A Whole New World

Jack gave his first talk in Sacrament meeting today. He worked on the talk all week. I just helped to edit a little. We timed it and practiced it over and over. The time came out to 4 mins and 30 secs, perfect. When he gave the actual talk today I think it came out to more like 2 mins and 30 secs. He did a great job, just talked pretty fast. I was very proud of him. This is the beginning of his talk:

If I asked you to think of a quote with the word hope in it, the first thing you would probably think of is the quote from Star Wars “help me obi-wan you’re my only hope!” well Leia may had hoped that Obi-wan would save her, I may hope that I don’t faint from fear while giving this talk, one may hope to sleep well so that they can have a good day tomorrow, but one thing we all hope for is that we can one day live again with Heavenly Father. Hope is a powerful thing and can help us through our trials and daily troubles.
When we are going through trials, we need to put our hope in the Lord. He will help us, we may not feel better immediately but he will help us bear it. In the Book of Mormon the people of Alma were in bondage to the Lamanites and needed Our Heavenly Fathers help, Mosiah 8:14 says; “And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.” The people of Alma eventually escaped but only after a while.
One night about a year ago I began to fell sick I prayed that Heavenly father would make me feel better, I prayed and prayed, and then I remembered two things, that I need to have faith and hope that he would help, and two, I remembered the scripture I just read, I changed my prayer I asked Him to “help me bear the pain and go to sleep and in the morning feel better, I went to sleep and the next day I woke up feeling much better.........

I have to say I thought he organized his thoughts pretty well, but I am the mom.

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Jack also attended his first Stake youth activity.It was all centered around the Pamphlet "For the Strength Of the Youth." They each received a "For the Strength of the Youth" Card, and were asked to commit to three of the subjects, set goals pertaining to these subjects that would better their life this year. They learned some new songs which the whole Stake Youth performed for the parents at the end of the activity. Jack was in the front and kept looking at me while he was singing. He had a big smile on his face and kept winking at me. They performed with an eight piece orchestra. The spirit was so strong.This is a Whole New World for Jack and I. I love the youth!

This little widget shows little snippets from the fireside that the church put on. The kids at the activity watched three segments of it throughout the day. I was able to view the last one and I am so grateful for the organization of the church for the way they seek to uplift and strengthen the testimonies of our youth. I am also thankful for local Stake leaders that put so much prayer and thought into these activities. I urge you to watch or just browse through. It strengthened me. The Church web site" A Brand New Year" has more info on this if you are interested.

PS- Of course I was sitting in the back of the chapel, enjoying the Spirit of the meeting{ I was only there for the last twenty minutes. That is when they invited the parents to come.} They were closing the meeting, right before the prayer and my Phone goes off! It is playing a song from an SNL skit very loudly.The Stake President is sitting directly behind me, perfect.

I never put my ringer on. I am not a fan of the ringer. I like the vibrate. This way only I know when a call comes in. This bugs Skip because I do miss his calls if I don't have the phone on me. I just figure you can call the home phone because that is where I am if the phone is not on me. Anyway I changed it for him and now I will never live it down. The Stake Pres thinks it is too funny and I am eating crow, because I always get so irritated with people whose phones go off in church or any public place. Like my Mom always says," Don't judge you never know why...."