This talk was given as a farewell address before embarking on a two-year mission from the Church in Viña del Mar, Chile.
On a sunny afternoon in Paris, an aged Pablo Picasso sat resting on a park bench watching people move about and live their lives. As he was sitting there, a woman, pushing a stroller with one hand and wielding a leashed dog in the other, walked by and stopped dead in her tracks. “Oh my!” she exclaimed. “You’re Pablo Picasso! I can’t believe it!” She stammered in her words until she finally asked if he would be willing to make a quick sketch on the back of a piece of scrap paper she had pulled from her purse. He agreed, and sat there scribbling away on the back of the paper for about a minute and then handed it back to her. “Wow!” she exclaimed, “This is amazing! Thank you so much! It is such an honor to meet you in person!” And with that she turned and started to walk away “Excuse me” Picasso said, beckoning her to come back. “Yes?” she said, looking puzzled. “That will be one million dollars” he returned. “A million dollars!?” she responded with a puff. “But it only took you a minute to draw this!” Picasso then stood up, gently took the scrap of paper from the woman’s hand, and staring deep into her eyes simply stated, “It took me my whole life to draw that.”
Whether this story is true or not, I think it illustrates a profound principle. Our experiences and the things we learn in this life are what ultimately make us, and I stand before you today not as a young man who simply made a decision to serve a mission, but as a servant of the Lord over nineteen years in the making. Indeed, I have been working toward this my entire life. I’m not sure if I’m worth a million dollars yet, maybe someday, but… Anyway, this is a moment many young men look forward to. For many of us, it is the first “big boy” talk we ever give, and I hope that what I’ve prepared to say will adequately meet your expectations of me. I have done a lot of public speaking both in church and other venues as well as musical performances of all kinds in all sorts of places, but I’ll be humble and admit that I have never been more nervous than I am right now. It’s a big deal that I get to stand here today, and I take it very seriously. Those of you that know me well know that opportunities to play music could have caused me to delay my missionary service, but the way things played out resulted in my leaving right on time. And I believe there’s a reason for that.
It was suggested that I prepare some material about our responsibility to be missionaries, and I had a lot of fun thinking about what I should say. The first thing that came to my mind was something that my brother shared with me in a letter he sent me while he was in the mission field many years ago. He told me to read the first chapter of Preach My Gospel in the section titled “What is My Purpose as a Missionary?” The first paragraph does an excellent job at setting the tone for why we need to be missionaries:
You are surrounded by people. You pass them on the street, visit them in their homes, and travel among them. All of them are children of God, your brothers and sisters. God loves them just as he loves you. Many of these people are searching for purpose in life. They are concerned for their families. The need the sense of belonging that comes from the knowledge that they are children of God, members of His eternal family. They want to feel secure in a world of changing values. They want “peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come”(Doctrine and Covenants 59:23), but they are “kept from the truth because they know not where to find it” (Doctrine and Covenants 123:12).1
It all starts with the people around us. I had the opportunity in this ward to serve as a leader in every Aaronic Priesthood quorum I was in, and I recognized the responsibility I had to the boys in the ward. This ward is a little different than other wards I’ve been in in the sense that there has been a lot of opportunity to fellowship less active or nonmember families. That said, I regret to inform you that I did not perform my duties very well. I was scared to visit the boys’ homes and invite them to scouting activities and I was scared to take a newsletter to the door of a nonmember family while we collected fast offerings. The same roster of boys I needed to fellowship followed me throughout my service in quorum presidencies over the years, and we never had much success in our small efforts. We even lost a few active young men along the way that used to come to church regularly.
Once, on my way to a presidency meeting, my fellow presidency members ambushed me from behind a tree with snowballs. When they had exhausted their supply, they ran away and skipped the meeting entirely. I still have water damage in my scriptures, and not one of those guys is still around. You look at our ward’s display of missionary plaques, and it’s half the size of some of the other wards in the stake. Why exactly that is remains a question to be answered, but the point is that our service went on, those of us still standing are stronger than ever, and the amount of missionary plaques out there from the 26th ward will get bigger and bigger as time goes on. That’s what matters.
Eventually, we young men turn to men — men that are expected to go out into the world and bring people to Christ. President John Taylor once said that “God will hold us responsible for those we might have saved.” Isn’t that an awesome statement? It’s intimidating and slightly discouraging, but I think it should be encouraging. As referenced in the first paragraph of Preach My Gospel, we read in the Doctrine and Covenants that
12 For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie and wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it.2
All of these obstacles and uncomfortable situations that face us daily in our missionary efforts are very normal.
When Heavenly Father was revealing these truths to Joseph Smith in the Liberty jail, there is one thing that I really think he wanted us to get from this. People will always be kept from the truth because they do not know where to find it and Satan likes to make it even more difficult for them. That’s why it is up to us. We can be examples of the light and truth that so many people are looking for. Even if they don’t know that they don’t know it, they will recognize it. Like the great technology innovator Steve Jobs once said, “People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”3
No one is more aware of the inexperience of a new missionary than I am, and I’ll admit that since we moved to Utah in the summer of 2001, I don’t think I have had a single nonmember friend or even been in many situations to make friends with a nonmember. It’s sort of the geographical nature of my upbringing… But we will all have missionary opportunities that Heavenly Father has promised us, and it’s our responsibility to make the most of them. The problem is that we often find ourselves frightened or nervous when presented with missionary opportunities, or we consider ourselves unprepared.
Several weeks ago, my grandpa pulled me aside at his house and showed me some scriptures that really made an impact on my life:
2 And, behold, and lo, this is an ensample unto all those who were ordained unto this priesthood, whose mission is appointed unto them to go forth—
3 And this is the ensample unto them, that they shall speak as they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost.
4 And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation.
5 Behold, this is the promise of the Lord unto you, O ye my servants.
6 Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come.4
I was so moved as my grandpa asked me to read these verses that I became too emotional to finish, and he had to take over for me. What a gem of a promise this is. In these verses, the Savior addresses all priesthood bearers out there, but I want to testify that the spirit will bear pure and perfect witness through you no matter who you are. If you find yourself in the right place doing and saying the right thing to the right people, Heavenly Father will be right there. God will be right in our midst as we strive to build His Kingdom. I can’t think of anything more beautiful or a cause more worthy than that.
As I wrap things up, I want to thank everyone for being here. There are very important people here today. The life I have lived is sitting before me in your faces — my friends that are still around, my family, and ward members that have seen me grow from sitting in those seats as a Deacon to standing before you right here, about ready to embark on a mission. I want to thank you all and I know that God carefully places people in our lives and places us in people’s lives for a reason. Those reasons are made clearer and clearer to me every day as I draw closer to the Spirit.
There is one more thing that I felt that I should share with you, and it’s a testimony titled The Fellowship of the Unashamed. A good friend of mine recited it from memory in his farewell talk a while back, and thanks to another friend, I was recently able to revisit it on my own, but I’m going to read it if you don’t mind and forgive me if I struggle to get through it:
I am a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit Power.
The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line.
The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ.
I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.
My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure.
I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning,
smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking,
chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals.
I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position,
promotions, plaudits, or popularity.
I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded.
I now live by presence, learn by faith, love by patience,
lift by prayer, and labor by power.
My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow,
my way is rough, my companions few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear.
I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away,
turned back, diluted, or delayed.
I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity,
or meander in the maze of mediocrity.
I won’t give up, back up, let up, or shut up until I’ve preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ.
I am a disciple of Jesus Christ.
I must go until He returns, give until I drop,
preach until all know, and work until He comes.
And when He comes to get His own, He will have no problem recognizing me.
My colors will be clear.5
I want to leave you with my testimony that I know that this Church is true, no different than I said when I was a child. Only now I have a deeper understanding of why. I know that God lives. I know the scriptures are true and that the Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith. The fact that we find ourselves in this building right now is a miracle. But there are so many people that don’t have it yet. Let us go forth in so great a cause. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
References
- “What is My Purpose as a Missionary?” Preach My Gospel, 2004, 1.
- Doctrine and Covenants 123:12
- The source of this quote is generally unknown. Though Steve Jobs was knows to say similar versions of this idea in other contexts, the popular quote used here does not have a specific source or reference.
- Doctrine and Covenants 68:2-6
- The source of the text of The Fellowship of the Unashamed is a debated but the most common story is of a Rwandan man in 1980 who was forced by his tribe to either renounce Christ or face certain death. He refused to renounce Christ, and was killed on the spot. The night before, he had apparently penned The Fellowship of the Unashamed, which was found in his room. Dr. Bob Moorehead wrote about it in his book Words Aptly Spoken (1995).
Dillon Boss 