Hello brothers and sisters,
My name is Lenise Volmer, soon to be Sister Volmer for the
next 18 months, starting Wednesday. I have been called to serve in the Provo
Utah mission, and I couldn’t be happier with where I’m going. Yes, I’m going to
Mormonville, yes I’m just speaking English, and yes I’m aware that everyone
says this is the easiest mission there is and there is a likelihood that I will
gain 50 pounds on my mission. All missions are hard, no matter where you go,
and I know this will be a growing experience for me. But I can say without a
shadow of doubt that I recognized the spirit when I opened my call, I
recognized the Holy Ghost as he whispered to me that there was somebody there
who needs me; who needs the gospel. Almost exactly a year ago I was sitting in
my seminary class and the Holy Ghost (who just happens to be a really good
friend of mine) inspired me to write this in my seminary journal:
“I find these simple moments happening to me, where I
realize that—if given the chance—I want to serve a mission. I want to share my
testimony. I want to change lives.”
That was it. That was all I wrote. Just that small little
line in my journal after watching a simple little Mormon message that went
along with the seminary lesson.
Well, surprise surprise! The very next morning was the
Saturday morning session of General conference on October 6th of
2012, and President Monson announced to the entire church the age changes for
missionaries everywhere. The spirit practically knocked me over the head.
Little did I know then that exactly a year and seven days later I would be
standing in front of all of you giving my farewell talk.
The spirit had a huge influence in my decision to serve a
mission. There were times when I was so overwhelmed by the Holy Ghost about my
decision that I just had to sit and let it all sink in. Let the spirit wash
over me and reassure me of what I was going to do. My relationship with the
Holy Ghost is something that I've learned to hold very dear to my heart. He and
I have been a team for so long, but I find that sometimes I still struggle to
recognize when He is prompting me.
So that’s what I've been asked to talk on today. Recognizing
the spirit.
My sophomore year of high school I was taking an honor’s
English class, and we were reading Lord
of the Flies. My teacher at the time talked to us about how the author was
trying to portray through his novel that everyone has this dark animal side to
them that wants dark, evil, and carnal things and that it can take over if we
don’t learn to control it. We've all heard of the natural man inside us and I
kind of understood where my teacher was coming from, but it didn't sit well
with me that she painted us all with the idea that underneath all our layers we
were just born as selfish beings with animal like cravings and wants. She had
us write an in-class essay on how we felt about that knowledge.
Quite honestly, I wrote saying that I didn’t believe it.
I went on to tell her
that I didn’t believe in a monster inside of all of us, but I believed in a
light. I told her that I believed that everyone was born with a goodness inside
them that radiated out. Only when they let the world around them infect them
did they turn into the selfish beings that the world creates. Well my teacher
didn’t exactly like that I disagreed with her, and my grade on the essay may
have suffered, but she realized that I was going to stand my ground.
Because I do believe that each of us has a light that we are
born with. We do; it’s called the Light of Christ.
In Moroni 7:16 it
says “the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from
evil.”
In the bible dictionary it says: “The light of Christ is
just what the words imply: enlightenment, knowledge, and an uplifting,
ennobling, preserving influence that comes upon mankind because of Jesus
Christ.”
The Light of Christ is that part of us that wants the best
for those we love, that part of you that recognizes when somebody does
something kind, or that part of you that wants to help out when you see a need.
That’s Christ’s light that lives inside of you. You took a piece of Him and His
infinite love with you when you came to this earth. It’s that piece of heaven
inside you that still has a tiny memory of what it was like to be in the Lord’s
presence. It gives you simple reminders that part of the Father and His son
live within you and everyone else.
President Boyd K. Packer said, “It is important for
a…missionary…to know that the Holy Ghost can work through the Light of Christ.
A teacher of gospel truths is not planting something foreign or even new into
an adult or child. Rather, the missionary or teacher is making contact with the
Spirit of Christ already there. The gospel will have a familiar ‘ring’ to
them.”
The Light of Christ however is not the Holy Ghost. It’s when
the Holy Ghost interacts with that light, that we see realization and
understanding happen within those who are searching for the truths that our
gospel possesses.
The bible dictionary says “The light of Christ should not be
confused with the personage of the Holy Ghost, for the light of Christ is not a
personage at all. Its influence is preliminary to and preparatory to one’s
receiving the Holy Ghost. The light of Christ will lead the honest soul who
hearkeneth to the voice to find the true gospel and the true church and thereby
receive the Holy Ghost.”
The Holy Ghost is the third member of the God Head. Unlike
our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost does not have a
body of flesh and blood. In D&C 130: 22 it says “(The Holy Ghost) is a
personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.”
The power of the Holy Ghost is the special witness that
speaks to us about the truthfulness of the gospel. This power is what usually
helps investigators to feel the spirit and recognize the truthfulness of the
gospel. The power of the Holy Ghost however is not that same as the gift of the
Holy Ghost. When we are baptized and confirmed members of the church, then the
gift of the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost in conferred upon us by
those with the right authority to do so.
In the bible dictionary it says: “The gift of the Holy Ghost
can come only after proper and authorized baptism, and is conferred by the
laying on of hands…The gift of the Holy Ghost is the right to have, whenever
one is worthy, the companionship of the Holy Ghost”
The Spirit of the Holy Ghost is a key part of conversion.
Elder M. Russel Ballard spoke of the power of the Spirit. He said: “True
conversion comes through the power of the Spirit. When the Spirit touches the
heart, hearts are changed. When individuals…feel the Spirit working with them,
or when they see the evidence of the Lord’s love and mercy in their lives, they
are edified and strengthened spiritually and their faith in Him increases. The
experiences with the Spirit follow naturally when a person is willing to
experiment upon the word. This is how we come to feel the gospel is true.”
The next step is to recognize the Spirit of the Holy Ghost
and his promptings in your life. I had a really good friend of mine who fell
away from the church for a while and left home and moved in with a friend.
After a lot of fasting and praying on our part, after six months he returned to
the church and moved back in with his family. When I talked to him afterward we
had a long discussion about the Spirit. He had been baptized at eight and gone to
primary, scouts, mutual, and he was active in the young men’s program. He had
had the Spirit of the Holy Ghost with him the whole time, but he told me that
he took it for granted. He explained to me that when he had fallen away from
the church the absence of the Spirit in his life was tangible. After having the
Comforter leave him, he said he felt depressed, down, and lost. He hadn’t
recognized what blessings came from having the Holy Ghost with him. Now that
he’s back, he is hyper-aware of the Holy Ghost in his life and the promptings
he receives. He told me that when the spirit isn’t there, he can feel it
instantly, and knows that he either needs to change what he’s doing, or leave
the bad place that he’s at in order to receive the Spirit’s guidance again.
I asked one of my best friends, whose on his own mission
right now, for advice on my farewell talk . He emailed me and The thought he
gave me matched up with my other friend’s experience. He wrote “If you aren’t
in an environment where you can feel the spirit, then you will never come to a
point where you can recognize the spirit’s influence in your life. Always try
to become better acquainted with the spirit, because it is just like a person,
the more you see them around, the more you start to recognize who they are and
eventually you may become friends with them!”
When the scriptures say “Stand ye in holy places, and be not
moved” This is for our own protection. We need the guiding voice of the Holy
Ghost, and when we are in environments where he cannot reside, then we will
never recognize him.
Those not of our faith, when asking for answers from God,
expect some large miracle or declaration from Him. However, the Spirit speaks
quietly to our hearts and minds. Very rarely is the spirit heard in a voice. It
is mostly relayed in a feeling of gentle warmth or it can sometimes move people
to tears. Boyd K. Packer taught: “The voice of the Spirit is described in the
scriptures as being neither ‘loud’ nor ‘harsh.’ It is ‘not a voice of thunder,
neither…voice of a great tumultuous noise.’ But rather, ‘a small voice of
perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper,’ and it can ‘pierce even to the
very soul’ and ‘cause the heart to burn.’ Remember, Elijah found the voice of
the Lord was not in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but was a
still small voice.’ The spirit does not get our attention by shouting or
shaking us with a heavy hand. Rather is whispers. It caresses so gently that if
we are preoccupied we may not feel it at all…Occasionally it will press just
firmly enough for us to pay heed. But most of the time, if we do not heed the
gentle feeling, the Spirit will withdraw and wait until we come seeking and
listening and say in our manner and expression, like Samuel of ancient times,
‘speak Lord, for they servant heareth.”
My mom talked once
about having spiritual promptings that she followed through on, but there
seemed to not have been any reason for the prompting. I told her that I think
those moments are God testing to see that if he does prompt you, you will obey,
so that in the future if he prompts you to do something really important he
knows you will react immediately. I was talking about spiritual promptings with
one of my friends once and she stated that sometimes she has trouble differentiating
between the spirit’s voice in her head and her inner voice and thoughts. I too
have had this concern.
Gordon B. Hinckley said this: “That’s the test when all is
said and done. Does it persuade one to do good, to rise, to stand tall, to do
the right thing, to be kind, to be generous? Then it is of the Spirit of God…
If it invites to do good, it is of God. If it inviteth to do evil, it is of the
devil…and if you are doing the right thing and if you are living the right way,
you will know in your heart what the Spirit is saying to you. You recognize the
promptings of the Spirit by the fruits of the Spirit—that which enlighteneth,
that which buildeth up, that which is positive and affirmative and uplifting
and leads us to better thoughts and better words and better deeds is of the
Spirit of God”
As a missionary, it is extremely necessary and important
that I have the continual companionship of the Holy Ghost with me. When it
comes down to it, it’s not about how much doctrine I know or how successful I
think I will be as a missionary. Missionary work—my mission—is NOT about me.
This week when I put that name tag on for the first time, my first name is
gone. I become sister. My name is put next to my older brother’s name as a
representative of His divine church. I will lose myself, and my words will no
longer be my words. I will have become a mouth piece for the Lord, and I will
give up my own words for the words the Spirit puts into my mouth. I need to
recognize and be directly in tune with the Holy Ghost in order to teach others
and it will be through that relationship with the Holy Ghost that I will be
able to bring others to Christ. I want to bring other’s the joy of the spirit,
I want them to recognize what it means to have a loving father in heaven, and
an older brother who sacrificed every
single one of the pains of this world, that we may have the opportunity to
be with him again in heaven.
I’m so excited to serve the people of Provo. Elder Bruce R.
McConkie wrote what is called “My Missionary Commission” and the spirit bore
witness to me of the importance of what I’m about to do. It goes like this: “I
am called of God. My authority is above that of kings of the earth. By
revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is my master and He has chosen me to represent Him—to stand in His
place, to say and do what He Himself would say and do if He personally were
ministering to the very people to whom he has sent me. My voice is His voice,
and my acts are His acts; my doctrine is His doctrine. My Commission is to do
what He wants done; To say what He wants said; to be a living modern witness in
word and in deed of the divinity of his great and marvelous Latter-day work. How
great is my calling!”
I know many missionaries, when they come home from their missions, bare their testimony in the language they learned on their missions. Though I'm speaking English, I will bare my testimony in the way I feel the spirit the most; so I'm going to sing for you.
In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
I then sang Savior, Redeemer of My Soul. It's a beautiful hymn that I encourage you to listen to.
So here begins my adventure. Mission Possible.
I'm now officially going to be Sister Volmer!
Lenise trying to put the last of her things into her suitcase.....she did it!!
I then sang Savior, Redeemer of My Soul. It's a beautiful hymn that I encourage you to listen to.
So here begins my adventure. Mission Possible.
I'm now officially going to be Sister Volmer!
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