Mission Farewell!

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.