My Adventures at Dairy Queen; A Love, Share, and Invite Experience

This is my talk I gave on my 21st Birthday, October 10th, 2021 in the Parley's YSA Ward in the Bonneville YSA Stake.

What I said, of course, wasn't word for word what is written. I write a talk, read it over many times, and then when I'm giving a talk, I use my written talk as reminders of where to go next/what I wanted to say etc.

My use of brackets either indicacts more improvised portions of my talk, such as "[bear testimony here]" or notes for purposes of clarifying sections to readers, such as "[I don't remember how I transitioned to the next subject, but I did]".

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[I introduced myself. I don't feel the need to put that all in this post. But I talked about Fallon. Growing up next to a Dairy Farm and next to all my cousins. What my parents do for work and what I want to do.]

I wanted to talk today about the principles of Love, Share, and Invite in regards to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ while pulling from conference talks given just this past general conference, but also several that were given many years prior.

Love, Share, and Invite have been discussed many times recently, I feel, which may seem like a lot. But considering the fact that they’re the fundamental principles behind strengthening members and nonmembers alike, it kind of makes sense.

LOVE

The General Handbook has a fantastic section on Love, Share, and Invite. I'll be quoting pretty much the entire thing spread throughout my talk today.

It says about Love,

"We are all children of a Heavenly Father who loves His children perfectly. He offers everyone the opportunity to be filled with His love through Jesus Christ and His gospel.

One way we show our love for God is by loving and serving His children. We strive to love and serve as Jesus Christ did. This love inspires us to reach out to people of all religions, races, and cultures (General Handbook)."

[Something about how important love is. How with it we truly are nothing. It needs to be our motive. Transition into scripture]

1 Corinthians 13:2-3

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing

[Something about how without love, it really profiteth us nothing. Love needs to be our motive. If love is not our motive, we need to pause.]

[Something about how an awesome example of love was shown is Sister Eubank's talk]

"Some of the Relief Society sisters noticed that many Afghan women were using their husbands’ shirts to cover their heads because their traditional head coverings had been ripped off in the frenzy at the Kabul airport. In an act of friendship that crossed any religious or cultural boundaries, the sisters of the Ramstein First Ward gathered to sew traditional Muslim clothing for Afghan women. Sister Bethani Halls said, 'We heard that women were in need of prayer garments, and we are sewing so that they can be [comfortable] for prayer.'" (Sister Eubank, October 2021)

Okay, now for a segment I call:

My Adventures at Dairy Queen 

Part 1:

I worked at Dairy Queen for a year before coming out on my mission. I'll be sharing parts of my experiences there strung throughout this talk and the different parts of Love, Share, and Invite.

Honestly, I'm pretty proud of myself for sharing the gospel at Dairy Queen before my mission. For not having such a focus on the principles of Love, Share, and Invite and having read only some of Preach My Gospel, I had some really cool missionary experiences during my time there.

Dealing with the principle of Love, I loved my coworkers. 

At Dairy Queen, you had your night shift, which was always a good time because you're just with a bunch of other teenagers. When you just have a bunch of teenagers gathered together, some funny stuff goes down. 

And then you had your morning shift, which were the adults since all the teenagers were at school. This was fun because you could have more intelligent conversations, but not fun because the manager who was in charge of the music in the morning only played country music. That may sound like heaven for some of you, including my companion, but not so much for me.

They were honestly probably the best part about the job (but considering that it was fast food/customer service, I guess there isn't much competition). We got to know each other, and cared for each other. We took each other's shifts, and just had good times with one another.

More on Dairy Queen later.

SHARE

"Because we love God and His children, we naturally want to share the blessings He has given us and help gather Israel. We seek to help people feel the joy that we feel. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we hold up His light. We speak openly of the Savior and His influence in our lives. We share love, time, experiences, and Church programs to bless God’s children and help them draw closer to the Savior. We share these things in normal and natural ways as part of personal, online, and other interactions (General Handbook)."

Elder Uctdorf in April 2011 gives a perfect example of sharing in normal and natural ways.

"Years ago our family lived and worked among people who in almost every case were not of our faith. When they asked us how our weekend was, we tried to skip the usual topics—like sports events, movies, or the weather—and tried to share some religious experiences we had as a family over the weekend—for instance, what a youth speaker had said about the standards from For the Strength of Youth or how we were touched by the words of a young man who was leaving on his mission or how the gospel and the Church helped us as a family to overcome a specific challenge we had. We tried not to be preachy or overbearing. My wife, Harriet, was always the best at finding something inspirational, uplifting, or humorous to share. This often would lead to more in-depth discussions."

My Adventures at Dairy Queen

Part 2:

Back to Dairy Queen. Over the year that I worked there, it was really cool how a culture of talking about religious topics became a thing. Many of my coworkers were members who hadn't attended church in a while, and although they didn't practice, they had some belief.

Everyone knew that I was eventually going to quit in order to go on a mission for my church.

And there were a couple coworkers of mine who were simply just curious about what I believed and my standards.

And so I got to share what I believed many many times.

But what was important was to recognize those opportunities to do so. If not consciously thought about or an integral part of who we are, many of those chances could slip by.

A couple specific examples:

I remember one particular instance when one of my managers, who still has faith and was a devout member many years ago but had fallen out of habits, when she talked about the many mistakes she had made throughout the years, I bore testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. How it is for everyone and can heal anyone.

Another was when another coworker questioned why I'm leaving Dairy Queen, I would not only explain what I'm doing (that is, going on a mission), but also why I'm doing it.

Back to DQ in a sec.

INVITE

"The Savior invites all to receive His gospel and prepare for eternal life. As His disciples, we follow His example, inviting all to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him”.

We pray for inspiration and guidance on how to invite others to:

• Come and see the blessings available through Jesus Christ, His gospel, and His Church (see John 1:37–39, 45–46).

• Come and help us serve people in need.

• Come and belong to the restored Church of Jesus Christ.

When our invitations are based on a person’s needs and interests, he or she is more likely to accept those invitations. Often, inviting simply means including our family, friends, and neighbors in what we are already doing. For example, we can invite them to:

---I think this is a really important part right here. I think too often we think that the only invitation we can leave with people is to meet with the missionaries. And if they're not ready to meet with the missionaries, they're simply not ready. I think the following suggestions really highlight the fact that there's a lot more in-between that we can do to help people be ready to meet with missionaries.---

• Join us in our homes for activities.

• Join us for worship and gospel learning.

• Attend special events, such as a baby blessing or baptism.

• Participate in ward and community activities or service, including projects organized through JustServe (where available).

• Participate in Church programs and activities. These could include Primary activities, youth activities, family history, self-reliance courses, BYU–Pathway Worldwide, and literacy and English courses.

---And of course---

• Meet the full-time missionaries and hear their message."

(General Handbook)

Final part of my adventures at Dairy Queen:

I think often times we overthink things. If the feeling is right, if the relationship is good, perhaps most importantly if love is the motive, I think we can invite all over the place.

I remember often times at Dairy Queen when my coworkers that hadn't been to church in a while and I talked about church, I would chuck in a simple, "You should come. I would love to see you there."

It was a very soft invitation. It was more a suggestion than anything. But I think it's important.

And then, when the timing was right, I invited them more formally. I was having my farewell talk at church. I invited several of my coworkers. And three came :)

[Bear testimony

Include elements such as:

Christ is our Savior

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are more than willing to give you missionary opportunities and help you know what to do with missionary opportunities. Please ask.]

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

[Additional quotes to add in if the talk runs short for some reason]

Elder Nash, October 2021:

Our Latter-day Saints in Liberia helped 507 friends enter the waters of baptism during the 10 months there were no full-time missionaries serving in their country. When one of our wonderful stake presidents there heard that the full-time missionaries may be returning, he remarked, “Oh good, now they can help us with our work.”

He is correct: the gathering of Israel—the greatest cause on this earth—is our covenant responsibility. And this is our time!

Elder Bednar April 2008:

We properly pray for the safety and success of the full-time missionaries throughout the world. And a common element in many of our prayers is a request that the missionaries will be led to individuals and families who are prepared to receive the message of the Restoration. But ultimately it is my responsibility and your responsibility to find people for the missionaries to teach. Missionaries are full-time teachers; you and I are full-time finders. And you and I as lifelong missionaries should not be praying for the full-time missionaries to do our work!

Christ's Promise

Heyo! This is my talk that I gave on July 25th in two wards (the Liberty and the Fourth Wards that are near downtown Salt Lake).

Of course, both times I altered it; I either cut out a paragraph or two and/or added in some additional thoughts that came to mind, but what follows covers the basic principles and thoughts I shared.

My use of brackets either indicacts more improvised portions of my talk, such as "[bear testimony here]" or notes for purposes of clarifying sections to readers, such as "[I don't remember how I transitioned to the next subject, but I did]".

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Hello!

I talked or, at least, bore my testimony in this ward not too long ago, so I hope many of you still remember my face.

But regardless, similar brief introduction. My name is Elder Perazzo. I come from the town Fallon, Nevada which is about an hour east of Reno, Nevada.

I grew up adjacent to a diary farm run by my uncles. And I tried to remember details about what I said last time, so I apologize if this is all repeat, but: My uncles ran it, and I just grew up next to it. So the most I did was help cows back in their pins when they got out. Regardless we got infinite raw milk, so it was pretty awesome and I wouldn't have had it any other way :)

I’m the youngest of five with a Sister right above me and three brothers above her. Living next to the dairy, all my neighbors are my family. Cousins here, here, here, with grandma and grandpa there and great aunt/uncle there.

My family is the best and my favorite thing on this on the planet :)

Today, I really wanted to talk about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Of course, there is probably an infinite amount of talks you could write on this one subject.

I pray that the Holy Ghost will direct me as I write and speak about these precious truths. I also pray that the Holy Ghost will help you hear what you need to, especially if what you need to hear is different than the words I say.

“The Savior’s Atonement included His suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, and His suffering and death on the cross, and ended with His resurrection.” (Preach My Gospel; Chapter 3 Lesson 2)

It is because of these events that everything in life that we do is made possible. Or, at least in my opinion, purposeful.

Without the Atonement of Jesus Christ, where are we?

Well, I can say that if Jesus Christ had not volunteered himself to be a sacrifice for us, we would not have chosen to come to this earth.

Before this life, we were together in a grand council. We were shown a plan. In order to become more like God, we would have to come to earth. 

We would suffer all manner of afflicitons. We would experience, in my opinion, what would be the most difficult time during our entire eternal existence. 

We knew we had to go through these things to become more like God.

Taking a slight deteor on this subject of why these difficult things are necessary, I wanted to read a quote from Elder Holland, who is quoting Neal A. Maxwell. This is perhaps my favorite quote written on the subject. He said,

"It simply will not work 'to glide naively through life,' saying as we sip another glass of lemonade, 'Lord, give me all thy choicest virtues, but be certain not to give me grief, nor sorrow, nor pain, nor opposition. Please do not let anyone dislike me or betray me, and above all, do not ever let me feel forsaken by Thee or those I love." ----The next sentence is my favorite sentence---- "In fact, Lord, be careful to keep me from all the experiences that made Thee divine. And then, when the rough sledding by everyone else is over, please let me come and dwell with Thee, where I can boast about how similar our strengths and our characters are as I float along on my cloud of comfortable Christianity.'"

Heavenly Father knew we had to experience trials and difficulties. But that doesn't mean we would be left alone. Quite the opposite. That is yet another reason he sent Jesus to atone for us.

Anyway, back to us in our premortal council:

On top of wanting help through our pain, there were two main problems we had to figure out how to overcome. 

[One of the times I gave the talk I chucked in something about the Fall of Adam and Eve here]

Our mortal bodies would die, and if we sinned even a single time, we would be separated forever from God. Not the most promising aspect.

And so, as foreordained, Jesus volunteered himself to be the mediator. “The one that would make the atoning sacrifice that makes it possible for us to overcome the effects of the Fall.” (Slightly altered quote from Preach My Gospel Chapter 3 Lesson 2)

And so we accepted the plan. Having faith that Jesus would do what he promised to us that he would do.

My MTC teacher, who helped me a lot during my MTC experience, explained it this way.

“We chose this plan because we trusted Jesus. He was our bigger brother. He was the one who always did the best on tests, always helped others. He was always the smartest, the brightest, the kindest, the best. We knew we could count on him.”

This reminds me of the lyrics found in the song, Gethsemane

"While His friends were asleep, He fought to keep

His promise made long ago."

He promised us he would do this for us. And we trusted him to do so.

I cherish the words in the song Gethsemane, and wanted to read the rest of them as well.

"Jesus climbed the hill to the garden still.

His steps were heavy and slow.

Love and a prayer took Him there

To the place only He could go.

Gethsemane. Jesus loves me,

So He went willingly to Gethsemane.

He felt all that was sad, wicked, or bad,

All the pain we would ever know.

While His friends were asleep, He fought to keep

His promise made long ago.

Gethsemane. Jesus loves me,

So He went willingly to Gethsemane.

The hardest thing that ever was done,

The greatest pain that ever was known,

The biggest battle that ever was won—

This was done by Jesus!

The fight was won by Jesus!

Gethsemane. Jesus loves me,

So He gave His gift to me in Gethsemane.

Gethsemane. Jesus loves me,

So He gives His gift to me from Gethsemane."

It is my witness that Jesus is indeed the Christ. That he did the hardest thing that ever was done, and won the biggest battle that ever was won. I know that he is my Savior and Redeemer. [Continue to bear testimony of the Savior]

The other day in a big missionary meeting, our mission president gave a talk about the physical and emotional sufferings of Jesus Christ during parts of performing the Atonement.

I love what he said about the individuality of the Atonement. He said something to the effect of,

"He didn’t do it for us. He did it for you. and you. and you. and you. And every single individual in this world. He knows you and loves you perfectly."

[I forget exactly how I transitioned here]

Ether 12:27

I feel, too often, people when they read this scripture they focus on the weakness part. I’m weak; we’re all weak.

I much prefer focusing on the restored truth that Christ can make our weak things become strong. 

Because of Jesus Christ, we are able to change.

My mission president in his talk the other day expanded upon this idea as well.

There are many many many extreme trials we are to go through in this life. Many of them may feel unbearable, and we feel as though we cannot go through them.

And perhaps you can’t. But you can, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

It’s hard to go through the death of a loved one. And perhaps you can’t. But you can.

[Do the same idea with one or two other major trials we may face during this life]

I didn’t know exactly where to fit this into my talk, but I know I wanted it in here. It is perhaps my favorite line in the entirety of Preach My Gospel.

“All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.”

I bear my witness that that is true.

[Bear Testimony]

[I expanded on the following couple of sentences one of the times I talked]

People don't know about this. Will you please share it?

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

Breakdown of "More Than Thin Air"

In this blogpost I talk about the poem "More Than Thin Air" that I wrote. You can find that poem here: http://whateveriwant7.blogspot.com/2021/06/more-than-thin-air.html

So I kind of just did my own thing for the poem; it isn't any offical poem format. Each line is 7 syllables with each duplet being its own rhyming pair. Except the 3rd and the 6th (the last duplet in each half (each half, as you can probably tell, is kind of its own time period. More on that later)) are very similar to one another.

I feel like it's easier to write poems about sad or confusing things than it is to write ones about happy things. Maybe that isn't true; after all, this is one of the first actual poems I've written and worked hard on, but that's what it feels like currently.

The line "Quandries to an open sky" popped into my head, and I really liked it, so I started to write a poem about prayer. But, as mentioned in the above paragraph, it seemed so much easier to write about sad things. Problem is, I freakin' love prayer. But I didn't always.

And so I had the idea to make half of the poem about how I felt about prayer in the past and the other half about my relationship with prayer now. That's were the basis of this poem spawned from.

"Rise no more than the ceiling" is in reference to a topic one of my favorite companions, Elder Townsend, and I talked about. The same discussions is also what the title "More Than Thin Air" came from.

Sometimes, when you prayer, it feels like your words are just hitting the ceiling and not going any further. It feels like it isn't even making it close to heaven or God.

Similar idea, sometimes it feels as though you are just speaking to thin air. Of course, the poems ending is the opposite of that feeling. Thus the title, "More Than Thin Air". I almost called it "Thick Air" just to be clever, but decided against that idea, haha.

I really really liked the line "Now those thoughts feel so foreign" as a transition line between the two periods of time. The problem I found, though, is it's kind of hard to rhyme with 'foreign'. I didn't like the idea of taking of the 'g' in an 'ing' word, so I tried many other different lines, and eventually shafted the "now those thoughts feel so foreign" line. I tried to use a word that would rhyme easier, but didn't like any of those, so I went back to the original.

'Alein' was a good word I found. But, of course, the idea was that prayer was not alein, so I reflected that in the line. I then didn't want to use the word 'prayer' again, so I searched for a one syllable replacement by searching in the bible dictionary/topical guide and such (pretty much the closest thing I have to a thesaures on my mission, haha). I found the word 'cry' from Alma 34 and I liked it.

The line "revelation I receive" actually come from my givethanks post I did about prayer on Facebook.

I want to say, that that first half of the poem is 100% true. A good chunk of the time, prayer felt very empty to me. Like the poem says, I still had faith that God was there, but it was hard to feel so in my prayer.

I remember when I got my Patriarchal Blessing, there's a line that references me knowing the power of prayer. I wasn't so sure about that part, haha. The patriarch asked me after giving me my blessing if anything in it surprised me. I said yes. I was thinking of that line.

But now those thoughts feel so foreign! I love prayer. And I know that line in my Patriarchal Blessing has come to fruition.

There is so much that could be written and perhaps will be written. I'll cut myself off there for today, though. I think my poem says what I want to say pretty darn well anyway, so you'll just have to read that again :)

Tribute to my Dad (as given in a talk in church)

I gave a talk in one of the wards that I serve in today. I talked about two things. Hope and my dad. I wanted to share some of the thoughts that I shared about my dad here.

What I had written down for my talk and what I spoke were slightly different. I edited it to be more accurate to what I spoke.

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Good Morning Brothers and Sisters! Happy Father's Day! *Introduce myself and my family a bit. Talk briefly about what each sibling is up to and talk about the Dairy Farm because people seem to enjoy hearing about it. Share that both my parents are teachers and that I want to be a teacher as well (specifically math)*

I wanted to pay a little tribute to my father in my talk, even though he is not here listening.

I wanted to highlight two of the things that I really appreciate about my dad.

1. My dad is the best example of Christ-like service I know. 

If he has 5 minutes in his schedule, he will gladly fit you in. [author's note: That is a quote from a givethanks post my mom did] He is always out ministering to individuals in need. I was just talking about this the other week to someone; if my dad wasn't home, he was either at work or serving someone. That's what he did. And serving others is part of who he is.

He is genuine and serves with no expectation of anything in return. He just wants to help.

A quick example, is he always picks up trash off the ground when he walks by. He is involved in and takes care of his community.

2. He always got invested into our interests growing up, and continues to do so. When I talk to him on Mondays, he often asks about the people I am teaching, and references things I talked about last week.

Before my mission, he would ask questions about the music artist I am listening to, or the games I am playing, or the books I am reading. Not for some ulterior motive of micromanaging me or sneakily trying to find me doing something I’m not supposed to. But instead because he genuinely cares about what I care about and wants to learn more about why I care about it so much.

He listens intently and allows me to talk freely about the things I'm passionate about.

My father is awesome.

[Author's note: this is where I branch off a little into talking about Father's in general. I really like the quote and such, though, so I thought I would include it in this blog post as well]

I love the quote by A. Theodore Tuttle in his talk entitled “The Role of Fathers” given in October 1973.

"It should have great meaning that of all the titles of respect and honor and admiration that could be given him, that God himself, he who is the highest of all, chose to be addressed simply as 'Father.'"

I know a good Father can make a big impact in a child’s life. I hope that we all have good Fathers. And if we don’t down here, I promise you we have a perfect father up there.

[Author's note: At this point in my talk, I then transition to talking about hope. I share a shortened and altered version of my "Hope is Sometimes Misunderstood" talk that I posted a while back]

More Than Thin Air

More Than Thin Air (6/2/21)

Quandaries to an open sky?

Yet no answers from on high.

Rise no more than the ceiling?

Where is the promised feeling?

I have faith that he is there,

But it's hard to feel in prayer.

Now those thoughts feel so foreign.

To not cry is alien.

Peace and solace brought to me.

Revelation I receive.

I have faith that he is there,

And I feel so in my prayer.

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My breakdown of this poem can be found here: 

https://whateveriwant7.blogspot.com/2021/07/breakdown-of-more-than-thin-air.html.