Talk the Talk.

On Saturday, July 5th, I missed a call from our friend, Jason. But that's not important. Or is it? see. 

July 6th was a Fast Sunday, and the last Fast Sunday we would be in the Blue Diamond Ward, so I took the opportunity to bear my testimony "one last time" to the dear friends I'd made. I felt the Spirit and I felt like it had gone well and there wasn't more I could have said. Until our friend, Jason, who's now in the bishopric, approached us and told us he'd tried to call the day before. Turns out, he was going to ask Brandon and I to speak the following Sunday, our last week in the ward before we moved. Well colour me embarrassed. I hope my testimony actually touched someone and it wasn't just an extra trip to the pulpit. 

We were asked to speak on our heritage, and I thought it would be valuable information to save, so I've included it here.

I stand before you, a cautionary tale, the end result of missing a phone call from a member of the bishopric and not returning it.

You see, when your family are good friends with said member of the bishopric, missing a call from him on a Saturday could mean he’d like to borrow an action movie from you that night, his ladder got knocked over and he’s stuck on his roof (I figured he’d leave a message if that happened again), or apparently, he’d like you to speak in church the following Sunday. Since we didn’t call back, and no message was left, Brandon and I both got up last week during Fast and Testimony meeting to bear our testimonies and bid a heartfelt farewell to the ward we love. So me being up here again so soon is kind of like that awkward feeling you get when you see someone you know at the grocery store and after saying goodbye, end up running into them in every aisle after that. Moral of the story: answer the phone when the bishopric calls and it may just save you a trip to the pulpit!

Let me introduce ourselves… oh wait. We move out of state on Saturday, so your window to actually get to know us is closing rapidly, but I will put rumours to rest and tell you that I’m from England, then Canada. Apparently in the past, I’ve left people with unanswered questions surrounding my hybrid accent and some have thought it was a speech impediment, so I wanted to clear the air there. Suffice it to say, that my husband of nearly 8 years, Brandon, my 3 year old girl, Teagan, and my 8 month old boy, Mason, will miss this ward very much when we leave. And I know no one has “assigned” seats in our church, but I’d like to unofficially bequeath our seats to someone with a small baby so that Sister Staten has somewhere to channel her incredible baby whisperer abilities.

I’ll admit I was a little befuddled by our subject at first, but as I prayed about it and thought about it this week, I grew to love and appreciate the subject matter: Our Heritage. What we can learn from and how our testimonies can grow through the examples of the pioneers, the conversions of our ancestors and/or our own personal conversions. I’ll give you a second to take that all in – I know I needed some time.

I found a great talk by Elder Oaks that addresses the topic perfectly. He opens speaking about a talk he’d prepared and shown to one of his senior brethren who responded by asking, “Therefore, what?” He said “the talk was incomplete because it omitted a vital element: what a listener should do…For many months we have studied the lives and accomplishments of our pioneers, early and modern. Some of us have walked in the footsteps of pioneer ancestors and gone on treks, reenacting their experiences. Elder Oaks continues, “Now after all these studies and activities, it is appropriate to ask ourselves, “Therefore, what?” Are these pioneer celebrations academic, merely increasing our fund of experiences and knowledge? Or will they have a profound impact on how we live our lives? It is not enough to study or reenact the accomplishments of our pioneers. We need to identify the great, eternal principles they applied to achieve all they achieved for our benefit and then apply those principles to the challenges of our day.”

As Nephi was trying to teach his brothers and help them increase their faith, he applied the scriptures to their lives. In 1 Nephi 19:23 he says,

And I did read many things unto them which were written in the books of Moses; but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning.

Just as we apply the scriptures to our lives so we can increase our faith and become better disciples, we should liken the inspiring stories of the pioneers. As I share some of my family’s history and do my best to extract lessons from those experiences, I’d like for you to think about what lessons you can learn from the pioneers and how they can change our lives. “What if I don’t have pioneer ancestors?” you may ask, and to that I say: you and me both. Seeking a better life, my parents and I crossed the Atlantic Ocean on a very comfortable airplane, complete with in-flight movie and I can’t seem to relate very well to my countrymen who crossed the plains in the bitter conditions we’ve heard so much about. But the words of President Gordon B. Hinckley humble me and remind me of our shared heritage: “Whether you are among the posterity of the pioneers or whether you were baptized only yesterday, each is the beneficiary of their great undertaking.” Elder Oaks said, “All of us enjoy the blessings of their efforts, and all of us have the responsibilities which go with that heritage.” So regardless of how far back in our family tree membership in the church goes, we share in the blessings and the responsibilities of it.

Now that we know that none of us are exempt from learning from the pioneers, I’d like to talk about some of the lessons we can learn from their experiences and how we can apply those lessons to our lives to improve them. Elder Oaks points out that “Many of our challenges are different from those faced by former pioneers but perhaps just as dangerous and surely as significant to our own salvation and the salvation of those who follow us. For example, as for life-threatening obstacles, the wolves that prowled around pioneer settlements were no more dangerous to their children than the drug dealers or pornographers who threaten our children. Similarly, the early pioneers’ physical hunger posed no greater threat to their well-being than the spiritual hunger experienced by many in our day. The children of earlier pioneers were required to do incredibly hard physical work to survive their environment. That was no greater challenge than many of our young people now face from the absence of hard work, which results in spiritually corrosive challenges to discipline, responsibility, and self-worth. Jesus taught in Matthew 10:28: ‘And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell’.”

I love the parallels that Elder Oaks drew between the dangers the early pioneers faced and the dangers we face – and faced in 1997 when he gave the talk. My sister would remind me at this juncture that she was only 2 years old, simultaneously making me feel ancient and proving once again that the leaders of our church are so inspired and able to warn us with alarming accuracy of the pitfalls we should prepare to face in these last days.

The hallmark of our pioneers was faith. I daresay that faith is demonstrated in every pioneer story we hear. By definition, a pioneer has faith as they do what every pioneer does – step forward into the unknown. Along with faith, unselfishness and sacrifice are common themes in the lives of pioneers, early and modern. Elder Oaks says that “our Utah pioneers excelled at putting ‘the general welfare and community goals over individual gain and personal ambition.’ That same quality is evident in the conversion of modern pioneers. Upon receiving a testimony of the truth of the restore gospel, they have unhesitatingly sacrificed all that was required to assure that its blessings will be available to their children and to generations unborn. Some have sold all their property to travel to a temple. Some have lost employment. Many have lost friends. Some have even lost parents and extended family as new converts have been disowned for their faith.” We praise what the pioneers’ unselfishness and sacrifice have done for us, but that is not enough. We should also assure that these same qualities are guiding principles for each of us as we have opportunities to sacrifice for our nations, families, and our Church. Do you, like the pioneers, have the courage and the consistency to be true to the faith and endure to the end?

I may not have a wealth of pioneers-crossing-the-plains stories to share from my family history, but I have the somewhat unique blessing of a very close relationship with my maternal grandmother, who is a pioneer in her own right – the first (and one of the only members of her family) to discover and join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We’ve recently instituted a standing phone date and I used last week’s to have her share her conversion story with me and after 66 years, she still gets teary when she shares it. I’d like for each of you, as you listen, if you listen, to identify lessons we can learn and apply from my grandma’s conversion story. I only have time to cover one, since I know we are all anxiously awaiting Brandon’s talk.

When my grandma was 13, she and her friends got SO bored one day that her neighbour (a less active member of the Church) suggested they go to MIA (what’s now called Young Women’s) and my grandma agreed to go. The missionaries were running it and invited her to come to Sunday School. “I’m Methodist, but I’ll ask my parents,” came her reply. Her Dad said, “indeed you can’t, you go to Methodist Sunday School and that’s where you’ll keep going. I’ve heard about those Mormons and they’re up to no good.” Well, it just so happened that the Methodist Sunday School ended at 2:30 and the Mormons didn’t start until 3. So she approached her father again, asking if she attended the Methodist Sunday School first, could she then go on to the Mormon Sunday School? (Begging to attend MORE church doesn’t sound like any 13 year old I know, so she must have been feeling the Spirit! He didn’t see anything wrong with that and let her go. So every Sunday, she would hop on her bike and attend Mormon Sunday School, which led to lessons with the missionaries. She asked her Dad if she could get baptized and refused.

He died when she was 15. The missionaries that had been teaching my grandma sent her a condolence card and included a beautiful poem about passing from this life.

The Sailing Ship - Bishop Charles Henry Brent (1862-1929)

What is dying?
I am standing on the seashore.
A ship sails to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.
She is an object and I stand watching her
Till at last she fades from the horizon,
And someone at my side says, “She is gone!” Gone where?
Gone from my sight, that is all;
She is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as she was when I saw her,
And just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination.
The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not in her;
And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "She is gone",
There are others who are watching her coming,
And other voices take up a glad shout,
"There she comes" – and that is dying.

My great grandmother was devastated by the loss of her husband. She had a nervous breakdown and could often be found sitting on her husband’s grave, crying. My grandma and her sister spoke to her on several occasions, pleading with her to do something about it, to get help. Eventually she decided she couldn’t take it anymore and agree to go to a doctor. On this occasion, her usual doctor wasn’t there and was sent to a new doctor, one she’d never seen before and never saw again. He asked what the problem was and she explained that her husband had died and she couldn’t get over it. He responded by saying, “Listen to me. You’ve just lost a husband. Your children have just lost a father. If you carry on the way you are, they’ll be losing a mother too.” Then he asked her a question that floored her. “Were you happy in that marriage?” “Of course I was happy!” she replied. “Then my advice is to go home, get down on your knees and thank your Heavenly Father for the good years that you had and that should help you get over it.”

So she went home, gave her prescription some thought and knelt down, not really knowing what to say or do. But the very next day, “ministering angels” my grandma calls them, two Relief Society sisters knocked on the door. They said, “We’ve come to invite you to Relief Society Homemaking. It’s tonight and we’re sewing – would you care to come?” “Okay,” my great grandmother replied. “I’ll come.” Whether she would have gone on her own or not my grandma couldn’t say, but these sisters went one step further and said, “we’ll pick you up.” They picked her up and took her to the activity where she spent her time making pillowcases and brought home a big pile to continue at home. She loved it. They asked her if she would like the missionaries to come round. Come round, they did and my great grandma agreed to get baptized and allowed my grandma to get baptized as well. They set a date for May 27^th and on that day she got sick, but there was no stopping my Grandma. She went ahead with a friend and took the train to Birmingham to be baptized. She thought my great grandma was having second thoughts, but she was baptized in July when she felt better and was baptized by the same Elder that baptized my grandma. And from then on she was one of the best members of the church you’d ever meet, according to my grandma. She would do anything for anybody and left a legacy of service, continued by my grandma, who was scheduled to go visiting teaching as soon as we were finished talking – 80 years old, battling cancer, crippled from chemotherapy and radiation and widowed less than 3 weeks before.

To have this story recorded is an incredible blessing for me, but to have been told firsthand by my Grandma with her unique inflection and humour is absolutely priceless and I would encourage you to speak with older family members about their memories and conversion stories, if they have them. I learned a few lessons from her story and am now committed to use those lessons to improve myself and those around me.

The truth that struck me most profoundly is that Heavenly Father puts people in our lives for a reason and that we can and should strive to be instruments in the Lord’s hands. The doctor she only saw once, who so boldly spoke of his belief in our Father in Heaven and encouraged my great grandmother to kneel in prayer. Sure, it may not be politically correct in our day to advise your patients to pray, but I will be eternally grateful to that man for sharing his testimony with my great grandmother. The missionaries who kept in touch with my grandma and sent her a card when her father passed – the poem they included meant so much to her throughout her life that she included it in the program at my grandad’s funeral last month. The Relief Society sisters who listened to the spirit, followed a prompting and invited my great grandma to a Homemaking activity. Then going the extra mile and picking her up for said activity instead of just hoping she’d remember and find her way there. The small and simple acts of these few people and their willingness to be instruments in God’s hands helped the Gospel of Jesus Christ find its way into my family and my life and the lives of my posterity have been changed for the better.

Because of this story, I am looking for those seemingly chance encounters and those people that Heavenly Father has placed in my life – the Blue Diamond Ward is full of them! More importantly, I’m striving to live close to the Spirit, listening for promptings and looking for opportunities to BE that person in someone else’s life. 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 in the kingdom.”

Self-evaluation seems the natural next step, as scary a prospect as that is. Could I be more in tune with the Spirit and proactive about sharing the Gospel, inviting people to church? Yes I could be. Will I be, as a result of learning from the experience of my forebears’? Yes I will. Could I have been a better Visiting Teacher while I was in this ward? My companion will be the first to tell you that yes, yes I could have!

Will I be a better Visiting Teacher as I reflect on the experiences of those that have gone before me and recognize the influence we can have on others’ lives? Yes, yes I will!

I pray that as we study and even reenact the stories and accomplishments of pioneers, both former and modern that we take our study past academics and let their stories touch our hearts and impact our lives. That we ask ourselves, “Therefore, what?” or if you don’t talk to yourself quite so eloquently, “So what does that mean for me?” From the Our Heritage manual: “As we learn more about the faith or those who have gone before us, we can better understand those with whom we have joined hands in bearing witness of the Saviour and helping to establish His Kingdom… Each of us has a place in church history…Whether we are new members or old, we inherit a legacy of faith and sacrifice from those who have gone before us.” It’s more than humbling to think of us joining hands with those incredible pioneers we love and respect so much, but as we live the gospel and defend The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that’s precisely what we do and I hope we take that responsibility seriously. President Hinckley said, “We honor best those who have gone before when we serve well in the cause of truth.”

I know the Gospel is true. I know that Jesus Christ is our Saviour and that He lives. I know that Heavenly Father has placed many of you in our lives to teach us the meaning of charity and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. I hope I don’t make this too awkward by saying another goodbye…

And there it was. Did I mention I'd gotten my wisdom teeth out on Wednesday, and had bruised, fat cheeks while standing in front of an entire congregation? Yeah, that happened.