Tanner's *Farewell* Talk, July 17, 2016
For those of you who do not know me, I am the son of Andrew and Julie Howell, I’m relatively new to this ward than even my parents because I was at USU for a year when we switched wards.I have been called to the Mozambique, Maputo mission. My mission will include Mozambique and Swaziland, both in South Eastern Africa. It’s the country closest to Madagascar and the second furthest mission from Provo besides Madagascar. As a surprise to my family and myself, the official language in Mozambique is Portuguese due to them colonizing it for trade. Swaziland speaks English and siSwati. I will depart for the Provo MTC on August third.
I would like to start off by thanking all of you who have come out to support me today and all of the support you have shown me for so long. I do want to let everyone know I’m not doing a “get together” at my house after like some people do. It’s usually random desserts and some food from the missionary’s mission. However, fire roasted rats on a stick and brownies just didn’t seem like a good combination to me.
I get to talk today about how faith and prayer played a role getting me to where I am today, mission bound.
On the topic of prayer my favorite talk is by Elder Holland titled “Wrong Roads and Revelation”. In this talk his father and he are driving back from a Grand Canyon overlook and they come to a fork in the road. It was growing dark and choosing the right road was imperative. They decided to pray and were both rewarded with the impression to go left. So down the road they went for 10 minutes, then dead end. Clearly the wrong road. They drove back and went down the right fork, which was the correct road. He explained how he was “troubled” by the wrong answer but his dad explained that by taking the wrong road they quickly knew it was the wrong road. Where if they had taken the correct road they would have gone down the right road for 30 minutes uneasy and tempted to turn back. By going down the other road it was made clear quickly that the other road was right.
I really like this story because I think it is a great way to look at prayer. Ask, but then you have to act on your answer. What for me is difficult is when it’s between what seem to be “good and better” options and not knowing which is which. For me that was the issue with going to school or going on a mission. By going to school for a year it seemed like a good option, but after that time and a lot of thought, prayer, advice getting from those close to me it was clear that a mission was the best option. Several people from friends, parents and others helped me to see a mission as the best option.
Alma 32 is the classic scripture talking about planting a seed of faith so that it can grow. I like this analogy so that’s how I set up my talk also, but from my perspective on the idea of a “seed of faith”.
For me my seed of faith was given to me by my parents and teachers. I see this seed as the classic primary answers of “reading your scriptures, prayer, going to church and following the commandments”. You can give anyone this seed, but it’s up to them to plant that seed.
Once that seed of faith starts to grow it needs to be protected from harsh weather, weeds, bugs or sometimes just given support—like a new tomato plant or tree. Often beams are strapped to trees to support them as they grow or a cage over the new tomato plant to give it structure. Both of these things give support when its most needed. That support has been shown time and time again by my family, young men’s leaders and friends when I’ve needed it. But just like the tomatoes cage and the trees supporting beams, they eventually have to be removed to let the plant grow. This was done by my parents in little ways like letting me drive alone, changing schools, or in bigger ways like letting me going off to college for a year.
Some others who helped me with nurturing that seed included Ted Heap. He was a great influence and helper when it came to deciding on a mission. Brother Heap who was my primary teacher when I was 11/12. About 8 years later I still remember how I connected with his teaching style. It amazed me looking back on it how much of an impact he had and how it stuck with me all that time. So, randomly one day I got his number and asked if we could meet up and talk. This amazing teacher from 8 years ago jumped at the chance to talk with me even though we hadn’t really talked much since I was 12. I don’t remember specific lessons but the respect stuck with me and lead to me asking for his advice. Meeting with him, probably unknown to him, was one of a few tipping points to going. He was someone who helped me with my seed of faith.
Other church leaders that helped me nourish my seed of faith and push me out of my comfort zone were my young men’s leaders. Bishop Berry and Garry Ottosen both pushed me to try things such as rock climbing, repelling and backpacking that helped to shape me into who I am today. On one camp with Bishop Berry, Wind Rivers, we backpacked into a beautiful lake. It seemed all nice and pretty, much like the pictures I quickly saw of Mozambique. But like Mozambique what the pictures don’t show are the insane amount of mosquitoes. Thankfully the Wind River mosquitoes weren’t a big malaria issue, whereas Mozambique’s are. But that camp, unknown at the time, was great practice for my mission and all its accompanying mosquitoes! Through all of these experiences I was able to gain support and help on nourishing my seed of faith with a loving environment that let me grow spiritually because of that balance of loving support with pushing out of my comfort zone. Another great leader, Steve Cutler, even before becoming my Young Men’s leader was always pushing me to leave my comfort zone and because of that I ended up with my closest dearest friend.
My dear friend Hannah Galli was arguably the biggest influence in my decision to go on a mission. She helped me to see things in a new way by asking me a question I have thought about time and time again since:
“If you had the world’s best cookie, and as many as you could ever want, wouldn’t you want to share that amazing cookie?”
This struck a cord with me, how could I not share “the most amazing cookie”. Very soon after talking to her about that I heard a quote “Valar Morghulis” and the response to it was “Valar Dohaeris”. In English they mean “All men must die” and “All men must serve”. I found this quite profound. We will all die, so we must all serve. One of the greatest ways we can serve is by sharing that “perfect cookie”.
In a letter from her this week she expressed worry about how different our missions were going to be—She is in Washington DC at the temple visitor center currently, and I will be in Mozambique, Africa. The cultures are so very different, the language is different, the GDP of the United States is $53,000 a year whereas Mozambique it is $605 a year. In an email response to her after giving it much thought, it finally clicked. I told her that we will be doing the exact same thing. I will wake up stupid early each day to go knock doors while she sleeps, and she will wake up stupid early to knock doors while I sleep. I may be docking doors in Mozambique while she knocks doors in DC. She may be speaking English while I speak Portuguese. But that’s the physical language we will be speaking. In reality we will both be speaking the language of love, charity and hope. We will be able to tell people they can see their loved ones again that they have lost, or keep the loved ones they have past “till death do you part” and so much more.
I’d like to end with a comparison to a movie because movies are something I enjoy- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Spoilers for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but it came out in 1989 so you had your chance.
Indiana Jones is going for the Holy Grail. He has to pass through two tests of faith, in his case lethal if failed, before he makes it to the “Leap of Faith”. He needs to step out into what appears to be a certain death drop, but he takes the step and is rewarded with a solid footing to walk into the final room. There he correctly picks out the Holy Grail and drinks, to which he is told “You have chosen wisely”. I have worked my way through my trials, thankfully not lethal and am at the “Leap of Faith” moment, for me it is going on a mission that is stepping into the unknown. I know that if I keep my faith strong, once I get there I will have a “You have chosen wisely” moment.
I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
