A few weeks ago, my parents gave talks in sacrament meeting.

I came to hear them and you guys probably heard my booming laugh in the back over by the Nadybals. Someone was joking with my dad later about how he brought his own laugh track to sacrament meeting for his talk. I thought this was a genius plan, but since I cant really be my own laugh track, I brought my brother, Luke, to take over for me, so thanks for that hermano. Im assuming most of you know that Im headed out on my mission in a few days. Ill be serving in the New York, New York South Mission, Spanish speaking. Some of you may have seen my plaque out in the foyer. Its funny, and I can only say this because Bish op Page isnt here, but theres a little gold plate shaped in the state of New York on my plaque. And I laugh because I wont actually be in any of the area on that little gold plate. My mission consists of Long Island, Staten Island, and Bermuda Island. Bermuda is kind of the wild card here. They add it to the New York South mission because JFK airport on Long Island is the only airport that flies out to Bermuda. I wont get to serve there though because there arent enough Spanish speakers there. Shame.

But anyways, the New York South mission is the second oldest mission in the church, next to the British mission. When people think of New York City, they generally think of Manhattan, with Central Park, Times Square, Broadway, all that fun stuff. I wont be there though. Notable areas I may serve in include Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau County, and the Hamptons. I did some fascinating research on Long Island via Wikipedia, it turns out there are about 7.5 million people living on Long Island, making it the most populated island in the U.S. If Long Island were a state, it would be the 13 th most populous state, just behind Virginia and would have the largest population density. This is pretty crazy because you also have to remember that Long Island is only 200 square miles bigger than Rhode Island.

But enough about where Im going, Id like to talk about what Im going to be doing in New York. I get asked this question a lot and generally I say that Im going to teach people about my church. But I feel like that answer doesnt really cover the full scope of what Im going to be doing for two years. Yes, I am going to be teaching people about the Mormon church, but theres so much more to serving a mission.

I think that the most important idea behind serving a mission is serving the people of your area. Teaching people is only as successful as the service you are willing to give. First, through service, you learn to love the people. Ask pretty much any missionary, Ive talked to a bunch myself, and they will tell you that teaching people becomes so much easier if you love the people.

The other reason I feel service is important in serving a mission is because of the scripture mastery in Mosiah chapter 2. Verse 17 reads, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God. When Im on my mission, I will have to give a weekly amount of service. In this way, I am not only serving God by helping teach people about the gospel, but I am also serving God by giving service to the people of New York.

Serving a mission is also a time for me to learn more about the gospel. Sure Ive learned a bunch in Sunday school and family home evenings and seminary, but th eres always so much more to learn. And a mission is the perfect opportunity to focus all my efforts on studying the scriptures and Christ. Anybody whos ever taken lessons in an instrument can understand this principle. When you first start out, youre just learning and you cant always play the songs that you want to. You dont have enough knowledge or skill to be able to play the more difficult pieces. But when you take lessons, you have a teacher who can help explain things to you and motivates you to practice so you can improve every week. Pretty soon youll be out there playing Rachmaninoff and crazy stuff. Without a teacher, it can sometimes become really difficult to maintain a consistent practice schedule and can hinder your musical progress. I feel like serving a mission is just like that. It makes sure you have the time every day to study the scriptures and feel the spirit. It motivates you to do all this so that youll be better able to teach the gospel to investigators.

A huge part of serving a mission is having the spirit with you at all times. This shouldnt just be the goal for missionaries though. We should all strive to have the spirit with us throughout our daily lives. Accomplishing this is easy, but it can be difficult at the same time. All that is really necessary to have the spirit in our lives is obedience to the commandments of God. Helaman chapter 4, verse 24 tells us that the Spirit of the Lord does not dwell in unholy temples.

So the first step is to simply be obedient. The next step, and the one that I find most difficult, is to always be listening for the promptings of the spirit. I struggled with this for a long time actually. I felt like I was never sure whether it was the spirit that was prompting me to do something, or whether I just felt like that would be something cool to do. How was I supposed to be able to tell the difference between my own thoughts and the promptings of the spirit?

Well a few years ago, most of you should remember, Elder Bednar came to Simi and spoke at our Stake Conference. The night before, he held a question and answer session for youth and young adults in Ventura. I remember going to this and I was excited because it was the first time I had ever seen an apostle in real life. There were a bunch of questions asked, but the one that I remember the most was the question I had always wondered about. Some girl in the audience asked how she could tell the difference between her own thoughts and the promptings of the spirit. And I felt Elder Bednar gave a fascinating answer. He told the girl that she looked like a good girl, that she probably followed the rules and did the things she was supposed to. He then told her not to worry about it. Bednar said that as long as she was obeying the commandments and living worthily, it didnt really matter whether the thoughts were her own or promptings of the spirit, because they were going to lead her on the path of righteousness.

I really liked this answer. Even though an answer or a thought might not come specifically from a prayer or intent listening, it could still very well be a product of the Holy Spirit. This gains some new meaning when we look to Alma 5:40. It reads For I say unto you that whatsoever is good cometh from God and whatsoever is evil cometh from the devil. This means that anytime we do something that is good, the idea to do that good thing essentially originated from listening to the spirit.

I find this becomes a bit more difficult though, when youre relying on the Lord to tell you what to say. To start with a blank slate and let the spirit tell you what to say requires you to really be in tune with the spirit. My favorite example of this is in 1 Nephi chapter 4. This is when Nephi is going to get the brass plates from Laban. Its right after the Angel comes and talks to Laman and Lemuel about how they are being horrible brothers. Nephi convinces everyone to go back, then tells them all to hide in the bushes outside the city. At this point, Nephi has no plans and he writes in verse 6, I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do. This is when things start to get crazy. Nephi is so obedient and in tune with the Spirit, that he has conversations with the spirit in his heart. First, Laban is delivered to Nephi and the spirit tells Nephi to kill him. Now, the murder of a wicked man is a doctrinal discussion for another day, but what we care about here is that Nephi listened to the promptings of the spirit when he had no previous course of action. Nephi kept going on, all the while following the promptings of the spirit; he takes Labans clothes to wear as a disguise, he imitates Labans voice to talk to Zoram and get the brass plates and then invites Zoram to come with his family. Its the most incredible story, one of my favorites in the Book of Mormon. But what I love most about it is that it all comes from the promptings of the Spirit.

From what other missionaries tell me, this is an important ability to develop on the mission and is easy when you are living worthily and are intently listening for the Holy Ghost. Ive only been in the situation to try this once or twice, but was a pretty cool experience.

It was back when I was living at BYU, one Sunday night about 11 oclock, my roommate and I were chilling, doing homework and being distracted by random people walking in our room, it was a pretty common occurrence. One of the guys we home-taught, his name was Marcus, came in and asked if we could give him a blessing of comfort. We both said sure, so we changed into church clothes because we wanted to make this an official blessing, you know. In the downstairs of the dorms at BYU there are soundproof practice rooms with pianos for people to practice their instrument or have impromptu jam sessions and whatnot. We headed down there for a quiet room so we could give Marcus his blessing. We asked him who he wanted to give the blessing and my roommate mentioned that I had never given one before. Marcus decided that I had to give him the blessing then, since I never had before.

I was up for the adventure, I figured it had to happen at some point, might as well make it a controlled situation here at BYU. I immediately started thinking about everything I knew about giving blessings. I knew that I had to let the spirit guide me in what to say. Just like Nephi, getting the plates, I need to listen to the promptings of the spirit and Ill know exactly what to say. Im supposed to be a mouthpiece for the Lord. Ill be honest, I also thought about a Tupac song where he says, I feel his hand on my brain; When I write, I go blind, and let the lord do his thing. I said a prayer before-hand, asking for the spirit to be with me and for help, then we got started.

As soon as I started talking, I could feel what words I was supposed to say. I knew all the words but for some reason I struggled in figuring out how to word them into coherent phrases. Looking back, whenever my father gives a blessing, it always seems so eloquent and beautiful. My first blessing was pretty clunky and basic. It all worked out though and Marcus thanked us for our help.

I called my brother afterwards to discuss the whole event. He and I agreed that as long as the spirit was there and we were worthy and had faith, the words of the blessing didnt matter so much. The Lord understands our intentions and will bless Marcus for his faith and obedience. The eloquence of the wording is something that will come with time

and experience in giving blessings. But regardless of the wording, what is important here is that I was worthy and ready to listen to the spirit tell me what to say. This is important, not only in serving a mission, but in any aspect of life.

I think another very important part of feeling the spirit is prayer. In my story, we said a prayer before I gave the blessing, where I asked for help in listening to the spirit. I think that prayer really helped me be prepared to give the blessing. Prayer is so important in our lives, its hard to really emphasize enough. Aside from living worthily, prayer is the key to feeling the spirit in our lives every day.

A while ago, I was home teaching with my self-assigned companion in the singles ward, Mikey Murphy. We were meeting with a less active member and it was kind of difficult to get ahold of him to actually meet with him. But we finally did, and I let Mikey take over the event because hes really good at this sort of thing. We caught up for a whi le; talked about what he was doing, where he was in life, what interest he had in the church. At the end, Mikey only asked him to do one thing. He didnt try to force him to come to church or to some activity, instead, he asked him to simply set a timer, say a prayer, and just pretend like he was talking to his father for ten minutes. Then to stop and listen for a while and see what comes to him. This really impressed me. What better way for this person to feel the spirit than to say a prayer and listen afterwards for any promptings?

I used to never pray in the mornings. I was lucky if I got myself out of bed and made it to Anthropology on time, I dont have time to kneel down and say a prayer in the morning. But earlier this summer, I was talking to a really good friend of mine and we challenged each other to say morning prayers from now on. It was amazing how I felt the effects instantly. I had more energy during the day, I could focus better at work, I was better able to feel the spirit throughout the day. Its like the Lord was blessing me for making the effort each morning to get on my knees and say a prayer. I want to challenge each of you today, if you dont already say a prayer in the morning, try it for just a week. I promise you that within that week, you will be blessed for your efforts. So thats what Ill be doing on my mission. The next question that I get asked a lot is why Im going on a mission. I have actually thought about this a lot. It didnt just click one day that I wanted to serve a mission. My desire to serve a mission started a long time ago. A bunch of small things that happened made me gradually realize that I should serve a mission. It started with weekly family home evening lessons, with seeing my older brothers all serve missions, with attending church every week. I had always known that I was going to serve a mission. It wasnt until I got to BYU and my close friends started getting mission calls that I realized I really wanted to serve a mission. In my mind, it changed from, that thing you do when you turn 19, to

that wonderful, spiritual experience that I am so grateful I can have the opportunity to serve the Lord. To wrap things up, I have faith that the Book of Mormon is the true word of God, as translated by Joseph Smith. I also have faith that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, called of God to restore the true church on earth in these latter days and that Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet of God today. I am so grateful for the Atonement of Christ and for the power of repentance, that even though none of us are perfect, we can be made clean through Christ. I am especially grateful for the power of prayer and how it can help us feel the spirit, no matter the situation. Im excited to go serve the people of New York for two years and I hope that I can help people there feel the same joy that the church has brought to my life. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.