Farewell Talk

Hello Everyone! For those of you who don't know me, I am Elder McMullin. I have been 

called to serve in the Virginia Richmond mission, and I am so excited to go and do what the Lord has commanded me. I thank you all for coming, whether it was just down the street or across the state, and I love each and every one of you. Today I would like to talk about the missionary purpose, and how it applies in the very fundamental image of the missionaries- the black tag. On this little plastic square, there are three names, and one absent, that I would like to talk about. Now, being a missionary has some peculiar quirks to it. There's of course the sleeping schedule, the constant companionship, and the small matter of going to a completely new part of the world with not much more than a blue book and a spare suit. But I would say the strangest bit is how missionaries lose their first name. You see, in my limited experience talking to returned and serving missionaries, they are almost exclusively identified by their last name- completely removing their given name. Now, I don't know about you, but I have grown rather fond of my first name, because of what it means to me. My whole life, I have grown up sandwiched between two Lukes, one very biblical and one very... not. In fact, whenever I introduce myself to someone, they almost always claim to be my father- how weird is that? But these two other Lukes have become great examples for me. Luke Skywalker was 19 when a wise old man called him away from his desert home, taught him how to use an invisible and powerful force, and set out to reclaim fallen worlds from the grip of evil. Sounds rather familiar, doesn't it? While I may not have laser swords or blue milk, I hope to follow the stalwart example of Luke in serving where he needed to be, when he was called, and leaving everything else behind. The other Luke I have been compared to, and indeed the one I was named after, has a different story. A doctor from the Mediterranean area, Luke wrote a letter to a man named Theophilus (Luke 1:3) and testified of Christ. Many of you have read his Divine account, start with "And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed." (Luke 2:1) and ending with "And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre." (Luke 24:2). Luke gave one of the best accounts of the Savior's life ever recorded, spending huge amounts of time finding those who remember him and those who wanted to know him. As he was not alive when Christ was, he had to go by faith in everything he wrote, doubting nothing about the great Son of God whose life he was following. I can only dream of being like this great man, who gave us much of what we know about the Savior. I may not be writing doctrine, but I am excited and blessed to do as both these Lukes have, and spread the message of hope far and wide, helping those find Christ who have not yet found themselves, and going by faith in every step of the way. 

While the first name may have been excluded, its place has been filled on the tag by a 

title: Elder. Elder can mean many things, from "old and wrinkly" to a specific tree. But the title 

of Elder is one of the greatest blessings in the modern world. I have had the privilege to serve in 

the temple for the months leading up to my mission, and I was able to pronounce blessings of the priesthood upon those who could not do it themselves, and invite them into the Church under the title of Elder. Some of my sweetest moments in the temple were helping those of Earthly nobility, whose names often began with Sir, Chief, Baron, Earl, and many others, knowing that their worldly titles were about to be replaced by something far better. The names of Elder and Sister connect us together, removing class or race distinctions from our names and instead setting us all at the same level. And this blessed title is not easily earned. We are not born into it, we cannot inherit it, and nothing can remove it from us once we have it. To be an Elder is to be connected to all those around you through the sacred bonds of ancient covenants, older than the Earth itself, and to bear the title that Christ has designated for his people. Brothers and sisters, while losing a first name might hurt just a little, what stands in its place is a name that I am honored to carry for the next two years of my life as a servant of Christ. 

The second name on my new tag is my last name: McMullin. Often misspelled and even more often mispronounced, my last name is certainly very unique. But, names like these serve a 

very defined purpose in our modern world- they provide the blessings promised by Elijah in the 

Kirtland temple. It says so in D and C 110:15, as Elijah announced he had returned "To turn the 

hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers" when he appeared to Joseph Smith. Last Names are key to that. My, and your, last name connect us to those who came before, fought for the rights of religion, freedom, a place to stand in our world. Thanks to ancestry, I know my forefathers in the Scottish and Irish highlands, my pilgrim and parent grandparents, and all the great deeds my parents have accomplished. I have even traced, through the massive work of others, my last name to about 100 BC, with a man named Trein mac Rothrein- a little bit of a misspell from McMullin! One of my favorite memories is playing games at Memorial day with my family, trying to name siblings of grandparents, who they were, their lasting memories, and their greatest stories. Brothers and sisters, we are so blessed to know our earthly heritages, and I think all of us can agree that knowing our family is a blessing few others compare to. But there is a family even greater than ours that so many people do not know of. It is the Divine family of Heavenly Father and Mother, born of celestial divinity and promised everything in existence as an inheritance, if we will only listen to our Father and Mother. It is the job of missionaries like me to unite those wayward family members back, and introduce them to our most famous sibling, Jesus Christ. By spreading the family of Christ and the House of Israel as far as we can, we guarantee that more and more people, through conversion and being born into converted households, will know these sacred blessings of family that I hold so dear. Thank you, Mom, Dad, and Adam for being my family forever, and thank you to all of you here for the love you have been family at special times in my life. I am so excited to help others find this blessing of eternal family, and I know it is my job as a missionary to do as Elijah himself said to turn the  hearts of the (earthly) children to that of our Heavenly Father. 

The last name on a missionary tag is impossible to miss. I have often noticed that the 

name of the church is in a different font than my name, and one part is even a different size, 

dwarfing everything else on a tag. It is the sacred and holy name of Jesus Christ himself. Born, 

like Luke said, so many years ago in a musty Bethlehem stable, he lived a perfect life, healing 

those who needed it, being a friend to fishermen and tax collectors, and reinstating a lost religion to the world of the Jews. And he suffered the greatest pain ever conceived, taking upon Himself the agony of all of our sins so that we had a fleeting chance at redemption. And for that, they hated Him. They scourged Him. They crucified Him. And they rolled a stone in front of His body to seal Him off forever. Brothers and sisters, they could not have failed more spectacularly! Not only did Jesus rise triumphant from the grave after three days, he came to His apostles and created the world's first missionary force. He went out in spirit with Paul, crossing the Mediterranean many times to save what little he could. He was the only thing that kept Europe together in the middle ages, by remembering his name and keeping Christianity alive, albeit with several fractures of the faith. But brothers and sisters, He was alive in the spring of 1820, when a farm boy asked what church still kept the Name of Christ. And Christ answered. That boy, Joseph Smith Jr, saw "two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other-This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!" Christ had come back to restore His church from so many years ago. He charged Joseph Smith with this task, and Joseph subsequently became the 3 first Missionary of the restored Church as he talked to his father and mother about what he had seen. Later, an angel named Moroni came to him and gave him the greatest tool of restoration available: the golden plates later translated to the Book of Mormon, which are inscribed in the very title with "Another Testament of Jesus Christ". The rest, as they say, is church history. Brothers and sisters, there is no more distinguished pedigree than that of missionaries. We go forth across the world like Paul, armed with the Book of Mormon like Joseph Smith Jr, bearing the name of that One Jesus Christ. It is my life's highest privilege to be considered worthy after all I have done to bear His name, and I hope to bear it in stride in the great land of Virginia. Brothers and Sisters, Christ is with all of you as he is with me, and it is my first act as a fresh-off-the-presses missionary to invite you, and you, and you, to find His Name in your life and live in His most special Covenant bonds. 

Testimony, ending with Nephi's I will go and do.