Good morning Brothers and Sisters, my name is Garret Christensen. Soon to be Elder Christensen. I have been called to serve in the Chile Concepcion mission. I start home MTC June 30th, and leave for the Mexico MTC 2 weeks later in July. Chile is long and skinny and my dad says that the people are “weird”- so I'll fit in perfectly there.
Ever since I was a young boy I wanted to be a missionary, growing up the missionaries were heros to me. I sometimes sing the lyrics to I hope they call on a mission in front of my mom, and my mom is like, “they already have!”
This life is the time to prepare to meet God. We came to this earth to be tried and tested and grow. We will all stand before God one day, we need to be prepared and confident to stand before him. The way back to God, is being a disciple of Jesus Christ. In the Prophets talk The Lord Jesus Christ will come again by Russell M Nelson, he says, “now is the time for you and for me to prepare for the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.” This is a great quote because it shows that WE need to prepare for ourselves, no one can gain a testimony for you, only you. Another thing I liked about this quote is that the prophet said that HE needed to prepare for the second coming, if the prophet needs to prepare, then we ALL need to prepare.
What do we need to do to prepare for the second coming?
I have 5 invitations and tips for this, the first 4 are on how to prepare yourself, the 5th one is how to prepare the world.
Invitation #1: Grow your own testimony, how can you grow your testimony? In 2 Nephi 32:3 it states, “feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do.” Growing your testimony requires doing the things we learn about since primary, reading our scriptures, going to church and praying to God. In the last year my testimony of Jesus Christ has grown a lot. I did this by paying better attention in seminary, taking notes and leaving my distracting phone in the car. I also did this by reading my scriptures as soon as I got home from school everyday. Growing your testimony is a lifelong process, not as a one time event. Did steph curry become the best 3 pointer shooter of all time after one day of practice! NO! He worked for it, for years, he was consistent and worked on it daily, and still works on it to this day.
Invitation 2nd on how to prepare for the second coming: Go to the temple. In the prophet Russell M Nelson talk he says, “Here is my promise to you: Every sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find Him in the temple. You will feel His mercy. You will find answers to your most vexing questions. You will better comprehend the joy of His gospel..” Going to the temple will strengthen your faith and your discipleship to Jesus Christ. It will help you to better understand God’s love for you. The temple truly is the house of the lord. I love the temple, when I was 11 turning 12 I went every week with my sister, what a good big sister. She set a good example for me, I am grateful for the temple so close and for the chance to get to go so often.
My 3rd invitation is: One of my biggest takeaways from Brother Kellers and Llyod seminary class is to “pray always.” I like this because it reminds us to always have a relationship with God. God knows us, he knows us better than we know ourselves, he knows our names, our strengths and our weaknesses. Turn to God and rely on Him for strength. In the Prophet's talk he says, “There is no limit to the Savior’s capacity to help you..” I love this, I often pray when I need help focusing on school or when I need more patience with my family— I'm still working on that one.
My 4th invitation is something that the Bishop has taught me a lot is:, the most important thing is love for your neighbor. Especially in missionary work, if you don't have love for the people you are teaching then you missed the mark. You can be the smartest person in the gospel and have the whole book of Mormon memorized, but if you don't treat people kindly then that doesn’t really matter. I liked President Mallonees' talk last week at a stake conference, striving to have Christ in our countenance. As a missionary, I will be a representative of Jesus Christ, I need to strive to have Christ in my countenance . In DC 4: 6 it says, “Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, diligence...” I love that word remember, because we all know that those are important, but we as humans are very forgetful so we need to ALWAYs REMEMBER to be Christlike. One thing we talk about in seminary is, it’s not enough to believe in Christ, we strive to become like Christ. I love the primary song, I’m trying to be like Jesus. “it says Im trying to be like Jesus im following in his ways. I'm trying to love as he did, in all that I do and say.” If you want to prepare yourself for the second coming, be more christlike and try to follow Him better.
The last tip is how to help prepare the world for the Second coming. In the young men's theme it says, “ I will help prepare the world for the Savior’s return by inviting all to come unto Christ and receive the blessings of His Atonement.” Missionary work is vital to preparing for the savior's return. All of God's children need to hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love this scripture in DC 133:37 “And this gospel shall be preached unto every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.”This is why I am going to the beautiful far away country of Chile, to invite all to come unto Christ. God loves all his children and wants them to have joy in this life and in the next life. God is sending me to Chile to help to prepare the world for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
I know that Jesus christ will come again.
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