Homecoming: August 12, 2018

        Good morning brothers and sisters. It is a huge pleasure to speak to you today. As a returned missionary I’ve had the opportunity to give plenty of talks recently, but they’ve all been in a foreign language and the audience was a bit smaller. I’m so grateful that I get to be here in this sacrament meeting today, I’ve known the other speakers for a very long time and love and respect both of them greatly. For all of you who don’t know me, my name is Austin Gardiner and I returned about a week and a half ago from the Adriatic South Mission where I served in the country of Albania. Now for all of you who don’t know where that is, and I didn’t before I got the call, my mission covered the southern part of the Balkans including the countries of Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece, and Cyprus. It was an amazing and beautiful place full of amazing people who have impacted and changed my life immensely. While in general the people can be poor and oftentimes proud, at the same time they are so loving, thoughtful, and welcoming. They truly will give away everything they have to serve a friend. While serving the Lord in that very select part of his vineyard my testimony has been strengthened and changed. It has grown from a pool of untested beliefs into a very real knowledge that God truly stands at the helm of this great church and that the things he has taught us through his words, past and present, guide us through the storms of life to true peace and joy.
I would just like to start by thanking all of you for being here. Truly the brilliance of this church comes into play as dedicated, faithful, men and women get together to share their beliefs and to strengthen and uplift one another. As Bishop Causse stated in his talk this past general conference “the name given by revelation to the restored church binds together the two most important elements in each gospel covenant—Jesus Christ, and us, the saints of the latter days. … Our sole aim is to invite each son and daughter of God to come unto Christ and to guide him or her along the covenant path. Nothing is more important. Our work is all about people and covenants.” I love these quotes and as such I would like to focus my talk today on what I feel is the driving force of the gospel—God’s love for us, his people, and His power to change us.
To start out I would like to talk about something that I feel is sometimes forgotten, individuality. While I do think that we do understand that we are not the same as each other I don’t think we fully understand how amazing that is, and far too frequently we just end up focusing on the negatives. Too often we drift to the dangerous “Oh I’m not as good as this person” mindset, which I believe not only makes us less able to accomplish the great things that our loving Heavenly Father has in store for us, but also makes it harder for us to feel His love for us. Each of us is imperfect, but God has promised that as we each try our best that He will give us the spiritual gifts necessary for our progression and for the strengthening of others. This principle is illustrated beautifully in one of my favorite scriptures D&C 46:9 which says “For verily I say unto you, they are given for the benefit of those who love me and keep all my commandments, and him that seeketh so to do; that all may be benefited that seek or that ask of me, that ask and not for a sign that they may consume it upon their lusts.” One of my favorite parts of this scripture is the merciful phrase “and him that seeketh so to do”, because unfortunately, despite my best efforts I’m not perfect yet, and without God’s help I know that that’s not something that’s going to happen. But this scripture gives me peace because I know that as long as I am honestly trying my best and I have good intentions that God will make up the difference, and not just for me. I know that he’ll help me so that I can help you, and he’ll help you so you can help me. One of the greatest things about serving a mission was being constantly surrounded by amazing people who are doing their best to serve God. I had the opportunity to serve with 14 different companions from all around the world who have each taught me something new. Each one was unique and had their own way of going about missionary work, but the most effective times of my mission were always when my companion and I were working in harmony and when I could feel the love that my companion had for me and the people we were serving. It’s such a small thing but I feel like that gift of Christlike love brought the spirit in a tangible, undeniable manner. 
One thing that I’ve loved about my mission is the way that God has taught me. It always seemed that as soon as I thought I understood how God worked something unexpected would happen. So for this story we go to the end of my mission where part of my assignment was to cover the city of Lezhe, where there were only 3 members, all of which were less active when I got there. The oldest of the 3 is named Denis, he enjoys church but is a very shy person and as such has a hard time becoming friends with the missionaries, but there was one thing that was really able to help us form a connection; video games. Before my mission I loved video games and played them all the time, but then as I left for my mission I figured that all that time had been practically wasted and wouldn’t help me over the next two years, but sure enough God proved me wrong. Denis loved video games and played a bunch of the same games that I had played before my mission, so as we talked about that we were able to form a great relationship where we were able to meet more often and he quickly started coming back to church. Now I’m not saying that video games is the answer to everything, but it was one way that God was able to show me that he knew me and use something I loved to serve him. And I do know that as you all try to do everything we can to serve God and his children He’ll use you and your special talents in ways that you could never expect. For me one time it was playing video games, another time it was listening to people, or maybe even a love of Star Wars. All good things can be used by God to serve his children because just like us all of them are different. I believe that one of the main reasons that missionaries go out two by two is because sometimes one companion just isn’t right for that person. And God will lead us into situations to use these talents if we’re willing to trust him and follow.
But things don’t always have to be such dramatic one time events. Often times you just need to try your very best and be a Christlike person so you can have the Spirit with you. One of the best examples of this came while I got to serve as branch clerk in Shkoder. I loved getting to do that because I got to work even more with the branch president there, president Zefi. He’s only been a member for about 3 years, but over the course of those three years he’s become an amazingly strong, humble, patient, loving, and diligent leader. He was just barely put in as the branch president and due to the youngness of the branch he has a lot of work ahead of him, and while doing our best to work together I was able to learn a ton from his example. He reads the scriptures for hours a day and when he’s not studying he’s at his job, working in his orchard, or learning English all so he can better serve his family and the members of his branch. And the members can tell. They love him and support him, he prays for them and they pray for him, and because of this the spirit is so strong in church on Sundays. You can really feel the love they have for each other and everyone leaves spiritually uplifted, just because everyone tries their best and forgives each other for their weaknesses. And this allows everyone to help each other in their personal path back to our Heavenly Father.
Now even though we are all different and we all have our personal weaknesses we can’t let this become an excuse for complacency. God loves us too much for that. He can’t let us settle for what we are right now, he knows that there is so much more out there for us. And as such, one of the most important things about the gospel is that it requires constant effort to produce permanent change. My favorite scripture is found in Ether 12:27 which says “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.” Now the Lord makes us two great promises in this verse; the first is that if we come unto Him He will show unto us our weaknesses. This isn’t a He might show unto us our weaknesses or he could show us our weaknesses, but he will show us. And the answer why is given right after the promise—So that we may be humble. I feel like humility is one of the most critical christlike attributes because without it we will never accept the need to change. In Mosiah 3:19 “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.” So as this scripture says we need to put off the natural man and as such we must become as children and we need to accept everything that our Father sees fit to give us. Sometimes this can be so hard because we always think that we know better, but in my life as I’ve looked back on some of the hardest times of my life they’ve all had a purpose, when things haven’t gone as I hoped I’ve always looked back and found that it ended up being for the best and I’ve been so grateful that God didn’t let me just wander following my best instincts. I love that our Heavenly Father tells us that we need to become as children because they truly are the best examples of humility. One of my favorite Mormon messages is called Earthly Father, Heavenly Father and for those of you who haven’t seen it it shows a day in the life of a father in relation to his family and then likens it to the relationship that we have with our Heavenly Father. At one point in the video the father talking about his kids says “I work that they may grow. They trust so deeply. How I yearn to do the same. They see so little of how it all came to be—never questioning, only trusting.” One thing that I quickly understood on my mission was that the only people who would really accept the gospel were the people who were humble and childlike. As we would be out on the street everyday we would encounter countless people who would reply to our invitation to learn more that they already knew everything. And because of that they are completely unable to learn! On the other hand some of my favorite investigators were three girls from our English course in the city of Fier. They were between the ages of 11 and 15 and after coming to English course and branch activities for a little while we gave them each a copy of the Book of Mormon and decided to invite them to church as well. Very quickly they became some of the most active people in the branch; and why was this? I believe that in a large portion it was due to their humility. Whenever we invited them to do something they did it with a smile, they studied the Book of Mormon every day and took notes, they came to church at least 30 minutes early and then studied reverently on the first row until church started and became great friends with the members. Unfortunately their parents won’t let them be baptized right now, but yet they still continue to come and to read and pray just waiting for the day that they can be baptized. And so if we follow the examples of these remarkable youth God will grant unto us the second promise by making weak things strong unto us. After all, as stated in Moses 1:39 God’s work and His glory is to “bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man”.
So now I would like to talk a little bit about our personal responsibility to share this wonderful message. Because God loves all His children He wants all of them to be as happy as possible, the answer to which comes only through the gospel. Now in kind of a silly comparison, if you had a plate of brownies that never ran out you’d probably want to share them right? After all it’s not like by sharing them you lose anything, and plus by doing so you would make someone’s day better. Now imagine how much more sharing the gospel can change someone’s life than just a dessert. And this is something that was made strikingly clear on my mission. I grew up for my whole life here in Utah, a place where most people are members and it’s generally expected to live a good Christlike life. But now all of the sudden I was thrown into a completely different culture in the middle of Europe, in a place where most people not only hadn’t heard of our church, most people weren’t even Christian. And while I do love and truly respect all religions for the good they do and for their effect in bringing people closer to God based on the truths that they have, no one else has the full picture. And that is why it is so crucial that we invite everyone to take part in this. But of course that can often times seem like a scary thing to do. Sometimes we are afraid that we’ll offend people or that they just won’t listen to us, but as long as we’re living like we’re supposed to we should be providing the example necessary to give us power in our invitations. In one of his talks President Uchdorf has said “preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary use words.” And that “the most powerful sermons are unspoken.” But as I’m sure we all know nothing usually happens until an invitation is extended. And the result of this sometimes isn’t immediate. In my second area, Vlore, there were some members with a ton of desire to do missionary work who really understood the idea of invitations. One member in particular, Anxhela, had a good friend, Kristi, that she really wanted to get to come to church. So she invited her, and she didn’t come. So she invited her again, and she didn’t come again. And this went on and on for about three years, but in the mean time, she continued to do what she was supposed to. She lived a good life as an active member, and then finally one Sunday she was assigned to give a talk. So seeing this as a golden opportunity she decided to invite her friend she made the invite, and this time she came! She enjoyed church and liked her friend’s talk. So sure enough the next week she was in church again, and then again the week after, and the week after that. And then after getting in contact with Anxhela we were able to set up a lesson with the two of them and another member Leo, who is also a great member missionary. We gave her the Book of Mormon and taught her about the amazing message of the restoration. And I was blown away by how well the lesson went. She was comfortable there, she had a lot of super good questions, and the spirit was super strong. So then she started reading the Book of Mormon gained a super strong testimony that it was true, saying that if she ever doesn’t read it her day will automatically go bad. And now just a little later, she’s been baptized and is currently serving as the gospel principles teacher in the ward. But now lets think back at what would have happened if her friend had given up after the first or second, or maybe even tenth time. I don’t know, but maybe she wouldn’t be a member right now and she wouldn’t have all the blessings that have come into her life because of the gospel. So just remember the impact that your actions can have if you have faith and you are determined. After all not everyone is going to be ready the first time they received an invitation or the first time they meet with missionaries. Such was the case with another amazing person named Kristi, this time from Durres. He he met with the missionaries about three years ago. He was a nice guy and he enjoyed meeting with the missionaries but he wasn’t really ready to commit or join the church at that moment. But while he was living in Italy for school he decided to do some more studying of our church and on his own gained a personal testimony of the truthfulness of the word of wisdom and Joseph Smith’s call as a prophet. So then when he returned to Durres he had set out to find the missionaries again, and a few days later he did and was later baptized. So just remember that as you invite people that you are showing them that you love them and that you are showing God you love him too. And never get discouraged, just as God has a personal plan for you he has a plan for them and he will help prepare the hearts of those who are ready to hear your message, even if it’s not in our timetable.
And now lastly I’d like to talk to you about the joy and love that comes into our lives as we embrace the gospel and share it with others. As Lehi tells us in 2 Nephi 2:25 “Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy”. So how can we achieve that joy in a world that is becoming more and more turbulent day after day. In this day and age many people worry every day about the state of the world and live in a state where they can not have true peace. But as I’ve learned on my mission peace is always available if we turn to Christ, the prince of peace. As we learn to look unto Him in every thought, to doubt not and to fear not we being to understand the true brilliance of God’s plan and we trust in his all knowingness. So how can we achieve this? I believe that in order to truly have this we have to receive a witness from time to time that we are living a life that is in harmony with God’s will. And if we aren’t sure then we need to ask him, and he will always tell us, and show us how to improve. And then we will feel of his amazing love for us, which is described in 1 Nephi 11 as “Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things… yea, and the most joyous to the soul.” And to illustrate this point I would like to talk about the first investigator that I had on my mission, Lindis. He had met the missionaries just a couple days before I got into the country. So by the time I got there they had had a few lessons with him, he had already started a habit of daily Book of Mormon reading and was meeting with the missionaries every day. So even though I didn’t really understand him for the first little while I quickly grew to love this person. I remember being in the lesson where he finally accepted to be baptized. He had refused every time for the past few lessons because he had been baptized as a child into the Orthodox Church to which we always just responded by saying “then just pray and ask God if it’s something that you need to do”. Then one lesson as we were getting to that point of the lesson I remember him saying “I don’t need to pray anymore, I prayed last night and God answered me, I need to be baptized”. But the remarkable thing about him wasn’t just that he was baptized, it was the journey afterwards. For my first 6 months in country he did not miss church once, one time he even came home early from vacation just so he could be in time for church. He also continued to read the Book of Mormon every day, out loud so his whole family can hear, which actually ended up in having his two younger sisters get baptized as well. He also became good friends with the local members and often times they go do fun things together with the express intent of finding new people that they can invite to join them and share the gospel with. He has received the Melchizedek priesthood and is now the Sunday school president in his branch. And all of this was just to say that I am so grateful that my Heavenly Father allowed me to be a part of this amazing man’s conversion. I was with him from the beginning and I love him like my own brother. I have seen a miraculous change come over him, he looks happier, he has friends, he’s healthier, his life has purpose and joy, and I know that all of these things are blessings given to him from God because he has joined this church and has developed a personal relationship with his Father in Heaven. Seeing this has strengthened my testimony and confidence that God knows and loves me too. And now I can say with complete surety that the gospel will make everyone happier. It’s not something made for just a select few people but a gift offered freely to all those who want it and are willing to work for it. And the prize is amazing as it says in 3 Nephi 28:10 “And for this cause ye shall have fulness of joy; and ye shall sit down in the kingdom of my Father; yea, your joy shall be full, even as the Father hath given me fulness of joy; and ye shall be even as I am, and I am even as the Father; and the Father and I are one;” That is what God in His infinite love wants for each and every one of us—a fullness of joy and the opportunity to live with Him again for eternity. And there’s no better gift we could ask for.
Now just to close I would like to bear my testimony in my mission language. Something that was always my favorite part of these as a kid, because even though you may not understand the words I hope you can feel the spirit testifying that they are true.

Deshmia

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

Stake High Council Report:  Elder Hunt, Elder Madsen, Elder Gardiner, Elder Williams