Only The Beginning: August 2014

Williams Farewell

Sunday August 10, 2014
Pioneer Building
9:00 am

“When I arrived this morning, Bishop said that if my talk wasn’t quite long enough not to worry he could fill in some time. I assured him that wouldn’t be a problem.

After writing my talk and reading through it came out to be 40 minutes, I don’t have 40 minutes.

The first talk I ever did was in the Pioneer Ward. It was on social media. I remember Bother Wells coming to me and giving me an article on how social media can be used in the church. Well I remember 20% of the talking being what I said and the other 80% being quotes from the article.

The second one was at Steak Conference and I told everyone my nickname was “Beef Cake” and President Ollis got up and said, “Well if he’s beef cake, then I’m Pound cake”

The third one was on the topic “I’m a Mormon. I know it, I live it, I love it” and I was so touched by the spirit at the time that I thought I could do the entire talk with the spirit. After I finished I also realized I could use the spirit to write the talk.

The fourth one was the first one back in the Pioneer ward and I testified of having a true testimony of Jesus Christ and fallowing leaders and change.

The fifth one was the last one I did and I did it on a parable.

And now we are here, the end all be all, the big bang….. My Farewell.

Okay, we all now that the topic is endure to the end. I am going to start with a story about my best friend. My best friend a week ago Friday, was running with his dog and tripped over his dog and landed in the soft grass, shattering his collar bone, I call him flower bones now. (He wanted me to tell a story about falling out of an airplane without a parachute or something but I like the dog story better) So he broke his collarbone a week ago Friday, this Friday, he went to the hospital and had a plate put on and screws put in, so I was with him, I was with his parents, for two hours during the surgery and had a great opportunity to walk with his mom. We’ll just call her…a… Sue. Sue loved running marathons, Sue running marathon is like Facebook and me; always preparing for it and doing it that’s her thing. So Sue, she ran her first marathon and she thought… she said “after running my first marathon” she said “I can do anything” and it was perfect the next 7 years she proved that she would be able to do anything. Marking her 7 years was bad luck, her mom dying, it is a terrible, terrible time for them. After her mom dying, about 4 months later, she got into a car accident. It shifted her spine, it caused permanent nerve damage in her neck and, it messed up her nose. This caused her to not run anymore. The doctor said you can’t run anymore cause it hurts you too much cause of all the nerve damage. Well, she had been training for a long time for this race so she decided to do it anyways. While she was running this marathon about mile 16 her feet started burning, it was killing her. So she prayed and prayed and prayed and asked The Spirit what she should do and The Spirit told her take off her socks. Now if you are a runner you know, taking off your socks is like the last thing you want to do. Well she doubted and doubted and The Spirit kept saying, take off your socks; and so she did, well she took off one sock. She said it felt better so she stopped and took the other sock off. Then about 2 blocks from the end of the race, she had an asthma attack. Because from the shift in her face, it caused a sinus infection, which is definitely the last thing you want to have when you’re running. But she said yet again “I’m finishing this race, and if I can do this, I can do anything.” A lot of trials happened at this time. So, her mom dying, her getting into the car crash, her son got into a biking accident knocked out some teeth, which caused a terrible infection throughout his mouth. Also at the same time, her husband lost his job just after they bought a house. So they have a house payment and 2 medical bills to pay, and no job. This is pretty much the lowest of the low that she thought she could get to, she thought it couldn’t get any worse. So, before I finish Sue’s story I am going to switch over to another story that I had.

Um, it was three years ago, a year and a few months into my sophomore year, I went to Wendy’s and got a delicious shake and it caused a terrible pain in my stomach. I thought, “What is wrong with this thing?” I thought I got food poisoning from my shake. Well I was hanging out with friends and as the day passed so did the pain. Two week went by, no pain. The start of week three is when it started again, it was the same pain I felt on the first day. It just got worse and worse as the days went along. About Wednesday, I remember taking the SAT as a sophomore, I remember turning my face to the wall and crying it was hurting so bad. Thursday and Friday I stayed home from school tried, medicine and testing just to see what it was but we couldn’t figure it out. Saturday we went up to the emergency room and had to do some pretty painful tests. After doing some tests they decided whatever it was, they didn’t know what it was, was attached to my bowels and they had to pumped fluid into my body to be able to see it on the machine. Well, the fluid was touching what ever it was irritating, but they didn’t know what it was. I just remember being in the bed just screaming and I remember my mom standing over me. At first she was just like “What’s going on?” and kind of freaking out a little then a second later she really hardened and was like “It’s gonna be okay.” After the tests they found out it was a mass, but still didn’t know what it was, just a mass. They decided to do a colonoscopy to see if it was Crohn’s disease after that they found it wasn’t Crohn’s disease. So, the next thing they had to do was an actual surgery. They would blow me up like beach ball, and I was joking around with them and was like “draw lines on me you can play with me” so they were going to blow me up like a beach ball, put a tube or camera in there to see what it was. Well, at this time they moved me up to the third floor at Primary Children’s; and I remember walking down the hallway and I remember looking to my left and to my right and seeing little bald children inside their rooms. So I looked at mom and said “Mom, do they think I have cancer?” and my mom paused for a second and said “Yeah, they think you have cancer” I looked back at her and said “Mom, I never thought I had cancer.” And this is the interesting thing about that line, because they still haven’t figured it out yet, they still THINK I have cancer, but, I was talking almost from a future point of view. I know at this time, actually, lets step back a second. I remember just before the pain started life was absolute perfect. There were no trials, school was easy, home was easy, and then everything went wrong. And people might think, “Why does it have to go wrong when everything is going just right?” I think that’s the perfect time for things to go wrong, because, Heavenly Father has to clear all these other trials you are dealing with in order for you deal with the major one that’s going on right now. The vale was extremely thin for me during this time. I knew I never had cancer, I knew I was never going to die, but it was one thing that did scare me. So, during this test they told me they just assumed whatever the mass was, they were going to cut it out, so they were going to make on my bowels two cuts, cut cut, and then take the piece of bowel out and sew it back together. But, before sewing the bowel back together they were going to have to bring it, one piece of it to the skin and use a colonoscopy bag. For some reason this bag scared me beyond death and beyond cancer, I did not want this bag. I remember walking down to the OR with my mom and it was just so peaceful. And then I remember them putting me on the bed and rolling me over that dreaded black and yellow line that says, “Mom’s can’t come with you.” I remember getting on the table and them telling me to take off my shirt. I was so scared. I remember putting my hands down to my left and to my right and I imagined my mom holding my left hand and Jesus Christ holding my right, it was the only comfort that I had. Then they put the mask on me and I was out. Now, lets go back to Sue’s story.

So Sue, she was at the lowest of the low, and she prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and asked what she could do and for everything to get better and she received this wonderful prompting that said, well hold on lets step back for a second. She told me that she was angry with God, not in the way that she hated Him or doubted her testimony but in a way that she felt she didn’t want to listen anymore. It was kind of amazing how she just prayed and received promptings so fast and the spirit told her “Listen to me” and so she said “the clearest voice said ‘listen to me or things are only going to get worse’” and she was like I don’t need things to get worse, I don’t even know how things could get any worse. And so she started listening, and she told me the biggest thing to endure her trials was obedience. It’s amazing that she can just pray and receive promptings so fast and she said to be obedient and then imagined Christ healing her heart and that was the amazing thing, because, she said, that her testimony went from what she knew to what she believed so it went from her mind to her heart. She said she grew up in the church, she thought she had a testimony. Then after this experience, after this trial, what she knew went to her heart and she had a true testimony of Jesus Christ. That’s how she endured. Lets find out how I endured.

So, they put the gas on me and I was out. My mom said it was a very long surgery, it was 6 hours. I remember waking up out of the anesthesia and I was just laying there and the nurse was like “you’re okay you’re in a hospital. Your mom’s gonna be here soon.” And I remember thinking “I know, you’re crazy what do you think I’m doing here?” So I was just laying there and the only thing I could think about, the last thing I remember thinking about before I was out was am I gonna get this bag and the first thing I thought about when I woke up was “Do I have the bag?” But, I didn’t have the energy or the will to look, just look down and see if it’s there. About five minutes later my mom came in and she was just comforting me. Another 5 minutes went by and I had the energy just to say something and I said, “Mom, bag” she didn’t understand. I tried to get her to understand so I said, “Mom, colonoscopy” she looked down, then she looked back and smiled and said, “no, you don’t have the colonoscopy bag.” Then I was out. I fell asleep, that’s all I wanted to know, that was the only comfort that I needed. This is the miracle part to this, they said, they were going to do two cuts and sew it back together, and I was gonna need a bag. But I had a lot more then that. So this is exactly what happened. My appendix had become inflamed for some reason and normally, it would just burst and the poison would just go into my body and kill me within the hour, but, what happened was my appendix became inflamed and my intestines wrapped around and sealed around it, and then it burst. But it sealed in the poison so it didn’t kill me. For three and a half weeks I had this, that’s one miracle. Then, the other miracle was they had to do; one, two, three, four, five, six cuts and then sew everything back together in three different places, but I didn’t need a bag. Where’s the miracle? That is the miracle.

Sue and I were blessed amazingly. She was blessed with a true testimony of Jesus Christ, her husband was blessed with a job, a job that could support them that could pay the medical bills and keep their house. She said though that the best thing she was blessed with thought was the feeling of comfort because she knew she wasn’t going to loose her house. She knew she was going to be with her family and now she knew she had a testimony of Jesus Christ. I was blessed physically and spiritually. I was blessed physically because I lost 40 pounds (and I could do a lot of push ups) I was also blessed spiritually because I know I have a testimony of Jesus Christ. The vale was so thin for me that I knew, it wasn’t even a guess or a belief, but it was a pure knowledge that I knew I was gonna be fine.

I’ve been give so much. Let me explain. So obviously I’ve been blessed for 18 years with great family and great friends and a great Ward and wonderful experiences and blessed with trials (I think trials are just ugly blessings and I love them) But also this is what we’ve all been blessed with think about where we are, our earth is represented as the Telestial Kingdome. There’s Celestial, Terrestrial and, Telestial. So we are in the lowest Kingdom. Also out of all the earths without number that were made, ours is the most wicked, this is where Christ was crucified, so ours was the most wicked. Now think about the time that we are in, the latter days. The most wicked Kingdom represented, the most wicked earth at the most wicked time, but look where you are. You have the Gospel; you have the potential eternal and every lasting life. All the odds are against you, we are the only earth that has satin and devils, other earths just fall by natural man, and we fall by temptation. But look where you are, look what we have. After all that I was given how on earth can I not give two, two years of my life to Him? I plan on giving all of my life to Him and the best two years.

If I don’t endure, then it’s all for not. I believe, that if we don’t endure our trials or endure simple things that whatever we did in order to get to that place will be wasted. Example, my mom just finished her masters in Early Childhood Education. Everything was dependent upon that last paper. She had three final papers each like 18 pages each, it’s crazy. But think about it, if you think like 50% of your grade on one test at the end of the year is bad; imagine three tests being 50% of your masters, 6 years wasted! She had to endure she couldn’t just throw it off to the side, even though she wanted to; she had to do it she had to endure. And this is the key part to my talk right here. I WILL endure my mission. No disease, no trial, no moment of homesickness, no discouraging moment, no temptation, no failure, absolutely NOTHING, will bring me home early. I WILL finish, and this, I need you ALL to be my witnesses, that I said this. I will have disease, trial, moment of homesickness, discouraging moments, temptation, and failure out there so when I write home saying mom or dad I’m having a hard time, each one of you knows now, I promise, I will finish…. My mission. I will endure, and I need you all to know that so when I have a hard time you can say, “You promised me you would finish” and I will finish, and I will endure. I want to say thank you, to so many people. First of all, my mom, for being my first rock in this Gospel and being just the amazing person that she is. Thank you to my family for when ever I just have a bad day I can just come home and always know they are there. Specifically, I know you’re not suppose to name names but I’m gonna say it anyways, Dallin right here, he’s awesome. He came to me one day and said, “Will I forgot to say my prayers last night I feel so guilty.” And I was like “Oh you’re so precious” And then Caleb Brown; he’s so great too. He’s just so good at seeing when somebody else is gonna feel uncomfortable and adjusting for it because he’s so selfless, it’s amazing to me. These two have been one of the greatest examples to me in coming to Christ. Because of them, partially because of them, I am where I am today. Thank you also to my awesome Comp 1010 teacher for giving me the skills to communicate with everyone and for being the great teacher that you were. Also I love my priest quorum. They TRULY help me become a leader, I was both Deacon and Teachers quorum president but I was just the guy that went to meetings and made decisions. But in priest quorum I was a true leader because, I prayed for and asked for help. I wanted to know each individual person, how I could help them, how I could help them have a testimony of Jesus Christ. All my young men leaders like Bryan Byrge, was the perfect example to me in just how to live your life. All the way from Ben Barker to Mike Hancock, you guys have been the greatest priesthood examples I could ever ask for. Also, thank you for the generous donations. You would think a missionary having 6 jobs in 2 years would have plenty of money for his mission, but those little things really helped. Thank you for my home teaching families, I love them! It’s the Tuttles, Tesher/Cheshire. They are AWESOME families, they are SO FUNNY! I love being with them. Thank you to the Pioneer and Autumn Hills Ward, for helping me start my testimony in Jesus Christ and really build a foundation in it, and especially Herriman West Stake and Herriman Stake. But most importantly thank you to my Lord Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father and, The Holy Ghost; for giving me all this, for giving me such great friends and family, for giving me such wonderful experiences and trials. Thank you you guys, I love you. Because of who you are, that made me who I am, and who I am, will do two things; change the world, and endure to the end. So in a round about way, because of who you were, you changed the world. I will change the world. I will endure. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.