Good morning brothers and sisters. My name is Katie Lang, and for the most part I know every one in this ward. I have grown up in this ward and so looking down I see many people that have helped me through my life at one time or another.
In April I received my mission call for Piura Peru. Which was very exciting for me because from what I knew from my older sister Carly it was pretty cool temperatures, and well my sister and I would both serve in Peru. As we looked it up and my sister knew some stuff about it we learned that Piura and Cusco, where Carly served, are as far apart in Peru as you can get. Cusco being the very southeast part of peru, and Piura being the very northwest section of Peru.
Piura is also nicknamed the city of Eternal Heat. The record high being 102.9 and the record low being 52. Piura gets on average every year 1.5 inches of rain. Put that into Perspective, Downtown Los Angeles this year alone has received 6.163 inches. And this is Piura not in a drought. Now being someone who does not like it over 75, this is going to be a challenge of its own.
Today I will be speaking on “Enduring Challenges Through Faith in Jesus Christ.” A mission on its own is a challenge. It will not ever be an easy thing to do. However, it is the most rewarding thing I can do. I get to go to Piura and serve the people day in and out and teach people about Christ.
When I thought of what a challenge is to me, I realized it is something that is defined by me. Now I am not saying there are things that are not going to be hard. But our attitudes can change any trial or challenge we have. Through out my life I have had trials, but its been easy. I have a family that loves me, I live in a nice area, and I have never had to worry about money. My whole family is a member and has a testimony of Jesus Christ and the truthfulness of the gospel. I have been blessed.
However the trials I have had, hit me extremely hard. In the beginning of high school, there was a lot of time I felt alone without any friends. I was close with my family but I needed someone else. I had a few days where I would sit in my room for hours and just cry. There was one time my mom came in and talked with me and after I said a prayer for help. I needed help, I wanted to be accepted, and I wanted to be happy. My attitude began to change. I began talking to people I didn’t normally talk to, and well those people became my close friends. I found my group, we would get together almost every week and do something and it was so much better than being at home all of the time. Most of my trials have been made better by just changing my attitude about the trial. I could not have changed my attitude without help. I have lost a lot of dear people to me. Ranging from friends to relatives, and no matter what the circumstance is, it is never easy. I get very stuck on why they had to go, I needed them here, and I go through a cycle where I just don’t understand. When I don’t understand I begin to pray about it and the Holy Ghost can comfort me. After feeling the comfort, my attitude begins to change to a more positive outlook, and all of the great things that happened while they were alive instead of all the things they were missing.
Due to my faith in the Plan of Happiness, I know that I will be able to see them again. The plan of happiness refers to us choosing to come down to earth to have bodies. While on Earth we will be tried and tested, and due to how we live decides where we go. We believe that there are 3 degrees of glory: The celestial being the highest, the terrestrial being the middle, and the telestial being the lowest. While here on Earth we will have many struggles. In Neil L Andersen’s talk “Thy Kingdome Come,” he states, “We live in days of wars and rumors of wars, days of natural disasters, days when the world is pulled by confusion and commotion. But we also live in the glorious time of the Restoration, when the gospel is being taken to all the world—a time when the Lord has promised that He “will raise up … a pure people”4 and arm them “with righteousness and with the power of God.”5
We rejoice in these days and pray that we will be able to courageously face our struggles and uncertainties. The difficulties of some are more severe than those of others, but no one is immune.”
Some of our challenges may seem unbearable at times and impossible to get through. Elder Richard G Scott said “Challenges help us become more like our Father in Heaven, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ makes it possible to endure those challenges.10 I testify that as we actively come unto Him, we can endure every temptation, every heartache, every challenge we face.”
While researching things for my talk I read a story from the June New era addition in 2004.
Kacey McCallister stands out. He’s the only person in his family with red hair. His laugh and can’t-get-me-down attitude are contagious. His smile has been outlawed at night in six states because it’s so bright.
The handsome 17-year-old is broad-shouldered and built like a rock. He recently graduated from McNary High School, where he stood out athletically in cross country, track, and his beloved wrestling. In March he took second in his weight class at the state wrestling tournament.
But none of that is what makes this priest in the Keizer Ward, Keizer Oregon Stake, so remarkable. Kacey really stands out for two reasons. First is his unwavering testimony that God has a purpose for him. Second is that, without his prosthetic legs, he technically can’t stand at all.
Kacey doesn't remember the accident that took his legs and changed his life. He remembers attending sacrament meeting as a six-year-old with his cousins in rural Utah. He remembers waiting to cross the highway between the church and his grandmother’s house. And he remembers waking up in the hospital—without his legs.
His parents, on the other hand, probably wish they could forget. As they waited for an 18-wheeler to pass so the family could cross, Kacey suddenly darted into the highway to catch up with his brother, who had crossed moments earlier. Kacey almost made it.
“He shouldn’t have lived,” says Julene McCallister, Kacey’s mom.
“He had zero blood pressure,” his father, Bernie, says. “He lost massive amounts of blood.”
But then the miracles began. Amazingly, local paramedics had recently learned emergency procedures for treating critically injured children. And despite stormy December weather, Kacey made it—first by plane, then by helicopter—to one of the top children’s hospitals in the nation, where the medical staff was able to save him.
“It’s most definitely a miracle, a modern miracle,” says Brother McCallister.
“There’s some purpose Heavenly Father has him here for,” Sister McCallister says. “In the hospital, the Holy Ghost told me, ‘Sit back and watch Heavenly Father work.’ We’ve been watching the miracles ever since.”
Kacey Taking second place at the state wrestling meet without legs was a challenge. But so was learning to walk on prosthetics, and doing a hilly paper route in a wheelchair, and completing a 50-mile hike on his hands.
Kacey can’t remember a time when there weren’t challenges. But if there’s anything he’s learned from wrestling, it’s that eating the mat isn’t any fun. He’d much rather come out on top.
The first year Kacey wrestled, he won only once. Some thought he should give up. Others doubted he’d ever be very competitive. “I wasn’t very good at first,” he laughs. “But I stuck with it and got a little better every year.” After years of hard work and a lot of time in the weight room, he won 39 matches during his final year and lost only one.
“He’s finished everything I’ve seen him start,” says Kacey’s wrestling coach, Tony Oliff. “Kacey’s got that attitude. He’s upbeat, and a lot of kids lean on it. He’s positive about life and fun to be around.”
It’s rare to see Kacey discouraged. Ask his family about the last time he was down, and there’s a long pause.
“There was that one time,” says 13-year-old Kirt, Kacey’s brother. “Oh, no, never mind.”
“Oh yeah …” begins older brother, Keith, 19. “Wait, no.”
Finally his mom remembers one. “He was discouraged about having to ride the handicap bus when he was little,” she recalls. “He’d rather wheel to school through the snow.”
Kacey admits that sometimes discouragement tries to get him in a reverse body lock, but he’s never been pinned. “There have been times I’ve imagined what it would be like to run and jump. But being discouraged about it wouldn’t help much. I still wouldn’t be able to do those things.
“When I start getting discouraged, it’s usually when I haven’t been reading my scriptures or saying my prayers, so I start again, and by the next day everything is better.”
One scripture in particular has helped Kacey take down challenges. “Ever since I was little, my favorite scripture has been 1 Nephi 3:7 [1 Ne. 3:7]Nephi 3:7 states And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth nocommandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.
If the Lord says something needs to be done, there’s always, always a way to fulfill it. We just have to find it. That’s been my motivation.”
Driven by challenges, buoyed by a good attitude, and strengthened by faith, Kacey has been able to do just about anything he’s ever wanted to. Not having legs doesn’t keep him from playing roller hockey with the priests quorum (he laces the skates onto his hands). He gets around the kitchen by pulling himself up on the countertops. He climbs trees, acts in school plays (where he “lost his legs” during a battle scene in Shakespeare’s Richard III), and hopes to do a marathon soon.
“After a while you realize he can do everything you can do and more,” says classmate and fellow priests quorum member, Chris Nelson.
Along the way he has surprised everyone. “I didn’t think you could play baseball without legs,” laughs Eric Goesch, a friend and quorum member. “Pitchers hated pitching to him; there’s no strike zone.”
“One time we had to go down two long flights of stairs,” recalls Brother McCallister. “He looked at it and took the whole thing in his wheelchair by himself. I thought, ‘Huh. I didn’t know you could do that.’”
“He surprises me every day,” says Whitney, Kacey’s 14-year-old sister.
Kacey has always been different
How would you answer this question if it were on your next test: How does a six-year-old survive being hit by an 18-wheeler traveling at highway speed? Or better yet, why?
If life is a test, then this is one of Kacey’s story problems. Your test may be different, but his answer may help you.
“We came to earth to be tested,” he says. “The point of coming was to grow and progress. I know it’s with the Lord’s help that I survived because there’s no way a six-year-old kid is going to stand up to a semi. Heavenly Father has a purpose for me here. There’s more for me to learn and more for me to do for others.”
Kacey has tried to live his life accordingly, looking for ways to grow and for people to help. He has spoken to youth groups and elementary school children about overcoming challenges. He has helped make a difference for people with disabilities in his community, fighting for the right to compete in sports. And he has tried to be a good example. His friends say almost everyone at McNary High knows him, and most people who know him know he’s a member of the Church.
“His faith means a great deal to him,” says Coach Oliff. “His family has strong values. That’s a great building block for a good kid. The fact that he takes those values seriously is a big asset. I’ve learned a great deal from Kacey.”
But Kacey characteristically shrugs off the praise because he understands he’s not better than anyone. He’s different, but that’s the way God made us.
“Heavenly Father knows us and loves us. I know He has a plan for each of us individually,” Kacey says. “Each of us has different talents that will help move the kingdom forward. His plan for me is different from everyone else’s. I don’t know everything I’m supposed to do yet. But He’ll help me figure out the details.”
As I read of the strength Kacey has to achieve more than I do without disabilities, I know God has me here for a reason. I know I am being sent to Peru for a reason whether its someone who I will reach best or multiple people, it really doesn’t matter. I may never know why I am sent there. But Heavenly father knows me. He knows us and he knows what we are capable of.
2 years ago if you asked if I was going to serve a mission it would be an automatic no. I was the little girl always planning my wedding. I was going to be married at 21 so I didn’t have to go. A mission was hard. But as I have seen each of my older siblings go, and had certain experiences in my life I know I have changed. I want nothing more than my mission. I am as ready as I ever will be and Heavenly father knew what trials he would have to give me to get me to this point. I am grateful for the trials I have had and for who they have made me. A mission has such great worth to me and there is nothing that can replace a mission. It is a unique experience where I get to serve the Lord and his people in Peru and love them day in and day out.
Testimony
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