Spirits and lived with God. In Jeremiah 1:5 the Lord tells us, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee,” and in Abraham 3:22-25 we read:
“22 Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones;
23 And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.
24 And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell;
25 And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;
Though we have no memory of it, we lived with Our Father in Heaven before this life. Jesus had a plan to create an earth for us to live on, where we could gain a body and be tried and tested so that we could gain experience and learn and choose for ourselves to follow God. A great war ensued because Satan had a different plan that didn’t grant us the same agency but would guarantee that we all return, and he was angry with God for choosing Christ’s plan over his. He and a third of the spirits rebelled against God and Christ’s plan and as a result were not given a body. The fact that each of us are here on the earth with a body means that we already chose God’s plan once before.
So this is where it gets really interesting, but also a little complicated, so bear with me. Adam and Eve were the first of God’s children to come to the earth, placed in the Garden of Eden where they were still in the presence of God. They were completely innocent, and could have lived there forever, because God gave them everything they needed. But he also gave them their agency, along with two commandments: first, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Genesis 1:28), and second, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). During their time spent in the garden, they could not progress by experiencing opposition in mortality. They also could not know joy because they did not have sorrow and pain to compare it with. Satan tempted them to eat the forbidden fruit and they chose to do so. But this was all a part of God’s plan. This is where Christ’s Atonement comes in.
1 Nephi 15:34 teaches us that “ there cannot any unclean thing enter into the kingdom of God.” But God is a merciful God, and He would not send us here to the earth knowing that we would sin and become unclean and therefore unfit to be admitted into his presence. However, He is also a just God, so He could not simply forgive us and make us clean without someone paying the price for our sins. Christ was that someone. “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5).
So now back to my story. I was born and raised attending this church and learning the teachings of the gospel. As a child I feel like I was in a state very similar to that of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden—everything I needed was provided for me by my parents and I accepted all the things I was taught, no questions asked. I did suffer pain, but only the pain of a scraped knee or some other small thing. I did know joy, but only the simple joys of having a chocolate bar all to myself or finding pretend notes from fairies in the roots of trees. When I became a teenager, I started choosing to disobey my parents and go against what I had been taught, kind of like eating the forbidden fruit. At first it tasted good and I was thankful for the freedom I felt I had. But gradually, each choice I made led me further and further away from my earthly parents and from my Heavenly Father, and eventually I was totally lost and confused about what I was doing, who I was, and where I was going. My sins had separated me from my Heavenly Father and from His plan for me. But because Christ served as a mediator and paid the price for my sins, all I had to do was repent of my sins and forsake them, in order to get back onto the right path. This isn’t to say that the repentance process was easy, or painless. Far from it. It hasn’t been easy, it hasn’t been painless, and it’s not over. I’m still human, and so I still succumb to the enticings of the natural man. Repentance is a lifelong process, and I find myself needing to repent every single night before I go to sleep. But repentance is not a terrible thing, it is a gift from God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Repentance is the opportunity to have a change of heart and become more like my true self, the person my Father in Heaven knows I can be. And now I know real joy, because I know real sorrow.
Like I said before, I don’t know a lot of things, but I do know a few things that get me through the hardships of life. I know that I am a daughter of God. I know that My Father in Heaven loves me and He sent me here to this earth so that I could learn and grow and be happy and eventually become like Him. I know that He has a plan for me. I know that Jesus Christ atoned for my sins as a part of that plan. I know that Christ suffered and died for me because He loves me, and I know that the only way I can repay Him for his sacrifice is by giving Him everything I have to give.
So, there’s your answer, Dad, Grandma, and everyone else here today. I want to serve a mission because Christ gave His life for me, so the least I can give Him is eighteen months of mine. I say these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
