Llamado

“The most effective missionaries always act out of love.”

Dallin H. Oaks

Grant gave his farewell address today, and McKay reported on his mission.

They were both asked to speak about LOVE and missionary work.

*Grants talk is below, McKay didn't have his written out, so I don't have a copy of it*

Good morning brothers and sisters-

I have been looking forward to this day for a long time. It’s fun to sit up here on the stand with my big brother, and for once, I get to go first.

He’s older than me, and has always been bigger than me. I’m obviously stronger, but he’s bigger. Being the oldest, he’s normally the first to do everything.

I haven’t had many opportunities to be the first one, so I’m grateful to be speaking before him and that way I can decide just how long I want to speak and how much time I will leave him to tell us all about his mission.

Speaking of him always going first, I've had a really great example all my life of the type of person I want to be. McKay has always been an example and leader in my life, and his service as a missionary has already helped me along my own mission path.

I remember the day McKay left on his mission, two years ago. I was pretty upset. My mom asked me, through her own tears, how I felt about going on a mission now that I’ve witnessed my brother leaving. I didn’t hesitate to say, “it makes me not want to go”

I realized that day, the day mckay left to serve in Korea, that this mission opportunity wasn’t all about suits and ties and riding bikes. At that point, I realized a mission would involve sacrifice, commitment, uncomfortable church clothes and scary new situations. I had planned my whole life to serve a mission, mostly because that’s what I was told from the time I was little, but having to say goodbye to McKay made me rethink the familiar phrase “i hope they call me on a mission.”

The last two years, my mind has been filled with questions and concerns and a real desire to know if a mission was the right thing for me…

I plan to share a bit of those thoughts about my upcoming mission opportunity, with a focus on LOVE.

You might wonder why I would speak on LOVE and missionary work at the same time.

I will tell you, a few months ago, during the end of my senior year of highschool, I had worked to get my mission papers all pulled together. President Cox invited me to his home to talk one last time before he submitted my paper work to Salt Lake City.

During this meeting, President Cox had some really great advice.

He said, “Grant, as you prepare for your mission call, I encourage you to pray for 3 specific things.

1- Pray to know for yourself that wherever you’re assigned to serve your mission is from the Lord.

2- Pray that you will able to accept where the Lord would have you serve with an unmistakable witness that this is where you're meant to go.

and the third thing he asked me to do is Pray to have a great love for the people in Chile.

So as I listened to those words of counsel, I thought to myself, "How can I already have a love for people and a place I've only seen in my Spanish text book?" It just felt unlikely that I could know love for these people. And why was loving them all that important? So the night rolled around when I was supposed to open my call. I went to a quiet place and I prayed intently for those 3 things. At the time, I still had that strange thought of "HOW?" In the back of my mind. As I read through the lines of my mission call and my eyes hit the word Chile, I knew without a doubt that that is exactly where I was supposed to be for the next 2 years.

I knew it would be important to have a testimony that my assignment was from the Lord and this is where He would have me serve.

I, along with my parents, had an unmistakable witness that Chile is where the Lord would have me go and serve.

One day, as I was thinking about this invitation to love the people in Chile, the Tin Man came to mind. The poor guy didn’t have a heart. He felt nothing.

As the Tin Man was skipping down the road with Dorothy, he’s singing a song about “If I only had a heart”

He sings how he could be tender and gentle and awful sentimental, if he only had a heart.

He then knocks on his chest to show Dorothy that he really is hollow inside.

They eventually meet with the Wizard. The Wizard asks the Tin Man WHY on earth he would want a heart? The Wizard tries to assure the Tin Man that he’s LUCKY to not have a heart because hearts are breakable.

And the Tin Man says, ‘But I still want one!”

The Tin Man wanted the opportunity to LOVE. He wished for the chance to be tender, gentle and sentimental.

The more I thought about the connection between love and missionary work, I realized they really do go hand in hand. Just like the Tin Man, I needed that desire to have a heart for the people I was called to serve.

Service is LOVE in action. If I am to serve the people of Chile I need to love them. Jesus Christ was of course the perfect example of love and service.

As we study the life and service of Jesus Christ, it’s easy to see that He always taught through love.

I think of the times in my life when I have learned the most, it’s normally been through tough lessons where love was shown to me through challenges….

When I was four, a family moved into our town. They had three girls and one boy named Cameron Kennedy. Cameron was a year older than me and a year younger than McKay. The three of us had the BEST time together. We would play at our house one day, then the next day we would spend hours at his house climbing the big tree in his yard or jumping on his trampoline.

One day, McKay and I went to Camerons house. He and McKay were busy doing something together and I was busy admiring the big six pane window in their garage.

I couldn’t tell you what exactly was going on in my head at that moment, but I will remind you I was only 4 or 5 years old….

but I picked up a rock and threw it right through one of the panes in the window.

And in my 4 year old mind, It made the coolest sound when the rock shattered the glass.

And it was So cool that I decided I had at least 5 more squares to hit, so I found several more rocks and I knocked out every single pane of glass in that window faster than Camerons dad could run outside to stop me.

He greeted me just as the last window shattered. He wasn’t as impressed with my aim as I was. I remember him saying, “Grant, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Why did you throw those rocks at the window?” I calmly told him “I liked the sound it made”

This story is pretty funny NOW, but it could have been a lot worse if Mr. Kennedy hadn’t had a heart. It was with love that he taught me a valuable lesson.

I know he wasn’t very happy with me, even at four years old that was obvious, but he showed love through patience and kindness.

He took the chance to explain to me that breaking windows isn’t really acceptable and he then gave me the opportunity to fix what I had broken, with the help of my father.

In John 13:34, we read "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."

This is the message, as a missionary and through out my life, that I want to share. A message of LOVE.

There will be people who need our help, our patience and our example. There will be those who get distracted and need help finding their way back home. There will be those people who feel the windows they’ve broken or the mistakes they’ve made cannot be fixed.

It is because of a loving Heavenly Father that we were blessed with a Savior, Jesus Christ, to atone for our sins.

Because our Heavenly Father loved each of us, he sent His son. I want to share this message with others. I want the people in Chile to feel this love from our Father, and have light and hope that we can find through Jesus Christ.

I am grateful that President Cox encouraged me to pray to have a heart for the people of Chile.

Dallin H. Oaks said, “The most effective missionaries always act out of love.”

That is the kind of missionary I want to be. Effective and filled with love and service.

That is the path Jesus Christ has shown us, and He loved those he served. And I have a testimony of these things,

And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

Grant was supported by many friends and neighbors, our chapel was filled with people of different faiths, with love.

It was a tender site to see...you know me, I wish I could have snapped a picture of everyone there, but we did get a few shots after sacrament meeting.

Grant with his boys!

Connor, G, Tommy, Ethan, Sam and Matt