In the 26th chapter of Alma, Ammon gives his final testimony to his brothers where he says in verse 16 “Now behold, I cannot say the smallest part of which I feel.” That is the way I feel today as I write.
When the Savior called his 12 apostles he said these words, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you” (John 15:16). That is the same calling that he has given each of us. We have not chosen him but he has chosen us. About halfway through my mission I got an email from mom that said that one of my dear friends had passed away. When she attended the funeral, my friend’s father asked this question to the congregation that he had asked his son every week, “how was your walk with the Savior?” This one question that is so simple, yet so profound, changed my mission. It has changed my life. One of my favorite stories in the bible is the story of two disciples as they walk on the road to Emmaus. Emmaus is a good distance from Jerusalem and as these two men walked they talked of of the Savior’s crucifixion and certainly hopelessness and sorrow filled their hearts. For the scripture says, “their communications [were]…sad” (Luke 24:17). As these two disciples walked to Emmaus a man approached. The man was the Savior, but these two disciples did not know him for “their eyes were holden that they should not know him.” The stranger then spoke unto the two disciples and asked, “What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?”
To which Cleopus, one of the disciples, turns to the stranger, a man he does not recognize, and says “art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not know the things which are come to pass there in these days?” To which the Savior responded, “what things?”
“And they said unto him, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: And how how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yea and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher; and when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulcher, and found it even so as the women had said; but him they saw not” (Luke 24:19-24).
Then the master teacher gave this reply, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.” The master then teaches these two men, “ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:67-27). The Savior walked with these two disciples to Emmaus and quoted scripture to them that they might believe. “and when they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went into tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” Everyone in their life will make a similar trip on the road to Emmaus. The Savior will minister to us in a way in that only he knows how, but at times our eyes too will be blinded that we may not see but he will be there nonetheless. The scripture says that after they realized who the savior was “they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem” They changed their course and got back on the right path. It is never too late to be on our road to Emmaus and turn back to Jerusalem. To face the Father and follow His Son. We will be called at times to act as the savior and help others on their road to Emmaus.
As I have walked the streets of the Philippines for two years I was blessed to have angels, and even the Savior, walk by my side. I felt their presence and their strength. The Laminates that the Sons of Mosiah taught, thought of the missionaries that God had sent as “angels sent from God to save them from everlasting everlasting destruction.” We are called to be those angels as we are sent amongst God’s children, not only for two years with a name tag, but for our whole lives. I would like to share a few experiences that I had as I served as one of God’s missionaries in the Philippines. I would like to start with a man I taught while on my mission.
When we met this man he welcomed us into him home, and as we got to know him, he shared with us many stories from his past. This was a man that was well off before we had met him but had lost most of that wealth due to drinking and gambling. The relationship that he had with his family was breaking and it was almost to the point that they were ready to separate. As we taught him and his family we watched as the spirit worked inside of them and their hearts began to change. One day as we attended the baptism of another one of our investigators, he turned to me and my companion and said “Elders I have realized something. Joseph Smith saw two personages standing above him in the air. I saw two personages as well and they were dressed in white, but they weren’t standing above me in the air they were sitting across from me and they had black name tags on.” While teaching the restoration we taught them that the church has three foundations which are apostles and prophets, priesthood, and revelation and that without the three the church could not stand. He told us, “you know, it’s not much different with the family. You have to have three foundations to make it work.” He said, “you have to have love for yourself, you have to have love for your wife, and you have to have love for your children and if you are missing one it will fall and the family will fail.” He then continued “I would like to add one more to make it more firm; you have to have love for the savior and if our family will have this foundation we will never fail.” This family went to the point of wanting to separate to now being sealed for time and all eternity. I was given the opportunity to act as the Savior and sit with and open the scriptures with them and show how much
Earlier in my mission we were riding home in a jeepney from a meeting. It was a long ride and I noticed that the person sitting in front of me was crying. I didn’t know why but I felt that needed to do something. I was new in the mission and I struggled speaking the language. I had no idea what to do. I sat in that jeepney for a while trying to figure out what I should do. I tried to pull out a sticky note and write in my best Tagalog anything that could comfort this person, but the jeepney was too bumpy so I couldn’t write anything legible enough to be understood. So sitting there franticly thinking to myself, “what am I going to do? How am I going to help this person?” an impression then came into my mind that said, “pull out a pamphlet and there is something you will find there.” I pulled out a restoration pamphlet and read “you are a child of God. He loves you and knows more than you can comprehend.” I pulled out my pen and underlined those simple lines and handed it to this person. She opened the pamphlet and read the line I had underline and I watched as the sadness in her eyes changed to joy and she said to me “Thank you.” I never saw that person again but for that small moment I saw how the gospel changed her life.
In my last area things were going a little rough. It came to the point that I was ready to give up. It was coming close to the end of my mission, but because I had asked to be extended, I would not be going home for another month and a half. We had had some difficulties in our area and I said to my companion “I am sick of this! I want to go home now! I can’t do another six weeks. I am tired, I have given my all, I cannot do this!” Boy was I wrong. The next transfer came and miracles began to present themselves. One day we were on exchanges with another missionary companionship. I was working in another area while my companion was working in ours. It came to a point where most of their appointments had fallen through so they chose to go finding. They had no success. At one point in the day my companion said he felt like he should talk to man sitting on the side of the street, so they approached him and introduced themselves. The man was a member but because of some choices he made in his life he became in-active and was now too ashamed to come back to the church. My companion told the man that we would return and that we wanted to share a message with him. The next day we went looking for him, but we did not find him. We found his son instead. We asked him to take us to his father. After following the boy for a while, my companion turned to me and said “lets go find someone else, this is ridiculous, I don’t know where we are going.”
I replied, “lets just follow him maybe he’ll lead us somewhere.” After a little while longer, the boy stopped and pointed to a house and said “there, go there.” We didn’t find his father that day but we found his aunt. She welcomed us into their home and we began to teach her and her three daughters. As we taught, the spirit filled their house and they invited us to come back. We came back and taught them about Joseph Smith and the restoration. As we taught the first vision the mother stopped us and said “Elders wait a second, I am confused. I am not confused about the things you have taught me – I understand everything – but I am a Catholic. The reason I am confused is that I feel that the Catholic church is not for me. It came to the point that I was so confused that I knelt and prayed to ask God what I should do and a few days later you two showed up.”
I replied, “Sister it is not a coincidence that we came to your house. God has answered your prayer and he sent us.” She then became very emotional and said “I now know there is a God and he loves me.”
As we walk with the Savior on our road to discipleship it may not always easy. There are distractions and temptation on every side. Satan is good at what he does and his best weapon is to get us to forget what our potential is. If he can do that then he has won. But if we continue to have our eyes on the Savior and remember who we are, we will never be lost. I testify that the atonement of Jesus Christ is real. I have seen it in my life, I have been healed by the atonement and I have watched others be healed. As we travel on our road to discipleship we may feel that we are inadequate and that our weakness are to much. At times when we feel like this we need to remember the words of President Hinckley “Many of you think you are failures. You feel you cannot do well, that with all of your effort it is not sufficient. We all worry about our performance. We all wish we could do better. But unfortunately we do not realize, we do not often see the results that come of what we do. You never know how much good you do.” The Savior has promised angels on our left and on our right to bear us up. And He always keeps His word. Whether we are a missionary, whether we are struggling, or whether we feel we are doing okay. I promise that there are angels on our left and on our right and that the Savior himself is with us.