Hello brothers and sisters, since I am new to the ward, I will give a brief introduction about me before I begin my talk. My name is Elder King. I am from Lindon, Utah. I have 5 siblings and I have been on my mission for 9 months. Along with that, I have a sister who is serving with me in Morristown New Jersey. Now that my introduction is out of the way, let's get into my talk.
Since it is Ester, I want to focus on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It is a great blessing to have the atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives and to have the opportunity to celebrate it during Ester. I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ has blessed my life every day and has helped me to continue pressing forward. Instead of me rambling on, I want to show how my family unknowingly celebrates the atonement of Jesus Christ through Easter traditions. These traditions are finding Easter Baskets, dying eggs, and having an Easter Egg hunt.
To explain the first tradition, my family always hides Easter baskets every year. Each of us have a specific basket with certain sweets, toys, or whatever it may be that pertains to us. With these baskets, my mother and father will hide the baskets around the house, some of which are hard to find. After the baskets are hidden, my siblings and I have to go find them. We search everywhere to find them. As we find, we may stumble along another person’s basket. When we find their baskets, we leave them there and search another area. Sometimes it feels like we find everyone else’s basket but our own. If we haven’t found our baskets and ask for some help, our parents will point us closer and closer until we find the basket. At last we can enjoy the savory sweets that our parents have prepared for us.
This is one of my family’s traditions. It is fun but can be related to the Gospel. First off, in the tradition, we are working towards obtaining the basket. It is our prize possession as we search the house for it. It is what we want because it was made just for us. It is our basket. In life, we are always searching for who we are. Our true identity. We work, go to school, hang with friends, come to church, trying to find out who we are. We are trying to find our basket that was prepared for us. In 2010, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf retold the story of the Ugly duckling and says,” You are a beloved son or daughter of our Heavenly Father.” As we continue to search for who we are, I know that this line from Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf will start to ring true in our lives. We are all beloved sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. He loves us.
With our focus on the Basket, we search the house. We help others find theirs but typically get stuck trying to find our own. As the tradition goes, our parents guide us through the house, helping us get closer and closer to our basket. Limiting the rooms we have to search and helping us get to the area that we need to search. Jesus Christ is our guide throughout our life. He gives us guidance through the Holy Ghost, but also allows us to change our course. The atonement of Jesus Christ helps us to get closer and closer to our final destination. He limits the bad things in our lives and helps us to stay on the covenant path. We continue to use his gift until we reach our final destination of finding our true identity. One thing though, we don’t get this divine help until we ask him for it. We have to be the one willing to let God change our lives and bring us to our true identity. With this journey of finding our true identity, I want you to ponder one question in your heart, have I found my true Identity?
The second tradition that my family has is dying eggs. Before we get to dying eggs, my mother has to prepare. She buys a few dozen white eggs and boils them in a pot to make them a hard boiled egg. Having prepared the eggs, we grab cups and fill them up with vinegar and food coloring until we have a wide selection of colors to pick from. With everything ready, my family gathers together and starts to dye the eggs that we have. Our magnificent colors and designs shine forth to everyone around us. The eggs feel ready and are showing off what they want people to see. After a while of having dyed eggs, my mother decides to cook a meal. She slowly grabs the eggs one by one and peels back the shell to get to the core of the egg. After she has finished the meal, my family is happy and filled from the eggs that we eat.
In this second tradition, the eggs shells are being dyed. Although it may look like it doesn’t do anything to the egg shell, it is actually breaking the egg shell little by little and affecting the egg shell’s color. Throughout our lives, we may have temptations that stain our white egg shell. We might have friends, family, or even ourselves that will stain our shells. No matter who is the one causing it, we still have our egg shell being marked. It affects our character and who we really want to be. But with this stained egg shell, we can still become clean again. Our shells can become white and we can press forward through our lives. This is done through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. God sees us for who we truly are. When we sin, God knows what we really want to become. He knows our heart and our intentions as we go through these temptations and struggles in our lives. Him knowing this, he gave us a way to come back to him. He gave us a way to become renewed.
In the tradition, we have the egg shell being removed when my mother makes a meal. This is how Jesus Christ removes our stained egg shell. He helps us to clean up our mistakes and to start anew. When he suffered in Gethsemane, he took upon himself each of our mistakes through life. In the Alma chapter 7, it reads,” Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.” As we come closer to Jesus Christ and use the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we will be able to remove our eggshells and become clean again through Jesus Christ. With this power of the Atonement, I ask you to ponder this second question in your hearts, Where do I need to clean my egg shell?
The final tradition that my family has is an Easter Egg hunt. My parents get a bunch of plastic eggs and fill them up with sweets, toys, and money. Like the first tradition, they hide the eggs around the garden and house. Once all the eggs are laid out, the children then search everywhere finding the eggs that my parents have laid out. Once all the eggs have been found, we return back to the house and see what we found. Some of us are happier than others because we found the things we wanted. We may have found a toy that we liked, or a 10 dollar bill inside our eggs. Some of us may only have sweets or empty eggs in our baskets. Nonetheless, my family shares and helps each other to find joy and happiness through the eggs that we found.
In this final tradition, the eggs that we are looking for are people that we meet every day. We see people who are like sweets, well off but not everyone is wanting them. Some may be like the toys and others may be like the ten dollar bill. Whatever circumstance they are in, we are looking for them. As I think about this, I am reminded of the resurrected Jesus Christ who came to the Apostles on the shore of Galilee. In Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s October 2012 talk, he says,” After a joyful reunion with the resurrected Jesus, Peter had an exchange with the Savior that I consider the crucial turning point of the apostolic ministry generally and certainly for Peter personally… Jesus said to His senior Apostle, “Peter, do you love me more than you love all this?” Peter said, “Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.” This continues to go on three more times. After each one Peter replies the same thing. Elder Jeffery R. Holland continues,” Then Peter, why are you here? Why are we back on this same shore, by these same nets, having this same conversation? Wasn’t it obvious then and isn’t it obvious now that if I want fish, I can get fish? What I need, Peter, are disciples… So, Peter, for the second and presumably the last time, I am asking you to leave all this and to go teach and testify, labor and serve loyally until the day in which they will do to you exactly what they did to me.” The Savior allowed Peter to use the atonement of Jesus Christ in his life. He had a change of heart as he realized the importance of the gospel in his life and what he needed to do in his life.
In the tradition, we are searching for the eggs like Peter is gathering the lambs. As we labor, our knowledge of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows. We help people learn about who they really are and what they really can become and we learn who we are. The Atonement of Jesus Christ helps us to realize what we need to change in our lives and helps us teach people how to become better in their lives. I know that I am not perfect but the Atonement of Jesus Christ helps me to grow and change everyday. With this last tradition, I want you to ponder this last question in your heart. Who is someone that I can help find their true Identity and to experience the blessings of the Atonement of Jesus Christ?
Since it is Easter Sunday, I talked a lot about how the atonement of Jesus Christ helps us throughout our lives. Christ’s death on the cross and then resurrection allows each of us to overcome two things, physical and spiritual death. Physical death has already been paid for. We will all be resurrected and perfected through Christ. He will bless us and give us the blessings that he has prepared for us. Along with physical death, he can help us overcome spiritual death. As we use the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives, we can become our true self, repent of our mistakes throughout this life, help others find themselves, and help people discover the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Before I end my talk, I want to reiterate these three questions. Have I found my true Identity? Where do I need to clean my egg shell? Who is someone that I can help find their true Identity and to experience the blessings of the Atonement of Jesus Christ? Easter was a time of mourning and rejoicing. I hope that you can see how you can represent Jesus Christ’s atonement through your own family traditions. Since Jesus Christ died for us, we can overcome physical and spiritual death. I know these things to be true and that Jesus Christ knows what each of us can become. Let him direct your life and you will see the blessings that he has prepared for you. I say these things humbly, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.