Mission Farewell and Open House

My FAREWELL

One more week. One more week until I say goodbye to my family for a time. One more week until I put aside all worldly distractions and personal affairs. And most importantly, one more week until I get to spend 18 months as a bigger piece in God’s plan. Teaching, serving, and constantly loving. I’ll get to be upgraded from just Brooklyn Palmer to Sister Palmer. I guess I’ll have to get used to that really soon!

While waiting for my mission to start, I had the privilege of being called into nursery, where I was later moved up to Sunbeams, as well as Activity Days. All the Sundays and Wednesdays with these kids have been a huge blessing. In nursery the lessons were short and sweet, their attention spans matching their little size. But it taught me how to summarize the important details. Then I got the chance to transition with a few of my nursery kids to sunbeams, like sweet Emmy and Zeke. Sitting there in the front row to sing the songs can be a lot for some of them. It’s no secret that one of my favorite little sunbeam friends is Vander. He waves to me during sacrament meeting and always asks me to come over to his house. While sitting next to me during singing time, I noticed he wasn’t singing, and was a little distracted. Instead he was looking at a painting on the wall of the two thousand stripling warriors. I whispered “do you like those pictures?” and he silently nodded his head. We went on singing, and just a few minutes later, Vander patted my arm and pointed to another picture hanging on the wall. Here was a picture of when Christ came to the Americas, and sat with the children. The church buildings are filled with notable disciples of Christ who loved the Lord with all their heart, might, mind and strength. It isn’t just the notable disciples of Christ that are supposed to love the Lord. The Lord has commanded all his children to love Him. But what does this entail, what does it mean, and how can we strive to follow this first and greatest commandment of loving the Lord?

Loving the Lord to me consists of two interlocking actions. One, placing him as our first priority. And two, giving everything unto him. We go through our lives doing and caring for all these things that we value, and we naturally prioritize them. Maybe it’s valuing a talent, or a video game, or valuing an expensive item, or even another person. But do we value and prioritize them MORE than our Savior? I’m not saying that we should ONLY value the Lord. But we need to put our priorities in order, and as Latter Day Saints, the Lord should be the first. Elder Matthew L. Carpenter shared a message regarding loving God with all your heart. He explains, “As we love someone else with all our hearts, we make them a priority in our lives. We give them our time, energy, talent, and resources.” Now think of your past week. Did you spend five hours in one day on your device, to devote only one prayer to the Savior? Instead of reading one whole chapter of your scriptures, did you possibly binge one whole season of a show? NOW think about your daily screen time. Was it more than your Christ time? Sundays are a really great day to evaluate and reflect what our Christ time was like for the past week. It's easy to get swept up in the cares of the world and put the Lord to the side for a moment. But to love him with all our heart, might, mind and strength, we must put him above the things of the world. Whether they are positive or negative focuses that divert your attention, ensure that HE is the main focus.
Personally, I’ve changed my screen time INTO Christ time as well. I have recently enjoyed listening to conference talks on car drives. Thanks to Siris loud directions I sometimes have to rewind it a little bit. Another thing I’ve decided to change is my scripture study. As I follow the words that teach me of the scripture stories, I do receive revelation or little promptings. I carry a scripture journal with me almost everywhere, so when inspiration comes, I have a place to write it down. Yes it takes will power and time, but it is something I am giving to the Lord. I am pondering the scriptures with more heart, more intention, and am gaining strength through the words and stories.

In Alma 37:36, Alma is teaching his son Helaman how to love the Lord with all his heart, might, mind and strength. It reads, “Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.” Every focus, and every reason for anything we do should be for the Lord. Our priority should be to return to him, because we love him, and want to be forever with him in heaven.

Next, giving everything unto the Lord does require sacrifice. While sharing his message, Elder Carpenter extends an invitation: “I invite you to reflect on how you use your time, energy, talents, and resources. Are you using your time to learn what God’s commandments are, so that you can keep them?” He simply asks us to consider if we are giving everything we can unto the Savior, and consider how we may improve. There are ways provided to us to give unto him. For example, tithing, being 10% of what we earn, given back to His church and those in need. Giving unto him can be developing new talents with the body he has given us. As our dear prophet President Nelson stated: “The Lord loves effort and effort brings rewards.” Working hard FOR the Lord shows how much we LOVE the Lord. This can be done as we fulfill church callings and responsibilities. Finding time to make him the priority does take a lot of heart, all you can muster with your might, brain power from the mind, and strength from your body. It is both a mental and physical task, but very possible. We just have to have that love for the Lord above all else. But give what you can give. That will be different for each person. But he knows our capabilities, and knows if we are striving to show our love for him.

If we love the Savior first and foremost, we will be able to better abide by the commandments he gave. The first commandment is to love the LORD with all our heart, might mind and strength. And the second is given in John 13:34. “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you…” Love is more impactful than anything else in this world. God made both the first and second great commandments revolve around LOVE. He knows there are people who need to feel his love, so he asks us to love our neighbor. He has us assist our spirit siblings here in our mortal life and give them the warmth of a Heavenly Fathers love. And when we serve our neighbor, we are loving HIM by simultaneously loving THEM. We can show our love by following his ways and his example. By loving him, it will be easier for us to love others. This past easter conference, Gary E. Stevenson invites us to have our hearts knit together. I invite you to have your hearts knit together through Christ’s love. Christ’s love is perfect, and he loves us perfectly. For us, we are learning and growing each day, and our love is not always perfect. Some days we make a mistake, maybe we didn’t help mom when she asked for us to clean up, maybe we got angry and said something we shouldn’t have, or maybe someone said hello and we ignored them. We may make MISTAKES with our heart, might, mind, or strength. But we can repent, and we can try again. Loving can be hard sometimes, but the Savior reminds and shows us how to do it. He fed the sick, dwelt with the sinners, washed his disciples feet, and served in ways we can learn from. Loving HIM with our entire being is serving him and our NEIGHBORS with our entire being.

There is a song in the Primary Hymn Book called “where love is.” The first two verses read:

Where love is, there God is also.
Where love is, we want to be.
Guide us, his truths to follow;
Help us obey him faithfully.
Where love is, there God is also.
We think of him rev’rently.
Teach us to pray, to talk with him above
And know that he will guide us with his love.

These words speak so much truth. Love abounds where GOD is, so if we GIVE love to our neighbor, they can be led to HIS love and give it to others as well. It all works in one eternal round. But let us be grateful for the love he has given us. SHOW that you are thankful and that you love him by giving your heart might mind and strength.

The Lord’s love is much like a parent's love. I know without a shadow of doubt that my parents love me. And they show me everyday. My mom when she uses her heart to go out of her way to plan temple trips together for the weeks before my mission. My dad when he uses all his might to work and then comes home to work more with me on my mission preparation. My mom when she uses her mind to help me understand that I have a terrible sense of direction and that I am not, in fact, pointing in the direction of Ironwood, eeeeeeven though I’ve lived on the same street for 14 years. My dad when he uses his strength to pop my back after a tough day at work. They have shown their love for me in countless ways other than these four examples. They’ve given me their time and talents to help me progress to who I am today. But I now know how to love the Lord with all I can muster, through their example.

Loving Him takes both effort and time, and uses our body and mind. It takes serving Him and our neighbors. This kind of love is like none other, and can make an incredible impact on the lives of those we give it to. My goal is to give that love unto all the people I meet in South Carolina. I’m going on a mission because I love the Lord, and to show him how grateful I truly am, I am going to give that love through teaching and serving and smiling and loving. I invite each of you to consider your Christ time, and if you could give just a little more unto the Lord. He loves us with all his heart might mind and strength, and we can do the same.