My farewell was on the 20 of this month, and it went really well :) We had a Chilli cook off for the dinner, and Kirsty Sims won first place for best Chilli. She received a red fuzzy blanket for "chilly" nights. It was a yummy afternoon!
I'm really going to miss everyone, but I believe that's a good thing. It would be so sad to leave/return and not have anybody at home you love.
My Mom called the MTC today to get my flight plans and it looks like I will be leaving at 6am. yikes! That's an early morning! (Since I have to be there a few hours ahead and all)
PS: Here is my farewell talk for anyone who missed it :)
Why we follow the living prophet and apostles
today
Shaylee
Nelson
As I was considering what angle
to go off of for my talk, one of the first things I thought of was, jokingly,
following the prophets and apostles on social media.
The more I thought about this the
more sense it started to make so I went on twitter and followed all of the
living apostles and the prophet, as well as Mormon times, the lds church,
family search.org and ancestory.com, lds media talk and lds messages. And you
know what? I actually found some really cool stuff!
For example, when I followed
Elder hales on twitter, I learned that he has never tweeted a single thing, but
he miraculously has 6,011 followers.
Following the prophet and
apostles on social media websites is definitely a good thing to do, we can find
cool quotes such as:
Our task is to become our best
selves. One of Gods greatest gifts to us is in the joy of trying again, for no
failure need ever be final.—Thomas s monson on facebook
Whatever our faults are, they can
be repaired, and whatever our strengths are, they can be maintained—tweeted by
Jeffrey r Holland. As a point of interest Patricia Holland happens to have some
fantastic pinterest boards.
We can also find church news
updates, and more insight into the amazing lives our general authorities lead.
However I believe we can also do more than just have some fun following them
from a safe distance.
why DO we need living prophets?
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf answered,
Because Heavenly Father loves His children, he has not left them to walk
through this mortal life without direction and guidance, and that is why He
pleads so earnestly with us through His prophets. Just as we want what is best
for our loved ones, Heavenly Father wants what is best for us.”
Prophets and apostles who speak
today represent and carry out the Lord’s will as they lead His children in this
dispensation. President Uchtdorf has also stated, “Our fate and the fate of our
world hinge on our hearing and heeding the revealed word of God to His
children.”
My grandma Nelson’s Mom joined
church when my gma was 12. After my grandma’s dad died my grandma’s bishop called
her mom to go on a mission. Great grandma hated public speaking, but she
thought to herself, “How can I tell my bishop I can’t go on a mission when I
want to get my grandkids on a mission.” She was a great example of service and
completed an 18 month family history mission. Both of her grandson’s completed
full time missions, and now I’m on my way to Chile Concepcion South Mission.
Great Grandma started a great tradition of missionary service for her family.
In the, "why is it important to
listen to and follow the living prophets?" young woman's lessons tell us that [the living prophets] give us instruction, warnings, and counsel from the
Lord for our day. We are blessed with safety, peace, and spiritual strength
when we listen to and obey their counsel.
During one general conference,
President Ezra Taft Benson urged members to get out of debt—specifically
mortgage debt.
President
Eyring heard this counsel and has since said: “I turned to my wife after the
meeting and asked, ‘Do you think there is any way we could do that?’ At first we
couldn’t.” But by that evening he thought of a property they had unsuccessfully
tried to sell for years. “We trusted God and … His servant’s message, [so] we
placed a phone call. … I heard an answer that to this day strengthens my trust
in God and His servants.” That same day a man had placed an offer on the
Eyrings’ property for an amount just greater than their mortgage. The Eyrings
soon became debt free.
In his testimony written to his
posterity my great grandpa Devere Gibb wrote:
Joseph Smith was a prophet of God
who restored the Church of Jesus Christ under the direction of Jesus Christ and
every prophet since him has been directed by Jesus Christ. The closer we follow
the direction of our prophet the happier our lives will be and the more
prosperous we will be.
President Monson shared this story
in the January 2015 Liahona:
I served in the United States
Navy toward the end of World War II. I was a seaman, the lowest possible rank
in the navy. Then I qualified to be Seaman First Class, after which I qualified
to be Yeoman Third Class.
World War II ended, and I was
later discharged. But I made a decision that if ever I went back into the
military, I wanted to serve as a commissioned officer. I thought, “No more mess
kitchens for me, no more scrubbing the decks, if I can avoid it.”
:D
After I was discharged, I joined
the United States Naval Reserve. I went to drill every Monday night. I studied
hard that I might qualify academically. I took every kind of examination
imaginable: mental, physical, and emotional. Finally, there came the beautiful
news: “You have been accepted to receive the commission of an ensign in the
United States Naval Reserve.”
I gleefully showed it to my wife,
Frances, and said, “I made it! I made it!” She hugged me and said, “You’ve worked
hard enough to achieve it.”
But then something happened. I
was called to be a counselor in my ward bishopric. The bishop’s council meeting
was on the same evening as my navy drill meeting. I knew there was a terrible
conflict. I knew that I didn’t have the time to pursue the Naval Reserve and my
bishopric duties. What was I to do? A decision had to be made.
I prayed about it. Then I went to
see the man who was my stake president when I was a boy, Elder Harold B. Lee
(1899–1973), then of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. I sat down across the
table from him. I told him how much I valued that commission. In fact, I showed
him the copy of the letter of appointment I had received.
After pondering the matter for a
moment, he said to me, “Here’s what you should do, Brother Monson. You write a
letter to the Bureau of Naval Affairs and tell them that because of your call
as a member of the bishopric, you can’t accept that commission in the United
States Naval Reserve.”
My heart sank. He added, “Then
write to the commandant of the Twelfth Naval District in San Francisco
indicating that you would like to be discharged from the reserve.”
I said, “Elder Lee, you don’t
understand the military. Of course they will decline to give me that commission
if I refuse to accept it, but the Twelfth Naval District isn’t going to let me
off. With a war brewing in Korea, a noncommissioned officer will surely be
called up. If called back, I would rather go back as a commissioned officer,
but I won’t if I don’t accept this commission. Are you sure this is the counsel
you want me to receive?”
Elder Lee put his hand on my
shoulder and in a fatherly way said, “Brother Monson, have more faith. The
military is not for you.”
I went home. I placed a
tear-stained commission back in its envelope with its accompanying letter and
declined to accept it. Then I wrote a letter to the Twelfth Naval District and
requested a discharge from the Naval Reserve.
My discharge from the Naval
Reserve was in the last group processed before the outbreak of the Korean War.
My headquarters outfit was activated. Six weeks after I was called to be a
counselor in the bishopric, I was called to be the bishop of my ward.
I would not hold the position in
the Church I hold today had I not followed the counsel of a prophet, had I not
prayed about that decision, had I not come to an appreciation of an important
truth: the wisdom of God oft times appears as foolishness to men. But the
greatest single lesson we can learn in mortality is that when God speaks and
His children obey, they will always be right.
It has been said that history
turns on small hinges, and so do our lives. Decisions determine destiny. But we
are not left unaided in our decisions.
If you want to see the light of
heaven, if you want to feel the inspiration of Almighty God, if you want to
have that feeling within your bosom that your Heavenly Father is guiding you,
then follow the prophets of God. When you follow the prophets, you will be in
safe territory.
When I called Grandma Nelson for
some info I could use in my talk, she told me, “It’s kind of a lifestyle, you
just know that no matter what, you are going to follow the prophet, and you
consistently do that. You can’t go wrong
when you follow the prophet.”
The prophets have often counseled
us to listen to the spirit. My granny Monica is a great example of someone who
has heeded this inspired counsel and has been blessed because of it.
One story she shared with me
began with her driving down the road with a friend when my granny received a
prompting. She told her friend,” I just feel like I should say a special prayer
for Mark”, and so they pulled off of the road and prayed for my uncle. They
then continued on their way. Back home Uncle Mark had gotten his hand caught in
a silage trailer. Grandpa was afraid to take Uncle Mark’s gloves off in case
his fingers were all cut off inside it, he just took him straight to the
hospital. the Drs were afraid to take
the glove off too, but when they did,
they found all of Uncle Marks fingers still attached, although they were
badly cut. Drs first comment was, you must have had family prayer this morning.
When I received my mission call I
was ecstatic. And then I read my call from the Lord through his living apostles
to a mission that I had never heard of. I was pretty panicked. I love the
Spanish language and was excited to learn more, but I kept going, CHILE?!?
Really? In fact I even scanned through my mission call immediately after
reading it looking for an, just kidding sister nelson, you are going to Winnipeg
mission! Just in case, but It wasn’t there. It took me three days to open my
laptop and click the accept mission call button displayed on my screen. Also
the 8.3 earthquake in chile that I read about on Wednesday while gathering
material for this talk—didn’t help much. But in my acceptance letter I wrote
Dear Brethren
Thank you so much for issuing
this call to me!
I am excited for the opportunity
to serve the Chilean people as an official representative of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and I wholeheartedly believe that this
particular mission will stretch me and test me in sooo many ways! I'm always up for a challenge, and this is
definitely a great one! One that with the Lord's help, I will do the best I
can.
1 Nephi 3:7
Sister Shaylee Nelson
1 nephi 3:7 reads, And it came to
pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the
Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the
children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish
the thing which he commandeth them.
For I know like amos says in 3:7,
“Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his
servants the prophets.”
I know that the lord has called
me to the Chile concepcion south mission for a reason, and I am excited to see
exactly how much I can do for him in 18 short months. J
In the name of Jesus Christ amen.
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