Homecoming Talk

Well, I know a lot of you don’t know who I am…so I’ll introduce myself. My name is Jesse Mitchell.  This good looking guy right here in the gray suit is my Pops. This is my mom…I’m sure all of you know my mom, but if you don’t—you need to get to know her.

There is no way I could talk—well, I mean it’s really hard to talk about 2 years in 15 minutes. But, I’m grateful for the opportunity I have to speak to you, and I hope that I can say something that will be meaningful to some of you here today.

Elder Lynn G. Robbins came and he visited our mission two different times. I don’t know if all of you know who Lynn G. Robbins is, but he’s in the Presidency of the Seventy and he is one of the founders of Franklin Covey, which is an extremely successful time-management company—which kind of makes what he told us that much more meaningful. I learned a LOT from Elder Robbins and what he taught us—both times he came he taught us about missions and how much you learn from serving a mission, and he would refer to it as the “Lord’s University”, and how no other university in the world could compare to the “Lord’s University”. It doesn’t matter if you go to Harvard or Standford or Princeton or Yale—there are just things you can only learn from serving a two-year mission for the Lord. There are courses like: Dilligence 505, Stress-Management 505 and Marriage 505—that you can’t get at any other school. 

So, missions are hard. And Tucson is a really interesting place. If you haven’t been there, just go to Mexico. It’s basically the same thing. So…what did I learn on my mission? I learned that missions take a lot of faith and I learned just how powerful faith can be…what faith can really do. It can really bring forth miracles. I remember when I first got to my mission, I was super homesick, obviously. I didn’t know what was going on and I meet my new companion and I didn’t even know if we’d get along, we seemed totally different.  And they sent me out to this place in the middle of nowhere—called Solomanville. And it’s just a farm town. And I don’t do well on farms…I’m a city guy. And I just remember getting to my little farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere and the place was destroyed—it looked like nobody had cleaned it in years—there was food from YEARS left in the fridge.  I just remember thinking, “This is going to be a long 2 years. I don’t know if I’m cut out for this. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it.” But, I do remember deciding that I was going to give it my best shot. That I was going to work harder than I had ever worked before. That I was going to pray harder than I ever had. And that I was going to trust in God, that it would work out. Cause I knew this was where I was supposed to be, but I didn’t know if I could do it on my own.  Little did I know, that exercising just that small amount of faith—deciding that I was going to trust in God and do all I could to serve Him—would bless my life in so many ways.  My mission changed my life. I honestly don’t know if I could have had a better mission. I don’t think those two years could have gone any better for me.

We believe in Faith a little differently than a lot of other religions. We believe faith to be a verb instead of a noun. The dictionary kind of classifies faith as a noun, but we believe that faith is an action word—that you have to do something in order to get a result. Joseph Smith always said that faith is a principle of action and power. And that if you don’t do anything, you aren’t going to see the power in your life.

I want to read a scripture that talks about faith. It’s a popular one—Hebrews 11:1 says: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for.  The evidence of things not seen.” The world kind of teaches us that seeing is believing. If you can feel it, if you can see it, if you can hear it—then it’s real. But if you can’t, then there’s no way to prove it, and it must be fake. But, we know that it’s really the other way around—that believing is what really opens your eyes.  Believing in something greater than yourself. I found that to be true on my mission.

I want to share a quote by President Packer: “Faith to be faith must be centered around something that is not known. Faith to be faith must go beyond that which for which there is confirming evidence.  Faith to be faith must go into the unknown. Faith to be faith must walk to the edge of the light and then a few steps into the darkness. If everything has to be known, if everything has to be explained, if everything has to be certified, there is no need for faith—indeed there is no room for it.”

“In a world filled with skepticism and doubt, the expression ‘seeing is believing’ promotes the attitude, ‘You show me, and I will believe.’ We want all of the proof and all of the evidence first. It seems hard to take things on faith.

“When will we learn that in spiritual things it works the other way about—that believing is seeing? Spiritual belief precedes spiritual knowledge. When we believe in things that are not seen but are nevertheless true, then we have faith”

Gabe shared this scripture, but I want to share it again—because it’s a scripture that I came to understand better on my mission and that I appreciate a lot. In Ether 12:6, Moroni says: “I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen. Wherefore, dispute not, because ye see not.  For ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.”  I always thought that was weird for a while. I was like, “well, why the trial? Why does there have to be a trial of our faith before we receive a witness? Why can’t we just believe, and get the result? Why can’t we just get an answer to our prayer right after we say it? Why do we have to go through a trial?” I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that the trial is where we learn and grow the most—that we need the trial in order to become who God wants us to be. To me, faith is like a muscle. If you exercise it, it will grow. But if you fail to exercise it, it’s going to atrophy—it’s going to get smaller. It’s not just a stagnant thing, faith doesn’t just stay still—it’s either growing or shrinking. So it’s up to us whether we are going to do something about it.

I have a few experiences I want to share from my mission—just a couple. These experiences grew my faith. The first one I want to share is from when I was still a pretty new missionary, I had been out for about 4 ½ months-ish. I was finally leaving my first area, and I was super nervous cause I was finally used to this new place out in the middle of nowhere—and they were kicking me out. I remember I got a call, and they told me I was going to this place called Sierra Vista—which is a medium-sized military town.  And that I was going to be training a new missionary—he had been out for a couple of weeks, but he needed someone to finish up his training. I remember asking about how the area was, they said I was going to be on a bike—and I wasn’t stoked about that. They told me: “The area is really struggling and we don’t really have anything going on—and that’s why we want you to go there. We know you’re really excited about the work, Elder Farnworth is excited about the work, and we’re hoping you guys can turn some things around—cause they’re struggling.”  I remember thinking that I felt totally inadequate for the job, I still don’t know what’s going on, I still don’t know how to do missionary work really—and this other guy has no idea, he got out of the MTC a couple of weeks ago. And that it was going to be tough. And…long story short….we ended up getting 13 baptisms in the 6 months I was there—which was actually the most out of the mission, and it was just a miracle, because when I got there, there were no investigators. They were seeing a couple of people, but nothing was coming out of it. It was a week before Christmas when I got there, and nobody wanted to see us—they wanted to spend time with their families.

I want to talk about one family that we met there—called the Perreria family. The Perreria family is really close to my heart.  Brother Perreria is this huge Hawaiian dude, he has tats all over his body. His wife has a bunch of tats too. They had been inactive for over a decade. They had 4 kids who were all over the age of 8 and had never been baptized.  One son, and 3 African-American girls they had adopted. We started working with them, and at first they were super hesitant—they didn’t really want to come back to church, they liked the life they were living. But eventually, we built a really strong relationship with them and they decided they wanted their kids to get baptized—they decided they wanted to come back to church.  And they did. All the kids got baptized—the dad was able to baptize all of the kids. And they’ve been active ever since. Just a couple of months ago, I was able to attend their temple sealing—where they were sealed as a family. I just remember sitting in that sealing room, looking at them and just thinking…”You know, this is what it’s all about. This is what the church is about. This is why we go on missions—so that these people can have these blessings for eternity.” I remember Brother Perreria  talking to me outside the temple after we got out and he just came up to me and said, “I feel like the luckiest guy in the world. Nothing is better than this. There is nothing that has ever happened to me that could be better than this.” I just remember being so grateful, and thinking, “Man, I wonder what would have happened if I had decided to go into Sierra Vista and kind of give up on the area? Or not work, or not show forth my faith?” But, with God, miracles happen.  I saw that multiple times.

I’m just going to share two more experiences really quick. But, if any of you need help on your testimony of Priesthood blessings, just come talk to me—because I saw miracles happen on my mission with the Priesthood. I literally saw miracles happen.  One miracle was a guy named Craig. He was an alcoholic and a drug addict. He hadn’t been to church since he was 13 and he is like 70 now. We visited him because he was super super sick. He had a stomach condition, he had had surgery, he lost a ton of weight—he couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t do anything because he was in so much pain.  He asked us to come give him a blessing, so we gave him a blessing.  The next day he called us and said the pain was totally gone. It was like it never happened. He could eat, he could sleep—and the pain hasn’t come back since. This was just a month and a half ago. He started coming to church every week and every time he would see us he would say, “I can’t believe your blessing healed me! I was doubting the Church, until you guys gave me that Priesthood blessing.

A week later, a couple of weeks ago—this lady called us that also needed a blessing, but it was for her son. He was 5 months old, brand new baby. He was premature when he was born, weighed only 4 pounds—and 5 months later, he still weighed 4 pounds. He hadn’t grown at all, and they didn’t know what was wrong with him—he just wasn’t growing. And she asked us to give him a blessing. She had so much faith, she said, “I know blessings work. I know if you give him a blessing, he’ll grow.” And I remember getting super nervous, I was like, “I don’t know if he’s going to grow. I don’t know if God is going to give you that blessing. I hope He will, but I don’t know that.” I remember giving the baby the blessing, and saying, “Heavenly Father, if it be Your will, let this baby grow and develop like he should.” We got a call a week later and he had already gained a couple of pounds.  He was growing. It was such a miracle. It was such a blessing to see that miracles do happen. Faith is real. The Priesthood is real. And that it is true—the Gospel is true.

I want to close with what I think is the greatest example of faith—and that is our Savior, Jesus Christ. When He performed the Atonement for us, we read in Luke 22, He said: “Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup. Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done.” And I think that’s the greatest example of faith. He was willing to suffer more for us if He needed to. And He did. And because of it, we are saved.

Now that I’m home, I still have to exercise faith. I still have to figure out what I want to do with my life and still stay on the path. It doesn’t end once you get home from your mission, it doesn’t end when you get home from church, or finish the Book of Mormon. Faith is a lifetime process.

I’m super grateful (I never thought I’d be grateful for this—I always thought that I would have loved to bear my testimony in Swahili or something) but I never realized how grateful I would be to bear my testimony in English—cause I want everyone to understand and know what I know to be true. And I KNOW that God is our loving Heavenly Father. I KNOW that He loves us and that He knows us perfectly. And there is nothing that could take that knowledge away from me, because I found out for myself.  And I KNOW that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and our Friend, and our Brother—and that there is nothing that we could do that could take us out of reach of His grasp. And I KNOW that in 1820, a 14 year old boy, in a grove of trees, saw God and saw Jesus Christ. And that They spoke to him. And that what he said he saw, is true. And that Joseph Smith was a prophet. And that the Book of Mormon is true—I KNOW that because I’ve read it and I’ve prayed about it. It’s not because people have told me, and it’s not because I just served a mission—it’s because I KNOW, because I’ve prayed, and the Spirit told me that it is true.

I’m grateful to be back and I’m grateful for all of you. And I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.