Religion and Public Service

I was born into and grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I firmly declare LDS as my religion with honor and dignity. I met and associated with many wonderful people in my Church in and around my community and from around the world. I experience true community with members of my Church everywhere I go where there are members.

I understand there is a presence of hostility against my Church and my religion out in the world and even in social media. I am fully aware of the hard feelings of some against some members of my Church and even the Church itself. But, anything against my religion or against me for being LDS does not change my feelings about my religion. It would not shake my faith in and my devotion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

I learned more about public service from my Church than I could have learned from anywhere else. I held callings in my Church when I was young as the Second Counselor of the Deacons Quorum Presidency when I was thirteen, Teachers Quorum Secretary when I was fifteen, and Second Assistant in the Priests Quorum when I was seventeen and had various duties and responsibilities to fulfill in those positions. I most recently served as a Ward Missionary and the Elders Quorum Secretary in the Redmesa Ward, and I am in my seventeenth month as the Redmesa Ward Mission Leader. I served in those positions and now serve in the position I am in now only for a short time without any pay and without any compensation, as it is customary in my Church.

My Church places lots of emphasis on selfless service to others in big ways or small ways, anywhere between. Members of my Church are taught to serve without any expectation for a reward and with anonymity when it is possible. I took part of many service projects when I was young, ranging from yard work to wood-cutting. I even helped with painting the sides of the house of a widow in my community, and I take part of highway clean-ups along Highway 140 once, maybe even twice a year.

I rarely got anything in return for the service I performed and rarely get anything in return for any service I perform in my Church, except for a good feeling of having helped somebody in need and/or the community. The idea is engrained in me to give any service I offer without any thought of reward and without any expectation for reward and recognition. I do not get paid for any service I perform for others 99.99 of 100 times I give of myself in service, either as part of a project or on my own. But, it does not matter to me, and I do not really care about getting paid for my service to others because it does not really matter to me at all.

Public service completely takes a different meaning on for me from the way it is defined in the public sector from my experience in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I serve out of kindness because I care about others and about the world around me. I serve out of love for humanity because their longings are my longings, and their hopes are my hopes. It is about the lives I transform, the live I live, and the legacy I leave behind for others to remember me by.