Set Apart

Jen, my sister, and Maggie, my niece, chauffeured some of us sister missionaries to do some shopping today; Saturday is our preparation day. We bought stuff at the Sister Missionary Mall, had lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen, bought electronic gear, shoes, unmentionables, hair clippies, and gifts. We hustled and we bustled. And then we came home to the MTC. As we walked into the lobby with our bags and packages, noticed the Sunday-dressed young people manning the main counter, the statue of Christ, the Good Shepherd, and heard the reverent music playing, I realized that we had stepped into a sacred space.

President Spencer W. Kimball said,

The setting apart may be taken literally; it is a setting apart from sin, apart from the carnal, apart from everything which is crude, low, vicious, cheap, or vulgar; set apart from the world to a higher plane of thought and activity. The blessing is conditional upon faithful performance” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball [1982] 478).

It is so interesting to go from All-Hillary-and-Barack-All-The-Time to learning how to teach the soul-stirring doctrines of the Restoration. God is our Heavenly Father. We are His literal children. As all fathers do, He wants us to have all He has and to live with Him forever. He has given us everything we need to return to Him, including an Atoning Savior, a way to communicate with Heavenly Father through prayer, authorized priesthood-holders, restored ordinances, guiding scriptures and the agency to choose our path.

He calls and sends missionaries to His children throughout the world, charged with, above all, loving His children. Perhaps those loved children will wish to know more about who they are, where they come from, where they are going and why they are here. Missionaries can share the knowledge they have about the answers to these foundational questions and invite Heavenly Father’s children to come unto Christ so they can return to their Father, and to learn for themselves the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

As I entered the lobby of the MTC today, President Kimball’s statement became very real to me. For the next two years, I am set apart to be in the world but not of the world. As we were taught this week, it is a profound privilege to wear Christ’s name over our hearts.