Good afternoon dear brothers and sisters. It’s been a long wait, but the dreaded day
that I would have to give a talk in church that would last longer than 2
minutes has finally arrived. All jokes
aside I would like to thank everyone here who has come to support me as I move
onto my next step in life.
For those of you who don’t know me I am Nathaniel Ellis,
though soon I will simply go by the name Elder Ellis. I have volunteered and then been called to
serve the Lord for two years as a missionary of the LDS faith. I have been called to serve in the Missouri
Independence mission, which is located in the North-west corner of Missouri and
much of Kansas. For many countless years
of my life I have prepared myself to go and serve as an LDS missionary for two
years. And today I am grateful to say
that my opportunity to serve has come.
For the next two years of my life starting this Wednesday I will
completely dedicate my life to our beloved Heavenly Father in order to help
spread the one true gospel to our many brothers and sisters around the world.
A few weeks ago when I was asked to give my talk this Sunday
I was given the opportunity to choose the subject that I would talk on. It wasn’t long before I shouted out the first
thing that came to my mind; faith. Faith
is one of the most important and wonderful things that we have been given in
our Earthly lives. It can truly create
miracles and bring true joy to our lives.
So what exactly is faith?
Faith can be described in various definitions. A simple definition describes faith as
believing in something that cannot be seen or proved. Alma 32:21 describes faith as a “hope for
things which are not seen, which are true.”
Faith is what moved ancient prophets to create miracles. Moses parted the waters of the Red Sea
through faith, Noah built an ark and saved his family from the great flood by
faith. Faith is also what moves all of
us in our daily lives. We wouldn’t work each day if we did not have faith by
doing so that it would provide us with a living.
Faith isn’t just believing in something though. We actually have to do actions as well. We can’t simply believe that work is going to
provide us with a living. We still have
to go out and work. Our faith in the
gospel is the same way. We must exercise
our faith with action, we do this by living worthily and by following the
commandments that have been given to us by the Lord.
One of the greatest examples of faith can be shown by the
founder of our restored church, Joseph Smith.
One evening while reading the Bible, Joseph read a scripture: James 1:5
““If
any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally,
and upbraideth [scold or criticize] not; and it shall be given him.” He kept this scripture to his heart and with
faith he prayed to God that he could find the true Church. And with his faith, he received a wonderful
answer and created what is today known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints.
As I’ve prepared myself to go on a mission I’ve tried my
best to exercise faith. Through tithing,
prayer, and following the commandments, I feel I have exercised my faith unto
Christ. And I feel this was displayed to
me when I had received my mission call.
Before I sent in my mission papers it was a pretty scary
thing. I had no clue where I could end
up going, and frankly any place I’d be going, I knew it wasn’t home. But I had faith in the Lord that I would be
called where I was needed. So with a
little faith I said a prayer and asked the Lord that I would receive my mission
call and be at peace with the place that I was asked to go to.
When I had received that nice big envelope with my mission
call, I didn’t know what to expect.
Would I go out of state? Would I
have to learn a new language? I had no
clue what was coming. But despite my
doubts, I moved forward and opened my letter.
I read it in my mind before telling my family. “You have been called to serve in the
Missouri Independence Mission” The call was a complete surprise to me, almost
instinctively I handed the letter down to my older brother. Missouri Independence was the same exact
mission that my brother had been on years before.
For those of you who don’t know, going on the same mission
that a sibling had been on is not a common occurrence. When I was sending in my papers to go on a
mission, the thought that I would be going to the same place my older brother
went never occurred to me. But when I
received that call I absolutely knew it was the place I needed to go. Through my faith my prayers had been answered
and I received a mission call and felt great about it.
Faith is an extremely wonderful thing. By having faith in God we receive blessings
It can grow and grow and bring many numerous blessings to our lives. It’s like a seed and when treated right, we
can help it grow. So how do increase our faith? Like I said earlier, we need to take action
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