Farewell Talk

Here is a copy of Madison's Farewell talk:

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Have you ever taken parts of a present for someone and put it in three different boxes under the Christmas tree?  The person you are giving the gift to has to open all 3 pieces to be able to really figure out what it is and use it.  Faith, hope, and charity can be described as one gift divided up into three different Christmas boxes.  All three of these divine gifts correlate, working together perfectly to create the best results.

Good afternoon, Brothers and Sisters, for those who don’t know me, which I’m hoping most of you do, my name is Madison Killen.  In September I was called to serve in the New York Rochester mission, which will include the visitors’ centers at the Hill Cumorah, The David Whitmer farm, and The Smith Family farm.  I can’t tell you how excited I am to share my love for the Savior in Western New York and I can’t wait to tell you all of my adventures.  And for those who know the background story, it took a lot of faith, hope, and charity from me to go on this mission so I guess this was a perfect topic for me.  But I have to admit, when I finally got word that Brother Murdock had my topic, a billion other topics, such as something about missionary work or even using music to teach the gospel and help others feel the spirit, went through my mind way before this one.  I hope my somewhat confused face wasn’t so obvious to Bishop and Brother Murdock when I opened my topic paper.  But with everything I’ve gone through, it turned out to be the topic for me.

The definition of faith in the Bible Dictionary is “Faith is to hope for things which are not seen, but which are true”.  But faith does not come by believing alone.  There is a story about a great circus performer, who’s French name I won’t even try to pronounce, stretched a long steel cable across Niagara Falls.  With high winds and without a safety net, he walked across the cable, from one side of the falls to the other.  He then took a wheel barrel full of bricks and again went from one side of the tightrope to the other almost effortlessly. He then turned to the crowd in attendance that were raving and cheering and asked, “Now, how many of you believe that I could push a man across the wire in the wheel barrel?”  The vote was unanimous.  They all had the faith that he could really do it.  While everyone was cheering and held their hands high, the circus performer then asked, “Would one of you please volunteer to be that man?”  As quickly as the hands went up, they went back down.  Not a single person volunteered to trust their life to the performer.  In James 2:20 it reads, “Faith without works is dead.”  What does that mean exactly?  It just means that if you don’t exercise faith and take action, faith is not faith at all.  President Monson in the April 2009 General Conference told the perfect story about faith with action.

“While presiding over the Canadian Mission, Sister Monson and I had the opportunity of serving with some of the finest young men and women in all this world. The very lives of these young missionaries exemplified faith.

There sat in my office one day a newly arrived missionary. He was bright, strong, happy, and grateful to be a missionary. He was filled with enthusiasm and a desire to serve. As I spoke with him, I said, “Elder, I imagine that your father and mother wholeheartedly support you in your mission call.” He lowered his head and replied, “Well, not quite. You see, President, my father is not a member of the Church. He doesn’t believe as we believe, so he cannot fully appreciate the importance of my assignment.”

Without hesitating and prompted by a Source not my own, I said to him, “Elder, if you will honestly and diligently serve God in proclaiming His message, your father will join the Church before your mission is concluded.” He clasped my hand in a vise-like grip, the tears welled up in his eyes and began to roll forth down his cheeks, and he declared, “To see my father accept the truth would be the greatest blessing that could come into my life.”

This young man did not sit idly by hoping and wishing that the promise would be fulfilled, but rather he followed the sage advice that has been given of old: “Pray as though everything depended upon God. Work as though everything depended upon you.” Such was the missionary service of this young man.

At every missionary conference I would seek him out before the meetings and ask, “Elder, how’s Dad progressing?”

His reply would invariably be, “No progress, President, but I know the Lord will fulfill the promise given to me through you as my mission president.” The days turned to weeks and the weeks to months, and finally, just two weeks before we ourselves left the mission field to return home, I received a letter from the father of this missionary. That father wrote:

“Dear Brother Monson:

“I wish to thank you so much for taking such good care of my son who recently completed a mission in Canada. He has been an inspiration to us.

“My son was promised when he left on his mission that I would become a member of the Church before his return. This promise was, I believe, made to him by you, unknown to me.

“I am happy to report that I was baptized into the Church one week before he completed his mission.” The humble prayer of faith had once again been answered.

            Real faith, like what the young missionary showed in President Monson’s story, gives us the power to do so much more than we have ever imagined.  In Moroni 7:33 it reads, “And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me.”  If we have faith in Christ, we can do and see the impossible.

In the very definition of faith, hope is present.  Faith is to HOPE for things, which are not seen, which are true.  It’s very evident that hope is important, but why?  The definition of hope is a feeling of desire for something.  With that feeling of desire, we are able to push ourselves forward and receive the blessings waiting for us.  Elder Uchtdorf in the October 2008 General Conference said, “Hope is critical to both faith and charity. When disobedience, disappointment, and procrastination erode faith, hope is there to uphold our faith.  The brighter our hope, the greater our faith.”

A recent personal story I have about hope actually just happened this passed week.  I caught a horrible stomach flu last Saturday and the virus attacked brain nerves that left the left side of my face paralyzed.  With faith and definitely hope, my recovery time will be quicker than what the doctors had originally told me, which was 4-6 weeks to even see improvement and months to fully recover.  Elder Uchtdorf said, “Hope sustains us through despair. Hope teaches that there is reason to rejoice even when all seems dark around us.

With Nephi, Elder Uchtdorf declared: “Press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.”

This is the quality of hope we must cherish and develop. Such a mature hope comes in and through our Savior Jesus Christ.”

While preparing this talk, I realized “hope” can be a difficult subject to talk about.  There are not very many general conference talks, nor a ton of scriptures that cover the topic by itself.  In most of the material I found, hope was connected to something else.  I started to realize while trying to find the inspiration to write something about hope, that hope is more of the connecting piece, an important one, but more like the bridge between faith and charity.  Elder Uchtdorf said, “The things we hope for lead us to faith, while the things we hope in lead us to charity.”  Hope is the subtle connection between.  That’s why it’s in the very definition of faith.  Without that bridge of hope, that feeling of desire, we would have a very difficult time getting to faith or charity. 

In the next 18 months I’ll be able to experience charity to its fullest.  Missionary work is all about charity.  Giving your time and talents to something bigger that you may or may not be able to see while you’re serving.  One of my favorite quotes about missionary work actually just comes from a plaque I saw one day.  It read, “Missionary: Someone who leaves there family for a little while so that others can be with there’s for eternity.”  What an awesome experience I will be able to be a part of.  Just sacrificing a short time of my life can create such a huge difference in someone else’s, even if it’s just planting the seed for another missionary.

Charity is the pure love of Christ.  Why is it described that way?   Christ’s sacrifice was the perfect act of charity.  He suffered the atonement and on the cross for everyone even when his blood was innocent because he simply loves us.  As we sacrifice our time, talents, and efforts, we are sharing Christ’s love for one another.  Elder Russel M. Ballard said, “When that love is tangibly manifested in millions of acts of Christian kindness, it will sweeten and nourish the world with the life-sustaining nectar of faith, hope, and charity.”

Why is charity a life-sustaining nectar?  Why is it so vital?

President Thomas S. Monson has taught that in many instances Heavenly Father answers another person’s prayers through us, through our kind words and deeds, through our simple acts of service and love.

And President Spencer W. Kimball said: “God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other.”

With faith and hope, we will be able to be lead to those who need charity.  We need to have the trust in Christ that he will lead us to where we need to go.  One of my favorite songs, that has become one of my mission prep theme songs, has a line that reads, “Where you lead me, I will follow.  Where you lead me, I’ll give my life away.”  What ever act of charity, wherever we’re serving, let that be our goal.  Wherever our Savior leads us, we will follow and give everything we have.

President Monson has said, “…True charity manifests itself when we are tolerant of others and lenient toward their actions, the kind of charity that forgives, the kind of charity that is patient…the charity that impels us to be sympathetic, compassionate, and merciful, not only in times of sickness and affliction and distress but also in times of weakness or error on the part of others.

There is a serious need for the charity that gives attention to those who are unnoticed, hope to those who are discouraged, aid to those who are afflicted. True charity is love in action. The need for charity is everywhere.”

Putting all 3 of these amazing gifts together, faith, hope, and charity, leads us to the ultimate gift; Eternal life with our Father in heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ.  Using all 3 gifts is a symbol of trust in our Savior and his plan for us.  As we strive to become like Christ, we must always remember that one piece of the ultimate gift doesn’t work without the other and trust that God knows what we need to do if we are willing to listen and obey.  In Moroni 10:20-21 it reads, “Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith there must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be charity.  And except ye have charity ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God; neither can ye be saved in the kingdom of God if ye have not faith; neither can ye if ye have no hope.”

President Monson said, “There is a golden thread that runs through every account of faith [hope and charity] from the beginning of the world to the present time. Abraham, Noah, the brother of Jared, the Prophet Joseph Smith, and countless others wanted to be obedient to the will of God. They had ears that could hear, eyes that could see, and hearts that could know and feel.

They never doubted. They trusted.

By trusting in God with faith, nothing wavering, we can call down to our rescue His mighty power. His call to us is as it has ever been: “Come unto me.”