An Example of the Believers

In his recent conference talk, President Ballard said this: “My missionary service prepared me to be a better husband and father and to be successful in business. It also prepared me for a lifetime of service to the Lord in His Church…. Of all the training I have received in my Church assignments, none has been more important to me than the training I received as a nineteen-year-old elder serving a full-time mission.” My mission too has certainly had a profound effect on my life, opening my eyes to the world and its people and teaching me to serve the Lord with all my heart. I know I don’t show enough gratitude to my Father in Heaven for the opportunity that I was given to serve and all the people who served and taught me as I did my best to labor. There are many lessons I learned there that I reflect again and again on and which still guide my life today. And I’m still trying to make my mission a success based on the teaching of then-Elder Nelson to our MTC group: “The success of your mission will be seen in the Christ-like characteristics of your grandchildren.” I’ve got a long ways to go on that one.

                President Ballard also said this: “I pray that you young men and young women and your parents will see and know how missionary service will forever bless your life.” As my children get older I see that I have a lot more to do to help prepare them and cultivate in them a desire to serve the Lord as a missionary. Perhaps most important for them and for me is to help create a desire to follow the Savior. Ultimately the best reason to serve a mission is because we love Him, and if we want to please Him more than anything else then we’ll overcome whatever obstacles are in our way to doing that. That means for me that I need to seek to be more like Him so that they will understand better who He is. Paul wrote to Timothy these famous words, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come” (1 Timothy 4:12-13). I think we could imagine that the Lord is speaking those words to each of us who are striving to be disciples today: He wants us to be an example of charity and faith and purity until He comes again and people will see Him in person. Our desire must be as Nephi’s: “For the fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved” (1 Nephi 6:4). As we want to persuade others to come unto Christ we will seek to be more like Him. Indeed, the Lord gave us these instructions on how we participate in this great work: “And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work. Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence.” The more we develop these Christlike attributes the better missionaries we will be and the better we will be able to help others prepare for missionary service. But that list contains a lifetime of effort, and I certainly have much lacking in my pursuit of these heavenly traits.