Farewell Talk

Good afternoon brothers and sisters, I want to start off by thanking all my friends and family for coming and supporting me today. I love all you guys and you are all the best. 

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Hayden Winegar and I just graduated from Highland high school. I have been called to serve in the Czech/Slovak mission where I will be speaking the Czech language. I will be getting set apart in a couple hours and I couldn't be more excited. For the first 9 days I will be at the at home MTC. 

After I finish the at home MTC I am flying to the Provo MTC early Wednesday morning and will be there for 8 weeks to learn the Czech language. When I first got my call I was very surprised when I read that I was going to the Czech/Slovak mission. I had no clue that these two countries existed but I was super excited to hear that I would be living in Europe for two years. 

Over the past several months I have been trying to learn more about my mission and these are some of the cool things I found out. In 1993 the country Czechoslovakia was separated into two countries that are now known as the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech republic is called the “castle capital of the world”. There are over 2,000 castle and castle ruins in the country. They are famously known for the amount of beer consumed in the country with an average of 188 liters of beer consumed per person every year. There are more than 6,000 caves in Slovakia. Lastly, 10.5 million people live in the Czech republic and only 2,600 people are members of our church and this is why I am so excited to start my mission because there are millions of people in the Czech republic waiting for somebody like me to come teach them about our gospel. 

Although I only know a little bit about where I will be living for the next two years, I can’t wait to go serve the people of the Czech Republic and Slovakia and bring more people to Christ and his church in these amazing countries. 

Last Memorial Day, my grandpa Winegar passed away. He had a strong impact on my life with his good example and devoted service to others. He served a full-time mission to Australia in the late 1950s. I'd like to share a short story from his journal right after his mission. 

“When I got home from my mission, I was the number 2 person on the draft list. This meant I would be drafted in the army very soon if I didn’t make other decisions. Several of my friends were joining the Air National Guard. During the summer of 1959, I joined the Guard. On July 5, 1959, I landed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas for basic training. It seemed like the hottest place I had ever been! I was at Lackland for 9 weeks. 

While there, I served as a counselor to the base chaplain. While in the barracks at night after the lights went out, another returned missionary and I would kneel beside our beds to say our prayers. It wasn’t long before others wanted to hold prayer with us. Pretty soon the entire upper floor would come down and the whole barracks would have prayer with us after the lights were turned out. 

One of the airmen who came down to prayer with us was from a small town next to where I grew up in Ontario, Oregon. He started to go to church with us. When he first arrived in Texas, he was smoking and playing the part of a typical military person. Before we completed our basic training, he was baptized.” 

This story really exemplifies to me how much of an impact any of us can have just by our simple actions. This was the type of life my grandpa lived by being such a good example to me and the rest of my family. This is the kind of example I want to set while I'm on my mission because even if I'm having a hard day or a rough time, if I’m doing everything I'm supposed to be doing, I know Heavenly Father will still bless me with miracles. He will lead people to me if I'm being exactly obedient in my actions. 

Elder Carl B. Cook of the seventy gave a great talk in the April 2023 general conference titled “Just keep going with faith”. In his talk he says “The God of heaven and earth will help us overcome discouragement and whatever obstacles we encounter if we look to Him, follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost, and just keep going—with faith.” 

Heavenly Father knows all of our struggles and obstacles in life but he is always there for us. As long as we continue going through our lives with faith and prayer and looking towards God, we can overcome trials presented in our life. 

Throughout high school my life revolved around sports where I played both basketball and volleyball year round. I had some great accomplishments in both of these sports and have made some of my closest friends because of them. I had some of the best coaches I could have asked for who trained me to become the best athlete I could be, but most importantly they prepared me for the rest of my life by teaching me how to be a better person. 

One saying that coach Grover, my volleyball coach, would remind us every day was E+R=O. Event + Response = Outcome. There are so many events in our life that we have no control of like when our air conditioning goes out in the middle of summer or when your sister backs into your car and completely destroys the side door. 

Responding to both of these events with blaming or frustration would be any of our natural reactions but that doesn’t help the situation in any way. We have complete control over how we respond, and if we respond with faith in Christ and forgiveness we become a better person and more christlike. 

I want to share a really cool story on how a man named Andrew exercised his faith. 

It was a hot day, and the sands were glittering like gold in a desert. Andrew, touring the place, lost his way in the desert. He could not find his way back, and the water in his bottle dried. He was in desperate search for water or he would die due to dehydration. 

As he struggled walking in the desert, he saw a small hut in the distance. Initially, he thought it was just an illusion. But he continued walking towards it, and as he reached closer, he realized it was a hut. He opened the door and found nobody there. It seemed like it had been abandoned for a long time. He was surprised to see a hand water pump, and it had all connections intact and a pipeline to the ground. He started pumping, and there was no sign of water. And he continued his effort and gave up due to exhaustion. He started searching the hut for any other source of water. Then he found a bottle of water hidden in the corner. 

He was happy, and when he was about to drink the water, he found a piece of paper attached. The note on the paper said, “Please use the water in this bottle to start the pump. The pump works. After you are done, do not forget to refill the bottle again.” 

After reading the message on the paper, he went into a dilemma, “Will the pump really work if I use this water? Is the pump in good condition? Can I trust the words on the paper? If it is false, then my last source of water will get wasted.” 

He paused for a minute and closed his eyes, and prayed. Then he poured the water from the bottle into the pump and started pumping it. Soon, he heard a bubbling sound, and water started pouring out. He felt total relief. He drank the water until he wasn’t thirsty and filled his water bottle. Then he refilled the bottle from the hut. He stayed in the hut for some time and looked around. 

He saw a pencil and a map explaining the direction to the nearby village from the hut location. He was happy that his faith in the water pump worked. Similarly, he believed that the map would direct him in the right direction. Then he wrote on the paper, “Have faith. It works.” He returned the bottle, paper and map to the place he found them and happily, he left the hut. 

I love this story because like all of us, Andrew had some questions. Will the pump work if I use water? Is the pump in good condition? Can I trust the words in the paper? 

Sometimes we’ll have questions and we’ll have to exercise faith. Andrew had to exercise faith and choose to use the water bottle for the pump instead of just drinking the bottle. Like Andrew, there will be times in our life where we will have to use our own faith in the gospel to overcome hardships. 

In the book of Mormon, Nephi and his brothers were asked to do many challenging tasks including fleeing the land of Jerusalem, retrieving the brass plates, and even building a ship to sail to the promised land. Laman and Lemuel felt that the things they were asked to do were outrageous and responded by trying to hurt and even kill Nephi. Through the faith of Nephi, he was able to accomplish everything he was asked to do. 1 Nephi 3: 7 reads “I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.” 

Because Nephi truly believed and had faith that he could do what God asked of him, he was able to carry out the tasks given to him. 

Before my senior year of high school, I already knew that I would be serving a mission but I never really had my own testimony of the church. I always relied on my seminary teachers and parents' testimonies to help me feel the spirit but I still knew that the church was true. My entire life I had been preparing by studying the scriptures and saying personal prayers but I was never consistent with either of these things. I made it a goal of mine last summer to not go a day without saying intentional prayers morning and night and reading scriptures every day whether it was a couple verses or 10 plus chapters a day. 

After a couple months, I looked back and realized all the blessings I was receiving and how much happier I was because of it. I finished the book of mormon and now i can truly say that i have a strong belief in this church and it is through my own testimony of the book of mormon. I also came to a realization of how powerful prayer is and how I can say personal prayers any time of day and feel comforted because heavenly father hears and answers all of my needs. 

One of my favorite scriptures is Doctrine and Covenants 4: 3-4, that reads “ Therefore, if ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work; For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;” 

I know that if I act with faith for the next two years I will bring many people closer to christ. Through my own personal study I know that the book of Mormon is true and that this is heavenly fathers true church. I know that Joseph Smith was a true and living prophet and that he translated the book of Mormon by the gift and power of god. I know that serving the lord for the next two years is exactly what i should be doing and i say all these things in the name of jesus christ amen.