Good morning Brothers and Sisters. It is so bittersweet for me to be here this Sunday giving my farewell to such a great congregation. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Emily Bell. I have been called to serve in the Atlanta Georgia mission and I report September 9th. I graduated from Higley High School in 2014, spent a year at BYU, and now I am preparing to go teach the gospel for 18 months. My family and I are converts to the church, we were baptized in November of 2009. As I think back to that day, I would have never imagined how this gospel would turn into the biggest blessing in my life, and I definitely would have never imagined myself choosing to go on a mission to teach others the knowledge I received only 6 years ago.
For any investigator, one of the lessons that the missionaries are instructed to teach is that pertaining to The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Within this lesson one is taught on what it means to endure to the end. As a former investigator, I can recall thinking to myself “Aren’t I doing this now?” or as the dictionary defines enduring, “Aren’t I already suffering patiently?”. However, In Preach My Gospel, enduring to the end is not suffering patiently, but “remaining true to the commandments of God despite temptation, opposition, and adversity in life”. Comparing these two different explanations of what it means to endure, I find truth within the latter of the two. Although we do suffer in this life, that was not our Heavenly Father’s sole purpose in having His children come to live in mortality. More clearly, our purpose in this probationary state is to have joy and prepare to meet God.
President Henry B. Eyring says it best by stating, “So many things beat upon us in a lifetime that simply enduring may seem almost beyond us… But the test a loving God has set before us is not to see if we can endure difficulty. It is to see if we can endure it well. We pass the test by showing that we remembered Him and the commandments He gave us. And to endure well is to keep those commandments whatever the opposition, whatever the temptation, and whatever the tumult around us.”
And if we do endure in the way President Eyring describes, may we also know the blessing of enduring. Given in D&C Section 14, verse 7 we are promised by God that “if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.”
So then what? Have we set out on this mortal journey to endure alone? Absolutely not. In the words of Elder L. Tom Perry “enduring to the end is definitely not a do-it-yourself project.” It requires putting the atonement to use in our lives, pressing forward with a steadfastness in Christ, and allowing our faith to exceed our fears.
When I think about the last part of that sentence, I wonder if I have always put my faith before my fears. A mantra that I have clung to for some time is the saying, “Be Still & Know That I Am God”. In moments of doubt, anxiety, fear, and loneliness, it brings me peace knowing the comfort and power that my Heavenly Father has to give me. It reassures my testimony that God has a perfect plan for me, and that He would never leave me alone.
A huge leap of faith that I have had to take in my life has been deciding to serve a mission. At the start of my journey in this gospel, I thought missionaries were amazing. The selflessness that they possessed was inspiring and it truly blew my mind how much knowledge they had about the gospel! I remember being asked if I was going to serve a mission, and replying with a confident no. It has always been important for me to go to school, receive a degree, and start a career as soon as I could. Being raised in a home where education was very prevalent, I had no problem following that plan. Fast forward a few years to around the time I was sixteen. I was being taught in this ward by my great young women leaders about patriarchal blessings one sunday, and felt the Spirit so strongly urging me to prepare to receive mine. Upon acting on that prompting, I prayed and fasted that this blessing would confirm to me that the path I was headed down was the right one. On February 23rd of 2013, I was filled with great anticipation for this confirmation. My mom and I pulled up to the Patriarch’s house, stopped the car, opened our doors, and without hesitation I turned to her and said “I’m going on a mission.”
For those of you who have not yet received your patriarchal blessing, I strongly encourage you to. As they are each very sacred and personal to each individual I won’t share the details of what was said in mine, but that day I had gained the knowledge that I needed to serve a mission to become the person that Heavenly Father wants and needs me to be.
Altering this plan of mine has been a huge blessing in disguise. I have been fortunate enough to see how we are humbled when we forget our own will, and follow the will of our Father in Heaven. Having not even saved a penny prior to my mission, I struggled to believe that this was really right for me, my faith was shaken as I scrambled to see how I would be financially able to serve. To my surprise, the Lord truly worked miracles in ways I could never even imagine or repay Him for. Although this was never my plan for me, I know it is Heavenly Father’s plan. And when we each follow His plan, He will prepare a way for every one of His children, despite any circumstance.
Having these experiences, the mortal being in me still questions if it is right for me to go on a mission, say goodbye to the comfortable life I have, and breakaway from the path I have worked so hard for. But I am filled with hope as I hear the words of President Monson proclaiming “Wonderful, glorious things are in store for you, if only you will believe, obey, and endure.”
I love watching, and re-watching, mormon messages. The stories, words of our leaders, and teachings within them are so simple, yet so powerful. There is one in particular that I have thought a lot about while writing this talk, entitled “Unto All the World: Essa’s Story.” In which a family learns the importance of enduring when tragically losing their daughter. To what seemed like an ordinary afternoon for Dean and Danelle Ricker, there was no hesitation in letting their youngest daughter Essa take pictures in the leaves with her two friends. However, after an accident involving the three girls and two passing trains, the family found peace in the atonement and knowledge surrounding life here on earth. Essa’s mom states, “You feel cheated in a sense, but I have to trust that Heavenly Father knows best and you can’t argue with the Lord or Heavenly Father. Now I need to endure, and our family needs to endure, and we need to make sure we make it back to our Heavenly Father.”
Like the Ricks family, we will each have moments where we too feel cheated. Life here on earth is unfair, but that is how God designed it to be. We knew in our pre-mortal existence that we were to be tried, tested, and tempted in this state. But it is while in this state that we show our Heavenly Father that we trust His plan that He designed. That through our trials and moments of adversity, we continue to have faith in Him, obey the commandments that He has given us, use the atonement in our lives, and ultimately, endure to the end.
I am grateful that He has not called upon us to do it alone. I think of my Savior, and what He had to suffer in order to bring me back to my Father in Heaven. Our Savior chose to experience pains and infirmities in order to understand me, to understand you, and to understand each and every one of His brothers and sisters. It is in knowing this, that we may also have to experience the injustices of mortality to understand a small fraction of what it is that Christ atoned for.
What a disappointment it would be if life followed the world’s definition of enduring, and was just an experience of suffering patiently. I know we are here to feel joy, happiness, and peace. However many trials we may face, heartaches we may feel, or oppositions we may have to overcome, we will come to see in the eternities just why we endured each one.
I would like to end with a quote from Elder Holland that I think best captures my feelings, he says “The tests of life are tailored for our own best interests, and all will face the burdens best suited to their own mortal experience. In the end we will realize that God is merciful, as well as just, and that all the rules are fair. We can be reassured that our challenges will be the ones we needed, and conquering them will bring blessings we could have received in no other way.”
I am so grateful for the knowledge I have gained by being a member of this gospel. I feel so lucky to have had the influences in my life that have helped me become who I am. I know that Christ lives. I know that He died for each and every one of us, and He suffered every single affliction that we may endure in this mortal life. He knows us, and He wants us to live with our Father in Heaven again. I know that God exists. He has a perfect plan for each of us. The Book of Mormon is truly another testament of Jesus Christ, it brings me closer to my Savior and I know that it can for anybody else. I am so excited to teach the people of Atlanta, Georgia what it is that brings me so much happiness. I can’t wait to be their friend and love them unconditionally! I know this is where I need to be, and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
