CHAPTER 1
Called to Tacna, Peru
Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. I just want to thank everyone who came to support me. I love you all so much.
For anyone who doesn’t know, I’ve been called to serve a mission in the Peru Tacna Mission, which is in the very southern part of Peru, only about a 35-minute drive from Chile. My mission is a new mission, and my mission president and his wife just got there on July 1. I begin home MTC on August 5th. I leave for the Provo MTC on August 19, the same day one of my closest cousins gets home from his mission. Both of my friends get to the MTC that day. That day my girlfriend starts at-home MTC, and on top of that, it’s also my birthday. So it will be one of the craziest days ever.
Some awesome facts about my mission that I thought were really cool while I was researching stuff: it’s home to the second-largest flying, with an 11-foot wingspan, standing four feet tall. My area also has 10 volcanoes in it. There are cities by the ocean at 16 feet elevation, towns at 12,000 feet, and mountains over 18,000 feet.
The main city, Tacna, is 65 degrees all year. When I was filling out my mission papers, I might have asked to be sent somewhere warm year-round. I don’t think I’ve told anyone in my family that yet. Apparently it worked, so if there’s anyone here filling out your mission papers soon, it’s worth a shot to say you want to go somewhere warm.
I was also researching more about food because that’s going to be a huge part of my life. As I was looking at it, I was expecting the worst, because most South American missionaries just talk about how they eat beans and rice every day, for every meal, for two years.
But I actually found out that they are often placed in the top 10 countries with the best food. They eat a ton of beef, pork, rice, and stews, with lots of seafood. It’s also the birthplace of the potato, with over 3,000 varieties, so I’m going to be eating a lot of those too.
CHAPTER 2
Finding Real Peace in Christ
My main topic today is being a peacemaker, which goes along very well with serving a mission.
Having peace does not necessarily mean just not having contention, or not having anything in your life go wrong. Real peace is when we accept the gospel and fully dive into it. It’s about learning and understanding the plan of salvation and how we can live forever with Heavenly Father.
It’s about learning to forgive people when they’ve wronged you and loving them. Because when you choose not to forgive someone you only hurting yourselves. Jesus Christ is the ultimate peacemaker. He came to earth to save us and set an amazing example for us, such as when He healed the servant’s ear at His arrest. He welcomed sinners and outcasts. He forgave the people who crucified Him.
He taught us about love over hate. In Matthew 5:43–44, Jesus says, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.”
He also taught us to mourn with those who mourn and to love everyone, no matter their background.
President Howard W. Hunter once said that the world in which we live would benefit greatly if men and women everywhere would exercise the pure love of Christ. Which is kind, meek and lowly. It has no place for hatred or violence. It encourages diverse people to live together in christian love, regardless of religious belief, race, nationality, financial standing, education, or culture.
CHAPTER 3
Peacemaking in Everyday Life
So what are some ways that we can become peacemakers in our lives? There are many ways. At home, we can be patient with our family members. At church, we can sit with lonely people. At school, we can stand up for people who aren’t being treated right.
In the most recent conference, President Dallin H. Oaks gave a talk called “Alive in Christ.” In this talk, he also mentioned other ways we can be peacemakers. He said:
“How can one person be a peacemaker? A bishop who seeks to heal a troubled marriage or resolve a personal controversy is working for peace.
“Young men and women are peacemakers when they forgo the temporary pleasure of self-gratifying activities and involve themselves in service and other acts of kindness.
“Persons who seek to reduce human suffering and persons who work to promote understanding among different peoples are also important workers for peace. So are faithful mothers and fathers who lovingly care for their own children and raise them in righteousness rather than leave them to be scarred and twisted by the sins of others.
“Our missionaries seek to be peacemakers. They preach repentance from personal corruption, greed, and oppression because only by individual reformation can an entire society eventually rise above such evils. By inviting all to repent and come unto Christ, our missionaries are working for peace by helping individual men and women come unto Christ and experience a mighty change of heart and behavior.”
CHAPTER 4
Helping People Feel Seen
In my own opinion, one of the biggest things that we can do to make other people feel seen is just listening to them and taking time to actually know them. I can tell you this from personal experience.
In the summer of 2023, I went on a humanitarian trip to North Carolina. We were building ramps on the houses of people with physical disabilities. I didn’t know anyone on the trip, and there were about 12 kids, two trip leaders, and two builder parents.
After the first week of fun activities like surfing and kayaking, everyone started to get to know each other better and was becoming good friends. The following Monday, we met the two amazing families we would be building the wheelchair ramps for, and we got to work.
There was one moment on the trip when we had just gotten done with the first part of work for the day. We were on an hour-long lunch break. Everyone was super exhausted and went to take a nap. I remember my trip leader and I just stayed up talking the whole time.
I just remember how well he listened and how interested he was in what I was saying. That’s the time when I realized how important listening to people really is, and how important it is when trying to be a peacemaker.
CHAPTER 5
Choosing Our Words with Care
One of my favorite stories about someone being a peacemaker is one President Russell M. Nelson told in the April 2023 general conference. He said:
“During my surgical internship many years ago, I assisted a surgeon who was amputating a leg filled with highly infectious gangrene. The operation was difficult. Then, to add to the tension, one of the team performed a task poorly, and the surgeon erupted in anger.
“In the middle of his tantrum, he threw his scalpel loaded with germs. It landed in my forearm. Everyone in the operating room except the out-of-control surgeon was horrified by this dangerous breach of surgical practice.
“Gratefully, I did not become infected. But this experience left a lasting impression on me. In that very hour, I promised myself that whatever happened in the operating room, I would never lose control of my emotions. I also vowed that day never to throw anything in anger—whether it be scalpels or words.”
I thought this was an awesome quote because it’s a great example of how you can take someone else’s destructive actions and turn them into a lesson for yourself, so you can prevent other people from getting hurt in the future.
I also thought it was really powerful how he included that he vowed not to throw words as well, because sometimes words can hurt people worse than a physical thing.
Sometimes not saying something mean about someone, or not talking badly behind someone’s back, feels impossible, especially when that person wronged or hurt us or someone we know. But it's not impossible
“The Savior’s Atonement made it possible for us to overcome all evil, including contention. Make no mistake about it: contention is evil. Jesus declared that those who have the spirit of contention are not of Him but are of the devil, who is the father of contention, and the devil stirs up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another.
“Those who foster contention are taking a page out of Satan’s playbook, whether they realize it or not. No one can serve two masters. We cannot support Satan with our verbal assaults and then think that we can still serve God.”
CHAPTER 6
Learning Charity at Home
The way we can access this power of being able to love others unconditionally is as President Nelson Said: when we humble ourselves before God and pray with all the energy of our hearts, God will grant us charity. Those blessed with this gift are long-suffering and kind. They do not envy others and do not caught up in their own importance. They are not easily provoked and do not think evil of others.
My mom has always been the person not to judge. I can’t think of a single time in my whole life that she’s ever said anything bad about anyone. She has always been the best example of how to be a peacemaker, and I’m incredibly lucky to have had her teach me by example how to be a better, more Christlike person..
I’m going to try to act how she’s taught me to when I go on my mission, so that I can be a peacemaker to the people who live in Peru.
I’m also so lucky to have my dad. He has always focused things on the gospel whenever he’s helping me. when ever he was helping me through something And I’m also very excited [phrase about his mission unclear].
CHAPTER 7
An Answer Worth Waiting For
Just to kind of end my talk, I want to say the reason I made the decision to go on a mission. Some of you may have heard this story, but a lot of you haven’t.
When I was about 11, I didn’t really know if I wanted to go. I knew I had a long time to decide, but I felt like I needed an answer then. So I started praying a lot, asking if this was the right thing to do. For about three years, I never had an answer, which was very frustrating for me.
Whenever someone asked me if I wanted to go on a mission, I felt like I was just lying to say yes, because I didn’t actually know if I did.
In July 2022, I went to FSY for the first time. It was a great time, and I felt the Spirit a lot, but I still didn’t know if I wanted to go.
On Thursday, the Primary president was going to speak to us. We were all gathered in the auditorium waiting for her to get up and speak, but all of a sudden Elder Holland got up to speak completely unexpectedly. He talked for about 30 minutes or so. I don’t remember all he said because it was a long time ago, but I remember at one part he said, while pounding his fist on the table like he always did, that every single able young man needs to go on a mission.
It just felt like an immediate answer to my prayer that I had been searching for for three years. From then on, I knew I was going to go on a mission, and I’m so excited that opportunity is here.
CHAPTER 8
A Testimony to Take to Peru
I just want to bear my testimony that I know this Church is true, and I know that serving a mission was the right decision.
I’m so thankful for my amazing parents and brothers and grandparents and aunts and uncles, and all my amazing friends. I’m so thankful for the Prophet Joseph Smith, that he restored the gospel so we could have that as a tool in our lives.
I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
