homecoming :)

Hello brothers and sisters! It is so good to be back in the Barton Creek ward! It’s crazy that i haven’t been back in the ward since i left last june…it really doesn’t seem like a lot of time has gone by, but at the same time, i feel so much older since the last time i sat in this chapel. For those of you who are new, my name is Makenzie Hess and I recently returned from serving a full time mission in Seattle Washington. Today I would love to speak about the blessings of missionary work and the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

Before I jump in, I want to speak directly to those who are preparing to serve missions or are even considering a mission… serving a mission is the best decision you could ever make. And I can promise you that. If you’re sitting on the fence, i really hope that you will listen to some of the things i’ll share today because i loved my mission so much and i am so grateful that i made the decision to serve. Prepare yourself now to be worthy to serve the Lord as a full-time missionary. Of course your time is very precious, and you may feel you cannot afford two years or a year and a half, but I promise you that the time you spend in the mission field, if those years are spent in real dedicated service, will yield a greater return on investment than any other period of your lives. 

Honestly, i don’t even know where to start today… My mission means everything to me. Not only did I learn how to endure the rain like a real Washingtonian, but I learned so much about myself and my savior. I would say I am right up there with Elder Holland on the level of enthusiasm when I speak about missions because my mission truly shaped who I am today. Never before had i spent so much time working on becoming more like my savior and spending every second of every day focused on others and boy was that freaking fantastic. One thing that I really started to understand more and more the longer I was out was the atonement. Before my mission, i went to church and seminary, i read the scriptures and prayed, and i could truly say I had a testimony of the gospel, but once i decided to put in the effort to truly come to know my savior instead of doing things out of habit or obligation, I began to see the atonement work on me in my life.

Anyone who has served a mission will tell you that it is not easy. In fact, it was probably the hardest thing i’ve had to do thus far in my 21 years of life. It is my personal belief that the Lord will give his missionaries more trials during the mission than any other time in their life before the mission to strengthen and fortify them into the people he wants them to become. When I say trials, I'm talking about problems with companions, family, depression, obedience, discouragement etc. The Lord gives us these trials to test us and to fortify us. The Saviour said in Ether 12:27  “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.” If you look at nature, there are many natural processes of stress that turn something small or rough into something beautiful, such as a pearl in a clam, coal under pressure, or even a rough stone in a moving river. All, after a period of extreme pressure or stress, turn into something unique, smooth, and beautiful. I can confidently say that I am grateful for all of the trials I have experienced throughout my life because they have brought me closer to my savior and have given me the opportunity to truly succor those going through similar experiences. 

Since i was serving as a Spanish speaking missionary, I came to absolutely adore the hispanic culture during my time in Washington and I was able to meet so many incredible people from all over the world. It was incredible to be able to learn so much from the people we were teaching and be blessed by their testimonies and life experiences. I would love to talk about 3 people in particular who were able to come closer to Christ and who brought me closer to Christ as well.

First, I would love to talk about my little bff Selvin. When I first came to the mission field, I served in a little town named Enumclaw just southeast of downtown Seattle. The area was huge, but it was all farmland and there were honestly more cows than there were people and approximately 10.5 hispanics in the whole area, so it was pretty tough finding anyone to teach. After tracting for what seemed like years, we had a referral from the English Elders of a man named Selvin who spoke spanish and was interested in hearing more of our message. Since we weren’t teaching lots of solid people, a good portion of our attention was on our dear Selvin, which was awesome because he is seriously the cutest little man in the whole world. The little dude owns my whole heart. Selvin is from Honduras and has been in the states for a good while and he just loved everything we taught him… He accepted every commitment we gave him with no hesitation and was quickly on the path of progression towards baptism. As one of my first experiences with teaching, Selvin was such a little miracle on my mission. By watching him build his testimony, my testimony grew so much as well. We gave him a book of mormon, and he immediately started reading it and carried it with him everywhere… I had never seen someone attach to a book of mormon so fast. When we taught him about the word of wisdom, he accepted to live it without much hesitation at all which was pretty incredible because he had been fighting an addiction for the past 10 years. He quit cold turkey and didn’t look back because he told us “his relationship with God was more important” and he told us all the time that he knew it was God who was giving him the power to leave it all behind. Watching the atonement change his life was an unforgettable experience because you could literally see it in his countenance. He was so happy. He told us all the time that he knew that God was helping him with everything in his life and that he knew that everything we were teaching was true. The man never missed church and even quit a job because he felt like it was stopping his progression in the gospel. He has yet to be baptized because he wants to be sure that he’s completely ready, but he still goes to church every sunday, even though he is currently living out of his car. He is an incredible example to me of faith.

Second, I want to talk a little bit about a family that I taught in my second area. Jorge and Lorena and their two kiddos moved to Kirkland Washington from Quito Ecuador to live with their relatives at the start of this year. They wanted to move here so they could begin to look for jobs and become citizens, so they were living with Lorena’s sister until they could support themselves which worked out super well in our favor because her sister and her family were members. We began teaching their cute little family with the english elders because Lorena’s brother in law really wanted them to learn english as fast as possible, but we eventually took them as our own because it was much easier for them to learn completely in spanish. I’ll never forget the first lesson with their sweet little family because they completely soaked up everything that we taught… I asked if we could sing for them at the end of the lesson and so we sang I am a Child of God which immediately brought tears to everybody’s eyes. I can truly testify of the power of the spirit that comes through music. Crying and hugging Lorena after that song will forever be a precious memory of my mission. Even though they were incredibly busy with work and settling into their new life, they put so much effort into not only learning the gospel, but living it. They made the effort to come to church every Sunday, even when church closed. Sadly, COVID interrupted my mission and I got sent home the week before they got baptized, but I have never felt so much joy watching them enter the waters of baptism, even if it was over zoom. I didn’t really get to have the experience of witnessing the fruits of my labors very often, but one of the most tender experiences on my mission was getting to go back and visit this angel family when I returned to the mission field. It was also the first time seeing their family since they had been baptized. I remember walking into their cute little apartment and immediately feeling something different and special. There is definitely a unique spirit in the home of a member and it was so cool to feel that immediately stepping into their home. They told me all about how life was going and their plans for going to the temple to be sealed as a family, and as soon as we had gone out the door and started down the steps of the complex, i had to sit down because I literally started sobbing... I was so happy to see how far this little family had come in the time I had known them. And that is exactly why I went on a mission. They are all examples to me of what it means to truly be converted to the gospel.

Third, one of the people on my mission that I was able to teach was named Andres. I came into my second area about a week before his baptism, but I was able to teach his follow up lessons after his baptism and he immediately became one of my closest friends from the mission, and still is to this day. Andres, firstoff, is one of the coolest people in the whole world, but his story really is incredible. He is from Colombia and has lived in the states for about 5 years and has had the gospel sort of come in and out of his life. His dad is a member and was baptized 17 years ago and so he had had that little bit of influence already, but then he walked into a sports night at the church one night last november and he was ready to meet with the missionaries for realz. His dad was able to plant the seed that the missionaries harvested. Andres is an incredible example to me of determination and enduring to the end because since his baptism, he has not slowed one bit in his progression in the gospel. Every lesson we had with him, he was constantly telling us all about what he had learned in his studies and how he was sharing the gospel with people that he knew. Just a few weeks after his baptism, we started helping him look for names to take to the temple which was amazing. We were all able to go to the Seattle Temple and watch him be baptized for his grandparents and then watch him baptize my companion for his grandma. I watched him continue to grow in his knowledge in the gospel as well as in his faith and testimony and in the end, he ended up teaching me way more than I had taught him. I watched the atonement bless his life so much as he actively put faith in the Lord and served in His church. He always manages to make my day by sending me a scripture that he read that day or calling me to give me life advice or just to have a good gospel discussion. He also just got called to be the ward mission leader which literally made my heart burst because he’s the best missionary. I’m incredibly proud of him and I'm so grateful for his example in my life and for all he has taught me about truly enduring to the end. He will go so far in life.

I also want to testify that God knows each of us individually and personally. Being a missionary during COVID was honestly pretty wild… we couldn’t tract, we couldn’t teach in houses for a while, and we couldn’t even go to church, but even through all of the changes, I learned so much about my Savior and the gospel. It was really weird when all of the sudden all of our main ways of finding new people were thrown out the window and we had to pioneer our way through new ways of missionary work, but it definitely made me appreciate what I was actually doing. Having to be creative in the work helped me get out of the typical missionary routine and really appreciate the people we were teaching and what we were teaching. When I first got sent home in March, I was devastated. I got the call that I’d be going home on my 9 month mark which stung because I had just started to feel like things were falling into place in my teaching abilities and the language. For a few weeks, I was just angry that God would send me home because I felt like I loved my mission more than anybody else, so I was beyond happy that I got to go back after spending 3 months at home because I felt like I still had so much left to do. I was able to meet so many people that I know I was supposed to meet and I was thrilled that I got 3 more months as a missionary before returning home for a second and final time. I can testify that God truly does have a plan, even if we don’t see it in the moment. Even though being sent home was so devastating at the time, I am beyond grateful that I had those 3 months to spend with my mom. Chito was still in school and my dad was working, so my mom and I got to spend so much time with just the two of us. And I know now that that was absolutely God’s plan the whole time. Again, God’s plan was manifested unto me 2 months ago when my mom called me and told me that she loved me and that she was not going to make it through the night. My little brother immediately booked me a flight and I rushed home as quickly as I could and made it into the hospital room just seconds before she passed away. I’m so grateful that God is aware of each of us and our situations and that He truly does know what is best for us. I’m so grateful that he gave me the opportunity to spend so much precious time with my mom and that He allowed me to be there by her side when she passed through the veil. I can testify that because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, we too can overcome death and live with our families for eternity. 

I would like to end with my testimony and i would love to bear it in my mission language of Spanish. Even though most of you probably won’t understand everything, i know that the power of the spirit can testify to you the truth of everything i have said.

Testimonio

Les quiero mucho, i love you all so much, and i’m so grateful to be apart of this beautiful ward family. I love my mission and the gospel so much.

I say all of this in the name of our savior jesus christ, amen.