FAREWELL TALK

The word Hope can be used in different contexts, whether it is “I hope my mom cooks something other than nachos tonight.” Or “I hope all the women stay single while I’m on my mission.” But Hope in the context of the gospel is different. In reading a talk given by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf entitled The Hope of God’s Light, I was reminded of an experience I had when my family was vacationing in Washington State years ago.

 My Aunt took us on an adventure to see the ape caves, which are caves carved out of the mountain by the hot lava from the eruption of Mt St. Helens.  When we looked at the map, it showed a 3 mile trail and indicated it would take us 3 hours.  Because we thought we were in such great shape, we were certain it would not take us 3 hours.  The eight of us began the hike into the caves each carrying our own flashlight.  The darkness became very thick and soon surrounded us.  Our flashlights only illuminated a small circle which was barely enough to see where to place your next footstep.  Several times we had to climb over rock falls in the pitch black, or took a wrong turn only to hit a dead end.  It was very slow going and frustrating.  Three of our flashlights ran out of batteries forcing us to shine our flashlight, place a step and then turn and light the way for the person behind us.  The dark was very consuming, heavy, and cumbersome.  We reached a shoulder high wall requiring each of us to lift, push, and pull one another to get over it.  After we had hiked nearly two hours, we reached a cavern that had an opening high in the ceiling letting in daylight.  It was such a wonderful feeling to be in the light once again.  We studied the map thinking we were almost to the end, but discovered we had traveled only 2/3^rd of the way.  It was hard to leave that sunny cavern, but we knew to reach the end we had to keep going.  By the time we were out into the open again, we were down to 3 or 4 flashlights.  What a joyous feeling it was to be back into the light! 

As I look back on this experience, I have a greater understanding and appreciation for the gospel in my life, when we obey  he promises us the hope of His light—He promises to illuminate the way before us and show us the way out of darkness. We must be pushing forward toward the light whatever our circumstances may be.  We would not want to stop in our progression before we realize our full potential. We do not want to be trapped in a cave with lights we do not know how long will last.

President Uchtdorf said, there may be some among you who feel darkness encroaching upon you. You may feel burdened by worry, fear, or doubt. To you and to all of us, I repeat a wonderful and certain truth: God’s light is real. It is available to all! It gives life to all things. It has the power to soften the sting of the deepest wound. It can be a healing balm for the loneliness and sickness of our souls. In the furrows of despair, it can plant the seeds of a brighter hope. It can enlighten the deepest valleys of sorrow. It can illuminate the path before us and lead us through the darkest night into the promise of a new dawn. 

The first step to feeling God’s light is to start where we are.  Hope in the gospel is god’s promise that he will illuminate the path for us and show us a way out of darkness. Mormon teaches us that we should 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.  This is “the Spirit of Jesus Christ,” which gives “light to every man that cometh into the world.”

Second, we must turn our hearts to the Lord.  One of my favorite events that happened in the scriptures that I think shows great hope in the savior and turning their hearts to the Lord is when the four sons of King Mosiah____Ammon, Aaron, Omner, and Himni went among the lamanites as missionaries and taught them the gospel. Many Lamanites believed the teachings and were converted, including the king. The king told his people not to hurt or imprison the missionaries, that they were free to preach the gospel throughout the land. Thousands of Lamanites joined the church of God and became a happy righteous people that felt the light and hope of God. These converts laid down their weapons of war and refused to fight against God or anyone else anymore. These people no longer wanted to be called Lamanites, so they named themselves Anti-Nephi-Lehies. They became a hardworking people and friends of the Nephites. Many Lamanites, however, had not been converted to the truth. These Lamanites became angry, rebelled against the king, and decided to fight the Anti-Nephi-Lehies. At this time, having conferred the kingdom upon his son Anti-Nephi-Lehi, the old king died. When the sons of Mosiah saw the Lamanites preparing for war, they met with the new king to decide what could be done to defend the people. The Anti-Nephi-Lehies would not take up weapons to fight the Lamanites. The people had repented of their past sins and murders, and God had forgiven them. If they were to kill again, they would not be forgiven. As a testimony to God, the Anti-Nephi-Lehies buried their swords and all their weapons of war deep in the earth. They covenanted that they would never kill again. Rather than shed the blood of others, they would give up their own lives. They also promised they would give to others rather than take, and instead of being idle, they would work hard. When the Lamanite warriors came to fight, the Anti-Nephi-Lehies went out to meet them. They knelt on the ground hoping in Gods light and began to pray. The Lamanites fell upon them and began killing them with their swords. They killed a total of 1,005 Anti-Nephi-Lehies. When the attacking Lamanites saw that the Anti-Nephi-Lehies would not fight back, they stopped killing them. Their hearts began to swell with sorrow for what they had done. Many of these Lamanites also repented, threw down their weapons, and joined the Anti-Nephi-Lehies. That day the number of Lamanites who repented and joined the people of God exceeded the number of Anti-Nephi-Lehies who had been killed. The Anti-Nephi-Lehies knew that those who died were righteous and would be saved in the kingdom of God. They also knew that they had given their lives to bring more people to the light and truth of the Gospel.

The Third step, we need to take is to walk in the light. Our Heavenly Father knows that we will make mistakes. He knows that we will stumble—perhaps many times. This saddens Him, but He loves us. He does not wish to break our spirit. On the contrary, He desires that we rise up and become the person we were designed to be.

To that end, He sent His Son to this earth to illuminate the way and show us how to safely cross the stumbling blocks placed in our path. He has given us the gospel, which teaches the way of the disciple. It teaches us the things we must know, do, and be to walk in His light, following in the footsteps of His Beloved Son, our Savior.

Many of us face trials in our lives, but with hope in God he will illuminate the way and show you a way out of darkness.

My whole family likes to get together each Sunday to have dinner and be together.  During a weekend last November, my sister was away at school but surprised us and came home.  There was such a great feeling that weekend, and we quickly recognized that warm feeling was from the Spirit.  My mom immediately wondered, is something bad going to happen?  Two weeks later, my sister went to the hospital and was diagnosed with Leukemia.  Although we are saddened that she has to go through the trial of sickness, we remembered that feeling of love and knew that Heavenly was mindful and was giving us the hope and light of Christ.  Many of our friends and neighbors prayed on her behalf.  Remembering the warmth of His love sustained us through our worry and increased the hope and light that Christ offers.  Just as she was beginning to feel better from the side effects of her medication, my other sister began losing weight rapidly.  She became extremely ill and finally began to feel better after undergoing surgery.  We recognized his hand in our lives and were able to push on with the hope, and faith in Jesus’s atonement, and the resurrection, so that we could have the peace that no matter what happened one day they would be raised from the dead and reunited with family.  God however blessed our family more than that and both sisters are doing very well this day.

However much of the world does not know about hope in Christ, many struggle through trials like these because they do not have the Gospel and light that Christ offers. In Japan, a country with a population of 127 million, only 1% of them are Christian and only .01% of them are of LDS faith. Many of these people are living without the hope of Christ’s atonement and the resurrection. On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude Earthquake happened off the coast of Sendai Japan causing a tsunami to occur sweeping everything in its path, killing 19,000 people and caused nearby nuclear power plants to fail and leak harmful nuclear waste in the air. Many of the people lost their homes, loved ones, and were left feeling lost and in great despair. How great will it be to share the gospel with these wonderful people to let them know of hope, that Christ’s Light can sustain us through troubling times, so that we can reach our full potential.

President Uchtdorf said, as we seek to increase our love for God and strive to love our neighbors, the light of the gospel will surround and uplift us. The darkness will surely fade, because it cannot exist in the presence of light. As we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. And day by day, the hope of God’s light will grow within us, “brighter and brighter until the perfect day.”

The Savior said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”