I had my mission farewell this past Sunday. It could have not gone any better, I gave an excellent talk and brought the spirit so strong to the meeting. One of the best things is the quote by Elder Holland in the talk about Missionary Work and the Atonement but also is when I brought one of the counselors to the bishopric to tears and he told me to the congregation by saying: Sister Fitzpatrick, you are going to make a great missionary. I will post my Farewell on here for y'all to read:
Good Afternoon Brothers and Sisters,
For those of you that don’t know me,
I’m Mikenzie Fitzpatrick. I am a student at Brigham Young University-Idaho but
I have recently put my education on hold to serve the Lord for eighteen months
in the Ventura California mission. I report to the Provo MTC next Wednesday and
I am so excited. The topic that I was
given to speak on today was the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I hope that as I
speak today the Holy Ghost will guide me into what I need to say to you today.
In 2 Nephi 2: 6-8, it states, wherefore redemption cometh in and
through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth. Behold he offereth
himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who
have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of
the law be answered. Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things
known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no
flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and
mercy and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the
flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit that he may bring to pass
the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.
When
I was attending EFY for the first time, I was a point when I was really
struggling and needed to find out for myself whether the Church was true. When
our director gave a talk on the Atonement it helped me feel the Spirit and know
and realize that Christ suffered for me personally. I don’t know if this is what happened in the
Garden of Gethsemane but this is what I believe. When Christ was in the Garden
of Gethsemane, he saw each and every one of us individually. When the first
person came to Christ he was astonished at the pain he felt and he cried out,
“oh Father.” I think we often forget the length the Savior is willing to go for
us. The Savior is willing to go to the jaws of death for us.
In 2
Nephi 9:7, it says wherefore must needs be an infinite atonement--save it
should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption.
Where fore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to
an endless durations. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to
crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more. One of the things that I have
learned about the atonement by one of my EFY counselors is to just let all that
you feel burden with go because the Savior took those upon him when he was in
the Garden of Gethsemane.
In
Preach My Gospel, it says only through the Savior’s grace and mercy can we
become clean from sin so that we can live with God again. Christ promises to
forgive our sins on the condition that we accept Him by exercising faith in
Jesus Christ, repenting, being baptized, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost,
and enduring to the end. As we rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ, He can
help us endure our trials, sicknesses, and pain. We can be filled with joy,
peace, and consolation. All that is unfair about life can be made right through
the Atonement of Jesus Christ. One of the trials that I know I had the help of
my Heavenly Father and Christ’s Atonement is when my mom and dad decided we
needed to move from Texas to Pennsylvania. I was in the end of my junior year
and would be starting my senior year with entirely different people and in a
different place. Before we even moved, I remember I begged my mom and dad to
see if I could stay with a friend just until the end of senior year. As a new
school year started in Pennsylvania, I couldn’t but feel lonely and angry at
the same time. As I realized during this experience, I was never alone through
the Atonement, Christ felt what I felt and knew what I was going to go through
at this time. As a missionary your purpose is to invite others to come unto
Christ by helping them receive the gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His
Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the
end. The promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Atonement is to take
anyone who comes, anyone who will join, and put them through an experience so
that at the end of their life, they can go through the veil having repented of
their sins and having been washed clean through the blood of Christ. One thing that we forget quite often is that
the Atonement is not a one-time thing it is an ongoing thing. It is the
greatest example of unconditional love and mercy. The greatest way to show our
gratitude for the Atonement is by using it and by doing all we can to return to
our Father and Savior again someday. Without the Atonement, we would not be
able to return to our Father in Heaven and we would remember our pains. It is
through the Atonement that we can be healed, nourished, loved, enabled,
strengthen, and made whole. Although the trial may be hard and relief may not
be immediate we need to learn to allow God to help carry our burdens. We can do
this by turning to him regularly to seek His enabling power.
Elder Jeffery R. Holland spoke of
Missionary Work and Atonement in the Provo MTC in March of 2000. He exclaims”
In John 14:6, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the
Father, but by me.” Thus the Atonement of Christ, which makes that return to
the Father possible, is rightfully seen as the central fact, the crucial
foundation, and the chief doctrine of the great and eternal plan of
salvation—“our Heavenly Father’s plan,” which we are called to teach. This
quote that Jeffery R. Holland compares the Atonement and Missionary work is
very powerful. Although it is taking of
full-time missionary service, I believe that it can apply to member
missionaries as well. Envision Elder Holland reading this with the passion and
spirit that he has when he gives talks at conference. It reads” Presidents you will have occasion to
ask and your missionaries will have many occasion to ask, Why is this so hard?
Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth.
We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the
font? Why isn’t the only risk in mission field that of pneumonia from being
soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font? Why isn’t it easier
president? Why do the people not understand president? Why do the people reject
us president? Can’t they see this? These are things that a 19, 20,21, and a 22
year old will ask and they are things that I asked. I’ve thought about it a
great deal; I offer this as my personal feeling it is not church doctrine per say
it just my feeling to you as you prepare to go out into the mission field. I am
convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap
experience. Salvation was never easy; we are the Church of Jesus Christ. This
is the truth. He is our great eternal head. Why would we believe, why would we
think that it would be easy for us when it was never ever easy for Him. In
turn, how could we possibly bear any moving lasting testimony of the Atonement,
if we never know or felt anything of such an experience. As missionaries we are
proud to say we are Disciples of Christ and we are. But mark my word that means
you must be prepared to walk something of the path He walk. To feel something a
little of the pain he felt. To at least occasionally sometime during your
mission shed one of the tears of sorrow that He shed. Now please don’t
misunderstand, I’m not saying you have to look for sorrow and I’m not saying
that we experienced anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would
be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and
investigators, missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to
salvation, to come to repentance, to come to know something of this price that
has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price. It will only be a
token but I believe it has to be paid. I don’t believe that missionary work has
ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that
continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require something of our
soul. If Jesus could plead in the night, falling on his face, bleeding from
every pore and cry,” Abba, Father (papa) remove this cup from me. Will little
wonder that Salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for a missionary. This
is the living son of the living God saying isn’t there some other way. So
presidents, if your missionaries wonder why this isn’t it easy they should
remember they are not the first ones to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a
lot better asked it a long time ago. He asked if there wasn’t a less
excruciating way and for him there wasn’t. And so perhaps for us in token
symbolism there won’t be an entirely easy way either. Now presidents, if the
missionaries can come to love and appreciate it, the Atonement will carry them,
perhaps even more important than it will carry their investigators. You let
them know that when they struggle, when they are rejected, when they are spit
upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword. They are standing shoulder to
shoulder with the best life this world has ever known. The only pure and
perfect missionary that ever lived. They have every reason to stand tall and to
be grateful that the Savior and Redeemer of the world knows all about their
sorrows and their afflictions. And that for a moment or two in their lives,
they will understand what He went through for them.
One
of the many moments that I have felt the Atonement work in my life is when I
received an answer to serve a mission. On the first Saturday morning session of
General Conference, President Monson made two great announcements that impacted
me: 1) that we would be getting a temple here in Tucson. 2) The age of
missionaries were changed. I never really considered serving a mission until
that announcement was made. Then all the sudden I got this text from one of our
dearest friends and she thought of me right when the announcement was made.
That Monday, I decided I needed to go the temple to ponder and think about what
I should do. When I went to the temple
grounds I couldn’t but feel peace and comfort as I was pondering on this announcement.
After that experience, I reread my patriarchal blessing and realized that
serving a mission is the thing that I need to do at this point in my life. It
is through the Atonement that Christ knew what I was feeling. But he also gave
us this wonderful gift to know that we can overcome these feelings and figure
out for ourselves the path we need to follow to return with him again.
The
Atonement does not just cover our sins, but enables our Savior to know exactly
what we’re going through. The Atonement covers any negative effects of this
life whether it be heartache, a broken leg, a loss of a love one or anything
else. The Atonement makes it so our Savior can be our best friend and is closer
and more understanding than anyone else. In 3 Nephi: 11:14, it
states, Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust you hands into my side
and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet,
that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth,
and have been slain for the sins of the World. We are given immortality freely
through the Atonement; we all gain immortality, but eternal life only comes by
applying the Atonement in our life through repentance and enduring to the end.
In D&C 76:40-41 it states. And this is the gospel, the glad tidings, which the
voice out of the heavens bore record unto us—That he came into the world, even
Jesus, to be crucified for the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to
sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness. Sin separates
us from the Father, we lose the spirit, and we separate ourselves. The law of
justice demands sin be paid for. The law of mercy provides a way, though God’s
only begotten Son, to pay for our sins. Everything must be paid for.
One of my
favorite stories is one told by President Gordon B. Hinckley, some years ago.
President Gordon B. Hinckley told “something of a parable” about “a one room
school house in the mountains of Virginia where the boys were so rough no
teacher had been able to handle them.“Then one day an inexperienced young
teacher applied. He was told that every teacher had received an awful beating,
but the teacher accepted the risk. The first day of school the teacher asked
the boys to establish their own rules and the penalty for breaking the rules.
The class came up with 10 rules, which were written on the blackboard. Then the
teacher asked, ‘What shall we do with one who breaks the rules?’ “‘Beat him
across the back ten times without his coat on,’ came the response.“A day or so
later, … the lunch of a big student, named Tom, was stolen. ‘The thief was
located—a little hungry fellow, about ten years old.’“As Little Jim came up to
take his licking, he pleaded to keep his coat on. ‘Take your coat off,’ the
teacher said. ‘You helped make the rules!’ “The boy took off the coat. He had
no shirt and revealed a bony little crippled body. As the teacher hesitated
with the rod, Big Tom jumped to his feet and volunteered to take the boy’s
licking. “‘Very well, there is a certain law that one can become a substitute
for another. Are you all agreed?’ the teacher asked. “After five strokes across
Tom’s back, the rod broke. The class was sobbing. ‘Little Jim had reached up
and caught Tom with both arms around his neck. “Tom, I’m sorry that I stole
your lunch, but I was awful hungry. Tom, I will love you till I die for taking
my licking for me! Yes, I will love you forever!” Just like Big Tom took a
licking for Little Jim, Christ took a licking for us. In Isaiah 53:4-5 it says, Surely he hath borne our grief’s and carried
our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But
he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
James E. Faust said, We long for the ultimate blessing of the Atonement—to
become one with him, to be in His divine presence, to be called individually by
name as He warmly welcomes us home with a radiant smile, beckoning us with open
arms to be enfolded in His boundless love. How gloriously sublime this
experience will be if we can feel worthy enough to be in His presence. The free
gift of His great atoning sacrifice for each of us is the only way we can be
exalted enough to stand before Him and see Him face-to-face. The overwhelming
message of the Atonement is the perfect love the Savior has for each and all of
us. It is a love, which is full of mercy, patience, grace, equity, long-suffering,
and above all, forgiving.
Bear
testimony.
In
the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
One of the best talks I have ever written. I was so proud of myself and how Sister Missionary like I was.
