A Departing Testimony

I considered naming this post "A Final Testimony" but I realized that just because my time as a full time missionary is nearly over, I will never stop sharing my testimony of what I know to be true.

I know through the power of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true.  That book has the power to change lives.  It has changed mine.  I know that Joseph Smith translated it through the power of God.  And I know that he was truly called of God to be a prophet.  He restored the true Church of Jesus Christ on the earth.  There has been an unbroken chain of prophets since the time of Joseph Smith and I know that Thomas S. Monson is our living prophet.

I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  Our loving Heavenly Father sent Him to be our Savior.  I know that through the Atonement of Christ we can be made clean and whole.  I know that He overcame sin and death.  I know that He lives.

I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to testify of these things for the last 18 months of my life.  My mission has been the greatest experience of my life.  I have drawn closer to my Heavenly Father as I have learned what it really means to pray.  I have learned more about my Savior as I have read and reread the scriptures.  And I have come to love deeply the people of Tennessee and Kentucky.  I have come to realize how special and precious each child of God is.

I have learned that I am and always will be an "unprofitable servant."  King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon said,

"I say unto you, that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants." (Mosiah 2:21; also read verses 22-24)

For the past 18 months I have tried to serve God by serving His children.  But I am still completely indebted to Him because He has blessed me more than I will ever be able to repay Him.  And it will always be that way.  Any time we keep one of God's commandments, He blesses us immediately (see Mosiah 2:24). 

However, I have decided that I want to be the most profitable "unprofitable servant" I can be.  In everything I do, I want to do His will.  I want to "seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion." (see D&C 12:6)  I want to become the most capable servant I can, not so I can be recognized by others, but so that I can better build God's kingdom.

At the close of my mission, the words of the prophet Alma come to mind: "I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?" (Alma 5:16)

I hope that at the end of my life, and now at the end of my mission, I will have been faithful enough for it to be said of me, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things....enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." (Matthew 25:21)