Growing Up

Rebecca gave her first talk in church today.  She looked beautiful ... she wore a white dress Barb gave her and Emily (Emily wore it to 5th grade Recognition earlier this week) and wore her hair down (something she rarely does).  She researched and wrote the talk all on her own with a few guiding comments here and there from us last night.  She did an amazing job - we were all a little nervous for her because we knew she was a bit nervous.  But she did an amazing job - you never would have known she was nervous.  She was poised, calm, and spoke clearly, and GR and I were so impressed and proud of her! 

She wrote the talk in her journal but I wanted to preserve it here so we have another record of it.  

I was asked to speak on the topic "How the Holy Ghost can help me."   The Holy Ghost has been called many names: The Comforter, Holy Spirit, Spirit of God, Spirit of the Lord and Spirit.  All of these names mean the same thing:  The third member of the Godhead, the one without flesh and blood, a still small voice.  The Holy Ghost is kinda like God's messenger.  God sends warnings and promptings through the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost delivers the message/prompting to us using a still small voice. 

The main job of the Holy Ghost is sending us the warnings and promptings of God. The Holy Ghost uses a still small voice when speaking to us, but when we ignore him, he will get progressively louder and louder, simply go away or both.  

After we are baptized we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, or as the scriptures say, "Baptism of fire."  This is when you officially receive the Holy Ghost, prior to this, the Holy Ghost would give a prompting every so often, but it would be infrequent.  Once we are confirmed however, the Holy Ghost is here to stay as long as we keep the commandments and obey the Lord's wishes, and remember what Helaman 4:24 says, "... the Spirit of the Lord doth not dwell in unholy temples."  This is pretty straight forward;  the better you keep the commandments the easier it is to hear the Spirit, but if we offend the Spirit by sinning, then he will withdraw. 

I sometimes think of the Holy Ghost as a well oiled machine.  He works on faith and obedience.  When we are obedient and faithful the Holy Ghost still speaks with a still small voice,, but we are better able to hear it and recognize that it is from God. 

I am still learning how to recognize the influence of the Holy Ghost in my life.  He has helped my family find lost things like keys, wallets and all the temple dedication tickets.  He has helped me feel calm, at peace, or have courage in a hard situation.

Once in Social Studies we were talking about the election and Mitt Romney. Because he (Mitt) is Mormon my teacher started to say things that were incorrect about the Church.  At first I wasn't sure if I should speak up and correct the teacher, but after I started thinking about it, the Holy Ghost filled me with enough courage to raise my hand and correct my teacher and the more I started talking the less scared I was and I corrected every wrong thing my teacher had said and even answered some of my classmates questions.  

The Holy Ghost also testified at the cultural celebration that I was seeing the Prophet of God.  And when I went to the temple after it was dedicated, He testified that I was in the House of the Lord.  

I bear you my testimony that if we keep the commandments and do what is right we will always have the Holy Ghost with us.

Amen. 

Twelve years has gone by so quickly, and I am constantly amazed at how blessed we are to be the parents to these astounding kids!