Here is a recording of my talk if you would like to listen and read it at the same time!
So at the beginning
of the week I was writing my talk trying to figure out the first thing I was
going to say when I got up here. I
couldn’t think of anything so I asked each of my family members what to say, and
instead I will read you their responses.
Torben- torb
told me to say that he is my favorite person in the family
Britta- told
me to say hi my name is anika, I was never planning on going on a mission but
here I am!
Natasja- told
me to do what they did at conference and just speak in Spanish
Dad- said
that that was a big question and instead of responding decided to talk about
ebola
Mom- told me
to go like this and say “yo brothers and sisters”
I’m not sure if any
of them took me seriously when I asked but I just decided to stick with what
they had to say
For those of you that don’t know me
my name is Anika Van Boerum and I am leaving to serve a mission in Neuquén
Argentina. I am so grateful to be up
here today to share with you my testimony and give my last goodbye before I
leave in 10 days.
I am also extremely thankful to be
speaking with Macy Wilcox today
because not only does she have a super strong testimony and she used to be one
of my awesome young women leaders, but I also now don’t have to worry about
being the only person to cry up on the pulpit today.
A few things about my mission,
Neuquén:
- located in Southwestern Argentina in the Patagonia
- one of the major tourist cities in Argentina because there are ski resorts in some areas of the region
- good meat
- and most importantly, though I probably won’t see one, there are penguins
I also have a good friend of mine, Ella, serving in Rosario
and both Tosh Wilcox and Jake Wyckoff, in our ward, are serving in Buenos Aires
and Mendoza Argentina.
I wasn’t given a topic
to speak on today but my only requirement was to center my talk on Christ. Recently I just finished the book Power to
Become by David A. Bednar and it has been so inspiring that I decided to have
my talk be about what I learned while reading the book and the Power to Become
like our Savior Jesus Christ.
We were put here on
this earth to be tested and tried, gain knowledge, use our free agency, and
throughout all of this, we are supposed to become like our Savior Jesus
Christ. In Matthew 5:48 the Savior declared in the Sermon on the Mount, “Be ye
therefore perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
In 3 Nephi 12:48 the
savior is speaking to the Nephites in the Americas and says, “Therefore I would
that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect.”
Another scripture I found was when Paul was teaching the
Ephesians the purpose of the church and in Ephesians
4:12-13 he says, “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity
of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto
the measure of the stature of the fullness Christ:”
All three of these scriptures tell us how we are supposed to
become perfect even as our Savior and our Father in Heaven.
This sometimes can be seen as a daunting quest to become perfect or completely Christ-like, but our
Heavenly Father has given us the tools to do our very best. In Elder Bednar’s book, he says, “As
disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, our individual responsibility is to learn
what we should learn, to act and live as we know we should act and live, and to
become what the Master would have us become.”
Three things. Increase in
Learning, Act in Doctrine, and the Power to Become.
The first of Elder Bednar’s tools is to increase in learning. One of our duties here on this earth is to
constantly be learning about the things of eternity that matter most. Some of these things to study are the nature
of the Godhead, the plan of salvation, the reality and divinity of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the efficacy of the Savior’s infinite and eternal atoning
sacrifice, and the Restoration of the gospel in the latter days. How are we supposed to become perfect like
the Savior if we aren’t studying the life and the Character of Christ?
Mission Decision
I can truly testify of the power of learning and studying
with my experience of deciding to go on a mission.
A year ago in October I decided to serve a mission. I was in the middle school up at BYU and I
was just kind of struggling a bit.
School was hard, I was still trying to make new friends, I missed my
family constantly and even though I was reading my scriptures every night and
going to the temple every week, I just kind of felt lonely and not as a happy
as I could be. It was mid October and
for some reason I just felt impressed to go over to Deseret Book and buy Jesus
the Christ. I didn’t know much about
this book but I started reading and studying it. The more and more I read, I realized the
closer I was getting to my Savior. I
realized that this situation with the Savior was like getting to know your best
friend. At first you are just friends,
but the more you learn of their hardships, struggles, joys, and what makes them
happy, the closer you become to them.
That is what the book Jesus the Christ is all about, the story of his
crucifixion, his birth, his baptism, his life as a young boy and so much
more. Not only was Christ my best friend
at the time because I was reading this book, but I was happier than I have ever
been. I didn’t even want to do my
homework, all I wanted to do was read and learn more about my Savior. I looked forward to it every day. During this time I had also been reading
mission blogs from missionaries like Sarah Flynn and Hope Busath and other
friends of mine. I was just so happy
that on the morning of Friday October 26th I decided to serve a mission
because I wanted to share MY source of happiness with others around the world.
Since then I have had such a strong testimony of the power of learning. There still are many things I need to learn
but I am grateful for the joy that can be found when you study the things of
eternal worth.
After increasing in learning comes the tool of acting in doctrine. It doesn’t matter how much you know about
Christ-like attributes, or about the path of righteousness, or about anything
else if you aren’t acting upon them. We
need to turn from self to savior and instead of just striving to know more, we
need to consistently do more of what we know is right and become better.
The first law of
heaven is obedience. In the fourth
article of faith it says “We believe that through the Atonement of Christ all
mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the
Gospel.” This tells us that we need to
be obedient in acting on both the ordinances AND the commandments of our
church.
Beginning with ordinances, we have been given the saving
ordinances which are baptism, confirmation, ordination to the Melchizedek
Priesthood for men, the temple endowment, and marriage sealing. How blessed are we to have these ordinances
that will allow us to return to our Heavenly Father? Through these we are not only reminded of our
spiritual responsibilities and duties, but we are also provided access to the
Power of Godliness.
Regarding commandments, Mosiah 2:41 says “And moreover, I
would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those
that keep the commandments of God. For
behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if
they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby
they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are
true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.”
Sometimes the commandments can be difficult to keep and sometimes we
choose to be better at some than others, but what if we looked at the
commandments in a way that they are just extra direction from Heaven? I think if we all did this we would have a
more positive attitude about the simple things we are being asked to do. At the General Women’s Conference a few weeks
ago President Uchtdorf said, “I think God knows something we don’t.” We only know a few pieces to each of our
puzzles but Heavenly Father has all of the pieces together so we might as well
take all of the Heavenly direction from him that we can get.
It is important to be acting in
doctrine, but we should consistently
be acting in doctrine and striving to be better. Elder Bednar said, “it frankly does not make
sense to occasionally ‘fill up’ with water, with long periods of dehydration in
between. The same thing is true
spiritually. Spiritual thirst is a need
for living water. A constant flow of
living water is far superior to sporadic sipping.”
Over the past couple of months I
have basically been waiting to go on my mission. During this time I have realized how
important it is to be constantly strengthening my testimony because sometimes
my desire to serve can sway a little bit.
When I am actively striving to be better and learning what I can do to
become more like my
Savior, I am truly happier and my
desire to serve a mission is strengthened ten-fold. Whenever I start to doubt,
I have learned that it is because I am not focusing on what is important and
actively trying to be a better disciple of my Heavenly Father.
As we increase in learning about the Savior and His gospel,
as we strive to be obedient to the ordinances and commandments we have been
given, then the Power to Become will be able to bless us and flow into our
lives. This is where my mission
scripture Doctrine and Covenants 11:28-30 ties in. It says:
Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I am the life and the light of the
world. I am the same who came unto mine
own and mine own received me not; But verily, verily, I say unto you, that as
many as receive me, to them will I give power
to become the sons [and daughters] of God, even to them that believe on my
name. Amen.”
I can’t wait to be in Argentina bringing people unto Christ
and doing what I can to help them receive him and be given the Power to
Become. I know that this power is the
only way for us to be better than our mortal capacity and I hope to plant this
seed in as many hearts I can.
In Preach My Gospel it says, “God has established families
to bring happiness to His children.
*Bear testimony and finish with quote below*
There was a quote that was used at the United Nations
conference and I believe it applies to the gospel but Edmund Burke once said,
“all that is need for the forces of evil to triumph is for good men and women
to do nothing.”
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
~Just a few pics with friends on this wonderful day! So grateful for each of them and their support.
~Just a few pics with friends on this wonderful day! So grateful for each of them and their support.
No comments:
Post a Comment