Joseph B Wirthli Farewell Speech

If you’d have told me a year ago that I’d be standing here in front of you talking about going on a mission, I’d have laughed at you. Well, here I am. It has been a long and interesting journey in getting me here today, but, as a popular Kenny Chesney song professes “The laughs, the smiles, the trials, the tears, it’s hard to hate what got me here.” Well, I’m here and am very excited to move on to this next chapter in my life. I’d be a fool to think that the coming years, though filled with joy and enlightenment, won’t bring with them my fair share of hard times and adversity. I think the most frightening part of everything leading up to my mission lies in the fact that I’m not exactly sure when those hard times will present themselves, nor how they will present themselves. Joseph B.
So great was his suffering that he bled from every pore in Gethsemane. Later, a crown of thorns was placed upon his head and he was severely scourged. So extreme were the events leading up to the actual crucifixion that he couldn’t even carry his own cross to Calgary, as was customary. In my studies, I’ve come across literature that discusses in detail the medical aspect associated with crucifixion. Crucifixion was arguably the cruelest form of punishment ever devised by man. To sum it all up, those who were crucified suffered through an unequivocal amount of pain. Where do you think the word excruciating comes from? So, I ask again, is it really that bad? The answer is NO. “The Son of Man hath descended below them all,” (D&C 122: 8) and nobody that has ever lived or ever will live has suffered as much as He did. No matter what this life throws at us, we can all find comfort in knowing that there is always someone who knows exactly how we feel, because Christ suffered for all of that so that we could one day stand before God and live with Him