jUsT a PaIr oF ShOes...

juSt a PaIr Of ShoEs...

tate flies out monday morning to rancagua chile... the next email we receive will be from chile...I was cleaning out a drawer and came upon this talk given by tate when his older brother reported on his mission...

my brother tyson has this walk in closet with about 30 pair of neatly organized shoes.  when he left on his mission he told me that if i grew into them that i could wear any of them that i wanted as long as i took care of them.  at the time i think we both thought it would never happen.  well i grew 7 inches while he was gone and recently those 30 pair of shoes fir just right.  i know that even though i now wear the same size shoes, my brother has given me some pretty big shoes to fill by the example he has set for me.

today my talk is on how the aaronic priesthood prepares me for going on a mission  i will be using a talk given by robert d. hales on this topic.  while training to be a jet fighter pilot, he prepared to make such vital decisions in a flight simulator.  for example, he practiced deciding when to bail out of and airplane if the fire warning light came on and he began to spin out of control.  he remembers one dear friend who didn't make these preparations.  his friend would find a way out of simulator training and them go to play golf or swim.  his friend never learned his emergency procedures!  a few months later, fire erupted in his plane, and it spun toward the ground in flames.  noting the fire warning light, his younger companion, having developed a preconditioned response, knew when to bail out or the plane and parachuted to safety.  but his friend who had not prepared to make that decision stayed with the plane and died in the crash.

In the decade ahead, our time for preparation will be limited.  as we are aaronic priesthood bearers, it is important that we prepare now.  we must develop  our own preconditioned responses for the important decisions we will make in the next decade of our life.  we must know what to do and when to do it when each decision presents itself.  remember that making no decision at all could be just as deadly as making the wrong decision.  many of the decisions we make or don't make will have eternal consequences.

now is the time to organize and prepare ourselves to have the holy ghost as our constant companion.  this means doing waht our parents and leaders have taught us to do-study the scriptures; pray morning and night; keep a neat, well groomed appearance; follow a schedule; set and achieve goals; be honest in our dealings; keep commitments; and be worthy of the preisthood we bear.  always always live the standards, revealed by prophets, in the booklet for the strength of the youth.

as young men, we are the vital strength of the Lord's army, the stripng warriors of these latter days.  in alma 53 it says "whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap."

there is one pair of shoes that now sits in tyson's closet that i hope to have a similar pair of one day.  they aren't the latest basketball shoe of the most expensive ones.  they are a worn out pair of missionary shoes, with a beaten down sole, and dust from the streets of guadalajara that he wore every day on his mission.  i am thankful for my brother tyson's example and for the mission he served.