Mission Farewell Talk

Mission Farewell Talk

            Good afternoon brothers and sisters! I’m Taylor Soper, and I’ll be serving in the Madagascar Antananarivo Mission, reporting to the MTC on January 6th. I’ll be speaking the Malagasy language. Okay yes, I have seen the movie Madagascar. It’s kinda funny, but I’ve done some research, and it’s not completely accurate. When people joke to me about how they know exactly what Madagascar’s like because they’ve seen the movie, that’s the funniest joke ever. I am just kidding, but really, I love how excited people are getting for me; I can’t help but feel energized and ready to fly over to be a missionary already! It has been quite the process getting to this point though. It’s nice to know I’ve progressed since I was 6 years old. For example, when I was 6, I didn’t want to go to church so badly that I asked my mom and dad if we could go to the church of “Chuck E. Jesus” instead. I now realize that Chuck E. Cheeses is not a church building and that Jesus doesn’t really have anything to do with it.  It was kind of a sad clarification for a hyperactive 6 year-old.

• But back to Madagascar. Because the culture of that country is relatively unknown, I’ll give you a few facts to know a little more about what it’s like.

• Madagascar lies off the southeast coast of Africa and is the fourth largest island in the world, about the size of Texas.
• It is “suit free” mission. I will be wearing short sleeve shirts and sandals.
• I can tell it’s a much different environment from Orem by some of the things included on my packing list: moleskin, typhoid immunizations, malaria treatments, anti-diarrheal tablets, anti-fungal cream and mosquito repellant.
• Madagascar is best known for being a “hotspot” of biodiversity, due its weird and wonderful wildlife. About 80 percent of the wildlife found there is unique to Madagascar. And although it covers less than 1% of the earth’s surface, the island is home to over half the planet’s plant and animal species. That fact sounds ridiculous, but it’s true somehow.
• The language spoken in Madagascar, Malagasy, is a combination of Malaysian languages, with the some Arabic and French flavoring.
• The cornerstone of the Malagasy diet is rice--in fact, the word “to eat” in Malagasy is mihinam-bary, which means “to eat rice.”

            That was basic introduction to Madagascar, and now I can finally delve into the topic of my talk. Brother Obarr assigned me to talk on the role that faith plays in being an effective missionary. Whenever faith is the topic, the options are pretty broad, so I chose to hone in on one aspect of faith that especially resonates with me: how faith can be shown to Heavenly Father through courage, specifically courage to go out of one’s comfort zone.

            In addition, Brother Obarr gave me a talk that complements this topic. The talk is “Be Not Afraid, Only Believe” by Dieter F. Uchtdorf from the last general conference.  One key part of his talk was about Daniel and his challenges as he went to live in Babylon. When I read Daniel’s story, I felt like it was very dramatic and harrowing. He was taken prisoner to a new country, and he was ridiculed and nearly put to death for his beliefs. He had to keep his covenants and hold onto his faith even when he was in an extreme minority.  I wondered, “Have I ever experienced something even close to the trauma and pressure he felt?” The only experience I could relate to this was going to London for 3 months on a study abroad with my family. It was a foreign land, check, and my parents did take me against my will since I didn’t want to leave my friends in seventh grade, check; and many of the people we met didn’t share our beliefs, check.  But that’s as far as the comparison goes.  The British people were nice to me, and I was generally sheltered by my family situation. In fact, the environment was so low pressure, I’m pretty sure I went the whole 3 months straight with bad bed head without ever feeling embarrassed about it.

After pondering Daniel’s story for a bit longer, however, I realized that we don’t have to be taken to an intimidating foreign land to experience the scary pressures of Babylon. Worldly peer pressure and dangerous temptations exist all around us in our daily lives. And even as a seventh grader at a place like Lakeridge jr high here in Orem you can sometimes feel like Daniel as you try to hold on to your faith and keep the commandments in the face of a lot of negative peer pressure. Looking back, I was probably more scared about going to band practice here in Orem with a malfunctioning saxophone that couldn’t play many notes and could barely play the ones it could. I worried more about the ridicule I might face during band practice from the surrounding saxophonists than flying half way around the world and living abroad in England.

            As I pondered how we deal with fear and negative pressures in our lives I thought about a class I took at BYU this last semester called Human Development. It was all about babies and their development into adolescence. In that class, I learned about the temperament every child is born with, a combination of physical, emotional and mental traits that determine how one reacts to a new situation. There are 4 different types of temperament: social, shy, avoidant, and unsocial. Children that are born with a social temperament have high desire to approach a new experience while their desire to avoid it is low. Children with a shy temperament have a high desire to approach a new experience while their desire to avoid it is high.

As I read this information I had a small epiphany. I was a very shy kid. I realized that for much of my childhood, when I was faced with a new or unexpected situation, my muscles tensed up, my breath became short, and I felt a strong urge to avoid the challenge I was facing. I’m sure some of you have experienced similar effects, and so you know how debilitating it can feel. To give you an idea about how pathologically shy I was, I used to try to avoid going to the bathroom at school for the entire day since I didn’t have the courage to ask my teacher, the kind Mrs. Turner, for permission to go.  As you can imagine, that made me look like a jumpy and jittery kid, and it created several awkward experiences that wouldn’t be appropriate to describe in sacrament meeting. Alright, I peed my pants, whatever. I haven’t for a long time. Despite those challenges, I’m grateful that I had good parents while growing up. They didn’t label me as shy; they embraced my neurotic personality with warmth; and, they gave me opportunities to gradually try to overcome my shyness with reasonably challenging tasks.

Early on, being a member of the church also gave me opportunities to serve other people and take on leadership responsibilities in ways that weren’t too overwhelming.  I remember the first time I had to give a talk as a new deacon, I was so terrified about getting up in front of this congregation. I was shaking as I stood here and my voice audibly shook and squeaked the entire time. Granted some of that could be attributed to going through puberty, but it was probably rough to watch. And because I thought that I couldn’t ask for help in writing it, I’m pretty sure the delivery was incoherent and the content was riddled with false doctrine. Sorry about that. But somehow it was still a positive experience. No one made fun of me afterward and some of the older people in the ward even stretched the truth in kind ways by telling me I did a good job. I love that sense of community and support our ward and the church gives to youth.

As I got older, I gradually felt less intimidated by those kinds of challenges and even mustered the courage to get involved in student council and other service-related activities that require a person to get up in front of people a lot. Looking back, I think a lot of that gradual growth I experienced seems to affirm the scriptural truth that with faith and God’s help, our weaknesses can gradually be turned into strengths. I’ll read that famous scripture, Ether 12:27: “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”

As I face the prospect of going to Madagascar and talking to strangers about the Gospel, the truths taught in that scripture—and the way I’ve seen them work in my life—a are really encouraging. I have to admit that as I anticipate the challenges ahead of me, there’s still a side of me that feels like that shy little kid who would panic when asked to pray for Sunday school. For example, as I imagine trying to talk to people who might be rude or uninterested about the Gospel, I feel a real sense of trepidation or self-consciousness.

Turning to the scriptures has helped me to deal with those doubts and fears.  In addition to Daniel’s story and the truth that God will turn our weaknesses into strengths, I’m encouraged by several other passages. First of all, there’s Nephi’s famous declaration in 1^st Nephi 3: 7, another favorite scripture of mine. “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish th thing which he commandeth them.”  To me, that says that God wouldn’t have opened this mission in Madagascar and called young people like me to go there if He’s not going to be there right beside us, guiding us to the individuals who are ready to receive the Gospel.  That knowledge will help me immensely as I face the occasional situations where people might reject or ridicule me.

            I also like those scriptures that remind me that it doesn’t matter that I’m relatively young and inexperienced as I go off on this challenging mission.  For example, in D&C 35:13 it says, “Wherefore, I call upon the weak things of the world, those who are unlearned and despised, to thresh the nations by the power of my Spirit.”  That doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t prepare and learn well before I go on my mission, but it does suggest God will make up the difference on what I lack when I get there.

            I feel like my courage and faith is also strengthened when I read scriptures that promise that my obedience in obeying the commandments and keeping my covenants as a missionary will help me to be more effective.  In D&C 35:24 God promises that if you “Keep all the commandments and covenants by which ye are bound… I will cause the heavens to shake for your good.”  I like that idea of the actual atmosphere supporting me and affirming what I’m trying to teach.

Finally, I find encouragement and strength when I contemplate truths about the atonement.  First of all, in my own life, I’ve seen how Christ’s gift has helped me to overcome mistakes.  I know that repentance works and so it’s going to be easy for me to bear testimony about that central truth in the Gospel plan.  Second, I’ve learned that the atonement also has enabling powers, helping us to carry difficult burdens or overcome our weaknesses.  Knowing that truth, I can feel a lot less scared about the physical, emotional and psychological challenges I know I’m going to face as I leave my family to go live for two years on an island off the east coast of Africa.

Luckily, I’ve been in contact with many people that have served in my mission. They all tell me the people of Madagascar are kind, upbeat, loving and open to listening to missionaries. Whenever I want a quick dose of inspiration, I can just look up “Malagasy people” on the internet, and I can’t wait to spend two years with them.

In closing, I pray that we can all have the faith and courage of Daniel, whether we’re going on a mission somewhere far from home, or just going to work or into a seventh grade band class at Lakeridge Jr. high.  Heavenly Father knows that we all have to face the dangers and pressures of Babylon, and he’s given us tools such as his Spirit and the atonement to overcome.  I want to bear my testimony…