Bryce's talk just before he received his mission call.

Bryce Whitaker

2/17/13

Bryce gave this talk in the Spanish Fork 12th Ward.

Good morning brothers and sisters, im grateful for the opportunity to speak to you today. In todays world opinions are difficult to change and often aren't altered easily. when we dont see people for and extended amount of time we continue to think of them as the was they were when we last saw them, we dont accout for the fact that they have been living their lives just as we have. President Monson's talk in this October session of General Conference was on this same subject. he said. 

          

In one particular meeting, N. Eldon Tanner, who was then an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve, had just returned from his initial experience of presiding over the missions in Great Britain and western Europe. He told of a missionary who had been the most successful missionary whom he had met in all of the interviews he had conducted. He said that as he interviewed that missionary, he said to him, “I suppose that all of the people whom you baptized came into the Church by way of referrals.”

The young man answered, “No, we found them all by tracting.”

Brother Tanner asked him what was different about his approach—why he had such phenomenal success when others didn’t. The young man said that he attempted to baptize every person whom he met. He said that if he knocked on the door and saw a man smoking a cigar and dressed in old clothes and seemingly uninterested in anything—particularly religion—the missionary would picture in his own mind what that man would look like under a different set of circumstances. In his mind he would look at him as clean-shaven and wearing a white shirt and white trousers. And the missionary could see himself leading that man into the waters of baptism. He said, “When I look at someone that way, I have the capacity to bear my testimony to him in a way that can touch his heart.”

Pres Monson went on to say 

          We have the responsibility to look at our friends, our associates, our neighbors this way. Again, we have the responsibility to see individuals not as they are but rather as they can become.

I have a testimony that if we all strive to see others differently and give the people around us the opportunity to change that we can bring more of our friends and family back to the gospel and to the teachings that will bless their lives. Im grateful for the experiences ive been able to have while preparing for my mission. im looking forward to getting my call in the next couple weeks and the blessings and challenges that will follow. im grateful for my friends and family and the person that they have made me into today. 

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.