Every day in my first grade elementary school class, we would have a ceremony of sorts, in which my teacher would inflate a balloon and tape it to a large calendar on the wall of the room. The previous day’s balloon would then be promptly skewered, with the young members of the class belting out a rousing a chorus of “gone forever, gone forever, gone forever yesterday. Yesterday is gone forever, gone forever, yesterday.” In hindsight, it all seems rather morbid, but it does convey an important principle - every day that passes will never come again. Every breath we take brings us one step closer to the grave. The good news is that, through Jesus Christ’s Atonement, we will all be resurrected and receive immortality, overcoming this temporal death. This doesn’t mean, however, that we should idly waste away our precious time here on this earth.
As a missionary, we’re constantly reminded of the importance of our time. Almost every minute of every day, we’re finding and teaching people about the gospel, or doing something that will help us to better perform those activities. Due to the way that I’ve had to carefully balance my time in order to be able to fulfill all of the tasks I’d like to get done, I’ve learned that careful planning and scheduling is vital in this task - everything has to be put in the proper place and order in our priorities, and tasks that fall low enough on the list may have to wait for another day. In the October 2010 General Conference, President Uchtdorf gave a talk entitled “Of Things That Matter Most,” in which he stressed the important of making sure that are priorities are always right. Because he stated things so well, I’m going to recommend reading his talk, which is available here, rather than summarizing it for you.
Remember to always make room for what is most important in your life. The key to success is wise use of time. Keep your goals a priority, and keep living the gospel among these goals. I know that as we each do so, we’ll be able to find the happiness that success and righteous living can bring, and that we will be blessed for our diligence and hard work.