My Farewell Address

I was 17 years old the first time I experimented with personal revelation.  I doubt it will surprise anyone here to learn that this occurred in the outdoors around a campfire.  I was actually on a pioneer trek.  They had bused the youth in my stake to BYU Provo where they divided us up into pioneer families.  We were assigned a pioneer pa and a pioneer ma, who were BYU students and then took us up into the Uintah Mountains where we were dropped off at a handcart.  Over the next two days, we pulled that handcart 47 miles.  It was one of the most grueling physically challenging events of my life!  But during those two days and 47 miles, I learned the power of prayer.  I mostly prayed that I wouldn’t die.

Pa was very good at telling when one of us in our pioneer family was struggling.  And he would have us pull the handcart over to the side of the trail, circle up in a family huddle, and then he would pronounce this prayer for us.  He was good at actually naming the person in our family that was struggling and prayed for them and their struggle specifically.  Several times he closed his prayer by saying “by the power of the Melchizedek priesthood which I hold and in the name of Jesus Christ.”  I knew that those times he had used his priesthood to give our family a father’s blessing.

In answer to these many prayers, I witnessed miracles.  We were blessed with strength, peace, patience and endurance.

We arrived at our camp at 2am in the morning.

The next night we held a testimony meeting around the campfire.  At the close, Pa challenged each of us to find a private place in the woods and pray and ask for confirmation that we should serve a mission.

This really annoyed me!  I was dead tired and already had planned on serving a mission!  My parents had told me I would serve a mission since I was a toddler and I knew I would be in big trouble if I didn’t!  Yet, I had grown to love my pioneer pa and respected him and chose to be obedient.

I found a thicket of bushes and climbed inside of it and offered the most futile prayer ever.  It went something like:  “Heavenly Father, please let me know if I should go on a mission.”  And then I waited, for about 15 whole seconds.  There were no bright lights, no angelic visitations, not even a burning in my bosom.  So, I said “Ok then, I’m going to bed.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”  And I went to bed.

As our pioneer family gathered for breakfast the next morning, the other kids started sharing the great spiritual experiences they had had the night before, while I sat silent.  One of the other boys was a huge, buff, red-headed kid that we had nicknamed Mule because he pulled the handcart like one.  He never ran out of energy and just kept going.

Mule stood, and with tears running down his cheeks, shared how it had been revealed to him that he must serve a mission and he couldn’t wait to get home to begin to prepare for it.

I immediately became envious.  It was great that my parents had instructed me to go on a mission and I trusted them on that.  But it would be so much more powerful to have God tell me himself.  I wanted that experience.

That day was the Sabbath.  We had all three hours of church right there in the campsite with our Stake.  And then our Mas and Pas sang hymns to us as we went off on a six-hour solo.  We were each to find a private place and commune with God.  I took with me my scriptures and my journal and climbed this hill overlooking the entire camp and found a shady spot under a Juniper Tree like the ones back home on our family farm.

There I spent six hours communing with God.  I wrote about my trek experiences in my journal.  I read my scriptures.  I prayed.  And I had a sincere desire to receive personal revelation regarding my mission.  And finally, it came.

In that journal, I wrote that it felt like Heavenly Father was sitting right next to me as the spirit witnessed to me that I must serve a mission.

I hurried down that hill and immediately told Mule.  He was so excited!

Years later I was returning home from completing my mission.  I had a plane change in Salt Lake City and boarded a small turbo prop that would take me home to Pocatello.  As I got on the plane, I saw this large red-headed kid sitting there.  Mule!!  He was also returning from his mission!  We flew home together!  We were so excited and so many tears were shed as we shared experiences from our missions with each other.

I’ll always be grateful for that personal revelation which I received on that Trek regarding my mission.

In DC 88:63 it says, “Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you; seek me diligently and ye shall find me; ask, and ye shall receive; knock and it shall be opened unto you.”

Personal revelation was a huge tool for me and my companions while in the mission field.  I literally have hundreds of stories I could tell.  I will tell one of my favorites, a most prolific experience.

We had this program which we called “Community of Zion.”  We would carefully select a little neighborhood and then spend three weeks working this Community of Zion Program.  The first week, we would spend time each day just simply walking through the Community of Zion and saying hi to people we saw.  The goal was to become a familiar and friendly face in the neighborhood.

The second week, we would do a little bit more.  We would look for opportunities to provide service or have conversations with people.  Many times, we would end up playing a little bit of soccer in the street with the neighborhood boys.

The third week, we would knock on the doors in the neighborhood with the hopes that people would recognize us and let us into their homes and perhaps even let us give them our message.

This story took place in Linares, Chile as we began our third week of Community of Zion and were preparing to knock on doors there.  My companion and I stood on the corner of the neighborhood and offered a prayer that we would be lead to someone who needed and wanted to hear our message.

At the conclusion of the prayer, we both felt like we were supposed to go to this one house in the middle of the block.  This was a bit different because we typically would start at the home on the corner and knock on all doors right down the street until all had been knocked on.  Then we could go back to my apartment and cross that street off in red and “check” it was done.

But not that night.  The spirit told us to go to this one house in the middle of the block where we knew a young family lived.  They had two children under the age of five.

As we knocked on the door, the father opened and immediately let us in, so quickly that he practically did not even greet us.  As we entered their living room, the wife started to sob.  As we later talked to them, we learned that just minutes before we knocked on their door, probably at about the same time we were praying on the street corner, they also had been praying in that very living room, pleading with the Lord to help them find a good religion to raise their children in.

That experience was incredible and was the result of personal revelation.

DC 112:10 says “Be thou humble; and the Lord they God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers.”

Hanna already talked about personal revelation in our courtship.  Personal revelation also took place regarding our marriage.  After we had dated for several months, it became clear that we were a perfect match, we were compatible, and made each other incredibly happy.  We were talking marriage.  And I was scared.

I had watched my previous marriage of 29 years fail.  I watched as what was supposed to be a happy celestial family imploded on itself.  This was a painful, gut-wrenching experience filled with guilt and shame.  I never wanted to go through that again.

Plus, marriage didn’t only impact Hanna and me, it would impact the nine kids, four still living at home, that we had between the two of us.  Our children were like raised on different planets.  In different cultures.  At times I think they even spoke different languages!  We had already attempted to have some combined activities and they were quite a bit less than successful!

So, I was scared.

Early in our courtship, Hanna took me to her parent’s house.  There her dad was laying on a hospital bed in the middle of their living room under hospice care.  I watched emotionally as she very tenderly took care of him.  She talked to him softly, held his hand, and gave him water.  As we spent several hours there with him, I could feel that he knew we were there, but was too weak to respond.  In those few hours, I grew close to the man.

He passed away the next afternoon.

Several months later, as I was filled with fear and needed a complete assurance regarding our relationship, I went to the cemetery and stood at his gravesite.  There I pleaded with the Lord to know if this was the right thing to do.  And finally, a voice came to me, clear as day, which said “She has waited long enough, you need to take care of this.”  I proposed to Hanna that same night.  She later told me that those words were exactly what her dad would have told me if I were asking for her hand in marriage.

We have been blessed with an incredible relationship.  We are so grateful for the blessings of being together that we have made a pact with ourselves and God that we will serve in whatever way we can, whenever we can.  And we love serving together.

The kids worked out too.  Six of them are here today and some of them are even sitting together!

Hanna and I will spend our six-year wedding anniversary in the Provo Missionary Training Center.  There is no better place to celebrate our marriage than in the MTC.

Matthew 7:7 says “Seek and you shall find.  Knock and it shall be opened unto you.  Ask and you shall receive.”

Personal revelation struck again last November as we sat in the balcony of the beautiful celestial room in the Portland temple.  We were grateful for the blessing of someone watching over us and felt like we had been miraculously rescued from several critical issues in our life and business.  During that time, the spirit came to both of us, at the same time, and urgently told us we must serve a mission.  Right now.

We had talked about serving a mission since our courtship days, but the time had never been right.  But now the spirt was telling us to go, right now.

As we sat there, numerous obstacles came to mind.  What about our business?  What about our home?  Our kids?  We have nine kids, certainly a grandchild will arrive in our absence.  Wouldn’t we need to be there to help with that?  What about Hanna’s elderly mom?  My elderly dad?  What about the Scouts?  The seminary students?  We even worried about our cat!

As we brought up each obstacle, the spirit gave us the answer as to how it would work out, and gave us a feeling of total peace.

We went home and immediately visited with Bishop Harris to start the process of becoming missionaries.

I have done this mission thing before.  But I am still scared.  I am a structured guy and like to have a plan and know what I’m going to do.  We don’t have any idea exactly where we will be serving or what we will be doing there.  I am scared the mission president will send us to a remote branch somewhere with the instructions to just to what the Lord tells us to do! 

But I know through personal revelation, the spirit will tell us what to do and we will be a mighty and powerful tool for the Lord in doing his work.

DC 84:88 says “And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face.  I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.”

At this last general conference in April, there were lots of exciting changes.  In fact, it appears as if all of us have been called to be ministers, which is incredibly cool!  But amongst all of that excitement, I’m hoping we didn’t miss the great first talk given by our new prophet.  It was on personal revelation.  I would like to read some of his quotes.

“…how willing the Lord is to reveal His mind and will.  The privilege of receiving revelation is one of the greatest gifts of God to His children.  Through the manifestations of the Holy Ghost, the Lord will assist us in all our righteous pursuits.  I remember in an operating room, I have stood over a patient – unsure how to perform an unprecedented procedure – and experienced the Holy Ghost diagramming the technique in my mind.”

This has likewise happened to me as I have helped folks with their taxes.  I get stuck on something that is complex and I pray and then the answer is placed before me.

“Imagine the miracle of it?  Whatever our church calling, we can pray to our Heavenly Father and receive guidance and direction, be warned about dangers and distractions, and be enabled to accomplish things we simply could not do on our own.  If we will truly receive the Holy Ghost and learn to discern and understand His promptings, we will be guided in matters large and small.”

I have experienced this as I served as a Scoutmaster.  I have at times been prompted to get the boys into shelter, check on this particular boy to see how he is doing, and to check in this particular tent.

“What wisdom do you lack?  What do you feel an urgent need to know or understand?  Follow the example of the Prophet Joseph.  Find a quiet place where you can regularly go.  Humble yourself before God.  Pour out your heart to your Heavenly Father.  Turn to Him for answers and for comfort.  Pray in the name of Jesus Christ about your concerns, your fears, your weaknesses – yes, the very longings of your heat.  And then listen!  Write the thoughts that come to your mind.  Record your feelings and follow through with actions that you are prompted to take.  As you repeat this process day after day, month after month, year after year, you will grow into the principle of revelation.”

I am so grateful that I kept that journal on Pioneer Trek.  This past week as I prepared for this talk, I read through that journal and I openly wept.  The things I wrote in there 40 years ago were powerful and inspiring and I am grateful that I have them recorded.  My Trek Journal is one of my most prized possessions.

This next quote is kind of scary:

“…in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.  I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation.”

This is a powerful warning and pleading from our prophet on how we can deal with the turmoils that inflict our world.

I testify that every one of us in this room can receive personal revelation if we have the desire.  Even the vilest of sinners can receive personal revelation.  I, myself, have been deep into the pit of sin and bogged down with despair, discouragement and depression.  At that time I sometimes felt that if I called upon the Lord, he would likely come and smite me down.  However, I have studied the scriptures fully and can not find anywhere in the scriptures where the Lord has smitten someone who was calling out his name.  The Lord is a god of love.  “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”  At these sinful times in our life is when we need personal revelation more than ever.  I am grateful that Heavenly Father was there for me at that time of need.

I testify that the Book of Mormon is true.  One of the things that arrived with our mission call was a checklist of things to do.  On this checklist was to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover again before coming to the MTC.  I was really annoyed at this because I read the Book of Mormon all the time already!  But I chose to be obedient and have been reading the Book of Mormon.  I have found that it has given me extra spiritual power.  That I have been able to do things better than I would have been able to do otherwise.  This included public presentations, talking to people, giving guidance.  I look forward to serving with this same power in the mission field.  There is no better way to prepare for a mission than reading The Book of Mormon.

I testify that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God.  I have walked through the Sacred Grove and have walked in the same exact spot where he knelt and poured his heart out to God to know which church was true.  And he received the ultimate personal revelation, a visitation from God the Father and Jesus Christ.  As I walked through that grove, I could tell that something powerful had happened there.

Even more impressive for me as a Scoutmaster and having spent nearly my entire life serving within the Aaronic Priesthood, was last October’s visit to the Sugar Grove on the banks of the Susquehanna River in Harmony, Pennsylvania.  There I walked in the exact place where John the Baptist appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and conferred the Aaronic Priesthood upon them. I could feel the power there and there is no doubt in my mind that something tremendous happened in that grove of maple trees.

I testify that Jesus is the Christ and that He is my Savior.  Through his atoning sacrifice, I have been healed from the incredible pain and grief of a son who took his own life.  I have been healed from the heartbreak of a failed marriage.  I have been healed from countless illnesses.  And I have had my many sins taken away from me.  The process was easy.  I just had to believe that Jesus Christ would do this for me, and then ask for him to do so.

My feelings are very tender today as I am released from being a Scoutmaster.  I saw this release coming for months, but really didn’t see it coming in a way.  The hardest part of being a Scoutmaster is saying good bye to the boys.  I love these guys.  And this is my fourth time to go through this.  When I left the boys in Manito Ward Troop 324, we had a huge blubberfest around a campfire.  And the very next morning, Bishop Olsen came to my house and called me to be the Scoutmaster here in this Ward!  He couldn’t understand why I struggled emotionally receiving that call!  It was because I didn’t want to go through that all over again!  But here we are again.  Salem, Forest, Jake, and all the other guys who aren’t here today……..some are even out camping with their families…………go figure!  All of you guys will be great and awesome missionaries!

I testify of these things and leave you with my blessings and love.  And now I must go and serve.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.