Lucy's Homecoming Sacrament Talk

 Buenos dias......some other things in Spanish....I told my mom I was going to give my whole talk in Spanish..... but I will give it in English.

I'm Sister Lucy Nunn. I just got home on Thursday from my mission to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico is my holy land. It is the promised land, and it will forever have a holy place in my heart.

About 5 months ago, I was sitting on a Sunday night at a park with my companion. We were calling random people and it looked like it was going to rain. We were debating what we should do, and we decided we were okay it wasn't going to rain yet. Then all of a sudden these bugs came and attacked us and were flying in our ears and mouths. So we decided to leave the park, and they were following us on the street. As you can imagine, there were these two white blonde girls running in dresses down the street in the dark in Puerto Rico on a Sunday night.  And that's about how the mission goes. The most random, craziest things happen but the most spiritual and amazing parts of yourself come out.

One thing I really learned about on my mission is the power of faith. Our mission president always talked about mighty faith. For faith to have its power, it must be centered in and on Jesus Christ. It is not just a belief but it is action. It is the confidence in Him and in His plan. If you were here a year and a half ago, I talked about how Jesus knows us.  I would like to share a few stories about how Jesus knows. Jesus knows each of us and His timing and His plan is perfecto.

In D&C 6:36 it says, "Look unto me in every thought. Doubt not. Fear not." The first thing we have to do is look unto Christ in everything. When we look unto Him, we have the confidence that He knows our story and our timeline. 

In my very first transfer in my first area, I met the most amazing couple. They had been being taught for about 4 months. When I got there, we were told they were ready to be baptized. The wife was so ready. But the husband kept saying when my heart tells me, I will be baptized. We were like, come on your heart has to be telling you that you need this. This is the most amazing thing that you will receive in your life. They came to church every Sunday, and they were the most faithful members, but they just couldn't commit to baptism yet. About 3 months later, I left my first area. I cried so much when I left their house. They had become like my Puerto Rican parents. 

About 6 months later, I received a message through Facebook from the wife, and she had sent me their baptismal invite. She said that we really want you to come. I said okay I am going to come. So I text my mission president, he said sorry, you can't go unless you are the same zone, and I was on the other side of the island.  So I started praying, and a few weeks later he texted and said because of the amount of missionaries that had taught them, he let us go. When I walked back into that chapel and saw them, it was life changing for me. They did not look the same. Their countenance was brighter and they looked happier and were beautiful. It was an amazing testimony to me that God knows each of our hearts. Jesus knows us and it's His timing. And there is nothing we can do to speed it up or slow it down. It will always pass the way He wants it to. 

Then a few months later I was walking on a random street with my companion, and she we should call this guy. We weren't teaching him, just an old friend of missionaries two years ago. So we called him and said hi, how are you. We are the missionaries. And he said, are you guys here? And we said, no, we have no idea where you live. And he said, I was just crying and screaming to God because I needed help. He had lost his mom and his dad and his grandma in the past 3 years. They were everything to him. So we shared a scripture and prayer with him and said we would love to come visit him again. As we were praying, we could hear him crying through the phone. While I was on an exchange, my companion went to his house. We met back up after the exchange, my companion told me that he had accepted his first baptismal date. The crazy thing about this friend is that he is paralyzed from the chest down. So we weren't really sure how it was going to work, but we  were going to do it. So we kept going and going, and he just coudn't find a ride to church. He needed a special van. We prayed so much. His first baptismal date came and went but he just kept pushing it back, but he was so ready. Then one Sunday he said he would ride his chair to church, but he didn't make it. So we were praying the next Sunday, and here he comes in his electric wheelchair. It's about a 45 minute walk to the chapel from his house. He rode his wheelchair in the Puerto Rican sun to the church. It is through his small actions that he was able to see the hand of God in His life. It is the faith of each of us that makes the impossible possible.

We were so excited for his baptism. It was the day of his baptism. We had filled the font. The program was ready, and he texted us a little while before his baptism and said he was not getting baptized that day and that he wasn't ready. We walked to his house as fast as we could. We were dripping with sweat and we were yelling at his house and he let us in. We called the Elders to come and give him a blessing. They gave him a blessing and the Spirit was so strong. But he still said, I'm not getting baptized. It's not my time. Me and my companion tried to pretend like we weren't super disappointed and said okay Rene, we will contact you in a few weeks. We walked out of the house and the elders tried to comfort us, but as they turned to walk away, we started crying. It was the longest walk home, heart broken and disappointed. 

Transfers came and I got moved. A few weeks later my companion messaged me and said, Rene is getting baptized. You need to come. I said okay and text my mission president and he said no. Then miracles happened and God knows that I really wanted to be there and my friend, Rene, needed me to be there. So I got to go to his baptism with another sister in my area that had taught him. It was the most amazing, miraculous baptism. It took 5 elders to lift him down into the pool. As they were baptizing him, he came up out of the water and we just made eye contact. He looked at me and nodded. In that moment the Spirit testified to me that Christ really does know each of us and His timing is perfect. He will never push to do anything we don't want to do, but when we are ready and have the desire and the action to do it, he will make it happen. Nothing is impossible to God. He loves us and so He has given us these commandments and covenants to bind us to Him. 

In my last area, I was really sad to leave my other area. I did not want to go. I got there with kind of a bad attitude. But as we started working, I met three amazing women. In Puerto Rico, it's hard to find young people to teach. We had a mom and a daughter and neither of them were married and we had one other friend who wasn't married. In Puerto Rico, it's really hard to get people married. We can do this. Nothing is impossible. We had faith. We put them on baptismal date for July, but they weren't quite ready so we moved them to August. Then it was a week before the mom and daughter's baptisms and they said they weren't ready to get baptized and they were both planning their weddings for November. 

There is a statement called the but if not statement. We can have the faith to make the mountains move, but if the mountain doesn't move, we are going to hike it anyway.  

The other friend was getting close to her baptism, but she said she wasn't going to get married until March. I laid on the floor, my gross Puerto Rican floor, and cried and said God, why, why can't we have a baptism in that area. Everyone else in our mission is having baptisms. It is really hard when the but if nots come. I told my mission president, I feel like I live the but if not statements. He said sometimes we need to ask ourselves, what lack I yet. What part of me is not complete. It is really hard to take a look at yourself that deeply and ask what am I not giving completely to the Lord. As I learn more about faith and about Christ's plan, I know that it is perfect and that He knows each of us. He knows my friends who have been baptized and those who have not been baptized. He knows each of you. He is there for you no matter what. 

Testimony in Spanish......