Sister Allie Rawlings, Missionary Farewell

This is a blog of Allie Rawlings on her mission to Ciudad Obregon, Mexico.

This is Allie's farewell talk she gave in church on November 26, 2017 prior to leaving for the Mexico Missionary Training Center on November 28, 2017.

As many of you know, I’m speaking today because I leave for Mexico in two days and like thousands of other young adults, have put off schooling and other opportunities to spend the next eighteen months as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly shortened to the LDS church or nicknamed the Mormons. As an LDS missionary, it will be my great blessing to share the good news of the gospel and to teach anyone who will listen about the principles and doctrines that have brought me so much joy and happiness in my own life.

But, if you look at this as a more general picture, that’s not why I’m speaking today. I’m speaking today because I decided a long time ago that I wanted to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, that I wanted to follow Him, and learn of Him, because I knew His gospel is true and because it brought me more happiness than anything else.

So today, I want to speak about discipleship, and specifically, Christ-like love as a Hallmark of discipleship.

What does it mean to be a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ?  In the April 2014 Session of General Conference, Elder Robert D. Hales, one of the twelve apostles addressed the question of what it means to be a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He said, (quote) “A disciple is one who has been baptized and is willing to take upon him or her the name of the Savior and follow Him. A disciple strives to become as He is by keeping His commandments in mortality, much the same as an apprentice seeks to become like his or her master.

Many people hear the word disciple and think it means only ‘follower.’ But genuine discipleship is a state of being. This suggests more than studying and applying a list of individual attributes. Disciples live so that the characteristics of Christ are woven into the fiber of their beings, as into a spiritual tapestry.

I testify that the efforts we make to become disciples of our Savior are truly added upon until we are “possessed” of His love.²¹ This love is the defining characteristic of a disciple of Christ:” The Savior himself, while in His earthly ministry, declared– by this shall mean know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. That’s found in John chapter 13 verse 55.

Christ himself was the greatest example of love. He gave His life, for all of us and every single person who has ever lived and will ever live, regardless of how they feel about Him, because He loves us, each individually.   The Savior said “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13. How blessed I feel to even be considered His friend and to think that for me, a person who is so flawed, He was willing to “suffer pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind.”

And not only did He, out of love, lay down His life and take upon Himself death, for both you and I, but He took upon Himself every feeling of loneliness or pain, every sickness, every infirmity, every negative feeling we experience He took upon Himself, that He may, to quote Alma “know how according to the Flesh to succor His people.”

Now the word succor means to “to go in aid of, to relieve.” Because of the Savior’s Atoning Sacrifice, Christ knows how best to come to our aid.  He did all this because He loves us. Is there any greater act of love than this? Is there any greater example of love than Jesus Christ?

If we are trying to be like Christ, and if we are calling ourselves His disciples, then our actions should emulate His and we too must strive to love as He did.

In all of the scriptures, we are told to love our neighbor nine times. Of those nine times, eight of those are found in the Bible. Of those eight, 7 of them are found in the New Testament. And of the seven found in the New Testament, five of those are given during Christ’s mortal ministry.

One of these times is found in Matthew 5:43-44, when Christ teaches, “Ye have heard it been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecute you. “

Maybe the best way to illustrate this is the parable Christ gives after He was asked, who is my neighbor?” Many of you might be familiar with it, it’s called the Parable of the Good Samaritan and it goes as follows, “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.”

Of the three people to see this man lying half dead on the side of the road, who was the one to go to his aid? It wasn’t the Priest, who was supposed to be the pinnacle of faithfulness in the Jewish community. It wasn’t the Levite, a man who duty was to minister and administer to those in need. It was the Samaritan, a man who was viewed by the Jews to unclean because his people no longer practiced Judaism and instead were pagan.

Jesus then expounds upon this parable saying, “Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?  And [the man] said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.”

In James 2:17-18, it says “Even so faith, if it hath not works is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works and I will show you my faith by my works.”

Brothers and Sisters, we are not just to love those who think like us, who act like us, who have similar beliefs to ours. We are to love everyone, because everyone is our neighbor. Christ did not just relegate himself to spending time with those who were considered powerful and faithful. “He spoke to prostitutes, He ate with tax collectors, befriended powerless women and children and gave us the story of the good Samaritan.” (Sharon Eubank) We cannot say that we follow Christ, that we have faith in Him, if our actions do not show that we are striving to love like Him.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, one of the twelve apostles said, (quote) “At the zenith of His mortal ministry, Jesus said, ‘Love one another, as I have loved you.”¹⁶ To make certain they understood exactly what kind of love that was, He said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments”¹⁷ and “whosoever … shall break one of [the] least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be … the least in the kingdom of heaven.”¹⁸ Christlike love is the greatest need we have on this planet in part because righteousness was always supposed to accompany it. So if love is to be our watchword, as it must be, then by the word of Him who is love personified, we must forsake transgression and any hint of advocacy for it in others. Jesus clearly understood what many in our modern culture seem to forget: that there is a crucial difference between the commandment to forgive sin (which He had an infinite capacity to do) and the warning against condoning it (which He never ever did even once).”

For those of us who do not have an English Degree from Yale, condone means to treat something as acceptable or harmless. So, to paraphrase, although we are to love regardless and we are to forgive and refrain from judgement, we are not to treat sin as something that is either acceptable or harmless.

Take, for example, Christ’s interaction with the woman caught in adultery.  While teaching in the temple, several Pharisees, men who prided themselves on strict obedience to the Law of Moses, brought a woman who had been found in adultery before Christ and said unto Him, “Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?  This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.  So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.  And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.  And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.  When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?  She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”

Christ does not tell her that she has not sinned, nor does He say, “Oh it’s fine, just do what you want, you’re okay.” He doesn’t tell her to keep sinning. Instead, He tells her very lovingly, “Go, and sin no more.”

There is a difference between loving the sinner, and condoning the sin. One of the greatest gifts we have received from our Heavenly Father was the gift of agency, or the ability to make choices. As such, it is a person’s divine right to use their agency and make their own choices. Those choices could be for good or bad, but it is their right to choose. And as such, we must respect people’s agency, that although we may not agree with what they have chosen, we can love them anyway. After all, are we not all sinners?  To quote President Utchdorf, “Don’t judge me because I sin differently than you.”

We are to forgive, and to love, and to refrain from judgement, because only the Lord can forgive sins, and I testify that He does. I testify that He is a loving Father who is aware of our individual wants and needs, and that He knows me personally. He gave His only begotten Son, for me, that I can be redeemed of my sins, that I can have joy and everlasting life.