My Farewell Talk

For those who said they wanted to read it here it is! And yeah it's a bit long haha sorry about that. This is pretty much word for word what I spoke minus a few other things I added in here and there:

Good afternoon brothers and sisters. I hope most of you know me by now but if you don’t my name is Justin Mathews and it will very soon be Elder Mathews. Three days from now I enter the MTC in Provo, Utah to begin the best two years of my life and I cannot wait for it to come. I will be spending those two years serving the Lord’s children and our brothers and sisters in Barcelona, Spain. I just hope that I can serve in a way that is pleasing to our Heavenly Father and in a way that I can share the happiness that I get from this gospel.

My topic that I have been given is faith and hope. I heard that and I thought to myself, “that is such a broad topic.” But the more I thought about it and the more I studied it, I thought that I should talk about how faith and hope can apply to me as I serve and how we can grow and learn through faith and hope. So I want to steer this in the direction of how faith and hope can be used as a tool in the mission field and at home.

I want to begin with hope. Hope has always been a very vague and somewhat confusing gospel area for me. I had to do a lot of studying and research on this topic. But thankfully I did because this is what I’ll be teaching in Spain. Hope is an abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promises to us. It is confidence that if we live according to God’s laws and the words of His prophets now, we will receive desired blessings in the future. It is believing and expecting that our prayers will be answered. But what’s the use of knowing what hope is if we don’t know what to hope for? Moroni has an excellent section that talks about faith and hope in the Book of Mormon. In Moroni 7:40-44 we learn why hope and faith are so important to our salvation. It reads, “And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope? And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise. Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope. And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart. If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart...” We learn from these verses that only the meek and lowly of heart can have faith and hope. So this is what we should aim to be. We should aim to be meek and lowly of heart, humble, submissive, and use the knowledge that we are sons and daughters of God and that Jesus Christ is our Savior and saved us from death as our source of hope. We also learn what we should hope for in this scripture. It states right in verse 41 that we should hope, “…through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection…” that we might someday live with our Father in Heaven again. We hope in Jesus Christ, in the goodness of God, in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit, in the knowledge that prayers are heard and answered. Because God has been faithful and kept His promises in the past, we can hope with confidence that God will keep His promises to us now and in the future.

Remember that in Moroni 7 he stated that, “…without faith there cannot be any hope.” So reading this we learn that if a person has hope, then they must have faith as well. I have been taught ever since I entered primary that faith is like a little seed and that if planted it will grow. As I grew older and learned more about this topic I realized that faith doesn’t just grow if planted. It has to be planted and nourished or it will falter and die. Faith, as stated in Alma, is, “…not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” I want to specifically talk about faith in Christ. When you have faith in Christ, you believe in Him as the Son of God. You accept Him as your Savior and follow His teachings. You believe that your sins can be forgiven through the Atonement. Faith in Christ means that you trust Him and know that He loves you. Faith leads to action. Faith is what motivates people to repent, to be baptized, and to serve our Heavenly Father. Despite trials and sufferings, it is faith that motivates us to continue to trust that God has a plan for us and knows what we should do. Knowing what faith is, we can find out how we can obtain it. We obtain faith by increasing our knowledge and love of our Savior Jesus Christ. As we continue to study the scriptures, pray daily, and be obedient to His commandments we can come closer to our Redeemer and in the process allow our faith to grow. The Savior promised, "If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me." It is through faith that miracles are performed. It is through faith that Joseph Smith went into the Sacred Grove to receive an answer from God. It is through faith that the Brother of Jared saw the finger of Christ. It is through faith that Nephi was able to obtain the plates from Laban. But we must remember that only after the trial of our faith come the miracles. We can’t expect a miracle to make us believe. We have to already have the unwavering faith that the miracle will happen.

Now how can we apply these attributes to our lives? As a missionary I know I’ll be exercising them daily. I’ll need the faith to know that what I’m teaching people is true. I’ll need the faith to know that through the Spirit I will learn the Spanish language and be able to communicate the message that He would have me say. I will be teaching people that they can have faith that God loves them and wants them to return again to Him someday. And through faith we can hope for a better life in the world to come. I can put my hope in God, knowing that He will protect and guide me through this life until I have accomplished what He has in store for me. I may have many years ahead of me; I might not. But it does not matter as long as I do His will. And I know that through faith and hope, no matter what my course in life is, that Heavenly Father is guiding me in all things. I know without a doubt that this is the true church. I know that our Savior Jesus Christ atoned for our sins and that through Him we can all repent and return to live with our Heavenly Father someday. But we must exercise our faith in Him and know that He loves us and knows what is best for each of us. I know that I have been called to serve as a missionary to this specific part of the world at this specific time. I have no idea why but I trust that the Lord knows why. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity this summer it is finally here. I am becoming part of the mission of the church. I am helping to fulfill the prophecy stated by Joseph Smith. Most of us know it as the Standard of Truth and I think it is one of the most powerful things I have ever read. It states, “Our missionaries are going forth to different nations…The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” I am helping to accomplish this task and I will do so to the best of my ability. Every soul is precious to God. So if it is so precious to Him, should it not also be just as precious to us? People all around us are just waiting to hear the gospel. So open your mouths. You never know who might be ready and eager to accept the message of Jesus Christ. I know this church is true and I love it with all my heart. And I leave this with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

The Big Apple

Most of you know that I'm from New York...but I think some of you think that I live closer to New York City than I actually do haha. So to clarify I actually live upstate near Rochester which is around a six hour drive from NYC. Which means I don't get to head down a whole lot. But this past week I got to go down with my dad when he went for a business trip. It was pretty sweet getting to go down there and wander around the hugeeee city by myself. There was no one to slow me down, I could go see what I wanted, walk where I wanted, and go at my own pace which was great! I got to see pretty much everything I wanted. I don't really have a favorite place though which is kinda strange. I did really like Central Park and the Empire State building though. And I just gotta say that Time's Square at night is the bomb!! All of you who haven't had the opportunity to go really need to put that on your to-do list before you die haha. I had a lot of first too. Rode the subway for the first time, rode a taxi for the first time, and a few others I can't think of right now. I ran into a few fellow BYU fans in Time's Square of all places too! And they were from Alpine, Utah. Go figure haha. I just gotta say that even though NYC is soooo cool...I never want to live there. Too busy, too loud, too dirty and messy, and just not enough green. I think I'm set where I am.

Almost There!!!

It has been a very long five months. I got my mission call the week before Finals out at BYU in April and I saw the report date: September 29th. But after the long wait and the times of insanity I only have three precious weeks left. It's almost to unreal right now though. I have dreamed and waited for this moment ever since I was a young man growing up through Deacon's Quorum and now that it's actually here I can't even begin to realize that it's actually happening. When I went home from BYU at the end of April I thought I was in for the longest five months of my life. I could have used that time to go to a Spring and Summer Term out at BYU and gotten some more schooling out of the way. I felt that I was just wasting my time sitting at home with nothing to do when I could be doing something useful. I got a job working at a local wholesale club but I didn't really get many hours which was very frustrating. There was no way I was going to be making nearly enough money with only eight hours of work a week. I decided to find more work to keep me busy and to make some more dinero. So I ended up being a soccer referee for the Recreational League here in my hometown and made some decent money. I've house sat for a few families in my ward, and I've even helped a man in my ward with some renovation in his backyard. But with all the college kids going back to school I've finally gotten more hours. Now I'm almost wishing I didn't have so many! Other than work early on in the summer I didn't have much to keep me from missing everything about BYU. I didn't feel like doing much at all. I missed everyone and I even missed my classes!!! Crazy I know. I thought about taking some online courses to keep me busy but I never got around to that. I tried to hang out with some old friends from high school but sometimes I just didn't feel like getting out for some reason. So basically I was a bum for the first half of the summer. But everything changed once the Hill Cumorah Pageant came around. I absolutely loveeee Pageant. It is the best thing about summer for me that I have ever experienced and I'm so glad that I could do it for three straight years. I think I just needed a wake up call. I realized that I was just dwelling on the things I could have been doing back then and not doing what I should or could be doing now. I also needed a Spiritual booster. I knew that I was going on a mission and that I knew it was the right thing to do. But they say that the time before your mission is when Satan and his angels try their hardest to bring you down and I was definitely feeling that. The friends I made at Pageant, the experiences I had, and the lessons I learned were exactly what I needed. I can never thank my Heavenly Father enough for this last chance to participate before my mission. I originally put my availability date for my mission as July 1st which means I would have missed Pageant. But I know that He has a plan for each of us. And I was supposed to be at Pageant one more time. Ever since Pageant ended the weeks have flown by. I've been happier, more awake, more in tune with myself and the Spirit. I started studying Preach My Gospel and the scriptures more intently and on a more regular basis. I've literally felt myself being picked up from the ground and being set in the right direction. I know that Heavenly Father knew what I needed to become the best missionary I could possibly be. And now with just about three weeks to go I still have a lot to finish. But I feel that I have been set on the right path and that I am getting set for what the Lord has in store for me. Thanks to everyone for the support you've shown me. Even if I haven't specifically thanked you or told you, all of you who I call my friends have had more influence on me than you know.

Another pageant has come and gone...For the past three years my family and I have participated in the Hill Cumorah Pageant which takes place just 25 minutes away from my house at the Hill Cumorah. It's been one of the best experiences of my life! And now a week after it all happened I wish we could just rewind the past month and do it alllll again. This year was probably the hottest year weather wise. The first week was sunny, hot, and really humid. So that meant very few games of ultimate frisbee, volleyball, and whatever else and a lot more time just sitting in the shade or sneaking into the costume shop where the AC was.

I thought one year as Nephi was enough but once again I got to wear the wig and costume. I guess it was a good thing I was the same character again because it took me a lot less time to "learn" how to put the costume on since I did it all last year. The only difference this year was the scene I was in. I was in the vision of the tree of life. And if any of you don't know what I'm talking about then I'll assume that you aren't mormon and encourage you to read the Book of Mormon to find out :). But in the scene there were water jets that shot up during the scene so every night without fail I got soaking wet. Most of the time it felt really really good because it was so hot. But other nights it wasn't as great because the mosquitos just loved my wet costume and I ended up with new bug bites after every show. But it was all definitely worth it.

During pageant we have our cast team which is like our family during pageant. I must say that I'm pretty sure I had the best cast team ever this year. Even though there were only four guys, including me, and sixteen girls. But I guess I shouldn't be complaining. And my cast team leaders were the bomb! The Watsons and the Tomas were great! We got to go on a service project, which was scraping gum off chairs and tables at the high school and then moving boxes of paper around the school, tour the church sites which is always an awesome thing to do, and then we had our free day where we went to the lake. I've seen the church sites so many times since I only live twenty to twenty five minutes away, but they never get old. The lake was awesome! It was sunny and gorgeous out. 

Whenever something begins you know that there's always an end and it's the same way with pageant. The last sunday was so sad. Probably more so for me because I won't see most of my friends for over two years. There were plenty of last minute pictures with friends and good bye hugs and some tears from various people. But thank goodness for the church and BYU because there's a very good chance I will see most of them again. Even if it is after two years.

When I moved out to New York almost ten years ago I don't think I fully appreciated how close I was to Palmyra and the church sites. But luckily I do live so close because I can basically go whenever I want. I recently went through the Palmyra Temple for the first time and it was an experience I'll never forget. Unfortunately on my mission I probably won't be able to go very often but that's why I have all summer to go here.

I just felt like going and taking pictures of the sites the other day for some reason. I'm not sure why but it was a gorgeous day and it was the perfect day to go. And there weren't any mosquitos in the Sacred Grove! I started at the Hill Cumorah where I spend about two weeks in July every year participating in the Hill Cumorah Pageant. It felt strange to walk up to the top and to see the hill empty. I'm used to having people everywhere, having a huge stage on the face of the hill, and being there with my friends and family. It was so calm and peaceful and I just imagined what it's going to be like again in less than a month when the pageant starts again. At the top is the Angel Moroni monument. I can't remember how long it's been up there but it's been there for a while. After the Hill Cumorah I drove to the Sacred Grove and Joseph Smith Farm. The great thing about going during the week and during school hours is that there are very few people at the sites at those times. So I had the whole Grove to myself and the whole Farm. It was great! That way no one could get in the background of my pictures accidentally. I went into the Grove and walked down the path that I normally walk down and went to the same bench I always do. It's by a certain tree and every time I go there I have to stop by. I'm not sure why. But I just call it my tree. I usually just sit on the bench right next to it and just enjoy the breeze, the birds, the squirrels, and of course the feelings you get by just being there.