Homecoming Talk

Kenna Cutler
Talk 3.17.2019
TOPIC: What were some gospel truths you BELIEVED were true before your mission, but now KNOW are true.

Buenas Tardes Hermanos y Hermanas, my name is Kenna Cutler and I have recently gotten back from serving a full-time mission in Chicago, Illinois. It was a great 18 months, and it flew by for me, honestly it went by way to fast! But here I am.

I have learned so many great things throughout my mission, I am very grateful for the decision I made to go, and for all those I met in Chicago. For every trial I faced, every door that got slammed in my face, and every person who let us in. For those who grew a testimony, and for the lives that was changed, including mine. For the patience I learned while learning Spanish, the love that I felt for each of Gods children, and for all the humbling moments. I would gladly say that my mission was very sacred to me, not a day goes by where I don’t think off all those in Chicago.
Since being home I have had time to ponder on the things I learned while I was a missionary representing my Savior every day. Before my mission I had a testimony of many things, and I believed them to be true, but as a returned missionary I can testify to you today that I know these things to be true.

THOUGHTS:
I know God is our loving Heavenly Father and this gospel blesses lives no matter what we are going through at certain moments of our lives. As missionaries we would study daily from Preach my Gospel, something we did a lot in my mission was memorize the 10 how to begin teaching points and use them in every lesson. I knew they were inspired of God because every time we testified and used them, I could feel the Holy Ghost direct me in how I needed to use them to help His children. Everyone is very different, and learn at different paces, but I know that God cares about each one and knows how they can be best helped.

Families are Eternal
Before my mission I always heard the phrase “families can be together forever”, and I believed it. One day while I was on my mission I was studying and realized that it said families CAN be together forever not WILL be together forever. In this moment I realized how much agency we have been given on this life. God promises us that if we stay on the covenant path that we can be together as families forever. But that doesn’t mean that we WILL be, it entirely depends on what we want. Ultimately in the end we know who the winning team is, now we just need to decide which team we want to be apart of. Gods or Satan’s. So ultimately, we can be together forever if we so desire.

I have met some great people on my mission, and one of the things I enjoyed the most was bringing families together and teaching them as one. There was this one family we started teaching my first day in one of my areas, my companion and I were both new and had never met them, they were so exited the moment we had arrived. It was like they had been waiting to hear what we had to say. They said they would watch us ride our bikes up and down the streets and knock all the doors around, and just waited for us to get to them. There were so many inspired things that happened in that contact, it showed me that the Lord really knew what He was doing, and that He loved His children. As we continued to teach them their whole family grew closer together, they all had their differences but when we taught, they could all feel that spirit of the Lord in the room, and you could see it on their faces that they knew what we were testifying of was true. My favorite moment was when they all came to church together, it was so fun seeing this family progress and let God into their lives. Maria (the mom) was talking to us one day, and she told us that the first day we came by, her and her husband Marcelo had gotten into a huge fight and had been thinking of divorcing, they were so close to getting one for months and they thought that would be it, then they met us, and everything changed. They still have their differences, but since they have truly felt the love of God in their life’s things have changed for them as a family. They all seem happier.

Something else that I have learned from being a missionary is that even though we aren’t perfect and sometimes make mistakes, Christ is always there to catch us when we fall. He carries us even when we don’t notice.

At the last General Conference, our Prophet President Russell M. Nelson gave us four invitations, one of which was to read the Book of Mormon from then till the end of the year and highlight in a specific color anytime it mentions Christs name. I never realized how often the Saviors name is mentioned in the Book of Mormon! After I did this, I found that I noticed the Saviors name more when I studied anything else, His name always stands out to me now, and I love it! I know that this is His church, and I love the emphasis that the Prophets and Apostles have on making sure we use the correct name of the Church. (3 Nephi 27: 8-10)

TESTIFY:In Spanish